Some things just make life easier. When it comes to working on your Mac or PC, menu bar apps and browser extensions are like little superpowers that give you lots of additional capabilities. We'll share some of our favorite with you to make your computing experience a little simpler.



Speaking of superpowers, being organized can be a superpower in it's own right! Vanessa shares some tips on how you can help others get organized. it can be a little tricky, so this is some good stuff! Read more...




Dan's Topic: Menu Bar Apps & Browser Extensions
I thought I’d cover just few tools in my toolkit for working on my Mac and in the Chrome Browser. Even though many of the Apps are Mac specific, the Chrome extensions I’ll tell you about work across the Chrome Browser platform.
Apps that I operate in my Mac’s Menu Bar:



Text Expander


Text Expander is a Mac only app, but there are other programs for PC that function similarly. Just Google “Text Expander for PC” and you’ll find some. Check out the reviews for these as I don’t have any experience with any text expander programs for PC.
Automatically expands text using little short codes or “snippets.” From a single line signature to paragraphs or a full page of text, just make a little snippet and you’ll save tons of time as you type!
Use it for signature blocks, code, email addresses (D.D), web addresses (for instance our SLT.C our HSLT.C snippets)...you name it!
I even use it for common spelling mistakes that I make! For some reason, every time I type podcast it comes out podca-t-s! So, I made a snippet that automatically corrects that with Text Expander!
Available through this link in the Mac App Store for Mac at $34.99, and through this link in the App Store for iPhone and iPad at $4.99





Dropbox


It’s available for Mac and PC.
Adds another folder on your computer that acts as a virtual drive.
Use to supplement a good backup plan by storing docs there. More about that in Episode 3.
Load it on your PC, Mac, smartphones, tablets, etc, and have everything synchronized on every device.
If you change/edit a document in Dropbox while working on your laptop, it will automatically update everywhere else.
If you're on someone else's device, you can log in to your Dropbox account on the web and access your information.
My service of choice for synchronization of other programs, too.
I use it to sync the Text Expander account, our BizExpenseTracker app and our 1Password account.
You can even share documents or folders with others so they can have access, too.  Done seamlessly...on the Cloud.
Free and they give you 2Gb to start out with.  You can sign up at SimpleLifeTogether.com/Dropbox.





Evernote


 Brand new to the Evernote arsenal is the new Quick Note function.
Quick Note feature lets you create a note at any time, no matter what you’re doing on your computer, by clicking the elephant in the menu bar at the top of your screen or using the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-N.
To create the quickest Evernote notes ever, simply pop open Quick Note and start typing. Once you’re done with your thought, click Save to Evernote or Command-Return, then continue doing what you were doing.
If you don’t save to Evernote, then your content will stay in the Quick Note window waiting for you to add more stuff.
Create audio notes and screenshots by clicking on the relevant icons in the Helper. Just mouse over the icons in Quick Note and you’ll see text that explains each icon’s function.
You can also add images or attachments by simply dragging them onto the elephant icon in the menu bar. Every new item will be added to the same note until you save it to Evernote.
As Evernote says, “It’s the perfect on-the-go complement to your normal Evernote use, and once you get the hang of the keyboard shortcuts, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.”
You can get Evernote in the Mac App Store for Mac,