Approximately 150 independent Mac and iPhone software developers have pledged to contribute their sales for the day of January 20th to Haiti relief. The effort is called Indie+Relief.

SmileOnMyMac will contribute the sales of PDFpen and TextExpander to Mercy Corps and Doctors Without Borders.

The needs in Haiti are immense. Its capital lies in ruins, as many as 200,000 may be dead, and survivors are increasingly desperate for food, clean water and shelter.

Check out Indie+Relief. You’ll find an incredible collection of software from the best Mac and iPhone developers and your purchases will help ameliorate a dire situation.

You need this if you scan one side of a document with a sheetfed scanner, and then turn it over and scan the other side to a separate file. The result is two files: one file of all the odd pages, and another of all the even ones. This script enables you to bring both together in a single ordered document.

To merge the documents, first open the document with the odd pages, and then choose “Merge Every Other”. It will prompt you for a file, select the file with the even pages, and leave the rest to PDFpen!

I’ve started using clicky.me for all my shortened URLs, and of course I need a TextExpander snippet to do that. The snippet takes any URL that is on your Mac’s clipboard and runs it through Clicky’s API to generate a shortened URL that you can paste into Twitter, Facebook or anywhere you so desire.

Note: You do need a Clicky user account, which is free for low volume users.

Read on for instructions on how to use this snippet.

1. Copy the text below into a new AppleScript snippet (also available on Gist)
2. Update your yourUsername and yourPassword variables on line 2 and 3 to match your clicky.me authentication credentials.
3. Set an expansion trigger. I’ve set mine to be /clicky, but it can be anything you desire.

-- CONFIGURATION OPTIONS BEGIN
set the yourUsername to "username"
set the yourPassword to "password"
-- CONFIGURATION OPTIONS END

set the ClipURL to (the clipboard as string)

ignoring case
	if ((characters 1 through 4 of ClipURL as string) is not "http") then
		return "Malformed URL."
	else
		set the EncodedClipURL to urlencode(ClipURL) of me
		set curlCMD to ¬
			"curl --stderr /dev/null \"http://clicky.me/app/api?username=" & yourUsername & "&password=" & yourPassword & "&url=" & EncodedClipURL & "\""

		-- Run the script and get the result:
		set tinyURL to (do shell script curlCMD)

		return tinyURL
	end if
end ignoring

on urlencode(theText)
	set theTextEnc to ""
	repeat with eachChar in characters of theText
		set useChar to eachChar
		set eachCharNum to ASCII number of eachChar
		if eachCharNum = 32 then
			set useChar to "+"
		else if (eachCharNum ≠ 42) and (eachCharNum ≠ 95) and (eachCharNum  46) and (eachCharNum  57) and (eachCharNum  90) and (eachCharNum  122) then
			set firstDig to round (eachCharNum / 16) rounding down
			set secondDig to eachCharNum mod 16
			if firstDig > 9 then
				set aNum to firstDig + 55
				set firstDig to ASCII character aNum
			end if
			if secondDig > 9 then
				set aNum to secondDig + 55
				set secondDig to ASCII character aNum
			end if
			set numHex to ("%" & (firstDig as string) & (secondDig as string)) as string
			set useChar to numHex
		end if
		set theTextEnc to theTextEnc & useChar as string
	end repeat
	return theTextEnc
end urlencode

It should look like so when you are done:

Where Clicky’s URL shortening gets to be really useful is when you use it to track shortened URLs to sites you are tracking on their service. To take advantage of that, you need to provide the URL shortener with your site ID. You can use this script instead (also available on Gist)

-- CONFIGURATION OPTIONS BEGIN
set the yourUsername to "username"
set the yourPassword to "password"
set the yourSiteId to "site_id"
-- CONFIGURATION OPTIONS END

set the ClipURL to (the clipboard as string)

ignoring case
	if ((characters 1 through 4 of ClipURL as string) is not "http") then
		return "Malformed URL."
	else
		set the EncodedClipURL to urlencode(ClipURL) of me
		set curlCMD to ¬
			"curl --stderr /dev/null \"http://clicky.me/app/api?username=" & yourUsername & "&password=" & yourPassword & "&site_id=" & yourSiteId & "&url=" & EncodedClipURL & "\""

		-- Run the script and get the result:
		set tinyURL to (do shell script curlCMD)

		return tinyURL
	end if
end ignoring

on urlencode(theText)
	set theTextEnc to ""
	repeat with eachChar in characters of theText
		set useChar to eachChar
		set eachCharNum to ASCII number of eachChar
		if eachCharNum = 32 then
			set useChar to "+"
		else if (eachCharNum ≠ 42) and (eachCharNum ≠ 95) and (eachCharNum  46) and (eachCharNum  57) and (eachCharNum  90) and (eachCharNum  122) then
			set firstDig to round (eachCharNum / 16) rounding down
			set secondDig to eachCharNum mod 16
			if firstDig > 9 then
				set aNum to firstDig + 55
				set firstDig to ASCII character aNum
			end if
			if secondDig > 9 then
				set aNum to secondDig + 55
				set secondDig to ASCII character aNum
			end if
			set numHex to ("%" & (firstDig as string) & (secondDig as string)) as string
			set useChar to numHex
		end if
		set theTextEnc to theTextEnc & useChar as string
	end repeat
	return theTextEnc
end urlencode

You will need to know your site ID in addition to your username and password. The site ID can be parsed from the URL of your site's stats page by looking at the site_id parameter. For example, take the following URL:


http://getclicky.com/stats/home?site_id=123456


It's site ID is the 123456.

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The coupon code is SMILEONFRIDAY. Follow this link to our store, and the coupon will automatically be applied.

The discount applies to Family Packs too! The Productivity Suite and upgrades are excluded. The discount expires on November 28, 2009.

With the rise in popularity of “cloud computing,” third-party syncing services such as Dropbox have come on the scene, and with a bit of work, you can sync your snippets using it as a MobileMe alternative.

Dropbox is a free online storage service that synchronizes the data of a folder in your home directory with any other Mac you have the service installed on. When you make a change to a file or add something new to your Dropbox, their agent application will automatically push the changes to the cloud in the background and notify your other Macs of the change so they pull the update.

This works great for TextExpander because each time you create or modify a snippet, it saves the Settings.textexpander file that contains your settings and snippets. If we store this file in Dropbox, it will automatically update on each of your Macs. Dropbox can even deal with your Mac being offline temporarily.

To enable support for Dropbox, we’ll make use of Automator.  TextExpander 2.5.1 or later is required for proper synchronization with Dropbox. It’s a free update:

http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/download.html

On your primary machine:

1. Disable TextExpander via the TextExpander prference pane.
   (Hold the Option key and click “Enable TextExpander” to kill TextExpander’s background process.)
2. Install Dropbox (https://www.getdropbox.com/)
3. Download Junecloud’s “Create Symbolic Link” automator action.
4. Drag the [Home Folder]/Library/Application Support/TextExpander folder to your Dropbox folder. Your TextExpander settings and snippets are now stored on Dropbox, but we still need to let TextExpander know about it.
5. Mount the Junecloud Automator Actions disk image you downloaded in step 3 and double-click the “Create Symbolic Link” automator action to install the action in Automator.
6. Jump into Automator and create a new Workflow.
7. Drag the TextExpander folder from your Dropbox into the Automator window’s drop zone.
8. Drag the “Create Symbolic Link” automator action from the Automator library.  Set it’s “Where:” value to be [Home Folder]/Library/Application Support/.
9. The Create Symlink window will appear. In this window set the location to [Home Folder]/Library/Application Support/.
10. Press “Run” in the Automator window.  You should hear a sound when the operation completes successfully.

The symlink will then redirect TextExpander to your Dropbox folder to grab the snippet information. You can confirm it by going to [Home Folder]/Library/Application Support and checking to see if the TextExpander folder is an alias now.

Repeat steps 1-10 on subsequent machines that you want to take advantage of syncing with your Dropbox instance of TextExpander.

Thanks to Michael Harahan for the Automator tip!

Tip: If you want to use TextExpander touch with an app that supports it, you must turn on “Share Snippets” in the TextExpander touch preferences. You should also check the preferences of the app to see if it has a TextExpander setting that you need to enable.

Here are the apps that have so far integrated TextExpander (links go to the App Store):

Tweetie 2

“The Twitter client that redefined Twitter clients is back, and it’s even better. Rewritten from the ground up with a fast and powerful new core, Tweetie 2 offers the most polished mobile Twitter experience around.”

WriteRoom

“For people who want to write and take notes on their iPhone. WriteRoom is a distraction free writing environment. Unlike Notes, WriteRoom provides a clean interface and tether free syncing.”

Go Mail Yourself

“Go Mail Yourself allows you to quickly send yourself email notes or reminders using the Mail application. One of the basic fundamentals associated with improving productivity is quickly and easily capturing ideas and information so you can process them at the appropriate time.”

Attendance

“Attendance allows you to take and keep attendance records. Its main intended use is for teachers to keep track of records for their classes, but it can also be used for meetings and group gatherings.”

More apps will be adding TextExpander integration in the future. We’ll keep an up-to-date list on our website.

Greg, Philip and I will be showing off the new PDFpen 4.5 and TextExpander touch for the iPhone. Feel free to come by and say “hi”.

I went on a trip this weekend without my Mac. My sister brought hers, though, and it was only a matter of time before I asked to borrow it. As I sat down to compose an email, I realized that I didn’t have my TextExpander snippets on her Mac.

But I did have them on my iPhone in TextExpander touch.

It’s easy to transfer snippets from your Mac to your iPhone. But it’s just as easy to transfer snippets from your iPhone to your Mac–or a friend’s Mac, as long as it’s running TextExpander 2.7 or later. (Your friend can easily download the free demo!) Here’s how:

1) Under Groups, select the snippet group you want to send.

2) Tap the Action button in the bottom left.

3) Tap “Send via Local Network.”

4) You’ll see a list of available Macs and iPhones on the network. Tap the name of the Mac you want to send your snippet group to. That Mac will display an alert asking for confirmation.

Click “Add” and your snippets will be added to TextExpander on that Mac, and you can use them.

Good manners would dictate that you delete the group from your friend’s Mac when you are done.

TextExpander touch is still $1.99 in the App Store. This special introductory price ends September 9!

1. Download and install Texter 0.6a, which has support for exporting bundles in TextExpander format.

2. Launch Texter, select your bundle tab, and choose Export to TextExpander File from the Bundle menu.

3. Log in to your Dropbox account, or get a Dropbox account. You can also upload the .textexpander file to your Web server. In Step 12, use the full URL to the file on your server.

4. On Dropbox, open the Public folder of your My Dropbox folder.

5. Click Upload files:

6. Click Choose files…

7. Select your .textexpander file from step 2 and press Start Upload.

8. When your upload is complete, hover over the uploaded file and click the arrow at the far right:

9. Choose Copy Public Link and leave that visible.

10. On your iPhone (or iPod touch), launch TextExpander.

11. Choose Groups, press +, and press Add via URL.

12. Enter the URL shown from step #9.

Finished! You now have your Texter bundle as a TextExpander group on your iPhone!

I also feel it’s important to be absolutely clear about what TextExpander cannot do.

Chris Pirillo, of Lockergnome fame, sent me this question:

“Will the iPhone app work like the desktop version? How on earth did you pull that off!?”

The short answer to the question is “no”.

We have no special superhero powers over the iPhone OS. No Jedi mind tricks. TextExpander touch, like other third-party iPhone apps, cannot run in the background. You won’t be able to type your abbreviations to trigger expansions while you are working in other apps. (Not yet, anyway. See Greg’s post about the TextExpander touch SDK.)

But that doesn’t mean TextExpander touch will be a disappointment. Because what it can do, it can do very well:

• We have made it as seamless as possible for composing notes and inserting them to email or your Twitter client. We’ve also made it easy to copy your composed notes to other apps.
• You can import your snippet groups from the Mac via local network. That is a handy thing to have on your iPhone, even if you never use TextExpander touch for a single text expansion. You’ll have a library of your most frequently-used phrases, signatures, URLs, etc. We’ve made it simple to insert a snippet into email or Twitter, skipping the Compose step altogether.
• It will be easy to create snippets, using the new copy-and-paste function as well. If you have received an email with some standard paragraph you want to use again, you can copy it and create a TextExpander touch snippet with only a few taps on your iPhone.

Remember when you first started using TextExpander? You might have had a handful of snippets, like your email signature or a standard answer to a frequently-asked question. But the more you used TextExpander, the more ideas you got for how you could use it.

And many of you shared your ideas with us. Autocorrect spelling errors? HTML code snippets? URL shortening? All these ideas for extending TextExpander’s usefulness came from TextExpander users.

People will start coming up with productivity hacks using TextExpander touch the way they have for TextExpander. You’ll share your ideas with your friends (and with us, we hope) and TextExpander touch will evolve within the context of the iPhone.

That’s worth a few bucks.