Clip To WorkFlowy Public Beta

Here’s the latest version of the Clip To WorkFlowy Chrome extension: C2W BETA. I’m tagging it as beta, not because it needs any testing… but because it can’t yet replace Clip To WorkFlowy for all users. I need to make one of the new features optional, so until then there will be two versions of Clip To WorkFlowy. Read on to see which version is for you.

So What’s New?

Find Tab and Go

When you activate the extension, it copies the page title and url as usual, but now it looks at your open tabs, and automatically goes to the first WorkFlowy tab it finds. If none are found, it creates a new one and takes you there. Then paste where desired as before.

Note: If you use WorkFlowy in the Chrome app or a separate window, this feature may annoy you; stick with the current version. If you use multiple tabs in a single Chrome window, definitely go with C2W BETA.

Toggle Last Tab

This toggles between your current and previous tabs. So after pasting your clip, activate your toggle shortcut, and quickly return your source page. This feature is independent of the clipper function; you may find it handy everywhere in Chrome. That said, the toggle code isn’t perfect; in a few specific scenarios it fails to properly identify the last tab. But when used in conjunction with Find Tab and Go, it should work properly every time.

Toggle Last Tab is available only by a keyboard shortcut you set in the Keyboard shortcuts link at the bottom of chrome://extensions. There are now two keyboard shortcuts to define. Activate the extension copies the title and url to the clipboard, and then goes to (or creates) your WorkFlowy tab.

What’s coming in the full release?

• Option to turn off Find Tab and Go for WorkFlowy Chrome App users.
• Selected Text. Any text selected on the page will be appended to the WorkFlowy note after the link.
• Option to disable internal WorkFlowy link formatting.
• Option to disable “tag neutering” in internal WorkFlowy links.

Get Clip To WorkFlowy Public Beta here.

WorkFlowy to Google Calendar v2.0

My WorkFlowy to Google Calendar Chrome extension has updated to version 2.0 with some nice enhancements. WorkFlowy to Google Calendar let’s you quickly create Google Calendar events from WorkFlowy bullets.

Just zoom on a bullet, click the toolbar icon, and let Google Calendar’s Quick Add parser do the rest of the work:

Version 2.0 adds the following features:

Works on any webpage, not just WorkFlowy.

Select event info on any webpage and utilize Google Calendar’s powerful Quick Add parser to intelligently add events, and reduce the time you spend typing.

Keyboard Shortcut Capable!

Scroll to the bottom of chrome://extensions to define your own keyboard shortcut. (I use Alt+G) If desired, you can hide the extension icon in the toolbar by right clicking the icon and selecting “Hide in Chrome Menu”, and be done with all that pesky icon clicking. See Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Chrome Extensions for more info.

Update Sept 10, 2016: Now with right click menu access too!

Add your event to any calendar on the first try!

Previously WorkFlowy to Google Calendar was restricted to your default calendar. In order to change calendars you had to save the event first, and then edit it again. Now you can change the calendar without having to edit the event twice.

The rest of WorkFlowy to Google Calendar’s goodness is still there.

• Google Calendar’s powerful Quick Add parser automatically defines the what, where, and when.
• Override the bullet or page title by selecting text on the page instead.
• WorkFlowy to Google Calendar will always automatically put a handy link back to your WorkFlowy bullet (or webpage) in the event note.
• A great way to create alarms for WorkFlowy items!

Head over to the Chrome Web Store for more details and installation. If you’ve already installed the extension, it will update automatically.

No Google Chrome? Get the bookmarklet version instead.

Chrome 49: What’s Up With All These Icons In My Toolbar?

Over the last few weeks, Google Chrome has rolled out Version 49, which contains a major change in the way extension icons are displayed in the upper right corner of your browser window.

I was updated two weeks ago, and initially I hated it. I’ve changed my tune, because (without fanfare) they tucked in a long overdue feature. The result is, ironically enough, a much cleaner toolbar, if you prefer your extensions with keyboard shortcuts (and really you should) I’ll get to that in a bit. First some background.

Why the change?

In one word: Visibility. Some applications will “side load” extensions without your knowledge. The Chrome developers also know many users don’t visit their chrome://extensions page very often (if at all), and are unaware of what is lurking, and potentially wasting resources.

What is the change?

Initially, Chrome 49 moves all extension icons to the toolbar forcing you to deal with them. It’s pretty easy to show and hide them as you see fit. You can right click on an icon and select “Hide in Chrome menu”. Hidden icons aren’t all that hidden. They now appear at the top of the menu when you click the ⋮ hamburger icon. You can also drag an icon onto the ⋮ Hamburger icon and then drag it to the top of the menu… and vice versa.

I’ve grown to like this setup. With a right click, you get quick access to extension options without the need to scroll through a list of extensions. Only enabled extensions appear in the menu however, so to access disabled extensions you’ll still need to type chrome://extensions into the addressbar, or click on More Tools > Extensions in the menu.

Which extensions should I hide?

To clarify things, let’s break Chrome extensions into 3 groups:
Browser Action, Page Action & Other

Browser Actions:

• The icons to the right of the Omnibar… the ones you are used to seeing.
• They are active on any web page you visit.
• You can assign keyboard shortcuts to them.
• Browser Actions get the long overdue feature. You can now assign keyboard shortcuts AND hide the icon. Before, when you hid a Browser Action icon, you disabled the keyboard shortcut. This never made any sense. If you are keyboard ninja and a toolbar minimalist, Chrome 49 will make you happy.
• Of course, you can still keep them visible AND have keyboard access too.
• Browser Actions may show status with an animated icon or badge, in which case you probably want to keep those visible.

Page Actions:

• Pre-Chrome 49, these icons appeared in the Omnibar when certain rules, defined by the extension, were met.
• For example, they appeared only when visiting a certain domain, or if an RSS feed was available.
• Chrome 49’s biggest effect is on Page Action icons, moving them to the right with Browser Action icons.
• Now they always show regardless of whether those conditions are met. (if not met the icon is grayed out)
• This is a big step backwards, adding needless clutter to the toolbar, imho.
• The best choice for Page Action extensions? Show them.

Other:

• Everything else.
• Pre-Chrome 49 these were only accessible by visiting chrome://extensions.
• Hide ’em all.

Happy hiding, Chromians!

Time Tagging in WorkFlowy

Does any of this describe you?

• Need a time estimate for that next big project?
• Could use a reality check on that ambitious @today list?
• Maybe you’d like to track billable hours?
• Or perhaps you’re simply a lifelogger, Pomodoro counter or all-around Time Nazi?

WorkFlowy and WFcount offer a simple solution: Time Tags

What is a Time Tag?

It’s a WorkFlowy tag, starting with “#” followed by any number of digits, and ending with an ‘h’ for hours or an ‘m’ for minutes. Like this:

• #2h = 2 hours
• #15m = 15 minutes
• Combine them: #2h #15m = 2 hours, 15 minutes
• This works too: #135m

Just Click to Count

With a single click, the WFcount bookmarklet adds up the visible Time Tags and displays the total time.

Simple. Intuitive. Fast.

Veritably WorkFlowy-ish!

Installation:

Go to the original WFcount blog post.

Time Output Option:

The default output format is:
“Total Time = 2h 15m”.

If you’d like hours only (perhaps to plug into a spreadsheet) you can edit the bookmarklet code as follows: Near the beginning, change “timeFormat=0” to “timeFormat=1”.

With this setting, WFcount will generate hours out to two decimal places like this:
“Total Hours = 2.25”

Happy Time Tagging!

Count Stuff in WorkFlowy

With the WFcount Bookmarklet.

Von Tag!

…Two Tags!

……Tree Tags!

………Ah, Ah, Ah!

WFcount can count like a purple Muppet (only just WorkFlowy stuff, like bullets, parents, children, completed items and tags).

It works on a very simple premise: count what is visible. So you control what gets counted by expanding, collapsing and zooming on bullets. Then click on the bookmarklet to get a summary of your counts.

Update Feb 9, 2016: Now with Time Tags!

Here’s what it looks like…

Tips:

• When zoomed, double clicking the bullet title will toggle expand/collapse of all children.
• When viewing your WorkFlowy home page, double clicking “workflowy” will do the same. (Handy if you want to count everything in your WorkFlowy castle.)
• Alternately, either zoomed or from your Home page, you can search for “@ OR #” (no quotes) to reveal all your tags. This method can be preferable to expanding all, especially if you wish to preserve the expand/collapse state of some of your nodes.

Installation Options:

1) WFcount: Desktop

• Opens in a small browser window (see the screenshot above)
• Can selectively copy count information.
• Leave the window open and it will append count summaries in that window.
• Monospace font
• Click here for a link you can drag to your Bookmarks Bar.

2) iWFcount: Mobile or Desktop

• Displays counts in an alert dialog.
• Good option for “quick view” where you don’t need to copy.
• For Desktop Install: Triple click the code below to select it, then drag to your Bookmarks Bar. Rename the bookmark.
• For Mobile Install: Bookmark this page, and save it to your favorites folder.
• Select all the code in the box below and copy it to the clipboard.

javascript:(function(){var%20version=%22v1.4i%22,timeFormat=0,br=%22\n%22;if(-1!=location.href.indexOf(%22workflowy.com%22)){var%20projectSelected=document.title.replace(/%20-%20WorkFlowy$/,%22%22),bullets=document.getElementsByClassName(%22bullet%22).length,parents=document.getElementsByClassName(%22parent%22).length,children=bullets-parents,tags=document.getElementsByClassName(%22project%20selected%22)[0].getElementsByClassName(%22contentTag%22),completed=document.getElementsByClassName(%22project%20selected%22)[0].getElementsByClassName(%22done%22).length;if(0==document.getElementsByClassName(%22showCompleted%22).length)var%20completed=%22Hidden%22;var%20finalCount=%22%22,totalHours=%22%22;if(tags.length%3E0){var%20i,tagList=[];for(i=0;i%3Ctags.length;i++)tagList.push(tags[i].textContent.toLowerCase());tagList.sort();var%20tagCount={};tagList.forEach(function(x){tagCount[x]=(tagCount[x]||0)+1});for(var%20tagTitle%20in%20tagCount)finalCount+=tagTitle+%22%20=%20%22+tagCount[tagTitle]+br;var%20tagNames=finalCount.match(/=/g).length,timeTags=finalCount.match(/(%23)(\d+)(m|h)(%20=%20)(\d+)/g);if(null!==timeTags){var%20final=0;for(i=0;i%3CtimeTags.length;i++)findTime=/(%23)(\d+)(m|h)(%20=%20)(\d+)/,total=timeTags[i].match(findTime)[2]*timeTags[i].match(findTime)[5],-1!==timeTags[i].indexOf(%22h%22)%26%26(total=60*total),final+=total;var%20totalHours=br+%22Total%20Time%20=%20%22+Math.floor(final/60)+%22h%20%22+final%2560+%22m%22;if(0!==timeFormat)var%20totalHours=br+%22Total%20Hours%20=%20%22+Math.round(final/60*100)/100}}else%20var%20tagNames=0;alert(projectSelected+br+br+%22Parents%20=%20%22+parents+br+%22Children%20=%20%22+children+br+%22Completed%20=%20%22+completed+br+br+%22Tag%20Count%20=%20%22+tags.length+br+%22Tag%20Names%20=%20%22+tagNames+totalHours+br+br+finalCount+br+br+version)}})();

iOS Tip: Press, hold, and release on “javascript” to select it, then gently swipe down on the right grabber, until you see only the left grabber and then copy.

• Open the bookmarks menu and edit the bookmark you just created.
• Clear the URL/Address field, and paste the code you copied above.
• Save your changes and exit out of the bookmarks menu.

View: WFcount source code

Happy counting arithmomaniacs! Ah, Ah, Ah!

How Many WorkFlowy Bullets Do I Have?

UPDATE: WorkFlowy remembers the expand/collapse state of your last view for each bullet, and that’s a nice thing. This post has been updated with a new method that will not alter these expand/collapse states.

I recommend you read all the instructions before clicking the search link in Step #1.

1) Click on this WorkFlowy search.

This will enter last-changed:10000d in WorkFlowy’s home page search box, finding every bullet you’ve edited or created in the last 10,000 days. That should cover things. Have some patience, it may take a few seconds to render your last 27 years of work.

2) Type Ctrl+A twice to select all bullets (use Cmd for Mac).

3) Look at the right pop up menu to revel in your bullet proclivity.

4) Press Esc to clear the search.

* The last-changed: search operator automatically toggles to Completed:Visible. If you want to count only incomplete bullets, click the toolbar to toggle back to Completed:Hidden and repeat Step #2.

Bonus Tip: Count all the bullets under a single bullet

• Zoom on the bullet
• Enter last-changed:10000d in the search box
• Press Tab to move focus away from the Search box
• Repeat from Step #2.

Happy counting!

WorkFlowy Export Got More Flowy

WorkFlowy has added a “click to download” option to the Export List form. In addition to the old method of manually copying (& pasting), you now have the option to download a file with a single click. Nice.

Every picture tells a story…

To access Export, hover over any bullet:

Happy exporting!