With GoodNotes, itâs easy to mix drawing and writing. Itâs also easy to write in a magnified view while the words simultaneously appear in a normal size on the page behind it.
And with yesterdayâs version 5.5 update, GoodNotes is now also able to collaborate.
I use Apple Notes for most mixed media note taking (text, checklists, images, web links) and DEVONthink for my archiving needs (long term file, email, web archiving). But most notes I write by hand go in GoodNotes. It is nice to see any app add collaboration as a feature. I am not sure if I would use this in GoodNotes but it will be fun to try.
The other thing I use GoodNotes for every day (when school is meeting in person) is for annotating my custom-made seating charts to keep track of student data. You can read about that on this article I wrote for SBO Magazine. What makes GoodNotes so convenient for annotating PDFs like this is that it treats them as a paper style instead of fillable PDF, so you don’t need to go into any kind of annotation ‘mode’ to begin marking it up with the Apple Pencil.
Left:A draft of a Canvas page, written in a text file on my computer. I used the Markdown syntax for headings, lists, and links. Right: What the Canvas page looks like once the text on the left is imported into the course page as HTML.
My districtâs LMS of choice is Canvas, which is pretty stressful to work with. From most accounts I hear about other LMS software, Canvas is far from the worst. âYou go to war with the LMS you haveâ I once heard.
Lately, I am writing my Canvas content in Markdown and storing it as text files on my computer.
Why?
Canvas is littered with user-hostile behaviors. Each class is a separate container. All files, pages, and assignments are quarantined, requiring multi-step procedures for sharing between courses. On top of this, the organizing tools are a mess. I am never 100 percent sure where to go. Even when I do, I have to wait for the internet to load each new thing I click on.
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597866028922-HBRQ0FDXB4AE8F1L2EUI/CleanShot+2020-08-19+at+15.38.50%402x.png" alt="Instead of one file repository that all courses pull from, each class has its own separate Files area." width="2500" height="1528" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
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<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Instead of one file repository that all courses pull from, each class has its own separate Files area.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Canvas is equally difficult for students. All of the course pages and content are just sort of floating in space. Itâs up to the teacher to link the material together meaningful, but the tools to do so are inelegant and unintuitive. My music program has resorted to a website for communicating most general information since it exposes the hierarchy of its structure to our viewers. In other words, we control where every page lives, and our students can get to any part of our site from the navigation bar at the top of the page.
The WYSIWYG web editors you see within most Canvas pages, assignments, and announcements are equally frustrating. They are clunky, the text field is tiny, the buttons for all the tools are ambiguous, and I lose my data if the page refreshes itself or I lose connection. Additionally, itâs hard to anticipate what my formatting will look like before actually clicking the save button.
Lately, I am writing my Canvas content in Markdown and storing it as text files on my computer. By editing in Markdown, I can create content in third-party apps, work with data offline, control where files are organized, search them from the Spotlight, and quickly export as HTML for input into the Canvas HTML editor when I am ready to publish.
Using Mac and iOS Native Apps
I like native applications because the good ones feel designed to look like the computing platform. For example, the forScore app on iOS uses similar navigation buttons and fonts to Appleâs own Mail, Keynote, Pages, and Notes. This way, I donât feel like I am learning new software.
Native apps that deal with documents store files on my hard drive. I can easily organize them into my own folder system, work on them without an internet connection, open the same file in different applications, and search them from the Spotlight. Document-based apps update your file as you edit your data. Websites often lose your data when they run into issues.
I donât write anything longer than a sentence or two into the text field of a website. Instead, I draft them inDrafts and move my work to iAWriter for longer projects. Both of these apps can preview Markdown.
What is Markdown?
Markdown is a shorthand syntax for HTML. It empowers me to draft web content without actually writing code. Skim this Markdown syntax guide to see what I mean. You can learn the basics in five minutes.
Drafts and iA Writer have one-button shortcuts to convert Markdown to formatted text or HTML. Here is an example of Markdown, and what it would look like once converted to rich text or HTML.
# Blog Post Title
Here are *three things* I want to do today.
1. Work out
2. Sit in the hot tub
3. Grill some chicken
Let me tell you more about them.
## Work out
Today I will work out on my bike. My wife once said, and I quote:
> The earlier in the day you aim to do it, the more likely it is to happen.
## Sit in the hot tub
This will be relaxing. Maybe I will listen to a podcast there. Here are some recent favorites...
- Sound Expertise
- Sticky Notes
- Upgrade
My favorite podcast player is [Overcast](https://overcast.fm).
Once an app like Drafts or iA Writer converts the Markdown to rich text, it would look like this:
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597864448247-LZ511PWF8U5IKLA96WGX/CleanShot+2020-08-19+at+14.44.57%402x.png" alt="A good Markdown app like iA Writer will convert the syntax to rich text for you and copy it so that you can paste it into an application like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or your website." width="1536" height="1830" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">A good Markdown app like iA Writer will convert the syntax to rich text for you and copy it so that you can paste it into an application like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or your website.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
I could have just as easily exported the resulting rich text to a Word document or Google Doc and all of the formatting would have been properly executed.
iAWriter can also export my Markdown as HTML like this:
<h1>Blog Post Title</h1>
<p>Here are <em>three things</em> I want to do today.</p>
<ol>
<li>Work out</li>
<li>Sit in the hot tub</li>
<li>Grill some chicken</li>
</ol>
<p>Let me tell you more about them.</p>
<h2>Work out</h2>
<p>Today I will workout on my bike. My wife once said, and I quote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The earlier in the day you aim to do it, the more likely it is to happen.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Sit in the hot tub</h2>
<p>This will be relaxing. Maybe I will listen to a podcast there. Here are some recent favorites...</p>
<ul>
<li>Sound Expertise</li>
<li>Sticky Notes</li>
<li>Upgrade</li>
</ul>
<p>My favorite podcast player is <a href="https://overcast.fm">Overcast</a>.</p>
Because Markdown can be converted to HTML automatically, I have found it less stressful to actually write my Canvas pages, announcements, and messages to parents in Markdown and then pasting the resulting HTML into the HTML editor of Canvas. I store my Markdown files in a folder of text files, with subfolders for each course. I have favorited these folders so that they are always accessible in the iA Writer sidebar. These folders are easily accessible. Because I am writing in plaintext, the result feels much more like writing in a simple note app than it does a word processor.
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597864486248-5J9W1DWCB7H44XERKZW5/CleanShot+2020-08-19+at+14.45.57%402x.png" alt="iA Writer links to folders of text files on your hard drive. But it looks like a simple note app." width="2372" height="1858" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">iA Writer links to folders of text files on your hard drive. But it looks like a simple note app.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Here is an example of a Canvas announcement intended to be shared with one of my band classes early this fall. It contains an embedded Google Form families sign as an agreement to our policies. Markdown and HTML can be written in the same document and iA Writer treats it all as HTML when you export it.
I got the HTML embed straight from the Share menu of the Google Form setup. I didn’t need to know any code to make this message!
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<div class="sqs-image-shape-container-element
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597866399217-9I7XOHMYA9C68EXRFUBS/CleanShot+2020-08-19+at+15.46.06%402x.png" alt="On the left: a Markdown document that contains HTML code for a Google Form embed. On the right: pasting that as HTML into the HTML editor in Canvas." width="2500" height="1563" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">On the left: a Markdown document that contains HTML code for a Google Form embed. On the right: pasting that as HTML into the HTML editor in Canvas.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597864190944-J0QAE339L9AL7Q519LPF/iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAC50AAAjwCAYAAAAKgq9xAAAACXBIWXMAAAsTAAALEwEAmpwYAAAM+3.png" alt="How the resulting announcement appears to students." width="2500" height="1924" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">How the resulting announcement appears to students.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
EDIT: When I wrote this post, I fogtot to add one benefit to having all of these files on your computer⊠even though Canvas messages donât support formatting like headings and bold, I draft those in iAWriter too. It is SO much easier to find and re-use old emails I have sent to parents when they are searchable from my computer. Have you ever tried to search your Canvas âSentâ folder? Itâs terrible! Local computer copies for the win!
I am thrilled to announce that I will be joining Learn OmniFocus as a Workflow Guest on October 3rd, 2020.
Learn OmniFocus is a website dedicated to helping others live a fulfilling and productive life with OmniFocus, complementary productivity apps, and services.
You can learn a ton from their free resources, including basics like organizing tasks into projects and assigning tags to them. They also have information on advanced features like project templating and automation.
My session will be all about how I use OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps to keep my life as a teacher and musician together. Here is the session description:
Teacher, musician, and technologist, Robby Burns will be joining us from Ellicott City, Maryland to share how he uses OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps to keep his active life on track.
Robby has been using OmniFocus since 2010. He has a long history with Apple technologies and was originally drawn to OmniFocusâ deep integration with Appleâs operating systems. He especially appreciates that the Omni Group is quick to add support for new Apple technologies.
During the LIVE session, Robby will share details of his OmniFocus setup and workflows, including:
How and when he uses OmniFocus on his iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Adjustments that heâs made to his use of OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps since switching from in-person to virtual teaching.
His strategy for using tags.
How he uses the Forecast perspective to keep his calendar lined up with his commitments.
How he uses defer dates to relieve the stress of seeing too many things at once.
Custom perspectives that help him hone in on his most important tasks, including his âTop 3â perspective that narrows his focus to only three items.
How he creates OmniFocus projects based on templates stored in Drafts.
Read more and register here. The session will have a live Q/A and members can interact and share ideas. I hope to see you there!
You can become a member of Learn OmniFocus here. They have educator and student discounts. It is worth checking out if you wish to be more productive!
A free recording of the video will be made available to everyone by October 10.
When school let out in March, I wrote My Very Straightforward and Very Successful Setup for Teaching Virtual Private Lessons. The impetus for this post, and its snarky title, was an overwhelming number of teachers I saw on Facebook fussing about what apps and hardware they should use to teach online when all you really need is a smartphone, FaceTime, and maybe a tripod.
I stand by that post. But there are also reasons to go high-tech. I have had a lot of time this summer to reflect on the coming fall teaching semester. I have been experimenting with software and hardware solutions that are going to make my classes way more engaging.
Zoom
I have been hesitant about Zoom. I still have reservations about their software. Yet, it is hard to resist how customizable their desktop version is. I will be using Google Meet for my public school classes in September, but for my private lessons, I have been taking advantage of Zoomâs detailed features and settings.
For example, itâs easier to manage audio ins and outs. Right from the chat window, I can change if my voice input is going through my Mac’s internal microphone or my studio microphone, or if video is coming from my laptop webcam or my external Logitech webcam. This will also be useful for routing audio from apps into the call (we will get to that in a moment).
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597075201184-OOWEFIAO8PYDRTX1UOAT/CleanShot+2020-08-10+at+11.02.33.png" alt="Zoom allows you to choose the audio/video input from right within the call." width="2500" height="1055" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
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<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Zoom allows you to choose the audio/video input from right within the call.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Zoom also allows you to AirPlay the screen of an iOS device to the student as a screen sharing option. This is the main reason I have been experimenting with Zoom. Providing musical feedback is challenging over an internet-connected video call. Speaking slowly helps to convey thoughts accurately, but it helps a lot more when I say âstart at measure 32â and the student sees me circle the spot I want them to start in the music, right on their phone.
You can get really detailed by zooming in and out of scores and annotating as little as a single note. If you are wondering, I am doing all of this on a 12.9 inch iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, using the forScore app. A tight feedback loop of âstudent performanceâ>teacher feedbackâ>student adjustmentâ is so important to good teaching, and a lot of it is lost during online lessons. It helps to get some of it back through the clarity and engagement of annotated sheet music.
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597075253336-3D35PXRK7I734NAHHIN8/CleanShot+2020-08-10+at+11.03.17.png" alt="Selecting AirPlay as a screen sharing option." width="2500" height="1055" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
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<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Selecting AirPlay as a screen sharing option.</p></div>
</figcaption>
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</div>
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597075390118-QA7W16X26KDSA9LT8512/CleanShot+2020-08-10+at+11.05.43.png" alt="AirPlaying annotated sheet music to the Zoom call using the iPad Pro and forScore app." width="2500" height="1055" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">AirPlaying annotated sheet music to the Zoom call using the iPad Pro and forScore app.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
As much as I love this, I still think Zoom is pretty student hostile, particularly with the audio settings. Computers already try to normalize audio by taking extreme louds and compressing them. Given that my private lessons are on percussion instruments, this is very bad. Zoom is the worst at it of all the video apps I have used. To make it better, you have to turn on an option in the audio settings called âUse Original Audioâ so that the host hears the studentâs raw sound, not Zoomâs attempt to even it out. Some of my students report that they have to re-choose this option in the âMeeting Settingsâ of each new Zoom call.
If this experiment turns out to be worth it for the sheet music streaming, I will deal with it. But this is one of the reasons why I have been using simple apps like FaceTime up until this point.
I have been experimenting with a few apps by Rogue Amoeba that give me more control over how audio is flowing throughout my hardware and software.
Last Spring, I would often play my public school students YouTube videos, concert band recordings from Apple Music, and warm-up play-alongs that were embedded in Keynote slides. I was achieving this by having the sound of these sources come out of my computer speakers and right back into the microphone of my laptop. It actually works. But not for everyone. And not well.
Loopback is an app by Rogue Amoeba that allows you to combine the audio input and output of your various microphones, speakers, and apps, into new single audio devices that can be recognized by the system. I wrote about it here. My current set up includes a new audio device I created with Loopback which combines my audio interface and a bunch of frequently used audio apps into one. The resulting device is called Interface+Apps. If I select it as the input in my computerâs sound settings, then my students hear those apps and any microphone plugged into my audio interface directly. The audio quality of my apps is therefore more pure and direct, and there is no risk of getting an echo or feedback effect from my microphone picking up my computer speakerâs sound.
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597075481531-T3RND7H6QZK7U88DPYPF/CleanShot+2020-08-10+at+11.07.26.png" alt="A Loopback device I created which combines the audio output of many apps with my audio interface into a new, compound device called âInterface+Apps.â" width="1112" height="1004" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">A Loopback device I created which combines the audio output of many apps with my audio interface into a new, compound device called âInterface+Apps.â</p></div>
</figcaption>
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</div>
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597075501814-75OMM2CT6NQU8BBM81BQ/CleanShot+2020-08-10+at+11.08.54.png" alt="I can select this compound device from my Macâs Sound settings." width="780" height="610" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">I can select this compound device from my Macâs Sound settings.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Now I can do the following with a much higher level of quality…
Run a play-along band track and have a private student drum along
Play examples of professional bands for my band class on YouTube
Run Keynote slides that contain beats, tuning drones, and other play-along/reference tracks
and…
Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X is one of my apps routing through to the call via Loopback. I have a MIDI keyboard plugged into my audio interface and a Roland Octopad electronic drum pad that is plugged in as an audio source (though it can be used as a MIDI source too).
The sounds on the Roland Octopad are pretty authentic. I have hi-hat and bass drum foot pedal triggers so I can play it naturally. So in Logic, I start with an audio track that is monitoring the Octopad, and a software instrument track that is set to a piano (or marimba or xylophone, whatever is relevant). This way, I can model drum set or mallet parts for students quickly without leaving my desk. The audio I produce in Logic is routed through Loopback directly into the call. My students say the drum set, in particular, sounds way better in some instances than the quality of real instruments over internet-connected calls. Isnât that something…
Obviously, there is a reason I have previously recommended a set up as simple as a smartphone and a tripod stand. Smartphones are very portable and convenient. And simple smartphone apps like FaceTime and Google Duo make a lot of good default choices about how to handle audio without the fiddly settings some of the more established âvoice conferenceâ platforms are known for.
Furthermore, I canât pick up my desk and move it to my timpani or marimba if I need to model something. So I have begun experimenting with multiple camera angles. I bought a webcam back in March (it finally just shipped). I can use this as a secondary camera to my laptopâs camera (Command+Shift+N in Zoom to change cameras).
Alternatively, I can share my iPhone screen via AirPlay and turn on the camera app. Now I can get up from my desk and go wherever I need to. The student sees me wherever I go. This option is sometimes laggy.
Alternatively, I can log in to the call separately on the iPhone and Mac. This way, there are two instances of me, and if I need to, I can mute the studio desk microphone, and use the phone microphone so that students can hear me wherever I go. I like this option the best because it has the added benefit of showing me what meeting participants see in Zoom.
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1597075560578-KQFGYGMPES39PW5D9RUH/CleanShot+2020-08-10+at+11.52.56.png" alt="Logging in to the Zoom call on the Mac and iPhone gives me two different camera angles." width="1296" height="910" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
</div>
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<figcaption class="image-caption-wrapper">
<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Logging in to the Zoom call on the Mac and iPhone gives me two different camera angles.</p></div>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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SoundSource
This process works well once it is set up. But it does take some fiddling around with audio ins and outs to get it right. SoundSource is another app by Rogue Amoeba that takes some of the fiddly-ness out of the equation. It replaces the sound options in your Macâs menubar, offering your more control and more ease at the same time.
This app saved me from digging into the audio settings of my computer numerous times. In addition to putting audio device selection at a more surface level, it also lets you control the individual volume level of each app, apply audio effects to your apps, and more. One thing I do with it regularly is turn down the volume of just the Zoom app when my students play xylophone.
Rogue Amoeba’s apps will cost you, but they are worth it for those who want more audio control on the Mac. Make sure you take advantage of their educator discount.
EDIT: My teaching set up now includes the use of OBS and an Elago Stream Deck. Read more here.
Conclusion
I went a little overboard here. If this is overwhelming to you, don’t get the idea that you need to do it all. Anyone of these tweaks will advance your setup and teaching.
This post is not specific about the hardware I use. If you care about the brands and models of my gear, check out My Favorite Technology to read more about the specific audio equipment in my setup.
Theresa Hoover Ducassoux joins the show to talk about technology for teaching band at a distance, productivity methodologies, Google apps for personal and school use, Flipgrid, empowering students, and more…
Other topics:
Personal productivity systems and apps
The Getting Things Done Methodology
Teaching band online
Being creative with whatever teaching scenario and schedule your district is moving forward with this fall
Engaging students with musical performance using the Flipgrid video service
Google apps for personal productivity
Google apps for classroom teaching
Organizing files in Google Drive
Automating band warm ups
Chamber music breakout groups using Google Meet and Soundtrap
Getting Google Certified
Her book- Pass the Baton: Empowering All Music Students
Due is an indispensable app that I depend on daily on both iOS, the Apple Watch, and the Mac. There are three things that immediately come to mind when I think about why I like this app over the basic Reminders app.
Its design is beautiful, intelligent, and easy to read.
Its natural language parsing is a breeze… “remind me to help with lunch duty at 11:27 am” adds a reminder with the time just as I type it.
The swipe down gesture to add a new task is very intuitive.
By far, most important: you can set the notifications to keep pinging you until you check the task as done. You can even customize the amount of time it snoozes when you tap the snooze button.
I don't use this app to manage big projects. For that, I use OmniFocus. But for tasks that have to be acted on in a very specific moment, Due is the tool for the job.
It just got a major Mac update. Most of the changes are design focused, which I can appreciate because the Mac app, while it functioned, was starting to look pretty out of date. If you want to read more of the specifics, I recommend the MacStories article linked below.
A full-fledged task manager is terrific for many projects, but if you dump your entire life into one, it can quickly become a cluttered mess. At the same time, if youâre focused on a big project, itâs easy to let everything thatâs not in your task manager slip through the cracks. One strategy for attacking the problem that has worked well for me is using a separate, lightweight app for tasks like remembering to take out the garbage, pick up medicine at the pharmacy, or publish an article when an embargo lifts.
In the past, Iâve used Due on the iPhone and iPad for these sorts of tasks. There has been a Mac version of Due for years too, but it hadnât been updated in about two years and was showing its age. However, with todayâs update, Due for Mac joins the iOS version with a fully-modern design and slate of new features, putting it on par with the outstanding iOS version, which Iâve covered in the past.
One of the reasons I continue using Apple products is that they work well together. The better the features work across devices, the less often users need third party software to get things done.
Now that iCloud Drive supports the sharing of files and folders, a lot of vocal Mac and iOS users have debated if they can finally let go of Dropbox.
Productivity master, David Sparks, had some things to say about it on his blog this week:
All that said, Dropbox still has many features that sure would be nice in iCloud, like a much better implementation of version history and deletion recovery. I was hoping we would get some more functionality for iCloud Drive this year at WWDC, but we didnât. I was hoping I could throw Dropbox overboard. One less service and one less thing to pay for sure sounded nice.
For me, the major hole in iCloud Drive is that I cannot control what lives on my hard drive and what stays in the cloud. Both Dropbox and iCloud have a feature where they will smartly try to make this decision for you, uploading files you haven’t touched in months to the cloud so that they don’t take up hard drive space.
Sometimes I need the control to be able to tell a service to keep a folder or a file permanently downloaded, no matter what. And iCloud Drive still can’t do this task.
iCloud folder and file sharing are reliable in my use, but setting up the share is far less intuitive than Dropbox, which presents its options to you with clear iconography when you right-click on a folder or file in the Finder.
Why Apple can’t get right what Dropbox figured out over ten years ago still confuses me. Hopefully they will tweak it and make it better.
I am fortunate that my free Dropbox account is large enough that I don’t need to pay. iCloud remains my primary storage solution but I keep Dropbox around for miscellaneous purposes, including sharing with others who don’t use iCloud.
If you want to use Dropbox on a Mac, but avoid installing it, I recommend the app Transmit. While the app is marketed as an FTP client, it can also act as a Google Drive or Dropbox client, allowing you to upload, download, copy, and share files, using a native macOS experience, and without allowing Dropbox to run in the background.
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1595452750007-D26OAX2RKZQIH3PLZ874/loopback%402x.png" alt="Loopback is an app that creates custom audio ins and outs for the Mac using the audio of other apps." width="512" height="512" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
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<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Loopback is an app that creates custom audio ins and outs for the Mac using the audio of other apps.</p></div>
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Have you been teaching a class in Google Meet or Zoom and wanted to play a song from iTunes for your digital classroom? Or perhaps a YouTube video or any other application with audio?
Sure, you can play it right on your computer and let the audio from your speakers go straight back into the microphone input of your computer. This works ok in my opinion. But it isn’t going to produce a pure representation of the audio I am trying to send. And in some cases, it creates issues with echo, delay, or a nasty feedback loop.
So what do you do? Rogue Amoeba makes excellent Mac apps that, for lack of better explanation, hack into the audio system of your Mac. I have written about Audio Hijack here before, their app that allows you to record audio from other applications (and that’s just the start of all the powerful things it can do). Rogue Amoeba also makes an excellent utility called Loopback.
What does Loopback do? Think about your computer’s audio settings. You have an Input and an Output. The Input is, by default, your computer microphone, and the Output is the speakers. If you connect an audio interface that has higher quality microphone and speakers plugged in, you would need to set the Input and Output to that interface to get the input and out put the be the microphone and speakers, respectively.
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<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Usually my computer microphone is a Device that can be set to the computerâs Input. In the scenario above, Loopback has allowed me to combine the audio from my microphone and the Music app into a new audio Device called âMusic+Micâ that can be selected as the input of my Mac or any individual app.</p></div>
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Your Inputs and Outputs can be controlled from the Sound settings of your computer. Some audio apps also let you control how, specifically, they behave. For example, I have manually set up GarageBand and Skype to use my audio interface as the Device I use for input so that whether I am recording for my podcast, or simply catching up with a relative, they hear me through the microphone, no matter what Device my Macâs audio Output is set to in the System Preferences.
Loopback allows you to create Inputs and Outputs that are accessible to your Mac’s Sound settings as well as your apps. In the example above, I have created an Input that combines my Mac’s microphone (the usual Input) with the output of the Apple Music app, something I might want to use to play a recording example for my students in a Google Meet.
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<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Selecting my new audio Device from the System Preferences.</p></div>
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Look now as I go to my computer’s Sound settings, and I can select this new custom Input to be used across the entire operating system! This way, when I am in a Google Meet, students are hearing both me speaking through the mic and all of the output of the Music app.
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<div class="image-caption"><p class="">Now I can route my band warm up tracks, reference recordings, or any other audio I desire, into my Google Meet classrooms.</p></div>
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New app for creating virtual ensembles coming next month. Click the link to read more information directly from the developerâs website and sign up to be notified when it is released.
Choir Creator is the easiest way to organize and produce a virtual choir video. Releasing to the United States and Canada in August 2020 for iPhone and iPad running iOS 12.4 or later.
From the YouTube demo on the developerâs website, it looks like the workflow solves nearly all of the friction of this process. The business model of charging the teacher a considerable (but reasonable) amount of money and nothing to the student is solid.
That said, this process does not leave a lot of room for control. I would like to be able to, for example, turn up the tuba if it isnât loud enough. I can think of numerous other ways that I would want to exercise more control than the output of this app would allow. That said, there is a strong market for software that makes it this easy. I think it may do well.
Itâs iOS only at launch, which is not a surprise, but will limit school systems where students are using Chromebooks.
Edit: I have spoken with the developers of this app. They informed me that Choir Creator will support basic audio editing features at launch, like changing the volume and panning of each track. They said they have more audio editing features to come. Good to know!
This is the second part in my series on using OmniFocus to stay on top of my teaching responsibilities. My last post, Staying On Top Of Teaching Responsibilities With Omnifocus Perspectives, details how I use custom Perspectives to ensure that I only see the tasks that are relevant to me in particular working contexts. Today, I am going to write about how I use TaskPaper templates to make sure I donât forget steps of commonly repeated projects.
Why Project Templates?
As a band director, I have tons of repeating projects. There are numerous concerts a year, field trips, musical repertoire to stuff in folders, and substitutes to prepare lessons for. Usually, the tasks in these projects are the same, and have similar due dates relative to the date of the concert, substitute, or trip.
What is TaskPaper?
OmniFocus allows users to write templates for these projects in plain text using a special syntax called TaskPaper. The TaskPaper syntax is what is used by the application by the same name. It allows users to create and maintain complex projects with checkable tasks, each of which containing tags and due dates. There are no buttons or menus, everything is typed without lifting your hands off the keyboard.
A simple project in TaskPaper would use a colon after the title to bolden it and turn it into a project. Tasks are indicated by dashes, followed by spaces. And tags are indicated by an @ symbol. Therefore, a project with sub tasks and tags would look exactly like this…
OmniFocus Projects Templates use this same syntax and have added some custom features through the use of tagging. You can read about that syntax here.
OmniFocus Projects can look as simple as the example text above. But they can also use custom placeholders which prompt you to add dynamic data. If you put a string of characters in between the symbols â«â and â»â, OmniFocus will treat it like a variable and prompt you to provide it. This means that if tag an item with the tag @due(«dateofperformance»), I will be asked what the date of the performance is, and then OmniFocus will add that due date to any tasks with that tag.
See my Concert Template below for an example.
Notice that most of my due dates have the minus symbol and a number after them followed by âd,â âm,â or âw,â for days, months, and weeks, respectively. This adjusts the due date relative to the date I provide OmniFocus when prompted. Here is an example. When we perform a concert, the high school we feed into usually offers help from student volunteers in their Tri-M chapter. I need to get in touch with the Tri-M President at least 14 days before the date of the concert to ensure they have enough time to prepare, so I have added a -14d to the end of the date tag for that task. OmniFocus will not bother me about the task until that time.
There is also a Defer date tag associated with that same task. I can begin working on that task up to four weeks before it is due, so OmniFocus reveals it to me four weeks in advance, but doesnât show it as due until I canât survive the day without having done it.
Adding Projects to OmniFocus with Drafts
You may be wondering how I am actually triggering these templates to initiate in OmniFocus. As stated above, I am storing them all in Drafts. Drafts has a feature where you can create different workspaces for different buckets of text. I store my templates in the OmniFocus Template Workspace. In the image below, you will see a template for taking my band to their annual Assessment performance.
On the right side of Drafts there are some options which perform custom actions on my drafts. Users can create their own custom actions and share them with the community as Action Groups on the Drafts Action Directory. This particular set of actions was made by the brilliant Rosemary Orchard and shared on her blog here, where she also goes into great detail about using these two applications together.
The actions can be installed directly into Drafts. The topmost action is the one that takes the text of the draft and prompts me to add it to OmniFocus. The other actions along the right side add common TaskPaper syntax to the document wherever you cursor is. For example, tapping the âDueâ action will type â@due().â This makes templates more fool-proof as you will be less likely to make a mistake with the syntax.
The image above depicts one of the prompts I receive when running the âTaskPaper to OmniFocusâ action in Drafts. Scroll to the top of this post to see what the resulting project looks like once it is in OmniFocus.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
I spend most of my time in the Forecast view of OmniFocus which only shows me tasks that are deferred or due for that day, alongside the events in my calendar. Notice in the screenshot below that I donât think about the deferred tasks on June 24th until I am actually looking at June 24th, thus allowing me to be calm and focused on other tasks on preceding days.
In my post on OmniFocus Perspectives, I talked about how I can focus my view on tasks that are relevant to certain working contexts. With Project Templates, I can focus on only the tasks that are relevant on certain days. They are otherwise out of sight, out of mind. The due dates ensure that I never miss a task.
Music Ed Tech Talk 
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