That includes OmmWriter, a new writing application for the Mac. It promises a very unique experience, one that aims to reduce distraction and enable you to maintain your focus. Part of that strategy is full-screen text editing, which has been done before, but that’s only the beginning of OmmWriter’s story.

The other part of the story? A snow-covered field, white-out conditions, and a couple of lonely looking trees. And a soundtrack of calming, ambient instrumental music. I was watching “Glee” when I tried the app out for the first time, so I initially thought a musical number was starting up, but then I realized that the sounds were coming from my computer speakers. I can honestly say it’s the first time a word processor has played me music.

When you first boot up OmmWriter, it displays a splash screen that lets you know that it’s best to experience the program using headphones for a more immersive effect. I dutifully followed the instructions using my Apple in-ear headphones, and sure enough, I felt more like I was lost in a world of composition.

If you’re not keen on the default backdrop and music, you can change both. Two other backdrops are available, including a fabric pattern, and a completely white one. Both are preferable to the field image in my opinion, since they have no real focal point to distract the eye. There are also seven different background soundtracks to choose from. OmmWriter remembers your choice, too, so you won’t have to reconfigure your work space with every boot.

I know what you’re thinking. OmmWriter sounds weird. And it is, but it’s also different. Unique, in fact. It’s rare to come across a word processor at this stage that can make the same claim. I really recommend giving it a shot, even if you’re skeptical after reading this. You may just find it’s exactly what you need to stay on track and write something great.

OmmWriter is currently available as a free beta, though you’ll have to sign up at the site with your email address to get the download link.

Has OmmWriter helped improve your focus?

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Twitt is a new, lightweight Mac Twitter client that has some interesting features I haven’t yet found elsewhere. Can it compete with perennial favorites Tweetie and TweetDeck, though? Using both those programs regularly has set my expectations fairly high, but Twitt definitely counts some surprising twists among its repertoire.

Good Things

Twitt displays your Twitter stream like an iChat conversation. It’s an interface that’s familiar to Mac users, and it fully supports themes, including user-generated ones. It comes with two, the default iChat style and an iPhone theme that is much darker. I still prefer the look of Tweetie overall, but having options is always nice, and some users will value it over other UI considerations.

I also like that there’s a compose window at the bottom, which you can optionally hide. It’s preferable to me to always have a field for posting in view, since I find it actually makes me much more likely to actually tweet on a regular basis, something which I find myself doing less and less of since I started using Tweetie as my main Twitter workhorse.

Filters is another thing Twitt has going for it. The app allows you, via a preference panel, to specify terms that Twitt will then look for in your stream. It’ll then automatically hide tweets containing said keywords, effectively enabling you to filter out annoying trending topics or ongoing conversations you aren’t particularly interested in.

Not So Good Things

I’m hesitant to say “bad things,” because none of Twitt’s features are set in stone, and these can still be changed in later editions, but as it stands, there are a few failings the program has mean I won’t be changing horses anytime soon.

First of all, Twitt only supports one account at a time. That’s good news for people who want to keep things simple, I suppose, but if you have more than one Twitter account to monitor or manage, you’re out of luck with Twitt. For my line of work, that’s a dealbreaker. You can log out of your current account and sign in with another easy enough, but why bother when other clients offer much simpler account switching mechanisms.

Second, there isn’t any mechanism for in-line viewing of conversations that I can find. Nor is there a means to view profiles, follow, or do any of the other fun stuff that I’ve come to expect after using Tweetie and TweetDeck for so long. Without these features, I’m afraid Twitt will remain little more than a quaint alternative for Twitter amateurs, instead of a fully-fledged professional tool.

Conclusion

If you’re using Twitter as more of an IM client and less of an RSS replacement and/or brand management outlet, then there’s definitely something to be said for Twitt’s simplistic approach. Things work as you’d expect them to in an IM client. Clicking on someone’s portrait enters their username into the compose field, so that you’re automatically having a conversation with that person. Ongoing conversations between others are highlighted (orange, by default) and stand out from the rest of your stream.

For my purposes, and I suspect for a lot of other web workers, Twitt just isn’t powerful enough to play with the big boys. But it does have the advantage of being free and easy to learn if you’re just starting out. Once you get your sea legs, however, I highly recommend stepping up to Tweetie or TweetDeck.

Which desktop Twitter client are you using, and why?

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1. Shoeboxed. Organize your receipts and business cards through this service (see our review here). With the web app, you scan in what you want to save and organize or mail in your “shoebox” of items to scan and let Shoeboxed do it for you. The results are searchable and easy to organize. With the iPhone app, you can take a photo to digitize a receipt or card.
2. Evernote. The Evernote browser bookmarklet makes it easy to save all or portions of a web page to categorize content and images (see our review here). The Evenote iPhone app lets you do the same with a snap of your iPhone camera, create notes and record audio memos.
3. Bento. If you’re using the personal FileMaker Pro application (see our review here), you might want to try the iPhone app which can operate as a standalone app or sync with your desktop version. You can get mobile access to your Bento libraries and collections, create new records, edit details, sort data, and modify forms.
4. Freshbooks. If you’re looking for easy invoicing, Freshbooks is a great solution (see our coverage of the app here). You can use the MiniBooks app to sync with your Freshbooks account and manage invoices, time, and other related functionality.
5. Task2Gather. Gather, manage and share your tasks, subtasks and projects for yourself and your team (see our review here). Sync the iPhone app with the free Task2Gather desktop application and manage tasks on the go.
6. SugarSync. Work in the cloud, collaborate, back up and sync important documents across all platforms and key devices with this pervasive application (see our review here). View and share files on your iPhone to keep the work flowing, even if you’re not near your computer.
7. TimeBridge.While TimeBridge sets out to be your meeting and conference call one-stop solution (see our review here), the iPhone app gives you control of your meetings while you’re traveling. Call in and handle business on the go.

And a little something extra: Starbucks has not one but two iPhone apps, so you can find the Starbucks nearest you and even build a perfect drink that you can share with friends. Then use your iPhone and the Starbucks Card Mobile to pay for your java (in selected stores) and manage your account. I’ll take my cuppa joe with extra cream, please.

What is your favorite web application with a companion iPhone app, and why?

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If you’d like to automate computer activities when you’re not near the desktop you’ll find many options in WinAutomation to help you. It can handle jobs ranging from running command line tasks to managing FTP activities and executing SQL statements.

The hardest part about getting started, for me anyway, was figuring out what to automate. This huge list of predefined actions contains plenty of ideas. I chose a simple task for my first test and converted a graphics and color-intensive email newsletter into a plain one. This took two macros to handle the job: one took out all of the graphics while the other removed all the formatting.

WinAutomation also succeeded in backing up my local drive to an external drive using Synctoy. While Scheduled Tasks, a Windows built-in system accessory, could run the backup, it had stopped working for me. WinAutomation is now running the job on a regular basis without fail.

You can also check out the list of ideas to see what you can do with the software. The easier example macros run applications and open specific folders. I already have a programmable keyboard that can do these things, but not everyone has programmable keyboard buttons. You can make can assign shortcuts or a hotkey to your macros.

Triggers fire macros in different ways. “Schedule triggers” run a macro on a certain date and time; they can also handle recurring tasks. “Event log monitor triggers” run when a certain event happens. The application can go to work to complete whatever activities you need done as soon as a specific process starts or ends. For example, if a job fails, you can set up a macro that will send you an email to let you know.

The support pages include macros you can import into WinAutomation, complete with instructions on how they work for easy customization. The export and import feature allows you to share macros with others. When I ran into a problem with one of my macros, I simply exported it to send to tech support, and received a response on how to fix it.

I imported the macro to automate Twitter updates from the web site, tweaked a few things and put WinAutomation to the test. It works well if you want to post a new tweet at the same time daily; all you need to do is update the text file with new tweets. While there are Twitter automation services like Tweetlater, using WinAutomation means just updating a text file rather than having to log into a site each time.

WinAutomation macros can use programming concepts such as variables, flow control, conditionals, loops and exception handling, and so can become quite powerful and complex. Power users and above-average users will benefit most from the software. Beginners and users not familiar with FTP, HTML and that sort of thing might feel a little overwhelmed, and probably wouldn’t have much use for automation software, anyway. Even I had to spend time debugging some macros that didn’t work the way I wanted. However, I found creating macros with WinAutomation took less effort than macros in Microsoft Office.

You can test WinAutomation free for 30 days to see how it works for you. The Standard Edition sells for $129 and the Professional Edition for $199. Volume discounts are available.

How do you handle repeatable computing tasks?

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First, let me clarify that I’m looking at the Windows version for the purposes of this post. For more info on the Mac version, check out this post over at TheAppleBlog by Matthew Bookspan.

The first thing I noticed about MindView 3 is the redesigned user interface. Like a lot of software that’s designed to be used alongside Microsoft Office, the new look resembles Office 2007′s UI, right down to the ribbon-style menu, the location of common commands, and the use of the “Start” button to access advanced options. People who don’t like Office 2007, or those still using older versions, might not be comfortable with the new interface, but in my opinion, it’s a great improvement.

Another improvement comes by way of the great collection of built-in templates, which can take a lot of the grunt work out of setting up a mind map. I used a basic web site template for the purposes of this review, since I actually have to set one up anyway for a friend’s new small press publishing venture.

Using MindView is incredibly easy. You can add notes in the bottom frame for any item, and you can switch views in the main pane from Mind Map to Top Down, or select from a number of other choices. Each branch you add to the root can be customized with a picture of your choosing, and you can add a built-in or custom icon to any item in your map. All of these options can be found in the ribbon, pretty much exactly where you’d expect to find it if you’re familiar with Office 2007.

You can also quickly reformat your entire map with pre-set styles, in much the same way that you can in Word and PowerPoint 2007. Files and hyperlinks can be attached to any and all items, and you can even package attachments with your mind map so that they’ll be available to others you may want to share your file with. And if they don’t have MindView, you can export to a variety of formats, including PowerPoint, Word, and HTML.

Any web worker would probably benefit from getting to know mind maps and how to use them, and MindView 3 is a great tool for doing this. It’s easy to learn, especially if you’re already comfortable with using Microsoft Office 2007, and its templates provide great starting points for novice users, while its customizability ensures that experienced mappers won’t feel limited.

However, while it does offer a 20-day free trial to download, the cost of the full version is a fairly hefty $279 for a single user license, so I’d only recommend a purchase if you’re a heavy user of mind maps or if you know you will be able to use this tool for revenue generation.

What tools do you use for mind mapping?

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