Going Postal: Putting Email and RSS Feeds Inside NoteTaker

It’s snowing out there. Granted, it’s a Washington, DC kind of snow--so we’re talking about, what? two inches? In short, a Weenie Blizzard. But this is DC, an inherently multicultural town--and a city that also has traffic circles designed by a guy who really wanted to do Paris (architecturally speaking--to clearly differentiate him from Debbie’s very different relationship to Dallas).

So before calling me a wuss, let’s take a moment and plug all the variables into this brutal little equation: Newly minted diplomat from a sunny clime (with diplomatic immunity--ie, American laws--traffic or otherwise--don’t apply to him) while driving to his embassy encounters the first snow he’s ever seen and the first traffic circle (vicious merry-go-rounds of careening, high-speed metal-plastic-rubber). Comprehend? I like to think that driving in a DC snow storm has only one true soundtrack--Bowie’s Low, a CD that features “Breaking Glass” and “Always Crashing In the Same Car” (on reflection, there’s also “Sound and Vision,” sounding like ice-rink music).

Thus, when it snows in Washington, the city hunkers down, deeply afraid of itself. It’s time to make sure there’s scotch and firewood and a shopping bag full of DVDs (blessedly, the Age of iTunes has enabled me to continue shopping for music in white-out conditions).

Me, I’ve got Miles Davis’ Tutu angularly unfolding from the speakers, I’m staring at the steadily increasing amounts of snow outside the windows of Sheridan World Headquarters and, in the distance, I can hear the faint-but-tortured sound of colliding diplomatic vehicles. But I pay it no mind, for I am hard at work making NoteTaker even more useful for you--Reader Who Did Question My Fortitude With Regard To Snow Storms. This vehemently denied fact does not offend me because I know that by the end of this post, you will be so indebted to me, the guilt over doubting my steely resolve in blizzards will nearly drive you to suicide.

Because I am about to show you something that’s Remarkable and Mind-Bendingly Useful--even if you don’t use NoteTaker for blogging. A lesser man would careful place a PayPal Donate button on his site before telling you what I’m about to convey. But that would be wrong in so many ways: If you paid me, I would essentially be working for you and if I worked for you, you’d be a position to insist I stop wasting time and get to the point, which is so not me, Dude. This way, I get to riff on the snowfall before getting down to brass tacks. Or, on reflection, I simply may not be a good businessman. Either way, I’ve put off the inevitable long enough . . .

Kids, today we’re going to embed a powerful email and RSS reader into a NoteTaker notebook page. We’re doing this because I’m tired of email copy-and-paste hassles--and so are you. Peruse any of my recent posts on this site and you’ll see I’m on crusade to bludgeon developers into playing as nice with Mac OS copy-and-paste as NoteTaker or TextEdit do. But this doesn’t help me (or you) in the near-term. Clearly, it’s time to take matters into my own hands (odd expression that--”my own?”). I may be helpless in terms of that diplomat wildly skidding in my direction (Don’t pump power brakes, you fool! ), but I can do something about properly getting email and RSS feeds into NoteTaker.

In truth, this is much more than a work-around because you have the resulting capability of powerfully searching and parsing your mail and feeds that rivals and, at times exceeds, other more traditional email clients. So let’s get started.

Step one is to download a Java-based application called Zoe. After expanding this download, place it in your Applications folder and then drag the Zoe.jar icon to your dock--trust me, you’re going to using it a lot . Two tips here: First, since the developer of Zoe wisely focused on making the application powerful before worrying about prettiness, the application has a generic Java icon. I’ve copied the icon of a now-unused (and unnamed) mail client and pasted it over Zoe’s Starbuck-esque self using the Get Info box. I’m sure this is ethically dodgy--but I remain unrepentant. Second, seriously consider adding Zoe to your start-up items list in the Accounts pane of System Preferences--that way you don’t have to remember to start it up.

When you first launch Zoe, it automatically opens your default browser (Safari for me). Instead of seeing a website, you’ll be staring at an application. Mouse over elements in the window and watch them turn orange--live stuff is lurking under the elegance. Click the large, bold “Zoe” in the upper left-hand corner of the browser window. This will take you to the preferences, where you’ll set up your email account(s) pretty much as you might expect--you’ll need all your usual email-ish information.

Keeping the Zoe preference open, launch your RSS reader of choice and export your feeds as either an OPML or TXT file. (I went the OPML route). Save that Bad Boy to your desktop. Now go back to the Zoe preferences and look in the right-hand column: you’ll see RSS listed under Assistants. Mouse over it and click when it turns orange. In the resulting RSS set-up, merely import your OPML file--how to do so is obvious. Close-out RSS and also Zoe Preferences. Give the application some time to download your RSS feeds. After that, click Get Mail on the main Zoe screen and watch the email come flooding in.

My intent is not to give up a guided tour of Zoe, but know this--it’s fabulously powerful. My best advice to you is to play with it for about 15 minutes--find out where all the live links are and click everything and anything. You’ll discover multiple sorting views, an easy-to-use archive of all email received since you installed Zoe, links contained in individual mails helpfully placed in a sidebar for easy access, the ability to change the font and style of displayed mail, powerful ways to sort and parse email senders--city, time zone, company, etc., and the way HTML emails can be displayed.

Most importantly, you’ll discover that Zoe treats RSS feeds like more email. If you search for “Apple” in email, the results will include iTunes notices, announcements from your local Apple store--and any Apple-related RSS feeds you may have. RSS feeds can pretty much be displayed, sorted and parsed like your email.

Are we clear here? In and of itself Zoe is a way-cool application. I’ve set the preferences so that Zoe leaves all email on the server, which means I can look at my mail while in Safari and still “properly” download it later with my email client.

But wait, there’s more.

Here’s what I want you to do: In Zoe click the tiny “Zoe” that’s part of the textual navigational path that forms at the top of your email. Make sure that you have nothing in the search box. What we want is your straight-ahead opening email screen in Zoe. Now go to the URL in the browser and copy it.

Chose an NT notebook that needs access to email and RSS feeds. Open it and choose the appropriate page. Create an entry and paste-in the Zoe URL. Click outside the NT entry and wait for it to morph into a live link with an NoteTaker “@“ icon. Double-click the icon and watch your Zoe email appear embedded in your notebook page--everything is functional, everything is live. REMEMBER: Zoe, the application, must still be running. I perpetually run Zoe in the background, so there’s no remembering to turn it on.

Everything that you can do with your web-browser-based Zoe, you can do inside a NoteTaker notebook page--including receiving and processing RSS feeds. Quite simply, it works in exactly the same way.

But wait: There’s a bonus gift if you act now.

Zoe’s usefulness is further amplified by NoteTaker. Try this: In the embedded Zoe window on the NT page, open a single email. That email’s contents should now fill the window. Now Cmd-Click in the little left-hand margin created by the selection box. This launches NoteTaker’s contextual menus. Near the middle, chose Views and then Floating. The entire contents of the email now hovers in its own window above your NoteTaker notebook. Turn to another page in that notebook--or create a new page (or even a new section and a new page) and then bring our friend, the floating email, back to the front.

You can now select the entire email and drag it out of its floating window and onto the new notebook page, where it becomes an entry. Or you can select just parts of the floating email and perform the same trick. Or--if you need an exact copy--but without live links--drag the little PDF icon badge off the top of the floating email window and onto the new NT notebook page. Wham! An entry contain a PDF of the email is created.

Everything just described can also be done with specific RSS feeds: Can you say Hot Damn?

This drop-dead, bitchin’ enhancement of NoteTaker is obviously a general NT tip. However, here’s how I use it in terms of my blogging setup: I have my TypePad blogs configured to send me emails whenever a comment is logged or a trackback is made. Additionally, I get a fairly steady stream of blog-related emails sent directly to me. In all this instances, I’m now using Zoe to process, answer and archive these communications.

Additionally, to ensure that the Ideas sections of my blogging notebooks are filled, I now sort and archive interesting or resonant RSS feeds using Zoe. Then when its time to post, I’ve got a lot of raw material already waiting for me in my notebooks.

Okay, admit it--this really is mind-bending isn’t it? And yeah, you put up with all that stuff about snow, but realize that you’re going to go out and win bar bets with other geeks by demonstrating live email and RSS feeds inside a NoteTaker notebook. This is such a creative display of uber-techno prowse, it may even snag you a date this weekend. Yeah, I know: You’re sorry. You didn’t realize that I am more than simply Donkey to your Shrek or Pedro to your Napoleon Dynamite. And needless to say, you’ll be sorry when I’ve gone to that Great Hierarchical, Multimedia, Freeform Database In The Sky.

And on that very After-School-Special note, here endeth the lesson. I gotta go get the Ruritanian ambassador’s car off my front lawn . . .

The composition of this entry was made possible in part by Always Crashing In The Same Car from the album "Low" by David Bowie

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 3:21:05 PM

Comments

[Stephen Hryncewicz]

Very interesting blog. I have a floating Gmail NT window to check my email. Would that not work better or have I missed your point?

[Graham English]

I'd love to try this one but Zoe doesn't have any RSS option in the preferences for me. Shucks.

[Webgecko]

Hey! Nice.

I just got a new powerbook with my tax refund, and am back on track. Popped in to catch up. WOW. Nice! Off to get Zoe I guess. You are wicked.

Regards
Penny