Graham Hind’s Mac and iOS setup

Every week we post a new interview with someone about what software they use on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad. We do these interviews because not only are they fun, but a glimpse into what tools someone uses and how they use those tools can spark our imagination and give us an idea or insight into how we can do things better.

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Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Graham Hind and I work for EP Books (also known as Evangelical Press), a Christian book publisher based in the UK. We are quite a small company, with employees and contractors all working from home.

What is your current setup?

I have a MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch (early 2015) with a 3.1Ghz i7, 16GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD. It’s usually in use in clamshell mode while connected to a Dell S2817Q. I use a Magic Keyboard and Trackpad (both the recent versions). I have an Anker Soundcore for use when I want better quality audio. My desk is an IKEA standing desk.

Where can we find your macOS wallpaper?

I use my own photographs, this current one taken during a walk along the Llangollen Canal in north Wales, near where I live.

What software do you use and for what do you use it?

I use a pretty wide variety of software.

Courtesy of EP, I have an Adobe Creative Cloud Account and Microsoft Office 365. We use InDesign in the publishing work and Photoshop as well from time to time, and the Fonts through Typekit are really useful.

Apple Pages also gets a lot of use, sometimes replacing InDesign for some jobs. Pages gets better and better and has a lot of power that many owners are perhaps not aware of. I much prefer Numbers to Excel.

I love Markdown and Ulysses is my favorite app for that — its export options are really valuable. Obviously, docx export and PDF, but the ePub export is also very good. It gets used for EP and my own work.

PDFPenPro gets a lot of use for EP. Manuscripts usually arrive in Word format. They get imported into Ulysses for inital editing, and then into Pages for more serious work and perhaps initial layout. We have proofreaders who mark up PDFs for correction, so that’s usually Pages and PDFPenPro. I don’t use Word, in fact I use Microsft Office as little as possible.

Photography has been my hobby for many years. I did use Lightroom, but the latest iteration of Photos with plug-ins from various sources is great. I have Affinity Photo and Luminar and wouldn’t buy into Creative Cloud for my own use.

I use Airmail for all my email purposes and value the built-in export to Bear. I like Spark by Readdle, but it is just not as good as Airmail.

As a preacher and in my work I use the Olive Tree Bible app.

Bear from Shiny Frog makes just about my perfect notes app.

There are probably too many “minor” apps to mention that I could not live without, but let’s mention Alfred, Copied, TextExpander, Bartender, and PopClip.

Oh, and Fantastical is expensive but great.

CleanMyMac 3 is a favorite as well.

How would your ideal setup look and function?

Of course I would love one of the new MacBooks with the Touch Bar, etc., but realistically what I have works really well. It copes with all my software. The Dell monitor could be replaced with a higher-end model or (even better) one of the new LG series, but again it works perfectly well and teamed with SwitchResX does all I could ask.

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What iPhone do you have?

I currently use a gold iPhone SE with 64GB.

Where can we find your wallpaper online?

My own photo, as always.

What apps do you use the most, and why?

I am not a great phone user, but Apple Pay and my bank app are high up my list of most used. If I am away from home, I will check email on Airmail and get details I need from Bear. Probably most used is Cyclemeter, which records all my rides. I try to get out as often as I can, even if it’s just a short local circuit of 17 miles.

Which app could you not live without?

Cyclemeter. It shows how the iPhone takes over in categories it addresses: getting a dedicated bike GPS that does all the app does would cost quite a bit.

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Which iPad do you have?

I have an iPad Pro 9.7-inch with 128GB, an Apple Pencil and a Logitech Create case/keyboard.

Where can we find your wallpaper online?

My own photograph again — right now the same as on my Mac.

How are you using your iPad on a daily basis?

I use it every day for RSS feeds with Reeder, YouTube, and, as I write, a live TV stream of the Tour de France is playing.

The iPad is my preferred carry if I am away for the day or perhaps two. I use Ulysses, the Bible app, and iA Writer. I get my WiFi when I am out from a personal hotspot from the phone. NeuBible and PrayerMate get daily use, and Airmail, Bear, and Fantastical of course. Photos as well, plus Copied and TextExpander. I’ve installed the Public Beta of iOS 11 and love it. The glitches are there, but it is so much better than iOS 10.

What apps do you use the most, and why?

iA Writer gets a lot of use — it’s so much easier to switch to Preview mode in comparison to Ulysses in order to read from the iPad if I am speaking. Plus, the ‘daily basis’ apps above. I think if I were not working for EP and had only my own needs to consider, the iPad would be my go-to computer for day to day use. I’d need the MacBook Pro only for major work on Photos.

Which app could you not live without?

Most of them!

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