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What must-have software for a new mac owner can you recommend?
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Posted by DaXiong
Apr 12, 2012 at 12:14 AM
Yeah, I bought a mac - now, what software can you fine people recommend for me.
I’ve browsed old posts (I lurk all the time here), and I already intend on purchasing OmniOutliner and Scrivener as most of what I do is writing.
But, to all you who use Macs, what are the apps you most strongly recommend?
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Apr 12, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Here are the applications that reside in my Dock Bar:
Finder
Mail
Safari
Scrivener
Tinderbox
Bento
iPhoto
iTunes
Sandvox (an easy to use web site builder and manager)
MacJournal
DevonThink Pro
Bean (a lightweight, free word processor)
Pages (Apple’s word processor)
Voila (a screen capture program)
TheBrain
VMWare Fusion (so I can run ConnectedText)
Yojimbo
OmniOutliner
Evernote
As you can see, there’s a bit of redundancy here (good luck with avoiding CRIMPing). If you have heavy-duty research material to manage, then DevonThink is probably the class of the info managers. But if you’re not going to amass tons of research, then a more lightweight program like Yojimbo or Together might work better.
For lightweight structured data, I like Bento, a very easy to use database.
Since you’re trying to avoid CRIMPing, I won’t recommend Tinderbox (although it is still my favorite Mac program, even if it isn’t the one I use the most).
Steve Z.
Posted by Hugh
Apr 12, 2012 at 11:21 AM
To Steve’s excellent list, I’d add the following:
Two heavyweight applications for specific jobs:
Omnifocus (task manager)
iBank (personal finance)
A nice free simple word processor:
Bean
Back-up:
Super-Duper (Apple’s Time Machine is fine for files, but Super-Duper incrementally clones your disk)
Of course:
Dropbox
The Apple equivalent of MS Office (more limited, but cheaper):
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
A programme to allow you to run Windows software on a Mac (for the pretty rare occasions when you can find no Mac equivalent):
Parallels
And a list of simple utilities, most of which are inexpensive and exploit the Mac system to help knit different applications together:
Hazel
Caffeine
Growl (the earlier free version)
Launchbar (or the recently updated Alfred)
Concentrate
Cobook
QuickCal
Blotter (puts your calendar on your desktop)
Minco (a nifty task timer)
Minuteur (a scriptable “tea timer”)
1Password
Default Folder
Mailtags
Coconut Battery
Formal Address
TextExpander
Wallpaper Wizard
A feature of the Mac platform is that there are many utilities like these available.
This is a good review site (featuring articles by Steve Z.):
http://mac.appstorm.net/category/general/
It’s also good for learning about the little utilities, like those above.
And “Mac at Work” by David Sparks is an excellent perspective of the best of the entire Mac software waterfront.
H
Posted by jamesofford
Apr 12, 2012 at 03:27 PM
First, welcome to the Mac. It’s a great platform.
As to programs, I can add little to the list that has already been posted by Stephen and Hugh. I would only comment that if you don’t want to use Microsoft Word, or indeed any of Microsoft Office, grab yourself a copy of Libreoffice. It’s a version of Open Office, and it runs great on my MacBook Pro. Opens and saves in Microsoft Office format. I would second (Or is it third?)the recommendations for Devonthink Pro. I use it all the time and love it. I actually ponied up for the Devonthink Pro Office version.
Jim
Posted by Jonathan Probber
Apr 12, 2012 at 05:24 PM
If you do any sort of academic work, get Papers2 to wrangle journal articles.
http://www.mekentosj.com/papers/
DaXiong wrote:
>Yeah, I bought a mac - now, what software can you fine people recommend for me.