7 Mac Apps You Might Not Be Using
Macs seem to be getting more and more popular. In fact, it’s not rare when I go into a coffee shop now to see more people working on Macs than on PC’s.
Without turning this into a Mac vs PC thing (since we all already know Macs are far superior…), I thought I’d help out those of you who are newer to the Mac world with a few programs that I’ve grown to love and need that aren’t necessarily secret, but you may not know about them. In fact, one of the great things about the Mac community are the fantastic developers, and the number of really great applications that are out there.
Here’s a few that I can’t do without right now:
I can’t believe how dependent I’ve become on this program. In fact, when I use someone else’s computer, I find myself a bit crippled without TextExpander. Here’s what it basically does – you create abbreviations that when you type those, a whole string of preassigned text pops up. I use it for all kinds of little things – like never typing my email address into a form again, but just simply using my abbreviation. I also have a few standard responses to some emails that I get frequently that I can just type an abbreviation into and it writes out the whole thing. So awesome. Plus it keeps a running tally of how much time you’ve saved by using it rather than typing everything out.
A simple and safe way to remember all of your passwords, and even have it generate new ones that are much more secure than what you’d develop on your own. You can use it to securely enter credit card info, billing address info, etc as well. Another great tool that saves you time.
A quick and easy way to take screen shots and to write/draw on them, and then share them. Before using this, I didn’t even begin to realize how much I would want to use something like this. Sometimes it’s just easier to take a screen shot of something you need to show someone to ask them about.
I’ve mentioned this before, and it’s obviously not Mac only, but this is the place where I dump everything that I think I may need later – especially for studying and message prep. My favorite feature – I can take a picture of a whiteboard and dump it into Evernote, and then it can recognize the words that I wrote, and when I do a search, if that word was written on the whiteboard, that picture shows up in the search.
Again, another program that’s not Mac only, but is still awesome. Its basically a program that stores your files online for free (up to 2GB) that can be shared and accessible at anytime. I keep copies of files that I want to have access to wherever I am on it. I also put copies of files that I need to share with others on it. It works as a folder on my desktop that I just drop things into and then they’re magically everywhere I need them to be.
For longer writing projects, Scrivener is awesome. I don’t use it for weekly things (although I know plenty of people who do), but it’s great for anything that takes a bit more time. I’m currently writing our new Knowing Parkcrest Class on it. I wish I would have had this during school.
I prefer to write all of my blog posts on a separate program on my laptop. While I will admit that after using Windows Live Writer on my netbook, that it’s a better program, Blogo has become my favorite on the Mac. It’s got a clean, easy interface
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If you’re on a Mac, what are some of the programs that we might not know about that you can’t do without right now?
