Mac Power Tools: Useful Apps

by Miguel Wickert

in Macs, Writing

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Flickr:Mosieur J

My new Macbook isn’t a year old and I still feels like I purchased it yesterday. What can I say? With a Mac, hopefully, it’s always a lasting magical experience. If you can’t relate don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you. It just means you need to join the family. Experience the best by leaving the worse- PC!

I’ve experimented with a lot of apps. Sadly, the research done in this area by me, at times,  goes overboard! Hours and hours, but that’s how we learn, from testing, interacting and so forth.

If you just bought a mac and don’t know where to begin, it’s okay, I was there. My aim with this post is to help you get started.

For writing projects: blog post, assignments and research. I use scrivener as my workhorse. The neat thing about scrivener, especially for research or short/long term projects, it keeps everything you need in one organized database. Recently, I’ve committed to becoming a minimalist. See Zenhabits.com for more and don’t forget to check out Leo’s recommended links.

Also, I’ve been playing with Macjournal. I hear that more blogger enjoy MacJournal. Download a trial version to see what you think. Ask yourself, with any application, is this essential? Or will it only be a source of distraction?

For minimalists,  no clutter is the name of the game. With Quicksilver dropping the dock is easy. Keeping the dock hidden helps to remove distraction, and if needed, it’s on the right side of the desktop with only the essential items (nine icons).

I found a note taking app called Notational Volocity and it’s FREE, plus it handy for quick reminders, todos or class notes if needed. This app is one of my favorite apps on the Mac. It’s lightweight, clean and easy to use. I discovered this app from a Mac Minimal blog. More more on minimalism see msmlist which is done by Leo of Zenhabits.

For secure online backup, dropbox (2GB free) may be the way to go. I also have an external hard drive but need to shop for a new one. I also have a Mobile Me account with Apple.

To prevent the screen from dimming or sleeping while writing, I turn to Caffeine. Ever need to copy multiple words or lines of text while online for later use without the headache? Say hello to JumpCut!

1Password makes life easy and is worth the investment. What about uninstalling app? AppCleaner handles that business for me. For email, I use two Gmail accounts: one for personal use and the other for website/social media.

I have more apps like Photoshop, Coda and the Hit List, but the apps mentioned above are most used.


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1 comment

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Barbara Griffin November 19, 2009 at 5:44 am

Hi there, couldn’t agree with you more about 1Password. I don’t know how I lived without it!
Another one I like is called IshowU HD. It’s not very expensive ($35-ish) and you can screen-capture just about everything. skype, youtube, make training videos, power points, etc.

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