Essential Mac Apps - Part 2
September, 11 2006 12:54 PM Filed in: Software
The full list is available here.
Office
Many of this group are "office apps" but as I said in Part 1, thinking about categories of apps is tricky because so many apps can be used in so many ways. For example, as much as I love using Pages for layout for print I also have used it for creating web graphics and logos. Export to pdf and open in Photoshop or Illustrator if you need to. Very handy! For print or web, Pages has become my publishing workhorse.
Page layout and word processing
As stated above, I use Pages for all sorts of tasks, page layout and word processing among them. I'll use word if I must but I'd rather use Pages or even the Apple freebie TextEditor which will save in the .doc format. Pages also saves into the .doc format and is fully featured. There are others out there as well, some of them ported to Mac compatibility, others on the way: NeoOffice, OpenOffice.
Presentation
Keynote is one of my favorite applications. I've not had much call to use it recently but should I need a presentation application this would be my first choice. Like Pages, it's younger sibling in the iWork suite, Keynote has enough export power to be useful beyond just presentations.
Spreadsheet
While I do have Microsoft Office on my iMac which has more hard drive space I've taken to the alternatives for my PowerBook. The perfect alternative to Excel is a new spreadsheet app, still in beta, called Tables. Not as full featured as Excel but for my minimal spreadsheet needs it's perfect. I'm still hoping Apple will introduce a spreadsheet application into the iWork suite, until then Tables will do.
Database
There is only one database application that really interests me and that is Filemaker Pro. There are others and a few years back I took a brief look at them just to see what was available. If you need a database I suggest FileMaker Pro as your first stop. It comes with a great set of templates to start with and, as I've said before, the folks at FileMaker have done a fantastic application that invites you in to explore, use, and develop.
Text Editor
My primary interest with text editing revolves around web development though I often use simple notes, along with iCal and Mail, to track project tasks. I've been hand coding websites since 1997 and I've tried many of these along the way. SubEthaEdit has been one of my favorites but these days I usually work solo so the sharing feature that I love so much is not of much use and as of this writing the application still lacks tabs for multiple documents. I must have tabs in my text editor. In fact, tabs are at the very top of the list. I've tried TextMate and like it but really it's a bit more than I need and I'm not too fond of the text. When I spend alot of time looking at text I want to choose a pleasing font and TextMate doesn't cut it. Smultron is my top choice and is running on my Mac everyday. Tabs, split view, templates, snippets, web page preview using the OS X WebKit, and excellent find/replace. Why pay for BBEdit or even the much less expensive TextMate?
Graphics
As I stated above, Pages is my workhorse. I've been using it to create a whole slew of graphics for small print projects and websites and it is a joy to use. For graphics that need to be optimized i can jump into Photoshop. I've even used Pages to create line art such as logos that can be exported into pdf and opened in Illustrator for further export to whatever format is needed.
Web Creation and Blogging
If the goal is easy and quick web development I'd go with RapidWeaver. I've also tried iWeb and Sandvox which both off to a good start but as version 1 apps they have plenty of problems and oddities. RapidWeavers been out for a while now and is at version 3.5. The maturity shows in the power and flexibility of the app. Beginners will find it easy to point and click their way to a new website using one of the built-in themes. Developers can customize the themes or build their own from the ground up. The MacProductive website you are viewing was built using RapidWeaver and a custom theme.
For blogging I wouldn't hesitate to suggest Ecto or MarsEdit. Both are great apps.
Video Players
Flip4Mac is a fantastic improvement for the playing of Windows Media right in Quicktime. No more need for Microsoft's cheesy player. VLC is great to have on hand as an alternative to Apple's Quicktime player. It will play almost anything you throw at it.
More coming soon in Part 3...
Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Mac Apps
Office
Many of this group are "office apps" but as I said in Part 1, thinking about categories of apps is tricky because so many apps can be used in so many ways. For example, as much as I love using Pages for layout for print I also have used it for creating web graphics and logos. Export to pdf and open in Photoshop or Illustrator if you need to. Very handy! For print or web, Pages has become my publishing workhorse.
Page layout and word processing
As stated above, I use Pages for all sorts of tasks, page layout and word processing among them. I'll use word if I must but I'd rather use Pages or even the Apple freebie TextEditor which will save in the .doc format. Pages also saves into the .doc format and is fully featured. There are others out there as well, some of them ported to Mac compatibility, others on the way: NeoOffice, OpenOffice.
- Pages
- Word
Presentation
Keynote is one of my favorite applications. I've not had much call to use it recently but should I need a presentation application this would be my first choice. Like Pages, it's younger sibling in the iWork suite, Keynote has enough export power to be useful beyond just presentations.
- Keynote
- Power Point
Spreadsheet
While I do have Microsoft Office on my iMac which has more hard drive space I've taken to the alternatives for my PowerBook. The perfect alternative to Excel is a new spreadsheet app, still in beta, called Tables. Not as full featured as Excel but for my minimal spreadsheet needs it's perfect. I'm still hoping Apple will introduce a spreadsheet application into the iWork suite, until then Tables will do.
- Tables
- Excel
Database
There is only one database application that really interests me and that is Filemaker Pro. There are others and a few years back I took a brief look at them just to see what was available. If you need a database I suggest FileMaker Pro as your first stop. It comes with a great set of templates to start with and, as I've said before, the folks at FileMaker have done a fantastic application that invites you in to explore, use, and develop.
Text Editor
My primary interest with text editing revolves around web development though I often use simple notes, along with iCal and Mail, to track project tasks. I've been hand coding websites since 1997 and I've tried many of these along the way. SubEthaEdit has been one of my favorites but these days I usually work solo so the sharing feature that I love so much is not of much use and as of this writing the application still lacks tabs for multiple documents. I must have tabs in my text editor. In fact, tabs are at the very top of the list. I've tried TextMate and like it but really it's a bit more than I need and I'm not too fond of the text. When I spend alot of time looking at text I want to choose a pleasing font and TextMate doesn't cut it. Smultron is my top choice and is running on my Mac everyday. Tabs, split view, templates, snippets, web page preview using the OS X WebKit, and excellent find/replace. Why pay for BBEdit or even the much less expensive TextMate?
- Smultron
- TextEdit
- TextMate
- SubEthaEdit
- BBEdit
Graphics
As I stated above, Pages is my workhorse. I've been using it to create a whole slew of graphics for small print projects and websites and it is a joy to use. For graphics that need to be optimized i can jump into Photoshop. I've even used Pages to create line art such as logos that can be exported into pdf and opened in Illustrator for further export to whatever format is needed.
Web Creation and Blogging
If the goal is easy and quick web development I'd go with RapidWeaver. I've also tried iWeb and Sandvox which both off to a good start but as version 1 apps they have plenty of problems and oddities. RapidWeavers been out for a while now and is at version 3.5. The maturity shows in the power and flexibility of the app. Beginners will find it easy to point and click their way to a new website using one of the built-in themes. Developers can customize the themes or build their own from the ground up. The MacProductive website you are viewing was built using RapidWeaver and a custom theme.
For blogging I wouldn't hesitate to suggest Ecto or MarsEdit. Both are great apps.
Video Players
Flip4Mac is a fantastic improvement for the playing of Windows Media right in Quicktime. No more need for Microsoft's cheesy player. VLC is great to have on hand as an alternative to Apple's Quicktime player. It will play almost anything you throw at it.
More coming soon in Part 3...
Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Mac Apps
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