Mac Software Roundup

At this writing, I’ve been using a MacBook Pro for about 15 months. Being the type of person I am, I constantly search for more efficient ways to do anything, and in the world of computers, I try a lot of software. Whiz-bang doesn’t do it for me, unless the whiz-bang in question increases my efficiency in some way. This document is a list of the software I have purchased and tried on the Mac, along with a short review of each program. I have purchased a license for each non-free program in this review. This is not an in-depth review. Rather, it is my subjective take on each program, along with a bit of background. Have fun!
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1Password: One of the first programs I bought after acquiring my Mac was 1Password. 1Password is a utility for keeping up with all your passwords and logins, and can be used to fill in forms on websites, including your credit card and personal information if you wish. I knew that I would need such a utility, and 1Password fills the bill wonderfully. It works unobtrusively, and you only need to remember one password. It is possible to set up web links in your browser to automatically find and log in to a website. You enter your master password once in a session, and it does the rest. 1Password is available from http://agilewebsolutions.com/ and costs $34.95 for a single-user license. Updates are fairly frequent, and the developers are quick to update it when OS X changes in a way that would affect it. I still rely on it daily. Five stars.
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AppZapper: an uninstall utility for the Mac (OS X). When you uninstall a program by dragging it’s icon to the trash, sometimes settings and other files are left on your disk. When you run AppZapper, it opens a small window and invites you to drag any program icon to it’s drop zone; then it finds the extraneous files, and shows you what it is going to delete if desired. It works as advertised. Not a big deal, but nice to have for $12.95. You can find it at www.appzapper.com. Five stars.
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Bento: Bento is a simple database program for people who don’t need the power of FileMaker. It works as advertised, is easy to use and learn, and I use it frequently in my work to keep up with most anything that needs a list. You can get it at www.filemaker.com for $49 for a single user license. I’ve suffered no failures of any sort. Printing support is pretty much a screen print, so it’s not great at generating reports; and export capabilities are pretty limited. It is a flat file database within which you can create collections, so if you need relational capabilities, go elsewhere. I give it 4 stars, deducting one due to the lack of report generating capability.
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DevonThink Pro: a personal information manager or database program. It is very capable; and I still use it for random data storage of information I might need on an infrequent basis. For instance, I frequently create a data item to hold the text of confirmation emails when I purchase something online. I like the way search displays results, and it is capable of searching inside PDF files. I have suffered no failures or problems. Having said all that, I don’t much care for the user interface, which I found confusing, and it has a bit of a learning curve; I don’t use this program frequently. You can get it at www.devon-technologies.com for about $79. I bought the Pro Office version for about $150.
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Ecto: Ecto is used to manage and upload blog postings. You can get it at http://infinite-sushi.com/software/ecto/ and it costs $17.95. I am not currently using this program (see MacJournal) but it does a good job and works as advertised. It makes it easy to post entries or revisions. One thing it doesn’t do is allow you to assign categories or topics to posts that show up on Blogspot, so if you want to do that you have to go in and add them later. I used Ecto for many months, before switching to MacJournal because I could combine my blogging and personal journal in that program. Ecto deserves 4 stars. It does everything it says it will do but needs to be able to handle categories.
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Google Earth: Google Earth is just about the coolest program you can download for free, and there are Windows and Mac versions available. It is a wonderful program that allows you to zoom around looking at the world in satellite photos with optional map information superimposed. Nifty zoom effects take you from one place to another, and you can search for an address or location and go directly to it. You can ‘tilt’ the display or look straight down at it. This is lots of fun - you will find geographical features right around your own home that you didn’t know were there. It can be useful, too; at work we sometimes use it to identify a field location for an employee who needs to find a job site. Recommended. Five Stars. Go to http://earth.google.com/
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IWork 08 is Apple’s office suite. For what you get, it’s a real bargain. I use Pages and Numbers fairly frequently, but have not needed Keynote. Pages is a pretty decent word processor, but I haven’t really stretched it’s legs. I use it for an occasional letter or fax, but so far nothing very lengthy. Also, it can open Microsoft Word’s DOC files, so far without fail. It works well for what I have done with it, and within those limits, there’s not much of a learning curve. Numbers is the spreadsheet program. It can load the majority of Excel spreadsheets except when they are protected, but there are some interesting side effects sometimes. In general, results are good, but don’t expect a perfect translation. One feature that I really like about Numbers is its ability to have multiple spreadsheets on the same page. This makes laying out complex forms a snap. In this one thing it is really great; in most other areas, Excel gets the edge in terms of ease of use. Having said that, it’s worth it to me to use Numbers just to keep from buying a Microsoft product. Especially when you compare prices. IWork 08 - $79 - directly from Apple. Four stars.
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Yojimbo: Yojimbo is a simple flat-file database that can accommodate many different kinds of information. If you don’t need much complexity, Yojimbo is a good program. You can create folders to put data in, but only one level deep - no nested folders. This limits its utility. In my day job, I track several projects at a time, and as one is completed new projects are started. The inability of Yojimbo to create sub-folders means that everything is in one long list of folders. Other than this, Yojimbo is a great program and may be just what you need. I still use it to capture PDF files which I create anytime I’m printing a receipt or something - Yojimbo has a good unobtrusive capture facility. Four stars. You can get it at http://www.bbedit.com/products/yojimbo/index.shtml and it costs $39. I wound up using SOHO Notes to do the job I bought Yojimbo to do; it does support nested folders.
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Journier: a pretty nice personal journal program. One of the things I like about it is the ability to put pictures in your journal. If you’re creating a journal that your kids will someday read, this is a pretty good program to use. However, I migrated my journal to MacJournal and no longer use Journier. This is not the fault of the program; it does a good job. Five stars. You can get it for $34.95 at http://journler.com/.
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LaunchBar: This is the handiest program launcher I’ve found. Besides launching programs, it can find files and contacts on your computer; you can drill down to your boss’s phone number, for instance. Hitting enter on an email launches an email to that contact; hitting enter on a phone number shows it in large type; absolutely excellent for quick access to this type of info, or to launch a program. You can get it at http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html and it costs $39. Highly recommended - five stars.
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MacJournal: This is my current favorite journal keeper and blog maintenance software. I’ve been using it a couple of months, and so far haven’t had any problems. It makes it easy to post to blogspot, and keep my personal journal in the same program. It has a nifty full-screen mode, as well. Five stars. http://www.marinersoftware.com/ for $34.95 download.
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MailSteward: a utility to archive all your email in a separate database. It works well with Mail, and can archive everything, or just the mailboxes or accounts you want. It has excellent search capability. If you worry about mail losing things over a long period of time, this is a good way to archive email. I’ve only been using it about a week, but so far it’s worked perfectly. Five stars. You can get it at http://mailsteward.com/ for $49.95.
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Notebook, from Circus Ponies, is one of the first personal information programs I bought for the Mac. It’s a great idea, but I don’t use it much anymore because I find the interface a bit clumsy for the type of information I mostly work with. It would be great for anything you’d keep in a notebook, but for keeping up with project data I find a more free-form method of storage works better for me. Four stars. You can get it at http://www.circusponies.com/ for $49.95.
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Omnifocus is an excellent program for task management. It is built around the Getting Things Done method, and it actually does work well if you use that methodology. I bought a copy and used it for a while, and I may go back to it in the future. My problem is not with the program - it’s just that I’ve not head great success adapting to the methodology, being set in my ways. If you use the Getting Things Done method, this is recommended. Four stars. You can get it at http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/ for $79.95.
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Parallels Desktop - virtual machine software for the Mac. I’m staying away from Windows as much as I can, but sometimes my work requires me to use specific software that isn’t available (directly) on the Mac. Parallels Desktop does an amazing job of allowing me to use my Mac instead of shifting to a Windows machine. I have Vista Business installed in a virtual machine in Parallels. Inside of that, I have certain engineering software installed, including my CAD software, Solid Edge; and I presently do all my CAD work in the virtual machine. I also do Windows program development using Delphi in that environment, for company projects which I maintain. It is amazing that Parallels is efficient enough to allow the use of this type of software. A major benefit is the ability to back up the entire virtual machine to offline storage- if Windows gets a virus, I just replace the virtual machine with the latest backup. Cool stuff. Five Stars. http://www.parallels.com/ for $79. This program made it practical for me to move to the Mac.
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Personal Brain is a personal information manager that is unique in its interface. Basically, you create thoughts which can hold text, or files. You create links to these thoughts. The thoughts float in space on the screen, with lines drawn between them representing the links. The relations you create are the real power of the program. For instance, I have a thought that is titled ‘where to get’ with many categories of purchased items linked below it. Click on one of them, for instance ‘flanges’ and see links to all the vendors from which I might purchase ‘flanges’. This works really well, and this is my primary management tool for my work. This is a very powerful program, and there are versions for the Mac and for Windows. Additionally, you can export your ‘brain’ to your network server and share it with your colleagues. Five Stars, highly recommended. You can get it at http://www.thebrain.com/ for FREE. THe paid version that I bought is $249.95 and I have found it well worth it.
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Quicksilver is similar to LaunchBar in terms of what it can do, but it can do more. Besides being a launcher and information finder, it is possible to process information in interesting ways using QuickSilver. I tried it, but went back to LaunchBar because I just find it more comfortable to use. Quicksilver has a steep learning curve. There probably is a real payoff there, but I didn’t use the advanced features often enough to set them in my memory; so I went back to LanchBar. QuickSilver is free, and you can get it at http://www.blacktree.com/ . If you can get past the learning curve, there’s something powerful there.
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Scrivener. Well, I’m composing this in Scrivener; what can I say? I haven’t tried every word processing program out there, but Scrivener has a unique (in my experience) way of allowing you to compose a complex document and put it all together. You don’t actually work with the formatting; instead, you create the parts of your document, pulling them in to the final document in any order you want. For instance, in this document, I have a sub-document for each program in the review. You don’t have to worry about formatting at all. When you’re done, you export your document to whatever other word processor you want to use for final formatting. This isn’t for jotting down notes or lists; this is for creating complex documents or screenplays, etc. I really like the approach, and it works well for me, for a posting such as the one you are reading. Recommended. Five Stars. You can get it at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/ for $39.95. I like it.
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SOHO Notes: SOHO Notes is a great note-taking application, and you can also store many types of files in it.. If you need a good, quick note taker, this will do the job. Very similar to Yojimbo, except it does support nested folders, a feature I find invaluable in my daily work. Recommended, I use it frequently. Five Stars. You can get it for $39.99 at http://www.chronosnet.com/ .
I don’t particularly recommend the related Organizer package - although it does have features to like, I find it clumsy and it doesn’t add that much to iCal and Address Book.
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TypeIt4Me is a nice little utility that allows you to create boilerplate, basically any text that you find yourself typing over and over. It works as advertised, but I’m about to remove it from my system because I really don’t use it much. I type so fast that by the time I remember that I have an entry in TypeIt4Me, I’ve already typed whatever it was. Since I only actually use it once or twice a week, I don’t see the need for it on my system. However, I do recommend it for you if you do a lot of repetitive typing, or if you think it would speed up your effective typing. It does work well as it is intended to work. Four stars. http://ettoresoftware.com/ for $27.
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VoodooPad is a program I purchased because I got interested in Wicki systems, or hypertext personal information systems. It’s an interesting program, and I occasionally go back to fool around with it. It could be used to set up a linked database of pretty much everything you know, if you take the time to create it. I am still interested in this way of getting at information, but I’m not actively using VoodooPad at this time. It exports to HTML, too, which might be useful. It is capable of doing the sort of thing I’m using Personal Brain for, but without the global view of the linkages that program gives you. It works well, so it gets four stars. You can get it at http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/ for about $30.
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In conclusion, there is a lot of really good software out there for the Mac. I tend to specialize in the sort of programs that will help me do my job better, and many of them are represented here. One thing I have noticed; generally speaking, Windows software is way more expensive than equivalent Mac software.

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