Taking it for Granted
I was a panelist on a recent edition of The Mac 20 Questions Round Table. Each of us was asked to select our favourite piece of software. As I sat in front of the microphone, awaiting my turn to speak, I frantically tried to think of what to choose and realised that I don’t have a favourite app.
There are, however, many apps that I find absolutely invaluable – to the point that I take them for granted. What I mean is that when I’m at work (I work for a very large company in a predominantly Windows environment where installing non-authorised software or connecting my MacBook to the network are sackable offences) I find myself constantly saying ” I’m sure my working day would be so much easier and productive if I could just have xxxx”. (Substitute xxxx for any number of applications).
So what are these “to-die-for” apps? I’m not talking about mega-priced apps like Photoshop or Dreamweaver (though when you’re stuck with Microsoft Photo Editor and FrontPage these are very appealing). Most of the apps are either free or inexpensive. Some of these apps are Mac only and some I’m sure have Windows equivalents.
Caffeine – a tiny program that puts an icon in the menu bar. Click it once to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to disable it. Our corporate screensaver is set to kick-in after only 10 minutes (this cannot be changed) and as a trainer, I deliver both virtual and live (i.e. classroom based) training sessions, often spending more time talking than demonstrating. Consequently I have to remember to wiggle the mouse regularly otherwise my audience (especially on virtual courses) are constantly interrupted by the screensaver and the automatic locking of the PC.
1Password – a password manager that provides, amongst other things, automatic web form-filling. So I go to a website that has a login form (for example the admin login page for my blog) and I click the 1Password icon on my browser’s toolbar (or use a keyboard shortcut) and, providing the username and password are stored in the encrypted 1Password database, it logs me in. No more forgotten passwords. If the login details are not in the database, 1Password allows me to add them. There is an iPhone version, which syncs with my iMac. Although this doesn’t integrate with the browser (it’s really just a secure database of login ID’s and passwords) it does mean that I have my passwords available at all times.
A Clipboard Manager. How often have you copied something only to find that you need it a few minutes later but you’ve already copied another item? What you need is a Clipboard Manager. There are several Clipboard Managers for both Mac and Windows. I currently use PTHPasteboard. However at work, if I know that I need to store multiple copied items, I’m afraid it’s a copy of Notepad (and that only works with text).
Default Folder – provides additional functionality to the Open and Save dialog boxes. If you regularly use the same folders you can set up favourite folders. When the Open or Save dialog box is displayed, you simply click an icon and a list of these folders are displayed for quick access. Another great feature of Default Folder is the ability to save a file to an open Finder window with a single click.
Finally, screengrabbing software. I really miss the built-in functionality of OSX (cmd/Shift/3 and cmd/shift/4). At work I am reduced to pressing PrintScreen and editing it with Microsoft Photo Editor!!
May 14th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
[...] I’ve been coding up some new ideas and shuttling Ben back from Vanderbilt (speaking of Ben, keep an eye out for an AWESOME new iPhone app at gotow.net…). Meanwhile, there have been a couple of good mentions of Default Folder X out there: Mike Thomas at mthomas.co.uk lists Default Folder X as one of his “to-die-for” apps [...]