Software for Mac

If you're running multiple boxen, I'd have multiple monitors, too, but you can likely use a keyboard switcher for at least two of them, so you can use a shared keyboard and mouse.

I would strongly urge you to use a Mac keyboard; you WILL need the Mac Command key; it isn't on other keyboards, and it's used a lot.

Software: There's the Office suite of course, and OpenOffice or one of the forks that are derived from it.

I quite like Pages, but publishers really do want to use Track Changes in MSWord, and it mostly works, but not perfectly if you don't have MSWord.

I adore the iLife suite from Apple. Really really like it all except iWeb which is stupid.

Free software:

FireFox, and Chrome for browsers.

DropBox for file sharing.

TextWrangler from BareBones for ASCII text editing, cleaning up files, etc. I adore the paid sibling--BBEdit Pro for programming and HTML.

Bean is a very stripped down free .rtf wordprocessor; it's rather nice. Does word counts in a convenient way.

Don't overlook the stuff that's on your Mac already; AppleScript and Actions are amazing productivity tools. Mail.app is a better than decent mail program.

Dave.C.Robinson said:

Thanks

I was already looking at a Mac keyboard, though I think the price on the base model's somewhere between high and extortionate. (The wireless one seems reasonably priced for what you get, but that's more than I want to pay before deciding whether to shift fully over.) The keyboard may turn out to be a problem, there don't seem to be a lot of options for ergonomic Mac keyboards.

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There really aren't, not that are affordable.

Were I you, I'd pick up a Mac USB keyboard used.

Medievalist said:

I would strongly urge you to use a Mac keyboard; you WILL need the Mac Command key; it isn't on other keyboards, and it's used a lot.

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The Windows key works as the Command key on non-Mac keyboards. Just plugged in a $10 Logitech USB keyboard to test it out and make sure.

If you go for a non-Apple keyboard, just remember "Windows button"="Command" and "Alt"="Option".

DropBox for file sharing.

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Seconded. Perfect for online backup.

For office/word processing, there's OpenOffice and Bean for free. I like Pages in iWork, but it's paid-for. And of course, there's Word and MS Office for Mac.

Additionally, for movie playback, you'll want to get either the Perian plugin for Quicktime or install VLC. Both are free.

Safari, Firefox, and Chrome are really all pretty good. You can't go wrong with any of them.

May I introduce you to Synergy?

It's a free software that lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, without special hardware. All you need is a LAN connection. It's intended for users with multiple computers, where each system uses its own display. (Yeah, I c&p from the official site )

I'm using it; it's life-saver, and I wrote about it here.

If you decide to buy a Mac keyboard, you can probably use it full time -- I used to use my Mac keyboard with my PC when I needed one. You just need to remember how the keys map. (Command becomes the Start key, as I recall, and I think alt and control swap places.)

For writing, I love Scrivener. There's now a PC version, but it's about two years behind the Mac version, and the new 2.0 for Mac is very shiny. Cost: $45 and worth every penny.

VoodooPad is hard to describe, but it's a text editor that lets you make your own hyperlinked documents, so instead of a bunch of individual documents, you have one big cluster. Think of it like your own personal wiki. I use it to keep notes for future projects, random story ideas, books I want to read, etc. Cost: free.

VLC is a media player that just works. If you've ever had to fiddle around with codecs on your PC, trying to get a weird media file to play in WMP, you will love VLC. Cost: free.

Quicksilver is a programme launcher. Hit your designated hot keys (I use command + space), type the first letter or two of the programme or file you're looking for, and Quicksilver brings up a list. Quicksilver is one of those little programmes that melds seemlessly into daily life; if I'm ever on somebody else's Mac that doesn't have it installed, I miss it dearly. Cost: free.

Adium is a very Mac-like IM programme that handles all the major protocols like AIM, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, Jabber, etc. Cost: free.

YummyFTP is a powerful FTP programme. I've tried many different ones over the years, but this is my favourite. Cost: Around $20?

AppDelete addresses what's still a strange oversight with Apple's Finder: deleting a programme is easy (drag it to the trash) but it doesn't remove all the file associated with it. AppDelete attempts to do this. Cost: $5.

There are probably better VNC programmes than Chicken of the VNC, but none has a more awesome name or icon. Cost: free.

Apple has some good built-in programmes, too.

• Apple Mail is a solid mail programme.
• iCal (calendar) and Address Book are simple but handy. Both sync nicely with the iPhone, if you have one.
• iTunes is a pretty good music player and organiser, though it doesn't support FLAC.
• Preview is so much better than Adobe Reader for PDFs it's not funny.
• Time Machine is an automated back-up programme. It's not perfect -- if your computer stops working and you want to get a file out of Time Machine it whilst it's being repaired, you can't -- but it makes backing up a breeze. I still back up critical documents (my writing, etc) with other methods, but for a daily backup of everything on your system, it's hard to beat.
• Safari is a blazingly fast browser that's let down by one big issue: it doesn't remember your open tabs if it crashes. (Supposedly you can find an extension to make it do this but I couldn't get it to work.) So I would recommend Firefox.

Incidentally, Flash is way worse on the Mac than on the PC. It's a huge resource hog and I swear it still causes memory leaks, despite what Adobe says. Install Flashblock or ClickToFlash and set your browsers for HTML5 playback wherever possible.

Enjoy your new Mac!

Cheers.

Georgina said:

Safari is a blazingly fast browser that's let down by one big issue: it doesn't remember your open tabs if it crashes. (Supposedly you can find an extension to make it do this but I couldn't get it to work.) So I would recommend Firefox.

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The extension worked for me, but I've since uninstalled it since the one I found didn't give me a choice whether to restore my session or not. You can also go to History->Restore All Windows from Previous Session (which restores your tabs too), which is what I usually do.

Incidentally, Flash is way worse on the Mac than on the PC. It's a huge resource hog and I swear it still causes memory leaks, despite what Adobe says. Install Flashblock or ClickToFlash and set your browsers for HTML5 playback wherever possible.

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Click2Flash is great.

kuwisdelu said:

You can also go to History->Restore All Windows from Previous Session (which restores your tabs too), which is what I usually do.

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Ooh, I had no idea about that. I just tried it and it worked beautifully. Thank you!

Cheers.

Georgina said:

Ooh, I had no idea about that. I just tried it and it worked beautifully. Thank you!

Cheers.

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One other nifty Safari feature I like is Cmd + Z to undo closing a tab, to bring it back.

One of the problems running 64-bit Safari in Snow Leopard though is it's quite the RAM hog, so if you're low on memory (my 2007 MacBook only has 3.3GB) it can eat up a lot and slow down the system if you need to launch another RAM-hungry application. A trick I've found is if you secondary-click Safari in the Finder, choose Get Info, and set it to open in 32-bit mode, it'll use much less RAM.

I've been trying Scrivener for a week and am going to buy it as soon as I have the cash. It combines all the features I love about Pages with SO many other things. Try it for free. All Mac software is so intuitive a free trial is worth it. You really only spend a tiny bit of time fiddling around with it before you are flying.

OHM is a free program that is kind of fun. Google it.

kuwisdelu said:

One other nifty Safari feature I like is Cmd + Z to undo closing a tab, to bring it back.

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That's actually a system-wide thing; basically, all a developer has to do is put a checkmark in a box to get "Undo."

It goes back to the second version, ever, of the Mac OS.

Pretty much any action that has not been followed by an action, is undoable by Command-z; it's still referred to as the "Oh Shit" key amongst us geezers.

I bought a Macbook Air last night (mostly for Scrivener!) and it's awesome. With the exception of having to Google how to do things (the lack of home and end buttons initally threw me).

Any other cool key shortcuts that you guys would recommend? I'm committing command+z to memory as we speak!

Tifferbugz said:

I bought a Macbook Air last night (mostly for Scrivener!) and it's awesome. With the exception of having to Google how to do things (the lack of home and end buttons initally threw me).

Any other cool key shortcuts that you guys would recommend? I'm committing command+z to memory as we speak!

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There's a lot of good built in Help. I'd browse that.

Go to the Desktop. You should see on the far left a menu named Finder.

To the right of that is a Help menu.

The menu has a search option, and one that says Mac Help.

Browse that; it's pretty useful

Medievalist said:

There's a lot of good built in Help. I'd browse that.

Go to the Desktop. You should see on the far left a menu named Finder.

To the right of that is a Help menu.

The menu has a search option, and one that says Mac Help.

Browse that; it's pretty useful

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Will do, thanks!

Don't mind me twitching over here while I'm stuck at work with my boring Dell.

Tifferbugz said:

I bought a Macbook Air last night (mostly for Scrivener!) and it's awesome. With the exception of having to Google how to do things (the lack of home and end buttons initally threw me).

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Typing from my 3.5-year-old white MacBook, I haz a powerful jealous.

You've probably found out by now, but fn + arrow keys are home/end/page-up/page-down. Also, Cmd + up and Cmd + down takes you to the top or bottom of a document. Cmd + left and Cmd + right will take you to the beginning or end of a line. Option + left/right moves your cursor over word-by-word.

Any other cool key shortcuts that you guys would recommend? I'm committing command+z to memory as we speak!

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My most used........

Cmd + Q = quits an app
Cmd + W = closes the current window
Cmd + H = hides the current app

I recommend memorizing these, particularly since closing all the active windows doesn't close the application like it does on Windows. Most apps will remain running without any open windows. This is often convenient when multi-tasking but confuses many new Mac users.

Cmd + Tab = like Alt + Tab in Windows, but only cycles through the open apps
Cmd + ` = like Alt + Tab, but only cycles through the windows for the current app

Screenshots:

Cmd + Shift + 3 = whole screen
Cmd + Shift + 4 = drag a box around what you want a screenshot of
Cmd + Shift +4, then spacebar = screenshot of whichever window you click

Easily launch apps and system-wide search:

Cmd + Space = Spotlight, i.e., the magnifying glass in the top-right corner. Windows 7 finally has system-wide search in the Start menu. Spotlight is like that if you've used Windows 7, but faster and more mature since it's been there for longer. Also useful for quick arithmetic.

A good one for a writer:

Cmd + Ctrl + D when your mouse is hovered over any word looks up that word in the system's dictionary.

A few other differences... you need to do Cmd + Delete to delete a file in the Finder instead of just delete. Also in Finder, enter/return will let you rename the file. To open a folder, program, or file, you need to do Cmd + O (for open ).

Lastly, Cmd + Option + Esc = force quit menu.

Oh wow, that's a lot of help. Thanks! The whole closing the window not closing the app thing had me a bit befuddled last night. Yay for short cut keys. I'll be printing out your post now to reference tonight. I'll be fiddling with it while I should be writing I'm sure. Thank you again!

There are keyboard short cuts for just about everything. When you check out the help, there's a screen you can print out that lists them.

Also--check out the System Preferences, and the Finder preferences.

And create a second account via System Preferences / Accounts that has Admin privs that you DO NOT USE.

This account is for disaster recovery, and for determining if a problem is software or hardware based, not to be used otherwise.

Medievalist said:

I would strongly urge you to use a Mac keyboard; you WILL need the Mac Command key; it isn't on other keyboards, and it's used a lot.

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Actually, it is. Command uses the same Extended Key Code that the Windows key does on Windows keyboards, so on a non-Mac keyboard you can use the Windows key in place of the ⌘ key.

Annoyingly, however, Mac keyboards and Windows keyboards reverse the position of Alt/Command or Alt/Windows, so muscle memory will trip you up since Command-Tab is used like Alt-Tab in Windows. You CAN, however, tell a Mac to use Alt as Command and Windows key as Alt, which is how I use my Logitech (Windows-setup) keyboard on my Mac Pro.

As for software recommendations... as mentioned above, Scrivener. Also Scrivener, Scrivener and Scrivener. And did I mention Scrivener? Joking aside, Scriv is one of the handful of programs that lives on my USB 'set up a new Mac' thumb drive, along with VirusBarrier X, Evernote, TextWrangler and a few workflow apps I just can't live without. (For instance, the quick-launch tool Butler, or the Skitch inline image editor.)

If you are getting an Apple Magic Mouse, I also highly recommend jiTouch, which lets you set up additional multitouch gestures. I use it a LOT, to the point that it's part of my operative muscle-memory and I always feel lost when I'm on a Mac without it. ("What? I can't just swipe my fingers this way to close that tab in Safari? I can't tap this way to shift from tab to tab? WAAAAAUGH!")

Help!

I googled this but everything I see to try doesn't seem to work. Anyone know how to rename your folder that holds all of your document, picture, etc. folders? It defaults to the username that the Mac is setup with. My boyfriend did it before I got home and he misspelled my name. It's driving me nuts to see 'Tiffnay' every time I look in my folder list. I fixed it in the address book, etc., but I can't figure out how to change the folder name.

Anyone have any ideas? I don't want to have to reinstall Snowleopard because this is driving me nuts.

Thank you all! I appreciate any help with this typo that cannot be fixed. As does my boyfriend as it may save him from a swift kick in the butt (or not).

AlexPiper said:

As for software recommendations... as mentioned above, Scrivener. Also Scrivener, Scrivener and Scrivener. And did I mention Scrivener? Joking aside, Scriv is one of the handful of programs that lives on my USB 'set up a new Mac' thumb drive, along with VirusBarrier X, Evernote, TextWrangler and a few workflow apps I just can't live without. (For instance, the quick-launch tool Butler, or the Skitch inline image editor.)

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I'm sorry but this post did not mention how awesome Scrivener is quite enough. It's awesome.

Tifferbugz said:

I googled this but everything I see to try doesn't seem to work. Anyone know how to rename your folder that holds all of your document, picture, etc. folders? It defaults to the username that the Mac is setup with. My boyfriend did it before I got home and he misspelled my name. It's driving me nuts to see 'Tiffnay' every time I look in my folder list. I fixed it in the address book, etc., but I can't figure out how to change the folder name.

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Ah, the home directory. Renaming that will be... uhm. Well, Apple has an article on it, but it's generally not recommended on any UNIX-based system to rename your home directory, especially since generally you'll need to recreate the user to go with it to avoid breaking some software.

I'm guessing you'll need to recreate the user anyway, since if he set up the account with the name misspelled you'll want to correct it to start with.

Tifferbugz said:

Help!

I googled this but everything I see to try doesn't seem to work. Anyone know how to rename your folder that holds all of your document, picture, etc. folders? It defaults to the username that the Mac is setup with. My boyfriend did it before I got home and he misspelled my name. It's driving me nuts to see 'Tiffnay' every time I look in my folder list. I fixed it in the address book, etc., but I can't figure out how to change the folder name.

Anyone have any ideas? I don't want to have to reinstall Snowleopard because this is driving me nuts.

Thank you all! I appreciate any help with this typo that cannot be fixed. As does my boyfriend as it may save him from a swift kick in the butt (or not).

Click to expand...

Eep! It's called your home folder. Do not keep trying that without reading Apple's support docs on it. Lots of people have mucked up their installation by renaming their home folder without making sure all their permissions will remain intact.

Do what Alex says:

AlexPiper said:

Ah, the home directory. Renaming that will be... uhm. Well, Apple has an article on it, but it's generally not recommended on any UNIX-based system to rename your home directory, especially since generally you'll need to recreate the user to go with it to avoid breaking some software.

I'm guessing you'll need to recreate the user anyway, since if he set up the account with the name misspelled you'll want to correct it to start with.

Click to expand...

Make sure to follow along with that support doc. It isn't hard, but it is a delicate operation, due to the way Unix operating systems work.