Useful MAC Apps and Hardware [Ongoing Updates]
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I wouldn't know what to do without Quicksilver! It's a keyboard-shortcut launching app thingy. But it makes launching apps, opening folders and all sorts of stuff just a few key strokes away!
I'd second the vote for Skitch. Awesome screen cap with the easy web-upload for fast sharing.
For those interested in Open Office, I use the Neo-Office flavor. It's a mac-native port of Open Office and runs nicer and interfaces seamlessly with OSX.
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@mike lucey said:
Its iCombiner (The Mac way to merge PDFs and images).... I can now get the loose screen grabs and bits and pieces into one PDF just by dragging and dropping them into iCombiner.
MikeYou know you can do those things via Preview's sidebar?
You can shuffle around pages within a pdf, between pdfs, delete some pages from pdf, drop an entire pdf file into another's sidebar, drop JPGs and other images into sidebar so that they become part of that pdf files instantly.
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Thanks Takesh, I've never explored Preview in depth and now that I have, I find its got a lot of useful features to hand.
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Hi Guys,
I've just checked out Ortelius. It looks to be a cool map creation application I can see it being useful to members that deal with Google Maps. http://www.mapdiva.com/
Check out the three short tut vids here http://www.mapdiva.com/learn/ to get a quick overview. The price is very reasonable also
, $79!
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Snow Leopard Compatibility List
This is quite a comprehensive list of Apps that work with Snow Leopard. I came across it when checking up on Afloat and a few others 'strange but useful' apps that I use before ordering Snow Leopard.
Mike
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New 3D PDF Plugin! While I was able to do this on the Mac running SU under BootCamp I was hoping that I would see a Mac app and now we have one. I had a bug on installation (would not work) but Ashraf fixed it in double quick time. I will find this really useful for Clients viewing / exploring models on their own computers without having the need to download SU Viewer. Also I can protect my copyright! I have sent a building model to a client yesterday and the client was very pleased to be able to explore the model for himself. I can see this being very useful for sending models to Planning Authority people also. While renders, stills and movies are great, I think the 'model in your hand' does a better job of getting the idea across.
There is a Pro version and a Free version. The free version shows the vendors site address.
Simulation Lab Software http://www.simlab-soft.com released a new 3D PDF Plug-in for Google SketchUp 7.
The new plug-in is supported on Windows and Mac.
It allows the user to create interactive 3D PDF files from the Google SketchUp environment.
Fully functional free version is available at http://www.simlab-soft.com/3d-plugins/3D-PDF-from-sketchup-main.aspxMike
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Hi Guys,
I just stumbled across Paperclip by Concentrate Software http://www.fromconcentratesoftware.com/ Sometimes the really simple apps prove to be the most useful and I think Paperclip could be one of these. I often find that after taking a screen shot I leave the .jpeg on the Desktop for a while. When I come back to the .jpeg I ofter wonder what I had intended to use it for. Well, with Paperclip I can attach a 'note' in one click and the note stays with the .jpeg or any item. Its not free but good value I think as it saves a lot of time and helps keep things tidy.
On the Concentrate Software site you will find Share & Site Tagger also. I have not tried these out yet but if they are as usfull as Paperclip I will be using them. In any case its worth visiting for the free 'Countdown' app.
Mike
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A really cool free app that is very useful for SCF users!
Skitch
http://skitch.com/It basically grabs your screen, or selection and then has a great set of tools to annotate these images.
Check out the video, it does more than I mentioned and seems to be a very cool piece of software. -
@edson said:
i recently came across Freeway (http://www.softpress.com/index.php), a web design app for people who do not wish to learn coding. i had a look at their videos and got the impression it is better than iWeb and RapidWeaver, the two apps that do the same. there are two version, express and pro, as well as educationnal licenses.
i apologise for quoting myself but i just wanted to report that i bought freeway and used it to revamp my website. it is all we thought it was and more. it is extremely easy to use, their support is great (videos, forum and tech team) and there is a good number of outside developers who produce add-ons for it. i could not be happier with it.
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@unknownuser said:
A really cool free app that is very useful for SCF users!
Skitch
http://skitch.com/It basically grabs your screen, or selection and then has a great set of tools to annotate these images.
Check out the video, it does more than I mentioned and seems to be a very cool piece of software.dylan,
very cool indeed.
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@chrisjk said:
I looked for ages to find a decent file comparison tool (for editing purposes) and then found DiffMerge which is free and works very well.
A good freebie editor with syntax highlighting is Smultron and although the author is not developing it further, it's still available here.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for posting
I've been looking for something like Smultron to use learning Ruby for SU for ages... it looks a to be perfect replacement for Xcode.
Do you use it for SU rubies? and if so would you mind sharing your settings (as there's so much choice)
The main things I'm not sure about is the Encoding Pref's, I don't fully understand their role
do I just leave as default or can 'Saves' be made more Mac/PC/SU 'friendly'?
john
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Hi John,
I have only started playing a bit with Ruby - when I get the time, I am following a couple of basic primers. I have used Smultron for this but I also have Textmate and tend to use that (it's not a free editor however).
Like most editors, you can change the syntax colours as you wish, I find it useful to change the colours to match those used in whatever textbook/example I am trying to learn from. There is apparently a Ruby standard but I haven't found too many folk using it! The Syntax definitions are picked up by Smultron according to the file extension unless you wish to override this by picking the "always Use" and one of the many language choices. I use the automatic choice setting and it works well for me.
The Encodings is similar in usage to Syntax definitions - let Smultron do its thing or tell it to always default to some particular encoding. I just use the default setting. Unicode UTF-8 is understood and displayed correctly by most modern programs, web browsers etc. and that is the fall back if Smultron can't figure out which encoding is in use. The default settings will work fine for all the SU plugin rubies, web pages in html etc.
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I had to slip this one in, if it hadn't already been mentioned;
It's for iPhone rather than Mac, but I'm finding this app rather useful at the moment!
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@tfdesign said:
I had to slip this one in, if it hadn't already been mentioned;
It's for iPhone rather than Mac, but I'm finding this app rather useful at the moment!
Got to thank you for that one Tom.
What a fantastic App. Simple, but a great idea and so well executed
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Cheers Dylan.
I noticed the VLC player was mentioned a few times. Personally I'm not a fan of the VLC, I much prefer Chroma, which is far more slick!
chromaplayer.com
This domain may be for sale!
(chromaplayer.com)
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@tfdesign said:
Cheers Dylan.
I noticed the VLC player was mentioned a few times. Personally I'm not a fan of the VLC, I much prefer Chroma, which is far more slick!
chromaplayer.com
This domain may be for sale!
(chromaplayer.com)
I agree on VLC, and not just because it's french, chroma does look very good...
I give this site a rating it saves a lot of digging......
http://www.usingmac.com/2009/7/29/85-useful-free-mac-apps-for-designers
this is one of many useful pages
http://www.usingmac.com/2009/1/15/unveiling-hidden-os-x-shortcutsjohn
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I've recently started using MacDraft again, so I've really got to champion MicroSpot's MacDraft Pro once more. I bought this MacDraft some years back, and never really used it, because I was lazy and didn't want to use a single button mouse again. But MacDraft really is something special, and it is very cheap too (at the moment, if bought from other distributors). MacDraft is very fast in Snow Leopard too.
There is also a Windows version too- which is very useful!
MacDraft Professional | Powerful 2D CAD, drafting, technical illustration and more for Mac | Microspot Ltd.
Sketch, draw, layout and present. The ultimate 2D CAD software from start to finish. Native to macOS, built with the latest technologies and designed for the future, MacDraft is a feature-rich 2D CAD software for architects, engineers and construction services as well as professional CAD users, designers, educators and hobbyists.
(www.microspot.com)
PC Draft Professional | Powerful 2D CAD, drafting, technical illustration and more for Windows | Microspot Ltd.
PC Draft Professional is the 2D CAD app that makes floor & garden plan design, architectural drawing and technical illustration easy on Windows. Create precise and professional 2D CAD drawings in moments, with this easy-to-use, powerful and affordable drafting application. With its precise vector tools, smart units and fully-featured scaled environment PC Draft is designed to deliver an easy to use solution, without having to spend hours and hours learning how to use more complicated software.
(www.microspot.com)
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If, like me, you look at the ruby code this is fantastichttp://www.usingmac.com/2008/10/29/time-saver-quicklook-plugins
it's from the same site I posted yesterday but is so fast and useful I thought it was worth highlighting
maybe it's been mentioned before, but I haven't seen it...
john
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