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20+ Free Productivity Booster Apps for Mac

Lacking of productivity applications will slow down our workflow and consume more time, even though we've already purchased a Mac. Using only built-in Mac applications, we can neither get the most out of our Mac nor boost our productivity.

In this article, we've compiled several free applications for Mac OS X (including application launcher, easy note-taker application, data backup tool, data sharing utility, etc) that can significantly boost your productivity.

Let us know which one is your favorite!

Stunning Mac Setups 3: The Minimalist Effect

It's an undeniable fact that minimalist mac setups can draw our productivity to its fullest. Some of my favorites mac setups are those with clean, big desk supported by comfortable lighting condition.

If you want to decorate your cubicle or even turn it to be your productivity workplace, these setups will give you some inspirations to start with.

Free Mac To-do List Managers

There are numbers of To-do List Managers available for your Mac: from to-do list managers that adopt minimalism to those that provide feature-rich services, from those with expensive pricing tags to those set as donation wares.

Though many prefer commercial apps that are assumed to be complete in feature, I personally feel like to explore free apps that sometimes can be used to substitute those commercial ones.

Some free to-do list managers listed below will help you in saving your pocket money as well as getting things done…

100+ Free Applications for Mac OS X

Most of the time, Windows users are reluctant to switch to a Mac. One amongst many reasons is that they found it hard to search for free softwares/applications for the Mac. Some of them have already switched to a Mac, but they're still running Windows OS on a Mac.

It's such an irony that actually there are mountains of free Mac applications available for us. After days of working on this, I've come out with list of free and useful Mac applications.

I've categorized and arranged the order of applications so that it will be extremely easy for you to find applications you need for your Mac.

Continue reading and you will see fabulous list of 100+ Free Mac OS X Applications!

45 Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Firefox

People are just getting more and more enthusiastic to set Firefox 3 as their default web browser - including Mac users. And you should be one of them, which most of the time spend your time surfing around the web.

This surfing activities could be really frustrating if you heavily depend on your mouse. I highly recommend you to get your hand away from your mouse and start to practice mouse-less browsing with your keyboard, i.e. using keyboard shortcuts.

It won't spend you more than an hour to have a glance and practice some of these Firefox shortcuts that I've compiled. I also include keyboard shortcuts for Windows Firefox to emphasize on the idea that it's not that hard to adapt yourself to new Mac environment, especially for new Mac switchers.

You will also want to see my previous keyboard shortcuts compilation :

Continue reading and you will see a list of 45 Firefox shortcuts!

Mac Application Launchers

Most Mac users feel that Application launcher is the most essential Application for them to install. Application launcher can save our valuable Dock spaces and assist us in boosting our productivity.

There are several application launchers available on the net. They have their own uniqueness, advantages and disadvantages. I am sure you will stick to one Application launcher, just like other power Mac users.

But for the very first time, you need to choose amongst many Application launchers, which one you love the most.

40 Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Finder

As the price of MacBooks are getting cheaper and cheaper while the design and specs of new arriving MacBooks (and the Pros) are getting more and more advanced, I believe they should be a lot of computer users are switching to Mac - including my friends, who are planning to switch.

Most of them will worry about the unfamiliar environment of the Mac they're going to migrate to. But what could I say is that, no need to worry too much, it only spends you less than three-day time to master the Mac.

Also it only takes you less than 30-minute time to see, try and familiarize with these Finder shortcuts. I believe you will also want to see my previous shortcuts compilation :

Continue reading and you will see a list of 40 Finder shortcuts!

Modifier Keys and Their Impact on Keyboard Shortcuts

If you want to become a Mac power user, you should first remember some essential keyboard shortcuts. These most commonly used Mac shortcuts alone can cost you a hell lot of time to remember them.

Luckily, most of the shortcuts are derived by adding modifier key to the initial shortcut. These initial shortcuts are easy to remember and shorter than their derivation (i.e. addition of Option, Control, Shift, etc). With only half of your work, you can get your productivity double-up; It sounds like iPhone ads: Twice as Fast. Half the Price.

I also have included some nifty tricks to give you an idea on how you can intuitively apply this to your daily needs.

Stunning Mac Setups 2: Youngsters Edition

Last time, I've collected some Stunning Mac Setups from people around the world. Recently, I landed on a forum where some youngsters are discussing and posting their Mac setups.

Maybe some of you are curious, how fortunate youngsters out there are? Or maybe, how unlucky we adults are? I got my first Mac G5 on my nineteenth.

Here we present, 30 youngsters Mac setups!

Open PDF Link in Preview

If you've installed Adobe Reader, you'd notice that everytime you click a link containing PDF files, that file will automatically be opened in another browser tab with Adobe Reader instead of Preview.

And some Mac users don't like this behavior because Adobe Reader is more likely to crash than our lovely Preview. How to revert this opening PDF link behavior to its original, i.e. open PDF link in Preview?

Stunning Mac Setups

Sometimes, we should spend our time to setup our workplace. Nice setup can be used not only for showing off to your friends but also for increasing our productivity and motivation.

After jump, you will see a lot of nice Mac setups from people around the world. Hope you can gain some inspirations on how to make another stunning Mac setup.

Display - Hot Corners

In Tiger, Expose is very essential feature that most of Mac user need. Upgrading to Leopard, you also get the access to more Spaces. To use these great features easily, you could use Hot Corners.

Hot Corners

Hot corners help you activate one of those features whenever you move your mouse to the corner of the screen. And you can easily set up your hot corners. How to set up hot corners?

Setting Hot Corners

First of all, go inside Apple ▸ System Preferences… Go to your search box, the one with magnifier at the left, and type in "hot corner" to look for this feature. You will see 2 items highlighted. Choosing either one has the same result.

Mac Tablet Computing

Axiotron ModBook

Axiotron Modbook is a tablet Mac which is retrieved by modifying MacBook. The ModBook is not designed for the masses, but that’s precisely why Apple hasn’t made a tablet Mac. Axiotron is authorized Apple solution provider. Apple is approving, even though it's not actually supporting. Maybe sooner or later, Apple will take part in the good market share for this kind of niche product solution, who knows?. You can read the forum to find out more about this cool device.

Hidden Preference Panes for Mac OS X

Preference panes are dynamically loaded plug-ins that provide a graphical user interface to the system’s or an application’s user preferences - Apple

In System Preferences, each icon represents an individual preference pane plug-in which can be used to change or modify the setting for each application.
Most of preference panes contain generally used application. We can also create our own preference panes that will be able to be used by System Preferences or even by your application. The link above contains the details, if you're interested.

PrefPane 1

Multi-Touch Mac

MacBook Air got multi-touch trackpad as well as new release of MacBook Pro. What are those kinds of touch?

Apple Official Website

Go to the official website and look inside MacBook Pro section; Scrolling down a bit, you will see small title Multi-Touch meets MacBook Pro. Clicking on the image, you will be brought to brief illustration of all of those available trackpad Gestures.

Stack Drawer - Cleaning Desktop

Not restricted to decorating your Dock, customizing stack drawer can also improve your productivity. Let's see how it can be done.

After reading article on LifeClever by Chanpory Rith entitled "How to Organize Your Cluttered Desktop and Regain Your Sanity", which talk about creating specific folder to organize your cluttered Desktop, I realize one thing : I am still too lazy to organize those cluttered files. Fortunately, I've several fancy drawer icons which could be used to attract my attention so that I can gladly place my files into those folders.

Set Alarm with Quicksilver and Automator

In my article, Two Secret Features of Quicksilver, I've discussed how to use Quicksilver to set a delay before running application.

Roughly, I believe you've already known how to create automator application to speak text which have been discussed here. In case you don't want to waste your time creating the application, I've created an application to only speak up "Time's up!" when it's launched; It can be downloaded here.

Productivity Tricks : Open Files

As far as I know, there are five effective ways to open our files with an application.

Open from Application

This way is usually used by not only Mac users but also Mac switchers where it helps you focusing on what you're aiming for and what kind of files you're going to process instead of pushing you down with pile of choices. Keystrokes used for this action is Command-O by default (yes, you can set it. Feel free to refer back here for reviewing on "How to Edit Existing Application Shortcuts").

100 Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Creating Symbols

These shortcuts are for U.S. Keyboard as input source.

Warning

Some of these symbols cannot be seen.

Let's Start with an Apple

1

Apple

Option-Shift-K (Apple)

Mathematical

2	∫	Option-B	9	≠	Option-Equal Sign[=]
3	√	Option-V	10	≤	Option-Smaller Sign[<]
4	∑	Option-W	11	÷	Option-Question Mark[?]
5	≈	Option-X	12	…	Option-Semicolon[;]
6	∞	Option-5	13	‰	Option-Shift-R
7	«	Option-Backslash[\]	14	»	Option-Shift-Backslash[\]
8	≥	Option-Larger Sign[>]	15	±	Option-Shift-Equal Sign[=]

Using Drag-Drop

Drag-Drop plays very important role when you use Mac. You even can boost your productivity if you use this properly.

These are some tricks you can do with Drag-Drop.

Quickly Look for and Change File Directory in Terminal

Whenever you drop the file to Terminal, it will display the foll-path to the file. Therefore, you can quickly change your Terminal working directory to the desired directory by typing portion of Terminal command "cd" followed by Drag-Drop file inside directory without the filename.

For example, I am going to change my directory to the folder that contains my Property List files. I will do these actions :

Type "cd"
Drag-Drop one of the files inside to Terminal
Erase the filename and keep the path
Execute the command

Mac Tricks and Tips, Wallpapers and Applications for Mac Users