Top 5 utilities that every new Mac user needs

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  • Reply 21 of 30
    Copy’em Paste.  
    Never understand why MS nor Apple have left default copy and paste functions languishing in the primordial swamp.

    I’ve tried all sorts of different clipboard management options over the years and this one is incredible. 

    It does so much more than a clipboard history you can search and paste from, it’s transformed how I work.  It’s in the App Store. 
    macplusplusgordoncomstock
  • Reply 22 of 30
    I ditched TextExpander and just use Alfred since they added snippets. Alfred does more that TextExpander and why pay for two Text replacement tools? 
  • Reply 23 of 30
    macwiz44macwiz44 Posts: 11member
    Here are my essential tools that I have on my Mac (and would like Windows alternatives -- I have to use Windows 10 at work for now).
    • 1Password -- I used this everywhere (Mac, iOS, Apple Watch, Windows, Browser)
    • PopClip -- most used. Extensions are numerous. (Biggest wish for Windows alternative)
    • Alfred -- pay for the commercial version to be able to create automation to other applications
    • divvy - one of the oldest window management applications (Mac and Windows)
    • Wimoweh - control your Mac when to not sleep
    • Bartender - with so many extensions in the menubar, move some to an alternative bar
    • PathFinder -- the developer is slow to fix issues and I'm looking at moving to Forklift
    • TextExpander - snippets and smart snippets. Frequent updates and cross-platform.
    • SuperDuper (though all of my data is stored in various cloud services - iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, Dropbox)
    • HomeBrew - Best way to install Mac software and update if you are a true geek (command-line) (I use Chocolatey on Windows).

  • Reply 24 of 30
    sandorsandor Posts: 670member
    Finally, even better than Carbon Copy is: SuperDuper. Best backup software for Mac out there, great complement to TimeMachine. Made by ShirtPocket Software. Need I say it? It’s SuperDuper!

    I have always used Carbon Copy Cloner & SuperDuper in tandem - especially since Silverkeeper stopped being developed (RIP). 

    SuperDuper creates my bootable backups without fail & i have used those backups dozens of times over the years.

    CCC does all our daily backups (both local & off-site) of our fibre channel arrays - Safety Net, folder backup, file corruption check, sequential backups (i.e. when "A" is done, start "B", etc) and email notification are all part of the beauty (but increased complexity) of CCC>

  • Reply 25 of 30
    I like The Unarchiver; it handles what Archive Utility doesn’t. Everything else that I keep around is more specific. But there’s XLD, which effortlessly converts audio files from format to format; I use it for FLAC to ALAC conversions for iTunes (which desperately needs a redesign). And iCombiner, for drag and drop multi-image to PDF combination. VLC is a nice, generic application for everyone. I use it for everything that iTunes and QuickTime won’t play. Generally, though, that’s just webm (which I never keep around) and mkv (which I use HandBrake to convert to MP4/M4V). Though I shouldn’t need to convert, just reencapsulate. I’ve not yet found a nice application to do that.

    I’m not on my desktop and can’t remember any others, but I have plenty. 


    I use Unarchiver a lot, especially when making custom random comic tpbs.

    There's this app that has the creature from "Where The Wild Things Are" as it's icon. The name escapes me right now, but I use it for all audio conversions. It is pretty nifty.

    Handbrake is a must for me, especially to load movies and shows from my physicals discs to my iTunes Library.

    I used to use "A Better Renamer" a lot when dealing with multiple files. It gave me a lot more options than I could get on Automator. Of course, I was never good with AppleScript.

    The "Where the Wild Things Are" app is Xact. It's very good, I've used it for years
    bestkeptsecret
  • Reply 26 of 30
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,453member
    A few more for the endless list:

    BBEdit for text processing.
    Name Mangler for batch file renaming.
    Stay for storing/restoring window locations (extra useful if you connect/disconnect from external monitors regularly).
  • Reply 27 of 30
    Then on those rare occasions we want to go back into Hazel to change something, we can tap to bring up Alfred, type Hazel' and there it is. Spotlight doesn't find it -- because Hazel isn't an application or some separate file, it's part of System Preferences.
    Wrong. Spotlight finds System Preferences panels, unless you disable it specifically in Spotlight's prefs. Though there are other good reasons to use Alfred (or Butler, which I prefer).
  • Reply 28 of 30
    Copy'em Paste is an essential tool that opens up a huge range of options and customizations for the extremely limited set of copy & paste features in OS X. One used, you won't be able to live without it.

  • Reply 29 of 30
    Then on those rare occasions we want to go back into Hazel to change something, we can tap to bring up Alfred, type Hazel' and there it is. Spotlight doesn't find it -- because Hazel isn't an application or some separate file, it's part of System Preferences.
    Wrong. Spotlight finds System Preferences panels, unless you disable it specifically in Spotlight's prefs. Though there are other good reasons to use Alfred (or Butler, which I prefer).
    Confirmed, you can definitely search for System Preference panels; I just re-verified by searching for third-party prefs "Perian".
  • Reply 30 of 30
    Dropzone 3 is indispensable - takes a bit of initial setting up, but once you've done it, copying and/or moving files to different folders/drives is simplicity itself ☺️

    Unclutter for files I need to keep but have out of the way, Universal Clipboard memory and for quick note-taking.

    XLD for Mac is an amazingly useful audio transcoder. Every audio format imaginable to any other audio format imaginable.

    And Fission for audio editing (which I do a lot of) is also an invaluable tool. Need to edit an .mp3 (or indeed any other audio format such as AAC) with NO re-encoding (and therefore no further quality degradation?) This is the ONLY app on the market (that I know of) that can achieve this.
    edited December 2018
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