In the 4 months that I’ve been using my Macbook Air, I’ve tried out lots of productivity programs.
Here are my 10 favorite Free Mac Apps that I still use regularly for productivity:
Text Wrangler – advanced code editor
The built in text editor on the Mac is ok but lacks some advanced features. On the PC I loved using Notepad++ but sadly there is no Mac version available yet. Text Wrangler is the next best thing and I use it when working with html or css code.
Alfred – super fast program searching and opening
I think Alfred should be a required program for every Mac computer because it makes searching for and opening programs super fast and easy. Just hit alt+spacebar and then start typing the title of the program you want to open and it shows up instantly.
Thyme – simple timer
This lightweight program puts a counting timer in the taskbar that you can activate with control+T. Great for timing client work or trying to get through your email inbox faster.
Ommwriter – full screen no distraction writing
When writing long blog posts or sales letters, interruptions can kill your thought process. Ommwriter takes up your full screen and has calming music to get you focused and in the zone with your writing.
Flux – reduce eyestrain at night
Our computer screens are designed to be bright like the sun, but this can cause eyestrain at night and also difficulty sleeping. Flux helps with this problem by automatically adjusting the colors of your screen at night to reduce eyestrain.
Filezilla – solid FTP client
Working with websites I have to use FTP fairly often and I have really come to like Filezilla. The interface is easy to use and has tabs to allow for multiple open FTP connections at once.
Gimp – image editing
Although not as advanced as Photoshop, Gimp can take care of most basic image editing tasks, and it’s free.
Open Office – word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations
Open Office can do 90% of what Microsoft Office can and even opens/saves to most of the Microsoft Office file formats (.doc .xls. .ppt). If you are doing advanced spreadsheet work then you may need to get Microsoft Excel, but otherwise Open Office works for just about everything.
Dropbox – file backup and sharing
You’ve probably heard about it before – Dropbox is a great program to backup and share your files across multiple computers. It is limited to just 2GB for the free version but if you search on Fiverr.com there are services that can boost your space to 16GB for just $5.
Evernote – never forget stuff
Another super popular app that is great for storing blog post ideas, skype call notes, web page clippings, or anything else you want to remember. Evernote keeps an easily searchable database, so the next time you think “oh what was that one thing Joe said in our skype call last month” you have it right away.
——
What are your favorite Free Mac Apps?
