Saginaw Macintosh Users Group

People come up to me all the time and say “I need an app that does such and such” or ask me “How do I do yadda yadda yadda on my Mac?” and most of the time, I have an answer for them. I can’t count the number of apps that I have installed on my Macs over the years. From cartography and genealogy apps to games and vector drawing apps, I’ve installed almost all types of software. So that’s why I usually have an answer ready when people ask me for a software recommendation. But where do I find all these apps? Listed below are several Mac software websites that I visit regularly to see what’s new in the realm of Mac software.

http://freemacware.com/ This site posts links to handy utilities that you might not need very often but come in handy when you do.

http://tuaw.com/ In addition to Apple news, you’ll find reviews of software for the Mac, iPad, and iPod touch.

http://download.com/mac/ Cnet’s got a large list of Mac programs both free and paid.

http://alternativeto.net/ I visit this site if I know to find free alternatives to paid software and to find Mac versions of Windows software.

http://macupdate.com/ Here, you’ll find a huge directory of the latest version of commercial and free Mac software.

http://versiontracker.com/ This site has been around forever and contains links to almost every Mac program that has ever existed. If you need, you can also find Windows software here.

If you’ve ever asked yourself what you should wear before you go outside, then swackett is the app for you! It’s a simple app that boils down the data about the local weather into simple, easy-to-view information.

Each bit of weather information is accompanied by a picture of a character dressed in whatever outdoor clothing is appropriate! So for example, if the weather is 55˚ and cloudy, the characters will be wearing jackets!

Of course, the important bits are also there: you can view the local radar and detailed weather information as well.

swackett on the Mac App Store

EasyEnvelopes is a free Dashboard widget that lets you quickly and easily print envelopes. Just open your Dashobard, then click on the EasyEnvelopes widget. Start typing the name of one of your Address Book contacts and when you’ve got the right one, hit Enter. The envelope is addressed and ready for printing. Click the postage stamp and and the envelope is sent to your printer. (Make sure you’ve loaded an envelope into the printer!)

I use OmniDazzle during my presentations to highlight clicks and other important information. OmniDazzle is a free program from The Omni Group—makers of fabulous software like OmniGraffle and OmniFocus—that lets you display special effects on your screen.

In addition to the spotlight effect that I use regularly, there are other effects such as a trail of pixie dust that follows the cursor or a bullseye that helps you find your cursor on the screen. After you launch the program, a simple keyboard shortcut (usually control + `) turns the effect on and off.

If you give demonstrations with your computer, try OmniDazzle to help your audience follow along.

Download OmniDazzle

From AnxietyApp.com:

Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

Get Anxiety now!

Pierre Chatel’s Desktopia is a cool freeware app that lets you change your desktop background wallpaper on a schedule that you specify. Just drag a picture onto Desktopia, pick a time, and Desktopia will automatically change your wallpaper at that time. Desktopia is the perfect way to customize your Mac.

Quinn is a free game for OS X that’s very similar to Tetris, but it’s built just for OS X. In addition, you can play against other Quinn players on the same network.

QuickTime Player is the default movie player for Mac OS X and it works pretty well—as long as the movie you want to play is in one of QuickTime’s supported formats. If it’s not, then you’ll need a few extras.

If you want to play Windows Media, you’ll need Windows Media Components for QuickTime.

Perian is another plugin for QuickTime that not only lets you view a whole host of movie formats but lets you use these files in any program that is based on QuickTime, such as iMovie and iDVD.

The next time you get a movie file that you can’t open, don’t despair. Try installing the above programs and see if they help!

In Avery DesignPro, if you want to mail merge to only a certain group of Address Book contacts, you’ll need a program that exports your contacts to a CSV file. These two free programs will let you do just that:

• Address Book Exporter
• Address Book to CSV Exporter

After you have your CSV file, browse for it in Avery DesignPro when you do a merge instead of clicking on Address Book.