Every Friday, a list of five things: 5ive on Friday. Quickly bashed out, designed to start not finish conversations. 95% of these will be inspired by the week’s social media conversations.
Essential macOS Software
I just got a new iMac; my 2009 Mac Pro was very long in the tooth and although it was still great in some respects, it wasn’t keeping up with the latest Creative Cloud releases. I’d done a few hardware upgrades this year, but nothing really brought it to the point where I needed it.
So, enter the new iMac.
Usually after reinstalling my OS or getting a new computer, I try to not install much new software on it, installing only things I really need right away, and going without “kinda nice to have” stuff for as long as possible. Here’s five things I installed right away that may not be totally obvious:
- Default Folder X extends the functionality of Open and Save windows, giving you access to recently used folders, favorite folders, and a lot more.
- Divvy is a simple app that lets you quickly resize windows with keyboard shortcuts. You can set up shortcuts to easily make a window a vertical half of your screen, a horizontal half, etc. I use most of my apps full screen, but I like having precise control when using multiple Finder windows, web browsers, etc.
- TextWrangler or BBEdit are by the same company, with BBEdint being the traditional powerhouse text editor and TextWrangler a cut down but still mighty text editor. For years I’ve used TextWrangler, but it’s been sunsetted (and BBEdit dropped in price + made available free with the same feature set as TextWrangler) so I’ve been trying to transition. I use a text editor throughout the day to take notes, write drafts, make TODO lists, and other such things. Both TextWrangler and BBEdit have a very nice interface that lets you easily keep dozen of files open and navigable.
- HoudahSpot gives you much better control over Spotlight searches: letting you save searches, easily exclude folders, include only certain folders, search more easily based on file type or content.
- Dropbox as the best solution for file syncing and backups.