I thought that I would post up some of the tools that I use and links off to their sites. I mostly use open source or great quality shareware now as I found the cost vs. usage of a program like Dreamweaver just wasn’t worth it.
Overall we use Basecamp to keep track of projects and internal tasks. It is a great piece of kit and all clients have enjoyed using it so far too. Heartily recommended!
Around £12-20 per month
For my personal To-Do’s I use this program. I split everything up into future, soon and today. This allows me to also include relevant project tasks as well as little personal things that need doing.
Free! It comes with most new Mac’s
This is used to invoice clients. It does so by sending out an emailed invoice direct, once the client pays it is marked as completed and gets moved into an archive. Handy for accounting purposes too.
Around £15.
Great program for creating flow charts, diagrams and database schemas. It has some very nifty features that I keep discovering! It means you can quickly create pretty information graphics.
Around £80
Takes screenshots of any web address, not only does it allow you to get the whole length of a page but it can also save in a variety of formats. Not bad for free!
Free!!
Puts an icon with the date in the top right, which when clicked brings up a dropdown of the month with iCal events etc.
Around £13
I find that WordPress isn’t always the best place to write posts for a blog. For one you have to be online and you also need to keep an eye on what it does with drafts :)
Using this I can write a post on the train or anywhere I want.
About £15
This lets me keep up to date with so many feeds. I would never be able to stay as informed without this piece of software. Although I probably have a few too many!
About £18
Great application that makes FTP/SFTP really quick and easy. It has a great interface and uses terminology that makes sense.
Around £20
Allows you to install Windows XP and boot natively. It means you are able to use DirectX and pretty much everything that you would with a normal PC. Handy for applications that haven’t been ported over or never will be.
Free from Apple site
With an Intel Mac it finally means that you can boot Windows whilst in OSX and switch between the two. Ideal for browser testing especially with the new coherence mode which means the applications appear without a Windows desktop. Very handy and it can share the Bootcamp installation of Windows which saves drive space.
I paid around £40
Newsgroup reader made by the guys that produced Transmit. It shares a lot with Transmit’s interface and I think that is why I like it so much. Unfortunately it doesn’t have a very good search facility unlike something web based like Easynews.
£20
I mainly use this for accounts and analysis. If Apple do bring out a spreadsheet package then I will probably switch over as upgrades are much more frequent.
About £150
Although this is shockingly slow in OSX I still use it regularly. Every time I preview a document out I wait for it to crash! I am eagerly waiting for the next version.
About £300
Allows you to get into AS 3.0 without using Flex.
Free to registered users of Flash 8.
Text editor and coding helper! It has great functionality for snippets of code, allowing you to auto complete, which definitely saves time. It is also easy to customise and it is cheap.
About £19.
Im sure you know about this!! Allows voice chat over the net for free and it can also be used to call standard phones (for a charge).
Free!
Great multi protocol IM client. I have MSN, GoogleTalk and AOL/Mac accounts and this is the best Mac client I have found. In fact I even prefer it to Trillian on the PC
Free!
Sometimes Adium doesn’t like file transfers, in all honesty that is the only time I actually switch :)
Free! Comes with OSX
Allows SCP/SFTP/FTP. I mainly use this for SCP and other commands on remote and local systems.
Free!
Handy for server side checks and other commands (dig, ping, ln, mkdir, chmod etc)
Free!
Gives you a good place to write without distraction in a retro format. Allows me to write without being distracted
About £10
Replaces Word for me when editing documents.
As part of iWork it is about £55
I love the simplicity of this application it doesn’t bombard me with things I don’t want to use and its presentation mode is awesome.
As part of iWork it is about £55
This is simply the coolest gadget application I have seen! When I heard about this I couldn’t believe it, so I downloaded it and gave it a try - it works! It allows you to scan the barcode of a CD/DVD/Video/Game/Book and then it grabs the information from Amazon and stores it. Great fun that meant I did everything I could find!
Around £40
Anyway I hope these are of some use, post up any comments suggestions or alternatives you might have and I will try to do a PC alternatives one in the near future.
Dan, this is fantastic! If these are all the good apps you’ve found, you must’ve been through a fair few crap ones.
I’m particularly pleased to read about Fugu as it supports SCP. And Transmit looks like a bargain at 20 quid. Been using Cyberduck for my FTPing and it keeps dropping the connection which is rubbish.
I’ll check out Fugu this week sometime, and depending on how it goes, cough up the cash for Transmit later on.
Tonight tho, i’ve got a PC to dismantle, rebuild and connect to a router. Always good fun. Honestly, i will enjoy it.
Work is fine by the way, not much to say there really. Been attempting to make a few sites for uni friends on the side, but it always takes people forever to send content/ideas thru. i won’t names names. :o)
Oh, do you really use MarsEdit Mr Griffiths?