Tools of the Trade

by Trevor Turk

Since I recently shared this list of Mac apps I use with a friend, I thought I might share them here as well:

SizeUp is the first thing I install on a new Mac. It’s a fantastic window moving/resizing utility that I can’t imagine living without.

Note that you can use Command+Tab to switch between active apps, that you can use a mouse to choose one more quickly, and that F3 is your friend. You can always use an app launcher to bypass window management altogether, though. I’ve configured Spotlight to only search Applications and Documents. Since I have an SSD, this setup seems fast enough. Some people swear by LaunchBar, Quicksilver, or Google Quick Search Box, though, and I think that’s fine. No matter what you do, though, empty your dock and hide it.

TextMate is (still) the best text editor for the Mac. TextWranger is a reasonable alternative, especially since it’s free.

1Password is a great password management app, but I’m mad at them because they’re taking forever to support Chrome.

Arq is an easy to use backup app that stores your files on Amazon S3. It’s not perfect (yet), but I love it.

Acorn is great for simple image editing. Adium is for chat. Colloquy is for irc.

Of course I use Dropbox.

Fluid is great for making websites into standalone apps. You can make one for Gmail and set that to be your default maito client. Highly recommended.

Gitx is a good git gui for looking through changesets when you don’t feel like opening up GitHub.

TinyGrab is nice for sharing screenshots. Transmit is for ftp. VLC has a Mac client. Tweetie is for Twitter. Transmission is for bit torrent.

xScope is invaluable when designing webpages and/or graphics.

So… that’s a quick list of my “must have” Map apps. I hope you find them as valuable as I have.