Your Desert Island Programs

[amk285nyu]

Since I've joined the forum, I've been directed to some pretty cool programs that I can't believe I ever managed without: URL Manager Pro, just an awesome bookmark editor; VLC, so I can watch AVI's; Present Movie, for playing full screen QT (I prefer it to the Full Screen Player); Gimp-Print, a program that keeps my printer driver software more updated than the Epson site.

In addition to these programs, I've got some others i just think are cool enhancements or add-ons: Safari Enhancer and SafariMasks for my browser.

What are your must-have programs that you think most people don't know about? What are those programs that are just cool and you feel enhance your computer experience that you would like to share with the forum?

I'll start us off, and I'm no heavyweight, but I think I've got one program everyone should know about:

Acquisition.
Acquisition Download Page
Zeropaid: The Cool Site Where I Found Acquisition
This is a filesharing program for Mac OS X only, and wow!!! Blows Limewire away. The newer version eats up your bandwidth a little more than the old, but it's worth it, because it doesn't freeze everything the way Limewire did, and you also get to sort results by file type (version 0.86 didn't have that). Also, it doesn't eat up your CPU processing speed. I can multi-task again! The number of files is also much larger because it accesses more servers; so you can find more rare songs and the like. My top find of the year, easily. It has a drawer, a new graphic theme OS X programmers are pushing (I can tell), and for one love it. In the drawer are all your searches. You can navigate from window to window inside the program using the command button. It's reliability for downloading also far exceeds Limewire's. Plus, it's search is much more accurate in finding songs from a particular album. For example, say a band did a song by the same title, but had two versions on different albums. If you search for the song with the album title in your search, it turns up more songs that match what you're looking for even if the album title isn't in the file name; basically, it works really well with ID3 tags.
But here's the best of all, the dealbreaker: it automatically adds downloaded songs to iTunes (can be turned off in preferences). Couples with the new iTunes feature of deleting the original file, this means that after you've clicked a song to download, it downloads, adds, to iTunes, and iTunes deletes the file from the downloaded folder (so your memory is preserved). How awesome is that?

Aside from that, I really don't think I have much to offer the forum, but I hope you all appreciate it. Let's get a great thread rolling!    
 
 [ 05-06-2003, 04:16 AM: Message edited by: Andrew McKenzie ]

[Gregg]

Andrew, I'll give my usual answer to this question...

CopyPaste is the best add on ever. 100 clipboards, and text tools for the internet and offline. I don't know how I'd get along without it.

Another add on I really like is FinderViewContextMenu. As the name says, it is a contextual menu for setting up the View characteristics of your windows. You program your most used combinations, and there a click-drag-click away. I've never understood why Apple makes you go to the menu twice.

[krissel]

This subject comes up frequently and we have listed them before but with the advent of X and many new programs it is a good idea to bring this up occasionally as our needs do change.

My all time favorite aside from CopyPaste was and still is Drop Drawers.

 Drop Drawers

Another which just shows graphic images for quick review in drag/drop operation or contextual menu is  Shomi

Unfortunately one program that hasn't been reproduced in X as far as I know is Scrollability which makes me happy to surf in 9.

[amk285nyu]

I'm a little confused. Does Drop Drawers, Shomi, and FinderViewContextMenu all do the same thing? How do I decide which is best for me (other than simply trying all three out)?

Also, if anyone has some links to some old threads like this, or ones done fairly recently, I'd be obliged if you pasted them here. I'd like to go back and check out the programs people have already named. I didn't figure this was a unique topic.

Thanks, everyone.

[pendragon]

A small application I have enjoyed of late is called Menu Master. http://www.unsanity.com/products.php
It allows one to easily-
* Assign a shortcut key to any menu item in almost every application (there are a few exceptions).
* Redefine existing/developer defined shortcut keys in the menu items to one you prefer
* Easy to configure as it comes in usual Preference Pane form, accessible through System Preferences
*  Has a "revert" function in case you ever decide to return to the shortcut created by the developer

As an example, in Quicken 2003, the keyboard command to print checks is Command+ Shift +P. The keyboard command to print the register is Command +P. Since I frequently print checks and only rarely print the register, I wanted these commands reversed. 30 seconds with Menu Master and done!

I have noted no conflicts or problem with this little piece of $10.00 shareware (or any other Unsanity application that I have used.)

Two other shareware programs, also by Unsanity, that are on my list of small helpful applications are WindowShade X (allows double clicking in the title bar to collapse a window, just as in classic and Labels X, allows the color labeling of files and folders just like in OS 9.

Harv
 
 [ 05-07-2003, 08:32 AM: Message edited by: pendragon ]

[Gregg]

Andrew, I should have mentioned that I do not use OSX. I know CopyPaste has been released for X, but am not sure about FinderViewContextMenu. FVCM only does one thing, set the way your windows display files (icons, buttons, arrangement, etc.) I've never used Drop Drawers. Sounds a bit racy.

[Thomas S. England]

IconIt, which adds a menubar item to help you change icons:

http://www.definingdesign.net/products.html

iAddressX, which puts a new menubar item, quickly giving you access to your Address Book info, $8. I find that the address book takes too long to open.

http://www.mibasoft.dk/

Other people beat me to CopyPaste--the best.

Also, typeit4me, which lets you enter any words or paragraph quickly by using shortcuts. Still a bit quirky in OS X, but something I use constantly.

http://www.typeit4me.com/

[Steve_J]

quote:Originally posted by Andrew McKenzie:
[QB]Also, if anyone has some links to some old threads like this, or ones done fairly recently, I'd be obliged if you pasted them here. I'd like to go back and check out the programs people have already named. I didn't figure this was a unique topic.QB]

krissel,
or anyone else,

Since, like gregg, I do not use OSX (I use 8.6 on my laptop and 9.2x on my desktop) and have no plans to, I also would appreciate
"some links to some old threads like this, or ones done fairly recently".

[Mayo]

I was wondering whether OS 9ers could play...

Absolutely Would Not Want To Live Without Software:

FinderPop
Greg's Browser
Quit CSM

Oldies But Goodies:

Macthuga
URLM Pro
Web Confidential

That Is All!

   
 
 [ 05-07-2003, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: Mayo ]

[krissel]

I'll second the recommendation for Typeit4Me. I use it so seamlessly that I forget it's there until I'm on another computer.

Drop Drawers is a set of pop-out drawers that can be placed anywhere around the edge of the screen. You can put text, links, images, folders, alias, you name it in the drawers and access them at any time in any program.You can even write a note to yourself.  You can download and try it at the link in my previous thread.

Shomi does just one thing but it is quick. Drop a picture or folder of images on it and they pop up in sheet form to get a quick look at what's in the folder. I use it constantly to search for just the right image or compare images easily. You can also set it to open something via contextual menu.

 HERE  is a lengthy thread from a year ago that covered many of our favorites.

Please note that with the move to the new software the archives are in a new location. Therefore some of the links in those threads which refer to other TS threads may not work. That is because the URL to the other thread points to an address that no longer exists. Nothing we can do about it though.