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Best Applications for a University Student!

W

wnxgenral

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 14, 2008
286
16
I am new to Mac... I come from a long history with windows. I have already purchased MS Office but other than that I am interested in applications that would benefit me while in school? I looked into Bento and have that but I dont know if I want to use it... Any other applications other fellow students out there just cant live without?

Let me know
 
I think it would be best to describe what you are going to school for and what things you used on Windows that you would need for Mac OS X.
 
Not necessarily student specific but I like:

Quicksilver
Quickshareit
VLC
Handbrake
Adium
AppCleaner
iSquint
UnRarX
Schoolhouse

To start :)
 
are there any programs like schoolhouse that dont crash and suck? that proggy looked and keyword LOOKED awesome but crashed every 2 seconds
 
Keynote wins for best presentation software hands down -- but you already have PowerPoint. I use OmniFocus and iCal to keep things organized, and use my iPod Touch as a PDA. You'll want to have both Safari and Firefox, as some university resources have intermittent issues with Safari (e.g. ANGEL, Blackboard, etc.). You may also, eventually, need software that is more specific to your major. If you use a lot of pdfs, for articles and other course material, you may want to invest in DevonThink. I use this everyday, but I handle thousands of articles in pdf format. You can also use it to organize notes, if you take them on your laptop.

That's what comes to mind now. Check out your university's computer store and see what prices they offer. My current university offers discounts that are better than one can get online (I bought Office 2008 for $60).

Hope this helps...
 
I have grown to absolutely adore Journler. I was testing it out alongside DevonThink. They are both basically the same program (they do the same things for the most part), but Journler has an easier-to-manage database. I also really like that I can easily take audio notes and add them to an entry.

What's really cool for either app if you are using two computers (I have a laptop at for work on campus and a desktop for home) is that you can sync the database through Dropbox so you are always up to date on your notes.
 
If you will be doing a lot of writing (i.e. not the sciences), then consider Scrivener. Excellent writing tool and exports to all major word processors, but especially Nisus Writer Pro and Mellel.
 
Apple's apps!

- iWork '08 for documents, spreadsheets, presentations
- Mail for your student email, notes and to dos
- iCal for your class times, deadlines, dates from emails (add using Mail) and also to manage to dos
- Address Book for email addresses (add using Mail) and room numbers
- iTunes for your chillout beats :D
- iPhoto to manage your happy snaps

then chuck in Office 2008 if youre a heavy Word or Excel user. also Perian and Flip4Mac for xtra QuickTime codecs and Adium for chat if you dont use AIM, MobileMe or Jabber.
 
I agree that Scrivener is a nice little app. It isn't necessary, and may not work for everyone, but it will likely help if you do a lot of writing. Some of my colleagues have started using it to write their first drafts and have raved about it. There are occasional footnote issues, but in my experience you need not be footnote heavy in your first draft. It terms of putting a paper together and getting your thoughts organized, it can be a great help.
 
I agree with getting TeXShop. I just wrote my thesis using Latex and it looks more professional than other students using MS Word.

I have the new iWork and MS Office. iWork is not good enough yet for frequent use by a university student. Numbers really lags with large files. The program does some cool things, but some files that run great using MS Office lag with iWork programs.

If you are in the sciences, a program called Papers is great for organizing .pdf files of journal articles.

I used Seashore (free) a lot for very quick and minor image editing.

Goodluck!
 
i use SAGE as my CAS, because its free :)

and openoffice, because its free. (but don't try saving docx stuff)

and apart from apple's built-in grapher, I don't really use anything else.
 
I need a good database software to organize all my classes/lecture notes/papers in one place.... any ideas?
 
NSNick said:
Why did you buy Microsoft Office when you could have downloaded Open Office for free?
Click to expand...

You can get MS Office for dirt cheap on most university campus bookstores or IT departments. It is worth it.

Open Office and NeoOffice are just not as smooth as MS Office from my experience. Open Office lagged big time on my two machines in my sig.
 
Real tools for academic purposes

Most of the apps advertised above have nothing to do with academic tasks.
When people announce media players as academic tools that makes me laugh.

So the question is what are the REAL apps for making academic research. For those who are REALLY students and not lazy workers or pseudo students in college.

What I have found already are:

Bento- good for papers and small projects but I don't know how I can use its benefits in big research like thesis. If you know it good please write about the hints that can be used.

Evernote - yes. it is a great for making notes.

Bookends - well this one I don't know and I really want to know your experience. I really need some handy and good app for bibliography. As I need not only index items but also attach links and scans of books to the item. So if you know some really good tools for keeping bibliography, please share your experience.
 
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