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Alternate Apps for New Mac User

10G

10G

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 26, 2015
11
2
Australia
Coming from a Windows world to Mac, I've found a few shortcomings with the apps that come standard with my new Mac, so I'm looking for a few alternatives.

Finder - I'm looking at Commander One currently, it looks pretty good, but is there anything better?

Preview - Xee. It's a great little app, but I can't work out how to resize images? I don't do much with photos or images, I usually just need to make a picture physically smaller (200x200 pixels instead of 600x600) or logically smaller (20KB instead of 1.5MB).

Any other recommendations for other things???

I don't want to have to remember keyboard combinations, I can barely remember my own address, so buttons always work best for me.

I'm happy to pay for apps that work for me.

Thanks.
 
You can use 'Preview' to adjust a picture easily.

Open a picture with 'Preview' - Click 'Tools' menu - Choose 'Adjust Size...' item

You'd better have a backup for your picture before you adjust it to avoid modifying the picture unexpectedly.
 
Preview is one of the best apps of OS X. When I switch over to Windows, I truly miss that functionality.
 
I find it strange you mention Finder and Preview. Two applications that I think are clearly upgrades to what is included in Windows.
 
Precision Gem said:
I find it strange you mention Finder and Preview. Two applications that I think are clearly upgrades to what is included in Windows.
Click to expand...
I have to disagree with Finder, its definitely a downgrade compared to the Windows File Explorer. I think many people thing its inferior as well, given the plethora of Finder replacements/add-ons.
 
maflynn said:
I have to disagree with Finder, its definitely a downgrade compared to the Windows File Explorer. I think many people thing its inferior as well, given the plethora of Finder replacements/add-ons.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, as I haven't really used a PC in a long time for work and productivity, what does Windows have that Finder lacks?
 
If you would use Preview for annotating or creating screenshots you should buy Annotate in the Mac App Store ( yellow round icon ) it's only 2,- or something but it's an app that should've been created by Apple natively in OS X. After buying it, I never looked back at Preview again. Preview has become such a drama software over the last two years.

To crop/resize images, I still use Pixelmator.
 
jamesjingyi said:
Just out of interest, as I haven't really used a PC in a long time for work and productivity, what does Windows have that Finder lacks?
Click to expand...

The split pain interface facilitates easy file maintenance, i.e., moving/copying files from different locations. You can easily pull up network locations and the ctl-c/ctl-v to copy files/folders or ctl-x/ctl-v to move them are super easy (true the current version of OS X handles the keyboard shortcuts).

I prefer the sorting options where the directories are on the top. Sorting by kind in the Finder puts the directories in the middle of the file list.
 
maflynn said:
The split pain interface facilitates easy file maintenance, i.e., moving/copying files from different locations. You can easily pull up network locations and the ctl-c/ctl-v to copy files/folders or ctl-x/ctl-v to move them are super easy (true the current version of OS X handles the keyboard shortcuts).

I prefer the sorting options where the directories are on the top. Sorting by kind in the Finder puts the directories in the middle of the file list.
Click to expand...

You could change that sorting order: http://www.howtogeek.com/67100/force-your-mac-to-put-folders-on-top-of-files-windows-style/

I use a Windows 7 machine all day at work and Mac at home. While both explore and finder are pretty similar, to me finder is a bit cleaner, and the search functions are much faster. Maybe things have changed with Windows 10, I don't know. My company most likely won't move to Windows 10 for at least 5 more years.
 
10G said:
Coming from a Windows world to Mac, I've found a few shortcomings with the apps that come standard with my new Mac, so I'm looking for a few alternatives.

Finder - I'm looking at Commander One currently, it looks pretty good, but is there anything better?

Preview - Xee. It's a great little app, but I can't work out how to resize images? I don't do much with photos or images, I usually just need to make a picture physically smaller (200x200 pixels instead of 600x600) or logically smaller (20KB instead of 1.5MB).

Any other recommendations for other things???

I don't want to have to remember keyboard combinations, I can barely remember my own address, so buttons always work best for me.

I'm happy to pay for apps that work for me.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Path Finder is a great substitute for Finder. It includes the functionality like Copy (Command-C) some files, go to a new location, and paste (Command-V). Check it out, there's a trial.
http://www.cocoatech.com/pathfinder/
 
Gee thank you all for your help and suggestions.

I'm looking at Path Finder, it's a cracker and I may end up purchasing it. I'll check out Pixelmator and Annotate as well.
 
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