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First time Mac owner advice?
- Thread starter jshtroutman
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Just use it and enjoy it! The only two must have apps for me is iStat Menus, and Caffeine. I like a quick system status check, and Caffeine is good if you just want to use an external monitor
In my case, I have always used Office for Mac, as everyone in my work world uses Word (and mostly use Windows computers), and I need to be able to use it natively and produce stuff that everyone else can work with as needed..
F.lux – NightShift for the Mac. Features gradual day/night transitioning that matches the sun setting.
BetterTouchTool – Allows for gesture customization and window-snapping. (I prefer to show the desktop by swiping three fingers up instead of showing Mission Control. You can also add pinch-to-zoom to apps that don't support it by assigning the keyboard shortcut Cmnd + to the pinch gesture.)
Right Zoom – Changes behavior of green button to maximize windows (like the middle button atop Windows programs) instead of entering fullscreen. Probably a relief for ex-Windows users. As @Don MC pointed out, BetterTouchTool can do this too.
BetterTouchTool – Allows for gesture customization and window-snapping. (I prefer to show the desktop by swiping three fingers up instead of showing Mission Control. You can also add pinch-to-zoom to apps that don't support it by assigning the keyboard shortcut Cmnd + to the pinch gesture.)
Right Zoom – Changes behavior of green button to maximize windows (like the middle button atop Windows programs) instead of entering fullscreen. Probably a relief for ex-Windows users. As @Don MC pointed out, BetterTouchTool can do this too.
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The Apps I like most...
- 1Password
- Office 2011
- OneNote
- OmniFocus
- OmniPlanner
- OmniGraffle
- VMWare Fusion (to run Windows, Linux, and older versions of OS X)
- Onyx
- Bartender
- Chrome Remote Desktop
- Little Snitch
- Weather Dock
- iStat Menus
- CarbonCopyCloner
- TextWrangler
- Alfred
- VLC
- The Unarchiver
- ABBYY FineReder Pro
- Paintbrush
- Converto
There are a number of threads dealing with this question. One of them, have a look.
Anyway, what I consider to be useful:
AdGuard Extension for Safari
ZoomBySite Extension for Safari
MalwareBytes
Forklift
Locko (not worse than 1Password)
The Unarchiver
DiskWave
AppCleaner
Burn
Handbrake
VLC Player
Pixelmator
EasyFind
Who's On My WiFi
WiFi Explorer
coconutBattery
iClip
AnyTrans
Blotter
MS Office
etc.
Anyway, what I consider to be useful:
AdGuard Extension for Safari
ZoomBySite Extension for Safari
MalwareBytes
Forklift
Locko (not worse than 1Password)
The Unarchiver
DiskWave
AppCleaner
Burn
Handbrake
VLC Player
Pixelmator
EasyFind
Who's On My WiFi
WiFi Explorer
coconutBattery
iClip
AnyTrans
Blotter
MS Office
etc.
Holy Smokes this thing is nice. I got the base 2016 non touch bar model in space grey. The last laptop I had was a Asus with windows 7 from many years back. Have not used it since I purchased my iPad 4. I recently started a new position at work and need to have a computer to do some work at home. After being so happy in Apples eco system for so long now I refuse to buy a pc. I'll be downloading One password and Microsoft Office for sure.
You will like 1Password. It's expensive but worth it IMO, because the implementation/sync of it for iOS & OS X blends very nicely. If you ever use Windows, they have a 1Password for it that syncs with Mac devices (usually via a cloud service like DropBox), but IMO it is not nearly as refined as the 1Password for iOS/OS X. They at least used to have a trial for the OS X version (I doubt they do for iOS).
A couple tips:
ALWAYS install applications into the Applications folder. All apps you get in Apple's App Store already go here anyway; most apps that you might find elsewhere also set themselves up in the Applications folder. I'm saying this because I've seen people store multiple apps on the Desktop; doing this only makes your Home folder bigger and less simple to back up and/or migrate later.
Keep your Desktop clean and tidy. Think of it like a virtual physical desk. Store documents in Documents, photos and movies in Pictures, music-related things in Music, etc. Don't be like my mom and end up with a hundred gigs of nested folders on your Desktop (which is funny, because that's exactly how she "organizes" things on the dining room table).
I use Photos and iTunes to manage my pictures, videos, media, and mobile apps. If you don't want to use Photos, you can use Image Capture to import pictures and videos from your phone and organize them in your own folders old-school-style.
Quick Look FTW.
Take some time to browse through System Preferences, too.
ALWAYS install applications into the Applications folder. All apps you get in Apple's App Store already go here anyway; most apps that you might find elsewhere also set themselves up in the Applications folder. I'm saying this because I've seen people store multiple apps on the Desktop; doing this only makes your Home folder bigger and less simple to back up and/or migrate later.
Keep your Desktop clean and tidy. Think of it like a virtual physical desk. Store documents in Documents, photos and movies in Pictures, music-related things in Music, etc. Don't be like my mom and end up with a hundred gigs of nested folders on your Desktop (which is funny, because that's exactly how she "organizes" things on the dining room table).
I use Photos and iTunes to manage my pictures, videos, media, and mobile apps. If you don't want to use Photos, you can use Image Capture to import pictures and videos from your phone and organize them in your own folders old-school-style.
Quick Look FTW.
Take some time to browse through System Preferences, too.
BTT does that too, and better might I add. I use two monitors and with BTT I can maximize the window to either display by clicking the green traffic light with either my left or right mouse button. The drag and snap to resize function is cool as well.
I second the shout-out for OmniGraffle. Lovely, simple little program for quickly making charts and labels and whatnot.
My advice? Learn some shell scripting. Will give you so much more utility.