Mac Ten

Ten Things for the Mac Freeware Lovers

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

The free lite version (or possibly a free trial download; my links are not jiving with each other) of Art Text is "a powerful tool. Create compelling text for your advertisements, brochures, letterheads, newsletters and more. Spice up these documents by designing decorative graphics that are sure to impress others. If you're creating a website for a business or your personal needs, Art Text has all of the tools you need. The 250 editable materials and 600 supplied vector icons and shapes will give you a quick start to getting your site up and running, or create your own web graphics effortlessly with the help of multiple layers. A logo often creates a strong association with your business in the minds of customers. You want your logo to make a statement. Design your company's logo right in Art Text and make it unique by taking advantage of 100 additional fonts (Extras Pack only) and the large library of shapes included in the program" (OS:Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, Intel only. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion compatible.)

Calendar is an app "for those would want to put a calendar directly into their menu bar, allowing for easy access. It provides a quick look at today’s date, and one click brings up the calendar, and a schedule sidebar. Switching between months and years is handled quickly" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later)

Dropbox is "a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website. Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you’re a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost" (OS: Mac, Windows, Linux and various mobile devices)

Growly Notes "lets you capture everything you’re interested in, all in one place. Organize research projects, trips, to-do lists, or journals. Scrapbook your images, web links, and video clips. Your imagination is the only limitation. Pages can contain almost anything: formatted text, images, movies, audio clips, PDF files, tables, lists, web and file links, and drawings you create in Notes. There are no rules for where things have to go: put an image beside text or under it. Draw shapes on top of other notes. Put two snippets of text right next to each other. Click anywhere and start typing. It’s really that simple. Notebooks are organized into sections (the larger tabs on the left in the image above), each of which contains as many pages as you like. All the open notebooks are shown in one window, for easy navigation and quick jumps" (OS: Mac)

Jet Photo Studio 5 is "a feature-rich and easy-to-use digital photography software. Features: Organizes photos in albums; Manage photos with the calendar and map; Geotag photos with GPS; Create Flash and Web galleries; Publish web albums with JetPhoto Server. New version 5 can also manage video clips and make Flash or web galleries contains videos" (OS: Mac OS X 10.3 / 10.4 / 10.5 / 10.6 / 10.7; this one also has a Windows version for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7)

MovingPhotos3D is "a visualization that lets you see your photo library in a new way. It sends your photos flying around the screen in 3D. You can see hundreds of pictures move into different patterns and shapes" (OS:Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later)

Scene Painter is a Mac freeware "for those who are looking to tell a story using a graphics component library as its source. You can create comics with this tool, or create other various pieces of art. You can get in depth with the program, utilizing advanced tactics or keep it simple" (OS: Mac, Jave version 1.6)

smallQWERTY is a free "keyboard app. You can input the following functions in groups of 4x5 buttons with left clicks, some of which in groups of 3x3 buttons with left or right clicks: 1. Letters (with standard ABC and efficient smallQWERTY layouts) 2. Numbers (1 ~ 0) 3. Symbols (all the symbols in standard keyboard) 4. Cursor keys (Left, Right, Up, Down, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down) 5. Function keys (F1 ~ F12) 6. Common File menus (New, Open, Save, Close, Hide, Minimize, Quit, ...) 7. Common Edit menus (Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Undo, Redo, Find, ...) 8. More menus (Folder creation, Preferences, Spotlight, Trash, ...) 9. Useful commands (Navigation, Screen capture, Media control, ...) 10. System commands (Monitor, Log off, Restart, Shutdown, Sleep) 11. Desktop commands (Mission control, Dashboard, Launchpad, App/window switcher, ...) 12. All the individual keys of standard keyboard 13. Modifiers (Command, Shift, Option/Alt, Control) 14. Custom app launcher. More functions in 3x3 keyboard interface are coming soon" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later)

Speakline is a "simple language tool allows users to type a message onto the notepad and have their Mac read it back. The app supports the Mac system voices. Speakline will save the text, and can be exported as a AIFF file" (OS: Mac OS X 10.6 or later)

Wunderlist is a task manager that "stands apart from other like it, for being on the cloud. This free app will help you to boost productivity, and will work across a wide variety of devices, including: Macs, Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android, and on the web. You can share you lists with friends and co-workers to maximize efficiency when trying to get things done" (OS: Mac OS X, also Windows, Linux and various mobile devices)

For the Mac Writers

I've had some e-mails come in complaining that my freeware lists don't have any programs listed for Mac users, and asking me to do something about it.

First off, I have done a Mac-only freeware list in the past. When any program I find is compatible with Mac I always indicate it in the OS notation at the end of the listing (as I did with Japplis Tool Box, SeeColors and TexFinder on this recent list.) Keep in mind that I don't own a Mac myself, and most freeware sites I frequent like Freewarefiles.com and Primewares.com (formerly Freeware World Team) offer freeware only geared for Windows users.

I've compiled the following list of what freeware I think may be of use to writers who use a Mac, and I will continue to keep an eye out for it in the future. As with any freeware I list, keep in mind the usual caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

If you need a free word processor for your Mac OS X, there is the open source Bean rich text editor that features "live word count, a Get Info panel for in-depth statistics, a zoom-slider to easily change the view scale, an Inspector panel with lots of sliders, date-stamped backups, autosaving, a page layout mode, an alternate colors option (e.g., white text on blue), an option to show invisible characters (tabs, returns, spaces), selection of text by text style, paragraph style, color, etc., a floating windows option (like Stickies has), easy to use menus, remembers cursor postion (excluding .txt, .html, .webarchive formats), and all of Cocoa's good stuff (dictionary, word completion, etc.)" (OS: Mac OS X 10.5 Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 PPC, Mac OS X 10.4 Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 PPC)

The recently updated Jer's Novel Writer features a word processor designed for novelists, along with margin notes, automatic outline, database, full screen mode, bookmarks, and separate formatting options for print and screen. It recognizes chapters, provides a note panel for story issues and ideas, takes a word count, gives you more accurate page count estimates, and according to the designer, "performs better than most word processors for really, really big documents." This one is available to download for free and use as long as you like; purchase price is $30.00 U.S. and even better, the designer is willing to haggle over the price with you (OS: Mac OS X 10.5 Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 PPC, Mac OS X 10.4 Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 PPC)

LyX/Mac not only has its own wiki but according to Fraser at MacApper.com is a "different kind of word processor. Most word processors let you focus on content and style, giving you inconsistent documents most of the time. LyX allows you to create professional documents while focusing on structure first, and when you’re done, you can export your document as a PDF or web page. This tool is excellent for professional reports, scientific papers and so on." (OS: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, with a TeX installation)

myWords is "a simple application for writers of all kinds" and allows you to "track ideas, plots, people, places etc, write in fullscreen, create from templates\boilerplates, separate formatting for screen, print, export, password protection & encryption" as well as offers an "autosave feature - revert to saved in case of mistake." Designer notes that the producy is "extra handcrafted for slower (older) Macs." Because I use IE I couldn't gain access to the developer's site to get cost info, but VersionTracker.com lists it as shareware with a purchase price of $10, so you probably get a free trial or limited-use version when you download (OS: Mac OS X 10.5 Intel, Mac OS X 10.5 PPC, Mac OS X 10.4 Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 PPC)

According to the designers, with NeoOffice you get "a full-featured set of office applications (including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database programs) for Mac OS X. Based on the OpenOffice.org office suite, NeoOffice has integrated dozens of native Mac features and can import, edit, and exchange files with other popular office programs such as Microsoft Office. NeoOffice is one of the most stable office suites for Mac OS X. We have created an office suite that is adapted to the unique needs of Mac users by taking the features in Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice.org office suite and adding improvements such as: Fast, free, and friendly support for all users, extremely stable Mac OS X code that has been in daily use by hundreds of thousands of NeoOffice users since 2003, significant speed improvements to the OpenOffice.org code, dozens of features requested by our users designed specifically for the Mac." (OS: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher)

Fraser at MacApper.com also recommends Skim PDF Reader and Note-Taker, "a PDF reader with a few powerful built-in editing tools such as adding an arrow/circle, or striking out unwanted text. With Skim, you can quickly sort through and edit your PDFs in a pinch." (OS: Mac OSX 10.4)

Resources to check for more Mac freeware:

FreeSMUG.org

MacApper's The Great Mac OS X Freeware List

Sourceforge.net

Tucows

VersionTracker.com