In my experience there are numerous applications to improve and enhance the workflow in OS X.

Here is an example to clarify my point. Lets say you want to downscale a hundred photos for web use. If you do not know any method of doing this you will have to open each picture within your favorite picture editor and downscale the pictures one by one. However, there are a lot faster and easier way, if you use Automator, you will be able to change all the pictures automatically.

My point is that to every action you preform by hand, there is another option. Here is a list of applications that I use to ease my workflow that I use them all the time when Im using my mac. The list will be updated from time to time when I come across other useful applications.

Everyday useful Applications

Caffeine

Keep your screen from dimming while not connected to a power supply.

This little application is extremely handy when you are trying to read directly from the screen. When installed it will place a little coffee cup next to the clock in the upper right corner of your screen (if you so choose in the settings). When you want to activate it you just single.–click the coffee cup, and the icon will now look like a cup full of coffee. To deactivate the application just single-click the icon, which will now look like an empty cup.

Get Caffeine here from Lighthead – it is freeware!

QuickSilver

Act without doing.This is another very handy application. The purpose of the applications is to make you able to preform more with less time. The way it works is that you activate QS by a predefined hot-key and then start typing. Lets say that I want to find a contact in my address book. Then I would hit Ctrl-Space(my hot-key combination) and start typing the name of the contact, and within seconds I have the contact at hand. However, the magic does not stop here. If I wanted to send the contact a mail, I only had to hit Tab once, and then type “Compose” followed by Return. This would show me a new mail, with the recipient being the contact that I selected, and I could have a mail send within a few seconds.

To compare this with normal use, I would probably open mail, then click “compose new mail” followed by either searching for the contact to get the mail address, or start typing the name of the recipient” and hereafter start typing the mail.

It is probably a question of comfort, however, I find that I am able to do a lot of tasks very fast with out having to use anything else but a combination of hot-keys.

Get QuickSilver here from Blacktree.com- it is freeware!

Other Useful Applications

CleanApp

Don’t get lost. CleanApp is a un-install utility that will help you get ridge of those applications that will not be uninstalled by normal drag and drop from the Application folder to Trash. Some applications like Adobe, Microsoft Office and other applications integrates themselves into the system, and it is therefore necessary to remove more than the application from the application folder. CleanApp will help you do just that.

CleanApp comes with a lot of other features, for instant it will help you locate huge files, old files, log and cash files. It can also read applications and trim the size of a application by removing the un-nescessary languages.

Though CleanApp is a Shareware utility I found it worthwhile investing in as it really helps you minimize waste of space by applications and other files

Get CleanApp here from synium.de – it is shareware.

AppZapper

The uninstaller Apple forgot. As with most other Shareware applications there is a Freeware comparable application that has the core function that is needed and nothing else. AppZapper is like that to CleanApp, and it very good as well.

Get AppZapper from appzapper.com – it is freeware.

AppFresh

The overall application/plugin/widget updater for your mac. AppFresh helps you keep all your applications, your plugins, widgets and everything else up to date. It is a really cool tool that will make sure that all applications, which is not updated by apple software updater, is still up to date.

All you have to do is launch the application and AppFresh will scan your system for everything it can update. Afterwards it will show you a list of all available updates and you can start updating.

I think this is a really helpful application as it is important to keep your system overall updated to prevent the system being hijacked or in any other way falter.

Get AppFresh here from metaquark.de – it is freeware.

Tagged: Applications, OS X, System, Workflow