Being More Productive on Mac

Almost every new Mac user starts with Stickies. Stickies are great for transient notes - you can use them to keep text, graphics, even tables, but when information keeps piling up, you need a more powerful tool.

After six months of reading reviews, downloading demos, importing and exporting my data, I settled on DevonThink. Its user interface is a bit clunky and there is a learning curve, but it is a powerful tool.

See review by Douglas Johnston: An Attic Called DevonThink

I also recommend to look at Yojimbo. It is a new a kid on the block -- Yojimbo is fast, has polished user interface and can synchronize your notes with .Mac.

It is a pleasure to take screenshots on Mac. With Command-Shit-3 (capture full screen) and Command-Shift-4 (capture a selection) what else can you wish for?

You have to download SnapNDrag. This freeware utility bring screenshot taking to another level. The best thing about SnapNDrag is that you do not have to save the picture to use it and you can quickly drag it into another application: Mail, Finder, Skype, Ecto...

Ecto is arguably the best blogging tool available on Mac OS X. If you ever find that blogging is not fun anymore you should try the effortless blogging with ecto.

Together ecto and SnapNDrag make a killer combination -- blogging with screenshots has never been easier.

Every Mac comes with the The New Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus. You can use a Dictionary application and a dashboard widget.

You can also hover the mouse over the word and press Control-Command-D to display a popup dictionary. Keep holding down Control and Command keys and move the mouse cursor to get the definition of another word.

QuickSilver is an amazing freeware program and if you prefer keyboard to a mouse then it will change the way you interact with your Mac.

A great video introduction to QuickSilver is available on MacBreak.

It is great to see that with tools like Google Spreadsheet, Google Calendar, and Writely there is less need in huge and slow Microsoft Office.

If you prefer using a desktop application, take a look at NeoOffice. The latest beta version is stable and works perfectly with documents and spreadsheets.