Some OSX programs & tips

This is just a quick post to highlight a few Mac OSX programs & tips that you might find useful.

Programs

Default Folder – This is how all save file dialogs should work. Watch the video. They have a free demo you can try. I bought it and am always happy at all the clicking and navigating it spares me. It also makes it very easy to add tags to saved files so that they will be easier to find using Spotlight. It also shows previews of files as you’re browsing in an open file dialog.

Numbers – An oft forgotten part of iWork. I use it to make up experiment data sheets to fill in, and to organize data. Its big advantage over Excel, as far as I’m concerned, is that it’s fast and easy to make custom page layouts that are clear and fit the different data types.

Postbox – This one is available for Windows and OSX. I like Gmail’s conversation view. Postbox is the closest I’ve found to it in a standalone mail program. It also handles tabs, which helps to reduce window clutter. Postbox lets you browse through images or other files completely separately from the messages they were originally attached to. I like this feature a lot because many times the original message had only an attachment, no subject or message body.

Typinator – I use this to speed up answering emails and other typography characters. For example, when I type “;;so” it is automatically expanded into a full sign off, with my name and affiliation. I also use it for little typographic things, such as Greek letters and the degree symbol. You can also set it up to insert formatted text and even images.

Tips

Pages (part of iWork) works with the latest versions Endnote. You don’t have to use Word.

Vector figures from PDF files viewed in Preview can be copied and pasted into Pages documents and they stay vectorized.