Most Used Mac Software

1. Most Used Mac Software Keyboard
2. Most Used Mac Software Developers

If you have just switched over from Windows to Mac, and are still confused about the features and functions of the various programs and applications that Mac has to offer, then go through this Techspirited article, to know the suitable Mac equivalents to the most-used Windows programs.

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk..

Some of the best software for a Mac is entertainment software. If you work and play on your Mac, here are some great entertainment options. VLC VLC is a free video player than can play, well, any video. Unlike QuickTime, which only supports a limited number of file types, VLC will take pretty much anything you can throw at it. What used to require months of training and an expensive suite of software can now be accomplished with a single free app. One of the most popular free clients on the Mac.

BBEdit is developed by Bare Bones software and is probably one of the oldest and most reliable text editors you can find on Mac. Not only BBEdit is used by thousands of developers out there but it is also used by many writers as the software provides features for editing, searching, and manipulation of prose, source code, and textual data. This may be due to the fact that StatCounter uses browser detection to get OS statistics, and there the most common browsers are not often used. The version breakdown for browsers in Madagascar shows 'Other' at 34.9%, and Opera Mini 4.4 is the most popular known browser at 22.1% (plus e.g. 3.34% for Opera 7.6). However browser statistics.

For someone who is used to working on Windows, it can be a slightly difficult task to look for even the most basic applications and programs on Mac. Though the latter OS is also user-friendly, users usually get lost in the world of Apple's OS, and eventually return to Windows. So, if you don't wish to return and make the most of your Mac, it is important to know the right alternatives for Windows applications and programs on this new OS platform.

Widget Engines

Windows Sidebar has a lot of gadgets to offer for quick navigation, but when it comes to Mac, you cannot question the effectiveness of Dashboard. While Mac offers widgets in various categories, Windows has a handful of these.

The DVD Player is the default video player in Mac OS. However, this player doesn't support all video formats. A much-better alternative is the VLC media player that plays almost all video formats.

Media Center

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk..

In Mac, Front Row is used for navigating and viewing videos, photos, podcasts, and to play music. However, in 2011 this software application was discontinued, and Mac users were only left with iTunes. As far as the Windows equivalent is concerned, it allows users to record and view live television, and organize as well as play music and videos. It is available as an add-on in Windows 8 Pro.

Dock

The Dock that sits at the bottom of the desktop has all the necessary and frequently used apps in Mac. This is an in-built feature which displays the apps that are currently running. In Windows, there is no such in-built feature, but you can download ObjectDock to get a hang of the real Mac Dock.

Music Player

The default music player that Windows offers is the Windows Media Player, while iTunes is the default player in Mac. Both players can considered equals when it comes to music playing capabilities.

Photo Editing

Picasa is the most used photo-editing software, which includes geotagging and face recognition features. Apart from this, one can even upload one's photos on the Picasa website. For Mac users, iPhoto is a great tool to manage photos, and share them via iMessages, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.

Most Used Mac Software Keyboard

Managing Personal Videos

To convert one's personal videos and photos into professional-quality movies, Windows offers Movie Maker software. One can add soundtracks and themes to these movies. Its Mac equivalent is iMovie, which provides an added feature of creating trailers from the available footage.

Online Chat

iChat, the pre-installed chat, is best thing on offer as far as the Mac OS is concerned. One can text chat, audio chat, video chat, and also set up multi-person chat with iChat. This feature comes inbuilt, whereas Windows offered Microsoft Messenger which gave way to Skype in April 2013. Skype also offers in-app calling.

Backup Utility

To create a backup of important files and/or restore accidentally deleted files from your Windows system, the Backup Status and Configuration is the in-built backup utility. For Mac users, Time Machine utility does the same, but an external drive or AirPort Time Capsule is needed in addition to your Mac system.

Desktop Customization

Windows does not offer any pre-installed desktop customization tool, but there are a host of downloadable apps for the said purpose, like the Dexpot tool. However, Mac offers an in-built tool known as Spaces, that forms a part of the Mission Control group, in the Dock. All apps and windows can be arranged in separate desktops.

Browser

The default browser for accessing the internet on Windows, is Internet Explorer. Apart from this, one can also install Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox and set them as default browsers. While using Mac, the default browser is Safari, which works closely with iCloud.

Personal Calendar

Windows allows you to maintain a personal calendar, wherein users can track their appointments and also subscribe to other online calendars. For Mac users, iCal allows users to keep a track of their schedule, appointments, etc., along with subscription to other calendars.

Email Account

All Windows users can set up their email account in the default application―Microsoft Outlook. Apart from its mailing capabilities, Outlook also offers calendar services. Mac users have in-built Mail assistant, which has only mailing capabilities. However, both these services are pre-installed in their native OS.

Working with PDFs

PDF files can be viewed, edited, and created using Adobe Reader on the Windows OS. On Mac, Preview is the best equivalent for Adobe. Preview also supports viewing and editing of popular image file formats i.e. JPEG, TIFF, and PNG.

Presentations

For creating visually alluring presentations, Windows offers PowerPoint slide presentation software. The latest version of PowerPoint can be installed on your Mac. However, Keynote is the presentation software that is native to Mac OS. It offers capabilities similar to PowerPoint.

Word Processing

To create text documents in Windows, users can either use Wordpad or Notepad. However, their Mac equivalent―TextEdit―has improved capabilities of creating text documents, importing graphics, playing around with HTML, and addition of music and movie files.

Graphics Editing

The graphics editing software offered by Windows is Photoshop, which enables creation of 3D images, motion graphics editing, and has advanced image analysis features. For Mac users, Pixelmator offers similar capabilities. Users need to install both these software, as they are not in-built.

Desktop Publishing

The Microsoft Publisher software allows users to create professional-quality documents by using various design tools. It is easy to create brochures, newsletters, adverts, etc., by using the templates provided in the Publisher. Mac users can use iStudio Publisher, which is also an easy-to-use page layout application. Microsoft Publisher is an in-built entity, while one needs to purchase iStudio Publisher.

Video Editing

Windows users can edit videos, organize various video clips, and handle unlimited video and audio tracks by using the Adobe Premiere Elements. For Mac users, the same features are available in Final Cut Pro. The software will transfer the video files to an internal/external hard drive and then perform various operations on it. Premiere Elements 9.0 version is available for Mac OS X.

Database Management

Microsoft Access allows Windows users to manage desktop database as well as create browser-based database applications for business purposes. Users can also share the database that is saved on SQL servers. Filemaker is the equivalent for Mac users to maintain records of their business proceedings. Research data in the form of audio and photo files can also be stored in this software.

Due to the extensive use of both operating systems, there are hundreds of software programs developed everyday. We couldn't include all the programs in this article; however we have mentioned the most-used and popular programs. Hope your switch from Windows to Mac is a smooth one.

Related Posts

• Installing Windows 7 on a Mac

  Using Boot Camp, Microsoft's Windows 7 can be installed and used on a Mac. This lets you enjoy the benefits of both operating systems, without migrating to new hardware.

• Reviews for Home Design Software for Mac

  Here are some of the choices for the title of 'best home design software for Mac'. They each have something unique to offer, and you can use them to come…

• List of Software to Practice Typing

  Nowadays, there are many typing practice software available online. These software help increase the typing speed by means of lessons, games, and many such tools. Regular practice with the help…

Application

Hey

I love my Mac and I have hundreds of applications installed on it. As a result I wanted to do a post on what I believe are the top 100 Mac applications that are essential to any user. I've picked a variety of applications that I could think of. I have tried to go for the cheaper free option, but quite a few you have to pay for. If you think I am missing an application leave a comment with a link to the app and why you should think it should be included, it doesn't have to be long, I just want your opinions. If you disagree with any leave a comment with your reasons.

Each application will be split into a couple of major sections. There are some applications that could be in more than one section, but that is not the point of this post. I will also include a link and a bit of descriptive text on what the application is about. There may be duplicate items of the same nature i.e word processing, i've included this due to the differences each application has. The list is in no particular order, mostly alphabetical.

If you want to take your knowledge of Mac apps a bit further I recommend these two books on Amazon, Cool Mac Apps and The Little Mac Book they have got some raving reviews and are probably a good read. I'm sure if you look through Amazon there is plenty of stuff that you can find.

Computer Files

This section is all about programs that can be used to work with files and applications

1) AppFresh
Software updater is great for Apple applications, but appfresh has the ability to check third party apps for updates. A great little tool for keeping up to date.

2) AppZapper
Although applications are easy to uninstall on a mac there are usually small preference files hanging about. Appzapper cleans up an uninstall all of those files.

3) Disk Inventory X
A simple program that scans your disk and visually shows what files takes up how much space, good to visualize if you are running out of space and you have some size hogs.

4) Grand Perspective
Very similar to Disk Inventory X, shows you what files take up how much space on your website.

5) OpenPlist

A very cool little tool if you need to end up editing Plist files.

6) Quicksilver
One of the best applications ever made for the mac. Its a quick launch tool that enables you to open and do practically anything. Very fun and really increases your productivity.

7) Stuffit
An application design to unstuff or unpack nearly any file. Great if you use archives a lot.

8) TextWrangler
A very cool text editor that lets you edit text files quickly. Sometimes more powerful than text edit.

9) TidyUp
An application that enables you to search through a list of files finds duplicates. Great if you have many files and you need to organise them.

10) Todos
Leaves no application behind. A very visual way to view all of the applications on your computer. Kind of surpassed by the stacks in the dock.

Most Used Mac Software Developers

11) UnRarX
UnrarX gives you the abilty to easily uncompress .rar files. Very good, although stuffit can now handle .rar files.

12) Xslimmer
Give your mac a diet. It goes through and removes the powerpc or intel parts of your program. It can really reduce the size of applications. Can also break them if you are not careful.

Internet

This section is all about applications that use the internet or this type of connectivity in some way.

13) Adium
A simple all in one AIM, chat client. Supports, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and many other through the use of plugins and basic support. It does lack some functionality in some chat protocols.

14) ApGrapher
A great little program that offers the ability to find information about the wireless networks whizzing around your head.

15) Azureus
One of the best bittorrent clients out there. Has lots of user extensions through the use of plugins.

16) Colloquy
A really powerful application that can be used for the IRC networks. Special care has been taken in this application to make it blend in with the rest of the Mac OS theme.

17) CSSedit
A must for any web developer. CSSedit offers the best tools around to help you edit and modify CSS code for you webpages.

18) Cyberduck
A small lightweight application for ftp. Has some small niggles, but it is free. Animal crossing new horizons collector. Transmit is better if you use ftp a lot.

19) Firefox
One of the best web browsers around in my opinion. Has a massive add-on library which you can customize to your needs. A viable alternative to safari.

20) iStumber
I found this a great small application that enabled you to view wireless and bluetooth networks quick and hassle free.

21) LittleSnitch
The application that snitches on any application that is trying to access the net to phone home. Great for protecting you privacy.

22) Netnewswire
A very popular RSS client for the mac, nuff said.

23) Skype
Offering superior calls over the internet, it is the application if you do a lot of talking and want a good quality transmission.

24) Transmission
A light weight bittorrent application that is gaining popularity. Its personal choice at this point of transmission verse Azureus.

25) Transmit
A great application from Panic that will feature a couple of time in this list. It is a powerful application for ftp uploads and downloads.

26) Undercover
A piece of software that dials to the undercover servers if you computer has been stolen. Great if you use a laptop, less useful on a desktop.

27) Unison
Another piece of panic software that enables you to use the usenet newsreader networks. A really good piece of software if you use usenet a lot. If you are looking for a good news provide I recommend Giganews.

28) Vidalia
A GUI controller for the Tor anonymity network. One click on, one click off, simple and easy to use. Best of all its free.

Multimedia

This section is all about video, images and sound. Anything of this nature is included here.

29) VLC
The all in one application for watching videos. Supports nearly every codec imaginable.

30) Aperture
One of Apples Pro programs for organizing and altering photos. A very powerful application although comes with a bit of a price tag.

31) Audacity
A free audio editor which has a few advance features that make it create for editing audio for your videos or other applications.

32) Blender
A free 3D modeler which has the same power of many of the most advance applications on the market. Comes with quite a steep learning curve.

33) Delicious Library
A very cool application used to organise your books, movies, games and CD's. You can use your built in iSight to save time by scanning your books. Very cool and fun to use.

34) DeskLickr
A simple application that uses the vast photo resource of flickr to change your wallpaper every so often. Makes a cool change.

35) Desktastic
Another Panic app. This time it can be used to write directly on your desktop. Very cool if you use a tablet for your daily work.

36) Gimp
The free image editing program. Used by many open source and linux users. A create start since Leopard doesn't include any image editing software.

37) Google Earth
One of the best applications from Google. Use it to zoom in on planet earth and explore the world around you. A great time waster, as well as a very useful tool if you are going anywhere and want to check out the surroundings.

38) HandBreak
An open source application that can quickly convert DVD's to Mpeg-4.

39) iLife
The all in one package made by Apple. I don't think this needs any explaining.

40) iShowU
This application takes a direct recording of your screen. Great if you want to make recordings of specific applications. You need a good CPU, a bit of a power hog.

41) Joost
A very hot application that lets you watch free TV. Beautiful application even though the amount of TV stations are a bit small.

42) Photoshop
The high priced application for real pros who want to edit and manipulate images and photos. Not for people with tight wallets.

43) Pixelmator
The medium priced application that has a lot of great image editing potential. Not as expensive as Photoshop.

44) Shapeshifter
Bored of your interface? Let shape shifter change it for you. Not Leopard compatible although this is likely to change.

45) Theme Park
A great little app which lets you delve into the resource files for applications and lets you change them. Not as powerful as Shapeshifter but lets you tweak little bits of your operating systems interface.

46) TVShows
A little app that downloads all of the torrent files for your favourite TV shows. You need a bittorrent client to finish the process off.

47) Wallsaver
Puts your screensaver as your wallpaper. Add a bit of life to your desktop.

Little Apps

Little Applications are small applications in size that add a bit of functionality or are just plain cool.

48) Autorate
A simple piece of software that rates your musis in your iTunes library based on the number of plays and track skips.

49) Fish
A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around.

50) iAlertU
A little program that can arm your computer. Moving your laptop will set of the alarm and alert you to intruders.

51) Liquidmac
Once again using the motion sensor in a laptop. This program fills the screen with water which you can play around with by moving your computer.

52) MacSaber
Let your Mac become a jedi. Once again using the motion sensor makes cool lightsaber noises. Don't let the mac fly out of your hands as it has with a couple of people.

53) Quinn
Tetris on the extreme side of life. A cool little app with amazing graphics on the old arcade favourite Tetris.

54) Resize ‘Em All
A little program which can be used to resize images.

55) Rulers
Put a ruler on your screen. This application lets you measure nearly anything on your screen, great if you are in the design world.

56) smcFanControl
A small application that runs in your menu bar to control your fan speeds. A must if you think your computer runs a bit hot.

57) TimeOut
One for the work-a-holic. A little application that tells you to take a break and stop what you are doing.

58) Wallsaver
Sets your screen saver as your wallpaper. A great little program to add a bit of movement to your desktop.

Tools

This section of essential applications is all about tools. These are tools to do specific task or just to give you information.

59) Apple Remote Desktop
One of Apples many programs that lets you work effectively on your network. This app lets you look in on a remote desktop and work with it remotely.

60) Battery Health
One of many tools used to help you find out how much juice is left in your Mac battery. A tool for any laptop.

61) BootCamp
Installing Windows on a Mac is never easier with BootCamp. A simple program that create a partition on you disk for installing windows.

62) BwanaDik
A menu bar monitoring tool for you network. Lets you find tons of info about you LAN and WAN in one easy to reach place.

63) Carbon Copy Cloner
For serious back ups you need something like Carbon Copy Cloner that can clone your entire drive quickly and easily.

64) Chmox
Chmox is a program that enables you to open .chm help files on your Mac. Chm files are not supported in preview.

65) Coconut Battery
A personal favourite of mine, this is another battery tool to monitor the health of your battery. I wish my laptop was run off coconuts.

66) DasBoot
DasBoot is a tool to create a diagnostic and repair kit for your computer to put on an iPod or flash drive.

67) Flip4Mac
The tool endorsed by Microsoft to help with those pesky .wmv files.

68) FreeDMG
This software creates drag and drop .dmg archives on the fly. Easy to use if you make a lot of disk images.

69) GeekTool
GeekTool is a preference pane module to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop.

70) Growl
A very useful tool that is used by many applications to show a clean way of displaying messages to you. Like the bubbles in Windows except a hell of a lot better.

71) Hardware Monitor
Hardware Monitor is designed to check the various pieces of hardware on you computer for faults and problems as well as give messages back to you.

Bolens iseki manual. 72) Hex Fiend

Editing hex files cannot be easier with Hex Fiend.

73) HoudahGeo
https://tronictorrent.mystrikingly.com/blog/3d-cad-viewer-for-mac. HoudahGeo allows you to add Geo data to any image within the EXIF data. Helps you find your way around the world in your images.

74) iStat Menus
iStat Menus off a wide range of statistical analysis of your computer including various hardware bits. Their widget is one of my favorites.

75) Mac Pilot
This piece of software allows you to modify various parts of your computer that you would normally have to do through Terminal.

76) MacJanitor
This little app cleans up various system files and other bits and bobs to keep your computer running smoothly.

77) MainMenu
MainMenu is another piece of software to help you keep your computer running smoothly. This one has more advance options such as rebuilding the spotlight database.

78) MenuMeters
Another monitor piece of software but this one is designed to run within the menu bar.

79) Monolingual
Who needs to know French. Monolingual removes the languages from the computer that you do not need.

80) Operation
A project management tool that lets you organise your projects quickly and easily.

81) Parallels
Highly recommended virtualization software for virtualizing other OS's.

82) Service Scrubber
Helps you organise and remove services from your menus (Name of App > Services).

83) SquidDan
Once a very popular proxy tool for sorting out your own proxy for handling your internet connection. Has become disused over time.

84) Stomp
Stomp those big files down to size. Helps reduce video files into more compressed formats.

85) SuperDuper
Another great backing up utility although its not fully Leopard compatible at the time of writing.

86) Synergy2
A very cool little application that lets you share a mouse and keyboard between one or more computers.

87) TinkerTool
A tool that lets you access more preferences the Apple has built into the OS.

88) VMWare
Another very good piece virtualization software to enable to to virtualize other OS's.

Work

This final section ,and to round up, is going to be all about top programs for use at work.

89) Cha-Ching
A simple money program that helps you organise your accounts, budgets and finances.

90) Concept Draw
More of a group of programs that offer a wide range of applications such as flow charts to mind maps.

91) Filemaker
A cross platform database application, that has amazing power and potential.

92) iWork
Apples work application package to complement iLife, a good package if you want the Apple integration although lacks on some features.

93) Microsoft Office
Office is one of the most prominent packages on the Windows machines for work programs. Very good on Mac, although some small annoying bugs.

94) Money2
Another application for managing your accounts. The interface on this program is amazing.

95) Neooffice
An Open Office port to Mac, like Microsoft Office, except its free.

96) Nvu
A very powerful webpage editor for designing and creating websites. Just as good as Dreamweaver. Android app setup free download.

97) Omnigraffle
A brill program that offers a really cool way of creating presentation diagrams. Check out the Omni Groups offerings for all of the cool programs they have to offer.

98) Process
Another program by Jumsoft on this list that lets you plan and organise your projects.

99) Quicken
Another personal finance program, but this one feels more corporate and official.

100) Yojimbo
A cool little program that helps you organise all your bits of information, great if you end up filling up dashboard with millions of stickies.

Well folks, there you have it, my personal Top 100 Essential Mac Applications. I hope you agree that there are some awesome applications out there. It has taken me over a week to put this togther and if you think I have missed any please leave a comment with the program you would like to include and a reason why.

Related posts:

Where To Next?