Thoughts

Everyone has a favorite Mac app. There are apps that make the use of the Mac a very pleasurable experience and without them, it does not feel like a Mac.
I have some that I definitely need to function properly and others make some basic functions better.
With the release of Mac OS El Capitan, some of the apps that Mac users have learnt to depend on my no longer work as they used to or may not even work at all (This is an issue every time a new OS comes out, some app will lose their perch due to improvements in the OS or changes by Apple) and some actually become better by rising to the challenge that Apple has throw to the developers.

So below are the Apps I use on my Mac to make my experience better.

Utility

Alfred While the built-in spotlight has acquired see of the skill of Alfred and more, Alfred is very good at what it does and gets even better when the power pack module is purchased. It starts doing things spotlight can only dream about (now).

1Password:You can’t do anything online these days without creating one password or multiple. The need to purchase things with credit cards, remember things such that anyone can’t stumble on them easily, manage the multiple email and social accounts without repeating passwords and be able to recall the information and use it anytime you like and want just by remembering one password.
This is the second app I install on a Mac after Alfred. You are saved the security problem of using the same password on every account. Your passwords and associated sites are audited to alert you if there is any breach that requires a password change. This is a must have!

TextExpander:If you find yourself typing the same thing over and over again, TextExpander is what you need. If you have a reply to send to your clients for acknowledgement of request and a different one for delivery of product or services, you can easily make a quick snippet for each letter type and with a few keystrokes your letter is available.

Bartender: It seems every app one installs today wants to drop a status icon on the menu bar. That is where the bartender comes in, it clears all the icons on the menu bar and places them under its own bar clearing the space on your menu bar.

iStat Menus:This utility allows you to see the performance of multiple parameters on your Mac so that you can have the peace of mind when you hear you fan kick in (if your Mac has a fan) or know which app is pulling the most data from your internet connection.

Hazel: If you want to get your Mac to get managed automagically, you can’t go wrong with Hazel. It can clean your trash, file your documents, rename them and even pull information from your mainland store it in any location of your choice as soon as the document is available.
The price for the apps below range from free to paid and some are both. Also they all allow you to try their functionality before asking for payment in case you love the experience.

Productivity

Scrivener.This is the ultimate productivity tool for the writer. After you have gathered your research material (which it can manage for you), it provides the environment and the tools to write your masterpiece with minimal distraction from the tools available.

Pages: A few years ago, Apple reboot the Pages development to allow it do develop with the iOS and iCloud version and because of that Pages lost a lot of its functionality. Right now it has gained a lot of them back but it is not where it issued to be. If you want to do desktop publishing in a simple intuitive way, you can’t go wrong with this app. It comes free with every new Mac.

Numbers:This is the Apple version of the spreadsheet app. It does what it does well but still suffering from the reboot that Pages and Keynote suffered as well, it is gradually getting its stars back. It handles simple spreadsheets easily, it has tracking features and can do some complex calculations. For heavy duty tasks other apps will be required.

Keynote: Rumor has it that this app is so beautiful and well made because Steve Jobs loved to use it for his keynote presentations. In my opinion, if you want to do beautiful presentation this is the app to use. If you want to prototype an app design, this is a great app to use. By the way it is free with a new Mac

Dropbox: This is a referral link :-):The king of document management across multiple systems and devices. You need to try out Dropbox. There are many out there that allow you to do some of the things it does but this is the one to try.

Evernote:If you find yourself writing things down on multiple notes and papers and not knowing where you have placed them or can’t remember what was in them, Evernote is a great tool to help with that. You can capture notes anywhere with sound and picture, share them with multiple users, search through them and recall them anytime you want across multiple operating systems.

Day One:This app allows you to manage the events in your life in a wonderful way by providing a system for journaling the activities and presenting them in a way you will love just incase you want to reminiscence.

OmniFocus:We all love to manage our time so that we can have time to do those things that excite us and are important to us. For time management based on the David Allen Get Things Done system, you can’t go wrong with this app. There are other apps that can do what it does and a good example is Things.

OmniOutliner:This is an app that is very good at what it does. It allows you to outline your plan in an easy to follow way, allows you to add sub-points to the initial idea and allows your to re-order the flow of thought by simply dragging the bullet points from one place to another. It makes it a good tool for sketching out ideas for a book or a paper.

Mindnode:If you love mind-mapping and pictorially represent your ideas on paper using your Mac, this is the app to go to. Its ability to differentiate different branches with their different colors and represent them in a way that bring clarity to your thought makes this an important app to have.

Microsoft Word:This is the enterprise and industrial standard for word processing. It is ubiquitous which means if you have to interact with the outside word, it is a need to have. There are other word processors out there that do a decent job like Nisus, Mellel, LibreOffice Writer and the aforementioned Pages.

Microsoft Excel:This just like its word processor brother, this is the heavy weight champion of spreadsheet processing. If you find yourself doing very complex tasks with numbers and spreadsheets, this is a must have. LibreOffice Calc and Numbers are options for less intensive tasks.

Apple Mail:This is the onboard email system and it is sufficient for most uses. It can be extended by installing third party plugins though still works very well without them.

Fantastical:This is what the Mac Calendar could have been. It is fast, smart beautiful and convenient. With its natural language system, it makes sense of your input as you reference date, location and time in your instruction to it.

If you have used the Mac long enough, you will know about bundles and how they add great value to the user as they give you the opportunity to get great apps at a huge discount. These bundle offers enables the user to chose apps that will improve productivity without breaking the bank and in some instances allows the buyer to make some money as an affiliate. There is the need to subscribe to the newsletter of some of the promoters to learn about the offers when they become available. There is a current bundle that is active now which will give the user the opportunity to get some great apps.

These are not the only apps I use but the basic ones to start out on the Apple Mac.