My colleague Zac Hall yesterday shared the Mac apps he currently uses, and it got me thinking about the Mac apps and utilities I couldn’t live without.
Some are major apps, like Final Cut Pro, but there are a bunch of utilities I use on a regular basis that I’d really miss if I didn’t have them …
My key Mac apps
Final Cut Pro
My colleagues Jeff Benjamin and Fernando Silva dash off about seven videos before breakfast each morning. My own video output is, er, slower. Admittedly not quite as slow as my YouTube feed would suggest, as a lot of my videos are unlisted and only produced to share with friends. But it is something I really enjoy, and I took the decision that since I was bound to want to upgrade from iMovie to Final Cut at some point, I might as well just do it from the outset – a solid benefit of apps with a one-off cost.
Spark Mail
I re-try Apple’s own Mail app every few years, but have mostly used third-party apps based on a mix of offering better organization for multiple accounts, and more pleasing aesthetics. (It’s always seemed weird to me that Mail doesn’t seem to reflect any of the design skills we associate with Apple.) For the last few years, that’s been Spark, which combines clean, sleek looks with easy management of accounts and smart mailboxes. I don’t bother with the AI subscription stuff.
Lightroom Classic
I’ve used Lightroom for many years, and when Adobe turned it into a subscription app with a very different UI, I was relieved to see that the original version was retained as Lightroom Classic, even if it did now require a subscription. For me, it’s just a really well thought out app whose workflow mirrors the order in which I typically do things, from culling and prioritizing through editing to output. I’ve created a whole bunch of my own presets over the years, so editing is usually a very efficient process.
Photoshop
We use a slot of stock images for our pieces here, and I don’t want those cluttering up my photo libraries, so I use Photoshop for editing these. Most edits are simple, so I could probably use a more basic editor, but Adobe’s subscription packages mean you can’t get Lightroom without Photoshop, so … I must say, though, that the generative AI features make it super easy to create the 2:1 aspect ratio we use, which often requires generating additional content – and I’m generally very impressed with the results.
Scrivener
I haven’t written any books for quite some time, but when I do I wouldn’t use any other app. In novel-writing, there are planner and pantsers – the latter being people who write by the seat of their pants, making it up as they go. I’m very definitely a planner, creating a very detailed outline of the structure before I write a single word. Scrivener’s card-based system is great for that, but it also makes it really easy to refer back to earlier scenes during the writing process. The Billion Dollar Heist was 145,000 words across 204 scenes (I structured it more like a movie than a book), with constantly-switching viewpoints, and Scrivener made it s a breeze to keep track of everything.
Final Draft
For screenplays, however, Final Draft is my preferred tool. I’m still very new to writing scripts, so it’s great to have an app that takes care of all the formatting for me. I just select ‘Dialog,’ for example, which can be done with a single key-press, and I’m prompted for the character name. Avoid characters whose names begin with the same latter and another single key is enough to autocomplete their name and leave you setup to type the dialog.
Utilities
The links below are mostly to my reviews, so you can check those out for more details.
TextSniper
At 9to5Mac we frequently need to quote from press releases and other source material, and sometimes this isn’t as simple as it might seem. Patent documents, for example, have weird formatting which makes it almost impossible to simply copy-and-paste, and don’t get me started on companies which make announcements in the form of graphics images posted to X … TextSniper is a utility which allows you to copy any text, even from a photo, and is really quick and easy to use.
Moom
This is my preferred macOS window management tool, enabling me to quickly switch between different window and desktop layouts on both my MacBook Pro and external monitor.
PhraseExpress
TextExpander without the subscription. The UI is clunkier for sure, but it’s not often that I interact with it – I have literally dozens of macros I use all the time.
Hidden Bar
A menubar manager, similar to Bartender.
iPhone Mirroring
I love this app. When I have my Mac in front of me, I much prefer to do everything there, so having access to iPhone-only apps right on my Mac is really handy.
NordVPN
I use a VPN anytime I’m accessing potentially sensitive sites on public Wi-Fi networks, including anything used to access my own files (like DropBox). NordVPN is also really handy for getting around geo-blocks, as the company seems to be better than anyone else as keeping ahead in this cat-and-mouse game.
What are your must-have Mac apps and utilities? Please share in the comments.
Photo: Ben Lovejoy
