What is Your Favorite App ... Ever

Now that’s a challenging one, but I think I’ll go with Ulysses. For me, it really walks that sweet spot between features and functionality and providing a simple and intuitive writing environment. I’m comfortable with putting all of my most important writing there and I anticipate using it for as long as it’s supported.

Honourable mention will have to go to Things 3, which coincidentally I also like for the same reasons. Both apps really excel in terms of the design principle of progressive disclosure – staying out of the way and simple when you want it to, and getting more complex and powerful when you need it to.

Having both as a chronicle of my work and as essential parts of my workspace as a teacher and writer has really made life a lot easier. Whenever anyone asks why I use a Mac, I point to these apps first.

Ithoughts HD for iOS - been with me since my 1st gen iPad. So functional and powerful - have tried others but always come back to Ithoughts HD. Regular updates, robust app :+1:

Me too!

Ulysses’s scope is great. I don’t need to add/install many other apps to getter done — notes to lots of words, initial work on webposts, a flexible organization system that makes sense to me…

I would agree with most that Drafts is it because it is really a game changer. I probably use half or less of its power. One day I will be a real power user as I use it more. And coupled with TextExpander it becomes off the charts for productivity.
But the app I would say I cant do without is 1Password. I know that I cant, or I dont think anyone can, create and remember all my generated passwords, secure notes and all the documents i keep as secure notes. No one can remember a database of that magnitude…oh sorry, Rain Man😀
And of course good ole OmniFocus is the greatest thing once ya get your head wrapped around it.
Honorable Mention would be:
TextExpander by itself
Excel as the most powerful app that I am in all day at work

Since you’re not limiting it to productivity apps, I’m going with a game. The original Civilization was the first program I bought on my very first computer (a PC), and it was magical. A close second is Laura Bow, a detective game by Sierra—not because it was such a great game (it was), but because it was the first game I bought after adding a sound card to my computer. Are any of you old enough to remember the transition from beeps/buzzes to actual sampled sounds? Thinking about playing that game, with real music and actual sounds of doors closing and footsteps, still gives me chills.

OmniFocus and Keyboard Maestro are probably the apps that have most changed my life, but they’ll never be my favorites like those two games.

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Check out this thread. :slightly_smiling_face:https://talk.macpowerusers.com/t/agenda-the-new-note-taking-software/1214

Overcast and Tweetbot. Both have introduced me to this wonderful community! :slight_smile:

Evernote has changed my workflow more than any other app. Archiving emails and notes, the ability to share internet note links, and integration with other apps had been greatest features. Runners-up: Omnifocus, Ulysses, Scrivener.

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I am not sure it’s possible to find just one favorite app ever, but right now, I’d have to go with DEVONthink, Drafts, or OmniFocus. If/when Drafts for macOS comes out, there will be no contest–it will be Drafts.

I’m also incredibly partial to OmniOutliner and Ulysses and Scrivener.

I couldn’t use my Mac without 1Password, Alfred, and TextExpander, so those could all be a favorite app as well.

So easy. Workflow. That sh*t changed my life. If there’s something I do 2x or more, I try to make a workflow for it. The best one I did was a workflow I call MyLifeLog that pulls all my health data, driving data (from the Automatic App), and day one entries of the day into one organized actionable Evernote note, every single day. After some interval of time (I usually do a year) I just export the Evernote notebook to HTML and then use bash scripts to track my data over time / generate charts. I lost 30lbs and was able to cut back on a lot of bad habits using this workflow. For this and many other reasons, Workflow will always be my #1. Can’t wait to see what the team has done with Siri Shortcuts.

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Another App that comes to mind besides 1Password is Emacs - I’ve been using it to write code since late 80’s. Every few years I tweak the setup and now it’s to the point where my setup can be run on different machines and behave the same.

I am new to Workflow, Is there a webinar, website you can direct me to learn this incredible program. Thank you

I forgot one app called Interact. It is by the same creator of Drafts. Unfortunately he has removed it from the App Store but for all those who bought it it’s amazing. It is what Apples Contacts should be on the iOS.

I’m torn between Avid Media Composer and Overcast. Both pieces of software have occupied more space in my brain over the past few years than all other apps combined. I spend so much time in both, they fit with my brain so well, and they’ve been the center of so many different surprisingly emotional experiences in my life. Runners up include 1Password, Day One, and Drafts.

Alright, I’ve been thinking about this for a week (!) and I think I’m ready to answer BBEdit.

I first used it in the late 90s, and returned to it maybe 10 years ago to be my daily driver for text, primarily markup, but also the occasional log file, even prose. I use its Scratchpad constantly.

I loved it as the most Mac text editor, fast and stable, but after I learned vim (so I could edit files on remote servers) That helped me realize there was much more power under the hood of BBEdit than I’d known, and I leveled up. The search features, the processing features, each time I tried a different editor, I felt a little hamstrung (Not that I wouldn’t appreciate a few of their features coming to BBEdit!)

When I mentored my interns, I never dictated their tools, but made sure they knew what was available in this package, and I would see them dipping in on their own when it was much more efficient at certain tasks than their primary editors (generally Atom or Sublime Text at the time). I felt my work was done.

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I use their light version, Text Wrangler, almost every day, usually to strip out some sort of weird formatting that’s gotten into a Word document that someone’s sent to me. It’s definitely the most stable program I’ve ever used. <3

For sheer mad love, it has to have been MacPaint. I loved that program so much and spent hours in my dorm room making maps and drawings and pretty much anything I could think of. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such pure joy at working with anything else on a computer. I also don’t think I’ve ever explored the possibilities of a program so deeply since then.

Now my favorite programs are Dropbox because of the number of times it’s saved me, and Evernote because I’m always finding new ways to use it.

+1 for 1Password here! I use it on my iPhone, iPad Pro, iMac, MacBook, Apple Watch, and even on my windows machine at work. I love how easy it is to move between devices and everything syncs up perfectly!

I’ve got some great news, if you hadn’t heard. You can upgrade TextWrangler to BBEdit, since TW has been end-of-life’d. Just download the latest BBEdit, and after the trial expires, it’ll just be a lighter version of BBEdit, which the developers state is better than TW.

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Canvas did a really great series on Workflow. Here’s the first episode.

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