What's your favorite app that even Apple power users don't know about, but should?

Tap Forms is actually looking like a pretty good solution to me for student records. Too bad there’s not really an iOS URL scheme yet.

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Definitely want to make sure A Better Finder Rename gets more exposure. Although I am happy to see Finder (and, before it, Path Finder) receive some batch rename capabilities, ABFR runs circles around anything you can do in a GUI on the Mac.

I’ve had to rename thousands of files with gobbledygook names and this application is a champion. Tons of built in filters, multi-step macro building so you can tweak for several different workflows, drop icon creation, and more. I loved it so much after my first purchase that upon upgrade I bought the “forever” upgrade along with their other two utilities (which, admittedly, I use far less).

I am not a tech by trade but on the side this program’s abilities has brought me more than enough work to pay for itself and some other software upgrades. Give it a shot!

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For instance, using Digital Color Meter built into macOS, I have to pick with the correct color value selected (on my old laptop, I think it was Adobe sRGB, on my new machine Native Values), or else picking colors from web pages doesn’t match the color specified in the CSS.

An older app similar to Skala, Hues, has no color profile choices and will pick the wrong color from a web page.

I’m not sure this counts that much because Apple makes it, but Mainstage. If you are into making music or have a kid that is, you can’t get a better deal at $30 for the amount of keyboard and guitar patches alone. Plus you can run backing tracks, add effects, and even run in-ear monitors if you are so inclined. But just for the instrument packs alone, I don’t think anything else comes close.

iStatMenus is an app I’ve heard promoted on many Mac podcasts but I stayed away from it because I didn’t think I was technical enough to have a need for it.

But then I wanted something that would show the temperature and weather in the menubar, and downloaded iStatMenus and now I love it. I’m also using iStatMenus’ battery level monitor, and the widget that shows CPU, memory, and networking stats.

And I like the way iStatMenus shows the time, day and date, with a single letter for each day – R is Thursday and U is Sunday, which fills me with language-nerd glee.

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Re TapForms:

Its pretty seamless across OSX/iOS too. Its been my replacement for Bento and previous mac database apps

Picatext not available in the Australian app store for some reason…

I recently picked this up and am a fan. For SetApp users, there’s also Renamer

Another vote for Unclutter for creating quick notes that are searchable and can be accessed anywhere easily when stored on Dropbox. It’s has a clipboard history feature and a temporary file drop zone.

For renaming files quickly with plenty of features I use NameChanger. Donation-ware and totally worth it.

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He sure is. I reported a bug and he sent me a beta build later that day that fixed the problem.

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Name Mangler from Many Tricks. Great Batch rename program with powerful RegEx capabilities ( that I don’t know how to use, but the dev has helped me many timesj

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Today I had the need to use Grapher, then I thought “here’s an application that even Apple power users don’t know about!” It comes on every MacSums_gcx

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There’s a pretty interesting story behind the graphing calculator. I have no idea how much of it’s true, but it’s a fabulous read nonetheless!

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For years and years I have searched and experimented with replacements for the much loved, easy to use, inexpensive and versatile database from the now defunct Appleworks.
Tap Forms was the answer.

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Great thread. +1 for Amphetamine - a good utility to keep your mac from going to sleep. Tripmode to minimize data use of a Mac while using tethered cell data.

I use an app called PowerPhotos to keep two photo libraries. I take a bunch of photos at scientific meetings. PowerPhotos allows me to keep these separate from family pictures. Note: separate library is not synced to icloud/iOS devices.

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I’m a bit surprised by the number of people using tools like Amphetamine to prevent their Mac from going to sleep. First of all, there’s the caffeinate command in the terminal which does exactly the same (and for free!). Next, if you’re an Alfred user, there’s (e.g.) the Coffee Coffee workflow that does the same. No need for a separate app at all.

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I guess one added benefit is that one can ‘see’ the icon, indicating whether or not the ‘non-sleep’ has been activated – so providing a further visual reminder (potentially) that Alfred/Terminal does not (AFAIK).

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Thanks for the coffee coffee recommendation!

Using an app like Amphetamine gives more control to when the ‘caffeination’ happens: for a set amount of time, on a schedule, when connected to a certain network device or when a particular app is running. Further there are options for keeping disks awake or for cancelling the session when the battery’s charge drops below a specified point.

Perhaps most importantly, I can have a tea pot in my menu bar.
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Pocket Money from paramount is a great finance app