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Notes/Printouts from Prior Meetings

Handout from Will Bosch's Freeware, etc., Presentation January 5, 2005

There are many Freeware (no cost) programs available for the Mac. I'm showing a few of my favorites. They can be found at anyone of several major download sites. Just type VersionTracker, MacUpdate or ZDNet in your browser window. (It will automatically fill in the missing www. and .com) and type in the name of the app you want in the search window.

Two search sites apps are Huevos and Search Bar. Huevos offers a choice of searching Google, Version Tracker and Dictionary amongst others. You can add your favorite search sites to the list if you wish. Type in what you need, a browser will open and if you choose VersionTracker as the search site, the page where it appears will open up.

Search Bar operates in the same way but it offers a list of over 50 search sites. If you choose Google as the search engine you may choose from a list including Search, Groups, Images, News, and Lucky Search as an option.

Onyx is a do-all app which can delete various caches, run cron tasks, repair permissions and a host of other options. I like it for its foolproof empty the trash when you have a file from Hell that refuses deletion.

Temperature Monitor is a one trick app. It shows the actual physical temperature your portable is running at.

Quick Image is the one must have contextual menu plug-in (think control-click or right-click). It displays graphic image files without launching any application. It also has some other feature like adding/removing thumbnail icons, copying image to clipboard, moving to trash, enlarging/reducing view size. Its best feature is the ability to convert the file type. For example you can convert a large TIFF file to a compact JPEG or a Windows-friendly BMP or PSD (Photoshop) file.

VLC and MPlayer are two multimedia players which offer the possibility of playing just about any arcane file type that Quicktime can't handle including Windows Media Player.

The last freeware is Butler. This is such a do-everything app that I will just give the product description.
...A file launcher.
You can access applications and any other kind of document by browsing fully customizable system-wide spring-loaded menus, pressing hot keys, clicking hot corners, or entering abbreviations. Butler will learn from your habits and remember what you want a certain abbreviation to do (e.g., enter "abo" to launch Address Book).
...A bookmark manager.
Butler offers you a way to manage your bookmarks without depending on a certain browser. In contrary to a browser's bookmark collection, Butler's bookmarks are always accessible through its system-wide menus, hot keys, etc. And you'll certainly become addicted to accessing bookmarks by entering abbreviations. Butler also lets you access the bookmarks of every single browser there is for Mac OS X.
...Adding files or URLs from your browser to Butler's configuration is stunningly easy: Just drag them to the active screen corner (default: top left), see Butler's main window open, and drop your items somewhere within your configuration.
...A web search utility.
Butler's predecessor Another Launcher was the first application that let you search the web from the menu bar. But if your menu bar is too crowded for an input field, you can also use hot keys to pop-up dedicated web search windows. Butler supports a large number of search engines by default, but you are not restricted to those, you can easily add your own search engines.
...A pasteboard extension.
Butler lets you access items you have previously stored in your pasteboard, effectively turning your pasteboard into a stack. You can also take a snapshot of your current pasteboard and keep it for good. This feature is particularly useful for text snippets you need to enter on a regular basis.
...And so much more...
You can use Butler to move and copy files, control iTunes, access the System Preferences, change the current user, and so on. But Butler really shines when it comes to customizing its behavior. Is your menu bar too crowded? Use Butler's docklet! Do you want a menu for each mounted volume? Do you want a menu to pop up when you press a certain hot key? Do you want all running applications in your menu bar? Or do you prefer doing things with your keyboard only? Whatever kind of interface you prefer, Butler is at your service.