Would it surprise you to learn that the coolest Mac software out there wasn’t created by Adobe, Microsoft, or even Apple? We expose the most useful but least-well-known apps you should be running on your Mac to get more done, have more fun, and make more of the time you spend in front of the computer.

When it comes to software, using a Mac is an exercise in irony. On the one hand, Apple famously includes 90 percent of the software most users need right out of the box. On the flip side, no other platform enjoys such a thriving, clever community of third-party software developers. Everybody knows about the Mac desktop heavyweights—Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office for Mac, and so on—but we wanted to uncover the best unsung creations from lesser-known developers. Some of these apps offer low-cost or free alternatives to Mac system defaults like Mail or iChat. Others improve system applications by tweaking existing features. And still more expand the boundaries of the Desktop by adding wholly new capabilities. So find a comfortable chair. You’ve got some downloading to do.

Productivity and Organization
We could all use a few more hours in the day. Until time travel becomes reality, however, you can turn to these smart apps to get more done on your Mac in less time. No garbage-guzzling DeLorean required.

1. Anxiety
Developer: Tom Stoelwinder
www.anxietyapp.com
Cost: Free
Requirements: OS 10.5 

Anxiety takes the dread out of task management with its smart design.

This clever task manager single-handedly converted us to using the task functions in iCal and Apple Mail. How? By keeping our to-do lists in front of us at all times. Anxiety plugs in to the task databases behind Mail and iCal, even when those apps aren’t running. Anxiety’s small translucent window respects your desktop space with a minimalist list of unfinished tasks—and nothing else. To add a new task, you press Enter, type a description, and press Enter again. Checked items immediately disappear from view.

Our primary complaint with this app is the way it handles due dates: We wish it were done within Anxiety itself, instead of within iCal or Mail, and it would be nice to have the option to let finished tasks remain, crossed out, in the window. But these are minor quibbles. Anxiety triples the convenience of OS 10.5’s task features, and it does it for free.

2. FileChute
www.yellowmug/filechute/
Cost: $17.95
Developer: Yellow Mug Software
Requirements: OS 10.4 or later 

FileChute makes sharing files online cut-and-paste easy.

Aside from the nonexistence of flying cars and jetpacks, one thing that still disappoints us about the 21st century is how difficult it is to send large files over the Internet. FileChute solves this problem by providing a drag-and-drop interface for uploading large files to your .Mac account or other Web space, and then by providing a download link for the file’s destination. It’s the latter half that’s the real magic. We know our way around FTP servers and such, but it’s easy to get discombobulated trying to remember the exact paths to files we want to share with colleagues and friends. With FileChute, you just copy and paste a provided URL. Setup for a .Mac account is three-click operation. Setting up an FTP account takes a bit longer, but it’s well worth the time it saves you in the long run.

3. Yojimbo
www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/
Cost: $39
Developer: Bare Bones Software
Requirements: OS 10.4.3 

Yojimbo’s ability to encrypt notes makes it perfect for storing passwords and other sensitive information.

The latest iteration of Spotlight is spot-on for fi nding standalone documents and email messages. But as anyone who spends a lot of time online knows, most of what you find on the Web isn’t part of an organized document—it’s in snippets. As good as Spotlight is, it’s simply not up to keeping track of all these bits and pieces.

This is where Yojimbo comes in. Though it supports image files, Yojimbo’s greatest utility is in its ability to store and organize text: serial numbers, to-do lists, reminders, instructions, driving directions—all the flotsam that inundates your Mac but can be difficult to search and organize. Yojimbo tracks entries with keyword tagging and Smart Folder–like tag collections that let you quickly browse text snippets by keyword (see our how-to on tagging, p24). You paste new snippets into a floating drop bar or quick-entry window (summoned by F8). There’s also a Print PDF To Yojimbo option in the Print dialogue. And users with .Mac accounts can sync their Yojimbo libraries across multiple Macs.

4. Scrivener
www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html
Cost:$39.95
Developer: Literature & Latte
Requirements: OS 10.4 

Despite prescription meds, our attention still flags without Scrivener’s full-screen editing mode.

In the universe of plain-Jane word processors, Scrivener stands out for its uniquely project-oriented approach. The application encourages you to break long compositions into scenes or sections, and then makes it easy to rearrange those sections by dragging and dropping text. Targeted at creative writers and authors of book-length works, Scrivener also acts as a scrapbook for research material and a means of organizing PDFs, images, and other files. Full-screen mode hides the Dock and Desktop icons, leaving you alone with nothing but your text.

5. Celtx
www.celtx.com/
Cost: Free
Developer: Celtx
Requirements: OS X 

Put up your dukes! Celtx will fight—and probably KO—more expensive screenwriting apps with one hand tied behind its back.

Though less expensive than video-editing software, most professional screenwriting applications are far from cheap ($229 for market leader Final Draft, for example). Which is why our writer friends are incredulous when we tell them about Celtx. This open-source software helps you knock out screenplays, AV Scripts, and stage plays with ease—and it doesn’t cost a dime. You can cycle through typical script formatting such as scene headings, action, and dialogue with the tab and return keys, and all the standard word-processing niceties (spell check, text formatting, and so on) are included as well. Writing aside, Celtx can track character traits, break down scripts by scene, and, when you’ve finished your masterpiece, the software can organize storyboards and schedule production. Optional paid features enable online collaboration and other Web-only tricks.

6. Desktop Curtain
www.manytricks.com/desktopcurtain/
Cost: donationware
Developer: Many Tricks
Requirements: OS 10.4 

Choose a work-safe image, and all your desktop clutter disappears safely behind it.

Privacy is a funny thing in the laptop age. If your work involves giving presentations or taking screenshots, Desktop Curtain might help you protect yours—or at least avoid embarrassment and dirty looks. This app has a single purpose: It overlays an image on your desktop, concealing whatever clutter or weirdness you might normally keep there. Because the prospective clients watching your Keynote presentation don’t really need to know about your huge collection of American Girl dolls, do they?

7. Inquisitor 3
www.inquisitorx.com/safari/
Cost: donationware
Developer: David Watanabe
Requirements: OS 10.4

Save yourself unnecessary clicking with Inquisitor’s drop-down search results.

If you like Spotlight, odds are you’ll love Inquisitor, a Safari add-on that provides instant Google search results in a drop-down menu from the browser’s search bar. On a high-speed connection, results appear almost instantaneously, and we can’t overstate how refreshing it is to click straight through to the Web page you want, rather than being forced to visit an intermediary search results page. An icon installed inside Safari’s Preferences allows you to control the number of results returned and add search results from Amazon, Flickr, and many other popular sites and search engines.

8. Witch
www.manytricks.com/witch/
Cost: donationware
Developer: Many Tricks
Requirements: OS 10.3

Choose among all open windows (even minimized) and control selected window behavior with Witch.

Power users know to press Command-Tab to cycle through open applications. Witch takes this time-saving trick a step further by allowing you to cycle through all open windows with the key combination of your choice. Selected windows automatically maximize themselves if they’re minimized in the Dock when selected, and you can also control the order in which windows appear, and set aside some apps for Witch to ignore. Equally cool: Witch installs inside System Preferences, so there’s no additional application window to get in the way. 

9. A Better Finder Rename
www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/index.html
Cost: $24.95
Developer: publicspace.net
Requirements: OS 10.3

If A Better Finder Rename can’t handle your batch-renaming operation, you might be better off leaving the filenames alone.

On our list of favorite activities, renaming large numbers of files is right above a root canal. If you can relate, you need A Better Finder Rename, the atomic bomb of batch-renaming utilities. Forget tediously selecting filenames and keying in new ones—this single-purpose app will rename hundreds of files in no time, and it has a ton of automatic options. Rename MP3 files by ID3 tags, add an image’s dimensions to its filename—the list goes on and on.