Applications, Files, and Folders

An application is a computer program that gives you the tools to accomplish specific tasks. For example, you're probably using the application Safari right now to read this webpage. Other applications include Mail, iTunes, Pages, TextEdit, and many more.


Accessing an application
To open an application, click the Launchpad icon in Dock or click the application's icon in Dock (if it's there). Depending on the application, it may display an interface window, palettes, tool bar, or other interface components, or it could display nothing at all until you open a file or create a new one.

Your Mac's applications can be accessed from the Launchpad icon in the Dock

To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q. Keep in mind that closing a window (by clicking the round, red button) will typically not quit the application.

Getting more applications
You can purchase and install applications for your Mac from App Store, which is included with OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6.6 and later. To start browsing software from App Store, click the App Store icon in the Dock. You can use the search field in the upper-right corner of the App Store window to search for applications.

 
You can use App Store to find, install, update, and view purchased applications

1. Featured - Click to browse new and noteworthy applications.
2. Top Charts - Click to browse the most popular applications.
3. Categories - Click to browse applications in specific categories, such as Photography. You can browse applications in a particular category by choosing an item from the All Categories pop-up menu in the Quick Links section. The Quick Links sections is located in the upper-right part of the window displayed when you click Categories.
4. Purchases - Click to browse applications you have purchased.
5. Updates - Click to browse updates to applications you have installed on your Mac.
6. Search Field - Enter a name or type of application your looking for and press Return.

To use App Store, you need to sign up for an Apple ID. If you already have an iTunes Store account or other Apple account, you can use that Apple ID.


Accessing files
To access your files on your Mac, you use Finder. Finder allows you to see all files and folders on your Mac and search for them using the search field in the top-right corner of the Finder window. Once you find a file you want to open, simply double-click the file, it will open in the application that supports its file format.

To close a file, just click the round, red button in the upper-left corner of its window. Keep in mind that closing a file will not necessarily quit the application too. To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q.


Folders
Folders on your Mac are used to organize your file and applications.

 
 File appearances may differ a little from each other depending on what type of file they are and what they contain

Your Documents folder (in the Finder sidebar under Favorites) will contain all documents that you create. The Finder sidebar includes several other folders, such as Movies, Music, and Pictures, to help keep all your files organized by type. The Applications folder contains all your applications and the Desktop folder contains all the stuff that's currently on your desktop.


Organizing files and folders
If you want to add more folders to set up an organizational scheme, here's how to create a new folder:

1. Make the Finder active (click the desktop, click inside any Finder window, or click the Finder icon in the Dock).
2. From the File menu, choose New Folder; a new "untitled folder" icon appears in the active Finder window.
3. Name your folder by simply typing a name in the highlighted text box next to the folder icon.

Or, you can simply press the Shift-Command-N key combination.

To organize your files and folders, drag any file, folder, or application that you want into your new folder, or drag the folder into any other folder to establish an organized hierarchy.

Essential Mac OS X Applications !

• Acquisition - Gnutella file sharing client
• Adium - Multi-protocol instant messenger client
• Address-o-sync - Sync multiple Macs without .Mac
• Amadeus - Great tool for audio enthusiast
• Audio Hijack Pro - Custom audio output filtering
• Backlight - Menu extra toggles screensaver as your desktop
• BurnX Free - Burn multiple sessions on CD
• Butler - Get more out of Finder
• CandyBar - Change your application and system icons
• Carbon Copy Cloner - Easy-to-use backup/cloning utility
• Chmox - An OS X native CHM file (Compiled HTML/eBook) reader
• Cocktail - Simplifies use of UNIX functions in OS X, and more
• Colloquy - IRC client
• CSSEdit - Visual CSS style editor
• DeepVacuum - Download entire websites
• Default Folder - Expanded functionality in "Save As.." dialogue boxes
• Deja Vu - Schedule regular file backups
• Delicious Library - Catalogue your books, cd's, games, dvd's
• Dimensionizer - Contextual Menu to display an image’s dimensions
• DeskShade - Hide desktop icons, terminal lock, and more
• Desktastic - Doodle on your desktop
• Dock-It - Add multiple multi-fucntion docks
• DragThing - An alternative to the dock
• DV Backup - Use your DV camera as a backup medium
• Evocam - Webcam application with built in web server, FTP, etc.
• FileJuicer - Extract images from Powerpoint, PDF, HTML, and CAB files
• Fink - Unix Ports for X
• Firefox - Open source web browser
• Fugu - An SFTP, SCP and SSH frontend
• Huevos - Customisable search engine helper
• HyperEdit - live previews of HTML and PHP pages
• iBank - Intuitive personal finance manager
• iBiz - Self-employed time billing manager
• iConquer - 1-to-6 player world conquest game
• iPodDisk - Utilize your iPod as an iDisk
• iRooster - Great free alarm clock
• iWipe - Secure disk and file deletion
• iZoom - Crop and resize your photos
• LiteSwitch X - Keyboard application switcher
• Little Snitch - Alerts you of outgoing network connections
• MacJanitor - Great tool for running & rescheduling OS X maintenance tasks
• MacMame - Multi arcade machine emulator
• MacSniffer - View all traffic on a network connection
• MacTheRipper - Go Ahead, Back that DVD up
• MacTracker - Database of all Mac models
• Mac Vim - The aqua version of Vim
• Mail.appetizer - Enhance Mail with this small but handy notification plugin
• Mplayer for OS X - Another great video player
• Net Monitor - Network throughput monitor
• Net Tool Box - Handy tool for the toolkit - for network issues
• NetNewsWire - RSS aggregator (If you're gonna use one, use NetNewsWire)
• Onyx - System tweaks and configuration
• OSXvnc - VNC remote control protocol
• PDF Browser Plugin - Allows web browsers to display PDF files
• Pixen - Pixel graphics editor
• Quicksilver - Application launcher and much more
• RCDefaultApp - Preference pane to set default applications
• Renamer4Mac - Rename files en masse. Useful for digital cameras
• SideTrack trackpad driver - Enhanced trackpad driver for Apple Laptops
• Simon Extreme - Classic Milton Bradley Simon game
• Skype - Uses P2P for phone-over-internet talking
• SubEthaEdit - Use Rendezvous for collaborative editing
• Synergy - Adds iTunes controls to your menu bar
• Transmit - FTP client
• Unison - Usenet newsreader handles messages, files, & media
• Virtue - Virtual desktop manager
• VLC - Play DivX encoded movies (and more).
• VoodooPad - Notepad with many advanced features
• Word Browser Plugin - Allows web browsers to display Word files
• xPad - Notebook/scrapbook supports drag & drop
• XRay - Expanded version of the Finder's "Get Info" window
• xScope - Suite of screen tools for UI designers

Work

Cha-Ching
A simple money program that helps you organise your accounts, budgets and finances.

Concept Draw
More of a group of programs that offer a wide range of applications such as flow charts to mind maps.

Filemaker
A cross platform database application, that has amazing power and potential.

iWork
Apples work application package to complement iLife, a good package if you want the Apple integration although lacks on some features.

Microsoft Office
Office is one of the most prominent packages on the Windows machines for work programs. Very good on Mac, although some small annoying bugs.

Money2
Another application for managing your accounts. The interface on this program is amazing.

Neooffice
An Open Office port to Mac, like Microsoft Office, except its free.

Nvu
A very powerful webpage editor for designing and creating websites. Just as good as Dreamweaver.

Omnigraffle
A brill program that offers a really cool way of creating presentation diagrams. Check out the Omni Groups offerings for all of the cool programs they have to offer.

Process
Another program by Jumsoft on this list that lets you plan and organise your projects.

Quicken
Another personal finance program, but this one feels more corporate and official.

Yojimbo
A cool little program that helps you organise all your bits of information, great if you end up filling up dashboard with millions of stickies.

Tools

Apple Remote Desktop
One of Apples many programs that lets you work effectively on your network. This app lets you look in on a remote desktop and work with it remotely.

Battery Health
One of many tools used to help you find out how much juice is left in your Mac battery. A tool for any laptop.

BootCamp
Installing Windows on a Mac is never easier with BootCamp. A simple program that create a partition on you disk for installing windows.

BwanaDik
A menu bar monitoring tool for you network. Lets you find tons of info about you LAN and WAN in one easy to reach place.

Carbon Copy Cloner
For serious back ups you need somthing like Carbon Copy Cloner that can clone your entire drive quickly and easily.

Chmox
Chmox is a program that enables you to open .chm help files on your Mac. Chm files are not supported in preview.

Coconut Battery
A personal favourite of mine, this is another battery tool to monitor the health of your battery. I wish my laptop was run off coconuts.

DasBoot
DasBoot is a tool to create a diagnostic and repair kit for your computer to put on an iPod or flash drive.

Flip4Mac
The tool endorsed by Microsoft to help with those pesky .wmv files.

FreeDMG
This software creates drag and drop .dmg archives on the fly. Easy to use if you make a lot of disk images.

GeekTool
GeekTool is a preference pane module to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop.

Growl
A very useful tool that is used by many applications to show a clean way of displaying messages to you. Like the bubbles in Windows except a hell of a lot better.

Hardware Monitor
Hardware Monitor is designed to check the various pieces of hardware on you computer for faults and problems as well as give messages back to you.

Hex Fiend

Editing hex files cannot be easier with Hex Fiend.

HoudahGeo
HoudahGeo allows you to add Geo data to any image within the EXIF data. Helps you find your way around the world in your images.

iStat Menus
iStat Menus off a wide range of statistical analysis of your computer including various hardware bits. Their widget is one of my favouites.

Mac Pilot
This piece of software allows you to modify various parts of your computer that you would normally have to do through Terminal.

MacJanitor
This little app cleans up various system files and other bits and bobs to keep your computer running smoothly.

MainMenu
MainMenu is another piece of software to help you keep your computer running smoothly. This one has more advance options such as rebuilding the spotlight database.

MenuMeters
Another monitor piece of software but this one is designed to run within the menu bar.

Monolingual
Who needs to know French. Monolingual removes the languages from the computer that you do not need.

Operation
A project management tool that lets you organise your projects quickly and easily.

Parallels
Highly recommended virtualization software for virtualizing other OS’s.

Service Scrubber
Helps you organise and remove services from your menus (Name of App > Services)

SquidDan
Once a very popular proxy tool for sorting out your own proxy for handling your internet connection. Has become disused over time.

Stomp
Stomp those big files down to size. Helps reduce video files into more compressed formats.

SuperDuper
Another great backing up utility although its not fully Leopard compatible at the time of writing.

Synergy2
A very cool little application that lets you share a mouse and keyboard between one or more computers.

TinkerTool
A tool that lets you access more preferences the Apple has built into the OS.

VMWare
Another very good piece virtualization software to enable to to virtualize other OS’s.

Apps

Autorate
A simple piece of software that rates your musis in your iTunes libary based on the number of plays and track skips.

Fish
A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around.

iAlertU
A little program that can arm your computer. Moving your laptop will set of the alarm and alert you to intruders.

Liquidmac
Once again using the motion sensor in a laptop. This program fills the screen with water which you can play around with by moving your computer.

MacSaber
Let your Mac become a jedi. Once again using the motion sensor makes cool lightsaber noises. Don’t let the mac fly out of your hands as it has with a couple of people.

Quinn
Tetris on the extreme side of life. A cool little app with amazing graphics on the old arcade favourite Tetris.

Resize ‘Em All
A little program which can be used to resize images.

Rulers
Put a ruler on your screen. This application lets you measure nearly anything on your screen, great if you are in the design world.

smcFanControl
A small application that runs in your menu bar to control your fan speeds. A must if you think your computer runs a bit hot.

TimeOut
One for the work-a-holic. A little application that tells you to take a break and stop what you are doing.

Wallsaver
Sets your screen saver as your wallpaper. A great little program to add a bit of movement to your desktop.