Five Mac Apps You Need to Know About: A Roundup by Jeff Williams, 9to5Mac
As a tech enthusiast, I'm always on the lookout for new and useful apps to make my life easier. In this Friday 5, we're going to take a closer look at five of my favorite Mac utilities that every user should know about.
Grab: The Ultimate Screenshot Tool
First up is Grab, a Mac utility that has been around seemingly forever and allows you to capture screenshots on your Mac. You may be wondering why you need to use Grab when you can just use a keyboard shortcut to take a screenshot. I'm here to show you one of the reasons why I like using Grab. To demonstrate its usefulness, let's take a screenshot of the System Preferences window. I'll put my mouse cursor right over where it says "Keyboard" and then use the keyboard shortcut to capture the screenshot.
Now that I've captured the screenshot, let's take a look at what happens when we preview it. Notice how there is no mouse cursor in the screenshot. This is because Grab allows you to keep your mouse cursor on the screen while capturing a screenshot. This feature is particularly helpful for tutorials and other applications where precision is key.
To use Grab, simply click on the app and then go to "Capture" from the top menu bar. Select "Window" as the capture option, and then choose the area of the screen you want to capture. Finally, click "OK" to save the screenshot. Not only can you save the screenshot as an image file, but you can also use it in your tutorials or presentations.
Image Capture: Importing Media with Ease
Another utility that I highly recommend is Image Capture, which allows you to import media from SD cards and other devices directly to your Mac. One of the standout features of Image Capture is its ability to view metadata for each image file. This includes details such as file size, width, height, aperture, color space, and more.
Image Capture also allows you to sort by these metadata fields, making it easy to find specific images or files quickly. This feature is particularly useful if you're a photographer or videographer who needs to manage large collections of media files.
To use Image Capture, simply connect your SD card or other device to your Mac and select the "Import" option from the top menu bar. Choose the destination folder where you want to save the imported images, and then click "OK". You can also add metadata to each image file by selecting the "Edit" option and adding details such as title, description, and keywords.
Screen Flow 6: The Best Screen Capture App
When it comes to screen capture apps, there's one that stands out above the rest: Screen Flow 6. In my opinion, this app is the best on any platform, not just Mac. One of the reasons I love Screen Flow 6 is its powerful annotation and drawing tools.
To demonstrate these tools, let's add a callout to an image file using Screen Flow 6. First, select the "Freehand" option from the top menu bar, which allows you to draw custom shapes around your screen capture. Choose a square shape and then zoom in on the screen capture so that the entire image is visible.
Next, click on the "Add Action" button to create a callout annotation. This will add a box around the selected area of the screen capture with a customizable border color and outline. You can also add text or other shapes to your callout by selecting the "Text" or "Shape" option from the top menu bar.
To blur the background, select the "Blur" option from the top menu bar and adjust the settings to achieve the desired level of blurring. Finally, click on the "Save" button to save your annotated screen capture as an image file.
Alfred: The Ultimate Task Management App
Another utility that I highly recommend is Alfred, a task management app that's essentially like Spotlight, but with more features and flexibility. One of the standout features of Alfred is its clipboard history, which allows you to easily access previously copied text or images by using a keyboard shortcut.
To demonstrate Alfred's clipboard history feature, let's create some test text and then copy it into the clipboard. Next, I'll use the keyboard shortcut "Cmd + V" to paste the clipboard contents into a new document. But what if I want to know when the text was last copied? That's where Alfred's clipboard history comes in.
To access the clipboard history, simply type "Alfred" in Spotlight search bar and then select the app from the search results. From there, you can navigate to the "Clipboard History" section and view a list of all previously copied items. You can also filter the list by date range or other criteria.
Finally, let's talk about Daisy Disk: Visualizing Your Storage Space
Last but not least is Daisy Disk, an app that gives you a visual map of your storage space on Mac. This feature is particularly useful if you're running low on disk space and need to free up some room. By scanning your Macintosh HD partition using Daisy Disk, you'll get a clear picture of what's taking up space and where you can cut back.
To use Daisy Disk, simply select the "Scan" option from the top menu bar and choose the drive or partition you want to scan. The app will then scan the disk and display a visual representation of your storage usage, complete with charts, graphs, and other helpful metrics.
Overall, I hope this round-up has given you a better idea of some of the most useful Mac utilities out there. Whether it's taking screenshots with Grab, importing media with Image Capture, or managing your clipboard history with Alfred, these tools can help make your workflow more efficient and streamlined.