Apple Mac OS X apps for small business
Mac OS X was initially aimed at, and used by, creative people who needed to work on something new that has never been done before. Music, movies, art, programming and other similar areas have had the first apps for the OS. But nowadays, Apple’s computers can be used for almost anything, and there are a lot of businesses around the world that have chosen the Mac as their next office computer, and the thing does its job very well. If you intend to use Mac OS X in an office environment, here are a few apps that you should keep in mind:
Apple iWork. Apple iWork is practically the MS Office of Mac OS X, made by Apple (which is obvious from the name) specifically for their own operating system. The suite includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote – Apple’s apps for document writing, spreadsheets and presentations, respectively. The apps themselves are very good, they have the usual Apple feel to them, are easy to use yet have a lot of advanced features – practically everything you need to create some great documents/presentations is included in the package.
MS Office for Mac. You might be wondering, if I already listed iWork above, why would I include MS Office, as well? The answer is simple: while iWork does a great job at creating documents and presenting them, there’s simply no way around the fact that if you have a serious office job that needs you to open and edit dozens of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, you simply need Microsoft’s own apps to do it. Otherwise, you’ll get errors, formatting problems and other issues when editing documents, simply because Office file formats are proprietary and only Microsoft knows how to work with them best. The Office suite for Mac is actually very good, and you have the unrivaled power, flexibility and features that only the original Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other apps can offer.
The Unarchiver. Archives and archived files are a staple of any office worker’s daily routine. There’s no way around it, as archives are the best way to save and transmit a lot of documents at once, but if you work with a lot of clients, you’re definitely going to have trouble opening at least some of them, as there are many proprietary formats out there and few programs that work with all of them. The Unarchiver is one of those rare apps – install it and you’ll never have to worry about an archive not opening, as the program supports just about every extension out there.
Alfred. Alfred is a great app for boosting your productivity and helping you work with multiple files at once (even if you have thousands of them). The tool lets you launch apps using custom shortcuts, access any files with just a few keystrokes, move and copy files with a few clicks, reduce mouse usage by giving your keyboard more control and much more – try it, you won’t be disappointed.
Scrivener. This is easily one of the top recommended tools for any writer working on a Mac. Scrivener is an amazing app that lets you write or edit a book, article or other text piece without ever switching to another window. It allows you to keep all your resources in one place, and always have access to references, sources, pictures, quotes, notes and anything else you might need for your work. It might seem very complex at first, but once you get used to it, you will wonder how you could live without it all this time.
While Mac OS X is beloved by a lot of creative type people, it’s still a perfect OS for office and other tasks that require a lot of continuous work. While that may not sound like fun, the above apps can definitely improve the experience, so be sure to check them when you can.
