Software on my MacBook Pro, Part 2

Even though I've been using a Mac on-and-off for quite a few years, my experience really using it has really only recently begun. I recently wrote about some of the applications I'm using and wanted to share some more of them.

Not even a third-party application, something I've been a little surprised that I use so much is the DigitalColor Meter. I use it to get the hex value of colors, which is faster than taking a screenshot and opening it in Photoshop to read the color value. Very handy!

One of the features I really like in Leopard is QuickLook. I'm still trying to get used to the motion of hitting space rather than just opening something, but I really like how fast and easy it is. Unfortunately QuickLook doesn't know how to usefully display all file types, so I've found a few plugins that have helped: Folder, Archive, and QLColorCode. QuickLook Plugins List tracks the plugins that are available.

Something I would always do on a Windows machine was to change file associations so that different file types would always open with the application I wanted to use, and not the default the system used. There's likely some command line-magic that can be used to change this on OS X, but I'm quite surprised there's no pretty interface for it. RCDefaultApp to the rescue!

Snapz Pro X gives a great deal of control when taking screenshots. In fact, I typically don't even need an image editor when working with screenshots. Snapz Pro X will let me do screencasts, too, though I haven't had need of that feature yet.

Part 3, to come!