Cool Mac Tools for Back to School

My high school and college days are decades in the past, but if I had time back in the classroom, I would absolutely bring a Mac and iPad with me. And with those, there are some great software packages I would load.

First up would be LibreOffice. Microsoft Office just isn't something I like or use. It falls right into the 90/10 rule. 10% of the features are used by 90% of the users. Instead of wasting money, LibreOffice has all the features 90% of us need and use in Writer and Calc.

Beyond that, I do all my writing in Scrivener. It's the best writing environment, writing studio I have ever used. I use it for documentation, blog articles, and everything else.

For writing that's a little more "technical" or "scientific", then Mellel is the way to go. It's a great word processor with features well suited for citations and bibliographies. For heavy research, add Bookends.

To keep track of tasks, outline documents, track schedules, TaskPaper is a great option. TaskPaper let's you organize documents, papers, and keeps you aware of what's coming up.

For research, tools of choice are DevonThink Office and DevonAgent. DevonThink Office will keep all your notes together, web pages, PDF files, documents and everything else. Find the information you're looking for without wasting time.

If it's out there on the web, DevonAgent should be able to find it. An absolutely amazing tool to find, collate, and sift through web pages. For many searches, the first 50-100 results are basically the same. To get to the "meat" you need to dig deeper, that's where DevonAgent comes in.

Finally, if you need to handle graphics, and perhaps some desktop publishing, the Affinity tools, Photo, Designer, and Publisher are the best choice. This trio should tackle all manner of image work.

With this core group of tools, it should be much easier to collect, manage and deliver great information within all classes.