10 Third Party Mac Apps that I Rely On

Here are the primary third-party apps that I use to make the MacMost tutorials and do app and website development.


Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you the 10 third party Mac Apps that I rely on.
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Now, of course, I try to use mostly Apple Apps when doing things. I use Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and all of those. But I do need some 3rd party apps to get my work done either making these MacMost tutorials or doing other things like app development or website development. I get asked about which 3rd party apps I use a lot, so here we go.
So the app I spend most of my time in is ScreenFlow. It's an app that will record the screen and your camera and your microphone all at the same time and it will even record your iPhone or iPad at the same time and put them in separate tracks. Then there are all sorts of tools for making the types of videos that I make. It's excellent if you need to do screen capture with advanced options for teaching or making online courses.
Next, here's a little free text editor I use called CotEditor. At least I think that is how it is pronounced. I'm not really sure. But it is based on open source and it's a plain text editor that you can use instead of TextEdit. It doesn't do the Rich Text stuff that TextEdit does. Just the plain text stuff and it has a lot of advanced features that put it on par with some more advanced coding tools. But I use it just to create simple text files, to take notes, and do all sorts of things throughout the day.
When it comes to graphics and image editing the tool I use the most, by far, is Pixelmator Pro. I've used a lot of different tools over the years and the last few years I've really just been using Pixelmator Pro more and more. So I use it to edit images like creating the thumbnails for MacMost videos or graphics for any of the games I develop.
Now since I use my Mac all day sometimes I want to automate some things beyond what you can do with say the Shortcuts App or Automator. For that I use a tool called Keyboard Maestro. It is not in the App Store because it does some advanced things with controlling the system. But you can get it from the website. It is well known and been around for years and you could do things like write scripts that imitate clicks and selections on the screen and all of that. So I've got a bunch of different macros setup in Keyboard Maestro just to make my work easier everyday.
Now since I do have a bunch of different websites that I maintain I need a way to communicate with them. So you need a File Transfer App. So the one I've been using for more than a decade is Transmit. You can get that in The App Store. It is a basic tool that allows you to upload and edit files on your website.
Every once in a while I need to work with sound files. So you need a Sound Editor to do that. One really doesn't come with your Mac. GarageBand can do some things but it is more music based. I use Audacity which is a really popular tool that you can get for free. You have to get it on the web because it is not in The App Store. But if you handle sound files chances are you probably already know about Audacity. It is a tool that a lot of people use.
Here's a tool I don't really use per se, although my Mac is always running it. So I do an online backup and I've got my Time Machine backup locally. My second backup is online and off site. So if something happens to my computer and my Time Machine drive at the same time, like a localized disaster, I have a copy of all my data that's updated all the time offsite. There are a bunch of different companies that will do this. I use Backblaze which is pretty popular among Mac users.
Now I'm a huge fan of using iCloud and Key Chain to store passwords. It's now my primary password manager. But I've been using one password for a long time and I still use it. It's really not that hard to actually keep your passwords in both One Password or another tool like it and also in iCloud at the same time. Then to pull them wherever it is convenient. But it can easily do other things like having secure Notes, or having like safe codes or padlock codes, things like that. It doesn't really cost that much and it is nice to have another place where I can store things securely.
Now even before the pandemic I used Zoom because it was a really easy way to actually make podcasts. I was using it as an audio tool. You can just record a bunch of people in different locations and you got the file and you can use that as a podcast. But now, of course, it is very useful because so many different online meetings take place online using Zoom. It seems to be the primary tool. So I use it for that. While FaceTime is also a good tool for this, Zoom has a ton of features and can easily allow you to record things and, of course, it is completely cross platform.
The last one I'm going to mention will make a lot of people laugh because this is my own tool. It's called ClipTools and it is a Clipboard Manager. So in the past when I've talked about which third party apps I use I always talked about the clipboard manager I use. Well, now I made my own so of course I'm using my own. So you can get ClipTools. It is completely free from The Mac App Store. Here's the page that lists all of its abilities at my site. It does a lot more than being a clipboard manager. It can do calculations and all sorts of things. You don't need to choose ClipTools as your tool I definitely do recommend you choose some sort of Clipboard Manager so you'e got some sort of history in your clipboard. It makes doing tasks like writing or editing so much easier.
Now I want to give Honorable Mentions. First OBS Studio which I haven't really been using recently. But if I have to do any live stuff on YouTube I use OBS Studio to basically stream it to YouTube. You can stream to other things as well. It's great for any live presentations and things that you need to stream.
Also I use some tools from some major companies. Like, for instance, Microsoft and Adobe. I have subscriptions to both of their Cloud App Services. So I have at my disposal things like Word and Excel and PhotoShop and Illustrator and Animate. Sometimes I use those tools for things. They are not really things that I rely on now but since I work on my Mac full time and I'm always experimenting and trying new things I very often find it is handy to have all of those standard tools around.
Finally, I also have a collection of other browsers around as well. Even though I use Safari for just about everything. There is nothing wrong with having other browsers around in case you need them even if you use Safari as your primary one.
So there's a look at the third party apps that I use all the time. in addition to all of the native Apple Apps. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching. Related Subjects: Mac Apps (27 videos)
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