My Best and Worst Software Purchases from the Past Year
Ok, it’s maybe a bit early to start this kind of list — 2009 is still a month and a half away, after all. However, this has been nagging at me for some time, and being the software junkie that I am, I thought I should share my favourite (and least favourite) app purchases since switching to the Mac just over a year ago.
Updated (November 17, 2008): Added to my honourable mentions.
Best Purchases (in alphabetical order)
Billings (Marketcircle) | $59.95 USD
I first purchased Billings 2 in June 2007, before moving to OS X full-time. At the time, I wanted a program that could create nicer-looking, easier-to-edit invoices than QuickBooks. As a bonus, I got a program that could also track time, integrated well with Address Book, and I loved how Billings worked with Mail, allowing you to send invoices directly from the app.
In September 2008, Marketcircle released Billings 3 and I purchased the upgrade immediately. Marketcircle has refined the interface and has added a slew of new features, the most useful to me being one-click invoicing and seeing overdue balances at a glance. Another great feature is the new ability to organize clients into groups. So, for example, I can separate my not-for-profit clients from the clients I subcontract for.
Overall, Billings is a mature, well-thought-out invoicing program.
ExpanDrive (Magnetk) | $29 USD
ExpanDrive basically lets you access SFTP/FTP filesystems locally on your Mac, either through Finder or via any other piece of software. I use ExpanDrive with TextMate so that I can edit files directly on the server and even create remote projects. Generally, this has worked very well, though transfers and project refreshes can sometimes be quite slow, depending on the server.
Originally, I thought $29 was a bit high (I purchased it for $19, through the Facebook group), but I’ve begun using ExpanDrive more often and ExpanDrive development has been quite active. Magnetk recently added regular FTP support, for example, which has significantly increased the number of projects I can access with the software.
Journler (Philip Dow) | $34.95 USD
Journler is a great personal information manager (PIM) — a place to collect thoughts, documents, code snippets, and links. I’d never used this type of software before but decided to give it a try, and I love it. I have Journler open all day everyday — to capture ideas and to use as a reference. It has become an absolutely essential application.
MarsEdit (Red Sweater Software) | $29.95 USD
MarsEdit, the desktop blogging client, has become a big time-saver for me. The program has stellar WordPress integration and excellent, friendly developer support. I’m currently only running two blogs via MarsEdit, but it’s made posting and editing a lot more efficient. This is definitely a worthwhile purchase if you spend much time blogging.
MoneyWorks Gold (Cognito Systems) | $599 CAD
This was my biggest software purchase in the past year, and I certainly didn’t approach it lightly. Being a one-person company, I do my own bookkeeping and I was getting tired of tracking my accounts in a spreadsheet. Intuit doesn’t offer QuickBooks for Canadian Mac users, and I didn’t really like the program on Windows, so I had to look around a bit before finding MoneyWorks — and I’m glad I did. While this certainly isn’t the prettiest app I’ve ever used, it allows me the freedom to manage my accounts the way I want while providing all the other benefits of a dedicated accounting program. I should note, however, that the only reason I purchased MoneyWorks Gold over Express, which is $320 cheaper, is because Gold offers multi-currency support. That’s an expensive feature.
ScreenSteps Pro (Blue Mango Learning Systems) | $59.95 USD
I’ve already written about ScreenSteps Pro, but I can’t overstate how valuable this software is to me. Virtually every project I work on requires user documentation, and ScreenSteps is the program I turn to to get the job done. And because I use the same CMS for so many of my projects, I can start with a generic manual and customize it on a per client basis, replacing screen shots and editing steps as needed. Moreover, my clients find the PDF manuals extremely helpful (they can be viewed on screen or printed) and I can also use the export to blog feature to create and post tutorials on my company blog. ScreenSteps works on both OS X and Windows, and buying one license allows you to run ScreenSteps on both as a single user. Blue Mango has and continues to put a lot of work into this program, and their customer support so far has been incredible. This is essential software for anyone who creates software documentation.
VirtualHostX (Tyler Hall) | $7 USD
This awesome little program runs in the background, working with MAMP or OS X’s built-in web server, and lets you create, configure, and manage Apache virtual hosts so that you can easily host multiple sites on your Mac. VirtualHostX is super simple to use and makes life much easier when developing websites locally. And it’s only $7. Go get it.
VMWare Fusion (VMWare) | $79.99 USD
Being able to run Windows on my Mac while I’m running OS X is essential for testing websites in IE6 and IE7, and VMWare Fusion lets me do that. I don’t get super snappy performance, even with 4GB RAM (half of which I dedicate to Fusion when it’s running), but it works well enough for testing websites and even using my Windows versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign. I find unity mode too slow and choppy, but I just display Fusion on my second monitor so that it has its own workspace anyway. This is a terrific product that keeps getting better with each version, and kudos to VMWare for releasing version 2 as a free upgrade to version 1.x owners.
Web Snapper (Tasty Apps) | $15 USD
Web Snapper is a tiny app that lets you capture web pages exactly as you see them in Safari. You can use it by itself, dragging URLs into its interface, or via a button it adds to Safari. Web Snapper then captures the entire length of the web page — even the portion that isn’t viewable without scrolling.
I use Web Snapper with ScreenSteps Pro to capture long pages for documentation, and I also use it with Journler, saving web pages as PDFs. The PDF output of Web Snapper is nothing short of amazing — it works much better than Safari’s Print as PDF function (which relies on CSS print styles), and Web Snapper even preserves many of the links in the web page.
As good as Web Snapper is, I’m still looking forward to trying out LittleSnapper from Realmac Software when it’s released, though I’m not sure if it will grab the whole web page the way Web Snapper does.
Honourable Mention
Worst Purchases (in alphabetical order)
BookIt (Everyday Software) | $12 USD
While it worked for me, BookIt was an excellent solution for syncing bookmarks between browsers and even between different computers. However, BookIt currently doesn’t support Firefox 3, which is hugely disappointing, especially since Firefox 3 has been out of beta for quite some time. There also haven’t been any updates to the software since I purchased it back in March. A new blog post (the first in about four months, but who am I to criticize?) says version 4 is on its way with FF3 support. Maybe. For now, I’d say save your $12.
Camtasia Studio (TechSmith) | $299 USD
Even though it’s considered one of (if not the) best screen recording programs on Windows (or any platform, for that matter), I regret purchasing Camtasia Studio 5. Why? Because I haven’t used it once. Not one time. I had a licensed copy of version 4, with which I’d created training videos for a few clients, but after purchasing the upgrade, I never used it again. Instead, as I mentioned above, I use ScreenSteps Pro. Maybe I should make some video reviews to try and get my money out of it… Oh, and Camtasia Studio 6 is now out. Maybe I should upgrade. ;)
Delicious Library 2 (Delicious Monster) | $40 USD
I have no criticisms about Delicious Library, per se. It’s a great looking product and it does what it says. But, did I really need another cataloguing app? Not really. The only product in the genre I actually use on a regular basis is Bookpedia, which I use to track books for review at PoetryReviews.ca.
Headdress (Twinsparc) | $14.99 USD
I’m not sure if Headdress is still being sold (the website is down as of this writing), but they sold a copy to me about a year ago, and it wasn’t quite what I wanted. What I wanted was VirtualHostX, which I initially couldn’t get to work, but Headdress didn’t behave quite the same way. I wanted to create named virtual hosts, and Headdress didn’t (doesn’t) support this. Eventually, I got VirtualHostX to work, and Headdress has been gathering dust in its feathers ever since.
Macheist Bundle 2 | $49 USD
Regardless of the strong emotions Macheist seems to stir up in people, you can’t deny that 12 apps for $49 is a pretty sweet deal for the end user — unless you don’t use the programs. I talked myself into the Macheist 2 bundle for Snapz Pro X and Pixelmator — I never use the former (I tried and hated it) and seldom use the latter (I’m too used to Photoshop and its features). Plus, I already had licenses for 1Password (which is one of my favourite apps ever), AppZapper, and CSSEdit. The only program from the bundle I actually use is Speed Download, which I could have bought for $25.
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