Over the weekend, I came across two ‘must-have’ pieces of software for Mac users, so I thought I’d let you all in on the secret.
The first is Typinator, a little program that allows you to automate repetitive key strokes. For instance if, like me, you visit a lot of websites where you have to put in your email address to log-in, you could use Typinator to create a keyboard abbreviation to save you having to type it every time. Or you can use it to insert an image of your signature at the bottom of letters. It also acts as a correction service, too, with built in sets of commonly mis-typed words.
Basically, it’s the Auto Correct function from Microsoft Office, but applied on a system-wide scale. So far, I haven’t found any applications where it doesn’t work.
You can buy Typinator from their website or you can do what I did and get it free from MacHeist.
If you’ve spent a lot of time using Windows systems – like I have – you’ll have got used to your Home and End keys working in a certain way. And you’ll probably be quite annoyed by the fact that they don’t work like that in OS X. Previously, I’ve used KeyFixer to solve this issue, but it’s not perfect and doesn’t seem to work with every application. Which is why I’m so happy to have found Double Command, a donation-ware utility, that does.
I’ve been using Double Command for the last couple of hours and so far haven’t found any application where the remapping doesn’t work. As well as remapping Home and End, it also gives you freedom to make other changes, too.
If you’ve got any tips for ‘must-have’ Mac software, drop me a comment.
