I like Notational Velocity a whole lot. It’s a note program with a database behind it so you don’t have to remember to save, it’s easy to find your notes, and it just hangs out hidden in the background until, say, you want to paste something somewhere for later, or note down a serial number, or jot down an idea.
Now all I have to do is to remember to back up the data file that belongs to it.
The Mac Gems blog is a good place to find some useful little programs.
is there any program like Irfanview for Macs? I’d like something that can resize images quickly, and advance through a folder of images without having to open and close each image separately. I liked the way Windows XP had a filmstrip view and it would size the images to fit the window (so my huge digital camera pictures we all viewable on the screen; large enough to be able to pick which I wanted to open and edit) so something along those lines?
In Finder I find the thumbs too small (I know about view options…still too small) and iPhoto isn’t exactly what I want, either.
GraphicConverter is a very good batch-processor of image files. Want to resize every image in a folder, save it to a specified location as a JPEG regardless of original file format, etc?
GraphicConverter rules.
This is exactly contrary to my experience, seeing seminars and conference presentations on both Powerpoint and Keynote. Unless there’s some other program than Keynote in the Mac office package?
As for office software, my laptop came bundled with Keynote and Pages (word processor), but there was no option for a bundled spreadsheet (or whatever else is part of a typical office package).
Keynote, PowerPoint, Astound, Freelance, whatever. An entire category of application software that, if it all vaporized tomorrow, would only improve the quality of meeting-room presentations.
• The design graphics all end up looking like placemat templates for metropolitan diners.
• The gee-whiz effects recap the worst abuses of Flash and cheesiest iMovie transformations.
• And communication is relentlessly pushed into the format of bullet points, which isn’t an appropriate way to outline every damn subject or viewpoint you’d ever want to convey.
I just bought a new Mac, and Appleworks is in the bundle.
It’s a trial copy (I have 17 days left on the trial).
The price for the full version is $499.00.
I’ll take pen to paper before they’ll ever see that from me.
I don’t know where you could be reading that price from. Perhaps it came to you in a dream.
Go to Apple’s AppleWorks page and click on the round, gray “Buy Now” button in the top-right. (Don’t worry; you’re not actually going to purchase it today.) On the next page that comes up, you’ll see your “Shopping Cart” and a list of its contents, also in the top-right.
You should see that AppleWorks 6.2.9 is selling for $79.
No, Keynote has nothing to do with Applerworks. I agree with you that Keynote is much sexier than Powerpoint.
Appleworks is an all-in-one office software thingie. Unlike MS Office, where you open Word or Excel or Powerpoint, you just open Appleworks, and then within that program you can open up a word-processing document, or a spreadsheet, or a presentation.
I use Powerpoint now for the same reason I was using Appleworks for lectures . . . I got it for free. 
In the fall, I’m starting a new job, and I’m going to use some start-up funds to buy Keynote. 
I don’t pretend to know anything about programs that come with the computer, but here’s what happens when I put ‘Appleworks’ in Spotlight. The top hit is, of course, Appleworks. When I click on that I get a page telling me that I have 15 days left on my trial. I go to ‘Purchase’, and I am taken to the site where I can but Office:Mac for $499.00 No mention of any program called Appleworks.
Ah well, that’s a horse of a different color.