FEATURE Essential apps
It’s amazing what you can get without paying a single penny
iWork Apps
FROM apple.com/uk/iwork ALSO ON iPad, iPhone
If you don’t have these yet, take a trip to the Mac App Store and download them now. They’re among the most important apps on the Mac, and although they previously cost money, they’re now completely free.
Pages is an awesome word processor
that can handle pictures and videos as well as text. Numbers is a very capable spreadsheet with full formula support, and Keynote is the Mac’s best presentation app; it’s the one Tim Cook and the team use at Apple events.
All three apps come with a comprehensive range of templates to get you started. With the iWork apps, you can create impressive documents within minutes, and tackle even more impressive projects as you learn more about them. They all support collaboration, and you can export your work in Microsoft Office’s formats for greater compatibility.
Handbrake
FROM handbrake.fr
ALSO ON Windows, Linux
If you regularly use video, Handbrake is a must. It can convert movie footage between formats, compile it for playback on specific devices such as Amazon Fire tablets, Android phones and games consoles, and can flip and/or crop videos as it converts. If you really want to
take your encoding to the next level, bypass the presets and customise your output to suit your requirements. Handbrake is as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. If you’ve a lot of videos to encode, you can queue them and leave it running overnight so they’ll be ready for you in the morning too. It’s an amazing app.
Bean
FROM bean-osx.com
ALSO ON Mac only
Modern word processors offer all sorts of advanced features, such as high-end picture management, mail merge, graph layout, contents tables and more. But sometimes, you just want to write a letter to your bank manager. This is where Bean comes in. It does everything you want and
nothing you don’t. That’s not to say it’s lacking in features. You can format the text, changing the font, point size and more, and attach pictures if you must, but that’s about all. The result? A great app that’s ideal for those times when you simply don’t need Pages or Microsoft Word. Your correspondent is writing thi
