Mac Apps of Golden Productivity

Design for Facebook App I made in Omnigraffle

I am fairly new in the Mac universe.  Coming from a background in Windows it is easy to stay on a Windows machine and think that anyone that doesn't use Windows has some kind of weird and arcane agenda.  However, since I made the move to the Mac over a year ago, life changed as I knew it literally.  I have been more productive and have even stayed curious in regards to my Mac and its capabilities and ease of use.  Checking the new App Store for new Mac Apps is pure bliss.  As I am working on a project and I think "life would be so much easier if I had a program that allowed me to stencil out a mock-up cleaner and faster...." or "I wish I had some kind of central hub to organize and store all of my unconnected ideas and task as I think and work on them..." I simply click on the App Store and search for 'mock-up' or 'prototype', and BAM! I have the best little program called OmniGraffle downloaded and installed in less than 1 minute, 10 minutes later I am exporting a PDF of a complete mock-up for a contractor of mine.  As I meet with my contractors on Skype they ask me some questions that would take a whole-session of yapping and repeating myself, but not this time... this time I was armed;  I simply said "wait a sec..."  Then there is a 'Click, click, of the mouse' and 2 minutes later we are all online going through the mock-up(s) interactively as a web-page hosted from my Mobile Me account.  Whats even cooler is that there are sites on the web dedicated to providing free stencils for OmniGraffle (see below) including multiple Facebook, iPhone, Android stencil sets.  The current Apps I am working on including Facebook designs all have their User Interfaces designed out visually 100% for the developers.  Easy enough to make me weep...  These tools allow me to do what I love to do, design and create.  Another App that I consider a miracle is available on Windows as well as Mac (but I'm sure its cooler on a Mac) is Evernote.  I use Evernote on my Mac and iPhone as well.  Evernote is a aggregation tool for your brain.  You create Notebooks which you organize into Subjects.  Each Subject can have a unlimited number of Notes.  Evernote is created with ease of use first and foremost.  It is obvious that the developers wanted to remove any obstacles what would make it more difficult for you to get your ideas and/or content into Evernote and organized.  Removal of these obstacles allow a fairly smooth transition from brain to saved data.  This has changed my life; the ability to sort organize ones creative mind is extremely powerful because it allows us to focus our creative energies and that allows us to have almost unlimited creative powers once learned and practiced.
Links to the Apps I have mentioned for you to try:


OmniGraffle for Mac and iPad
OmniGraffle Stencils
Evernote - Remember Everything (cool slogan)

I would be certain there are tons of other cool apps that aid in the creation of ...well.... creativity and the more formal measures of design.  So please let me know what other Apps are out there worth checking out.