• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

[Mac] The Mac Software Thread (Free and Alternative Stuff)

Dimwhit

Dimwhit

Explorer
Hey all, after some of the recent discussion on the main thread, I thought I'd try starting a software thread where we can come up with some of the best free/cheap/alternative software (like gaming software, Microsoft Office alternatives, ect.). I'll keep the master list here, and I put a few recent mentions on already. But post anything else you like, and be sure to give a url and a price, if you can.

One goal of this thread is to make it possible for everyone who wants to be totally legal with their system (using free or paid-for software).

Gaming

PCGen - Free (some datasets cost)
CrystalBall - $20
Dundjinni - $39.95
StatBlockPaster (Widget) - Free (Hundreds of stat blocks)
RPGMapMaker - $37
kLoOge.Werks - $15-$40 Gaming over LAN
FreeDice - Die rolling utility. One of the better ones I've seen.
Battlegrounds - Online virtual tabletop. $14.95 player/$29.95 GM.

Office Productivity (Calc and Word processing/Text Editors)

VoodooPad - $24.95 Organizational tool - great for DMs
Jreepad - Free Organizational tool
NeoOffice (Aqua version of OpenOffice) - Free
Nisus Writer Express - $69
Mariner Write/Mariner Calc - $130 Combined
ThinkFree Office - $50 (great Office alternative)
Smultron - Free
BBEdit - $199 (pricey, but awesome)
TextWrangler - Free (basically BBEdit Lite)
OmniOutliner - $39 (Outlining/Notes Organizing program)
OmniGraffle - $39 (Flowcharts)

Graphics/Layout

Create - $149
Gimp - Free
Scribus - Free (Open Source InDesign alternative)
GraphicConverter - $35 (great image-editing and conversion utility)

Mac Utilities

Konfabulator - $24.95 (Widgets)
Mighty Mouse - $10 (Changes your cursor)
Desktop Manager - Free

Communications

AdiumX - Free (iChat alternative)
Conversation - Free (IRC Client)

Keep more coming!
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad


Sephiroth no Miko

Sephiroth no Miko

First Post
For those that use chat programs, AdiumX is decent alternative to iChat (or if you use Messenger or Yahoo! instead-- or all three, it's a multiple protocol client). It's still in development (pre 1.0 release) but it's already quite nice.

http://adium.sourceforge.net

Also, those who use IRC might find Conversation useful. It's got a pretty nice GUI and interface-- I'm not a heavy IRC user so I haven't tested it extensively but I have no objections with the program thus far.

http://homepage.mac.com/philrobin/conversation/

Both are free, though donations are welcome. AdiumX requires at least 10.2 and Conversation requires 10.3
 



barsoomcore

barsoomcore

Unattainable Ideal
Hey, I'm glad somebody finds it useful!

Grab the one at the link above (in my post) -- it's been MASSIVELY overhauled and has a whole new set of features. Now you can save existing stat blocks into StatBlockPaster's data set. And no more HUGE delay while you're waiting for the menus to load.

Say, Dimwhit -- can you update the link to StatBlockPaster in your post to match the one in mine? I want to yoink the one you're linked to in favour of the other.

Thanks!
 

Breakdaddy

Breakdaddy

First Post
barsoomcore said:
Hey, I'm glad somebody finds it useful!

Grab the one at the link above (in my post) -- it's been MASSIVELY overhauled and has a whole new set of features. Now you can save existing stat blocks into StatBlockPaster's data set. And no more HUGE delay while you're waiting for the menus to load.
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks! This *is* better. I cant wait to give it a try at next Saturdays game.
 

Sephiroth no Miko

Sephiroth no Miko

First Post
Wow, thanks to whomever suggested Smultron. :) It's a pretty nice text editor. I've been looking for a decent substitute ever since Bare Bones stopped supporting BBEdit Lite. (At $200, BBEdit is waaaaay to steep for the usage I would get out of it.)
 

drnuncheon

drnuncheon

Explorer
Sephiroth no Miko said:
Wow, thanks to whomever suggested Smultron. :)
Click to expand...
You're welcome! I was looking for something along the lines of TextEdit or EditPlus on the PC (the latter is probably my favorite text editor, and a great tool for my Perl work), and Smultron is the closest I've come.

J
 

barsoomcore

barsoomcore

Unattainable Ideal
What I really, really want is Smultron with RTF support, so I can create print-pretty documents for taking to games.

Things like Bold and Italic and Font Size are really important in printed material, and RTF is the easiest way to manage that (along with proper formatting controls).

Hm. Perhaps that won't be as hard as I think. Watch this space.
 
Last edited:

Voidrunner's Codex

Remove ads

Top