Tom’s Budget Software Picks

Quality Software, Extraordinary Value

Default Folder X gives you quick access to folders you use often from within any Open or Save dialog box. You can assign a default folder for each application, so your work is always saved in the same place. You can also use a list of your favorite locations, recently used locations, or all currently open Finder windows, on the assumption that one of them is likely to be where the document you are currently working on is stored.

Default Folder X is a real time saver; the latest version is now compatible with Snow Leopard.

Snowtape 1.3 lets you listen to your favorite Internet radio stations. Of course, you can do that with just a web browser, but Snowtape also lets you record radio stations, edit recordings, and export recordings to iTunes.

Snowtape has a large database of Internet radio stations, so you can quickly find a station by genre, bandwidth, or country. You can also create your own list of favorite stations by adding the URL of each station's audio stream.

Nisus Writer Pro is a word processor with a clean, smooth interface that lets you concentrate on writing. The interface is a cinch to customize, but after trying out the various possibilities for extensive customization, I found the default interface very much to my liking.

One of my favorite features is the style sheet editor. Nisus Writer Pro includes enough style sheets to satisfy most individuals, but the way it lets you easily and visually customize a style sheet sets it apart from many other word processors.

MP3-Info is a Finder plug-in that works with Leopard and Snow Leopard. It is capable of displaying MP3 tags for any audio file, whether you select it in the Finder or in iTunes.

MP3-Info can display cover art as well as the usual MP3 tags, including duration, bitrate, title, album, artist, track, composer, year, genre, comment, and encoder, all in one tidy window.

NetNewsWire is an RSS reader that offers features and services well beyond those found in Apple’s Mail or Safari web browser. NetNewsWire lets me browse news feeds I’ve subscribed to, read stories, and keep up to date with the daily goings-on in the Mac community. It’s one of my not-so-secret weapons for staying up to date.

Hydra from Creaceed is one of the easiest-to-use HDR (High Dynamic Range) image rendering applications I have seen for the Mac.

HDR images combine multiple images, each taken with a different exposure, into a single image that has a color and exposure range that is very close to what the human eye sees. For example, have you ever taken a picture of the interior of your home that included a view out a window? Chances are the window in your picture was nothing but blown-out highlights, just a whitish smear. An HDR image of the same scene would render the interior of the room and the window view with equal clarity, the same way that you see it in real life.

iBank from IGG Software is a personal finance manager. Unlike perennial favorite Quicken, iBank is a Mac application from the top down, not an application ported from Windows. This is obvious in iBank’s easy-to-use interface and use of OS X system features, including Coverflow, which provides a unique way to quickly scan through files, or in this case, transactions

PDF (Portable Document Format) documents are found just about everywhere now. Most product documentation is distributed as PDFs, and the government distributes many of its forms in PDF format, including IRS tax forms. You can open and read PDFs using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, but that’s about all you can do with it. PDFClerk Pro from SintraWorks is a powerful PDF editor that allows you to not only work with existing PDF documents, but also create your own.

Speed Download 5 from Yazsoft is one of the most versatile download managers available. You can use it on its own, by dragging or copying download URLs to the application, or it can watch what you’re doing in your browser and intercept any download activity.

If you’re in the habit of using just your browser’s download capability, then your download management is probably limited to designating a single folder to hold all downloads. It doesn’t take long for this kind of catch-all folder to become hopelessly cluttered and, well, unmanageable (I speak from experience). Speed Download can organize the files you grab from the Internet by placing them into appropriate folders based on their file types.