By Matthew C. Gallagher

So you have sold your idea, your client has committed to the project, the next step is – How do I manage this most effectively to successfully complete this job?

There are generally 3 accepted rules of project management: time (delivery to client or launch of product), budget (cost to deliver project) and scope (definition of contracted project).

Some folks substitute quality for scope, but focusing on time, budget and the scope of any project inevitably affects the quality delivered to the client. For the sake of this article, we will stick with time, budget and scope as the guiding principles for project management.

Furthermore, we will only address the time issue in our approach and how best to manage the project on your computer. So you have a new project and are looking to complete it in the most efficient and effective manner to maximize its success, your client’s happiness and your bank account. Let’s get started.

Creative Projects

The creative process is different for everyone but mainly follows 3 simple steps: brainstorming, concepting, finished work.

All of these can be solitary pursuits or group-based efforts and usually involve a team working towards a common end goal.

Brainstorming is the advent of the idea. It is the first in a series of steps in solving your client’s business problem. Sometimes you may be involved in the original brainstorm with the client, but many times you may be brought in to create what the client has already determined they require.

The concepting phase is where the solution is detailed and prototypes built. Much of the creative development occurs during this phase. The general roadmap is established and the creative finish is determined that will guide whatever production is to follow towards completion.

Finally, the finished work is completed. This can be an illustration or a complete website. The process for them both is the same; a series of time-frames with milestones in the development for review and revisions to ultimately meet the client’s original requirements.

Some of the best applications available revolve around creative development. A truly great applications is one that combines the experience of pen and paper design with the ease of production of allowed via the computer.

There are numerous developers, both small and large, creating applications for brainstorming, wire-framing, flowcharting, etc. Ultimately, it is not nearly as important who the developer is, as does their solution fit your needs and work-flow.

Omnigraffle Pro is a diagramming program that provides the necessary tools to develop much of the documentation required for today’s interactive projects. Some of the basic templates provided are in the key areas required for your creative production: brainstorming, organizational charts and drawing.

Once you begin using it however, there is really no limit to what you can create with the application. The work area is clean and clear, allowing the use of multiple layers and the toolset provided rivals many of the traditional graphic programs costing much more.

Regardless, any application that provides tools that complement your natural workflow and aid the organizational process will help any project succeed.

Getting Things Done

There is a commonly used action management method, created by David Allen, that revolves around the principle of moving recording tasks externally in order to focus attention on completing them; getting things done (GTD). There are 5 phases to its workflow model: collect, process, organize, revew, do.

The GTD method has become very popular across the business spectrum and there are a few applications that allow you to implement this strategy for your business.

Developers like Cultured Code and Omni both offer GTD based applications that can easily integrate into your workflow. Cultured Code’s offers Things (their mobile application received one of this year’s Apple Design Awards at the 2009 WWDC) while Omni offers OmniFocus.

These types of GTD applications allow you to set up your projects, establish the related tasks required and manage the workflow in a straightforward application. The ease of using such a simple application insures that you will use it.

While so much of business today is done away from your office having mobile applications is fast becoming a norm for today’s professionals. One of the other key features of the more effective applications is their option of providing a corresponding iPhone app.

An iPhone application that integrates seamlessly with the desktop application allows you to focus on the tasks necessary to succeed while letting the applications do some of the heavy lifting.

There are many tools available today to manage your project’s schedule and enhance your time management. One of the things I have found over the years, however, is these applications need to integrate well into your established workflow, rather than vice-versa. If the applications require us to learn a whole new set of dynamics, that lessena the likelihood of successfully using them.

Client Expectations

One key to a successful project is open communications; between team members and most importantly with the client. Engaging everyone involved in the project will enable their ownership and active participation during its life-cycle to ensure its successful completion.

This communication can be managed through Mail, just as easily as any other means. Apple’s Mail is a great application that is also quite powerful in its management of data and integration into other applications.

Mail can become your central hub for this activity for now Mail can provide a place for your Notes and tasks with their new To Dos. In addition to this, Mail is also a great RSS reader as well. If you have several feeds you monitor for your projects all of this can be easily integrated within a single application.

Mail is also an integral part of your iPhone. So even though you may be away from your desk you are never away from your data and the ability to successfully manage those client relationships.

There are a few things that Mail does not do as well or not without a bit of 3rd party application integration; that is customer relationship management (CRM). Where Mail might exhibit gaps, other effective applications step in to cover those gap.

I like to be able to manage my communications through an enhanced CRM application that connect my tasks, emails and daily activity and tie it back to projects and opportunities for my business. MarketCircle’s Daylite is a handy application that allows these activities as well as provides a framework for planning the entire life cycle of your project. From opportunities to documentation you can track most every task required for keeping yourself and your clients in the loop since it can easily be integrated with Apple’s Mail.

Regardless of the tool, some of the most effectives steps I take with my own projects is a daily ledger of activities, a weekly progress report and finally monthly updates (if the project warrants) for my clients.

Any application that can integrate with my workflow, provide detailed reports which can easily be shared with colleagues and clients will ease the production schedule of most any project. An application that allows me to establish roles, responsibilities, tasks, etc. will more easily integrate into my workday and let me offload some of my tasks to intelligently designed software.

Daylite divides your data into calendar, contacts, organization, projects, opportunities, groups, tasks, appointments and notes. It is efficiently designed and it integrates with Mail, through the Daylite Mail Integration module, so keeping everyone on the team informed is a breeze.

Good software can be of great service to any business looking to lessen the time managing the work and maximize the time doing the work. Some of these applications can be extended to work with other integral applications in your business through the use of Application Programming Interfaces (API). An open API means that other developers can take a valuable piece of software and write a plugin to extend one application’s functionality and extend it into another application.

Daylite also has such an API that allows it to integrate with the likes of; MYOB, Filemaker, Lightspeed, MoneyWorks and more. This integration with other applications allows you to customize a software solution to fit almost any businesses need.

Again, the more robust applications feature mobile versions to keep you up-to-date and informed on the go. Many of the applications on the market offers a similarly feature-rich version for the iPhone while providing an option for you to examine through their 30-day trial versions.

The applications are not nearly as important, however, as the tasks they allow you to manage. Keeping an open dialogue during production is a key to its eventual success. As long as everyone is aware of the progress of the project surprises and the inevitable issues that arise during production can be successfully mitigated. Having great software that helps keep you on top of communication can help mitigate any bumps along the road.

Managing the Production Schedule

So what tools can assist your production schedule? There are a wealth of tools in the marketplace designed to assist time management and I have used quite a few over the years. As I have stated above, the ones that are most successful are the easiest ones to use.

Having stated that, a project management application needs to have a few key features. First it needs the ability to track time. Second, the ability to track resources; both people and equipment. Finally, the application needs to track revenue. If a job isn’t profitable, you need to know why and where its profitability fell off the projection so you can learn from the past to profit in the future.

There are numerous providers of applications designed to track production. The above-mentioned Daylite can serve in this capacity, but lacks some of the traditional features usually incorporated into a dedicated project manager (i.e. Gannt charts, resource allocation, etc.). If you want a more dedicated application for project management there are a few that I have used and would recommend.

The first application recommended for your review would be OmniGroup’s OmniPlan. One of the strengths of OmniPlan is its ease of use while offering easy integration with other application from their software library.

Another developer of dedicated project management applications are the Project Wizards, out of Germany. Their app, keeping with the Wizards theme, called Merlin, is a simple-to-use project manager that offers serious depth which will serve any project manager well.

Finally, the last desktop application for recommended review is FastTrack Scheduler. I used this application a bit back in my days at Disney and it is the foundation that a lot of the newer developers have built upon when designing their applications.

FastTrack’s design is not as elegant as Omni Group or Project Wizards. As such it can be intimidating to some, especially those new to project management software. The application, however, is quite robust is a fine option for anyone to review when looking for a project management application to choose for their organization.

In addition to the desktop applications available for project management, there are quite a few web apps available. The first is one that created quite a stir when they launched – 37signals’ Basecamp.

Basecamp is a combination CRM, like Daylite, and Project Manager. It is entirely web-based and offers different pricing per month based upon your usage. It is an exceptional alternative to the traditional desktop solutions we are all so familiar with but there is the monthly fee to consider.

Some companies also, do not want their data hosted anywhere but within their own server environments. ActivCollab has much of the same functionality as Basecamp, but it can be hosted in your own server environment.

ActivCollab actually started as an open-source application but migrated, to the great ire of many, to a commercial product. The fork, or branch, where they moved from the open-source world has a continuing development of the open-source version called Project Pier. Project Pier retains much of the core features of ActivCollab, keeping it open source and a viable option for any organization looking for a web-based project management app.

All of these applications offer a great wealth of resources necessary to manage any project you may be working on currently. There strengths lie in their user interface and ease of integration with other applications you may use on a daily basis in your company.

A great feature of any of these apps is the ability to share the data with other team members to keep them informed of the progress. Insuring the reports functions are easy to customize and share with your team will allow everyone to keep their eyes on their tasks in the production.

One of the biggest hurdles I have personally faced with the web-apps like Basecamp or ActivCollab is the ability to get the clients to participate in the process. Early on in Basecamp’s existence we tried to use it as the home for all of our projects. The internal team members all participated with the scheduling and comments systems, but not one client would even log into the system.

Despite wanting to be informed, much of these applications are perceived too overwhelming for many folks and therefore will remain unused. That is why it is imperative to find a solution that works for you and your clients.

We ultimately went with a system that used the Basecamp for our internal developments and utilized the account services team for client management. As stated above, if the system is not used, it is not a good system so you will have to dedicate enough time to research applications that fit into your company’s dynamic processes.

Conclusion

So we have covered some basic rules of project management and offered a few tools and techniques to help manage those projects on your computer. The key to this process is to incorporate a workflow that is comfortable to you and integrates nicely with your current work style. Otherwise you will not utilize the tools and techniques necessary to work more efficiently and effectively.

All of these applications rely on active participation to effectively monitor the projects. You must update the data to keep the schedule fresh and accurate as well as communicate frequently with your partners during the production to insure the plan is accurate.

Keeping on task and on time will insure you deliver your projects to your clients within their budgets. After all, if you can work more effectively you will have more time to enjoy the fruits of your labor

Further Resources

Software mentioned in this article (in order of appearance):

OmniGroup’s OmniGraffle Pro

Cultured Code’s Things Desktop Application

Cultured Code’s Things Desktop Application

Apple’s Mail

Marketcircle’s Daylite

Marketcircle’s Daylite Touch

OmniGroup’s OmniPlan

Project Wizard’s Merlin

AEC Software’s FastTrack Schedule

37signals’ Basecamp

activeCollab

Project Pier

Related articles and other relevant resources for further reading (alphabetical by subject title).

A List Apart
The site, for people who make websites, has some great articles on project management and workflow by a wide variety of authors.

Communication Arts
A great article on managing your studio.

Gannt
Wikipedia’s entry on Gannt Charts.

GTD
Wikipedia’s entry on Getting Things Done.

Project Management Institute
Leading membership association for project management professionals.

Prototyping with XHTML
Great article on importance of integrating the right systems in your workflow for a better result in the end.

SlickMap CSS
Stylesheet for displaying a sitemap directly from a simple unordered list.

Jeffrey Zeldman
Simple thoughts on project management from a complex mind.

About the author

Matthew Gallagher has spent his career working in all forms of creative development for companies ranging from The Walt Disney Co to Hallmark. He currently runs the boutique design studio designoMatt, building branded websites for destination design, based in Windermere, FL.

  

Professional web designers on the Mac platform rely on commercial heavy-hitters like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, and InDesign for their graphic design needs. And when it’s time to slice and dice, some depend on the excellent Dreamweaver CS4 for WYSIWYG design/development; while many Mac code jockeys swear only by editors like Coda, BBEdit or TextMate. Others prefer to mix, match or blend.

Designers also rely on various supporting apps to accomplish every day jobs like FTP uploading, cross-browser testing (important if you’re designing/developing on a Mac platform only), screen-shot snapping, pixel measuring, and the like.

While many of these programs are slick, they also of course cost … money. Which brings us to free apps for the Mac crowd. Which are the best compared to their commercial counterparts? Or are simply great apps in a league all their own? Put away that credit card for now and let’s find out!

Free Photoshop alternative

GIMP (Mac)
In a nutshell, GIMP provides designers with the power to accomplish almost any task that Adobe Photoshop is used for. Mac users familiar with typical Cocoa apps will find GIMP’s interface and menu system very “un-Mac” like (requiring the X Window System, commonly called X11), but if you soldier through you’ll find a powerful image editing program with all the fixins – advanced multi-layering, text and image effects, pro-level image manipulation, and a full range of design tools. High quality plug-ins are freely available to extend the app, including the ability to use some native Photoshop ones.

Also check out:

Seashore
Based on GIMP, Seashore is a pure cocoa app which makes it very OS X friendly. A range of tools for gradients, textures, layers, and drawing are found in Seashore. However, the program lacks many of GIMPs more powerful features so it’s not exactly a GIMP replacement either.

LiveQuartz
Sporting a sleek Mac interface, LiveQuartz describes itself as a “simple and powerful free photo editor for Leopard.” It does two thing very well: layers and filters. Basic drawing tools are also included but, as with Seashore, it’s not billed as a Photoshop replacement either. In the hands of the right designer, however, fairly sophisticated designs can be created with this nice app, which is also fun to use.

Free Illustrator alternative

InkScape (Mac)
The open-source InkScape, another Mac application that requires X11, is a viable alternative to Adobe Illustrator with its ability to create and edit graphics in scalable vector format.

AI users will feel at home using InkScape with options like layer control, gradients, connector path control/manipulation, various brushes (including calligraphy), type effects, masking, EPS exporting, a 3-D shape tool, object tweaking/sculpting, and even a diagram connector tool useful for a variety of purposes, like creating site maps. Depending on the complexity of your design, files can be exported from InkScape and into Illustrator and vice-versa.

Free Dreamweaver alternative

KompoZer (Mac)
Featuring WYSIWYG website creation and robust CSS editing, KompoZer is a mature, open-source alternative similar to Adobe Dreamweaver on the Mac, and has many of the same bells and whistles, too.

Although it can’t top Dreamweaver’s rich offerings, KompoZer offers full CSS support, code viewing/editing, tabbed views, FTP site management, a color picker, clickable hierarchical properties view bar for code isolation, split views, live preview, and much more. There is even the option to call W3C’s HTML validator to check for valid markup.

KompoZer is built on the NVU architecture, but is less buggy and more feature-rich than NVU since development on that project was stopped and has been replaced by KompoZer.

Also check out:

SeaMonkey
For creating very simple web pages.

Amaya
A project started by W3C, Amaya aims to be a WYSIWYG editor for standards compliant web developers, but lacks KompoZer’s power. It also claims to be a web browser, but will likely not pass muster for most people’s normal web browsing activities.

Free InDesign alternative

Scribus (Mac)
This open-source page layout program for the Mac, similar to Adobe InDesign, is geared towards print professionals in creating business cards, ads, magazines, newsletters, brochures, posters, signs, or just about any other kind of printed material.

Although the application doesn’t allow for measurements in pixels, web designers can still take advantage of Scribus’s multi-page capabilities, master pages, and precise typographic control for quickly generating rough ideas for web banners, buttons, or even website mockups faster than you can say Photoshop! The ability to create PDFs within Scribus (including interactive ones) is another plus. Image export options include PNG, EPS, and PDF.

Free Mac text/coding editors

TextWrangler (Mac)
A powerful general purpose text/code editor for OS X, TextWrangler has many of the same pro features found in commercial editors, such as multi-file search and replace, open/save in various line-ending formats and character sets, find/compare/merge file differences, hard/soft text wrap views, FTP/SFTP support, tabbed viewing, and more.

Simple CSS (Mac)
Simple CSS sports a Mac-friendly interface that helps you point and click your way to building CSS stylesheets. One column allows for style creation, and a main window gives you complete control over fonts, displays, borders, and box dimensions. Multiple projects can be opened simultaneously, and styles are displayed via a WYSIWYG pane. Finalized CSS code can then be previewed and exported.

Firebug (Mac Firefox plug-in)
A must-have Firefox extension for web developers, Firebug offers an impressive array of features for live in-browser code viewing, testing, editing, and debugging of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Firebug easily overrides HTML and CSS on any webpage for live previewing in Firefox – saving you precious design/development time. A DOM inspector adds to the extension’s impressive capabilities.

Free cross-browser and server-testing apps

VirtualBox (Mac)
VirtualBox sets up a professional virtualization environment on your Mac, similar to Parallels or Fusion, allowing you to install Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and others. But if you just need a Windows environment for browser testing on your Mac, the good news is that you don’t even need a licensed copy of Windows to run IE6, IE7, or IE8. VirtualBox can be configured to run all three browsers by installing the VirtualPC disc images (for free) directly from Microsoft.

Adobe BrowserLab (Mac/PC)
This free online screenshot service (still in beta) shows you what your latest web design will look like on the PC side in IE’s 6, 7, 8 and Firefox; and on the Mac side in Safari and Firefox. Although it only takes static screenshots, BrowserLab is useful for catching pesky CSS layout issues, especially with the difficult-to-justify-installing-but-still-important IE6.

There are a number of online browser-testing screenshot services out there already, but BroswerLab is different because load time is much faster than the others and the interface is much better. For Dreamweaver users there’s a slick plug-in that allows you to preview the page you’re working on at the touch of a button. Browser screens can be compared side-by-side, and an interesting Onion Skin View can help idenitify layout quirks at a glance.

MAMP
Although OS X allows you to run a full-blown Apache server out of the box, setting up a properly configured PHP server on your Mac can sometimes be a frustrating endeavor to get just right. Enter MAMP, which stands for “Macintosh, Apache, MYSQL, and PHP.”

Everything you need to run a PHP server is included, complete with phpMyAdmin, SQLiteManager, and a nice control interface to easily start and stop the server. MAMP will not interfere with other Apache installs or modify them in any way. It’s all self-contained within the application folder and can easily be removed. An OS X Dashboard Widget gives you start/stop server controls.

Free Mac FTP program

Cyberduck (Mac)
For Mac users the robust and stable FTP browser/client, Cyberduck, is an open-source must-have for tasks requiring FTP, SFTP, WebDav, Mosso Cloud Files, and Amazon S3 server interaction. Its clean and straightforward operation allows you to quickly upload and download files without the interface clutter found in some FTP programs.

Features include file synchronization, access to file permissions, bookmarks, and integration with various text editors to edit files directly. OS X technologies like Spotlight, Bonjour, Keychain, and even Quicklook are all supported. An included OS X Dashboard widget allows for quick access to servers. Various localizations are also available.

Also check out:

FileZilla
The interface is definitely not Mac-like in elegance, and it doesn’t make good use of integrated Mac technologies like Cyberduck does, but those looking for a dual-pane FTP browser will find it in FileZilla.

Free supporting apps for designers on the Mac

Skitch (Mac)
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the ability to annotate a picture may be worth even more. Beyond your average screenshot app, Skitch combines the ability to capture anything on-screen with drawing and annotation tools.

With Skitch, for instance, you can quickly capture a design you’re working on and mark it up with non-destructive colored arrows, text, highlights, boxes, and lines – helpful for illustrating concepts not easily conveyed using words alone. Or you could use Skitch to create a series of screenshot tutorials.

Screenshots with our without edits are managed in the app’s history and can be revived later for further editing; or simply drag and drop to the desktop or directly into any application that supports images (like Mail, TextEdit, or any graphic app). You can even upload your screenshot creations to a free skitch.com account or to your own FTP server by simply selecting the “webpost” button. Since Skitch is in beta, rumor has it that the developers will start charging at some point, however this fact is not entirely known and the app has been free of charge for some time now.

Paparazzi! (Mac)
Have you ever been frustrated by the seemingly simple process of capturing a webpage screenshot that scrolled beyond your screen area? Instead of taking multiple screenshots and then pasting them together to form a single file, Paparazzi! allows you to capture an entire page from top to bottom and then export it as a single file into PNG, PDF, JPEG, or TIFF format. Optional cropping parameters can be set, and different screen resolutions can be tailored to fit your needs. A handy timed-delay snapshot function can also be adjusted.

Imagetricks (Mac)
This handy little app claims to “reveal the hidden power of your images,” and that’s exactly what it does. The free version of Imagetricks boasts a myriad of popular Photoshop-like filters and effects. Various masking effects can also be applied to allow for even more options. Modified images can then be exported in any of the major web file formats for insertion into your next layout.

Pixius (Mac)
This Adobe AIR application gives you a slick tool for measuring anything on-screen in pixels. Easy resize handles give you quick measurements in height and width, and the multi-screen mode allows you to move the tool back and forth between screens for dual-monitor users.

A light-dimming feature darkens the background but leaves your focus area lit. You can also pick between three skins for the app, two of which emulate browser chrome for IE and Safari Mac, respectively; handy for quickly checking screen sizes during design-time without taking your design into a browser. Screenshot functionality is slated for a future release.

Also check out:

PixelStick
Uses the Cartesian coordinate system for exacting on-screen measurements.

Calipers This Adobe AIR app floats above all other applications. Future release plans include custom skins, alpha transparency, and customizable blade colors.

Colors (Mac)
Colors lets you sample color values anywhere on-screen. You can then copy and paste the RGB values into any application. Simple, fast-loading, and very handy for your design toolbox.

Also check out:

DigitalColor Meter
Many of us forget that Apple already provides a free color-sampling tool. Just look inside your Utilities folder! Formats include RGB, YUV, and CIE.

Xee (Mac)
A lightweight and ultra-fast image viewer, Xee can replace OS X’s Preview while also offering designers additional power options like the ability to move, copy, or rename files while viewing. Opening an image within a folder containing other images allows you to browse all the images in that folder with keyboard shortcuts and forward/back commands, or via the automatic slideshow. You can even browse images inside archives. File type, EXIF info, creator, and color space are displayed front and center. JPEG lossless is supported.

Integrity (Mac)
Moving, modifying, or deleting file names is a common practice for web developers, but it can be all too easy to incorrectly re-link files during the process, too. Conversely, outgoing links on your site can change unexpectedly. Integrity removes the tedium of manual link-checking by quickly crawling internal and external links on your site and reporting broken ones.

MindNode (Mac)
This dead-simple open-source “mind mapping” program is a great way to quickly explore creative concepts of all shapes and sizes, and also works for site map layouts during website planning. It sports a lean interface and is especially handy when you want to get ideas down fast. MindNode lets you create multiple maps, and nodes remain connected to their respective maps, yet can be moved anywhere in the pasteboard area; which expands automatically to self-adjust. The free version lets you customize background color, node paths, and fonts – individually or in groupings. Export options include PNG, PDF, and HTML.

Conclusion

The number of quality web design apps on the Mac has grown along with the surge in popularity the platform has enjoyed in recent years. Finding decent free apps can still be a challenge, however, especially for graphic designers. Hopefully you’ve found a few on this list that are interesting to you. One caveat: the term “free,” used liberally throughout this article, should also be followed with “donation requested” kept in mind if a program is particularly useful to you and the author requests it. Please help support your Mac development community. Happy web designing!

About the author

Corrales Cachola is principal of Corrales Creative, a web and print design firm based in Portland, Oregon. On weekends he stays in shape by carrying CRT monitors and an Apple LaserWriter up and down flights of stairs. Follow him on Twitter and he’ll tell you all about it.

  

Last week i wrote a post called “15+ Incredibly Useful Mac Apps For Freelance Web Designers“, i asked our readers to tell us what is their favorite Mac App and why do they love it.

In today’s post, we will showcase your suggestions: 30 incredibly useful Mac Apps for freelance web designers & developers to get their website or application styled in a fraction of the time it took before and help them manage their project efficiently to get their job done.

1. Transmit

FTP / SFTP / WebDAV client with many advanced features: Get files on your iDisk, FTP, SFTP, or TLS/SSL, Edit any remote file, in any app — even graphics, Create drag-and-droplets from your favorites, Automatically sync favorites with all your Macs and more.

2. TextMate

Whether you are a programmer or a designer, the production of code and markup is hard work, TextMate puts you back in control, reduces the mental overhead, and turns manual work into something the computer does. TextMate is voted by our readers to be useful and expandable text editor, especially if you are using Subversion version tracking. TextMate productivity tips, is a nice post where you will find twelve tips that help you use TextMate more efficiently and remove some of the tedious parts of writing client-side code.

3. Anxiety

Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

4. BBEdit

BBEdit is a professional HTML and text editor for the Mac users. Provides a high-performance features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text. An intelligent interface provides easy access to BBEdit’s best-of-class features, including grep pattern matching, search and replace across multiple files (even unopened files on remote servers), project definition tools, function navigation and syntax coloring for numerous source code languages, code folding, FTP and SFTP open and save, AppleScript, Mac OS X Unix scripting support, text and code completion, and of course a complete set of robust HTML tools.

5. HyperEdit

Tumult HyperEdit is a lightweight HTML editor with a preview pane that displays the web page live as you type. HyperEdit breaks the tedious cycle of writing html, saving the file, then reloading and viewing the page in the browser by combining the writing phase with the viewing phase. This clarifies the effects of your changes and speeds up the overall process of making a web page. W3C-based validation will red-underline any mistakes. It uses the same rendering engine found in Safari, so it is not only standards compliant, but also very fast.

6. Versions

Versions provides a pleasant way to work with Subversion on your Mac. Whether you’re a hardcore Subversion user or new to version control systems, Versions will help streamline your workflow.

7. Skitch

It not only allows you to create quick screenshots and edit them, but also gives you server space and a platform to store those images online so you can view them on your skitch page. Features include: Snap a website, Capture a chat moment, Screenshot an application, iSight snap your bad hair day, Quickly sketch an idea, Tap into your iPhoto Library.

8. LaunchBar

LaunchBar is an award winning productivity utility that provides instant access to your applications, documents, contacts and bookmarks, to your iTunes library, to search engines and more, just by entering short abbreviations of the searched item’s name.

9. Quicksilver

When opened, it will create a catalog of applications and some frequently used folders and documents. Activate it, and you can search for and open anything in its catalog instantly. The search is adaptive, so Quicksilver will recognize which items you are searching for based on previous experience. It also supports abbreviations, so you can type entire words, or just fragments of each.

10. Littlesnapper

LittleSnapper is a screen and web-snap application. Features include: Full Webpage Capture, Element Snapping (means you’ll never need to use crosshairs again), Draw attention to specific areas of a snap, Full text annotations are built-in, share snaps with your clients and more.

11. Aptana

Aptana Studio is a complete web development environment that combines powerful authoring tools with a collection of online hosting and collaboration services that help you and your team do more, more easily. Create, debug, test and deploy scalable PHP solutions eamlessly, Includes support for jQuery, prototype, dojo, YUI, ExtJS, MooTools and other Ajax libraries, Host and scale your PHP and Jaxer apps, Develop Ruby and Rails apps faster with Aptana RadRails, Use your Ajax and JavaScript skills to create server-side apps too and more.

12. ForkLift

A Powerful and fast FTP application.

13. journler

Journler is a daily notebook and entry based information manager. Featuring iLife integration, audio and video entries, extensive document importing and instantaneous searching and filtering, not to mention Mail, iWeb and Address Book integration, a dash of blogging and AppleScript and Spotlight support.

14. Evernote

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

15. TimeLog

Keeping track of the time you spend on your projects, Offering an interface similar to iTunes™, every Mac user feels familiar with TimeLog. TimeLog tracks the applications you are using and shows it in its time line. This makes it easy to keep track of your work – even when you forgot to start a timer.

16. Intaglio

Intaglio is a traditional Macintosh drawing & illustration application. Patterned after the original Macintosh drawing applications, Intaglio is intuitive to beginners and familiar to traditional Macintosh users. Intaglio builds on the 2D graphics, text, color, and scripting capabilities of Mac OS X to provide unprecedented power and flexibility in an inexpensive drawing program. Intaglio isn’t just compatible with with Mac OS X, it was designed from the ground up to fully exploit the capabilites that make this platform ideal for graphics work.

17. Code Collector Pro

Code Collector Pro provides the best solution for organising, using and sharing your code snippets.

18. Rapidweaver

RapidWeaver is a powerful web design application for Mac OS X. It’s based on web standard code and can publish to any FTP server or .Mac / MobileMe.

19. Paparazzi

Paparazzi is a small utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of web pages.

20. Growl

Growl is a notification system for Mac, notifications are a way for your applications to provide you with new information, without you having to switch from the application you’re already in.

21. Filezilla

Another FTP program but free.

22. Mamp

MAMP installs a local server environment in a matter of seconds on your Mac OS X computer. With just a few mouse-clicks, you can install Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X!

23. Billings

Billings generates professional looking invoices anywhere and they’ve included 30 templates to choose from.

24. ColorSchemer

ColorSchemer is a professional color matching application for anyone from hobbyists to advanced professionals.Work with a dynamic visual color wheel, instantly explore harmony relationships and even let ColorSchemer Studio intelligently suggest color schemes for you!

25. ExpanDrive

ExpanDrive gives you perfectly transparent access to open, edit, and save files with your favorite programs, even when those files are on a server half a world away. Transparent means that you won’t even notice you’re operating on remote file server—it will act like it’s an USB drive you plugged directly into your own computer.

26. info.xhead

Your life is full of important information that you don’t want to forget. Whether it be passwords, account numbers, wishlists, or that million-dollar idea that will finally set you free from your boring job, info.xhead can store it all and catalog it into neat little categories.

27. Vector Designer

VectorDesigner is a vector drawing application designed to be simple, intuitive and powerful to use. It has everything you need to create fancy vector graphics such as posters, brochures, stickers, logos, web graphics, t-shirt and more.
It features a wide range of tools and smart shapes: easily create rectangles, ovals, polygons, stars, bezier curves – even convert bitmap images to vector-based drawings.

28. Cuppa

Cuppa is a small application for Mac OS X to time your cup of tea as it steeps. Tired of leaving your tea too long, then this utility is for you!

29. PlainView

Plainview is a full-screen web browser.

30. Silverback

Spontaneous, unobtrusive usability testing software for designers and developers. Featuring: Capture screen activity, Video the participant’s reactions, Record the participant’s voice, Add chapter markers on the fly, Control recording with the remote, Export to Quicktime

More Interesting Text Editors

- TextWrangler

- xyle

- Smultron

  

In today’s post you will find 15 incredibly useful Mac Apps for freelance web designers to get their website or application styled in a fraction of the time it took before and help them manage their project efficiently to get their job done.

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1. Espresso

Extremely powerful web development tool, created by the minds behind CSSEdit. Providing a powerful editing, sleek projects, live preview, real publishing and synchronization tools.

Espresso features an immensely powerful rule-based syntax engine, CoreSyntax, that transforms your text documents into semantic structure. Espresso has an extensible Navigator that’s best compared to the CSSEdit styles list.

2. CSSEdit

CSSEdit’s unique focus is on style sheets, it offers a wide range of features for any level of expertise. Starting out? Selector Builder, advanced visual editors, Live Preview, intelligent source environment and a powerful X-Ray web page inspector for an unbeatable CSS debugging suite.

3. Pixelmator

Pixelmator, the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images. Pixelmator is a layer-based image editor. You can quickly create layers from your photos, other pictures, from selections or even your iSight. Pixelmator can add a layer to your composition directly from your Mac’s little camera. With Pixelmator’s powerful, pixel-accurate collection of selection tools you can quickly and easily select any part of your images to edit and apply special effects to portions of your pictures.

4. Coda

Panic Coda is a great all-in-one Web development environment tool, keeping many of your commonly used tools in separate tabs. Tools include: text-editor, css editor, file transfer, svn, terminal & smart Spelling. All of the usual languages are supported and styled appropriately including: CSS, HTML, Javascript, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, SQL, XML, and straight text.

5. Lineform

Lineform is an ideal Mac app for vector art, diagrams and illustrations. Lineform has all of the most popular tools, including everything from freeform gradients to compositing effects, enabling you to create the designs you want without getting in your way with superfluous “features” you don’t need.

6. Fontcase

Fontcase is a font management application that provides an elegant and powerful workflow to help you organise the fonts you have installed on your system. Designed to be an iTunes for your fonts, Fontcase has a powerful tagging system, which is designed to let you control your fonts like you control your music.

7. Deep- Image Search

Deep calculates the range of colors used in each of your images by analyzing the pixels and calculating the most popular colors. This is what makes the palettes in Deep powerful, you can find images that have similar colors, which is great when you are looking for the perfect picture to go on your web site. In fact, just drag any image on to Deep and it will find and rank all the images on your computer that are similar.

8. Cyberduck

Cyberduck is an open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Mosso Cloud Files and Amazon S3 browser for the Mac. It features an easy to use interface with quickly accessible bookmarks.

9. Flow

Flow is another file transfer coming in style. Flow brings the best of the Mac to your server’s files and folders. Put simply, Flow makes working remotely every bit as intuitive and natural as working locally with the Finder. With Flow, you can edit files directly on your server, connect to (FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDAV, and MobileMe iDisk servers), Quickly Upload Without UI and many other features.

10. Sequel Pro

Sequel Pro is a Mac OS X MySQL Database Management app. Sequel Pro gives you direct access to your MySQL databases on local and remote servers with support for importing and exporting data from popular files including SQL, CSV and XML.

11. Things

Task management has never been this easy. Organize your to-dos with Projects and Areas of Responsibility. Features include: A smart Today list automatically gathers all you need to look at, Repeating To Dos, Every list can easily be filtered and sorted by due date, iPhone Sync and many other features.

12. xscope

xScope is a powerful set of tools that are ideal for measuring, aligning and inspecting on-screen graphics and layouts. Quickly available via the Mac OS X menu bar, xScope’s flexible tools float above desktop windows and UI elements making measuring a breeze.

13. KeyCue

KeyCue gives you an instant overview of the overall functionality of any application, plus lets you automatically start working more efficiently by making use of menu shortcuts.

14. TextExpander

TextExpander saves you countless keystrokes with customized abbreviations for your frequently-used text strings, code snippets and images.

15. OnTheJob

On The Job has a lot of power under the hood but maintains it’s reputation as the easiest to use time and expense tracking solution available for Mac OS X. On The Job offers flexible invoice creation. Create invoices for specific date ranges, covering a single job, or spanning multiple jobs.

Other Mac Apps you will find interesting

- TextMate

- Billings

- Littlesnapper

- MAMP

- Inkscape

- Picturesque

- Layers

Let us know your favorite Mac App and why do you find it useful and may be can’t live without it :)