Compared to Windows, Mac offers rather narrower choice in terms of free software. I don’t why but it feels that way after using Mac computers for one year. As a result, it is not easy to find free writing software for Mac. The following is a handful of writing software for Mac for which you don’t have to pay and which are as good as commercial software.
1. Evernote
Evernote is literally the best solution when you want have access to the same note on different devices. I use it on two Mac computers, iPad and iPhone. Evernote comes in versions for computers (windows and Mac), iPhone, iPad, and android devices. I use Evernote mostly for making quick notes on the iPhone and later edit the notes on Mac mini.
One thing, I never realized until recently is that it can also be successfully used to write a book. Timothy Ferris, the writer of 4 hours workweek, used Evernote to write his recent book and praised the software. Click here to read the article.
NV is a simple but good note taking software for Mac. The interface of Notational Velocity is composed of two vertical panes. The upper pane shows a list of notes and lower pane shows the content of each selected note. If you type words in the search box on the top, the software show the list of notes that include the typed words. If there is no note, you can just make a new note by pressing enter key with the search words.
One good thing about NV is the ability to sync with simplenote, an online note software that also comes with iPhone app. Sync between simplenote and NV means you can make, edit and search notes anywhere.
3. Bean
Pages is the most well-known word processor software for Mac. But it costs money. Bean is a good, but not perfect, alternative to Pages or MS Word. It does most of tasks you may expect from word processor such as RTF and HTML support, spell check, find and replace, inserting images and more. But it does not support footnotes and hierarchical numbering. Still, if you want a light-weight word processor program with no cost, Bean is the very one to try.
4. TextWrangler
I must admit that I hardly use text editor on my Macs because I am not a programmer. But one thing I know is that TextWrangler is the most frequently mentioned software when I searched for a good text editor for Mac.
I cannot do better than the program’s own developer in explaining the features of this highly acclaimed text editor. So just click here to read them and download the software if you like it.
5. Free diary software for mac
You don’t have many choices when it comes to free diary software for Mac. After several hours of searches, I only found 2 candidates in this category of software.
They are clover diary and viJournal Lite. If you need more information on them, go check my previous post on free journal software.