If you are in need of a text editor and cost is a factor then I recommend the program Smultron. Smultron is a free text editor written in Cocoa by Peter Borg.

On the surface Smultron is a very basic editor but after you open it up and tweak it to fit your needs it can become very powerful. From Smultron’s site:

Some of its features are line numbers, support for syntax colouring for many different languages, functions list, support for text encodings, snippets, a toolbar, a status bar, HTML preview, split window, multi-document find and replace with regular expressions, possibility to show invisible characters, tabs, authenticated open and saves, command-line utility, .Mac synchronisation, full screen editing and running commands from within Smultron.

I currently use Smultron for my web development coding PHP, XHTML and CSS all inside the editor with no problems. If you are looking for a full featured IDE Smultron is not for you but if all you need is an extensible editor Smultron is worth the look.

I haven’t used all of the additional functions of Smultron as of yet so I cannot report on their usefulness.

Visit Smultron’s web site to download as well as view a detailed listing of features.

If you’re in need of an open source FTP / SFTP browser than Cyberduck is for you. Being a web developer I use an FTP client daily and currently Cyberduck is what I am using. If you’ve ever used an FTP client of any sort you will find no learning curve on Cyberduck what so ever. It just works and it’s easy. Pictured above is the main window you would see when launching Cyberduck and any action you would need to perform is found in the top menu bar of the program window.

To start you would want to open a new connection and selecting Open Connection will drop down a new screen that allows you to enter all of the connection details (pictured below). After you’ve entered the details in hit connect and you are on your way. As a word of caution when I used the program this way I was not able to save my information so this route is better for those once-off connections.

If you would rather store connections that you use all the time then Bookmarks will be what you need. Selecting Bookmarks from the menu bar will slide out another window from the program displaying all of your current bookmarks as well as giving you the options to add, edit or delete.

When you add a bookmark from this window a similar screen to the Open Connection menu item appears with the main difference being the option to enter a nickname for the connection. This nickname will be what appears in the bookmarks window as well as the Quick Connect drop down menu item.

To access any FTP connection you have saved as a bookmark you can either double click the connections name from the Bookmarks tab or select it from the Quick Connect drop down menu. This will create the connection to the server and you will see your directory path usually starting at the root unless you specified a path in the Path field of the New Connection screen. For example if you would always want to connect to the publich html folder for uploading web pages you would add the /public_html into the path field and every new connection will open in this folder instead.

From here uploading files is as easy as drag and drop. Select the files or folders you would like to upload and drag them into the program window. A progress window will appear showing if the upload was a success or failure and give appropriate messages.

I have just covered the basic features of Cyberduck and how to create a connection. The program itself contains many more features and is quite powerful as an FTP connection. There is also a widget available for download from the web site, I have not used the widget so I cannot give any opinion on it.

Cyberduck is just one of many FTP clients available for the Mac. The program was the first I used on the Mac and its ease of use made me stick with it and not try other programs as I currently have no need to. It is a great application for general FTP use and the fact that it is Open Source and free makes it a great bargain as well.

A definite must have application for any owner of a Mac is AppZapper. In my previous post Installing DMG Files I mentioned that installing applications on the Mac is as simple as dragging the application into the Application folder, unfortunately uninstalling an application isn’t as easy. Enter AppZapper:

Not only does AppZapper have one of the coolest looking icons it’s also one solid little program. Most installations on a Mac will not only put files into your Application folder but also store preferences, support files and other types of files that you would have to dig around to find to completely remove the program (programs do this on Windows as well and their uninstalls also do not remove the program completely). With the use of AppZapper all you do is drag your application icon onto the AppZapper drop window (seen below) and the program does the rest.

From the AppZapper web site: “Drag one or more unwanted apps onto AppZapper and watch as it finds all the extra files and lets you delete them with a single click. A slick safety system remembers which apps you want to keep safe, and the log tracks all the files you’ve zapped. In one Zap you’ll understand it. In two you’ll fall in love.”

AppZapper allows you to try the program with five free zaps (I’ve currently used two). If you like the program it costs $12.95 US to buy. For those power users out there who like to install and try new applications all the time AppZapper is the perfect tool for helping to rid of all the extra files when you realize you no longer need some of your applications.