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



## Dimwhit (Nov 11, 2004)

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!


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## barsoomcore (Nov 11, 2004)

Got Konfabulator? (Shareware -- $25)

Get StatBlockPaster: hundreds of stat blocks, straight to your Clipboard. By me. And free.


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## Sephiroth no Miko (Nov 13, 2004)

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


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## RC Hagy (Nov 13, 2004)

*Cursor changer...*

Mighty Mouse $10:


http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/mightymouse/


Change your cursor, have a lighting ball instead of the PWoD or just settle for a bug butt for a pointer. Some way, some how you can even create your own... or head over to ResExcellence for some pre-made ones, free.


http://www.resexcellence.com/cursors/index.shtml


I am one 10.2.8 and have had no problem with my choices.


Hagy


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## Breakdaddy (Nov 14, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Got Konfabulator? (Shareware -- $25)
> 
> Get StatBlockPaster: hundreds of stat blocks, straight to your Clipboard. By me. And free.




You made that widget? Nice. Been using that in my last few games and its helped quite a bit. Thanks for sharing it!


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## barsoomcore (Nov 15, 2004)

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!


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## Breakdaddy (Nov 15, 2004)

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.




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


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## Sephiroth no Miko (Nov 18, 2004)

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.)


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## drnuncheon (Nov 18, 2004)

Sephiroth no Miko said:
			
		

> Wow, thanks to whomever suggested Smultron.



 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


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## barsoomcore (Nov 18, 2004)

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.


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## barsoomcore (Nov 18, 2004)

Oh, and EditPlus rocks on toast.


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## jhallum (Nov 22, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Got Konfabulator? (Shareware -- $25)
> 
> Get StatBlockPaster: hundreds of stat blocks, straight to your Clipboard. By me. And free.





That Stat Block Paster rocks pretty hard.  But is there a Stat Block Generator for the Mac?


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## barsoomcore (Nov 22, 2004)

The CrystalBall program linked above is pretty good. And of course, if you're a true masochist, you can always start up PCGen and see if it's faster than doing them by hand.

And thanks! I like to make useful things.


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## Ron (Nov 23, 2004)

There is also RPGMapMaker to take care of making maps.


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## barsoomcore (Nov 24, 2004)

Hi Ho -- I updated StatBlockPaster (same link) -- data improvements. Now with Initiative Bonuses, Giants, Elementals and Oozes!

Oooh. Ahhhh.


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## jhallum (Nov 25, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> The CrystalBall program linked above is pretty good. And of course, if you're a true masochist, you can always start up PCGen and see if it's faster than doing them by hand.
> 
> And thanks! I like to make useful things.




Back when 3.0 was king I dl'd a PC app called Stat Block Generator, which was just a TK windows app that allowed you to input values and created a stat block from them.  That's a simple widget I would LOVE to see for the Mac.  Even though I am a Unix Sysadmin, I'm a lousy coder, so I've not yet tried to build such a beast.


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## barsoomcore (Nov 25, 2004)

The problem comes in how granular you want to make such a product.

My StatBlockPaster is atomic in nature (not atom-powered, unfortunately) -- a statblock is a single chunk of data that is never altered in and of itself. You COULD offer a program that just has a bunch of input windows (one for Initiative, one for Strength, one for BAB...) but it starts to get VERY VERY complicated VERY VERY quickly, IF you try to make it more granular. The problem is that in trying to CALCULATE values based on other values, you end up with a spectacularly confusing web of relationships between values that is very difficult to manage (PCGen).

I'm not sure what the solution is. Maybe a single-window app with an input field for each statblock section, along with a displayed "Calculated Value" next to those for which it makes sense. So next to "Grapple" it would display the total of size, BAB and Strength modifiers, along with an input box where you could either just enter the provided value, OR, if this creature had some special modifier, alter the value to whatever you wanted. When you changed the  creature's Strength, the displayed value would change but not the value in the input box. You could then decide to change the actual value for that field.

You know, I think that wouldn't be rocket science to build. Hm.


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## mindy from fluid (Nov 26, 2004)

Just wanted to note that we've now released the full version of Dundjinni for Mac users.  The price is $39.95 and is available at www.dundjinni.com and (soon) your local game store.


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## jhallum (Nov 28, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> The problem comes in how granular you want to make such a product.
> 
> You know, I think that wouldn't be rocket science to build. Hm.




Yeah, the granularity is where you really start to get in trouble.  There are two extremes, right?  One is you enter every single value and every single sentence and paragrapth.  The other is the extreme of having every single bit of data and calculation pre programmed into the software so that all you have to enter are stats, ranks, spells, and items.  

SBG for the PC is an app that was at the first extreme, and I really like it because (at the time) I really hated what was out there for character generation, and there are some times when I take characters from third party sources, or sources that weren't coded for yet, so I'd rather have just a piece of software that takes entered values and dumps finished output.  It really can't be that hard.  I think I could probably do it in perl, myself, because of it's ease of manipulating text, and since I'm not good at doing gui interfaces.


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## barsoomcore (Dec 12, 2004)

StatBlockPaster's been updated again with Andargor's improved XML data. Should have somewhat more consistent attack listings and so on. Enjoy!


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## barsoomcore (Dec 16, 2004)

Kids, you gotta get this baby:

VoodooPad

Simply the coolest organizational tool a DM EVER frickin' had. Man.


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## DM (Dec 18, 2004)

*Better late than never...*

kLoOge.Werks - The Digital Gaming Table ($15-$40)

For gaming over a LAN or internet connection.

http://www.kloogeinc.com/werks/screen_shots.htm


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## GuardianLurker (Dec 22, 2004)

I'm surprised no-ones mentioned BB-Edit (www.barebones.com) - although that might not be considered alternative here on the Mac. It's still awesome.

DesktopManager is also a great little freeware program; available through SourceForge, IIRC.(http://wsmanager.sourceforge.net/index.php)


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## barsoomcore (Dec 23, 2004)

BBEdit is so NOT alternative. Heck, I know people who switched to the Mac for BBEdit.

That said, it's a thing of beauty. Still the best plain text editor created by man.

I don't use it lots since very little of my work is plain text editing -- and for me being able to navigate between files is REALLY important -- but it's a beautiful thing and deserves mention.


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## GuardianLurker (Dec 24, 2004)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> BBEdit is so NOT alternative. Heck, I know people who switched to the Mac for BBEdit.
> 
> That said, it's a thing of beauty. Still the best plain text editor created by man.
> 
> I don't use it lots since very little of my work is plain text editing -- and for me being able to navigate between files is REALLY important -- but it's a beautiful thing and deserves mention.




Heh. I use it mainly for HTML-editting. And I still think of it as "alternative" since I'm forced to use the Gates of Borg products at work.

And speaking of HTML, just a reminder to the gadget-glazed that your little web-browsers, used intelligently, can be powerful GM tools - you just have to be willing to write the webpages first.


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## drnuncheon (Jan 1, 2005)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Kids, you gotta get this baby:
> 
> VoodooPad
> 
> Simply the coolest organizational tool a DM EVER frickin' had. Man.




Seconded.  I kept looking for something like this, and I was thinking I was going to have to write the damn thing myself.

J


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## Mirth (Mar 25, 2005)

Since I updated the main thread, I thought I would bump this as well.


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## Dimwhit (Apr 7, 2005)

I finally updated this list with all the latest suggestions.


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## dreaded_beast (Apr 7, 2005)

Any Unix/Linux apps that can be compiled on a Mac?


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## XCorvis (Apr 8, 2005)

dreaded_beast said:
			
		

> Any Unix/Linux apps that can be compiled on a Mac?




Jreepad is a cross-platform, heirarchical (tree-based) notepad. Great for personal organization and GMing notes. Cost is free.


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## Ron (Jul 2, 2005)

I was planning to purchase some of this software but with another transition in the horizon (now to the Pentium processor), it seems not be a good investment. Does anybody knows if any of those specific applications, such as Crystal Ball, will include free upgrades?


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## Enforcer (Jul 2, 2005)

Crystal Ball has had pretty much zero updates in the past several months, as far as I can tell, so the switch to Pentium probably won't matter much as it seems the whole program is dead.

Just wanted to add that TextWrangler is a free text editor by the same folks who do BBEdit, here's the download link. I don't know how it compares to BBEdit, as I'm not going to pay $200 to find out, but I used it to make my website (see my .sig).


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## Kesh (Jul 2, 2005)

Don't forget OmniOutliner and OmniGraffle. Excellent tools for GMs. Take notes, draw out rough maps, or even flowchart out plot ideas.


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## andrew (Jul 5, 2005)

*TextWrangler*

BareBones now offers TextWrangler , a BBEdit Lite pseduo-replacement. And it's free!


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## Rackhir (Jul 6, 2005)

BBEdit now does (or at least I've just discovered it) vertical text selection (Referred to as Rectangular Text selection)!!!!

This is the one indispensible feature of a text editor I use at work. COOL!


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## barsoomcore (Jul 12, 2005)

Word on TextWrangler. Dimwhit, I summoun thee to add it to the initial post!

Oh, and VoodooPad added "Categories" to its feature set. You can now define categories and add pages to them. SUPER COOL. That was the missing feature for me, and now it's there and all I am is happy.


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## Dimwhit (Jul 12, 2005)

barsoomcore said:
			
		

> Word on TextWrangler. Dimwhit, I summoun thee to add it to the initial post!




Yeah, yeah, I'm here! 

Change made. TextWrangler is great. No need to worry about upgrading my BBEdit.

Of course, now I'm torn. Do I use TextWrangler or Smultron?


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## Kesh (Jul 12, 2005)

Slight correction up there: both OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner are $39 apps by default, with Pro versions that cost $69 with more features.


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## Dimwhit (Jul 12, 2005)

Kesh said:
			
		

> Slight correction up there: both OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner are $39 apps by default, with Pro versions that cost $69 with more features.



 Done. Thanks for the clarification. I had a hard time tracking down one of the prices.


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## ThibledorfPwent (Jul 22, 2005)

Hmm, i've been having some issues getting StatBlockPaster to work. There doesn't seem to be any actual widget file in the download, just a sit file that unstuffs into a folder. I've tried renaming both of those files with the wdgt extension and then putting it into the widgets folder, but that hasn't worked. 

Any idea what i'm doing wrong?


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## barsoomcore (Jul 25, 2005)

Um, no. How's that? Except that the widget extension is, I believe, .widget -- NOT .wdgt. A widget file IS just a folder, one that is treated by the system as a "bundle" and run by Konfabulator.

I assume other Konfabulator widgets work okay for you?


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## Axegrrl (Jul 28, 2005)

*FreeDice upgrade now available*

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22744

Product Description:
Free Dice is a simple, free Mac OS X tool for rolling dice. It is intended for use with role playing games and miniatures games, but can be used whenever you need to generate random numbers.

What's new in this version (1.5):
* Uses a sophisticated random number algorithm which is statistically indistinguishable from truly random numbers rolled with real dice.
* Remembers sound and font size settings.

What's new in version 1.1:
* Makes dice sound when you roll the dice (can be disabled).
* Display font for the roll list can be resized.


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## Dimwhit (Nov 18, 2005)

Hey, I have a question...anyone write any cool D&D widgets? I did an exp calculator based on the one from the d20srd.org website (well, more stolen than based  ), but I'm looking for some others, like initiative trackers and such. Anyone have anything?


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## heruca (Dec 3, 2005)

Got a new one for your list, Dimwhit. The link and a general description is in my sig. It runs on Mac OS X and various flavors of Windows.


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## Remus Lupin (Dec 4, 2005)

I've got to keep my eye peeled for some good software to recommend to this forum. Thanks for the recommendations, folks!


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## Dimwhit (Aug 30, 2006)

Thread Necromancy!

i was bored, and since I've been researching some Office alternatives, I thought I'd update this thread.

To replace Microsoft Office at work, I think we'll be paying $50 for ThinkFree Office and $69 for Nisus Writer Express. Now ThinkFree had a Word program, but all our Word-formatted docs didn't open well with it. They worked perfectly in Nisus, and Nisus is a faster, better-looking program. However, ThinkFree's Excel program, called Calc, is FANTASTIC! The best Excel alternative out there, IMO. ThinkFree also has Show, a PowerPoint-type program, but it's not great. The advantage with TF, though, is that it works with the Office formats, rather than using its own. Nisus, however, opens and saves in Word format.

So there you have it.

Edit: I've also recently discovered the joy of GraphicConverter.


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