Scanning your hard drive periodically is a good way of knowing how much space files are taking and deciding on what to keep and what to trash. Baseline combines tools to scan your disk with features to act upon cumbersome files. We've found the program to scan a disk fairly quickly, although that can also depend on the size of your hard drive and what files you've got stored up. We quite liked being able to save baselines, comparing in time what has been added and removed. Leopard users will probably be unimpressed though as they can do exactly the same thing with Time Machine.

After scanning your hard disk you can act upon those bothersome files. Depending on your needs, Baseline lets you compress, archive or delete these. Those functions are directly accessible from the interface, sparring your the burden of having to open up a separate application.

Baseline not only lets you scan your hard disk from cumbersome files, but also allows you to act upon these. A handy application to have around.

Download Baseline 1.3.7 in Softonic

Renaming files can be an absolute nightmare if you're faced with a batch of wrongly-named ones, or recovered files which have had their IDs corrupted.

A Better Finder Rename is a comprehensive file renaming solution for Mac and can rename huge numbers of files in seconds. A Better Finder Rename allows you to do just about everything from adding, removing, inserting and replacing characters and text to adding formating, changing and even inserting sequences of numbers.

In addition, with A Better Finder Rename you can change the date and time of a huge batch of files at once plus convert file names to Windows NTFS, SMB, DOS, Mac OS, etc. You can also change the capitals of files name to lower case if need be. As you'd expect from such a simple application, there's not much to A Better Finder Rename and the interface itself is very simple and straightforward. Simply browse to the files you want and define exactly how you'd like to change them. What's most handy is that you can preview changes in A Better Finder Rename before you make them to see how it's going to look and affect the files (including MP3 files).

A Better Finder Rename is an excellent renaming tool which is simple to use and can save you hours of wasted renaming time.

Download A Better Finder Rename 7.9.9.3 in Softonic

Keeping track of important documents, passwords, cards and numbers is a full time job these days. If you're brain just can't handle it, then you should consider using something like Records Master to help you out.

Records Master allows you to collect and organize important records such as bank statements, credit card statements, investment records, bills and receipts in an easy to access database. It makes it very easy to add new records and access old ones and gives you the ability to associate attributes within records such as costs and how they relate to other aspects of your spending.

Of course, with any program like this, there's a big concern about security but Records Master allows you to encrypt records and automatically backup the database at any time (although you won't need this if you use Time Machine regularly).

If you've got no space in your house for huge filing cabinets, and like to have easy access to your documents on your Mac, Records Master is a solid organizational solution.

Download Records Master 6.6 in Softonic

For years, Default Folder has helped speed Macintosh users through the process of opening, saving, and managing files. In Mac OS X, the familiar Open and Save dialogs are missing some very necessary features and have some decidedly inconvenient quirks. Default Folder X enhances these dialogs by adding convenient features to quickly get you where you want to go. It also brings them together with the rest of OS X by letting you get to the same folders from the menubar and Dock.

Default Folder X makes your life easier with the following enhancements:

It shows you where you are

With Default Folder X installed, the top menu in a file dialog lists the active folder and its enclosing folders. Without Default Folder X, OS X overloads this menu with recently used items, favorites, and other navigational tools. Default Folder X puts those tools in their own menus in its toolbar, and gives you your bearings by showing you just your location in the menu.

Just click on a Finder window to go there

Have you got a folder open in the Finder and just want to get the Open or Save dialog to show the files in that folder? Just click on the window and Default Folder X will take you there. If you can't see the window at the moment because it's behind another one, a popup menu gives you a list of all of the windows open in the Finder. Just select the one you want from the menu!

It quickly takes you to recently used and favorite folders

Default Folder X's popup menus track folders you've used recently and give you fast access to your favorite folders. You can even assign command keys to your favorites to instantly jump to them in a file dialog or in the Finder, or use option-up-arrow and option-down-arrow to flip through folders you've used recently.

Navigate through layers of folders with a single click

Default Folder X makes menus in your file dialogs hierarchical. No more clicking through level upon level of folders to get to what you want. Just click and drag along the menus to quickly get from one folder to another.

It lets you click on a filename to copy it

In Save As dialogs, you can option-click on the name of an existing file to copy it to the edit box. No more retyping the same or similar filenames, or accidentally renaming a file when you click on an existing one.

Rename, delete, and get info on files without leaving the file dialog

Default Folder X provides a host of useful commands so you don't have to go rummaging around in the Finder just to do something simple like renaming a file.

It "rebounds" back to the last item that you selected in a folder

You no longer have to hunt through the file list for a particular document you were working on before lunch - this gets you to work much faster.

It puts the folders you use at your fingertips

When you really need to do more with a file or folder, use Default Folder X to open the folder shown in an Open or Save dialog in the Finder. Or use Default Folder X's convenient menu in the Dock or menu bar to access recent, favorite, and other useful folders at any time.

Download Default Folder 4.0.7 in Softonic

Skim is a PDF reading and note-taking app for Mac OS X that is designed to make reading research papers and manuals better. Just like in Preview, you can search, scan, and zoom through PDFs, but you also get some custom features for your workflow:

Snapshots

If there’s a graph on page two and the description continues to page three, just draw a box around the graph with the command key down and a snapshot window pops up with the graph, and you can keep on reading with the graph in view. For more fun, minimize that snapshot window - they stick around in their own dock in the document window.

Tooltips

If a PDF has links, such as for citation references or indexes and section headings, you can click on them as usual to go to the destination, but there’s more - hover the mouse over those links and Skim will show you a tooltip with the target of the link. No more losing your place to peek at a citation! For more fun, command-click on a link to pop up a snapshot window showing the link’s destination.

Presentation and Full-screen Modes

Full-screen reading is handy. So is showing a PDF as a presentation. But they’re a little different. For instance, you might not want to show the table of contents in a presentation, but it’s nice to see it when you’re just reading by yourself. So Full-screen and Presentation are separate modes in Skim.

Download Skim 1.1.8 in Softonic

The Lingon graphical user interface allows you to create and edit launchd tasks, commonly used in Unix. This operation, which is otherwise pretty complex, becomes much easier in Lingon. The application also lets you specify when the launchd task is executed.

Lingon is extremely useful to preview all your launchd tasks these are kept in a list on the left of the interface. Select one to look at the details. The application also offers an Expert Mode through which you can edit the XML of tasks. This should only really be used if you have enough experience with launchd tasks and feel comfortable working with launchd.

Lingon is obviously limited to technical users with knowledge of launchd tasks. However its real asset is to make them much easier to edit and create. I would recommend installing Lingon if you are starting out work with launchd tasks.

Lingon is a clear GUI to create and edit your launchd tasks.

Download Lingon 2.1 in Softonic

Creating a disk image is a good way of archiving files, distributing your software or saving sensible information. iDMG is a small application that allows you to create disk images in a snap.

The application, with its dark transparent interface, is very Leopard friendly. It is very simple to use and needs no installation. Just drag and drop folders and files you want to archive on the main window, then open up the preferences (via the "i" button) to adjust your DMG. The application can be internet enabled, so that it mounts as soon as downloaded from the Internet, you can create an ISO copy, and have it protected thanks to 128 bit encryption.

On the whole though, iDMG only offers the bare essentials when it comes to creating a disk image. You will not be able to resize or partition your file, nor will you be able to set the size of the disk image or the format, like compressed, read-only or read/write.

You should find iDMG useful if you are looking to create a disk image in seconds. If you want to dwell a little more in settings, like format or size, stick with Apple's Disk Utility.

Download iDMG 2.50 in Softonic

Graveyard is a little application which takes care of deleting files for you. Just drag and drop any file onto it and the program will delete it. A little confirmation message will pop up just to make sure you really want to carry on removing it. Nothing else to do. Drag and drop you're done.

Although it works via drag and drop, I did find Graveyard a little unintuitive. I was annoyed of having to reach down to the dock to erase a file and the confirmation message that popped up felt a little annoying after a while.

Then again, some of you might find Graveyard useful for removing whole folders. In some ways the application allows you to skip the Trash and get rid of files in one step. If you know exactly what you're getting rid of, it should make things faster for you.

Graveyard deletes files automatically. Use it with care.

Download Graveyard 1.21 in Softonic

Introducing Springy, simple and elegant, yet powerful archiving utility that will make your everyday archiving activities much more pleasurable. Written specifically for Mac OS X, Springy integrates seamlessly with it and includes features you would expect from a proper Mac OS X application. If you can find your way through a bunch of files in Finder, you would do so in Springy in matter of seconds.

Download Springy Archiver 1.4.2 in Softonic

fseventer is a disk activity tool with a good graphical representation and solid filter tool.

The Tree view is particularly interesting as it shows processes as they are created or modified and highlights related paths. Clicking on element will reveal the amount of time since it was modified and what action was performed on it. You can zoom in or out of the view and flag files you want to follow. The column view is more traditional yet still provides a good overlook at your current activity. Unfortunately Time Line, which appears in the interface is not actually available.

To refine your search you can add up to five filters for process, fsevents, xevents, readable and path. The more you add, the more precise the graphical representation should be. Once you're done, you can clean up the representation or either save it as a log file or print it out. The file inspector in fseventer is only really useful in the Tree view.

fseventer provides a good graphical representation of all disk activity on your Mac and good filtering tools to refine what you display.

Download fseventer 2.6.2 in Softonic

Name Mangler is an intuitive and advanced batch renamer for Mac. It offers a number of renaming possibilities like numbers, characters, suffixes and prefixes.

Renaming follows a very streamlined process. You have to first drag and drop the files you want to rename onto the interface, then select what action you want to perform and finally press the Play button. If you press the down arrow on the top right, you'll be able to create a droplet, which can be used with any file. A droplet is saved in your Mac and all you need to do is to drop a file onto it to rename it.

Name Mangler will also allow you to create playlists for your music library and supports most audio file formats.

On the downside, we found that the drag and drop function those have a tendency to lag when you select more than one file.

Despite slow drag-and-drop, Name Mangler definitely makes renaming multiple files much easier, especially when using droplets.

Download Name Mangler 2.0 in Softonic

FileXaminer is an award winning "Get Info" application. FileXaminer allows you to modify file and folder attributes that the Finder cannot, such as type/creator info, UNIX permissions, and much more. FileXaminer is powerful and easy to use – making it the best "Get Info" application for Mac OS X.

Download FileXaminer 2.6.4 in Softonic

Propagator will serve a purpose if you need to copy a number of items into a specific folder on multiple users or Macs.

You start out by adding all the items you wish to copy, which can only be files and not folders, and then select the folder to copy them into. Propagator gives you a number of common places, such as Library Preferences or Cache. Unfortunately, you won't be able to add more than the ones that are already included. Afterwards you'll need to select the location of that folder, either by selecting users or a destination.

Propagator lets you adjust some security parameters like ownership and you can set an admin password to lock files after copy. In general the transfer rate is fairly fast, though it may take more time if you have more items.

Propagator offers a simple way of copying multiple files to specific destinations, however some features still need a bit more polishing. Let's way and see what the full release will have in store.

Download Propagator Public Beta 2 in Softonic

muCommander is a lightweight, cross-platform file manager featuring a Norton Commander style interface and running on any operating system with Java support (Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, *BSD, Solaris...).

Here's a non-exhaustive list of what you'll find:

• Virtual file system with local volumes, FTP, SFTP, SMB, NFS, HTTP and Bonjour support
• Quickly copy, move, rename files, create directories, email files...
• Browse, create and uncompress ZIP, TAR, GZip, BZip2, ISO/NRG, AR/Deb and LST archives
• Universal bookmarks and credentials manager
• Multiple windows support
• Full keyboard access
• Highly configurable

Download muCommander 0.8.2 in Softonic

Changing the names of files one by one can be a real nightmare. NameChanger lets you batch modify names of files.

The program is really easy to use: drag and drop the files you want to modify, select how to change the name. What I like about the program is that it reflects changes as you type them in for each name. If it's not what you're looking for you can change it anytime. NameChanger offers loads of ways to modify names including prepend, append, date, sequence and character removal. You can also use the program to create sequences, adding digits before or after the name.

You should be able to do pretty much the same modifications using AppleScripts, but would it be as easy to use? The advantage with NameChanger is how simple it works. Drag and drop, add your modification, and your done.

NameChanger is a useful program to batch modify the names of files.

Download NameChanger 2.1 in Softonic

Every computer has loads of PDF files, probably scattered all over your hard disk. Use Yep to search, view and manage all these documents in one convenient place. Think of Yep as iPhoto for your documents.

Every house has cardboard boxes and filing cabinets full of receipts, important medical records, old letters and income tax returns, usually inconveniently stuck in the basement somewhere. Yep finally gives you a tool to keep all these documents in one place, instantly retrievable and searchable. You do not need a scanner to use Yep but if you have one Yep will use it to help you scan in all those paper documents.

Download Yep 1.7.9 in Softonic

If you think disk images are only good to store the applications you install on your Mac then think again. Disk images are a great way of storing a number of files and folders and protecting them.

You may be worried that disk images are hard to create, but in fact, the process is more or less as simple as creating any archive folder. In fact SimplyDisk guides you through a very simple process where all you need to do almost only consists of dragging and dropping the files you need then pressing the 'create' button to obtain your disk image. There are a number of compression settings and levels to choose from and you can encrypt your image albeit only at AES-128.

Make sure to type in a recognizable name for the disk image and selecting the size. This can be set in KB, MB or GB. SimplyDisk will also allow you to add your own icon, to make the disk image more recognizable. More creative users will probably like being able to set the icon size, label position and background color.

Creating a disk image is a great way of storing files. SimplyDisk shows you how simple it is to do, letting you custom how the disk image looks along the way.

Download SimplyDisk 1.0 in Softonic

Partitioning your disk is probably the best way to handle space on your Mac. You'll also need to do it if you plan on using separate sections of your disk for different things. While you can partition your disk straight from Disk Utility in your Mac, iPartition offers a more graphical way of carrying out the same operation.

iPartition will show the partitions of your disk in a pie chart, with both the name and the space used indicated. To simply resize a partition just play around with the resize handle, which may not always be as precise as you want but gives you a better overview of the size given to each partition. The program will also display in a separate window any parameters or warnings related to a partition and you can view extended properties such as minimum and maximum size and GUID.

Disks can easily be mounted or ejected thanks to the buttons on the top of the interface and you can select between both a partition map and operations view.

Not all people will like working with the resize handle, but still, iPartition offers a more graphical way of partitioning your disk than the default Disk Utility found in your Mac. Worth a test.

Download iPartition 3.0.1 in Softonic

Unlike Windows, the Mac OS uses three different types of information to determine which application is associated to a particular file. This includes not only the type and extension of a file but also, more importantly, the creator code. Modifying this information allows you to change the program associated with a particular file - although this is normally a tricky task if you don't know what you're doing.

Thankfully, TypeShuffler makes it easy to manipulate this information in order to change the application that opens a file. In fact, it's as simple as dragging and dropping a file onto the program icon then altering the creator code information by hand. If you're stuck then don't worry because there's a database with the main creator codes on angelfire.com which will help you out.

Download TypeShuffler 2.0.4 in Softonic

With Tidy Up! you can search for duplicate files: by the owner application, content, type, creator, extension, date modified, date created, name, label, visibility and more. You can also search by tag, duration and bit rate of MP3s and AACs audio files, search the content of iTunes and iPod dababases and synchronize deletions with iTunes.

Tidy Up! is fast, from 20% to 50% faster than the already fast Doublet Scan. With its multitasking capability, you can do more searches at a time and take advantage of the latest Macintosh computers and operating systems. Tidy Up! offers a full-size preview of the most commonly used files such as: audio, media, text, pdf, graphics, fonts and more... One of the most interesting features of Tidy Up! is the capability to separate, for quick and easy organization, found items using custom criteria via "Smart Baskets".

Download Tidy Up! 1.3.4 in Softonic