What are all these Applications that came with my Mac?

First of all, if you are switching from Windows, Apple calls programs "Applications." These programs are stored in a folder called Applications at the top level of your hard drive and by default there is a short cut to this folder in your Dock and Finder sidebar. You can remove these from your dock and sidebar if you wish with no effect, but you should never move or remove the Applications folder from where it is in your hard drive.

Your new Mac should come with over thirty applications in this folder, some of which are very useful and some of which aren't. I'll try to break these down for you and suggest a way of organizing them.

Let's start with the important ones that you will most likely be using all the time. These you should leave right where they are for easy access to them, and add any new important programs to this folder.

		Address Book: This is the program where you will manage all your contacts' information including email addresses, IM names, phone numbers and more. It integrates with Mail, iCal and iChat, so you definitely want to keep it handy. If you choose to use Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook) from Microsoft Office, you can put this to the side for now.
		iCal: This is used for maintaining a personal calendar and is also duplicated by Entourage. It integrates with Address Book, and in Leopard, with Mail. You can subscribe to others' calendars and share your own if you choose.
		iChat: Instant messaging program that uses AOL's AIM network. Integrates with Address Book.
		iDVD: This program authors DVDs from your collection of home movies, music and photos.
		iMovie HD: Edits movies from various sources including your handheld video and digital cameras.
		iPhoto: Organizes and does light duty editing of your digital photos. You also can use iPhoto to create slideshows, prints, printed books, calendars and cards. iPhoto integrates with most Apple applications.
		iTunes: For music, iTunes rips, burns, organizes, purchases and plays your music and podcast files. Apple has been adding more and more multimedia capability, so it now can manage and play certain video files, primarily movies, TV shows, and video podcasts obtained from the iTunes store. Apple has also chosen to use it as an all purpose device manager for not only iPods, but AppleTV and iPhones as well.
		iWeb: iWeb is a simple and easy to use program for creating web pages for personal use such as photo galleries and blogs. This one of those programs where the Apple magic makes tasks seem effortless if you are not too demanding. iWeb integrates with the .Mac (dot-Mac) services.
		Mail: Mail (sometimes known as Mail.app because of the generic name) is used to read, write and organize email, and integrates with iPhoto and Address Book.
		Preview: Preview is for viewing (not creating) image and PDF files. It can replace Adobe Acrobat in most situations. It can view and convert a wide variety of images files.
		QuickTime Player: QuickTime Player primarily plays videos of various, but not all formats. It is part of a family of QuickTime products including QuickTime Pro that is constantly pushed at you in the player. Don't bother purchasing the Pro upgrade unless you find you really need the extra capability. Additionally, QuickTime is the name of the multimedia technology that underpins many aspects of OS X. In depth information here.
		Safari: Safari is the Web Browser created by Apple, similar to Internet Explorer (IE) for Windows. There are many other web browser options that are created for the Mac, including Firefox. Unfortunately, many web sites are still created for IE only, and IE is no longer supported on the Mac. With some investigation, there are various ways to still use these sites.
		System Preferences: System Preferences is a collection of control panels used to customize various aspects of the Mac. Explore these preferences when you have an extra few minutes.
		Utilities: This folder contains another group of programs called Utilities that manage and control the more technical aspects of your Mac. I like to create an "Alias", or short cut of this folder and call it, " Utilities" with a space in front of the word so that it is at the top of my alphabetical list of Applications. As your group of primary applications grows, the Utilities folder will always seem to be out of view at the bottom of list.

You can put the rest of the applications that came with your new Mac in two new folders you can create inside the Applications folder. As time goes on, you will acquire more and more applications and this is a good way to manage them so the Applications folder doesn't get out of control.

If you are your Mac's administrator, you can create a new folder in various ways, one of which is, with the Applications folder selected, go to the File menu and select New Folder. Call the first folder Games. Do it one more time and call the second folder More Applications. Add a space in front of the names if you want them to go to the top of the list alphabetically.

You can move the following applications and folder into your new Games folder. You can also throw any of these out without worry.

		Big Bang Board Games. This is a collection of seven games such as checkers and backgammon.
		Chess: Just what you think, a 3-D chess game. One unique feature is that you can use spoken commands to play it.
		Freecell, Minesweeper: Hey, where's my Freecell and Minesweeper?!! These two games are surely two of the best things about Windows. Even though they don't come free with your new Mac, there are plenty of versions of basic games like these to download from the Internet. One favorite is Burning Monkey Solitaire by Freeverse, the maker of the Big Bang Board Games. You can download the demo here. See Dig Deeper for more links to games like these.

The remaining applications you can move into the More Applications folder suggested above. 

		Apple Script: This folder contains the Apple Script editor, utility and some example scripts. You can use these to automate or program some aspects of you Mac and certain programs.
		Automator: This application is an even more user friendly way of automating certain actions you might find repetitive while using you Mac, such as renaming a batch of file names.
		Calculator: There are two calculators in your new Mac, the basic one that is a widget accessed by Dashboard, and this more complex one. One nice thing about this calculator is it has an option to show a "paper" tape to keep track of what you have keyed in.
		Comic Life: This program formats images to create pages that look as if they are from a comic book using photos and text bubbles.
		Dashboard: Opening Dashboard here is another way to access your Widgets. Normally they are found either through active screen corners or keyboard short cuts such as F12. You control this access to Dashboard from the Dashboard & Expose Preference Pane using System Preferences.
		Dictionary: It's actually a dictionary and thesaurus. You can open it here or by control-clicking (right-clicking) a selected word in many applications and then selecting, "Look up in Dictionary" from the pop up (contextual) menu. One very unique capability is that you can double click to link to any word in the definition. Try it!
		DVD Player: This player usually auto-launches when a video DVD is inserted, so I keep it with these lesser used applications. Another way to watch a DVD is to use the Front Row program with Macs that come with the small remote.
		Font Book: Font Book manages your fonts and can be launched just by double clicking on a new font when you get one.
		Garage Band: A spectacular program for recording and mixing your own music. It can also be used for creating audio podcasts. Not very useful if you aren't a musician.
		Image Capture: You can use this to transfer images from your digital camera or scanner, but I'm not sure why you would when iPhoto works so well.
		Internet Connect: Really more of a utility, you can use Internet Connect to start a VPN connection.
		iSync: You can sync your contact and calendar information with your Palm or your mobile phone devices using iSync. More info at Apple's site here.
		Keynote: This is a limited time demo within iWork. See What Software do I Need? for more info.
		Omni Outliner: Omni Outliner is a program for creating, collecting, and organizing information.
		Pages: This is a limited time demo within iWork. See What Software do I Need? for more info.
		Photo Booth: a Fun Program to goof around with your built in iSight camera. You can also use it to create a iChat/Address book icon for yourself. Entertaining enough to be put in your Games folder. Try it at a party!
		Sherlock: An aging legacy program that is a collection of Internet services mostly covered by Widgets. It is best used for checking movie show times with linked trailers.
		Stickies: Another older program duplicated by a Widget. It is best used if you like to use Stickies on their own without other Widgets getting in the way.
		TextEdit: Used to create text documents, TextEdit is an odd program. It's a word processing application that handles the basics without all the bells and whistles of Pages or complexity of Word. It can open many Word .doc files, so it could be a Word replacement in non critical situations. Give it a whirl.

Was this listing helpful? Do you oraganize your apps differently? Let us know in the Comments below!

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