Hi, I’m Grace Smith

Show Me Your Dock! Series – Part 3

Matt is an freelance designer based in Ontario, Canada. Most of you may know Matt from his popular blog and wicked portfolio which includes his work with Darren Rowse. Along with the popular standard of RSS Feed Icons he created.

I remember seeing Matt’s blog a few years ago after he redesigned it for a CSS Reboot. I was blown away with the design at the time and I’ve been a fan of his work ever since.

I thought he would be an excellent choice for the Show Me Your Dock series.

Matt’s Intro…

I use my Mac primarily for work, and as such, have pushed the “entertainment” type apps over to the right side. From left-to-right, I see my dock as ranging from communications and management apps, to design and development apps, followed by entertainment and after hours apps.

The Dock…

Matt Brett Dock

Finder – No getting around this one.
Mail – I run all my mail accounts throw Google Apps, and use Apple Mail to access them via IMAP. I don’t use any of the other features (notes, to-dos) that Mail offers. Simply my email client.
Address Book – While it’s long overdue for an update, I still use Address Book for storing my contact info simply because I can sync it with myiPod Touch and my wife’s MacBook.
iCal – Again, syncing is key, and since Apple has done a great job of allowing you to sync data across different devices, it makes most sense for me to use Apple apps.
Things – While I have a license for OmniFocus as well, Things has been my task management app of choice for the past year or so.
Billings – I switched for Billings when version 3 was released and have been very happy with it. I used FreshBooks and BlinkSale before that, but was trying to cut down monthly recurring expenses and opted for a desktop app over a web service.
Adium – While I don’t find myself on IM much these days, Adium has proved to be the best multi-platform IM client for Mac. Facebook integration was a nice touch.
Skype – Cross platform screen sharing, what? Skype continues to impress me, but I hardly ever use it these days. Most of my communication happens in email or on Basecamp.
Firefox – I find myself wanting to punch Firefox in the face on most days (recently at least), but it’s still the best browser to develop websites in.
Safari – Safari doesn’t get a whole lot of use these days. It’s fast and has a beautifully simple UI, but I always find incompatibilities with sites I frequent that prevent me from using it day-to-day. The lack of features that seem to be common place in other browsers is
quite annoying as well. And tabs on the top? Still can’t get used to that.
Fontcase – Managing fonts is not fun. But it’s far less painful in Fontcase than any other font management app I’ve used. I bought a license as soon as it came out of beta.
Adobe Illustrator CS4 – As much as I’d like to, I can’t seem to get around using Illustrator. I don’t do any print work, or anything else that requires vector artwork. But I usually end up firing it up to grab logos or stock icons.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 – I’ve been using Photoshop since 1997 and can’t see myself doing design work in any other app. I really wish Adobe would get on the ball with UI quirks, though. I constantly have problems switching between apps and Photoshop focusing properly. And don’t get me started with Spaces.
TextMate – By far the most simple, yet technically advanced text editor I’ve used. thoroughly enjoy coding web sites these days, and I believe that has everything to do withTextMate. I often re-visit Coda and recently Espresso, but neither can compare to the glory of TextMate.
CSSEdit – I think it’s safe to call CSSEdit my most favourite app…ever! The live preview, ability to override stylesheets, and intuitive inspector make writing and editing CSS a treat. Part of the reason I’m so disappointed with Espresso is due to the greatness of CSSEdit.
Yummy FTP – When I switched to Mac about 2 and a half years ago, Transmit was the FTP client I immediately picked up. But I’ve often had problems with Panic FTP apps (Coda included) stalling during transfers for no apparent reason. Yummy FTP has never given me any grief and it’s absolutely loaded with features that top every other FTP client I’ve used.
xScope – This little gem quickly made its way into my daily work flow. I find myself most using the Dimensions, Rules, and Loupe tools.
Versions – I hate source control, but Versions makes it at least tolerable. It’s by far the most elegant SVN solution I’ve used. The steap price tag was a bit hard to swallow, but when I think about using command line for SVN, I’m thankful I decided to purchase it.
MAMP Pro – I run a local dev server while I’m working on client sites. At least for the bulk of the development, until I need to get my clients on board to check things out. Then I move to a private server that they can access.
iTunes – As with the other Apple apps I’ve already mentioned, it just makes sense to use iTunes. There are a lot of things I don’t love about it, but it’s been reliable and constantly receiving feature updates.
iPhoto – Whenever I fire up iPhoto, I walk away from my computer for a few minutes. I find that it normally freezes up and uses most of the available resources, doing whatever it does when it starts. Once it’s running normally, it’s a treat and by the far the best photo management app I’ve used on either platform.
LittleSnapper – I used to bookmark sites that I found inspirational, but websites get redesign (by people like myself, no less). LittleSnapper is the perfect app for storing inspirational bits of hotness that you can refer at any point.
iMovie – Pleasantly simple video editing. I use it mostly for editing home movies of my little one and sharing directory to YouTube.
ScreenFlow – Another app with a hefty price tag, but has it ever been a worth while investment! I mentioned previously that I work locally while developing client sites. I like to deliver status updates daily through-out the projects I work on, and whipping up a quickscreencast is trivial thanks to ScreenFlow.
VisualHub – I download all of the TV shows my wife and I watch, which are streamed through my home network and viewed via a couple of Xbox 360 game consoles. Problem is, the files are inMKV format, which is unsupported by the Xbox 360. VisualHub makes converting them to a playable format effortless.
Delicious Library – I’m always a little behind with Delicious Library, but I use it to catalog my game, music, and movie collections actually use the images it produces with jewel cases on my blog.
Xtorrent – The most simple BitTorrent client out there. Integrated search is a huge plus.
Unison – The TV shows I download are normally via Usenet, and Unison is a very nice client for such activities.
Tweetie – I’ve been using Tweetie on my iPod Touch for nearly a year now (although, Twitterrific 2 has stolen its thunder recently), and was very excited to see a desktop client released. I didn’t hesitate to buy a license and have been using it daily since.

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Each of the apps are linked to as per a few requests i had last week, i have also linked up Khoi’s apps from Part 2. I would also like to extend a huge thanks to Matt for taking the time to participate.

As usual if you would like to share your dock, just leave a comment with a brief description of your dock apps and a link to a screenshot of it. Or take to your blog and write up a description of your dock as several others have done.

Other Creatives in the Series:

With more amazing creatives lined up, make sure to check back every Tuesday for the latest Dock Series installment.

Grace Smith is owner of the small but perfectly formed web design studio Postscript5, in Northern Ireland. To keep up to date with the latest designalicious content, then please consider subscribing.