Free Mac apps
thriftmac
- Audio
- Backup
- Calculator
- Calendar
- Clipboards
- Compression
- Converters
- Deletion
- Drawing
- Education
- File Sharing
- Finance
- FTP
- Functionality
- Graphics Tools
- Health
- iTunes
- Journals
- Launchers
- Maintenance
- Markdown
- Media Hubs
- Media Players
- Menu Bar
- Messaging
- Miscellaneous
- News
- Notes
- Outliners
- Painting
- Photo Editing
- Screenshots
- Search
- Security
- System Monitors
- Terminal
- Text Editors
- Text Tools
- Three Dimensional
- Timers
- To-Do
- Utilities Misc
- Video
- Web Browsing
- Window Management
- Word Processors
Text Tools
Aiko
Drop in an audio or video file to get a text transcription, which can be exported for editing. It’s powered by Open AI’s Whisper, but everything runs locally on your Mac. Requires at least 16 GB of RAM.
Boop
Paste in some text, hit Command-B, and choose what you want done with it. Made for developers, but you can import you own scripts to extend its capabilities.
espanso
Type a keyword with a colon in front (or whatever you like!), and it expands. Includes special triggers for dates, emojis and shell commands, plus several expansion packages. Can also create templates.
Esse
Choose from dozens of pre-set text transformations, or combine and save your own.
Grab2Text
Capture and copy text from images, then paste it into a text editor. Keeps the history of your last 10 extracted texts. Can also extract QR codes.
Megawords
Nirvana for word nerds — search for anagrams, rhymes, crossword solutions, allowable Scrabble words — plus the usual definitions and synonyms.
Nisus Thesaurus
Pump up the free TextEdit that comes with your Mac by adding the well-done Nisus Thesaurus. Just select a word, and look it up with your Services submenu.
ProNotes
Apple Notes extension gives you two great improvements: Format text by highlighting it and choosing from a bar or create headings and lists with markdown syntax.
Retro Typer
Easily access ascii, emojis, gifs and memes from a command palette. Highlight the one you want, hit return and it’s copied to the clipboard.
Rocket
Type a colon, followed by the name of the emoji you want, and voilà — the emoji appears. Anywhere on your Mac.
WordService
Add a number of services to your free TextEdit, along with Nisus Thesaurus, and you’ve pretty much got a free, full-featured text editor. Find a bunch of other freeware you might like at the WordService website.