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Last year, we reviewed HideAllApps, a Mac app that lets you selectively minimize open applications and Finder windows. The app is meant to hide windows that you aren’t working on and apps that might be distracting. Hide All is a similar Mac app that lets you minimize all app and Finder windows with the click. It is meant to quickly clean your desktop of all open windows, so you don’t have minimize them one by one. The app has a simple interface’; four buttons that allow you to minimize all windows, to restore the windows you’ve minimized, and to hide the app itself or quit it.

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A while back, we reviewed TopHat App Menu, a Mac app that lets you view and access your favorite and frequently used apps from the menu bar. TopHat Folders Menu Lite is a Mac app from the same developer that enables you to access your favorite, frequently accessed, and recently opened folders from the menu bar. Favorite folders can be added by dragging them over the app window. You can open the folders from both the app’s window and menu bar. When accessed from the menu bar, the app shows the folder hierarchy, letting you browse the folder’s content and open any sub-folder or file with a click.

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Very few of us work without a clock on our screens; some either check it regularly to ensure they are not late for something, while others check it to see how much longer until the work day is over. For whatever reason, many might find that the default clock displayed in the Mac menu bar, is somewhat bare bone, displaying only the current time. The Clock is a Mac app available for $2.99 in the Mac App store that will add a feature rich clock to the menu bar. The app not only lets you see what time it is, but also lets you view the day and date. Clicking the clock opens a full calendar, and you can add clocks from different cities and time zones to it. The app also has a feature to view how much time you have left until business hours in a particular city are over, and it lets you set break alerts to make sure you take a break at regular intervals.

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Redundancy is something we all try to avoid at both work and home. In fact, eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom are perhaps the only redundant things we can’t avoid. For all other purposes, we try and keep things from getting as repetitive as possible, and these efforts extend to typing text. xType is a text expander for Mac that lets you record abbreviations for frequently entered text. Whenever you type in the abbreviation, it automatically enters the text associated with it. In the event that you have used the same shortcut for multiple text snippets, it will list all the ones that correspond to it on your screen, and you can chose which one you want to enter. The app allows you to restrict each shortcut to work in a particular app, so that it doesn’t conflict with normal typing behavior.

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You will find numerous Mac apps that let you batch rename files; what most of these apps do is to let you enter a renaming syntax for multiple files and increment each file with a number based on the syntax you’ve provided. There are relatively few apps that allow you to rename only a part of the file name and retain the rest. FreshBatch is a free Mac app that gives you two amazing features; it allows you to rename any part of a file name, and is much like the Find and Replace option in Microsoft Office. It is also a format converter. Read past the jump for details.

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Screen brightness is something that we all adjust, but having to go through complex menus or chose from several options for achieving this, is not fun. An easier way to adjust screen brightness on a Mac is definitely needed. Brightness Slider is a Mac app that we covered last year for adjusting screen brightness from the Menu Bar. Shady is a similar Mac app that adjusts the screen brightness, but has keyboard controls. You can increase or decrease the brightness using the up and down arrow keys, and quit the app by hitting Q. These keys are functional when the app is front most.

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We’ve covered several apps in the past that let you take screenshots. Each one had its own special features, but what you rarely come across, is an app that is meant to facilitate taking better screenshots. Screenshot Helper is a free Mac app that does not capture screenshots itself, but is actually meant to help you take better screenshots by covering the desktop with either a solid color or an image, hiding all icons on your desktop and hiding the menu bar and Dock. All windows remain visible, and can be minimized as per your preferences. Once you’ve cleared out your desktop, use your favorite screenshot app and capture as many snapshots as you like.

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