2 Mac Apps You Can Use And A Single Trick That Does The Same Thing

My Mac is loaded with clever little utility apps that do this or that and fill in the gaps left by major app makers like Apple, Adobe, or Microsoft.

These utilities add up after a few years. Thankfully, the Mac App Store is bringing apps to the masses and lower prices. Still, I have plenty of apps that I truly like, but I’m trying to become more cost conscious and techno-savvy in my old age.

Here are two Mac apps you’ll like and one trick you’ll love.

Apple’s Hidden Functions Revealed

My husband and I have multiple iTunes accounts. That means multiple iTunes music libraries to manage.

Ditto for iPhoto. In fact, we each have multiple iPhoto libraries, too.

Frankly, it’s just easier to manage multiple libraries than it is to throw everything into one huge library and hope for the best when trying to find something of value.

What’s needed to manage multiple iTunes or iPhoto libraries? There’s an app for that.

PowerTunes is the Mac app that creates multiple libraries so multiple users can manage their music on a single Mac.

It’s not just multiple music libraries that are easy to setup and manage.

PowerTunes helps you find orphaned songs that you can bring back into iTunes (or trash). It helps you merge multiple libraries into one, move libraries from one place to another, and remembers which music folders you use.

What about iPhoto? The same developer also publishes the popular iPhoto Library Manager. It gives you multiple iPhoto libraries, too.

This handy app gives you more than just more libraries.

You can sync photos from multiple libraries to iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Switching is a click away. It copies photos from one library to another. You can even split libraries into smaller ones, and keep all the photo titles, keywords, ratings, dates, etc.

What’s not to like, dear Mac user?

Both apps are useful and give you plenty of features and functions to manage multiple music and photo libraries.

Both apps are recommended if your libraries are getting gargantuan and you spend too much time looking for what you can’t find.

Here’s the interesting little trick that Apple doesn’t bother to tell anyone about. Multiple libraries for free. Click on the Option key and hold it while you click the iPhoto or iTunes app icons.

Voila!

Multiple libraries are built-in to both iTunes and iPhoto. Create a new one, open an old one. What you don’t get are all the goodies associated with PowerTunes or iPhoto Library Manager. Money talks. Some of those functions are useful. But if you’re on a budget, thank the Mac360 Value Vixen™ for another great tip and trick (insert applause here).

Listen to Apple’s Siri read my article:

The Apple Villagers

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