If you are a user of Mac OS X you’ll probably know that the MSN application that Microsoft has developed for OS X isn’t really that amazing. For starters you can’t have a video chat with a friend or talk via a microphone using MSN on OS X. Also the interface for the application doesn’t look all that amazing.

So I have decided to make a list of five alternative chat MSN applications out there for Mac OS X that have better functionality and allow you to customize the look and feel of the application.

(1) Adium

I got my first (and only) Mac about a year ago and discovered I hated one of the major features that makes OS X different from Windows. I resented having to move my mouse so high, just to get at the file or edit menu way up there in the menu bar. I’ve since come to love the menu bar and I’ve recently begun experimenting with some small apps that sit there unobtrusively waiting for me to glance at them or access them — often with a hotkey.

Pencil is a free drawing and animation application that supports Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Pencil is still only in beta but it’s worth installing and playing around with if you want to get into animation but you can’t afford applications such as Flash or ToonBoom.

Pencil Features

1. Tools

The tools that Pencil currently has within the application are:

• Pencil Tool
• Paint Brush
• Pen Tool
• Polyline
• Eraser
• Clear Button
• Paint Bucket
• Color Picker
• Select Tool
• Move Tool
• Move/Zoom Canvas
• Modify Curve

For those who use Apple Mail on Leopard, you will know that it’s a pretty basic e-mail application. It fetches your mail, archives it on your Mac and you might think that it ends there. With a couple of plug-ins however, you could extend the functionality of Apple Mail by miles.

There are a lot of plug-ins out there. A few of them do some pretty cool stuff, and others you probably wouldn’t need. I’m going to focus on four Apple Mail plug-ins which I find to be very useful.

In the first part of my article, I wrote about mapping Exposé onto your mouse buttons, blocking out distractions while working, using keyboard shortcuts, Sidenote and Spotlight. Now, in the spirit of productivity, let’s just get on with part two!

1. Organize your Mac

Having a cluttered workspace takes up precious time when you’re trying to find certain documents which you might have misplaced. The first step in using your time wisely to do work is organization - knowing where everything goes. There are several ways to accomplish this.

I frequently find desktop applications a lot more convenient than their web-based alternatives. Even when web alternative offers superior feature set there is still something about desktop version that makes it more attractive. So what is the solution ? A web-based application that looks and feels any other desktop program. Below you’ll find four different tools that can be used to run web services like desktop programs.