The picture of efficiency

The Mac has plenty of tools that can make your life a whole lot easier. Today’s installment of Macworld ’s Goody Bag profiles eight you may not know about. And if you’ve got a Mac full of digital photos with no idea what to do with them, we have some Mac-friendly goodies that should be part of your digital hub.

Scribble on Your Screen

$13; Panic Software

It’s called a desktop, right? So why can’t we use a Mac desktop as we do a physical desktop: draw little scribbles, jot down phone numbers, circle stuff to remind us of… what was that thing I needed to do? Desktastic, from Panic Software, inserts an invisible layer between your applications and your desktop; you can write or draw on the layer. Useful? Maybe. Fun? You bet!— Tom Penberthy

Make Your Macs Share

free; Erik Lagercrantz

When you use more than one Mac, transferring the Clipboard’s contents from one machine to another is no easy matter. But Erik Lagercrantz’s ClipboardSharing makes it simple: copy something, choose Send My Clipboard from the menu icon, and specify the target machine. Presto, the Clipboard goes to the other Mac.— Rob Griffiths

Mouse in the Spotlight

free; Boinx Software

Lost your cursor again? Boinx Software’s Mouseposé comes to the rescue. Press a hot key to spotlight the tiny black cursor instantly in its own circle of fame. It’s perfect if you use your Mac to give demos, as the mouse is completely usable while you’re in Mouseposé mode and your audience can easily follow what you’re doing.— Rob Griffiths

Work Some Magic

free; Peter Maurer

Minimizing windows is easy: press Command-M, and off they go to the Dock. Unminimizing them? Not so easy. You have to mouse over to the dock, scroll back and forth until you find the window you want, and then click on it. Try Peter Maurer’s Witch instead.

Press a hot key, and Witch shows all your minimized windows in an easy-to-use list. Witch works on unminimized windows, too.— Rob Griffiths

Beam Me Up, Scotty

free; Julien Robert

If you often use your desktop and laptop simultaneously, save yourself some chair gymnastics and use one mouse and keyboard for both Macs. Julien Robert’s Teleport lets you drag the mouse off the edge of one Mac’s screen and onto the other’s. You can also sync the two pasteboards.— Rob Griffiths