Hey Randy, where do you find all this good stuff? You're a living encyclopedia of applications! ;P
I suspect that was a rhetorical question, but I do have an answer for it.
Part of it is that I have been a Mac user, and a Mac author, for a very long time, and I keep a large database of this sort of stuff. Sometimes I keep track of certain hard-to-find types of software because I get asked about it all the time, and sometimes I keep track of certain types of software because Windows bigots like to say that "there is no such software for the Macintosh". (I really hate that!)
For instance Windows bigots used to like to say that there was "no accounting software for the Mac." In fact, the opposite is true. There is a ton of accounting software for the Macintosh, maybe more than for Windows, it's just hard to find it all. I've done my best to find and keep track of as much of it as I can.
The other part is that I use my Mac day to day in a business setting. I'm an attorney and the head of a huge Mac user group for Mac-using attorneys. I send out my MacAttorney Newsletter to almost 9,000 subscribers. So I'm actively on the lookout for new/better solutions to use in my practice, and to write about for my users.
I'm in touch with a large number of developers, some of which know me from all the way back in the days when I wrote for Computer Currents or The Macintosh Bible.
Just today I heard from a developer that I've known for about 20 years who has a new product that automatically handles font problems. I'm investigating whether it will be a cure-all for the widespread font problems Word 2011 users have been experiencing.
Formulate was written by a wonderful gentleman for his own use about 5 or 6 years ago because at the time there was nothing quite like it for the Macintosh. At first he generously gave the program away to users from his own Web site. After he developed the much-updated Pro version, he donated the code to open source. I often ask users of Formulate Pro to send Andrew de los Reyes a nice e-mail thanking him for being so generous:
[email protected]
(I hope that wasn't too long-winded an answer.)