Manpower for Mac
GUI for UNIX (OS X Terminal) documentation.
Free
In English
Version 7.1.0When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Manpower overview
Manpower is an OS X graphical user interface to the main system of Unix software documentation, the man page. Man pages are concise but thorough descriptions of the functionality and methods of the various Unix command-line programs; there may be hundreds of such programs installed on a Unix or Linux system. Man pages are typically accessed in the Unix terminal by typing the phrase "man program," with "program" being the specific name of the Unix tool you are trying to learn more about.
While accessing the man page system in this manner is efficient, it has limitations. It is difficult to read documentation in the Unix console; the type is usually very small, and can only be read one screen at a time, making scrolling and skimming through the material a tedious process. Manpower provides a simple, elegant three-pane interface that makes reading man pages as easy as reading e-mail.
Manpower compared to Terminal and other man page viewers:
- Clean, three-pane interface: Reading man pages is as easy as reading e-mail.
- Search, browse, display, and save new man pages in a single window.
- Thorough user documentation via the "Help" menu.
What’s new in version 7.1.0
Version 7.1.0:
Note: Now requires OS X 10.15 or later
- Release notes were unavailable when this listing was updated.
Manpower for Mac
Free
In English
Version 7.1.0
What users say about Manpower
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(12 Reviews of Manpower)
Comments
User Ratings
Oct 19 2011
Version: 4.1
Get Bwana from MacUpdate. Runs in Safari (and Firefox too, I believe, though I haven't tried it.) It's free. It's fast. It's reliable. You want the text bigger, use Safari's standard display control tools.
With Bwana installed, type in Safari's location field (where you'd type http://...) man:whatever, e.g. man:ls, and if it has a man page it'll be presented in a standard Safari window, nicely typeset and scrollable. Links in the man page to man pages for other UNIX resource are clickable, especially handy for See Also items and getting to config file man pages.
If you run the Bwana application itself, you can request it display an index of all man pages for browsing (takes a few minutes, so patience required; the next time you request the index, it'll be quite fast).
Jun 11 2011
Version: 4.0
I just bough Manpower version 4.0 and I can't tell you how much disappointed I am. The application takes ages to start, before the main window appears several UI glitches occur. Once the main window finally stabilizes and the content is rendered the app is non responsive, menus are not accessible. It just freezes. The only way out is to use Force Quit!
I've uninstalled and installed the app several times. the problem persists.
I initiated the process at Mac App Store Support to get refunded of the 19.99 euros I spent.
I'm using MAC OS X 10.6.7 in the most recent MacBook Air 13''.
May 26 2011
Version: 4.0
I originally posted this in the troubleshooting tab, but figured most people don't browse that. I'm always interested to read if an application is one of those crash or lockup on run affairs:
Downloaded this from the developer's website and couldn't get it to work. It briefly brought up a couple small malformed windows before yielding the main screen, and then a sheet was produced explaining that a demo period was in effect and it had a couple buttons for yes/no asking to buy it. I clicked on No because I wanted to try it and it didn't respond! It needed force quitting. Tried again, same deal. This is not ready for prime time yet...
May 26 2011
Version: 4.0
Downloaded this from the developer's website and couldn't get it to work. It briefly brought up a couple small malformed windows before yielding the main screen, and then a sheet was produced explaining that a demo period was in effect and it had a couple buttons for yes/no asking to buy it. I clicked on No because I wanted to try it and it didn't respond! It needed force quitting. Tried again, same deal. This is not ready for prime time yet...
May 3 2011
Version: 4.0
This is a significant update for Manpower, which incorporates all the fully-native integration I've been adding to my apps: native Cocoa toolbar, native printing, clickable links in the data display, and more. This release also allow you to set Manpower as the default viewer for man pages on the Mac. All in all, it's a worthy upgrade, and a good app to check out if you're interested in seeing just how much documentation is available under the Mac's Unix hood.
