mac external hard drive or transfering files without install cd/dvds

[300jd]

hi first i would like to say thank you to a truly nice people here

i have a mac system due to a lost bag on a trip my orginal install dvds for most all of my software were lost
i bought a 2 tb firewire 800 external hard and drive genius 2 from other world computing for my 24 inch imac

i guess my question is i have a machine which all my software is on
cs4 master collection final cut 2, apertaure 2 and many valued programs are on

i want to i bought 17 inch macbook pro and 1tb firewire 400 drive for my notebook
how i copy programs from mac to another
or do i clone the hd to an external

the best advice you could offer is much needed i am new to moving software and copying hard drives
any help greatly appericated

[Gizmokid2005]

Most applications for the mac you can just copy to the external hdd and then copy them back to the applications folder on the new mac. You can also accomplish this by making a clone and then copying off the ext. hdd (clone) and putting them in the mew mac.