I have it off using my Mac . And yet when I am confronted with a fresh new equipment go macOS , I am taken aback by the barren expanse that is the default Mac experience . That ’s not on the Mac , that ’s on me — I have become implausibly reliant on some wonderful public-service corporation that heighten the Mac experience in countless ways .
Every now and then I bring up these utility to friends who are Mac users , or they see me using them , and they are often completely vex . This reminds me that , quite shockingly , there are lots of Mac users who never take advantage of utility program to make the Mac far more powerful than it comes out of the box .
Here , then , are some of the utilities that make the Mac finger like home for me .
Go beyond launching apps
A few years ago , there was a surge of utility that provide prompt access to your Mac apps by typing a few keystrokes . LaunchBar , Alfred , andQuicksilverwere the most prominent examples . Then Apple came and ( quite justifiedly ) added quick app launch to Spotlight , eliminating the original reasonableness all those other utility live .
No worries . The quick - launcher apps have handle to appease relevant by add together all form of other feature . I know a lot of people who rely on Alfred , but I ’ve been a user of Objective Development ’s $ 29LaunchBarfor years and my Mac feel empty without it .
Among LaunchBar ’s many feature is a clipboard history .
Yes , I use LaunchBar to set up apps and open file — its algorithm for guessing what you ’re take care for as you type is still superior to Spotlight’s — but I ’d have probably dumped it if I had n’t add up to bank on so many other feature of speech . I use LaunchBar to find the right emoji to insert into an iMessage , make quick maths calculations on the fly , launch automation routines , and open specific Google Docs .
Perhaps most commonly , I apply LaunchBar as a clipboard manager . There are slews of apps out there that will commute the Mac ’s traditional individual - purpose clipboard into a big , approachable stack of clipboard point . Since it ’s a feature LaunchBar includes , I have n’t needed anything else .
disregardless of whether you employ LaunchBar or something else , Ihighlyrecommend using one of the Mac ’s many great clipboard manager . Being confident that everything you copy to the clipboard persist accessible can be a huge productivity encouragement . task that used to take toggle back and forth between different apps can be done in a more linear style — you copy all the stuff you require , one by one , and then switch to the other app and paste it all in , one by one .
Automate your tasks
I ’m a huge fan of drug user automation , because if there ’s anything that computers are good at , it ’s doing repetitive tasks that are utterly ho-hum to human being . If you ’re stuck doing a boring , repetitive job on your computing machine , you are ripe for the time savings that automation can take .
The problem is , a lot of drug user mechanisation solutions are extremely punishing for most people to understand . Once you ’re ask to indite code , the jig is up . fortuitously , there are some easy to utilize Mac automation tool out there that leave amazing amounts of power without requiring you to write code ( although you could if you need ) .
I ’m constantly stunned at what Starways Software ’s $ 36Keyboard Maestrocan do . you may automate initiative apps , supply menu command or keyboard shortcuts , clicking on clit , and pretty much anything else you may think of . It ’s not reliant on the build up - in mechanization features of case-by-case apps , either — if you call for to automate something by press a specific item on the screen somewhere , Keyboard Maestro can be told specifically what to look for and where to chatter . It ’s a minute like magic trick .
Keyboard Maestro permit you establish automations that interact with any Mac app , even if it ’s not scriptable .
I ’ve usedKeyboard Maestroto automate repetitive actions I do on my Mac to start or end specific types of work . For example , when I am about to record a podcast , I need to set in motion several apps , receptive specific pages in Safari , and configure several feature of an app by clicking on various user interface component and typing related to keyboard cutoff . It ’s something like a 30 - whole tone process that I have to do more or less the same every week . With Keyboard Maestro , that process can be reduced to a single click or keyboard shortcut .
I regard meter spent make a motion file around in the Finder to be time wasted . But my files still ask to be make out ! So I rely on Noodlesoft ’s $ 32Hazelto manage my data file for me . Hazel works by watch brochure on your Mac and get changes to files based on a serial publication of principle . For representative , I ’ve fuck off a rule that look at the folder where I save all my technical school authorship , and after a few weeks , move unmodified stories to an archive folder . Another rule take honest-to-goodness podcast file and compresses them so they take up less space . And yet another bet at a shared Dropbox folder used to pass audio files back and forth and cancel any of them honest-to-goodness than a dyad of week .
Hazel permit you set rule to move files around your Mac .
I used to do all of that single file upkeep by hand , but withHazelI do n’t have to any longer . If you find yourself going through the mental gymnastic exercise of deciding which file need to go into which places , you might be able to reduce those thinking into a basic solidification of Hazel rules and let the computer do the work mechanically .
Power in the Menu Bar
I’veextolled the moral excellence of the Mac ’s menu barin this space before , but my menu bar is made a band better by the addition of a few clever utilities .
SoundSource lets you route audio from unlike apps to unlike outputs , all from the menu stripe . ( Also figure : Other useful menu stripe items . )
The $ 15 utilityBartenderlets me clean up my carte du jour bar , hiding icons I do n’t utilise as often beneath a single item . That leaves way for more items that I really want to see , like the graphs from Bjango ’s $ 12iStat Menus . iStat Menus provides you with glanceable information about your Mac ’s current status , from processor temperatures to the work being done by individual processor cores .
Rogue Amoeba ’s $ 29SoundSourcegives me complete control over where the sound on my Mac is pass away . I can quickly reroute iTunes from my external speakers to my earpiece , and adjust the output intensity , right from its drop - down control control board .
And the free utilityBitBarlets me put more or less anything I want into my menu bar , via an extensile plug - in system . I ’ve grow the current weather status at my dwelling house weather place , the velocity of my local mesh , and even the issue of bouncy listeners to my podcasts , all displayed in the card bar via small BitBar extension .
Sure , the Mac is good without all of these public utility company . But with them , it ’s great — and it feels like home to me .
