#Software utilities for mac series#

#Software utilities for mac series#

Hazel works by watching folders on your Mac and making changes to files based on a series of rules. But my files still need to be managed! So I rely on Noodlesoft’s $32 Hazel to manage my files for me. I consider time spent moving files around in the Finder to be time wasted. With Keyboard Maestro, that process can be reduced to a single click or keyboard shortcut. It’s something like a 30-step process that I have to do more or less the same every week. For instance, when I am about to record a podcast, I need to launch several apps, open specific pages in Safari, and configure several features of an app by clicking on various interface elements and typing related keyboard shortcuts. I’ve used Keyboard Maestro to automate repetitious actions I do on my Mac in order to start or end specific types of work.

Keyboard Maestro lets you build automations that interact with any Mac app, even if it’s not scriptable. It’s not reliant on the built-in automation features of individual apps, either-if you need to automate something by clicking on a specific item on the screen somewhere, Keyboard Maestro can be told specifically what to look for and where to click. You can automate opening apps, issuing menu commands or keyboard shortcuts, clicking on buttons, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I’m constantly amazed at what Starways Software’s $36 Keyboard Maestro can do.

Tasks that used to require toggling back and forth between different apps can be done in a more linear fashion-you copy all the stuff you need, one by one, and then switch to the other app and paste it all in, one by one. Being confident that everything you copy to the clipboard remains accessible can be a huge productivity boost. Regardless of whether you use LaunchBar or something else, I highly recommend using one of the Mac’s many great clipboard managers. Since it’s a feature LaunchBar includes, I haven’t needed anything else. There are lots of apps out there that will convert the Mac’s traditional single-use clipboard into a large, accessible stack of clipboard items. Perhaps most commonly, I use LaunchBar as a clipboard manager. I use LaunchBar to find the right emoji to insert into an iMessage, make quick math calculations on the fly, launch automation routines, and open specific Google Docs. Yes, I use LaunchBar to launch apps and open files-its algorithm for guessing what you’re looking for as you type is still superior to Spotlight’s-but I’d have probably dumped it if I hadn’t come to rely on so many other features. I know a lot of people who rely on Alfred, but I’ve been a user of Objective Development’s $29 LaunchBar for years and my Mac feels empty without it.Īmong LaunchBar’s many features is a clipboard history. The quick-launcher apps have managed to stay relevant by adding all sorts of other features.

Then Apple came and (quite rightly) added quick app launching to Spotlight, eliminating the original reason all those other utilities existed. LaunchBar, Alfred, and Quicksilver were the most prominent examples. Go beyond launching appsĪ few years ago, there was a surge of utilities that provided quick access to your Mac apps by typing a few keystrokes. Here, then, are some of the utilities that make the Mac feel like home for me. This reminds me that, quite shockingly, there are lots of Mac users who never take advantage of utilities to make the Mac far more powerful than it comes out of the box. That’s not on the Mac, that’s on me-I have become incredibly reliant on some fantastic utilities that enhance the Mac experience in countless ways.Įvery now and then I mention these utilities to friends who are Mac users, or they see me using them, and they are often completely baffled.

And yet when I am confronted with a fresh new device running macOS, I am taken aback by the barren expanse that is the default Mac experience.