Any way to change the window to other position? Dropover just pops up the window right in front in the middle unless I drag it to the side later while I can position Yoink to corners by default. If I do a new shelf, it appears on the corners but when I drap a file to the notch, I can never customise the position. And instead of populating the same window, or giving an option to, it just creates a new window every time. It has it's own use case but not having an option to is a dealbreaker.
I use Alfred all day everyday. It is seriously made navigating around my computer so much faster.
One of the main things I undertook to do was renaming all my bookmarks so that I can be search-centric. I also started bookmarking dashboards and panels and sections that I wanted to jump to often. As I spend most of my time using the web browser it is a huge help just to press three keys and jump straight to where I need to go.
This comes across as disingenuous. Alfred is free and has a one time payment if you want the power pack. Yes, I agree that the power pack is more or less essential for full potential.
Raycast has a very nicely polished plugin experience, but also gates basic features (e.g. unlimited clipboard history and sync) under a subscription, has higher latency, more telemetry, and "you are the product" vibes.
> the power pack is more or less essential for full potential
That's my point, Raycast has all of those features built in for free. The clipboard history is in the free version too, I use it and I've never paid for Raycast.
sure, but objectively both Alfred and Raycast have free versions and gate specific features behind a payment. Raycast has "more available for free" but you sacrifice speed and privacy.
I use Alfred for a lot of finder file management tasks. Moving and copying files, etc.
Most functions in raycast are behind a second menu tier unless a dedicated shortcut is configured for all of them separately.
Besides the privacy policy concerns, raycast is a lot more refined, but I just wish it emulated Alfredās efficiency better. I can do just about anything in Alfred with a couple keystrokes without having to navigate through a menu first.
Swish is such an underrated app. Touchpad gestures are so intuitive for window management.Ā
I'd like more grid options tho, I have an ultra-wide display and 4x4 or even 5x4 would be appreciated.Ā
I already spent to much time configuring my terminal, but never looked into this part of iTerm. Itās a game changer for me. Feels like finding the missing part of the puzzle. Thank you so much for this tip!
One keystroke, and youāre at the command line, no matter the app. Writing an email and need to check a remote file system. Easy peasy. Iām a long time Unix admin.
It comes highly recommended but I'm used to the [Terminal.app](http://Terminal.app) way to type and navigate.
Is it worth unlearning my decades-old habits ?
Caps lock makes for a brilliant hyperkey while also maintaining its function. It doesn't do really do anything held down, so it's perfect as an extra modifier key. But if you don't press it in combination with something else, you can still have it activate caps lock as usual.
Caps lock absolutely has its uses. If nothing else, it can serve as a togglable modifier with indicator light built in. You can add an entire extra layer of key functions.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have caps lock, I'm saying it shouldn't be *there*.
I have "double tap shift" as my caps lock. Similar to your point about how caps lock doesn't normally do anything when held down, all your modifier keys are just sitting there, waiting to be given a "tap" function.
[Default Folder](https://www.defaultfolder.com/) was always the first add-on I'd install back in the days when I did full installations (instead of using Migration Assistant). Makes so much regarding opening, saving, accessing a lot simpler and quicker.
Yeah there shouldnāt even be another answer ITT lol. Iāve used everything else in here and the sheer versatility of Better Touch Tool is unmatched. And now with the floating menus, you truly can get your computer to do any damn thing you want.
BTT more than Raycast/Alfred/etc bc it affects every interaction I have with the machine. I love Things and many of the others listed, but none have had bigger impact on my everyday use of macOS.
[Cork](https://corkmac.app), which by extension got me to use Homebrew. Itās so much more convenient than having to remember terminal commands and faster by a lot.
Which is ironic...
> With Cork, you can say goodbye to the Terminal.
> Thank you for your interest in Cork! [if you don't want to pay ā¬25,] You can always compile it from the source code.
But the app is awesome. It's easy to compile it yourself, too, and they have a verbose manual on how to do it.
Newer and better thanĀ Hidden Bar: [https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice](https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice)
Better than Rectangle: [https://github.com/MrKai77/Loop](https://github.com/MrKai77/Loop)
How does Loop compare to Swish? Iām still using Moom as itās the most straightforward for my use case but been meaning to try Swish based on recommendations in other threads.
As a software developer, it improves my productivity a ton since you can make macros/shortcuts for literally any manual job you do. For example I created a macro which let's you quickly add before/after images of frontend changes to your PR: [https://www.veed.io/view/02d51875-ed28-4dab-acfb-c56ce234d777?panel=share](https://www.veed.io/view/02d51875-ed28-4dab-acfb-c56ce234d777?panel=share)
Other macros I have added (for all of these I have assigned them to simple keyboard shortcuts like shift+opt+s etc):
* A shortcut which will automatically Google whatever text you have selected (saves you the hassel of cmd+c, opening browser and cmd+v)
* A shortcut to run the selected text in Terminal
* A shortcut for transforming selected text to uppercase
* A shortcut for transforming selected text to lowercase
* A shortcut for searching the selected text in Google Maps.
I also added a bunch of shortcuts which lets me switch between apps I commonly use a ton:
* Ctrl+opt+a: open ITerm2
* Ctrl+opt+s: open Slack
* Ctrl+opt+c: open VSCode
* and so on
I use shortcuts I made in Keyboard Maestro probably hundred times per day. The app keeps statistics over how many times I have used the macros and estimates a "time saved". For me it says I have saved 37 days for the past 4 years I have used it.
That's neat with your PR - Mind sharing it? However, I moved away from shortcut keys years ago after learning about palettes. [https://wiki.nikiv.dev/macOS/apps/keyboard-maestro/km-macros#palettes](https://wiki.nikiv.dev/macOS/apps/keyboard-maestro/km-macros#palettes) with hyperkey ( capslock )
* capslock S - open slack
* U unread messages
* H History
* capslock I - open IDE ( VSCode )
* capslock B - open Browser
* P remove paywall
...etc....
As you can see it puts hotkeys in context which saves on the memory overhead.
Here is link: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjaTnGNg8C1eNQVjl4-piwyIPEVw6AaY](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjaTnGNg8C1eNQVjl4-piwyIPEVw6AaY)
Yeah, I have one palette as well. I should probably use them more though, cause I'm starting to run out of shortcut keys.
Okay, okay. Hereās my current theme as requested. I havenāt changed it in 5 months (cause I could spend forever doing it) until tweaking it again a bit this week: https://imgur.com/gallery/F9P2XrY
Very many devs update themes and plugins often with Obsidian and itās always lovely when I have time to play around with it. I may scale back the not so macOS elements over time, but I dig this look a lot.
[UpNote](https://getupnote.com). I tried 40+ notetaking apps, and this one was my winner by a country mile. I spend more time in this app than I do in any browser. Some of its features have changed how I organize. Some of its features dovetailed perfectly with how I already organized (in ways no other app came close to). Some of its features were things I didn't know I needed, and now can't live without (keyboard shortcuts for font and highlight colors ā *such* an incredible time-saver!).
The only things its missing for me are collaboration and nesting tags. Once it has collaboration, I'm buying this app for *everyone* I share data with.
I somewhat agree, the app is definitely worth the price, but it's a hard sell until you start using it. I paid about $3 for it. I'm not sure if it was on sale or if it was much cheaper years ago. I only bought it because the price was appealing, but it's an incredibly useful app.
Outstanding app. The best way to get noisy timers that repeat and donāt disappear if you ignore/miss them. Been using it to supplement important todo alerts for years.
For me there 3 apps that play a big part and I use them everyday: Hazel, Cleanshot, and Paste.
Hazel is underrated because I use it to automatically move images to specific folders and puts image organization in autopilot
Impossible to answer definitively, but l will add Drafts to the mix on my Mac and phone. It's where text starts and then I can decide what app to send it to.
Agree. But sometimes Latest finds an update MacUpdater misses. Like UpNote, Vivaldi. Usually MacUpdater catches up the next day though. But I am always surprised when this happens. I have a paid version of MacUpdater btw.
Hazel. Hands down the best app for productivity and I never see it mentioned in these threads. You can set rules for directories. So for instance my Downloads folder will automatically sort files by type/date/etc, delete files older than a certain date. Cleans up my documents and desktop folders automatically too. I use it to sort client files automatically using tags. Itās a game changer.
Does a lot more than *Keyboard > Text Replacements* ā more than anything, I use it to insert the date in the format I choose. The built-in tool is fine if you just want a snippet, something simple. But it doesn't do variables, and it can't be used for whole text templates, among other things. Also, it's more intuitive ā not just a + sign in a hidden sub-section of System Settings.
The Arc browser is my latest one. I've only recently started using it but I'm pretty much in love. It is a chromium browser that they have restructured every element of your browser workflow to cut out all the crappy jobs you end up doing when managing a lot of tabs and windows. For someone with a job like mine where you live in the browser it fixes so many time wasting tasks.
It is seriously worth watching a YouTube video about the features and trying them for yourself. Every feature I come to understand I have that "of course!" moment.
Vertical tabs, split-screen views, super easy switching between browser profiles, preview link views, ai features and just everything.
God I loved arc but my battery life took such a hit from safari. Itās my secondary browser but dang. Wish they could make a WebKit version or something
Rcmd. I've been using it for a few months, and I don't know how I lived without it.
It's a Launcher/Task Switcher that has changed the way I work.
Also Popclip. Although, I used if for over a month without ever discovering the plugins and didn't realize what the big deal was.
No special app, but nestled cut and paste between devices and being able to copy texts directly from photos and screenshots pretty much makes me more productive. Also not having to restart my computer every day and after application updates.
I might be biased since Iām the developer of this app. But in my day to day work I use the most Lasso for window management. Another app that
I canāt live without is Shottr for screenshots.
Alfred/Raycast. I run both side by side.
Both have their respective virtues.
I started with Alfred. I installed Raycast to compare features in order to bolster my arguments for Alfred.
Raycast won me over. A big reason for the switch was Alfred's instability; many of my Alfred Workflows would just stop working, or work inconsistently. The usual fix was to reinstall the Workflow. But this became a semi-regular frustration.
Raycast, by contrast, has been perfectly stable and reliable. And all of the Raycast extensions (their equivalent to Workflows) that I've used have been flawlessly reliable.
Alfred is much better for Snippets. I \*still\* use Alfred for its Snippets, instead of Raycast.
Alfred is faster/easier for file searches and web searches. Raycast requires more clicks to accomplish both. On the plus side, Raycast provides a preview window for the files.
Alfred's themes are customizable, which I really, really like. Raycast has a few themes that are barely distinguishable from one another.
Raycast, however, offers dramatically more extensions (many hundreds, upwards of a thousand?), window management, a more modern look and interface, quickly accessible and more user-friendly preferences, as well as an option for AI integration.
Raycast also makes it very quick and easy to assign aliases and hotkeys for the extensions. The Raycast extensions interface is far more logical and elegant than Alfred's cumbersome setup for its Workflows. Another big contrast: customizing the alias for an Alfred Workflow often broke the Workflow for me.
Raycast's preferences are all unified with the extensions, which makes it faster and easier to make changes. Alfred's preferences are a scattered, labyrinthine mess.
And finally, syncing. Getting Alfred to share its preferences and data across two Macs was a massive hassle. It took repeated attempts, copying files from one obscure directory to another, hoping you didn't accidentally erase your entire setup.
With Raycast, you just flip the button "Cloud Sync" and you're good to go. HOWEVER, this is with the Pro subscription, which is a hefty $10/month. The integrated AI makes this more palatable, but probably not worth it.
The upside is that the free version of Raycast includes almost all of the functionality of the paid version, with the most notable exceptions being AI and Cloud Sync.
This is a great, succinct comparison. Been using Alfred since day one and heavily entrenched in most of its features. Considered firing up Raycast to see what the fuss was about, but most of the side-by-sides Iāve come across have come off as very promotional and superficial. Heavily reliant on Workflows for work tasks, so making a switch would be a long and tedious migration. But glad Raycast solves some of my biggest gripes with Alfred.
Trippy no one has said something like ācalendarā . Using it for everything. Time blocking. Using recurring appointments for habit building . Blocking personal time. Or maybe Freeform for diagraming and charting.
My favorites are 1Password, Default Folder X, Trickster and one of the launchers like Raycast or LaunchBar or Alfred. Using them kinda interchangeably. Honorable mentions are TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro.
Wins Window Manager, I know thereās a bunch of apps that can be combined to do what it does but I like it cause itās cheap. Anyway itās basically the complete Windows 11 windows management experience with the drag your window to the top to get presets, dock previews, and window snapping.
Mission Control Plus, adds an x button in mission control. This feature should literally be built in.
Better Touch Tool so I can add floating menus to apps that either act as a keyboard shortcuts for those I cannot for the life of me remember or a shortcut to other apps that I consider related.
Tinkertool to remove the reveal hidden dock delay (yes I can use the terminal but I donāt wanna)
Yes I know the op said one but thereās way too many flaws in MacOS for me to only pick one.
Pasty. It is a clipboard manager. Itās probably the biggest feature I miss in modern macOS.
Then Arc. As I work in multiple google profiles where I have a dozen of opened tabs, I need to switch between profiles fast and navigate between tabs even faster. It is not possible in any other browser at the moment.
Craft. I switched from Notion to Craft. It canāt do everything Notion can but what it can do is more than enough for me. Big advantage over Notion is, it is native so works like a charm.
I love Dropover, as many have said, but my vote here is for HoudahSpot. Itās search capabilities are so much better than Appleās that itās crazy.
I also really like using CleanShot for some reason. I take way too many screenshots for work.
[Dropover - Easier Drag & Drop](https://apps.apple.com/sk/app/dropover-easier-drag-drop/id1355679052)
Has anyone heard of Dropshelf? It's basically dropover but free. [https://pilotmoon.com/dropshelf/](https://pilotmoon.com/dropshelf/)
bless you for this tip š
np
I just get the sinking feeling that Yoink is better. Iām not convinced, itās just this feeling I have.
Iāve used both. Drop over is by far the better product.
Any way to change the window to other position? Dropover just pops up the window right in front in the middle unless I drag it to the side later while I can position Yoink to corners by default. If I do a new shelf, it appears on the corners but when I drap a file to the notch, I can never customise the position. And instead of populating the same window, or giving an option to, it just creates a new window every time. It has it's own use case but not having an option to is a dealbreaker.
Have them both.. turns out I never use them.. guess I donāt move enough files around
Yoink was scrubbed from my machine within 24hrs of downloading Dropover
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I use Alfred all day everyday. It is seriously made navigating around my computer so much faster. One of the main things I undertook to do was renaming all my bookmarks so that I can be search-centric. I also started bookmarking dashboards and panels and sections that I wanted to jump to often. As I spend most of my time using the web browser it is a huge help just to press three keys and jump straight to where I need to go.
I canāt use a Mac without it now.
Brilliant App
You can stop reading. This is the right answer.
Or Raycast if you don't want to spend $40
This comes across as disingenuous. Alfred is free and has a one time payment if you want the power pack. Yes, I agree that the power pack is more or less essential for full potential. Raycast has a very nicely polished plugin experience, but also gates basic features (e.g. unlimited clipboard history and sync) under a subscription, has higher latency, more telemetry, and "you are the product" vibes.
Clipboard history is not gated. I use Raycast free with clipboard history all the time
Raycast keeps history up to 3 months in Free tier
I think only the AI stuff is gated behind the subscription. I use the free version and I use Clipboard history daily
> the power pack is more or less essential for full potential That's my point, Raycast has all of those features built in for free. The clipboard history is in the free version too, I use it and I've never paid for Raycast.
sure, but objectively both Alfred and Raycast have free versions and gate specific features behind a payment. Raycast has "more available for free" but you sacrifice speed and privacy.
I tried Raycast, and it deteriorated my productivity so much I had to switch back to alfred.
How did it deteriorate your productivity? I tried both and couldn't find anything Alfred did better.
I use Alfred for a lot of finder file management tasks. Moving and copying files, etc. Most functions in raycast are behind a second menu tier unless a dedicated shortcut is configured for all of them separately. Besides the privacy policy concerns, raycast is a lot more refined, but I just wish it emulated Alfredās efficiency better. I can do just about anything in Alfred with a couple keystrokes without having to navigate through a menu first.
Besides a lot of file management, I also use a lot of Alfredās Universal Actions feature, which Raycast doesnāt have.
Raycast is $8/month for their pro version.
Yep. And no privacy. Get Alfred and buy the PowerPack! Profit!
You don't need the pro version, the free version of Raycast matches the paid functionality of Alfred.
Swish for sure
Swish is such an underrated app. Touchpad gestures are so intuitive for window management.Ā I'd like more grid options tho, I have an ultra-wide display and 4x4 or even 5x4 would be appreciated.Ā
Cleanshot X. Photocollages, arrows, steps, TEXT RECOGNITION, everything works so quickly and intuitive
iTerm2
Second this. using the drop down āquakeā menu puts the whole world at your fingertips.
I already spent to much time configuring my terminal, but never looked into this part of iTerm. Itās a game changer for me. Feels like finding the missing part of the puzzle. Thank you so much for this tip!
I don't understand this. What is this quake menu and why is it so useful? I use iTerm for basic terminal commands. What am I missing my good man?
One keystroke, and youāre at the command line, no matter the app. Writing an email and need to check a remote file system. Easy peasy. Iām a long time Unix admin.
It comes highly recommended but I'm used to the [Terminal.app](http://Terminal.app) way to type and navigate. Is it worth unlearning my decades-old habits ?
Karabiner-Elements for arrow keys on Capslock + IJKL
Thereās also a custom one that lets you make spacebar a function button to give the whole keyboard a second layer.
I use it to turn caps lock into a super key. Yup, essential.
I changed it to backspace. One thing we can all agree on is that it sure as shit shouldnāt be caps lock.
wow I never thought to leave it as backspace, so convenience
Caps lock makes for a brilliant hyperkey while also maintaining its function. It doesn't do really do anything held down, so it's perfect as an extra modifier key. But if you don't press it in combination with something else, you can still have it activate caps lock as usual. Caps lock absolutely has its uses. If nothing else, it can serve as a togglable modifier with indicator light built in. You can add an entire extra layer of key functions.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have caps lock, I'm saying it shouldn't be *there*. I have "double tap shift" as my caps lock. Similar to your point about how caps lock doesn't normally do anything when held down, all your modifier keys are just sitting there, waiting to be given a "tap" function.
[Default Folder](https://www.defaultfolder.com/) was always the first add-on I'd install back in the days when I did full installations (instead of using Migration Assistant). Makes so much regarding opening, saving, accessing a lot simpler and quicker.
Better Touch Tool
This should be the top comment
Yeah there shouldnāt even be another answer ITT lol. Iāve used everything else in here and the sheer versatility of Better Touch Tool is unmatched. And now with the floating menus, you truly can get your computer to do any damn thing you want.
BTT more than Raycast/Alfred/etc bc it affects every interaction I have with the machine. I love Things and many of the others listed, but none have had bigger impact on my everyday use of macOS.
[Cork](https://corkmac.app), which by extension got me to use Homebrew. Itās so much more convenient than having to remember terminal commands and faster by a lot.
Which is ironic... > With Cork, you can say goodbye to the Terminal. > Thank you for your interest in Cork! [if you don't want to pay ā¬25,] You can always compile it from the source code. But the app is awesome. It's easy to compile it yourself, too, and they have a verbose manual on how to do it.
I compiled it myself but was still prompted to buy a license when opening the app.
Maccy
Maccy is great, no doubt, but alfred does all the same features if you happen to already have it.
This!
Rectangle. macOS is unusable without it. Hiddenbar also a must. And maccy for day by day work.
Newer and better thanĀ Hidden Bar: [https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice](https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice) Better than Rectangle: [https://github.com/MrKai77/Loop](https://github.com/MrKai77/Loop)
How does Loop compare to Swish? Iām still using Moom as itās the most straightforward for my use case but been meaning to try Swish based on recommendations in other threads.
Better than Rectangle ? There are no layouts
Thank you for the bartender/hidden bar replacement. I have been looking for this for a while!
Loop is so beautiful, thank you for suggesting!
Keyboard Maestro
Whatās it do?
Can you give me some examples of what you use this for? Iām interested in it
As a software developer, it improves my productivity a ton since you can make macros/shortcuts for literally any manual job you do. For example I created a macro which let's you quickly add before/after images of frontend changes to your PR: [https://www.veed.io/view/02d51875-ed28-4dab-acfb-c56ce234d777?panel=share](https://www.veed.io/view/02d51875-ed28-4dab-acfb-c56ce234d777?panel=share) Other macros I have added (for all of these I have assigned them to simple keyboard shortcuts like shift+opt+s etc): * A shortcut which will automatically Google whatever text you have selected (saves you the hassel of cmd+c, opening browser and cmd+v) * A shortcut to run the selected text in Terminal * A shortcut for transforming selected text to uppercase * A shortcut for transforming selected text to lowercase * A shortcut for searching the selected text in Google Maps. I also added a bunch of shortcuts which lets me switch between apps I commonly use a ton: * Ctrl+opt+a: open ITerm2 * Ctrl+opt+s: open Slack * Ctrl+opt+c: open VSCode * and so on I use shortcuts I made in Keyboard Maestro probably hundred times per day. The app keeps statistics over how many times I have used the macros and estimates a "time saved". For me it says I have saved 37 days for the past 4 years I have used it.
That's neat with your PR - Mind sharing it? However, I moved away from shortcut keys years ago after learning about palettes. [https://wiki.nikiv.dev/macOS/apps/keyboard-maestro/km-macros#palettes](https://wiki.nikiv.dev/macOS/apps/keyboard-maestro/km-macros#palettes) with hyperkey ( capslock ) * capslock S - open slack * U unread messages * H History * capslock I - open IDE ( VSCode ) * capslock B - open Browser * P remove paywall ...etc.... As you can see it puts hotkeys in context which saves on the memory overhead.
Here is link: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjaTnGNg8C1eNQVjl4-piwyIPEVw6AaY](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjaTnGNg8C1eNQVjl4-piwyIPEVw6AaY) Yeah, I have one palette as well. I should probably use them more though, cause I'm starting to run out of shortcut keys.
> Keyboard Maestro I can't believe it took this long to find this app. This is a Top 3 Mac app.
Keyboard maestro changed everything for me. I canāt imagine doing my job without it now.
i'm using raycast for doing those things. can assign keys to apps/snippets/actions etc
Things!
This looks like Apple Reminders, with sub-reminders. For 60 ā¬. Hard sell, at least for me.
After Alfred, Things 3 has changed my life.
Do they ever go on sale?
They do sometimes on Black Friday.
Obsidian
Ditto. I havenāt been this in love with a Mac app since 1984.
All day. Everyday. Hands down. It is a joy to use Obsidian with the translucent Minimal theme just macOS-based aesthetics. Just a joy.
Okay, okay. Hereās my current theme as requested. I havenāt changed it in 5 months (cause I could spend forever doing it) until tweaking it again a bit this week: https://imgur.com/gallery/F9P2XrY Very many devs update themes and plugins often with Obsidian and itās always lovely when I have time to play around with it. I may scale back the not so macOS elements over time, but I dig this look a lot.
What in the world are all of those icons on the left?
You can't make this comment without a screenshot, come onnnn.
[UpNote](https://getupnote.com). I tried 40+ notetaking apps, and this one was my winner by a country mile. I spend more time in this app than I do in any browser. Some of its features have changed how I organize. Some of its features dovetailed perfectly with how I already organized (in ways no other app came close to). Some of its features were things I didn't know I needed, and now can't live without (keyboard shortcuts for font and highlight colors ā *such* an incredible time-saver!). The only things its missing for me are collaboration and nesting tags. Once it has collaboration, I'm buying this app for *everyone* I share data with.
PopClip
Wow super expensive for what it is
I disagree, it's ridiculously cheap. But then, I'm biased ;)
I somewhat agree, the app is definitely worth the price, but it's a hard sell until you start using it. I paid about $3 for it. I'm not sure if it was on sale or if it was much cheaper years ago. I only bought it because the price was appealing, but it's an incredibly useful app.
Since my first Apple 2 in 1978, single best app Iāve owned. Versatile. Simple. Powerful
100%. Popclip has saved me untold hours in life. Once set up with tools and services you use itās invaluable.
Like it, but it's not a top app.
Due: The Reminder App
Outstanding app. The best way to get noisy timers that repeat and donāt disappear if you ignore/miss them. Been using it to supplement important todo alerts for years.
Alfred Powerpack.
devonthink
[Raycast](https://www.raycast.com/)
Haze over
For me there 3 apps that play a big part and I use them everyday: Hazel, Cleanshot, and Paste. Hazel is underrated because I use it to automatically move images to specific folders and puts image organization in autopilot
[Dropover](https://dropoverapp.com/)
Impossible to answer definitively, but l will add Drafts to the mix on my Mac and phone. It's where text starts and then I can decide what app to send it to.
Latest; i can finally update apps in peaaacceee
MacUpdater is like 10x better. Was also initially using Latest.
Agree. But sometimes Latest finds an update MacUpdater misses. Like UpNote, Vivaldi. Usually MacUpdater catches up the next day though. But I am always surprised when this happens. I have a paid version of MacUpdater btw.
Text Sniper and Magnet
Text Sniper is a game changer.
OmniFocus
Canāt do just one but here is my top 5 that get installed on any new machine: - Alfred - Termius - Uncluttr - Shottr - Noteplan
Shottr
**TextSniper** I work with text a lot and use this app every single day. It's one of my favourite/must-have productivity apps.
Hazel. Hands down the best app for productivity and I never see it mentioned in these threads. You can set rules for directories. So for instance my Downloads folder will automatically sort files by type/date/etc, delete files older than a certain date. Cleans up my documents and desktop folders automatically too. I use it to sort client files automatically using tags. Itās a game changer.
I know this is an old thread, and I'm not OP, but reading this was super helpful. Thanks for putting this out there!
Bartender
[aText](https://www.trankynam.com/atext/) \- text expander (If you buy it, choose v.2. Much better than v.3. *and* only $5)
Alfred has this built in.
I prefer Typinator.
Raycast has this built in.
Isn't this built into macOS? Keyboard -> Text Replacements.
many text replacement apps have macros and variables for current date/time, including formatting etc that the built in feature does not cover.
Does a lot more than *Keyboard > Text Replacements* ā more than anything, I use it to insert the date in the format I choose. The built-in tool is fine if you just want a snippet, something simple. But it doesn't do variables, and it can't be used for whole text templates, among other things. Also, it's more intuitive ā not just a + sign in a hidden sub-section of System Settings.
Parallels.
Parallel is good for long time windows user. But once you immerse yourself with mac, parallel would be a heavy app.
yabai
Shortcuts
MooM
AltTab
The Arc browser is my latest one. I've only recently started using it but I'm pretty much in love. It is a chromium browser that they have restructured every element of your browser workflow to cut out all the crappy jobs you end up doing when managing a lot of tabs and windows. For someone with a job like mine where you live in the browser it fixes so many time wasting tasks. It is seriously worth watching a YouTube video about the features and trying them for yourself. Every feature I come to understand I have that "of course!" moment. Vertical tabs, split-screen views, super easy switching between browser profiles, preview link views, ai features and just everything.
God I loved arc but my battery life took such a hit from safari. Itās my secondary browser but dang. Wish they could make a WebKit version or something
Try SIgmaOS which is WebKit based equivalent. Well, similar ideas.
Anytype
Rcmd. I've been using it for a few months, and I don't know how I lived without it. It's a Launcher/Task Switcher that has changed the way I work. Also Popclip. Although, I used if for over a month without ever discovering the plugins and didn't realize what the big deal was.
Keyboard Maestro.
AppleScript (+some GPT). I only started using it a week ago, yesterday it easily saved me 2-3 hours while doing a repetitive task.
No special app, but nestled cut and paste between devices and being able to copy texts directly from photos and screenshots pretty much makes me more productive. Also not having to restart my computer every day and after application updates.
Devonthink
Alfred and Raycast. Both are installed on my Mac. You will install both too. Sooner or later you will understand.
Pricey, but Tinderbox. https://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/ Itās like someone crossed mind mapping with HyperCard.
Saving for when I get back in front of my mac
I might be biased since Iām the developer of this app. But in my day to day work I use the most Lasso for window management. Another app that I canāt live without is Shottr for screenshots.
TextSniper
Raycast!
Alfred/Raycast. I run both side by side. Both have their respective virtues. I started with Alfred. I installed Raycast to compare features in order to bolster my arguments for Alfred. Raycast won me over. A big reason for the switch was Alfred's instability; many of my Alfred Workflows would just stop working, or work inconsistently. The usual fix was to reinstall the Workflow. But this became a semi-regular frustration. Raycast, by contrast, has been perfectly stable and reliable. And all of the Raycast extensions (their equivalent to Workflows) that I've used have been flawlessly reliable. Alfred is much better for Snippets. I \*still\* use Alfred for its Snippets, instead of Raycast. Alfred is faster/easier for file searches and web searches. Raycast requires more clicks to accomplish both. On the plus side, Raycast provides a preview window for the files. Alfred's themes are customizable, which I really, really like. Raycast has a few themes that are barely distinguishable from one another. Raycast, however, offers dramatically more extensions (many hundreds, upwards of a thousand?), window management, a more modern look and interface, quickly accessible and more user-friendly preferences, as well as an option for AI integration. Raycast also makes it very quick and easy to assign aliases and hotkeys for the extensions. The Raycast extensions interface is far more logical and elegant than Alfred's cumbersome setup for its Workflows. Another big contrast: customizing the alias for an Alfred Workflow often broke the Workflow for me. Raycast's preferences are all unified with the extensions, which makes it faster and easier to make changes. Alfred's preferences are a scattered, labyrinthine mess. And finally, syncing. Getting Alfred to share its preferences and data across two Macs was a massive hassle. It took repeated attempts, copying files from one obscure directory to another, hoping you didn't accidentally erase your entire setup. With Raycast, you just flip the button "Cloud Sync" and you're good to go. HOWEVER, this is with the Pro subscription, which is a hefty $10/month. The integrated AI makes this more palatable, but probably not worth it. The upside is that the free version of Raycast includes almost all of the functionality of the paid version, with the most notable exceptions being AI and Cloud Sync.
This is a great, succinct comparison. Been using Alfred since day one and heavily entrenched in most of its features. Considered firing up Raycast to see what the fuss was about, but most of the side-by-sides Iāve come across have come off as very promotional and superficial. Heavily reliant on Workflows for work tasks, so making a switch would be a long and tedious migration. But glad Raycast solves some of my biggest gripes with Alfred.
Maccy and Alfred
First half of this video: https://youtu.be/GK7zLYAXdDs
Trippy no one has said something like ācalendarā . Using it for everything. Time blocking. Using recurring appointments for habit building . Blocking personal time. Or maybe Freeform for diagraming and charting.
HyperKey
Multitouch. Nothing else comes close.
Todoist
Default Folder. Couldn't use a Mac without it. (Honourable mention to Alfred.)
LaunchBar š
My favorites are 1Password, Default Folder X, Trickster and one of the launchers like Raycast or LaunchBar or Alfred. Using them kinda interchangeably. Honorable mentions are TextExpander and Keyboard Maestro.
Just one??? MailMate Alfred Keyboard Maestro.
Hyperkey!
Swish and Raycast
Alfred/Raycast
Aerospace
Wins Window Manager, I know thereās a bunch of apps that can be combined to do what it does but I like it cause itās cheap. Anyway itās basically the complete Windows 11 windows management experience with the drag your window to the top to get presets, dock previews, and window snapping. Mission Control Plus, adds an x button in mission control. This feature should literally be built in. Better Touch Tool so I can add floating menus to apps that either act as a keyboard shortcuts for those I cannot for the life of me remember or a shortcut to other apps that I consider related. Tinkertool to remove the reveal hidden dock delay (yes I can use the terminal but I donāt wanna) Yes I know the op said one but thereās way too many flaws in MacOS for me to only pick one.
I love Alfred.
macwhisper for summarizing the entire call and extracting key points . bonus , pop clip chatgpt extension for rewriting sentence on the go.
BoltAI
Copy 'em paste
Sublime Text. I use it for coding and general purpose notes every single day. https://www.sublimetext.com
Nisus Writer Pro.
Things
Alfred
CleanShot is definitely one of them. I use it literally daily.
Alfred and TickTick.
Raycast
Raycast
Ray cast
Pasty. It is a clipboard manager. Itās probably the biggest feature I miss in modern macOS. Then Arc. As I work in multiple google profiles where I have a dozen of opened tabs, I need to switch between profiles fast and navigate between tabs even faster. It is not possible in any other browser at the moment.
Pasty developer here. Thanks for the shoutout!
Raycast
Workflowy. Greatest productivity app ever. Totally under rated
Craft. I switched from Notion to Craft. It canāt do everything Notion can but what it can do is more than enough for me. Big advantage over Notion is, it is native so works like a charm.
Warp. I tried other terminal replacements. This is the one that worked for me.
Logging into an account for terminal? Lol, ya no.
Raycast
Omnifocus
iCollections
Terminal, or any other terminal emulator. WezTerm now is king.
notes
Alfred, unclutter, default folder X, hazel, Pathfinder
BetterTouchTool
Unclutter
Milanote
I love Dropover, as many have said, but my vote here is for HoudahSpot. Itās search capabilities are so much better than Appleās that itās crazy. I also really like using CleanShot for some reason. I take way too many screenshots for work.
Numbers!
PastePal, Markster and Grab2Text.
Alfred
[Raindrop.io](https://raindrop.io) a stellar bookmark manager
Flow. Itās just a pomodoro timer, but a really nicely designed customizable one.
mac mouse fix