LINKDING

Contribute to jwbargsten/ZettelURLHandler development by creating an account on GitHub.

Homebrew is the most popular package manager on MacOS, and for good reason. However personally, I believe that Nix is more powerful.Video Links:- Nix Website...

So I created a .webloc file using a .vncloc file as a template (standard xml/plist format), but instead of opening in a Safari window, it is downloading the html of the website into a file. My goa...

By pressing certain key combinations, you can do things that normally need a mouse, trackpad, or other input device.

⌨️ Add user-customizable global keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) to your macOS app in minutes - sindresorhus/KeyboardShortcuts

Written in Swift with a swifty API.
More native-looking UI component.
SwiftUI component included.
Support for listening to key down, not just key up.
Swift Package Manager support.
Connect a shortcut to an NSMenuItem.
Works when NSMenu is open (e.g. menu bar apps).

XS-Labs is the home of the XEOS Operating System and related OpenSource projects.

Version 8 of Acorn has some crazy new photo editing capabilities. Intro price of just $20 right now.

OmniFocus released version 4.5 this week with a host of new Shortcuts and Shortcut improvements. They're also going to start offering unobtrusive tips of the app notices a feature you're not using that could be helpful. I look forward to learning more.

Lots of cool usability features in this macOS app. Window management, Stage Manager features, extended Hot Corners and more. Hat tip to [@kdude](https://mastodon.social/@Kdude) for this one.

An awesome tool for creating and managing archives (zip, dmg, tgz and more). My favorite part about it is that it offers a navigable Quick Look preview of zip archives. That alone isn't worth the $25 price, of course, but it's [on Setapp](https://setapp.sjv.io/YRRR0r), too.

VimR — Neovim GUI for macOS in Swift. Contribute to qvacua/vimr development by creating an account on GitHub.

> Mints is a growing collection of tools which provide tailor-made log extracts for investigating problems and exploring macOS, collate various information about a Mac which can be difficult to find elsewhere, perform a set of tests on Spotlight, and provide specialist tools for certain types of data. Useful for investigating QuickLook plugins now that qlmanage is basically useless on Sequoia.

A simpler version of Gestimer, if that's possible. I love the utility of these gesture-based timers, where you just pull down from your menu bar to set a quick timer. Simple, useful.

Cool little Mac app that just adds some tweaks to the OS. I already have shortcuts to most of what it does, but re-creating the TotalFinder visor idea is pretty cool. Shareware.

This is really cool. Bare metal performance for local web development stacks. Run multiple stacks with https, reverse proxies, whatever tech you need --- no Docker, no VMs, full terminal integration. Really well done.

Add Vim mode to any macOS text field. Works pretty well! Free trial only allows usage during a certain period of the day, kind of a clever limited trial.

In the vein of cool Obsidian integrations, here’s one for PopClip that can save selected text to a specified file or to the Daily Note page. There’s a similar one for nvUltra in my [PopClip Extensions](https://brettterpstra.com/projects/bretts-popclip-extensions/).

There's some question about the future of Bartender after a recent acquisition (and some concerns about new telemetry). This project looks like a solid up-and-coming replacement (and free).

"A native macOS email client for Gmail." This looks so good, especially considering MailPlane is dead. If only I didn't have iCloud and Exchange email accounts I need to deal with, too.

A simple, elegant Mac app that allows you to set an intention, define how much time you plan to put into it, and then just sit, quietly reminding you of what you want to be working on with subtle but all-encompassing animations. Perfect for those of us who say "OK, now I'm really going to work on this" and then find ourselves doing something entirely different within five minutes H/T [Jason Rhemus](https://pnw.zone/@jason) and props to props to developer [Sam Stephenson](https://mastodon.social/@sstephenson).

macOS 13+ only, a simple command line interface to the OS's built-in OCR tools. Works really well.

From the same developer who makes Find Any File, a very handy tool for directly editing any Mac app's preferences. Especially great for apps that have "esoteric" or hidden preferences that require using `defaults` commands in Terminal.

Matthias Gansrigler has released v2 of ScreenFloat, one of my favorite apps years ago. A lot of its functionality was replaced by CleanShot X for me, but the shots browser, tagging, and smart folders set it apart. The basic idea is you can float a screenshot above all other windows and it follows you between spaces, but v2 goes a lot further. Check it out.

Back in 2020 I published a tip to make the now-hidden proxy icons in macOS show up instantly on rollover, but it turns out that since then Apple has added a preference to just show them all the time. Thanks to Pim for pointing this out.

An app to survey your macOS text system keybindings. I've been writing a lot about editing the `DefaultKeyBinding.dict` file, and this app makes it easy to peruse what key combinations are doing what. The biggest shortfall is that it doesn't handle nested bindings (multi-keystroke), but it does successfully ignore those and show you everything else.

You probably know I'm an OmniFocus guy, but I'm always trying the latest and greatest in todo apps. This one bills itself as "a todo app for people who hate todo apps," and it looks pretty great for exactly those people. "Works just like Notes, with smarts of a calendar"

Create a link to open any file directly in any app. Some interesting automation possibilities. From the developer behind TableFlip.

I haven't written about tagging for a long time because I felt like, at this point, I've convinced everyone who could be convinced about their usefulness. That still appears to be true, but this TidBits article talks a little bit more about the ways people use Finder tags.

Batch photo processing app BatchPhoto just released version 5, updated for modern platforms and OSs, and adding SFTP upload and hot folders.

I'm still a die-hard [CleanShot](https://cleanshot.com/) fan, but this little tool makes some gorgeous screenshots ready for social sharing, with tools for auto-balancing, changing backgrounds, and redacting email addresses and other text. Simple and beautiful.

Love the Quick Search idea. Beta is available for download if you're a registered DFX user.

I've tried a few of these, and this one is my favorite for a native chat-like experience for ChatGPT on macOS. Includes cost tracking and chat history.

Use ChatGPT in Drafts.

Andreas offers some ways to integrate ChatGPT and OpenAI into your system using BetterTouchTool. I swear that app can do anything.

A highly customizable macOS status bar replacement. I think I probably found this via OneThingWell, but I lost track...

A curated directory of 700+ Mac menu bar apps. Small apps to help you become more productive and maximize your workflow with MacOS. (Just in case your menu bar had some room left in it)

> This is a simple graphical user interface for Neovim (an aggressively refactored and updated Vim editor). Where possible there are some graphical improvements, but functionally it should act like the terminal UI. Adds some nice animations, blurred floating windows, and remote TCP support.

I've started a collection of scripts for Hook. It's small right now, but should grow in the future. Worth a bookmark or a star if you're a Hook user.

I'm super excited about the future of what I consider to be the hands-down best Mac diff tool. Newly under the stewardship of some excellent indie mac devs, version 3 is a massive improvement that represents a ton of hard work. Here's some background on their acquisition of this great app, and a bit of its storied history.

A curated list of screensavers for macOS. Some real gems in here.

AppleScripting the creation of Mail.app Rules is a great tip. (Yes, I use [MailMate](https://freron.com/), and my [SaneBox](http://mbsy.co/sanebox/18846293) @SaneBlackHole covers this particular use case for me, but it’s still a great tip. Also, yes, the persistent emails Dr. Drang describes are a bane of my existence, too.)

"A modern Pinboard app for 2021." Mac and iOS. It's new and currently being developed, which sets it apart from every other Pinboard app available on macOS right now. I would be sold on it if I could find a URL handler for adding a new bookmark. Maybe it's there, but not documented...

A really well done menu bar calendar app for Mac. With my new job and restricted Exchange servers, I was no longer able to use Fantastical as my primary calendar app. Dato gave me back quick dropdown access to events, one-click Zoom joins, and even shows my next meeting as a text block in my menu bar (with countdown). I lose all of Fantastical's great natural language event/task creation, but it covers all the other bases for me.

A fast and lightweight (but quite full-featured) git client for Mac 
with Finder integration.

Sharing this as I’ve heard I haven’t been the only one recently hit with a sudden failure of the Big Sur Accessibility permissions. Started up my Mac and was hit with a hundred requests for permissions, all of which showed they were already granted. This fix took care of it. It does require re-enabling everything, at least it works when you do.

“Replies is an easy to use customer support tool that becomes smarter as longer you use it. Reuse your previous answers to save time and money.” I used the “Contact Support” menu item in HoudahSpot and was intrigued by the interface it offered (using Replies), including searching for previous answers. Bookmarked for inclusion in my own apps, and think it would be great to see in other apps.

Several years ago Apple curtailed the ability to select text in Quick Look previews, much to my dismay. A new extension for macOS brings text selection back, at least to source code and Markdown previews. It also renders Markdown and does source code highlighting (with line numbers). But the big deal for me is the text selection. Latest version also works well with HoudahSpot, Forklift, and Path Finder's Quick Look previews.

Ok, I didn't think I needed another screenshot/screen recording app, but holy cow. CleanShot X really nails it with minimal interface and robust functionality. I mean, edge detection when cropping is just the kind of attention to detail you can expect from this app. Scrolling screencaptures, animated GIF recording with keystroke and mouseclick overlays... it's very complete. Also, it's on Setapp.

The 2021 Mac Dev Survey from Tower is happening now, and there are some great prizes (including Marked 2 licenses) available for participating. If you're a Mac developer, pitch in and maybe win some great stuff.

A new app showed up on Setapp ([direct link](https://setapp.sjv.io/c/1198576/1011331/5114)) that has me pretty excited. Paletro adds a hotkey palette to any app for accessing all of the menu commands. It's superior to using Command-Shift-? (Help search) because it has full fuzzy matching and can access commands usually only exposed by holding down modifier keys.

I'm a big fan of [Sip](https://sipapp.io), an outstanding color picker for Mac. This tip will only be useful to a few people, but I was pleased to discover that they've added a url scheme which, among other things, allows you to directly open the contrast checker with any two colors in HEX or RGBA format.

I know I just mentioned [TextBuddy](https://textbuddy.app/) in the last Web Excursions, but there's already an update worth talking about. Tyler added SmartyPants typography conversion, as well as a feature request of my own: code comment wrapping. Great stuff.

Diagrams 2.0 is out, available on the Mac App Store and Setapp. The new release features customizable palettes for making more flexible flow charts and diagrams.

A new app from Tyler Hall that can perform all kinds of transformations on text with just a couple of keystrokes. Includes OCR and audio/video transcription capabilities. I tried it out for 5 minutes and immediately purchased.

I've mentioned NotePlan before, the Markdown-notes-meets-calendar-meets-tasks app for Mac and iOS, but it's worth pointing out again. Eduard recently added text folding and hidden Markdown links, among other things. Check out [this YouTube video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKOrZ554Ag8&feature=youtu.be) for details, as well as a look at how he uses NotePlay for Zettelkasten.

RCDefaultApps was a cool Mac utility for controlling what apps owned which filetypes and url handlers. It kind of faded away around macOS 10.12, but SwiftDefaultApps modernizes and revives it. Seems to be working well for me.

BetterTouchTool can now create a Hyper Key without the need for Karabiner Elements. Since I define most of the shortcuts I use my Hyper Key for in BetterTouchTool, it's great to be moving all the functionality into one app.

Vitor Galvao wrote a great Ruby script for command line control of Do Not Disturb settings under Big Sur. It's a lot more complicated than it was with previous OSs, so this is a pretty cool feat.

I mentioned Sorted^3 [back in 2017](https://brettterpstra.com/2017/03/14/web-excursions-for-march-14-2017/)). They've just come out with a Mac version of their streamlined todo/scheduling app. It's definitely worth a look.

I've mentioned these "Clicker" apps as DBK Labs has been releasing them. They just put out this one for Amazon Prime, and I like it. It adds Picture-in-Picture, Touch Bar control, Quick Resume, disable auto-play trailers, skip pre-roll ads and intros, and a few other features... If you use Prime Video, this is definitely useful enough to easily justify the $8 price tag.

If you're not loving Apple's official Developer app on your Mac, here's a good alternative.

An excellent utility from the maker of HoudahSpot. It makes the process of assigning custom shortcuts to macOS application menu items a cinch, with autocompletion to help navigate menu hierarchies and get menu titles exactly right. It will even check for overlaps with ambiguous menu titles, and allow you to copy/paste shortcuts between applications, all things that System Preferences won't do for you.

Do you like the Aerial screen savers on your Apple TV? A free, open-source app brings them to your Mac’s screen as well.

In case you missed it, Drafts for Mac now supports Marked 2's Streaming Preview feature, allowing live preview as you write in Drafts. There are some things I'd like to improve about the whole shebang on Marked's side, but Drafts nailed it.

I'm a fan of all of the Affinity apps, so when it came time to buckle down and do the layout for a children's book I'm working on, I decided to give Publisher a real look. I haven't used InDesign for years, but Publisher mirrors a lot of the concepts and it all came back quickly. With master pages, text styles, text box shapes, preflight check, built-in photo editing tools, and more, it's a top quality publishing app for $25 (regularly $50, 50% off right now).

Another one from the "Clicker for X" developers, this time for Disney+. This one is free, though I haven't tested it myself as I'm not currently subscribing to Disney+.

An intriguing, open-source notes app. It uses Markdown with mmd-metadata-style "fields", and has a whole template and scripting language for filtering and output. If you're looking for a scriptable notes solution, this might be worth checking out.

An Alfred workflow that allows free text searching of OmniFocus tasks and projects. A really nice example of Alfred's power. Now someone needs to make this for LaunchBar...

I'm a user of Clicker for Netflix and was excited to see that they've released the same type of player for Hulu. It integrates native Mac features with the service's players, and include PIP and hacks for things like skipping the stupid mini-player that Hulu brings up when you close a show. Some interesting touch bar support, too.

Yeah, ok, everybody's already talking about this game (to the extent that I had to try it), but it's worth the buzz. Cathartic.

As you may be aware, I'm a very happy MailMate user, but I've always been impressed with the power of the Postbox email client for Mac. Among a [host of new features](https://www.postbox-inc.com/product/releasenotes), the latest version adds new swipe gestures, new rich-text composition tools, and "Labs", which allows running experimental 3rd-party code within Postbox.

I like the idea of this: drag files to the menu bar and get a list of possible actions based on the type of file. But it doesn't appear to be user-extensible, so I'm personally happy sticking with Dropzone.

I'm tempted to write my own piece on Apple deprecating the scripting runtimes, but I find myself overly emotionally attached to the topic. I'm sure my thoughts will come out over time, but Dr. Drang's post covers most of my points very well.

While I don't want Screen Time on my Mac, I do want Shortcuts. I just hope that a Marzapan implementation of Shortcuts isn't going to replace Automator completely. Partly just because I doubt it will have a Run Shell Script action that's as useful...

I learned about this clipboard manager for Mac and iOS via [Macdrifter](http://www.macdrifter.com/2018/09/the-missed-opportunity-of-shelf-apps-on-ios.html) and am really impressed with it on my MacBook Pro and iPad Pro.

CodeKit, as its tagline states, is "THE Mac App for Web Developers". Basically a GUI for everything from minification and optimization to JavaScript linting and transpiling, as well as a fully-fledged "LiveReload" style server for seeing changes live in your web browser as you work in your preferred editor.

I somehow missed that Espresso was back. This used to be my favorite editor for HTML/CSS, and the new features are downright amazing. If you're looking for a dedicated editor for web development, check this out. It's not cheap ($79US right now), but worth it, in my opinion after trying it out for a few days. And for those on [Setapp](https://go.setapp.com/stp44), you already have it!

Carbonize, now available as a native Mac app, generates great-looking images from your code snippets, perfect for presentations.

An amazingly slick, hackable window manager with a full JavaScript API and built-in IDE. If you're familiar with Hammerspoon, think of this as a polished GUI alternative with all the built in tools you'd need to work elegantly in JavaScript instead of Lua...

I wrote about some tricks for automating desktop cleanup before screencasting, but this new (free) app from Valentino Urbano makes it a one-click process to hide your desktop icons, dock, and menu bar.

A cool little macOS utility for people who listen to music on their headphones. When an external sound passing a set threshhold occurs, it will pause your music and amplify the sound through your input device (all customizeable) basically making sure that when someone starts talking to you, you don't have to pause your music and ask them to repeat themselves.

BinaryNights, creator of [ForkLift](https://binarynights.com/), did a comprehensive speed test of all of the major FTP clients for Mac. Taking into account that this was performed by the developer of one of the apps, they go into solid detail about the testing procedure and parameters, and the results are presumably verifiable. And, as I would have guessed, in most cases every client except for Cyberduck performed pretty closely, but with some surprises in handling multiple-file transfers.

A curated list of screensavers for Mac OS X. I asked on Twitter what everyone's favorites were, and almost every one mentioned is on this list, therefore I dub it a very good list.

I used to appreciate KeyCue when learning keyboard shortcuts for an app, but it hasn't worked for me for quite a while now. CheatSheet does the same thing flawlessly, and for free. Just hold the ⌘-Key down for a couple seconds to get a popup with a list of all active short cuts of the current application (including custom shortcuts assigned to Services and menu items).

Just in case you're not already using Bartender, Vanilla is a free Mac app that lets you hide icons from your menu bar. Simpler in functionality, but also faster at disappearing those extra menu bar items than the current incarnation of Bartender.

I've been on the Tower 3 private beta, and I can tell you it's an exciting update for any Git user on Mac. Support for Pull Requests, a sweet interactive rebase GUI, a command palette for keyboard access to ANYTHING, and more. You can hold out for my review after it goes live, or join the beta now, your call.

A warning from Macworld about APFS (macOS High Sierra) and Time Machine. Basically, don't convert your Time Machine disk to APFS, but the details are worth understanding.

I had totally missed this utility from Rogue Amoeba, but I'm using it daily now. It replaces the Volume control in your menu bar with a panel that allows easy individual control of devices/volumes for Input, Output, and Sound Effects. It also has a Play-Thru feature that lets you easily monitor any input source from any output source. Lastly, if you own any other Rogue Amoeba product (Airfoil, Audio Hijack, Fission, etc.) you get a [complimentary license](https://rogueamoeba.com/store/deals/ComplimentarySoundSource.php).

I'm linking this for now because the dev asked me to review it and I don't feel qualified but it looks amazing. A lab notebook: organize experiments, track results, and manage protocols. Free for Mac (Basic version), iOS and Watch.

If you happen to be a researcher and interested in doing a guest review, please let me know!

I don't generally go for distraction-removing apps, site blockers, single-taskers, etc., but this is really handy. It can enable and disable Do Not Disturb on your Mac, _and_ disables badges on dock icons. Undisturbed can be toggled on and off from the menubar. I think everyone knows how distracting badge icons can be, but also how handy they are. A way to toggle them on and off quickly without entirely disabling them is a welcome tool.

From the creator of [Fileloupe](https://www.fileloupe.com/), Videoloupe is the "video player for videographers." It offers extensive playback controls, editing and adjustment tools, and a wide range of export/conversion options. Great for pros, but just about all of it is useful to anyone who works with videos regularly.

Spark from Readdle is my favorite email client on iOS, and the Mac version is making some exciting improvements. This latest update includes labels, improved sidebar management, more options for folder management (Color Tags, Recents, Favorites and Smart Folders), and mproved Smart Search with boolean operators.

Access Alexa from your Mac (iOS version [available as well](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reverb-for-amazon-alexa/id1144695621?mt=8&at=10l4tL&ct=blog). I just started playing with this and I'm not even very familiar with Alexa yet and I'm really impressed.

A new open source launcher for MacOS that is completely (and obligatorily) hackable. No built in integrations, extensible through a plugin architecture.

If you're looking for a Photoshop replacement, I'm happy to offer this recommendation. I purchased it at the intro sale price ($39.99) last week and am very satisfied with it. All the photo editing tools you need, plus excellent selection tools, plugins, macros, text styles and a _lot_ more.