#Bettertouchtool mac for mac#
#Bettertouchtool mac mac os#
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First, select the ‘Notch Bar’ section of BetterTouchTool and click ‘Notch Bar Settings’. And this is where I had an idea: what if I took advantage of the notch bar to build what is, effectively, a virtual Stream Deck featuring buttons with different colors and glyphs that I can click to run my favorite shortcuts, no matter the app I’m currently using?Īs it turns out, BetterTouchTool’s alpha version makes this very easy to do. The integration goes both ways: there are BetterTouchTool actions in Shortcuts, but you can also run shortcuts directly from BetterTouchTool as actions associated with a trigger.

#Bettertouchtool mac for mac#

Personally, I’m not bothered by the notch on the 14” MacBook Pro I’m testing, but I’ve been intrigued by the notch bar for another reason: it’s the most effective solution I’ve found to build a system-wide, visual Shortcuts launcher that doesn’t require memorizing multiple hotkeys to run different shortcuts.Īs we covered in MacStories Selects, we believe BetterTouchTool’s deep integration with Shortcuts for Mac is the best new app feature of 2021. In my opinion, this is a more interesting and practical approach than covering up the notch with a black menu bar. With the notch bar, you can design visual triggers – giving them a custom icon powered by SF Symbols (or an image), color, and label – and “get rid” of the notch by turning it into a horizontal strip of commands that is always sitting on top of your windows. Specifically, the notch bar lets you add custom buttons that can launch any BetterTouchTool action to the left side of the menu bar, replacing an application’s default menu system. The difference is that BetterTouchTool’s notch bar turns that empty space into something useful. However, since I believe the notch bar is one of the most exciting developments in the Shortcuts for Mac ecosystem lately, and since I’m having so much fun with it, I figured it’d be worth an early hands-on preview before the end of the year.Īt a high level, the notch bar was inspired by all those utilities that let you add a black menu bar to the latest generation of MacBook Pros with a notch.

#Bettertouchtool mac update#

This feature is currently available as an optional alpha update in BetterTouchTool, and it’s still rough around the edges, so don’t consider this short post a full review of it I’m sure we will revisit this functionality more in depth over the course of 2022. If you go ahead to use BetterTouchTool, be sure to let me know in the comments section below! I’d love to know how you find it.For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been playing around with (and thoroughly enjoying) BetterTouchTool’s latest major feature: the notch bar.

#Bettertouchtool mac download#

There’s a lot more functionality to explore in this app, but I thought this short article would be helpful for anybody else who wants to use a Windows keyboard with their Mac! Download BetterTouchTool for free! It’s so easy to set up for any action, and it gives you a much greater level of control over a non-Apple keyboard. You can re-assign keys as you wish all you need to do is click on “+ Add New Shortcut”, input the “Keyboard Shortcut” you want (in my case, I chose F12 for increasing volume) and selecting the “Trigger Predefined Action” as “Volume Up” from the drop-down menu. Using the app, I’ve been able to remap the keyboard’s F-keys to work just like on an Apple keyboard F10, F11 & F13 keys for volume settings, and F7, F8 & F9 for playback controls.

BetterTouchTool’s interface can be overwhelming at first, but offers a lot of functionality once you get used to it

#Bettertouchtool mac free#

With the help of my good friend Pedro Lobo, I found my saving grace a free Mac app called BetterTouchTool that essentially allows you to configure gestures and controls for your trackpad/mouse, Apple Remote, Leap Motion and keyboard. I tried configuring the keyboard shortcuts on my Mac’s settings but it just wouldn’t work, so I resorted to searching for third party apps to do it instead.

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Unsurprisingly, the keyboard I bought is made for Windows, meaning there’s none of the Mac OS X functionality I’ve grown used to like media controls, brightness settings, Mission Control and so on. Still, I’ve started to do so much typing work lately that I wanted to see whether a mechanical keyboard would be more comfortable over extended periods of use. It’s been an odd transition for me, probably because I’ve become so accustomed to using Apple’s flatter, chiclet-style keyboard over the last couple of years. Blame it on nostalgia if you will, but I recently decided to pick up a cheap mechanical keyboard from my local tech store to use with my Mac.