20+ Mac Productivity Hacks From CEOs, Artists, Developers, YouTubers and More →

June 27, 2019 · 10:07

Fabrizio Rinaldi:

I’m always surprised by how many Mac hacks, tricks and workflows I keep finding out that boost my productivity and make my life easier. Sometimes they’re hidden features, sometimes clever workflows people come up with — and this is also where the Mac community shows its best side. So, here’s the idea: I’m asking a handful of Mac power users what are some things they do to be more productive with their Macs.

A good list. Found lots of inspiration on it.


How to Open a New Safari Tab Next to the Current Tab, Instead of at the End of the Lot

December 13, 2018 · 10:36

John Gruber, on Daring Fireball, detailing how he got to change Safari’s behaviour to open new tabs next to the active tab:

If I have, say, 10 tabs open in a window and I’m currently using, say, tab 2, when I type ⌘T to open a new tab it feels like the rightmost end of the row of tabs is “way over there”, but what I want is the new tab to open “right next to where I am” — like what happens when I ⌘-click a link.

A few months ago I asked on Twitter if there was a secret preference in Safari that would change this to what I want — which is for new tabs to always open right next to the current tab. There is no such preference. I set about trying trying to figure out if this could be done using AppleScript, but I couldn’t figure it out.
Jeff Johnson figured it out, though, and was kind enough to share the solution and explain the rather ungainly syntax required.

John used FastScripts for this but I decided to try my luck with Keyboard Maestro…

Continue reading →


Keyboard Maestro Macro to Change Theme in Tweetbot 3.0 for Mac

May 16, 2018 · 12:19

I quickly created this Keyboard Maestro macro, which switches the theme in the new Tweetbot 3.0 [App Store] from Light to Dark and vice versa.

The default shortcut is ⌥⌘L, which I adopted from Ulysses. Feel free to use anything you feel comfortable with. You will also need to make sure that the TweetbotTheme variable is set to either Light or Dark before running it for the first time — I didn’t (yet) bother with a pop-up asking for a correct input if that variable is empty.

Tweetbot 3.0 – Switch Theme.kmmacros


Hyper Key with Karabiner Elements →

June 16, 2017 · 12:21

A Hyper Key simulates the pressing of four modifier keys at the same time — Shift + Control + Option/Alt + Command. Brett Terpstra explained this back in 2012:

I’ve had my Caps Lock key remapped to an escape key for some time now. I’ve become quite used to it — to the point where using other people’s keyboards is inconvenient. Given that I’ve already ruined my muscle memory, I figured I’d take it a step further. The end result is that hitting my Caps Lock key once still gives me “Escape,” but holding it triggers a “Hyper” modifier key (simultaneous Control, Shift, Option and Command). I can map the Hyper key using any of an assortment of utilities to do all kinds of fun things.

Due to changes in macOS Sierra and Karabiner being rewritten as Karabiner Elements, we lost the Hyper Key, until the latest update:

Yesterday I posted excitedly about full Hyper key functionality being available in macOS 10.12+. I included a snippet of a config file that has apparently led to some confusion, so I’m elaborating here on the full configuration.

My current MacBook Pro config file, after adding Brett’s suggested changes, looks like this:

{
 "global": {
  "check_for_updates_on_startup": true,
  "show_in_menu_bar": false,
  "show_profile_name_in_menu_bar": false
 },
 "profiles": [
  {
    "complex_modifications": {
    "rules": [
     {
      "manipulators": [
       {
        "description": "Caps Lock to Hyper. Escape key on single tap.",
        "from": {
         "key_code": "caps_lock",
         "modifiers": {
          "optional": [
           "any"
          ]
         }
        },
        "to": [
         {
          "key_code": "left_shift",
          "modifiers": [
           "left_command",
           "left_control",
           "left_option"
          ]
         }
        ],
        "to_if_alone": [
         {
          "key_code": "escape",
          "modifiers": {
           "optional": [
            "any"
           ]
          }
         }
        ],
        "type": "basic"
       }
      ]
     }
    ]
   },
   "devices": [],
   "fn_function_keys": {
    "f1": "display_brightness_decrement",
    "f10": "mute",
    "f11": "volume_decrement",
    "f12": "volume_increment",
    "f2": "display_brightness_increment",
    "f3": "mission_control",
    "f4": "launchpad",
    "f5": "illumination_decrement",
    "f6": "illumination_increment",
    "f7": "rewind",
    "f8": "play_or_pause",
    "f9": "fastforward"
   },
   "name": "Default profile",
   "selected": true,
   "simple_modifications": {
    "right_command": "right_option",
    "right_option": "right_command"
   },
   "virtual_hid_keyboard": {
    "caps_lock_delay_milliseconds": 0,
    "keyboard_type": "ansi"
   }
  }
 ]
}

Everything works perfectly, but please do remember to set Caps Lock to No Action in Sierra’s System Preferences → Keyboard → Modifier Keys.

Thanks Brett!