Every Mac user eventually ends up with a pile of files that need converting. Screenshots that are too large for the web. HEIC photos from iPhones that need to become JPEGs. Audio recordings saved at ridiculous bitrates. Video files that need to be optimized for sharing.

You can solve all of that with command-line tools like ffmpeg or with a handful of separate utilities.

Or you can just use Picmal.

Picmal is a single macOS utility that handles image, audio, and video conversion and compression. Once installed, it integrates directly into the Dock, Finder, menu bar, Services, and Shortcuts, so it behaves more like a built-in system tool than a typical standalone app.

It works immediately with sensible defaults, but if you want to tweak codecs, formats, or compression levels, the controls are there.

Images

I’ve set up one of my screenshot apps specifically for images I plan to post on the web. It saves those screenshots into a folder that Picmal watches.

When a file lands there, Picmal automatically:

• converts it to my preferred format
• applies a compression level that keeps good clarity while shrinking the file size
• renames the file so I know it’s already been processed

That automation alone has been useful for blogging and documentation.

If you regularly deal with HEIC photos from iPhones or iPads, Picmal can also watch a folder and convert them automatically.

Picmal also handles image resizing and color space conversion (sRGB, ProPhoto RGB, Display P3, and others). If you’re preparing files for printing, you can adjust DPI as well.

Audio

Batch processing works well. I had a collection of spoken-word recordings from events I’d attended, and many of them had been saved at extremely high bitrates that made sense for music but not for speech.

Picmal converted and compressed the entire batch without complaint. The resulting files sounded the same for spoken content while taking up far less disk space.

Video

Video conversion uses simple presets:

• Maximum Quality
• Balanced (Size & Quality)
• Web Optimized
• Social Media
• Maximum Compression
• Custom

Pick the preset that matches the destination and you’re done. If you need more control, the Custom option exposes additional settings.

Clipboard Optimization

Clipboard optimization lets Picmal compress images you copy to the clipboard. Copy a screenshot, a web image, or a file in Finder and Picmal quietly optimizes it in the background.

A small overlay appears so you can immediately replace the original clipboard contents with the compressed version.

If you enable the option, Picmal can automatically copy the optimized image back to your clipboard. One practical advantage: images processed this way can be pasted into Finder as files, which isn’t something macOS normally allows with clipboard images.

A nice touch: if the image is already efficiently compressed, Picmal detects that and skips the process instead of recompressing it.

How It Fits Into a Typical Mac Workflow

If you already use media tools on macOS, you might be wondering where Picmal fits.

ImageOptim
Great for compressing images, especially for web publishing. Picmal overlaps here but adds format conversion, automation via watched folders, and clipboard workflows.

Permute 
Permute focuses mostly on media conversion with a clean UI. Picmal covers similar ground but adds automation features and deeper Finder integration.

ffmpeg / command-line tools
Still the most flexible option for scripting and complex workflows. Picmal obviously can’t match that level of control, but for everyday tasks it removes a lot of friction.

In practice, Picmal feels less like a replacement for those tools and more like a convenient layer on top of common conversion tasks.

Final Thoughts

At $15.99 per seat with lifetime updates, Picmal is reasonably priced for what it does. There’s also a 15-day no-questions-asked refund.

All processing happens locally on your Mac (macOS 14 or newer), and the developer states that no data is collected. If you want to dig deeper, the developer provides comprehensive documentation on the website.

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I spend a lot of time trying to remove small bits of friction from my Mac workflow. macOS is a great system, but out of the box it still leaves a lot of obvious automation opportunities on the table.

I spend a lot of time trying to remove small bits of friction from my Mac workflow. macOS is a great system, but out of the box it still leaves a lot of obvious automation opportunities on the table.

Most of the improvements I rely on come from stitching together tools like AppleScript, Keyboard Maestro, Shortcuts, and a few power-user utilities I discovered at r/MacApps.

None of this is complicated once it’s set up. The goal is just to eliminate little interruptions that happen dozens of times a day.

Here are a few small automations and workflow tweaks that currently make my Mac feel a lot more like my machine.

• I like Safari, but I don’t like how easily it spawns extra windows. I now use an AppleScript tied to Keyboard Maestro. With a mouse click or hotkey, it closes every Safari window except the frontmost one.
• Safari has good AppleScript and Shortcuts support, but it still doesn’t provide a keyboard-friendly way to jump directly to a specific Tab Group. My workaround is an Apple Shortcut that batch-opens groups of URLs that mirror my tab groups: Server, Social, Blogging, Software, etc.
• I set up BetterTouchTool so that fn + Button 3 on my Logitech mouse triggers the New command across roughly two dozen apps. Depending on the app, that can mean a new tab, new note, new document, new Shortcut, new Keyboard Maestro macro, new email, or new message.
• I’m currently using SideNotes as my scratchpad. It stays hidden on the right edge of my primary display until I toggle it with a hotkey or an ExtraBar menu item.

Most of these are tiny things, but they add up surprisingly fast

• I use Rectangle Pro’s layout manager to launch and arrange 10 apps across two displays and eight virtual desktops. Each desktop has a keyboard shortcut, and I tie them together with a single Keyboard Maestro macro. (download link)
• I wrote a small shell script (download link) that reconnects me to Tailscale if the connection drops or fails to start. It runs via launchd, configured through Lingon Pro.
• I use macOS 26’s automation features in Apple Shortcuts to create my daily Obsidian note from a template. The automation also inserts a weather report and the day’s calendar events, so the note is ready when I sit down at my desk each morning. (Requires Actions for Obsidian.)
• When I need a dual-pane file manager instead of Finder, a Keyboard Maestro trigger runs an AppleScript that closes all Finder windows and replaces them with a ForkLift window. (download macro)
• I removed the menu bar icons for BetterTouchTool, Default Folder X, Supercharge, and Rectangle Pro. Their functions are now exposed through ExtraBar instead.
• If a developer doesn’t expose a URL scheme, you can’t deep-link into specific menu items. Finder is a good example; there’s no direct link for Go to Folder. ExtraBar can run scripts, though, so a small AppleScript can send keystrokes to trigger the command. If the feature exists in a menu but has no keyboard shortcut, you can also create your own under System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts.

Sample Script

tell application "Finder"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "g" using {command down, shift down}
end tell

None of these are huge changes individually, but together they remove a lot of small interruptions during the day.

Curious what small automations or workflow tricks other people here are using.

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I’ve become quite fond of Consul, a relatively new file conversion utility that’s both simple to use and easy to automate. The concept is almost absurdly straightforward: change the file extension to the format you want and the conversion just happens.

You might think you’ll never really need to convert files from one format to another. In practice, that assumption tends to collapse sooner or later. A few situations I’ve run into over the years:

• Switching from one e-reader (for example, Sony) to another (Kindle) and suddenly needing to convert an entire library of books.
• My photography workflow revolves around Canon’s RAW format (CR2). When a relative passed away and I inherited his photo archive, the files were a mix of several other RAW formats.
• After living through the minor apocalypse when Microsoft killed Works, you’d think I would have learned something about proprietary formats. Instead, I spent another twenty years writing in Word before finally switching to Markdown.
• Occasionally grabbing an iPhone photo and realizing it exported as HEIC, which remains incompatible with far more things than it should be.
• Optimizing photos and video for my blog or social media.

There are plenty of ways to convert files. Most of them involve some level of friction:

• Opening an app (Word, for example) and using File → Save As to create another copy in a different format.
• Uploading files to random conversion websites with unclear privacy policies.
• Using powerful utilities like Permute, which are excellent but come with a bit of a learning curve.
• Building your own workflow with Apple Shortcuts if you enjoy assembling that kind of plumbing.

What makes Consul such a pleasure is the complete absence of friction. It runs quietly in the background, and when you need to convert something, it just happens the moment you rename the file. For most conversions, the default settings are fine, but in the settings, you can control exactly how each conversion is handled including the output quality and codec, or whether to strip metadata.

For Mac automation nerds, Consul can be set to watch folders and perform conversions when a certain file type lands there. You can use Consul with Hazel or another automation tool like Crank to route the converted file elsewhere, import it into Photos or upload it to an FTP server.

Consul currently supports 1,391 conversions across 76 file formats, covering images, audio, video, documents, e-books, email, configuration files, spreadsheets, and archives.

The developer’s site suggests more formats are planned. I’d particularly like to see support for Apple iWork files and OpenOffice spreadsheets and presentations. My pie-in-the-sky request would be a PDF → EPUB conversion that performs better than what Calibre currently produces.

Pricing is refreshingly simple. A single license is $14, and a three-seat license is $19, both including a year of updates.

The privacy policy is exactly what you want to see: no data collection. Email support is available, and the developer is active on Reddit and notably friendly when people have questions.

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Some small utilities become so embedded in my workflow that they start to feel like part of macOS itself. When I sit down at someone else’s Mac or a freshly set-up machine and they aren’t there, it genuinely throws me off.

I’m curious what apps fall into that category for you.

Shareful

One of those apps for me is Shareful by Sindre Sorhus.

The Mac share menu has always felt like an afterthought compared to iOS. Many developers don’t bother implementing it, and Apple keeps it oddly limited. Shareful fixes that by adding a few practical actions that save me a surprising number of clicks every day:

• Copy
• Open In
• Save As…
• Save to Downloads

It’s simple, but once you have it, the default share sheet feels incomplete without it.

Start by Innovative Bytes

Even though I’m very much a keyboard-launcher person (Team Raycast), there are situations where that approach breaks down.

Sometimes I need a small, obscure utility whose name I can’t remember. When your /Applications folder is as crowded as mine, scrolling through it isn’t realistic.

That’s where Start from Innovative Bytes comes in. Two features make it especially useful.

• Tagging
  Tagging lets you create categories for apps without any friction. You can even nest them, like Utilities/Screenshots or Utilities/Clipboard, which makes browsing a large app library much more manageable.
• Notes
  You can attach a short description to an app so you remember what it actually does.

A good example is the file-conversion utility Consul, which lets you change an image’s format just by renaming it. Seeing a note like “file rename / conversion” when browsing makes it much easier to find again later.

Honorable Mentions

• Apparency – The App That Opens Apps — a Quick Look extension and inspection utility for applications
• CleanShot X — the screenshot tool whose keyboard shortcuts are permanently burned into my muscle memory; although ScreenFloat is starting to make a case for itself

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Resurf is a clever new app, currently in beta, with a lot of potential. This is one of those “I needed an app to do X, so I built one” projects; the difference is that it was built by a design engineer who clearly understands macOS conventions. The result feels native and thoughtfully put together.

Using it brought back a few workflow habits I haven’t used since the days when Evernote was king.

The entry point into Resurf is a floating capture widget that you trigger with a shortcut. From there you can use either the mouse or the keyboard to capture five types of content, with some overlap:

• Notes
• Links
• Screenshots (using a built-in capture tool)
• Media
• Voice memos

The same widget also provides a Spotlight-style search across your Resurf vault, which is essentially the folder where everything you capture is stored.

Practical Use Cases

There are several ways Resurf can fit into a real workflow.

• Screenshot organizer
  A quick way to capture, store, and resurface reference screenshots without littering your desktop with files named Screenshot 2026-03-21 at 10.43.11.png.
• Bookmarks and lightweight browser
  Links can open directly inside Resurf so you can skim content without switching to a browser. Eligible pages default to Reader View with adjustable font sizes, but you can switch to a standard page view or send the link to your default browser.
• Scratchpad
  If you need a fast place to dump temporary information, Resurf works well as a searchable scratchpad. You can open straight into the notes interface and start typing.
• Quick notes staging area
  Once the shortcut becomes muscle memory, it’s easy to use Resurf for quick capture even if you keep your long-term notes somewhere else. When something turns out to be worth keeping, the macOS share sheet makes it simple to move it into another app.

Organizing Your Data

A Resurf vault can live in iCloud, in another synced folder like Dropbox, or locally on your Mac. If you use iCloud, you’ll be able to pair the Mac version with the upcoming iOS app.

You can also maintain multiple vaults, each located anywhere in your file system.

Within a vault, Resurf provides several ways to organize what you capture:

• Inbox / Later
  If you don’t want to categorize items during capture, everything can go into an Inbox for later triage. There’s also a Later folder for items you want to defer organizing.
• Areas
  Areas function much like folders and can hold any content type.
• Tags
  Tags can be created during capture. The sidebar includes both a tag browser and a dedicated tag view.
• Pins
  Any item can be pinned to the top of its area.
• Voice memo export for transcription
  Voice memos can be exported to the file system, making it easy to run them through a transcription tool and turn them into text documents.

Nice Touches

A few small details show that the developer thought about real usage rather than just features.

• Share Sheet support
  Resurf stores notes internally as JSON rather than plain files, but exporting content to other apps is straightforward through the macOS share sheet.
• Open In
  Similar to the share sheet; lets you send items directly to another app.
• Instant Markdown rendering
  Markdown renders automatically without switching between edit and preview modes.
• Slash commands
  Formatting can be applied quickly using slash commands.
• Notes about notes
  Every captured item can include an attached note, which is handy for adding context to screenshots, links, or media.
• Chrome extension
  Lets you save links directly from the browser.

Feature Requests

Resurf is still early in development, and there are a few capabilities that would make it significantly more powerful.

• Support for clickable internal links to things like Mail messages or Obsidian notes
• The ability to attach arbitrary documents to notes
• Inline images inside notes (currently you can only add notes about images)
• Shortcuts and AppleScript support
• A Safari extension

Privacy

You can read the full policy here:
https://resurf.so/privacy

Regardless of where your vault lives, your data remains private. The app only contacts Resurf’s servers to validate your license. According to the developer, no identifying information or user content is transmitted during that process or afterward.

The company is based in Canada. Because they never see your data, GDPR provisions around data access, portability, and deletion are largely irrelevant in this case.

Price

$39

• One-time purchase at the early supporter price. Unlimited captures. Any updates we release are free for 2 years after stable release.
• Unlimited captures
• Mac app license (up to 2 Macs)
• All beta updates included
• Any updates released are free for 2 years after stable release
• Priority email support

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I’ve been hearing about Octarine for a while. It’s one of those apps that people whose opinions I respect talk about with a certain level of admiration. After testing it as thoroughly as I’ve tested any app in a long time, I understand why.

Octarine is a tool for creating, editing, and organizing text-based information using connected but independent documents: Markdown files. Without relying on plugins, it supports images, video, PDFs, and files created by other productivity apps. Those files can be linked inside Octarine but still open in their native applications.

Octarine isn’t designed for a single purpose. It’s more like a flexible Markdown workspace you can adapt to several overlapping uses:

• Journaling
• Task management
• Writing and long-form drafting
• Math or science reference notes
• Documentation
• Personal knowledge management (PKM)
• Project planning

Setup

Octarine is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS, but it’s not a heavy Electron app. The download is just over 30 MB, and it launches as fast as TextEdit; effectively instant.

The interface is tab-based, similar to a web browser. It isn’t strictly native macOS UI, but it’s clean, responsive, and supports customizable themes.

Installation on the Mac is simple:

1. Open the downloaded DMG
2. Drag Octarine.app into /Applications

That’s it.

When you launch it for the first time, Octarine asks you to open or create a Workspace. A workspace is simply a folder of Markdown files; either ones you create or notes that already exist somewhere on your Mac.

Structure

You can download, install, and configure Octarine in well under a minute and immediately start creating documents.

A key design choice is that Octarine uses the filesystem directly. Your workspace is just a folder containing Markdown files with human-readable filenames.

That means:

• You can manage files directly in Finder
• You can open them in any text editor
• Octarine will immediately reflect changes made elsewhere

I verified this by opening a note in Typora, adding a table, and watching it render instantly inside Octarine.

Because everything lives in normal folders and Markdown files, syncing is straightforward. You can use:

• iCloud Drive
• Google Drive
• Syncthing
• GitHub repositories (built-in integration)

The Git support also provides versioning for people who want a real audit trail for their notes.

Like most PKM-oriented tools, Octarine supports wikilinks. Typing [[ opens a searchable list of notes in the workspace. If you bracket a title that doesn’t exist yet, Octarine offers to create the note.

There’s also a knowledge graph showing connections between notes. Just remember: posting screenshots of your graph online costs you several internet credibility points.

Formatting

Most formatting tools are accessible through a slash command menu (/), which exposes a wide range of Markdown and extended elements:

• Headers
• Text styles (bold, italic, strikethrough)
• Callouts
• Code blocks
• Mermaid diagrams
• LaTeX
• Dividers
• Tables
• Colored text
• Dates
• Links
• Templates

You could easily use Octarine purely as a writing tool. It’s a full Markdown editor with live rendering similar to apps like Typora.

Under the hood, however, the file remains a plain text Markdown document. You can open it in BBEdit, import it into Obsidian, or process it with any other Markdown tool.

Octarine also converts pasted HTML into Markdown, preserving elements such as headers, links, bullet lists, and text styles.

Organization

The left sidebar provides a file tree for navigating your workspace. Nested folders work exactly as you’d expect.

When you attach files such as images or PDFs to a note, Octarine automatically creates folders to store them.

Octarine also supports seven types of metadata, which can be used to organize and filter notes.

The most powerful organizational feature is something called Views.

Views are dynamic, database-style tables that display notes based on filters, sorting rules, and custom columns.

Think of them as smart saved searches that update automatically as your notes change.

Tagging is also well implemented. Tags are clickable throughout the interface, and a Tag Manager provides a centralized list of every tag in your workspace.

AI Integration (Pro Version)

Octarine includes optional AI integration.

It works with:

• Local models via Ollama and LM Studio
• Apple Intelligence
• Cloud APIs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini

AI operates within the context of the current note, allowing it to generate, rewrite, summarize, or refine content.

Like most AI writing workflows, the real learning curve comes from developing reusable prompts that produce consistent results.

Pro users can also download a 90 MB local model that can index an entire workspace to provide additional context-aware features:

• Context indicators

Each message shows the sources used (folders, notes, or date filters). Icons and hover cards reveal the details.

• References

A list shows which notes were consulted to answer your query.

• Export options

Responses can be copied as Markdown or plain text.

• Chat titles

Titles are generated automatically after the first response and can be edited using the Sparkles icon.

• Save the chat

Clicking the Create Note icon in the chat breadcrumb saves the conversation as a note. Your questions become blockquotes, with each Q&A pair separated by a divider.

An Opinion on an Opinionated App

There’s no question that Octarine is powerful.

As someone who has spent years building PKM systems, I can appreciate how much functionality is available without needing plugins or complex setup. Many of the features Octarine includes by default require significant configuration in something like Obsidian.

That simplicity removes a lot of early decisions that intimidate people exploring tools like this.

Octarine is developed by a single developer, which might give some users pause. Personally, it doesn’t worry me much. Some of the most respected Mac utilities come from solo developers, including:

• Keyboard Maestro
• Hazel
• BetterTouchTool
• Rectangle Pro

Looking at Octarine’s update history, development is clearly active and responsive to feedback.

The changelog shows frequent updates, and the roadmap includes plans for:

• iOS and Android versions
• One-click publishing
• Quick capture tools
• Task-management improvements
• Browser extensions

…and quite a bit more.

With the exception of AI features, most of Octarine’s functionality is available in the free version.

The Pro license currently costs $70 (early-bird supporter pricing) and unlocks all current and future features. That isn’t cheap, but it’s roughly in line with other established writing tools like iA Writer ($69) or utilities such as TextSoap ($45).

For users who want a structured Markdown workspace without the plugin rabbit hole, Octarine is definitely worth a serious look.

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When I bought my last new Mac two years ago, I set it up the way I had been setting up my personal computers for years: plug in a Time Machine drive and run Migration Assistant. On a modern Mac with an SSD, even if you have hundreds of apps installed like I do, the whole process takes about 20 minutes. It recreates your Applications folder, brings over preferences, and generally makes the new machine feel finished almost immediately.

Nothing could be easier.

There is a downside, though. Migration Assistant faithfully brings over all the accumulated cruft along with the good stuff. That’s how I ended up with Keychain entries for wireless access points I installed in 2014, and references in ~/Library/Application Support to apps I haven’t touched in years.

UPS is dropping a Mac mini on my doorstep sometime this morning. For the first time in a long time, I’m not going to use Migration Assistant.

Automated App Installation

Thanks to tools like Updatest and Cork, I’ve moved every application that can be managed by Homebrew into that ecosystem. On my current machine that covers 212 GUI apps plus 260 CLI packages and dependencies.

Recreating that environment on a new Mac is trivial.

To back up your current setup:

brew bundle dump

To install everything on a new Mac:

brew bundle install

By default, Homebrew can also install Mac App Store apps using the mas CLI. The generated Brewfile is plain text and extremely easy to edit if you want to remove anything before installing.

A small sample looks like this:

cask "gechr/tap/whichspace"

cask "wifi-explorer"

cask "wins"

cask "xbar"

cask "xnconvert"

cask "xnviewmp"

cask "zen"

cask "zotero"

mas "Acidity", id: 6472630023

mas "Actions", id: 1586435171

mas "Actions For Obsidian", id: 1659667937

mas "Amphetamine", id: 937984704

mas "AppTela", id: 6752568197

mas "AutoMounter", id: 1160435653

If you don’t use Homebrew, you can still automate Mac App Store installs directly with the mas CLI.

To export a list of installed App Store apps:

mas list | cut -d' ' -f1 > mas-app-ids.txt

To install them on a new Mac:

xargs -n1 mas install < mas-app-ids.txt

To identify apps that were installed outside Homebrew or the Mac App Store, run:

system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType -json > installed-apps.json

Open the resulting JSON file in a text editor like BBEdit. Any app showing:

_“obtained_from” : “identified_developer” _

was installed directly from a developer download and will need to be reinstalled manually.

Configuration

Applications are the easy part. Configuration is harder.

Just entering license keys and registration details for my paid apps could easily take hours.

I briefly looked at Mackup, but it doesn’t seem well suited for a GUI-heavy workflow like mine. A more modern tool, chezmoi, looks promising for exporting and restoring my dotfiles, including things like:

• .zshrc

• .gitconfig

• ~/.ssh/config

• .config/nvim/init.vim

For everything else, my plan is simple: build a small set of rsync jobs by hand and move over only what I actually need.

To avoid permission issues and sandbox quirks, I’ll launch each application once before restoring its configuration so macOS creates the necessary directories:

~/Library/Application Support/

~/Library/Preferences/

~/Library/Containers/

~/Library/Group Containers/

Because I run a heavily automated setup with apps like Keyboard Maestro, BetterTouchTool, Hazel, and Raycast, I’ll rely on their built-in export/import features rather than trying to automate those configs.

It’s technically possible to script the capture of a large number of system settings. In practice, the time it would take to build and debug that script would probably exceed the time it takes me to reconfigure things manually.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

Earlier in my career in edtech, I spent a lot of time doing large-scale Mac deployments. The workflow was simple: build a golden image and deploy it hundreds of times using NetBoot to whatever hardware the district had just purchased.

Later we moved to modern deployment systems like Jamf.

If you need 900 eMacs unboxed and deployed, I’m your guy.

Highly opinionated personal setups like the ones most of us run on our own Macs are a different animal entirely. There’s no universal image for that kind of machine.

But there’s a lot we can learn from each other about building reproducible setups that stay clean over time instead of dragging a decade of digital barnacles from one Mac to the next.

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Independent developers continue to build some of the most thoughtful utilities on macOS. These are small, focused tools that solve real workflow problems instead of trying to become the next all-in-one productivity suite.

Here are a few that recently caught my attention.

Stealthly

For anyone whose workday involves frequent Zoom, Teams, or other online meetings, presenting a professional, distraction-free screen matters. The same is true if you record tutorials or training videos. You want viewers focused on the content; not scanning your Dock, desktop, or menu bar for clues about your life.

I installed Stealthly for both myself and my wife as soon as I heard about it.

Stealthly is a $12.99 utility available directly from the developer (recommended) or on the Mac App Store. It automatically hides desktop icons, application windows, Dock items, menu bar icons, and even your wallpaper when you’re sharing your screen. It also enables Do Not Disturb to silence calls, alerts, and notifications.

When your meeting or recording ends, Stealthly restores everything exactly as it was.

Automation works in two ways:

• Scheduled automation – Stealthly runs at specific times
• Application triggers – Stealthly activates when certain apps launch, such as Zoom or Teams

The app includes a two-week free trial and is available in six languages.

If you regularly share your screen, this is one of those utilities that solves a problem you didn’t realize you had until someone else built it.

File Minutes

When I started doing IT support at a small private university, I was shocked to discover that many students and even junior faculty dumped every document into a single folder and relied entirely on search to find things later.

I still can’t wrap my head around that approach.

I prefer a defined file structure with folders that have clear roles in my workflow. It isn’t complicated, and most of the time I can navigate directly to what I need.

Search still has its place, though.

File Minutes sits somewhere between a search tool and a lightweight file manager. It’s keyboard-driven, easy to learn, and extremely fast when you need to locate images, Markdown files, archives, or other documents across your system.

Once you find the file, you can either open it in its native app or reveal it in Finder.

Some features I particularly like:

• Filter browsing by file type

If I’m looking for a PDF, my view isn’t cluttered with unrelated file types.

• Save favorite folders

Jump instantly to locations you use frequently.

• Bi-directional filtering

Search for files named invoice and narrow the results to Downloads; or browse Downloads and filter results to files containing invoice.

• Keyboard navigation

Up and down arrows browse the current branch of the file tree. Left and right arrows move up or down a directory level.

• File actions

Open, copy, or preview files using keyboard shortcuts.

• Content search

Search inside PDFs, Markdown files, documents, and text files.

File Minutes collects no telemetry and performs no data collection. It runs on macOS 13 or later and costs $10 for a single license or $21 for three seats.

MiddleDrag (Free)

MiddleDrag is a tiny free utility (about 2 MB) that adds natural middle-click functionality to your Mac trackpad; whether that’s your laptop trackpad or a Magic Trackpad.

If you work without a mouse, this can make a surprising difference.

Some places where it really shines:

• CAD and 3D modeling

Pan and orbit smoothly in Fusion 360, Blender, OnShape, FreeCAD, and SketchUp without reaching for a mouse.

• Browsers

Open links in background tabs, close tabs instantly, and auto-scroll long pages with a simple three-finger tap.

• Coding and terminal work

Paste selections in Terminal (Linux style) and interact more naturally with VS Code multi-cursor editing.

It’s small, simple, and one of those utilities that quickly becomes muscle memory.

Workspace+

If you run a multi-monitor command-center setup with several tiled windows, a browser full of tabs, and a dozen apps open at once, recreating that layout every time you switch tasks gets tedious fast.

Workspace+ lets you capture an entire workspace and restore it with a single click.

Apps reopen, windows return to their positions, and browser tabs reload as part of the workspace.

This makes switching contexts dramatically faster.

Some useful capabilities include:

• Keyboard access

Navigate and trigger workspaces entirely from the keyboard using hotkeys.

• Multiple browser support

Works with Safari and Chromium-based browsers including Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, Arc, and Vivaldi. Firefox is not currently supported due to technical limitations.

• Automatic triggers

Workspaces can restore automatically when displays connect or disconnect; ideal if you move between a desk setup and a laptop environment.

If you already use a window manager like Rectangle Pro, Snaps of Apps, or Moom, you can approximate a similar workflow. There’s also the free utility Bunch, which comes close but requires some basic scripting.

Workspace+ is easier to configure and requires far less setup.

A lifetime license costs $14.99, or you can subscribe for $2.99 per month with a three-day free trial.

One current limitation: the app does not yet restore windows across multiple Spaces in Mission Control. The developer has indicated that this feature is on the roadmap.

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