What is Reddit's opinion of
BetterTouchTool?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Not a great solution but the guy behind better touch tool created Keyboard Clean Tool which will fully disable the keyboard while the computer is on so you can clean it.
Funnily enough apple wouldn’t let him put it on the Mac App Store because it didn’t “provide value”
Try BetterSnapTool.
It pretty much emulates Windows 10's vastly superior way of having windows snap to the size you want.
And BetterTouchTool from the same developer is quite handy too, especially for getting good use out of the touchbar (which I have, but I am not a fan of).
FWIW, I have the 13" 2018 MBP and it's great. I don't do much with videos or gaming so the lack of a dedicated GPU is actually a plus for me (from a battery-life perspective). I'm not saying you have to trade yours in, but you likely will not regret it.
You can set it up to use the "old keys before the touchbar" already.
Better touch tool was the only program I needed to install. It took a little tinkering but left to right I have my escape button (in neon blue now), a pair of shortcuts to documents I use daily, a Spotify widget that plays music when I touch it plus displays the track information, a date/time widget which shows my local time (I'm out of the country for work), a second date/time widget which shows the time back home, plus your standard make screen go brighter and make screen go darker buttons, plus your volume controls. On the far right is where I put my "relax" button, which starts the screensaver. Except for the far right and far left buttons, each button is blacked out so all you see is the icon. No light gray for button definition. It looks way sleeker that way to me with the OLED.
I also have a second touchbar which comes up when I hit control...that touch bar has less-used items, like emojis for when I'm talking to my wife on iMessage, plus a "Goodnight" button which turns off the screen, mutes the speakers, and puts the computer in rest mode.
The possibilities are pretty endless with this thing. I did the 30 day trial and after that I spent the $7 for a license because I seriously think it's worth it. It finally made the touchbar "useful".
BetterTouchTool - For custom hotkeys, custom trackpad swipes and clicks, and so much more.
I cannot overstate how amazing BetterTouchTool is. Here are a few of the ways I use it.
Trackpad:
3 finger swipe left/right = go to the tab to the left or right
3 finger swipe up/down = go to the top or bottom of the page
3 finger click = open a new tab
4 finger click = close the current tab
etc etc etcKeyboard:
I created hotkeys that trigger all kinds of stuff. For example, Command F1 through Command F4 trigger scenes on my Philips Hue lights. Command ESC turns my Hue lights off. Command 0 through Command 5 rate the current song 0 through 5 stars. Etc etc etc.
BetterTouchTool is the first app I'd install on a new Mac.
SuperDuper is backup software. External hard drives are so cheap these days. I have SuperDuper set up to automatically clone my Mac's hard drive and my external media drive every night while I'm asleep, and I have a weekly backup drive too. If a hard drive dies, I have a backup sitting there, ready to go. I won't need to reinstall anything or recover anything. I could just switch to the backup.
Airfoil is an awesome app for streaming audio from your Mac to other Airplay devices. I love that the developer (Rogue Amoeba) built in lots of Applescript into Airplay. That gave me the ability to write Applescripts and use BetterTouchTool to assign them to hotkeys. For example, I have Option F10 on my keyboard set up to switch the audio from my Mac to my entertainment center in the living room.
yeah, the touchbar really should have been an option for Pro models and let the Pro decide if it would be useful for them or not. For some applications, like video editing, many people liked it as they could see and scrub through their timeline easily. It really depended on your use case. For casual users it might actually have been more useful, but Apple, being Apple, never gave us an option. There are some applications like BetterTouchTool which tried to make it more useful, but in the end it didn't help much for me.
All day every day with the Golden Chaos plugin for Better Touch Tool.
The preset alone is a productivity gem but it takes it up a notch with custom icons and buttons. Amazing software.
The 13" M1 isn't as bad since it's got the physical escape key. Really, the worst part about the touch bar is that in stock form it's basically useless, takes extra steps to do things - like changing volume or muting requires you to press the speaker icon, then slide a bar back and forth for volume - same thing with brightness. Plus you have no physical reference point so you've got to take your eyes off the screen to look at the touchbar.
The old version with no physical escape key was worse, because you can't just jab at escape, you have to look for it. And it would disappear and be replaced with the "make app fullscreen" button in most cases, that was just fucking aggrivating.
The only way I made it actually usable for me was bettertouchtool and the goldenchaos theme. That was a touchbar that was useful and made sense. It's the one apple should have released, bar none. I was slightly bummed to lose it when I got my new 16" m1 mbp...but not that bad.
I half think that if apple would have given the option of half-height function keys and half-height touchbar in the space where we now have full-height function keys, I would have at least considered it. But, Apple never developed or flushed out any ideas for it, sadly.
I use BetterTouchTool for snapping and some Touch Bar customization in macOS but there’s also a version of it just for snapping called BetterSnapTool. HIGHLY recommend it.
sort of irritating this has to exist, but i find using keyboardcleantool is helpful when it comes to cleaning your keyboard - all it does is disable the keyboard but it's handy
It is very different. There is no maximize and window tiling is only in that full screen mode.
I install a little utility app called BetterTouchTool which allows for key combinations to pin a window left/right/top/bottom, half screen, full screen...but not full screen the way OS X does it, just filling the current view.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204172
Short answer, use a damp microfiber cloth and a dry microfiber cloth. Never use anything besides water… no alcohol, no wonder, nothing but water.
I also use KeyboardCleanTool. Allows you to lock the keyboard while cleat your MacBook. It’s my favorite price, free.
> 2- The Touch Bar. I don't benefit from the extra functionality at all. Actually the opposite. I feel like it's making me less productive.
Get BetterTouchTool. Apple should buy it and implement it, but of course never will, because MacBook Pro devices are meant for simple consumers (just like the iPhone) and not for professionals.
BetterTouchTool to customise trackpad gestures, mouse buttons, window snapping.
I love itsycal! Glad to see a lot of you enjoy it. How the hell is this not a native feature is beyond me.
This is their website. They also have other great features like making your mouse buttons usable (can program back/forward for mouse side buttons) and auto window sizing snapping (idk what it's called, the thing windows has had since like vista to easily put two windows side by side) https://folivora.ai/
What computer and OS? Knowing that people might be able to suggest a certain setting or preference change.
The only thing that immediately comes to mind is using an external trackpad or mouse and then disabling the internal one altogether.
No idea if these would work for you but here is a video that is like you describe with custom "covers" that seems to function well, and if you're on a Mac, BetterTouchTool doesn't have a custom deadzone option but might give you other customizations you like. If you read this discussion you can find other tools that might allow for a custom deadzone but they also appear to disable macOS security features so I'm not sure they'd be a great choice.
I sadly cannot remember the gesture combination since I lost it to get safari into reader mode, but it still works if you just manually hit reader mode and the gesture to speak text. In Reader Mode everything gets read without the need to select the text.
Safari + BetterTouchTool + Speak selected text
A partiular gesture would put the article I was reading in Reader View and instantly start reading it out.
Gesture in safari -> Went into Reader Mode -> BTT picked up the gesture to input the hotkey to speak selected text.
Walk away and enjoy.
My gestures: 5 finger click on trackpad or four finger click on magic mouse.
I use all of the default touch bar elements. But I also use BetterTouchTool which gives you full control over the Touch Bar for global and application specific configurations. It makes a big difference.
It's not integrated, but check out Better Touch Tool (you can google for reviews): https://folivora.ai/
It's amazing for touch bar and trackpad customization and this is coming from someone who hopes Apple never considers the touch bar ever again.
I use a combination of free apps to stack windows, and enable middle click (3-finger-tap), full-screen windows, etc.
I then realized I'm not poor, coughed up $20 for a license of BetterTouchTool, and life has moved on.
Solution 1: Download Butler for Mac and make a hot corner (I suggest top right) that when you click in that corner it sends the "Quit" command to the active application.
Solution 2: Download Better Touch Tool (if you are on a Macbook you should download this app regardless) and set a gesture to send the "Quit" command to your application. Four finger click is a good gesture.
I bought better touch tool (BTT), because it's amazing software that changes the way I use my macbook's touchpad. When I bought it, I think you were allowed to pay what you wanted. I believe I paid $20. It was initially free software, so I was able to demo it that way. The puchase included ~1 year of upgrades, which the dev allowed 2 years of updates. This has finally come to end, and I'm not sure I'm going to buy another subscription because I'm using my desktop (linux) a lot more than my laptop these days.
I bought a lifetime pass for plex (Plex). I think I bought it when it cost $79.99 for a lifetime pass. I was able to demo most features because there is a free tier.
I bought a music management software, that I can't remember what it was called. I had tried mediamonkey and a bunch of other ones, but always found things I didn't like. I found the one I ended up purchasing, but couldn't find a demo of it, so I torrented it and then later bought it (~$30). It turned out to feel like a waste of money because a few months later they released a subsequent version, with a flat price regardless of if you owned a previous version.
I've bought a lot of android apps like reddit apps, network tools, file explorers, and games.
EDIT: This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, just ones that I thought would be helpful. Also vpn access, of course.
I think it is better to have a free tier and a paid tier more than it is to have a demo version with an expiration date, but I've also bought software like that (solid explorer).
BetterTouchTool
Not open source but here is the absolute best in the business tool that can do (if not all) most of the things you mention.
I do believe there has been a 30 day full function trial available last time I checked.
It is a tool that can do A LOT MORE than what you ask - you may just as well check out the other functions.
I could not possible live without it on all my Macs.
Yes it works. On my MacBook (Intel) I even use the trackpad for e.g. Blender to 3d rotate, zoom, pan and the mouse for tweaking at same time. Well use the trackpad for a while, and see if you can get used to it. It's built in anyway, you can't ditch it :) . You can always buy an additional small BT Mouse.
There is also a tool called BetterTouchTools for macOS, there you can configure more advanced Trackpad gestures, in case you want https://folivora.ai/
It is but it's not too expensive for what it can do. https://folivora.ai
If you rarely use the bar then it might not be worth it. There's a free trial, check it out and see if it's for you.
I believe Karabiner can do the first part, at least, and BetterTouchTool the second
https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/ https://folivora.ai/
The built-in function lets you remap it, but only to a modifier key.
I just got a MBP w/ Touch 15" i7/16GB/512GB/560X Monday. Before that I had the MBP 15" Late-2013.
Thank you so much for this. I just downloaded BetterTouchTool with GoldenChaos-BTT
I have a 2018, and there are solutions for cleaning.
If you want to clean the keyboard, leave the Mac on, but first click the button in KeyboardCleanTool (free) to disable the keyboard. Wipe down the keyboard, then click the KeyboardCleanTool button again to re-enable the keyboard.
If you want to clean the screen, put the Mac to sleep (or turn the brightness down all the way) so that the screen is black, and then without touching the keyboard, wipe the screen.
I forgot about tapping, because I absolutely loathe it with a deep burning passion. It's a recipe for accidental inputs. I want to click.
As far as other gestures, I find BetterTouchTool indispensable (and I'm not aware of a Windows equivalent, though if there is one I'd love to hear about it). Two of my most used gestures are 3 finger click -> middle click (for opening links in new tabs), and 3 finger force click for Command-W.
You can make it work with BetterTouchTool. It’s a tool that lets you map shortcuts for all kinds of Mac apps to touch gestures and it works with Ableton as well. There is a trial version and you can get it here: https://folivora.ai
Some of the best solutions for window management are Swish and BetterTouchTool. Keyboard Maestro is also excellent for keyboard and general automation.
The "Better Touch Tool," my iPad, and StreamDeck software for MacOS. This way, the majority of my most-used shortcuts and macros can be programmed into gestures or touches on either my Magic Mouse or my Magic Touchpad -via- BTT, and multicam switching can be done in real-time with my iPad running a StreamDeck interface.
The touchbar is amazing, I guess people hate on it because they don't understand how powerful it can be. I also use BetterTouchTool from https://folivora.ai and it is super useful, both for the trackpad and the touchbar!
Hey! Since I upgraded to MBP with Touch Bar I wondered how to make it work better :)
Since two years I use BetterTouchTool to add custom touchpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts. However this software allows you to customize your Touch Bar as well.
Today I found a preset named AquaTouch made by u/yyuuiko
I haven't discover all the features yet but Touch Bar with Apple Music on looked really good and promising.
If this is not want you expected you can check another presets created by another users - maybe something will fits your needs.
BetterTouchTool is paid software - 8.50$ for version with access to updates over next two years - 20,50$ for lifetime version with all future updates
I use this software since two years - worth every penny :)
You have to pay but it's free for 45 days if you want to try Better Touch Tool. If you have a MacBook Pro you can bundle it with Golden Chaos which makes the touchbar finally useable.
BetterTouchTool is what I use to customize my mice. Currently using a Razer wireless with no problems.
It also allows you to customize the touchbar if you want that to be better. Not at my computer at the moment, else I would like to that example too.
Over on the Apple Stack Exchange, someone wrote an AppleScript action that you can turn into a service and assign a shortcut to.
While I'm not thrilled about using an AppleScript that relies on UI elements (w*hat happens when Apple changes the System Prefs interface?*), it's a good solution while it works. Anyway, I simply copied and pasted this script into a Better Touch Tool action and it worked first try. Amazing.
Still, a legit keyboard shortcut would be better. Kind of baffling that this doesn't exist.
BetterTouchTool can do what you need -- and a lot more, too.
Highly recommended. It's one of the best apps MacOS has.
For your case, you could assign a certain mouse guesture to command-option-escape (the key-combo for Force Quit).
As an example, I use BetterTouchTool to translate Four-finger click to the key-combo command-w -- which closes windows.
That's BetterTouchTool with the GoldenChaos preset :)
I agree with others that the stock touch bar isn't great but you can make it an incredibly useful tool!
I think you might be able to do that with BetterTouchTool. I'm not near my computer or I'd check it out. It will allow you to do custom keyboard shortcuts per app or globally.
Edit: was thinking you could do cmd + v + 1-9 to get different messages per number key.
I feel like there is probably a much easier way to accomplish this but the app KeyboardCleanTool by the maker of BetterTouchTool does exactly what you’re looking for. Never used it myself though.
I hear you! I'm not a big fan of the current shortcuts either. We definitely want to make them customizable in the future.
A bit of context: we arrived at ⌘+P because text editors like Sublime Text and VS Code use ⌘+P to navigate between files. So the muscle memory works for developers who use those editors, but for everyone else (myself included; I use a different editor) the shortcut is mentally mapped to "Print." :(
It's not even as simple as remapping to ⌘+K like Slack, because ⌘+K is also the universal keyboard shortcut for adding a hyperlink, everywhere from Reddit to Gmail. (In fact, you'll notice that Slack's new rich text composer doesn't support hyperlinking text.) And while Slack also supports ⌘+T, we obviously can't override that shortcut in Web browsers.
We're trying to rethink this holistically, but it's tricky because we don't want keyboard shortcuts to change depending on whether or not you're in the editor, have text selected, etc. Please bear with us 🙇🏻♀️
As a workaround, if you never use ⌘+K for hyperlinking, you can use a utility like BetterTouchTool to remap the shortcut to ⌘+P in Notion. Populating the macOS menubar is a good idea, thanks for the suggestion!
I'm a web developer and love working on an ultrawide. On any big 1440p and above display there is no point in maximizing most apps.
My typical setup on an ultrawide or super ultrawide is 2-3 large windows side by side. Usually a browser and IDE on the monitor and terminal on my laptop display, with some other apps like DB GUI, Slack, Outlook etc. also on the main monitor but under the main windows. A virtual desktop could also be used for those.
For snapping windows you could try BetterSnapTool.
>ctrl + x > cmd + x : to press cmd you have to contort your thumb too much, very annoying.
This is a matter of preference, but you get used to it. The nice thing is that shortcuts like cmd+x don't interfere with ctrl+x and others in the terminal.
>fn key : the fact it even exists and gets pressed is annoying
Windows laptops have fn keys too...
>delete + backspace > backspace only : why on earth you wont have simple key to delete in either direction. you have to go out of your way to hold the dumb fn key.
Also a laptop keyboard thing. Delete key exists on the full Apple keyboard.
>win + arrows > mac non existent : being able to arrange windows with native shortcut is so convenient.
I wish this was a native shortcut also, but a number of things exist for this on Mac. BetterTouchTool lets you build your own shortcuts for window management (and practically anything else), but Magnet will do it for you too.
>f2 or fn keys > touch bar on top.
:shrug:
>own mechanical keyboard > apple thin keyboards
:shrug:
>similarly various shortcuts in vscode seem more natural in windows than in mac. perhaps it's because of vscode being ms software??
Luckily, these are fully configurable! Make them what works for you.
> Would you be able to customize it at home and then use those same gestures at work?
You'd need to set it up at home and at work.
> What are some examples of gestures you find useful.
Oh, I have a ton of them, and a lot of them are per app:
• Two finger click is a right-click.
• Two finger drag is a scroll wheel replacement
• Three finger swipe down brings up the app switcher (on mac).
• Three finger swipe left brings up notifications (on mac).
• I have 3 and 4 finger taps do different things in different apps, e.g. eg in Photoshop switches brush size (up or down)
Here's the software I use on mac: https://folivora.ai
As you may have figured, I'm really a Mac guy, so I'm just guessing about PC's here, but I suspect you'll need admin access (at least once) to install a driver and touchpad software:
https://support.logitech.com/en_us/article/37924?product=a0qi00000069uqdAAA
Scroll to the bottom on the above page for which gestures are built-in vs needing the Logitech software (SetPoint).
Here's a direct link to the Logitech SetPoint installer:
https://download01.logi.com/web/ftp/pub/techsupport/mouse/SetPoint6.69.126_smart.exe
BetterTouchTool is a great one. It can create custom touch bar menus for apps or replace the app specific one that doesn't flow with your work flow. I built a custom menu bar for chrome because I need other things. Also for VLC since the touch at is still not supported. link
For starters I'm a MacAdmin... but I did prefer it a few years before after being curious about which I would like more. i mean technically most things probably could probably do on both, it's more of an adjustment and learning curve and after switching between the two (i own both) I find myself missing my mac more when i'm not gaming. The main thing for me is that Windows didn't have a proper desktop management system until either 8 or 8.1. I like being able to set full screen apps to their own window and use gestures (another part of my workflow now that I think about it) to easily swipe to them. Even so, windows 10 to my knowledge let you change just one monitor, if you change one desktop it changes them all to the next desktop and they aren't independent of one another. I have a few settings set up in BetterTouchTool that basically lets me setup custom shortcuts, gestures, and expected results when I run them. This is the main thing for me really that makes it easy to multitask but also gain features I missed from windows.As far as linux goes, I haven't really used it as a main os, I've tried but always came back b/c I do a lot of gaming and it seems counter intuitive to buy a mac and then throw linux on it.
Better Touch Tool for Mac OS X allows you to implement mouse button function mapping features to just about any mouse you can buy regardless of driver (in like 90% of cases). I think it's about 7 bucks.
TrackPad. For many years I used a Logitech MX mouse, whose multiple programmable buttons/surfaces I found superior to all Apple mice. When I got a new Mac a few years back it came with a pointing device of my choice and I knew I wouldn't want the mouse so I chose the Magic Trackpad, thinking I'd resell it if I didn't like it.
To my surprise I loved it.
Best thing you can do after you get it is to get BetterTouchTool, which supercharges the Trackpad to customize window movements/snapping, app-launching, and more. Lets you configure commands via your choice of gesture: single-double-triple-quad finger tap/swipe/press. There's a 45-day free trial, and a 2-year license costs $6.50 (or a lifetime license costs $20).
Here's a quickie video showing BTT doing app-launches.
I use Divvy. It allows you to set a grid size, then assign as many hot-keys as you want that will place the window within the grid.
I have the following setup
CMD-D to start Divvy, then press a single key to place the window
Q-top left
E-top right
Z-bottom left
C-bottom right
A - left half of the screen
S-Middle of screen (anchored to the top)
D-right half of the screen
F-full screen
1-left 1/3 of screen
2-middle 2/3 of screen
3-right 1/3 of screen
It won't do the Ctrl-Scroll to resize. I know Better TouchTool supports window snapping, and has a lot of configuration around using the trackpads etc. It may provide the ability to re-size with a scroll.
Late reply here ;).
I don't know if it will help but you could take a look at the keyboard shortcut options of BetterTouchTool. It's quite powerful and might let you define custom shortcuts as a workaround for Safari...?
BetterTouchTool (not free, but so worth it IMO, 45 day free trial) lets you use the fn key as liberally as any other modifier key in order trigger shortcuts/actions.
For example, I use fn v to bring up the clipboard manager (another feature built into BetterTouchTool). But it can be used to trigger existing commands in MacOS as well.
https://folivora.ai/keyboardcleantool is what I use. Found it recommended in one of the Mac subs and have had no issues with it so far. Just turn it on when cleaning the keyboard. Trackpad still functions while using the app for obvious reasons, but that doesn't hinder its designed performance.
You may have success to deactivate portions or the entirety of the touch bar with apps such as BetterTouchTool. I see that it has configuration options that suggest that your needs could be met. You might also search or ask in the User Community about disabling the touch bar to see if what you want to do is entirely possible.
You have this super-advanced 3rd party app called BetterTouchTool (BTT) which is so popular, it’s likely you saw it mentioned somewhere already. It’s sort of a swiss-army knife. Been thinking about perhaps buying it myself, the permanent lifetime license:
Yes it's free, not sure if I can link this here but here it goes https://folivora.ai/keyboardcleantool
There are alternatives on AppStore if you don't trust the source.
If you really want to maximize the mac trackpad take a look at Better Touch Tool. You won't find it in the app store. I've been using it on various macs for the past decade.
You can literally handle just about any task by assigning mouse and keyboard shortcuts to various combinations of taps, clicks and swipes using multiple fingers and motions. Built in window snapping as well. I can't function without it and wonder why Apple just doesn't buy the damn thing and make it part of MacOS.
It's $10 I think for a lifetime license but you get a full 30 day trial period and the developer updates it quite frequently.
I do something similar with my Magic Mouse and Trackpad. I use a program called Better Touch Tool (Disclosure: this is a non-affiliate link. I don't get anything for saying so) that allows me to map shortcuts and key commands to touch regions on my external control devices. Like you, I spend a ton of time editing audiobooks and other long-form narration, and the ability to ripple delete while flow editing was a game-changing upgrade for me.
You need to use something like BetterTouchTool and setup a shortcut so when you two-finger tap on the red (close) button, the whole app closes. BTT maybe an overkill just for this, but it works and you might even find other uses 🤷🏽♂️
> Closing windows- doesn’t actually close the windows
I'm totally confused by this. If I click the red-traffic-light-button ("x") it closes the window? Do you mean the app?
> Only being able to open windows and not minimize them with the bottom app bar
Yes unfortunately clicking an item in the Dock is "activate" not "minimise" on macOS. I don't use Windows so I can't relate to this inconvenience haha
> Snapping windows to corners or sides
I highly recommend BetterTouchTool. It's unfortunately an additional cost but it has saved me too much time. Customise keyboard shortcuts better, trackpad and Touch Bar. I have:
⌃⌥←Snap window to left edge (50% screen)⌃⌥←Snap window to right edge (50% screen)⌃⌥↑Snap window to top edge (50% screen)⌃⌥↓Snap window to bottom edge (50% screen)⌃⌥ISnap window to top left edge (25% screen)`⌃⌥O Snap window to top left edge (25% screen)
⌃⌥KSnap window to bottom left edge (25% screen)⌃⌥LSnap window to bottom right edge (25% screen)
> Cant game on it
Unfortunately a thing macOS is known for, however I've seen M1 chips being able to run a lot of games at even . There's less games for Mac, but it should be somewhat fine.
> M1 can’t actually run any iPad apps (yet) as far as I can tell.
100% up to the developers.
> Apple is a bully, you have to have an Apple account and you have to give them your credit card and phone number before you can download anything from their store. Speaking of their store; apps are more expensive but the apple store is worlds better than the microsoft store.
I think you can get 'around' this; it used to not be required at least. App developers can't price their apps exactly how they want either. Apple does tiers (so you can't get $0.25 apps).
Sorry. There is another tool called Better Touch Tool but it isn't free. It has either an annual subscription or lifetime purchase. It does allow you to capture mouseclicks with a modifier key. I am using it and liking its features. It has a lot of them. https://folivora.ai/
I purchased something called better touch tool from here: https://folivora.ai and now I use the touch bar more. You can get custom presets for different programs which is pretty cool. I have a great one for Ableton live for instance.
The Macbook trackpad is the best there is. The entire operating system is meant to work with it.
You can add a ton of functionality to it with BetterTouchTool: https://folivora.ai/
https://thesweetbits.com/blog/bettertouchtool-3-review/
and hell, you can probably using both a mouse along with the trackpad.
The problem with trackpads is that, as far as I'm aware, there is a lot more tech and software involved. I don't know about many high-end PC offerings, but up until a few years back, for example, nothing really rivaled the Apple Trackpad in terms of touch and responsiveness. Using the Apple Trackpad vs. a Dell or Thinkpad trackpad is night and day.
Some of the best benefits of trackpads are from custom motions you can do like gestures. Take a look at Better Touch Tool, which allows application-dependent gestures. For example, I can pinch in to close a tab on Chrome and pinch out to re-open a tab.
So because it's so software dependent, it doesn't have the cross-platform ease of a traditional mouse/trackball.
In summary, I will stress that the difference between a good trackpad and a bad trackpad is vast. So many people on PCs/Windows will never use their trackpad because of how awful it is.
Fullscreen apps are very easy to re-arrange. I just got into the habit of it. Also, when invoking the spaces view, you can take a window'd app and drop it in the top bar where you want it, and it'll become fullscreen in that spot. I should point out, that i use Trackpads (so it's a 4 finger swipe up to get to this thing). So maybe instead of clicking the green light to maximize, get in the habit of invoking the spaces view, and dragging the app into the spot you like.
Aside from that, a pocket knife app like BetterTouchTool may help.
I went from many years of a Logitech MX Master mouse to the Magic Trackpad and never looked back.
I configure it for extra swipe/click/gesture commands with BetterTouchTool, an app worth its weight in gold (despite not weighing anything).
Have you considered blasting underneath those keys with compressed air? Or, following a reliable ‘how to’ guide to pop off the offending keys and seeing if there is any dirt lodged underneath? I say reliable because I’ve never done it myself (but I know it’s possible) - you don’t want to damage anything.
There is a tool called KeyboardCleanTool which disables keyboard input…. I’m curious if this only applies to the internal MBP keyboard though and would still leave an external keyboard functional. Worth a try as it’s free.
Don’t know how well this works but hey
https://tenonedesign.com/inklet.php
Edit: saw you have a Wacom so never mind
but I do love and use BetterTouchTool for a million things such as adjusting volume of the Mac with a two finger knob turning motion or VLC remote
First, keep in mind that many of the key mappings that you wish existed already have other purposes in macOS. I.e. ⌃→ by default switches to next space/desktop.
Second, I wouldn't recommend using KeyRemap4MacBook (now known as Karabiner Elements) to do this as mentioned in one of the answers on that StackExchange page you mentioned as it installs a system extension that currently is causing kernel panics on M1 hardware.
Third, instead I would recommend tools like BetterTouchTool or Keyboard Maestro since making the change doesn't require modifying an obscure file that you will most likely forget about 5 minutes after doing it.
Fourth, the accepted solution on that StackExchange page you referenced does work, but you'll first need to go to -> System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts and unmap the Mission Control Move left a space and Move right a space key mappings.
BetterTouchTool has the ability to change what's shown on the touch bar. They have a large community of people constantly improving a preset specifically for the touch bar. Search for BetterTouchTool GoldenChaos to find more information.
BTT isn't free, standard license (2 years of updates) is $8.50, lifetime license is $22.50.
Disclaimer : I don't have a system with a touch bar, so I haven't ever used this.
Hi,
Yes, I found a work around... There is an app from https://folivora.ai/keyboardcleantool called 'KeyboardCleanTool' (not available on the App Store) that allows you to lock the keyboard. This solves the problem of a child/pet accidentally typing things!
To solve the problem of the trackpad being usable, I have a bluetooth mouse and I've checked the setting that disables the trackpad when an external mouse is plugged in...
It's not perfect but it works. Hope it's helpful.
I use a app called BetterTouchTool (https://folivora.ai/) to fix all of this. It's not free, but doesn't cost much either.
$8.50US for standard license (2 years of updates), $20.50US for lifetime license
I'm guessing you have never used the Touch Bar on anything except Apple's implementation of it. I'd find it as nearly useless as most other people do if it couldn't be extended with third party tools. BetterTouchTool allows the Touch Bar (and all other input devices connected to macOS) to be fully customized and modified. BTT also allows you to fully hide the macOS Control Strip and replace it with your own implementation.
Touch Bar on its own is a bit gimmicky and very limited in its features. Touch Bar + BetterTouchTool is a game changer for productivity and automation. I can place critical information or apps on the Touch Bar, I have Keyboard Maestro scripts triggered by one tap, and custom gestures to control the system. Swipe left/right with 2 fingers to change system volume, 3 fingers for display brightness, 4 fingers for keyboard backlight brightness.
It's an indispensable piece of my productivity workflow, primarily thanks to BetterTouchTool.
If you haven’t had a look at Better Touch Tools then you should. It’s available from https://folivora.ai and totally worth the money. I use a mouse and trackpad and the amount of customisation is amazing. I have Fn + 3 finger swipe right to move my current active window to the next display. It’s soooooo good I can’t work without it!
As far as keyboards go I was able to get bettertouchtool to mimic what synapse was doing with keybindings (no rgb stuff though) > https://folivora.ai/
I would suggest changing the caps lock to the escape key with mac system preferences. BUT it did work for my use case, and bettertouchtool supports profiles much like synapse does.
Yes, there is: https://folivora.ai
It is an app to make custom gestures for your trackpad or custom touchbar layouts. Two of the most popular presets are AquaTouch and GoldenChaos. You can customise every inch of the touchbar and the pre-made presets mentioned above also support a lot of websites. I can't speak for GoldenChaos but AquaTouch supported more than 50 websites. For example if I open Google Docs, the normal MBP would show only browser controls. Not Google Docs specific controls (like formatting etc), on the other hand these presets will change the touchbar so that you have a touchbar customised to the site you've got open infront of you.
Sorry about the huge essay
I’ve been using BTT for maybe 10 years. I literally can’t use a computer without it anymore.
If you want to be extra safe here is the BTT website . I recommend this site above all others. You will see a free trial period, standard license is about $9 and the lifetime license is about $21. Personally, I bought the lifetime license. I wanted to support the guy who makes this and for what I get, it’s worth a whole lot more. Ask anything you like anytime.
Look for a keyboard cleaner app which stops the keyboard from operating. I don’t know if there’s one for Windows but on Mac, I use this app called KeyboardCleanTool.
Once the keyboard operation is blocked, use a damped cloth (microfibre, old but clean t-shirt). If it’s really dirty, use 30-70 alcohol to water solution.
The secret to a good clean keyboard is to clean as often as possible. Once the gunk accumulates, it makes removal near impossible.
(Always dampen the cloth and don’t spark liquid directly onto the keyboard)
If you managed to clean the keyboard to your satisfaction, my recommendation is to then get a Swifter duster (you can use any duster but Swifter allows you to change the duster as it gets dirty). And dust in and around the keyboard (no need to disable the keyboard operation) as often as possible. I usually do it before each session and at the of the session.
It may sound a bit obsessive but it takes seconds and the end result is a keyboard that’s clean each time you open the lid of your laptop. And to me there’s nothing more motivating than starting a day with a clean computer.
A lot of mouse supports gestures and shortcuts. On Mac you can customize input on mouse using utilities like Better Touch Tool. You can pretend to still using your mouse when in fact, you’re gesturing.
Better Touch Tool has Apple Silicon support. For monitoring, one option is iStat Menus.
Yes, BetterTouchTool works with Apple Silicon Macs. I'm guessing the Golden Chaos will work, but not sure. Golden Chaos hasn't been updated since BetterTouchTool was updated for the M1 Macs, but I'm guessing it's like a theme pack and doesn't really care about the CPU architecture.
There’s sliders for volume and brightness but sometimes they’re hidden behind another panel because an app will steal control over the touchbar. Like safari uses the touchbar to display all your tabs.
Better touch tool takes over full control of the touchbar so you can force it show your buttons always. I always want volume and brightness available so I love it. You can find it on its website:
I have the Sculpt Comfort, and the main issue is that the mouse doesn't send mouse button inputs for its extra button, but instead keyboard inputs (pressing it inputs the windows key / command key, swiping on it inputs the keyboard shortcuts that in windows would be back and forward), so you need a program that can change the actions for specific keys on individual keyboards (since you don't want your main keyboard to do this obviously)
Doesn't support Big Sur yet, but USB Overdrive worked with mine when I was running Catalina, it only affects mice (not the trackpad), and will let you change scroll direction, disable scrolling acceleration (terrible on mice with clicky scroll wheels IMO) and rebind the extra buttons. Don't know of any on the App Store though.
If your mouse is more normal than mine and actually sends button clicks for its extra buttons, BetterTouchTool is great for all sorts of things including adding shortcuts for that, but once again not on the App Store
Contexts allows you to switch to any window using just a few keystrokes which works well across monitors and means you can avoid using the mouse altogether for shortcut-based workflows.
If you’re really looking to move your mouse cursor across monitors then BetterTouchTool might do the trick.
KeyboardCleanTool. Its useful for when I want to clean my macbook keyboard and prevents me from sending unneeded keystrokes.
Hey mate, welcome! (I’m new myself, got my first around 2 months ago)
https://folivora.ai/ better touch tool is absolutely amazing for custom gestures and Touch Bar customisation. It also comes with window snapping similar to what you’ll be use to on windows.
Try and get used to spaces, having different spaces (environments) has made me much more efficient at work.
You’ll probably want some sort of USB hub, I got an Anker 7 in 1 and that’s perfect for what I needed, there’s plenty about. Just gives you some extra ports as they do lack them.
Also, I use Monit, it creates a widget in your Notification Center to see CPU/RAM usage etc, I found this much better than clogging up my menu bar with iStat menus (it’s also much cheaper)
If you have an iPad that’s relatively new (unsure what models) you can AirPlay to this as a 2nd monitor.
Anything you think “hmm this isn’t very good” chances are you can change it and make it better!
Hope this is useful, feel free to DM if you need any help.
The only things I've used it for since getting this machine are "clicking" buttons in dialogs when working on the go, and the volume slider.
That being said, Better Touch Tool can really beef it up. I just haven't taken the time to set it up or use it, since working from, the touchbar is usually out of reach at my desk. https://folivora.ai/
You get used to it. I used to use a Microsoft Ergo keyboard with a Logitech trackball; I did most of my work on Linux and dwm. When I changed jobs I was given a MacBook Pro but no external monitor. Using the Ergo keyboard put the screen too far back and configuring the trackball was a pain.
However, I now absolutely love the trackpad. I was a big keyboard user before (hence dwm) but the trackpad is incredible. It's large enough that I can swipe without hitting the edges all the time. I miss dwm but full screen apps are fine; I did most of work in monocle mode anyway.
I also use BetterTouchTool to setup extra keyboard and touchpad shortcuts, as well as a custom touchbar. Well worth the money. I would've paid three times the amount for a lifetime license.
I absolutely abhor my laptop keyboard, though. It's the butterfly model and the keys stick all the time. Double presses are incredibly common. I have Unshaky which helps somewhat, but it's just a horrible design. Other than that the travel is fine and the keys are large enough. I just wish the butterfly design didn't have such a horrible defect.
BetterTouchTool is awesome, great if you want to customize your workflow. I have a button that takes a screenshot from my capture card, saves it to the disk and copies it to the clipboard. Like, what!!
Magnet's great, though I use BetterTouchTool. It not only lets me do window snapping, but it'll let you return the green pill to the original behaviour (what OP mentions) without needing to hover or option-click, as well as letting me add custom touchbar buttons to my apps.
Yes - it's great in its default settings but also very configurable (even down to window layout per App) https://folivora.ai/bettertouchtool-snap-areas There's a demo. period once you've installed it - worth a try!
Yes it's nodejs code. It's not running in the browser.
For context: I want to wrap this "grabbing" logic in a function so I can bind it to a keyhook in the future. So whenever I don't know a word I highlight it and put it in some document.
I've looked at BetterTouchTools, and it can execute "Real JavaScript", + I found that JS / node can do this sometimes natively. This is why I'm trying to do it this way.
One way to set full screen is to use Applescript to emulate key codes. Check the correct keyboard shortcut for fullscreen for the specific applications from the applications' View menu. It's usually either cmd+F or control+cmd+F.
For snapping applications to occupy a specific area of the screen, there might actually now be a native way to do it too but I've always done it with the nice presets of BetterTouchTool which has been a necessary part of my workflows for almost a decade. So BetterTouchTool would perform that action upon some keyboard shortcut or other gesture of your choice as a trigger. Shortcuts can be global, or application-specific. It also has plenty of other actions, some of which involve window resizing/positioning.
I don't know about a webcam for Apple TV, but you can use this app to lock the keyboard. Launch it, press the button, and minimize it! https://folivora.ai/keyboardcleantool/
You could also put the meeting on the iPad and use Guided Access mode to disable touch.
Perhaps someone else will chime in with a different solution using a Terminal command but Apple stopped offering that feature years ago. Pretty sure this can be done easily on the Touch Bar using the Better Touch Tool software. https://folivora.ai
>Does the external numpad send the same signal? A couple things to look into.
Yes, by default the OS treats the input of all keyboards the same, so pressing 1 on the external numpad would be the same as pressing 1 on the built-in keyboard's numpad (but does the macbook even have a numpad?). That's why I wrote, that AHK possibly supports multiple keyboards. You'd have to specify some kind of id (like 0 for built-in, 1 for the first external one, etc) and then only bind to keypresses from that particular keyboard. I have no idea if it's possible to differentiate keypresses from different keyboards in macOS, but if it is, it probably involves some coding.
Edit: I think ControllerMate might solve all your problems: http://www.orderedbytes.com/controllermate/
Edit2: Or maybe BetterTouchTool: https://folivora.ai/
Haptic Touch Bar provides a bit of tactile feedback when tapping a touchbar button. I'm sure BetterTouchTool can be configured for similar functionality.
Unfortunately, this "feature" has been like this since 2018. No known fix though use this utility that will prevent any key presses and Touchbar inputs while it is running.
Better Touch Tool is all you need https://folivora.ai
It takes a bit to configure for every app but i have shortcuts to set capture folder, shoot, reset couter, copy/apply edits for captureone. Other apps I have it setup to do what they need as well.
I heavily recommend Better Touch Tool. It allows you to customize every input device on a Mac, from the trackpad to the keyboard to the touchbar, including separate toggles for mouse and trackpad scroll direction.
It does cost ~$20, but there's a free 45-day trial to check it out.