What’s on my Mac

· 4 min read · Technology
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Everybody does different things on their Mac, so their configurations are naturally different from one another. I do a creative combination of interaction design, web development, all-things development using AI tools, and studying Computer Science. Here’s what’s on my Mac, currently. The things I left out are things I couldn’t think off, meaning they have to be irrelevant.

If you get some inspiration from here, or have inspiration for me, let me know!

1. Applications

  • Affinity
  • Cap (Screen Recordings)
  • Color Picker
  • Cyberduck (FTP connection)
  • Cursor
  • Delete Apps
  • Figma
  • Final Cut
  • Font Converter
  • Helium (main browser)
  • iA Writer
  • Local (WP)
  • Mac Mouse Fix
  • Mos
  • Obsidian
  • Pure Paste
  • Raycast
  • reMarkable
  • Shottr (Screenshots)
  • Spotify
  • TeamViewer
  • Tiny Ipsum
  • UTM
  • VS Code
  • WhatsApp
  • Windscribe

  • Antigravity (not used)
  • Arc (not used)
  • Atlas (not used)
  • Chrome (not used)
  • Codex (not used)
  • Comet Browser (not used)
  • Dia Browser (not used)
  • Hyperkey (not used, using Raycast instead)
  • Maccy (not used, using Raycast instead)
  • Office (not used)
  • SnippetsLab (not used)
  • Vivid (not used)

2. Terminal Tools

Claude Code

Cursor CLI

Change default browser

If you’re changing browsers a lot, this makes things easier than navigating though System Settings

kerma/defaultbrowser

Quartz build commands

  • npx quartz create
  • npx quartz sync

Push WordPress Themes or Plugins from Local (WP) to Site, or simply upload a folder to FTP

ffabbr/wp-local-push

ffabbr/ftp-push

Record MacBook screen with system audio

  • Install BlackHole 16ch
  • Set as output option in Audio-Midi-Setup
  • Select at System Settings>Sound>Output
  • Use BlackHole as Microphone

reMarkable as graphic pad

For certain graphic purposes I need to use my reMarkable as an external graphic tablet to my Mac.

  • pip install remarkable-mouse
  • remouse –address 10.0.0.14 –orientation left

3. Automator

Switch Folders

Move files from the default Downloads folder to a custom (f.ex. iCloud) downloads folder

ffabbr/mac-automator-services

Open in IDE

Open a folder or file in the IDE of your choice, all through a keyboard shortcut, directly from finder

ffabbr/mac-automator-services

Create new file

Opens a popup to type the filename and extension of a new file that is created at the current finder position.

ffabbr/mac-automator-services

4. Chrome Extensions

  • uBlock Origin
  • Video Speed Controller
  • Copy LaTeX
  • CSS Inject (not used)
  • Dark Reader (not used)
  • Jam (not used)
  • Scribe (not used)
  • Wappalyzer (not used)
  • WhatFont (not used)
  • Other self-made improvements (yet to be published 😉

5. Keyboard shortcuts

General

  • Maccy: cmd+shift+c
  • Color picker: cmd+shift+f
  • Automator create file name popup: cmd+shift+e
  • Finder aufräumen: cmd+shift+a
  • Open in VS Code: cmd+shift+1
  • Text extraction through Shottr: cmd+shift+^
  • Window screenshot through Shottr: cmd+shift+2
  • Safari (Automator quick action): hyperkey+s
  • Obsidian (Automator quick action): hyperkey+o
  • Music (Automator quick action): hyperkey+m
  • Dia (Automator quick action): hyperkey+d
  • Drag between virtual screens by pressing mouse key
  • Fokus in nächstes Fenster option+tab

Window Management

  • Side by side (built into macOS): hyperkey+2
  • Switch sides of side by side (built into macOS): hyperkey+3
  • Four tiles screen (built into macOS): hyperkey+4
  • Move window to left (built in): hyperkey+j
  • Move window to right (built in): hyperkey+l
  • Center window (built in): hyperkey+k
  • Full screen (built in): hyperkey+i

Set screenshot default action to copy image. That makes saving the screenshot complicated through. In settings, you can set separate shortcuts for copying and saving. I use Shottr to make nice one-window screenshots, but learned that you can do by default with cmd+shift+4, and then space.

Also in the trackpad settings, disable force press and enable App-Exposé. And the bottom right corner is set to display the Desktop as a hot corner.

Oh, and by the way

If you use Spotlight, remove everything except for apps, reminders, calendar, contacts, shortcuts, notes, calculator, voice memos, settings, phone, web-app, menu elements, folders from Spotlight. Also remove lots of folders from the indexing (through privacy). This makes things a lot faster, but I felt like I always needed to wait for it to load, so I switched to Raycast.

6. Obsidian

Theme

  • Minimal Theme by kepano

Plugins

  • Claudian Extension
  • Hider by kepano
  • Minimal Theme Settings by kepano
  • Create List of Notes
  • Find Orphaned Images
  • Latex Suite
  • Omnisearch
  • WordPress

Shortcuts

  • Toggle left and right sidebars: cmd+shift+ö and cmd+shift+ä
  • Delete file: cmd+shift+l

7. Dock 

Fix Dock speed:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0.12; killall Dock

Reset Dock speed:

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay; killall Dock

8. Raycast

  • 90% of my Raycast use is just opening applications. The difference to Spotlight is that it simply works, doesn’t load for long, doesn’t change the order last second, etc.
  • I use Snippets to quickly insert Obsidian callouts or folder paths that I need often.
  • Instead of a separate clipboard history app (Clippy) I now use the clipboard manager in Raycast
  • Instead of a separate hyperkey app I now use the hyperkey setting hidden in the Raycast settings.