QB 004: Rectangle Pro Manages Windows

Rectangle Pro Icon

Product: Rectangle Pro
Price: Purchase for US$9.99

Window management is a popular software category on macOS. There are a ton of competitors in this space.

An incomplete list of the competition includes:

1. Moom · Many Tricks
2. Magnet – Window manager for Mac
3. Split Screen Pro: Complete Window Management App for Mac
4. Window Tidy
5. Mizage - Divvy
6. Amethyst | ianyh
7. koekeishiya/yabai: A tiling window manager for macOS based on binary space partitioning

There are both commercial applications and free alternatives.

I have been using an Alfred workflow called Div — a simple Alfred window manager | pawelgrzybek.com.

macOS Monterey has parts of the functionality built into the system.

What Does a Window Manager Do?

Lets you arrange the open windows in your desktop. Not useful on a laptop screen, but if you have your laptop hooked up to an external monitor, or are on an iMac with a big screen, you will benefit from such a program.

My most common use-case is when I am reading a PDF file in PDF Expert and taking notes in a text editor. Having the two windows side by side makes the process easier.

I have my doubts about the efficacy of this arrangement. There are certain advantages to the act of focusing on one window and doing work in that window, but there are also pertinent use-cases for window management of this nature. So a mixture of one window at a time and multiple windows at certain times might be the optimal solution. Window managers let you arrange the windows that you want open in an arrangement you prefer.

Rectangle Pro Does Window Management Right

Window management programs have the ability to define a whole slew of keyboard commands to manage your windows. This level of customizability is fantastic but you are going to be drowning in keyboard commands and it is going to be difficult to remember them. Rectangle Pro lets you use a simple key combo: Hold down the ⌃ and ⌘ keys and move your mouse to where you want the window to be and an overlay appears on your screen. Pick the overlay which you want and let go. The window moves to cover that overlay.

I disabled all the keyboard commands and use this feature to arrange my windows. Admittedly I am not a heavy user of this feature, but it works for me when I need it.

Conclusion

Rectangle Pro is the right solution for me. It is deep, well-designed software which does a great job of managing your windows.

Heartily recommended.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie.

Note: The developer provided a promo code for Hookshot, a previous iteration of this product when I asked for one.

Tangent icon

QB 003: Taking Notes in Tangent

Tangent Notes is an Electron-based note-taking/writing application available for macOS and Windows. It is in alpha. Not going to cover it for the blog at this point. If you are interested in this category of products, you can explore yourself.

This is a product which shows some promise. I am going to keep a lookout on its evolution. A good start and some interesting additions like contextual threads and Wiki Links.

The feature list is at Tangent Notes – Features with a Roadmap.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie.

Note: QB = Quick Bites

QB 002: HoudahSpot Finds

HoudahSpot Icon

Product: HoudahSpot – Powerful File Search Tool for Mac
Price: $34

HoudahSpot Improves on Spotlight

HoudahSpot window

HoudahSpot is what I use to find files on my computer. It leverages the power of Spotlight to give me a search experience which is fast, efficient and complete. HoudahSpot is feature-rich and designed to be your one-step solution for file search.

This is deep search with a lovely interface which will make the process of searching for the right file both intuitive and comprehensive.

HoudahSpot is well documented. Check out the tips and tricks blog.

Features I am fond of:

1. Search by both filename and content.
2. Saved searches.
3. Ability to exclude folders to narrow the search.
4. Combining criteria to isolate the files I am looking for.
5. Quick preview.
6. Ability to copy and move files from one location to another.

This is good software. Recommended heartily.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie.

Note:
QB = Quick Bites

Path

2021 Review

Focus on Obsidian

This is an easy post to write. 2021 was the year of Obsidian for me.

Obsidian took over all my writing. The best feature of Obsidian is the plugin infrastructure.

The schemar/obsidian-tasks: Task management for the Obsidian knowledge base. and the mgmeyers/obsidian-kanban: Create markdown-backed Kanban boards in Obsidian. have extended Markdown and Obsidian in ways I hadn’t thought possible.

I am not using one of the major plugins in the ecosystem: obsidian-dataview. Haven’t had the time to understand how that works.

Not sold on the whole Knowledge Management bandwagon either. I use Obsidian to write everything. I am not creating a second brain or anything like that. I am writing in it. Everything. The goal is to write. Use it as the main text editor, and manage my schedule and tasks while I am in the program. It is my one-stop-shop for all my writing. The charm of the graph-view of my notes is lost on me. Not interested in that. As you can tell, my use-case is different from the usual Obsidian evangelist.

I love the community around the product. There are new plugins and themes appearing at an astonishing rate and they enhance the experience of using Obsidian.

It is an efficient Markdown based text editor for me.

Pain Points in Obsidian

1. Non-native. Doesn’t support Services and other system features. It bugs me. Typora proves that an Electron app can support Services and other system features. Wish Obsidian caught up with that.
2. Live Preview. I am sure I don’t need that. Hiding the Markdown syntax is not something I care for.
3. Electron apps have a tendency to feel “heavy.” I don’t have a better way of describing the experience. Drafts or iA Writer have a much lighter feel to them. I miss that sometimes.

Everything Else

• Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, and Hazel all received upgrades. They are all critical to my life on macOS.
• BBEdit and Sublime Text got major version updates and they add value to the task of wrangling order into text files.
• TaskPaper provides for my outlining needs.

Looking Forward

I need a new machine. Waiting for the next generation iMacs. I will be in the market for a new machine when that is available.

Hoping and wishing you a better 2022.

Take care.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie.

Thanks to Photo by Tyler Lastovich from Pexels

QB 001: Grammarly Turns Off System Spell Checker

Grammarly for Mac turns off the system’s ability to spell check your documents. You can regain the use of the system spell checker by running the following command in the terminal:

defaults write -g NSAllowContinuousSpellChecking -bool true

Restart the applications where you need spell checking. I also deleted Grammarly from the machine. That is unacceptable behavior from an application. If you are turning off a system feature, you need to let the user know and provide explicit directions on how to get back to the original state.

Thanks to John Bennett of Information Architects for clueing me in to the solution.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie.

Note:
QB = Quick Bites