After leaving Windows many years ago, the first app I purchased was BetterSnapTool. It made the transition so much easier. And I’ve continued to use it for years.
I never upgraded to BetterTouchTool even though I heard great feedback from everyone on this forum. But truthfully, I wasn’t really looking for automations, macros, etc., I just needed simple window management.
After installing Sequoia, a friendly dialog box offered me BetterTouchTool for half-price. Now I have a ton of new options to explore.
It’s such a great app. Half the time I want to try out some functionality from another utility app, it turns out BetterTouchTool already has the feature built in.
I’ve been a long time user of both, getting BTT when it was donationware (and donating) then when BST came out, buying it as well. BST/BTT are certainly my first or second most used utility, vying only with Alfred.
Since on my iMac, my main Mac, I don’t use anything with a touch panel, BST made far more sense and was simpler. BTT saved the day when I used a Magic Mouse. Andreas’ offer implies that he may feel that he has been Sherlocked and will possibly drop BST. This would be a mistake. It’s much more flexible than Apple’s new snap feature.
BTT is incredible, when thinking in terms of desktop automation it has covered every situation I’ve thrown at it. The only issue with it is that the documentation struggles to keep up with the development pace so it’s difficult to capture the full potential without spending a lot of time in the forums.
PS: And I feel compelled to nod at its arch-rival Keyboard Maestro, another automation powerhouse.
From what people are saying here, it like nobody is using BTT for its original intent, adding (lots of) gestures to the touch devices: Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and MacBook trackpads. Although I’ve got it, I don’t use it anymore and never noticed that he added automation capabilities!
Sort of. He’s added a ton of other stuff over the years, but even within the areas you mention, BTT can do a lot. Often things competing apps can’t or don’t. For example, it can fire keyboard-based actions using the function key.
It can also do some things other apps do, but with the inputs you mentioned. For example, Keyboard Maestro and BTT can both run scripts using keyboard shortcuts, but BTT has extensive gesture options using the trackpad.
I tried BTT years ago and found it a little quirky for my needs. Then I got a StreamDeck. It absolutely transforms my StreamDeck.
Until recently, I also used it to make my TouchBar actually useful. So much so, I thought I’d miss it when I got my new laptop, but I honestly haven’t.
For example, if you place the Touché app at the bottom of the screen right above the F-keys, it’s a wonderful touchbar replacement. Instead of using the mouse, you can move your finger to the icon (or more precisely: to the F-key under the icon), very similar to the real touchbar. I find this very intuitive.
Interesting. Yes I got a new M3 Pro MacBook Pro a few months ago.
I still think the TouchBar was a superior solution to function keys. It’s the same approach as not having a hardware keyboard on the iPhone. Unfortunately it was let down by Apple never doing anything new with it for all the years it existed.
For media controls, brightness etc, I find the standard Apple keyboard to be inferior because the symbols are competing with the F labels and do not stand out. They should move the F labels into the corner (like on the fn key on the latest keyboards) and make the symbols bigger or bolder or both.
But back on topic, Andreas did with the TouchBar what Apple didn’t. He made it useful and highly configurable. One widget I had was a readout from my home weather station that, when tapped, launched the associated web page. I also had one with a list of mounted removable drives which would eject them all when tapped.
If I select a word and then press F1, the word is highlighted in yellow. Green is green (F2) and so on. When I press (and hold) ⌥, new icons for formatting appear. Instead of the yellow icon, something else appears above F1. The shortcut is then ⌥+F1. I do this with every modifier, but I don’t have to remember any shortcuts because I can see the icon, and I know what it does. The finger goes to the icon, just like with the real touchbar or a stream deck.
In the browser, short press action opens a web page in the same tab and long press in a new tab. It’s all set up with BTT. There are 1000 possibilities
I get what you are saying, but although I loved a BTT-driven TouchBar, I’ve not noticed myself really missing it since I got the new laptop. I thought I would, but experience tells otherwise.
Regarding the use of function keys as described, it does sound interesting, but you would, I presume, have to set the F-keys not to be media (etc) keys for this to work? In which case you lose those capabilities…
Until recently I was remote accessing my work Windows laptop from my Mac and one application needed them to be function keys. So I used an app called Fluor which would automatically set them to be F-keys when Citrix Workspace was the active application. If I ever wanted to turn down the volume while I was working, I simply swiped away from the desktop that contained it momentarily.
The thing with BTT and KM is that they are swiss army knives for everything, but they are not necessarily the best solution for each automation task they aspire to do.
Take, for example, Moom. BTT can basically do 99% of what it does already, but Moom gives a much more “to the point” control plane interface. (As a side note, perhaps Moom 4 is already doing a little bit too much, but that’s another story because it’s avoiding being sherlocked).
Correct. I have configured this so that I lose the “media keys”. But this can also be configured differently.
Example: If no modifier is pressed, Touché only shows a black stripe. In this case the “media keys” are active. The icons are only displayed when a modifier is pressed (eg ⌥).
So, to stay with the example from above, highlighting yellow would then not be F1, but ⌥+F1. But as I said, you don’t have to remember any shortcuts because you can see the icons.
I also include Alfred for its ML, unified window, and Universal Actions. Sometimes those features make it the best choice, even when the other two can accomplish the same/similar task.
