![]() ![]() Simply find the extension you want on the Raycast Store and click to install it. Many of Raycast’s extensions are straight-forward to install. Raycast includes hooks for quickly seeing your calendar, launching Shortcuts, and more. Lorem Ipsum (adds placeholder text for design layouts).Emoji search (finds and inserts emoji or copies them).Music (control Apple Music using your keyboard).1password (open, edit your passwords from Raycast).Some of my favorite Raycast extensions include: As of this writing, there’s a strong likelihood that many of your favorite Mac apps include some form of Raycast support. The extension support for Raycast is also impressive. Raycast offers a wide variety of free and open source extensions to enhance your productivity. Raycast also lets me pin my favorite commands for quicker access, which includes some of my favorite window management settings and my upcoming calendar items. For example, Command-K on “My Schedule” lets you add an event, delete an event, copy and event and more. The Command-K options are contextual, which means they will change depending upon what you have selected. These additional options include:Ĭommand K will unlock additional options for operating on a specific selection. In Raycast, when you press Command-K, you unlock additional options for each selection. With them, I can move and organize my apps and Finder windows directly within Raycast, without the need of an additional third party application. Select an active window, invoke Raycast, and select the window position – and your window will snap to the appropriate position on your display.įor me, it has everything to do with Raycast’s robust window management tools. Raycast includes multiple window management options in a wide variety of configurations. ![]() Like Alfred, Raycast also supports Apple’s Shortcuts. For advanced users, Raycast and Alfred have hooks for users to make their own custom tools. Both apps will let you launch apps, calculate and convert units, work with text snippets, navigate your folder structure, and access your clipboard history. Raycast and Alfred’s feature sets are similar in several ways, when you equip Alfred with the optional Alfred PowerPack (approx. Raycast’s interface… …vs Alfred’s interface The big differentiators between Raycast and its competitors are the bevy of built-in tools Raycast provides right out of the box, and the extensive array of third-party Raycast plug-ins. Calculate and convert numbers, currency, weight and more.Use a custom key stroke (for example, Command-Space), and the Raycast panel appears.įrom there, you can perform any number of tasks, like the ones below. On the surface, Raycast works nearly identically to other launchers. Raycast is free for personal use, with paid tiers to unlock professional team usage. Being skeptical, I decided to give the program a try to see what all the fuss was about. More and more of my tech pals were raving about Raycast and what it offered. So, when Raycast arrived two years ago, I really didn’t give it any thought. It also handles window management, Apple Shortcuts, and much more.Īs a long-time Alfred user, I was more than content with its overall performance and capabilities. By all accounts, the existing tools were enough to satisfy most Mac users.Īnd then, from seemingly nowhere, Raycast arrived… Raycast can launch applications. Even Apple’s own Spotlight, in its modern form, was heavily influenced by these launchers. A few years later, Launchbar and Alfred arrived on the scene and paved the way for power users, by way of adding scripting hooks and extension support. The launcher revolution on the Mac kicked off in 2003, with an app called QuickSilver. This may sound familiar if you’ve used Spotlight (Cmd + Space) in macOS. Type the first few letters of the app you want to use, and the launcher cues it up. At its most basic level, here’s how it works: press a custom keystroke, and the launcher’s panel appears. Launchers are not a new concept on the Mac they’ve been around for 20 years. These keyboard-driven utilities can save you a tremendous amount of time by helping you perform common tasks quickly, whether it’s launching apps, finding files, or searching the web. When it comes to boosting productivity on your Mac, look no further than using a launcher app. Raycast is a Mac launcher app on steroids ![]()
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