App: Macarte - Menu to Switch Apps
Developer: Colin Bradley
Genres: Utilities, Productivity

Macarte is a simple lightweight utility to let you simply switch between running apps by choosing one from a new menu on the Menu Bar.

Macarte is inspired by the App Switcher Menu in "Classic" versions of macOS - bringing that & more to modern macOS.

• Universal App with native support for Apple Silicon (Ready for M1 Macs)
• Dark Mode support

# How it works #

Macarte adds an icon showing the currently active app to your Mac's Menu Bar. When you click this icon, a menu appears with a few simple options:

• Hide - hide the active app
• Hide Others - hide apps other than the currently active one
• Show All - show (un-hide) all running apps

Below these is a list of running apps, with the currently active one ticked. To change which app you are using, simply choose it from the menu.


# Useful Shortcuts #

When choosing an app from the menu:
• Hold Option (⌥) so other apps are hidden as the app you chose becomes active (experimental)
• Hold Command (⌘) to reveal the chosen app in the Finder
• Hold Shift (⇧) to only bring the app's last used window to the front, instead of all of them


# All Windows to Front #

Macarte brings all the windows of an app to the front when you choose it from the menu (hold Shift (⇧) for last active window only).

An experimental option in Preferences makes all windows of an app come to front when you switch to it outside of Macarte, such as by clicking one of its windows.


# Place Macarte in the right spot #

• On macOS High Sierra (10.12) & above you can Hold the Command (⌘) key & click & drag the icon left or right to position it on the menu bar where you want it. It works best somewhere you can find easily, e.g. as far right as macOS will let you place it.


# Change Appearance #

Apps in the Menu: Icons or Not?:
• Choose whether running apps show their icons alongside their names in the menu
• Choose the size of these icons, if you opt to show them

Easily spot hidden apps in the menu:
• Optionally dim the icons of hidden apps in the menu
• Optionally dim the names of hidden apps in the menu


# Find out more about your Running Apps #

Optionally show a tooltip with varying levels of information about:
• the active app when hovering over its icon in the Menu Bar
• a running app when hovering over it in the list of running apps in the menu


# Optional Technical/Advanced Utilities #

You can optionally enable a Utility menu with a few technical utilities which can be useful.

These actions let you copy to the clipboard:
• Active App's Name - as you see it displayed to you in your language
• Active App's UNIX Path
• Active App's Process Identifier (PID)
• Active App's App-ID (Bundle ID) - the unique identifier for an app
• Active App's Executable Path - the UNIX Path to the binary executable file


# Extras #

A few extras can be found on the Extras submenu, off the Macarte submenu:

Desktop Picture (for the monitor the menu is open on, if you have more than one):
• Copy the UNIX Path to the picture file
• Reveal the picture file, by opening the folder containing it in the Finder, with the file selected


# Indie App #

Macarte has been a passion project, by an indie developer, to bring back something I used to find useful, and I think a lot of other people will too - I hope you are one of them.

It's free - give it a try, you may find it a useful addition - it doesn't replace anything, just another way to do some things which can be helpful, especially if you like using the mouse or trackpad.

I've kept Macarte light by not adding lots of features - so it will stay simple.


# Privacy #

Macarte respects your privacy:
• Doesn't require or use a network connection
• Doesn't send data anywhere
• Doesn't collect usage data or analytics
• Doesn't require Accessibility privileges

Macarte is a simple utility, which does only exactly what it appears to be doing, as it should.


Finder, macOS, High Sierra are all Copyright & TM Apple Inc.

Release notes: