Apple mac geektool how to#
Apple mac geektool for mac os#
Apple mac geektool android#
Apple mac geektool free#

However it’s extremely useful for placing urgent items onto your desktop in my instance, or others have simply used it as a method of creating intelligent and attractive graphics for their desktop to improve on simply having a picture. I personally don’t think GeekTool is as powerful-a-tool as Rainmeter, namely because of the lack of interactivity. On top of that you can set the refresh rate for any item on the desktop, so perhaps for a date you have on the desktop, you’d want it refreshing once per day, whereas a clock you’d want much more regularly if it’s going to keep up with your watch. This requires an extra add-on called iCalBuddy, which then allows you to enter a short script into a shell and be on your way.Īny script, image or file you enter can be resized and modified, and any text entries can be customized too, including the basic adaptations of font size, color etc. I used an application called ‘Things’ for a while, to manage my to-do items, which itself features the ability to sync with iCal, so this was particularly useful for me.

Apple mac geektool android#

Some of my favorites, in a similar fashion to Rainmeter as I tend to keep my tools similar to both operating systems to perform the tasks I do on a daily basis, include the ability to keep a check of mail on the desktop, get a clock, date and weather feed to essentially take the place and do the job of a widget, which Android users might be accustomed to.Ī more interesting use of GeekTool, though, and one that was sought after by the loyal community of geeks long before its actual creation, is the ability to put iCal events, to-do items and such onto the desktop.

Apple mac geektool free#

ExamplesĪs I said, there are many thousands of scripts out there at your disposal, most of which, if not all, are free to consume as you wish. Advanced users of the Macintosh, familiar with the Terminal, will be quite adept at using commands to perform certain tasks, and many of these scripts can be translated into objects on the desktop. This is essentially a place for you to write scripts, or downloaded them from the huge library of pre-written commands and place them on the desktop. ‘Shell’ is where it gets a little interesting. It allows you to place any plain text file stored on your hard drive on the desktop, making this the perfect tool if you use an application called ‘TaskPaper’ or anything equivalent to keep track of your to-do items, which can be kept up to date on the desktop, rather than stashed within an app that you may forget to check. ‘File’ is also plain as day once you know what you’re doing. I would imagine that ‘image’ is quite self-explanatory, it simply allows you to locate a graphic or photo on your local drive or via a URL and pulls it to your desktop, where you can resize it and move it into position. GeekTool allows for the application of three different types of object, simply by dragging them from the central pane shown below, onto the desktop, which in turn brings up a pane you can use for modifying the objects and locating files and folders.Īs you can see, the three options are ‘file’, ‘image’, and ‘shell.

Apple mac geektool how to#

The app as a whole is quite minimalist, but there are many features which offer a great deal of flexibility if you take the time to learn how to do it properly, and/or scour the libraries online for inspiration and the tools you need. The free application sits in either your dock, menubar, or both when in use, and consists of a simple few panes to help you tailor the tools to your tastes. This makes it great for certain things, such as basic graphics and feeds, but unfortunately, unlike Rainmeter, it doesn’t allow for objects such as icons to be implemented. It allows you to add certain objects to a static ‘wallpaper’ environment which can be viewed, but not interacted with.

Apple mac geektool for mac os#

In case you haven’t picked it up already, GeekTool is essentially a desktop customization tool for Mac OS X. GeekTool, while the name suggests it’s specifically aimed at the stereotypically acne-ridden, large-spectacled nerd community, can actually be useful for tool for anyone using a Mac, and offers a great many features to help you get things done and make things… pretty. Unfortunately, Rainmeter doesn’t exist for Mac OS X, but there is an application built on a similar, if not identical, concept that’s extremely popular in the Mac community. You may have caught our guide to Rainmeter last week, and gazed in amazement as you witnessed some of the biggest and most useful desktop transformations you can make to a desktop on Windows.