Best cross-platform note taking app

Stream Deck has always been a favorite of Mac users, and they have been in automation for some time now, but the usefulness of the device has grown substantially for several reasons. First, you can use Stream Deck to run Shortcuts to extend the equipment to a whole new field of automation.

Second, Stream Deck opens up a new way to achieve all automation on the Mac, which is not possible with any single Mac application, allowing you to mix and match different types of automation in one interface. This is a powerful combination that unlocks the ability to organize the automation tools you use to adapt to your way of thinking and working.

To get you started, I will introduce:

Let's learn more.

Stream Deck is a simple device. It is just a physical button panel, each button has a customizable micro LCD display. The device is connected to your Mac via USB and used as a button controller for your apps and automation, you can use the Stream Deck app to set it up. The application is also very simple, but powerful in various operations, it allows you to connect to the buttons of the Stream Deck.

There are four models of Stream Deck, one with 6 buttons, two with 15 buttons, and a 32-button model with prices ranging from US$80 to US$250. As I will explain in detail below, Stream Deck supports folders, pages, and configuration files, which means that even smaller models can support more operations than buttons. In other words, I have been using the 32-button Stream Deck XL for the past two years and appreciate its expansive interface, which requires less operation management and navigation than smaller models.

Before going further, it is necessary to check the hardware and software of Stream Deck more closely. In general, Stream Deck works well, but compared to similar devices, I don't like its design. The Stream Deck sits firmly on the table, but it feels cheap for relatively expensive accessories. The device has a USB-C port on the back, but it comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable, if you use it with many recent Macs, you will need an adapter or a replacement cable.

The reflection on the button can distort the icon and may be distracting.

I also don't like the buttons of the Stream Deck. They are large, thick and concave, and they are also plastic. The experience of pressing the Stream Deck button has been mixed. Because they are concave, it is easy to find the button you want without having to focus on the device itself. If you use Stream Deck to implement its design: streaming video, that's even better. In reality, however, these buttons are mushy when pressed and feel cheap, and their curved, shiny surfaces can distort the icons that shine through them. Glossy buttons also capture and reflect light in a distracting way, sometimes making the icon more difficult to see.

This app will certainly not win any design awards.

The software used to set up the device is not very good either. It is built with something called Qt Toolkit, which is a cross-platform development tool that I have never encountered before. It’s not uncommon for cross-platform accessories like Stream Deck to use such a solution in their setup app, I usually don’t mind, because once set up, you don’t need to use the app anymore, but there are two things bothering me. First of all, when you use Command-Tab between applications, the application does not show up, which I often do. I solved this problem by adding a button to the Stream Deck, the button is dedicated to show my application, but I should not waste a button.

Second, if you start using Stream Deck to set up a lot of automation, you will find yourself returning to its app over and over again, which is different from other accessory apps. I'm used to it, but the application's interaction is a bit different from Mac conventions, which makes it harder to use than it should be.

Nevertheless, Stream Deck is still a powerful tool for Mac users, and it is worth weighing in personally. However, it is also worth noting that there are alternative devices like Loupedeck Live that can do everything that Stream Deck can do, and there are more different trade-offs, which I will briefly introduce at the end of this story.

The first page of my Stream Deck includes various shortcuts, links to other pages and folders, and the websites I use every day.

The first thing to remember about Stream Deck is that it is essentially a button macro machine. Press a button and it will trigger one action or multiple actions in a row. This is a relatively simple setup, and the complexity lies not in the equipment, but in the automation associated with the buttons.

Secondly, the construction of Stream Deck considers video streaming media. If you use it as a productivity and automation tool, you will use a small part of the options available in the Stream Deck app. This is good news, because once you understand some of the actions required to automate, you can ignore the rest.

Most of the operations you need are located in two sections of the sidebar of the Stream Deck app.

For automation, the Stream Deck triggers you use most often are:

This is a simple but powerful set of building blocks that can be used with keyboard shortcuts, URL schemes, and other familiar automation tools. This provides Stream Deck with many possibilities to use existing automation tools, such as BetterTouchTool, Keyboard Maestro, Brett Terpstra’s plain text launcher Bunch and various scripting tools, but I will focus on Stream Deck’s latest and most powerful Integration options: shortcuts.

Use simple "Hello World" shortcuts to test multiple ways to run shortcuts from Stream Deck.

The multiple options for running shortcuts from Stream Deck make the two a wonderful pairing. Diversity provides the flexibility of a workflow tailored to your specific needs and shortcut types, which I like. Let's take a look at the three scenarios I found most useful for Mac shortcuts, using a simple "Hello World" shortcut to display the "Hello World!" alert. When it runs.

Use the Open operation of the Stream Deck to trigger the shortcut.

The shortcut can become a Dock item on the Mac. After opening the shortcut in the editor, go to the "File" menu and select "Add to Dock". This provides a way to easily access shortcuts from the Mac’s Dock, but this is not something you want to do with dozens of shortcuts, because it will quickly overwhelm your Dock. However, there is a trick to make Dock projects very suitable for Stream Deck.

Who knows why, but the only way to add a shortcut to the Dock is from the file menu.

After creating the Dock project, drag it out of the Dock. Next, drag the Open operation from the System section of the Stream Deck application to one of the buttons in the application UI. Next to the Application/File field, click Choose, and then search for your shortcut. You will find any shortcuts you add to the Dock, whether you drag them out of the Dock later, are in the Applications folder under your Mac user name. For me, this is Users/johnvoorhees/Applications, which is different from the Applications folder where macOS installs apps by default. Select your shortcut and it will be added to the "Application/File" field of the Stream Deck application.

If you drag the shortcut out of the Dock, it can still be used in the Applications folder under your username.

Next, name the button you created and choose an icon. By default, the icon will be the icon you selected in the shortcut, but you are not limited to this. The Stream Deck comes with a series of bad built-in icons, or you can use third-party icons, such as the massive collection created by Silvia Gatta for MacStories Pixel, which I use for many of the buttons of my Stream Deck.

The saved AppleScript file is another way to use Stream Deck to trigger shortcuts.

The Open action of Stream Deck can also be used to trigger AppleScript, which supports running shortcuts. This eliminates the need to convert shortcuts to Dock items or set them as service menu items, which I will explain below. Just save your script locally and point the open operation to the script file to run it. This is an AppleScript example that runs my simple Hello World shortcut:

There is also a third-party plug-in for Stream Deck that can run AppleScript, but I prefer to use the Open action method, which I find is the most reliable method.

Everything here is its. What I like about the Open operation is that it shows how easy it is to incorporate Stream Deck into your workflow. It does not add any meaningful complexity to the process. Another benefit of using the open operation is that your shortcut will run regardless of whether the shortcut application is open or not.

If you assign a shortcut key, you can also use its keyboard shortcut to trigger the shortcut key.

The other two operations you can find in the system operation set of the Stream Deck app are hotkeys and hotkey switching, they are very similar. Hotkey triggers keyboard shortcuts, and Hotkey Switch is a toggle switch that can trigger two different keyboard shortcuts when pressed repeatedly. If you have shortcuts or other operations with two states, hotkey switching is a good choice. For example, you can set a button to trigger the Timery timer when it is first pressed, and stop the timer when it is pressed again.

The key to using any operation of the Mac version of the shortcut is to select the check boxes that display "Use as Quick Action" and "Service Menu" in the "Details" panel of the shortcut. Then, assign a global keyboard shortcut to your shortcut.

You can assign global keyboard shortcuts to shortcuts here.

Next, in the Stream Deck application, drag the hotkey or hotkey switching operation to the button in the application UI, and add the keyboard shortcut of your shortcut to the hotkey field. If you have a keyboard shortcut that prevents adding key combinations to the Stream Deck app, you can press one key at a time to add them to the Stream Deck app, which is a nice touch. If you are using hotkey switching, you can also add a second keyboard shortcut for a different shortcut. Finally, name your operation, add an icon, and you are done.

Just like the shortcut you add as a Dock project or run with a saved AppleScript, this method will run your shortcut regardless of whether the shortcut application is open or not.

The URL scheme is also applicable to Shortcuts and Stream Deck.

You can also use URL schemes to trigger shortcuts on your Mac. Apple’s Shortcut User Guide has a good section that explains how URL schemes work with shortcuts, and it’s worth reading to understand the options available to you.

To run the Hello World shortcut that does not require any input, the URL is as follows: shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=Hello World. The only trick here is to ensure that the title of the shortcut is URL-encoded correctly to accommodate characters such as spaces, that is, the "" bit in the URL above.

My office light uses HomeControl's URL scheme instead of the Home application to run automatically, and I found it to be unreliable during the Monterey beta.

The drilling in the Stream Deck is the same as the above two options. Drag the "Website" action from the "System" section of the Stream Deck app onto a button, then paste your URL into the URL field, name the button, and select an icon.

The difference between this method of triggering shortcuts and the other methods above is that the URL will open the shortcut application before running. Therefore, for most shortcuts, this is not my first choice. However, because the shortcut URL scheme can accept input such as clipboard and text, it is worth keeping this method in mind for some shortcuts.

Finally, you will find Stream Deck's Multi-Action and Multi-Action Switch in the Stream Deck section of its app. This is a powerful option that allows you to link together multiple actions triggered by pressing a single button. For example, you can use multiple hotkey actions to trigger multiple keyboard shortcuts one after another, or you can combine open, website, and hotkey actions to trigger shortcuts and those that you create in other applications that you may not be able to use Automation is easily done in shortcuts. Like Hotkey Switch, Multi-Action Switch allows you to assign two automations to the same button, switching between them each time you press it.

I want to start this section with a suggestion: Don’t just dump all shortcuts onto the Stream Deck. You will end up in a mess that you can do without the Stream Deck that the Shortcuts app cannot. Instead, add shortcuts as you use them, and modify the layout of your Stream Deck as your needs grow and change. The Stream Deck app provides a lot of tools to change its layout, so you don't need to determine everything in advance.

Shortcuts' organization tools are basic.

The shortcuts of Mac organization tools are very simple. You have some colors and icons to choose from to identify your shortcuts, and in the sidebar there is a single-level folder structure for organizing them into categories.

I have pages for every major area of ​​my work.

With Stream Deck, you can add the concept of buttons, folders, and profile pages as a way to organize automation. Folders and pages provide the layered and horizontal organization you expect. Add a page to the bottom of the button UI of the Stream Deck app, and an arrow will appear on your Stream Deck button to take you to that page. Adding folders allows you to drill down multiple levels and create a tree structure below any page full of buttons. However, the page is not available in the folder.

I have activated a folder and I am creating a button for my saved Timery timer.

One option is to organize your Stream Deck into folders similar to the structure you created in the Shortcuts app. This method has familiar advantages, but it ignores the advantages of Stream Deck, it can do more than just run shortcuts. Instead, I have set my Stream Deck to be task-oriented. The top row contains pages for major types of work: writing, podcasting, Club MacStories, and management. Each page contains shortcuts, websites, applications, and other automated buttons that I use for these areas of work. There is also a folder on each page that takes me to a series of saved Timery timers, and I like to visually separate them from other operations.

With Stream Deck XL, the repeat button is a luxury I can afford, which comes in handy when an action is related to multiple contexts. Just right-click an action, copy it, and paste it into another page or folder, and it can also be used there. From the screenshots, you can see that I have used this method for the button to stop my current Timery timer on any screen and in some applications that I use in multiple contexts.

I also started to use configuration files. Think of these as application-centric button pages. When you switch to the application, these buttons will automatically open. Unlike folders, configuration files also have the advantage of accessing multiple pages.

For example, I have an Obsidian profile. Every time I switch to the app, the display of my Stream Deck switches to that profile and a set of unique buttons that trigger keyboard shortcuts for the Obsidian function. Configuration files are very suitable for this type of application because there are many customizable keyboard shortcuts available. Instead of learning them all, I assigned the ones I use most to Stream Deck and only see them when I use the app, which reduces the clutter of task-based pages. In addition, even if your Stream Deck is switched to an application-centric profile, you can easily switch to another profile when needed.

Stream Deck is very popular in the field of automation, but it is not your only choice. I spent a lot of time using Loupedeck Live, which can do everything that Stream Deck can do, but has a more application-centric and task-specific approach. The advantages of Loupedeck Live include:

Loupedeck Live's photos are better than Stream Deck for a reason-it's better.

The main disadvantage of Loupedeck Live (and its brother Loupedeck CT) is that it is more expensive than Stream Deck and there is no cheaper option than Stream Deck XL, which is the most expensive Stream Deck.

If you are interested in learning more about the device, I have conducted an extensive review and follow-up on how I use Loupedeck Live for Club MacStories and Club Premier members. In general, I prefer to use Loupedeck Live compared to Stream Deck, but for most of my use cases, the functional difference is largely a toss.

My Stream Deck setup is largely a work in progress, and I hope it will always be so, it doesn’t matter. Our way of working has evolved over time, and the power of Stream Deck lies in its ability to adapt to your workflow. Before Mac shortcuts, my Stream Deck settings looked very different, and I expect it to change significantly as I build more Mac-specific shortcuts.

2021 is an interesting year. My daily work has not undergone substantial changes, but my working methods have undergone great changes. Between Mac shortcuts and MacStories changes, I am rethinking many of my ways of working. I want to create a set of shortcuts and other workflows that have a real impact on my work. The flexibility of Stream Deck opens up new ways to organize automation and trigger them, which is great, but it is only as useful as the automation associated with it. Therefore, I am not in a hurry to fill it with buttons. Instead, I have been on hold all week because I am working on certain projects to consider whether and how Stream Deck can help.

Stream Deck highlights one of the most unique and powerful aspects of Mac shortcuts, namely that shortcuts can be triggered in a variety of ways. Stream Deck is just one of many options, which is why, when I build new Mac shortcuts in the coming weeks and months and share them with club members here, I will also share how I trigger them and how they are The location fits my overall workflow, starting with this week’s MacStories Weekly, where I will expand on this story to outline the shortcuts and other automations I currently use on Stream Deck.

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John, the editor-in-chief of MacStories, has been writing articles about Apple and apps since joining the team in 2015. He also co-hosts MacStories podcasts, including AppStories exploring the world of apps, MacStories Unwind, reviewing all the content of MacStories every week, etc., as well as MacStories Unplugged, a behind-the-scenes show dedicated to Club MacStories members.

Twitter: @johnvoorhees | Email: voorhees@macstories.net