The UnTouch Bar

I’ve been playing with Touché from Red Sweater Software, and I can really see a case for the TouchBar on an external Keyboard doohickey. A lot of people say the TouchBar isn’t that useful, but as a desktop user, I installed Touché and it has dramatically changed a couple of things for me.

• I never use the Emoji picker anymore. It was such a pain. Now, I just type a word, and the auto-complete usually surfaces the right emoji. (I typed “happy” to get the three smileys in the screenshot above)
• I can lock my screen with a tap. The Lock icon in the Control Strip is quick. I also have a Keyboard Maestro shortcut, and a Workflow.app trick to lock the Mac, but having all three, depending on context, is really handy.
• iTunes control is pretty sweet.
• Using the Control Strip for system things lets me keep my Keyboard in Fn Mode all the time. I know I’d lose this if a “real” TouchBar keyboard ever came out, but for now it’s pretty convenient.

Touché is free from Red Sweater’s site. Play with it.