Review: Speedy Mac offers another way to organize your Mac

Posted by Rick Prather Nov 26, 2008 at 6:39pm

Altomac’s Speedy Mac is a Mac OS X utility that offers another way to organize your Mac.

“Speedy Mac offers a totally new approach for organizing frequently-used documents. It allows users to quickly access documents, folders, sites, applications and tasks by organizing them into a handy menu. Favorites and recently used documents are automatically classified into groups according to the application that was used to open them, and web pages are conveniently grouped by site.”

“Among one of Speedy Mac’s most prolific features is its editable Task Menu. Create just about anything imaginable. Easily hide or quit all running applications at once, create a new folder establishing name and location, eject all removable and external disks, and more. And users can automate the most repetitive tasks by using AppleScript files and Automator workflows too. Easily create new tasks in minutes just by using Automator or Script Editor. Users no longer have to look for the scripts and actions they need. Just add them to Speedy Mac’s task list and run them at any time.”

“Version 3 now sports multiple text Clipboard capability. Just choose the needed text item from the Recent Clipboard menu and it is ready to use from the System Clipboard, ready to paste. For frequently needed text phrases, simply add them to Favorites, and use the handy Favorites Clipboard Menu to quickly copy them into the Clipboard, ready paste anywhere. Perfect for using multiple text phrases over and over.”

If there’s one thing I have learned after several years of being active on the MacOSG.com forum it is that if you take 200 users you may not find any two that work on their Mac’s the same way!

For my part, I tend to stay very close to using OSX “natively”. I open apps from the dock or Spotlight, I do my file manipulating within Finder, etc. I have even gotten away from my old friend Quicksilver.

With that in mind I was curious about how Speedy Mac might change the way I get around my iMac.

I found that it does everything they claim for it. It does organize your recent usage and favorites in handy related categories and it saves your recent clipboards ready for later use.

Will I keep using it? I doubt it since I am pretty set in my current usage. For example it has the nifty tasks section where you can quickly do such tasks as “Quit All Applications.” It works well but I prefer to use (Option/Tab) “Q” to quickly step through my open apps and close them. I like being able to make a final decision on each and don’t find that takes me more than a few seconds.

However, you may find the tasks section a great place for Apple scripts or Automator work flows you use. Another function of Speedy Mac that I see a good use for is the clipboard saver but there are other ways to do that depending on what software you use.

Do I recommend Speedy Mac? Depends! Depends on your work style and what utilities you may already be using. As I said, everyone seems to have their own favorite set of utilities and ways to get things done.

I recommend though, that you download the 30 day fully functional version and try it out for the full time. You may find that it helps you organize your routine in ways that suit you. If you find it indispensable, it’s only US$25.

Macsimum rating: 7 out of 10

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