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Roman's notes

Menu bar and clipboard

Apps for managing the macOS menu bar, controlling window layout, tracking clipboard history, and running quick actions on selected text.

Section titled “Menu bar and windows”
  • Supercharge — collection of macOS menu bar enhancements and productivity tweaks by Sindre Sorhus
  • Vanilla — hides menu bar icons to reduce clutter
  • Ice — open-source menu bar manager with hiding, section grouping, and custom icon support
  • KeepingYouAwake — menu bar app that prevents macOS from sleeping on demand
  • Rectangle — window snapping and resizing via keyboard shortcuts or drag-to-edge
  • LeaderKey — open-source launcher that chains keyboard shortcuts for launching apps and running scripts
  • Vorssaint — free open-source menu bar app bundling audio mixing, system monitoring, window snapping, clipboard history and text expansion in one icon (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+)

Clipboard managers

Section titled “Clipboard managers”
  • Maccy — lightweight open-source clipboard history manager with search
  • ClipBook — plain-text-only clipboard history with a clean interface
  • PasteBar — clipboard manager with pinned items, collections, and history search
  • Paste — clipboard history manager with iCloud sync and visual layout
  • Supaste — local-first clipboard and screenshot history manager (macOS Sonoma+); search by app or content type, automatic grouping, sensitive content detection, drag-and-drop from notch shelf; supports text, links, images, files, code, colors, SVG and screenshots; one-time payment, no cloud sync

Text selection actions

Section titled “Text selection actions”

PopClip-style tools that show an action bar for selected text in any app — copy, transform, translate, search, run scripts or send to AI. All of them need the macOS Accessibility permission.

  • PopClip — the original selection action bar, developed since 2011 by Pilotmoon Software (macOS 13.5+); appears automatically on text selection; large extension directory with actions in JavaScript/TypeScript, AppleScript or shell, plus no-code URL, key press, Service and Shortcut actions; simple extensions install by selecting a #popclip text snippet
  • OpenClip — free open-source PopClip alternative (AGPL-3.0, macOS 14+, brew install openclip); extension store and custom extensions in JavaScript, shell, AppleScript or URL schemes; a shortcut opens a searchable list of actions; optional AI via local Ollama, Apple Intelligence or OpenAI/Anthropic keys; no account or telemetry
  • ActionClip — native Swift menu-bar app bringing the iPhone text selection menu to the Mac (macOS 15+); built-in actions with pinning, grouping and context-based suggestions; custom actions as JavaScript transforms, AI prompts, shell, AppleScript, URLs or multi-step workflows, generated from a plain-language description by an AI action builder; AI via on-device Apple Intelligence, Ollama or own API keys (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter, Perplexity)
  • SwiftBiu — floating toolbar for text and files (macOS 12+, Windows preview); JavaScript plugins and HTML/CSS/JS web extensions, local OCR, file conversion, clipboard history, gestures and per-app rules; the Mac App Store build limits shell and AppleScript actions due to sandboxing
  • Selected — open-source (GPL-3.0) menu bar toolbar for selected text (macOS 15+); search, translate, speak, open links and addresses, inline calculator; quick input panel when nothing is selected, optional clipboard history; YAML-defined plugins with URL, AI prompt and command actions; AI through an OpenAI key or custom model identifier
  • TextGO — open-source (GPL-3.0) cross-platform text tool for macOS and Windows built with Tauri; recognizes the type of selected text and runs matching actions; separate rules for hotkey, double-click and drag-select triggers; toolbar or instant execution mode; extensible with regex, ML models, scripts and local or cloud AI; unsigned on macOS, so Accessibility permission must be re-granted after updates
  • OnText — keyboard-first alternative (macOS 13+); no automatic popup — select text, press the trigger shortcut (F2 by default), then hit the action’s assigned key; URL, shell, AppleScript and Shortcuts actions with regex context rules; AI via ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini keys, or local Ollama models
  • Glyphlow — open-source (MIT), purely keyboard-driven take on PopClip; selects text via hint keys from UI elements or VisionKit OCR, including text that cannot be selected with a mouse (buttons, games); can edit text fields in an external editor and sync the result back