Anybody who’s used a Mac for years understands the worth of Highlight search, as it could rapidly allow you to search by means of your Mac, electronic mail, apps, and system settings. However if you wish to take issues to the subsequent degree, try Raycast — a robust Highlight different that goes past easy search.
From setting reminders and monitoring flights to operating Terminal instructions and discovering recordsdata, Raycast is constructed for velocity and effectivity. It truly is a Swiss Military knife in your Mac. Right here’s how I exploit it to supercharge my productiveness on the Mac.
Raycast on Mac: Why this search device is underrated
Raycast is fingers down the most-used app on my Mac, and I launch it greater than 100 instances a day. You need to use Raycast to provoke a Google Search, run a Terminal command, search by means of your 1Password vault, check your web velocity — and even discover one of the best emojis. And that is earlier than contemplating among the best options of Raycast: AI integration. It allows you to get AI-powered solutions instantly from inside Raycast.
Consider Raycast like Highlight on steroids with limitless customization choices and integration. It connects with instruments like Slack, Shortcuts, your password supervisor, Apple Music and far more, providing you with immediate entry to key options with out ever opening the apps. As if that’s not sufficient, Raycast may even act as a window supervisor in your Mac.
Desk of contents: Use Raycast on Mac to spice up your productiveness
Management system settings
Shows seems proper on the prime. A fast press of Enter, and I’m immediately the place I should be.
Equally, if I have to open a brand new Finder window, I press Cmd+House to deliver up Raycast, kind “Finder,” and press Enter. There’s no restrict to what settings I can leap into with Raycast: Sound, Boot Camp Assistant, Bluetooth — you may instantly navigate to all of them.
Even higher, I exploit Raycast to immediately put my Mac to sleep or flip off its shows. Simply open Raycast and kind “Sleep” or “Sleep shows,” and hit Enter — it’s that fast. With fuzzy search and an algorithm that learns your utilization, you received’t have to kind the total command after only a few makes use of.
Shortly view your calendar schedule
Screenshot: Rajesh Pandey/CultOfMac
With Raycast’s My Schedule command, you may view your upcoming conferences and calendar entries with out opening the Calendar app. You may even search by means of your calendar conferences.
Should you rely in your calendar to remain organized, rapidly accessing your appointments by means of Raycast generally is a game-changer. It’s also possible to use Raycast’s Ask Calendar AI extension to hurry up this course of additional.
Use Raycast on Mac to seek for recordsdata in Google Drive
Screenshot: Rajesh Pandey/CultOfMac
I closely use Google Drive to retailer recordsdata, work with paperwork, sheets, and so forth. Resulting from this, I would like to go looking by means of recordsdata saved on my Drive a number of instances every day. Raycast’s Google Workspace extension makes the complete course of seamless. I open Raycast, kind the alias I’ve set for Google Drive search, and enter the file identify. The outcomes immediately seem throughout the launcher window. Hitting Enter on the specified file immediately opens it in a brand new browser tab.
Equally, I can create a brand new Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides presentation instantly from inside Raycast, considerably rushing up my workflow.
Like Highlight, you too can use Raycast to go looking by means of recordsdata regionally saved in your Mac. I’ve mapped this performance to the “fs” alias. So, I deliver up Raycast, kind “fs” adopted by the file identify to seek for it.
Calculator with a historical past
Screenshot: Rajesh Pandey/CultOfMac
Like Highlight, Raycast helps you to carry out fast calculations — however it goes additional with built-in assist for timezone and foreign money conversions. Enter the time and time zone you need to convert, and Raycast will immediately show the corresponding time in your native zone. To transform time between zones, lengthen your command. For instance, typing “8AM PST to ET” will immediate Raycast to indicate the proper conversion immediately.
Likewise, enter any foreign money, and Raycast will robotically present the transformed worth in your native foreign money. You may additional lengthen your command to view the conversion between two totally different currencies.
Extra importantly, Raycast shops a historical past of all of your calculations, so you may simply entry them when wanted. Kind Clipboard historical past or arrange an alias or keyboard shortcut to rapidly view your previous calculations.
A greater emoji picker
macOS features a hidden emoji panel that makes it simple to search out and insert the right emoji to precise your self. You may deliver up the emoji picker by assigning it to the Fn key or hitting ⌃⌘House (Ctrl Command House) on the keyboard.
Raycast’s emoji picker works equally however provides additional perks: You may seek for emojis by identify and even by coloration. Extra importantly, you may pin your favourite emoji utilizing the Cmd Shift P shortcut for fast entry. Different choices embrace having the ability to copy all emojis from a piece, setting a default pores and skin tone, and copying an emoji’s Unicode.
On my Mac, I configured the Raycast emoji picker to make use of the identical shortcut because the macOS default, making the swap seamless.
An excellent Clipboard supervisor
Screenshot: Rajesh Pandey/CultOfMac
There’s no dearth of clipboard managers for Mac. Raycast may act as a clipboard supervisor, full with assist for snippets. This is without doubt one of the most used Raycast options for me, as I copy content material quite a few instances every day. I’ve additionally arrange snippets with variables, saving precious time.
To make full use of Raycast’s clipboard administration capabilities, assign a devoted shortcut to it — I exploit Cmd Shift X. This permits me to rapidly deliver up a historical past of all of the gadgets I beforehand copied, together with photos. It’s additionally doable to go looking by means of your clipboard historical past, with filters for textual content, photos, hyperlinks, recordsdata, and colours to assist slim down the outcomes.
Use the Cmd Shift P keyboard shortcut to rapidly pin a copied merchandise to the highest of your clipboard. To save lots of a clipboard merchandise as a snippet, use the Cmd P shortcut.
Make certain to allow the Clipboard Historical past extension in Raycast earlier than utilizing it as a clipboard supervisor. The app shops clipboard content material for as much as three months (it’s encrypted, making certain there’s no privateness danger).
Raycast on Mac: Higher Focus
Screenshot: Rajesh Pandey/CultOfMac
Raycast Focus takes macOS’ Focus modes to a unique degree altogether. I’ve a spotlight setup with writing because the aim that blocks distractions from Telegram, WhatsApp, and different apps for quarter-hour. This helps me concentrate on my work and cut back distractions, boosting my productiveness.
Sure, you may obtain the identical outcomes with built-in Focus modes on the Mac. However Raycast Focus stands out with its ease of use and how one can rapidly set off it. It additionally encompasses a floating focus bar that reveals the remaining time, retaining you motivated to remain on monitor. The most effective half? Raycast Focus can block web sites throughout a spotlight, all with no plugin.
As soon as a spotlight session ends, your Mac’s display screen will glow inexperienced as a visible cue.
Raycast on Mac: A Swiss Military knife to supercharge productiveness
This barely scratches the floor of what I do with Raycast.
As soon as you put in Raycast, I extremely advocate spending a while exploring its options to see how one can combine it into your workflow. Even after utilizing Raycast for months, I proceed to uncover new methods it boosts my productiveness on the Mac.
Earlier than you begin utilizing Raycast, I strongly advocate that you just assign the Mac’s default Highlight keyboard command (Cmd Spacebar) to it. (Go to System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts and choose Highlight from the record of choices on the left-hand aspect).
The most effective half? Raycast is free to obtain and use. You solely want the $8/month or $16/month Professional plans if you would like entry to Raycast AI, Cloud Sync, customized window administration, limitless clipboard historical past, and customized themes.
Value: Free; Raycast Professional prices $8 per 30 days; Professional + Superior AI prices $16 per 30 days
Obtain from: Mac App Retailer
