In this section of MacMenuBar.com I post – on a regular basis – short interviews with MacOS users about which apps they use on their menu bar, and why. This time: Todd Olthoff.
Tell us about yourself
I am currently serving as a Pastor of Pastoral Care at Saddleback Church in Southern California. I also am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and have a small private practice. In addition to that I do screencasts both personally on my YouTube Channel, my website, and with ScreenCastsOnline. I have been a Mac hobbyist since I was a teen, when my dad brought home our first Apple computer an Apple II.
What is your current laptop / desktop?
My current set up is an iMac 27 inch 5K from 2017 which I have connected to an LG 27 inch 4K monitor to extend the desktop. I also have an older MacBook Pro which I hardly use anymore because I am now able to use my iPad Pro 2018 as my mobile driver.
I also have two Mac mini’s, one I use to run Homebridge for some of my home automation devices that don’t natively work with HomeKit and the other I use for testing software.
What menu bar apps do you use and for what do you use them?
I use the following menu bar apps in addition to the standard ones like clock, wifi, airplay, search and bluetooth:
1. Drobo Dashboard: I use this app to monitor my Drobo and get quick assess to the tools I need to manage it.
2. Hazel: Hazel is one of my favorite automation applications. It is in charge of monitoring certain folders and moving documents through a process of OCR, Name, and filing documents in Devonthink databases. It is indispensable to my filing workflow.
3. Textexpander: I use Textexpander for regular emails and emails where I have attachments I send over and over again for my private practice.
4. iStat Menus: I use this application to monitor my disk usage, memory, network traffic and CPU use. It is a great way to monitor your Mac!
5. Fantastical: I prefer using Fantasical for my calendaring as I love the layout and quick access. The menubar app is perfect for quick access to my calendar and quickly setting up appointments.
6. Keyboard Maestro: I use Keyboard Maestro for a number of things like Screencast set ups and also for moving files out of my Devonthink Pro inbox into the file processing I covered with Hazel.
7. Transmit & Forklift: I have both of these file transfer application running at the moment as I am experimenting with which one will cover my needs and live permanently in my menubar!
8. Little Snitch: This application is on of the best security applications on the Mac. I monitor incoming and outgoing traffic on my Mac with the red upload and green download bars. Hovering over this menubar item brings up all of the processes that are running and looking for access on my network.
9. Expandrive: This menubar application gives me quick access to all my cloud shares that this application automatically mounts on restart like google drive, dropbox, box, etc.
10. Screenflow: I leave screen flow running in the background as one of the things I do on my Mac is screencast. This application give me the option to start a screencast or set up the screencast without first having the application open.
11. Backblaze: I use Backblaze for my online back up. This app gives me a quick update on whether it is all up to date or still uploading new files to my online back up.
12. Cardhop: My favorite contacts application lives in the menubar and gives me quick access to my contacts.
13. Screens Connect: This is the application that comes with Screens which is a Screensharing application that allows me to remotely connect to my Mac for Screensharing.
14. Houdahspot: From time to time I can’t seem to find a file and HoudahSpot is one of the most advanced search applications on the Mac which I turn to in those moments.
15. Malwarebytes: I run Malwarebytes mainly because I have a free subscription with my subscription to Eero Plus. So far I haven’t had any issues but it’s nice to know this is running just in case.
16. CleanMyMac X: This menubar application is part of the main CleanMyMac X application and shows me similar stats to iStat Menus with the one addition that it shows me when applications are not responding so I can force quit them if needed and monitors my trash if it gets to big and needs to emptied.
17. Dropbox: This is the menubar application included with dropbox. It comes in handy when I am uploading things and want to see how far along they are or how long it will take to finish.
18. Plex Media Server: This is the menubar application for my Plex server which I use to view my media on all my devices.
19. Chronosync: I use Chronosync to perform backups of important files and the cloning of my Mac so I can be up and running in a hurry should I have a drive failure.
20. Default Folder X: This application gives a great overlay to save dialogues giving you more detailed access to all of your folders for saving items to just the right place. It also gives me quick access to any folders I have on my Mac.
21. Adobe Creative Cloud: I have a photographers subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud which includes Photoshop and Lightroom. This app gives quick access to my account including the applications, updates, tutorials, and cloud storage.
22. Screens: This is a quick access menubar items for Screens app by Edovia which handles my Screensharing across my various devices and is a companion application fo Screens Connect which I covered in #13 above.
23. Pathfinder: I use Pathfinder at times to have dual pane views of the finder and give another way to manage my files. This menubar application gives quick access to some of the features in Pathfinder.
24. Drafts for Mac: I use Drafts on my iOS devices for quick notes and bits of text that I want to process later. There is a new application for the Mac which keeps everything in sync and it lives in the menubar.
25. 1Password: This application is one of those that I instantly install on every new Mac I get. All of my passwords, important records, notes, license keys, etc. live in this app and having it in the menubar as well as in an application or in my web browser makes it easy to access which is good because I use it a lot!
Is there a menu bar app that doesn’t exist yet and should be invented?
I thought it would be good to add devices you have plugged into your Mac to show up in the menu bar for mentoring syncing and such instead of having to launch iTunes all the time. Looks like Apple is handling that in the finder which is still a better solution than dealing with iTunes launching!
Want to share your Mac menu bar? That would me great!
