It should not be shocking to Mac users that we don’t use our Macs the same way as all other Mac users. After all, the Mac is a personal computer.
For example, how do you find and launch recent documents. Not apps. Documents. Some open the app, then open the document. Other Mac users find the document first, double click it to open the application.
Open & Launch or Launch & Open?
At the basic level of usage, there’s not a so-called best practice for managing apps and documents on your Mac. Different strokes for different folks—if it works and you’re happy, all is good, right?
Finding a better way to do this or that is fun.
Some Mac users love the Dock. Others prefer to open Finder windows and navigate through the Documents folder, find a file, double-click it to open.
Mac apps that create documents have another method. For example, in iWorks Page, you’ll also find a menu selection that can be handy, especially if you don’t always remember where you placed a recent document.
In Pages (and many other Mac apps), select the File menu, scroll down to Recent Items, and you’ll see a number of recent documents opened in Pages (and that applies to other applications). It’s a handy way to find recently opened documents.
The caveat, of course, is that you need to have opened that specific document in Pages at some time in the past. Wouldn’t it be more productive to have a central utility that remembered all those recently opened documents in all apps?
Files At Your Fingertips
Assuming your Mac’s Menubar isn’t suffering from the urban congestion of utility fatigue, try the Blast from the future.
Blast is a Menubar utility which remembers your most recently used documents and makes the easier to find and open. Doesn’t Mac OS X already do this? Yes. And no. A big no.
Blast adds a number of enhancements which makes finding files easier, faster, more productive, and surprisingly enjoyable, considering the basic utility—finding files.
For example, Blast remembers where files where saved even if you don’t. If you’ve accidentally closed a file’s window, Blast remembers it and brings it back. And, speaking of remembering, Blast isn’t limited to a handful of recently opened documents. It remembers so many that you can use the built-in search function to pour through hundreds of documents.
Blast has a unique and easy way to email documents as attachments with a minimum of clicks (no need to switch to Mail, find the document, attach the document, and send—Blast does it for you).
The whole idea of nifty utilities like Blast is to help you remember when you don’t, speed things along without extra clicks or effort, and be a good Mac citizen. There’s no time wasting splash screen on startup.
Blast is fully 64-bit and opens quickly on modern Intel Macs.
From within Blast you can sort and filter through files and folders, and even move items to the Trash. Blast even remembers downloaded files so you don’t have to dig through the Finder to find it.
Click the Blast menu in the Menubar, find a file, double click to open in the default application, or simply drag and drop the an app in the Dock to open in a different app (handy for graphic and media files).
If you have favorite folders and files—those you use far more often than others—Blast has a sidebar so you can reach them faster and easier. Files can even be previewed within Blast.
After using Blast for an hour you’ll wonder why Apple doesn’t extend their own Recently Opened Files option and incorporate some of Blast’s functionality. Maybe Apple is too busy counting money from their hot selling iOS devices to worry about upping the ante on Mac OS X.
How do you open files on your Mac? Do you navigate to the file and double-click to open the file and application? Or, do you open the app first, then click Open to navigate to the file? Whatever your personal effort, Blast makes both methods seems a little antiquated.
About Wil Gomez
Mac360's Comment Policy: Keep your comment on topic, relevant, worthy, and funny. Or, pick any three. Be pleasant, helpful, and only use your real name. Comments are moderated and will not appear immediately.