Here’s An App Every Mac User Can Use, But That Nobody Needs

Every now and again I come across a Mac app and think, ‘Why would anybody need this?’ Then, as is usually the case, I try it and find there’s merit to using an app that nobody really needs.

If differentiation is a key to product marketing then inbetweenbox differentiates itself from folders of files on your Mac and apps that manage your files. It’s kind of an in-between app and maybe, just maybe, that’s why it’s called inbetweenbox (all lower case, e.e. cummings style).

Understand The Sentiment

Here’s how most Mac users handle the files that cross the screen each day. They get dropped onto the Desktop in the hopes that once the files and folders generate enough clutter we’ll sort them out, and drop each into an appropriate and memorable location in the Documents folder.

inbetweenbox sits in-between the Desktop and Downloads folders, and all the clutter which seems to be in both, and the supposedly more organized Documents folder. Like iTunes and Photos, inbetweenbox keeps everything in a Library of files, all indexed and ready to be found, organized, or saved somewhere else.

OS X has built-in Smart folders, but inbetweenbox goes one better with Watched folders.

Watched folders work as Smart Folders which automatically find and organize specific files in the library (everything collected on the Desktop).

Other features are packed into inbetweenbox to make it useful without traveling to the Finder to figure out where everything went or where it needs to go. It’s like an inexpensive file manager that can move or copy files automatically, but still uses Quick Look and Rename so you can keep files organizer your way.

inbetweenbox indexes the Library of files similar to Spotlight but is faster and less cluttered. Searches for files (and if you have to search for files within a single folder, then you’re probably on the road to file clutter overload already) are instant and can be saved as Smart Folders which work automatically in the background.

The end result is, well, organized files and folders from within a single Mac app that’s easier to use and smarter than the Finder, but sits, well, in-between the folders that get cluttered– Desktop, Downloads, and even Documents– and the Finder itself.

That means everyone who has files that clutter up Documents, Downloads, or Desktop could use inbetweenbox, but what it does is improve upon file and folder management in the Finder, so it’s not a requirement that everyone needs.