acsMacL
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Guide

Every feature once, slowly: what it does, which key starts it, and what happens next. The same texts are inside the app — ⌘L opens the menu of all actions and „Anleitung …“ is in it.

The application itself is in German only. This page is here so you know exactly what you are getting before you download it.

In ten seconds

⌥Space opens the window, type a few letters, Return opens the first hit. ⌃⌥Esc closes it again — including when another application is in front and the window is merely in the way.

Under every hit you see where it lives. The order learns as you go: what you pick often moves up, and it unlearns too — switch tools and the new one is on top within days.

One letter decides what shows up at all

Letter, space, then your search text. The prefix then disappears from the field and shows as an icon on the left, so you cannot delete half of it by accident. Esc takes you back.

With no prefix you get documents and files, but no folders. Three of the letters come from German and are not what an English speaker would guess: o from Ordner (folder), i from Inhalt (contents), w from wach (awake).

Several words, extensions, date ranges

Several words narrow things down — all of them have to match. One more word can only ever make the list shorter.

A bare year like 2024 stays a search in the file name — invoices carry their year in the name, and that has to keep working. A date filter therefore always needs .., < or >. A full date is deliberately read both ways: scanned paperwork often carries its date only in the name. For the files changed on that day alone, write 2024-07-15..2024-07-15.

Searching inside one folder

A trailing slash turns the word into a folder. The search then happens only in there, and in everything below it. This is the case of „I forgot the name, but I know where it lives“.

Without an asterisk the end of the folder name counts, which is why it-systems/ also finds a folder actually called „acs - it-systems“. With an asterisk you decide. If no folder matches at all, the list stays empty — the search does not fall back to the whole disk.

It works in every search mode, i included: a full-text search limited to one folder answers noticeably faster and shows far less that has nothing to do with the question.

What you can do with a hit

When you cannot remember a shortcut, ⌘L shows everything the selected hit offers. Every shortcut can be changed in the settings; these are the defaults.

Snippets PRO

How it works: type s, then part of the shortcut, the title or the text — all three are searched. Return.

And now the step you would otherwise have to guess: the finished text goes to your clipboard. The window closes and hands the keyboard back, and you paste it with ⌘V right where you were. acsMacL does not type the text into the other application: that would need the Accessibility permission, and the plain sentence „acsMacL only needs Full Disk Access“ is worth more to us than saving one keystroke.

There are four placeholders, and they stay German:

{{zwischenablage}} deliberately takes the state before the replacement, otherwise the snippet would quote itself. With several {{eingabe:…}} you get one window per question, in the order of the text; „Abbrechen“ (cancel) aborts the whole insertion. The fields start empty — a wrong default in a customer letter is worse than an empty field.

Snippets are created and edited in the settings (⌘,), tab „Textbausteine“.

A clipboard that remembers

v in the search field, or ⌃⌥V from anywhere, shows the history; typing filters it. Return puts the entry back on the clipboard — here too, you paste with ⌘V.

An entry can be pinned, which keeps it at the top and safe from the limit, and it can be annotated: the note sits small underneath and is searched along with the entry — with a random string of characters it is the only thing you remember.

The history is encrypted and stays on this Mac. Password managers are excluded. Ten entries are free; with PRO the limit is effectively gone.

Filing without a detour through the Finder PRO

The stack collects hits across several searches so you can move them together afterwards. Nothing is ever overwritten.

A screenshot that can read PRO

⇧⌘S drags out an area. The image goes to the clipboard, the recognised text as a separate entry underneath — and both stay in the history, even after the next copy. From the history you drag the image straight into another application; acsMacL does not create a file for it. If you want one, switch that on in the settings.

This needs the Screen Recording permission. macOS asks the first time; you grant it in System Settings under Privacy & Security. If you do not use the feature, it is not needed.

Removing applications PRO

Type a, select the application, and choose „Programm deinstallieren“ from the menu (⌘L). acsMacL shows you every file that belongs to it beforehand, with full path and size. What you confirm goes to the Trash — and no further. It refuses itself and the applications that come with macOS.

Processes and calculator

p shows what is running, with its process ID. You can ask an application to quit — it can still prompt you about unsaved work — or, when it responds to nothing at all, force it. You are asked first, because unsaved work is lost that way.

=12*12 calculates right in the search field, Return copies the result.

Keeping the Mac awake

w plus space shows at once whether the Mac is being kept awake and until when. A number is a duration in minutes: w 30 keeps it awake for 30 minutes, and the row shows the end time. A clock time works too: w 14:00 keeps it awake until then — if that time has already passed today, tomorrow is meant. Type a new number or time while it is already awake and the new end time applies. + means no end, − switches it off immediately. With nothing typed, Return toggles: off becomes on (no end), on becomes off. Keeping awake ends at the latest when acsMacL quits.

The shortcuts that work everywhere

All six are defaults and can be changed. Inside the settings window, ⌃⇥ switches the page, ⌘1 to ⌘4 jump straight to one, Esc closes.

What the application needs

Full Disk Access — without it your documents stay invisible. This is the one permission macOS never asks for by itself; you grant it in System Settings under Privacy & Security. If acsMacL finds nothing at startup it tells you so, instead of showing an empty list.

Screen Recording — only for the screenshot feature. Nothing else: acsMacL goes online when you redeem your licence key and when you ask it to check for a new version.

Free or PRO

Five features are PRO: clipboard history beyond 10 entries, snippets, move/copy/stack, screenshot with text recognition, and removing applications. Everything else is free and has no time limit — search, full-text search, opening, preview, calculator, process list, recent documents.

See price and licence · Ask for beta access