![]() If the sidebar is Arc’s most prominent interface element, Spaces is the feature that leverages it more than anything else in Arc. A Space is a collection of tabs in the sidebar. Let’s start with two unusual Arc features that help keep me in the context within which I’m working: Spaces and Profiles. While it has no particular name, the sidebar plays a central role in all four of Arc’s conceptual innovations. Arc leans heavily on its left-hand sidebar to assist in that role. Tools and techniques that reduce distraction or help me resume where I left off more quickly have outsized value. ![]() Unfortunately, by accessing everything directly, I ignored the context that those bookmark folders provided.Īnd context is powerful! Like many people, I’m easily distracted, so anything that takes me away from the topic and document I’m working on, even briefly ( Squirrel), derails me, requiring extra effort to get back on track. ![]() I pressed that combination up to hundreds of times per day. However, I’m a sufficiently keyboard-driven person that my most common action was to press Command-T and type enough of a bookmark name to bring up the desired page in a new tab. In Brave, I created folders on my bookmarks bar to collect sites or pages I needed to use in each context. But nearly everything I do today is on the Web. Long ago, I would have organized associated documents into folders. Most of my time working on a Mac falls into one of three categories: Personal, TidBITS, and Finger Lakes Runners Club (abbreviated FLRC below). In the sections below, I’ll explain how its unique features-or at least unique combinations of features-make it stand out. Each plays a vital role in why I describe Arc as transformative. Why does Arc deserve this spot? Arc’s designers have taken the Chromium engine and created a Mac-native app that improves on the standard Web browser interface in four conceptual areas: context, persistence, visibility, and refinement. So rearranging my main apps is a sea change. I always carefully arrange my apps on my extended desktop so I know exactly where to look when I bring one forward with an associated F-key or the macOS app switcher. I chose to relegate my email client, Mimestream, from the prime spot one email app or another has held for as long as I can remember to a secondary location: the right edge of my left-hand screen, a lower-density 27-inch Thunderbolt Display.Īrc’s reworking of the Web browser interface has caused it to feel more important to me than email. I won’t skimp on words in this article telling you why-it’s that important and requires new ways of thinking about how you work on the Web.Īs the first blush of my evidence, consider that Arc has taken over the prime spot on my dual-display setup, aligned with the left edge of my right-hand 2020 iMac with 5K Retina display, which puts it smack in the center of my field of vision while also promoting it to the crisper of my two screens. I realize calling Arc “the most transformative app I’ve used in decades” is a bold statement that requires a lot of support. Arc isn’t yet in full public release, although the company regularly invites people in from the beta waitlist. In “ The 46 Mac Apps I Actually Use and Why” (19 April 2023), I noted that the first app I installed after my Level 2 clean install was the Web browser Brave and that, just weeks later, I replaced it with what has been the most transformative app I’ve used in decades. #1684: OS bug fix releases, Finder tag poll results, Messages identity verification, blocking spambots, which Apple services do you use?Īrc Will Change the Way You Work on the Web.#1685: Hidden secrets of the Fn key, Emergency SOS via satellite free access extended, RCS support in Messages, Rogue Amoeba icon evolution.#1686: Please support TidBITS, OS security updates, Apple services poll results, biking with an iPhone.#1687: Feature-rich OS updates, recovering from a crashing bug in Contacts, Zoom for Apple TV, how much do you use widgets?. ![]()
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