Skip to main content

Touch Bar

BetterTouchTool lets you completely customize your Touch Bar.

People have shared awesome BetterTouchTool Touch Bar setups on our community platform, so be sure to check them out:

https://community.folivora.ai

tb_setup

Known Limitations​

  • To get rid of the x icon on the left side of the Touch Bar, either disable "Show macOS Control Strip" in BTT's Touch Bar settings, or, while the Control Strip is shown, enable "Hide left close / X button" there (requires a BTT restart).
  • If you hide the Touch Bar with the x button on the left, you need to tap the BTT icon in the Control Strip twice to get it back.
  • You can't partially customize an app's Touch Bar. BTT can only replace it completely.

Adding New Touch Bar Buttons​

  • Decide whether your Touch Bar button should show up globally or only for one specific app, and select the matching entry in the app list on the far left of the BTT configuration.
  • Select "Touch Bar" in the trigger category popup at the top of the configuration window.
  • Click the + button below the trigger list and choose the type of the new item (e.g. "Touch Bar button", one of the widgets or one of the Touch Bar gestures) in the configuration on the right.
  • Enter a name (it won't show up in the Touch Bar without one).
  • Assign any action or shortcut you like.

Customizing the Touch Bar Button Appearance​

  • You do all customization in the configuration sidebar on the right (you can undock it like in this screenshot if you want):

tb_appearance

App Specific Configuration​

  • For each app you can choose whether to show the BTT Touch Bar or the app's default bar. Select the app in the app list on the left. The "Touch Bar Configuration For:" option is in the Touch Bar section of its App Specific Settings.

tb_icons

General Settings​

The general Touch Bar settings are in BTT's Settings under Advanced Settings => Touch Bar. While the Touch Bar trigger category is selected, you can also open them with the "Settings" button at the top of the configuration window.

  • You can choose whether to show the Control Strip on the right side of the Touch Bar, or hide it to get more space for your buttons. (Hint: you can configure your Control Strip in System Settings => Keyboard => Touch Bar Settings => Customize Control Strip; on macOS 12 it's System Preferences => Keyboard => Customize Control Strip)
  • You can choose whether to show the BetterTouchTool icon in the Control Strip. (If you don't show it, you have to use the predefined action "Toggle BetterTouchTool Touch Bar" to show or hide the BTT Touch Bar.)
  • You can choose whether the global actions should still show up when app specific actions are available ("Hide global actions if app specific actions are configured in BTT"). Hint: long press the BTT icon to show only the global actions, regardless of this setting.

tb_icons1

tb_icons2