The Swik blog
Thoughts on radial menus, gesture launchers, and faster ways to move around macOS. Written for people who care about the two seconds they lose to every app switch.
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Pie menus explained: why Blender, Maya, and games all use themA short history of radial menus, plus the interaction research that explains why they're faster than lists.April 15, 2026
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30 years of radial menus: from Callahan 1988 to todayA full history from the 1988 CHI paper through Maya, Blender, video games, and the modern macOS landscape.April 15, 2026
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Glossary: pie menus, marking menus, and radial launchersClear definitions of every term used in the world of radial menus — wedge, flick, Fitts's Law, marking menu, and more.April 15, 2026
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The complete guide to gesture launchers on MacTrackpad gestures, mouse triggers, hotkeys — every kind of gesture launcher on macOS, and when to use which.April 16, 2026
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How to trigger Apple Shortcuts from a radial menu on your MacA hotkey gets you one shortcut. A radial menu gets you twelve — and lets you build them into sub-menus.April 21, 2026
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Turn your mouse side buttons into an app launcher on macOSThose two unused buttons on your mouse can open any app on your Mac. Here's the simplest way to wire them up.April 28, 2026
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A radial menu for Figma: faster than keyboard shortcutsFigma has forty useful shortcuts. You'll remember six. A radial menu picks up the slack.May 5, 2026
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A Blender-style pie menu for every app on your MacIf you've used Blender's pie menus, you already know why radial menus beat linear ones. Here's how to get them everywhere.May 12, 2026
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Drag any file onto a radial menu to open it in any app"Open with…" on macOS is buried three right-clicks deep. A drag-to-wedge gesture beats it every time.May 19, 2026
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BetterTouchTool alternative: a focused radial menu for MacBTT can do everything. That's the problem. Here's what a tool that only does radial menus looks like.May 26, 2026
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Stream Deck software alternative: a radial menu without the $150 hardwareA Stream Deck gives you 15 buttons you'll photograph once and forget. A radial menu lives on your trackpad — free.June 2, 2026
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Raycast alternative: when a pie menu beats a command paletteRaycast is great for things you can name. Radial menus win for things you can't — or don't want to type.June 9, 2026
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Keyboard Maestro alternative: a visual radial launcher for macrosKeyboard Maestro is a scripting environment with a GUI. If all you want is one gesture per macro, there's a simpler way.June 16, 2026
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Bartender alternative: radial access instead of a cluttered menu barBartender hides your menu bar icons. A radial menu makes you not need them.June 23, 2026
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The best radial menu apps for macOS in 2026An honest comparison of every radial menu tool currently available on the Mac — including Swik.June 30, 2026
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Bringing the GTA weapon wheel to your Mac desktopThat satisfying moment in GTA when you hold a button and flick to a weapon? You can have that feeling, for apps, all day.July 21, 2026
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Maya marking menus, but for your whole MacVFX artists have been using radial menus for thirty years. Everyone else is finally catching up.July 28, 2026
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Cmd+Tab is slow on macOS — here's what to use insteadCmd+Tab cycles linearly through every open app. When you have 15+ apps open, linear cycling stops being fast.August 4, 2026
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Swik vs BetterTouchTool vs Raycast: a feature matrix for 2026All three are great Mac tools. None of them do the same job. An honest side-by-side from one of the teams.August 11, 2026
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We timed app switching on macOS: Cmd+Tab vs Dock vs Spotlight vs radialA careful benchmark of the five common ways to switch apps — real millisecond numbers, Fitts's Law explained, full methodology.August 18, 2026
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A radial emoji picker for macOS — faster than Ctrl+Cmd+SpaceThe system emoji picker takes three actions for an emoji you've sent a hundred times. A radial picker takes one flick.September 8, 2026
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A clipboard history manager built into a radial menuMost clipboard managers are search bars. Swik puts your last 8 clips one flick away — no panel, no scan.September 15, 2026
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Context-aware profiles: a different radial menu for home, office, and meetingsWi-Fi, monitor, and time of day pick the right radial menu for the moment, automatically.September 22, 2026
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Alfred alternative: a radial menu for Mac power users tired of typingAlfred is a typing tool. A radial menu is a flicking tool. Here's the honest split — and why most people should run both.September 29, 2026
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How to set up your first radial menu on Mac — the Accessibility permission guideThe full first-launch walkthrough: permissions, triggers, first menu, and fixes for every "it's not working" we hear.October 6, 2026
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Radial menu on macOS Tahoe and Sequoia — compatibility notesDoes Swik still work on macOS 26 Tahoe, 15 Sequoia, and 14 Sonoma? Supported versions, Apple Silicon vs Intel, and post-upgrade fixes.October 13, 2026
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A radial menu for Mac developers (and VS Code users)VS Code's command palette handles everything inside the editor. A radial menu handles the other eight apps — here's the developer's layout.October 20, 2026
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LaunchBar alternative: a radial menu for the Mac power userLaunchBar is the elder statesman of typed launchers. A radial menu is the flicking counterpart — not a replacement.October 27, 2026
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PopClip alternative: a radial menu for text actions on MacPopClip floats above selected text. Swik sits under your cursor. Complementary shapes of motion — run both.November 3, 2026
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Dropzone alternative: a radial menu for file actions on MacDropzone is a drag-to-grid tool at the screen edge. A radial menu is drag-to-wedge at your cursor. Same ergonomic, different geometry.November 10, 2026
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AltTab and Contexts alternative: a radial menu for app switching on MacBoth fix Cmd+Tab by giving you a better list. A radial menu lets you skip the list entirely for your top eight apps.November 17, 2026
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Karabiner-Elements and Hyperkey: the best keyboard trigger for a radial menuRemap Caps Lock into a Hyper key, then use it to summon a radial menu. One key, eight apps, zero conflicts.November 24, 2026
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Launchpad is dead — what replaced it on macOS TahoeApple removed Launchpad in macOS 26 Tahoe. Here's what to use now, ranked by input cost.December 1, 2026
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Mission Control vs radial menu: which is faster for switching apps?Mission Control is a spatial overview for finding what's lost. A radial menu is reflex. They're complements, not competitors.December 8, 2026
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Stage Manager vs radial menu: different tools for different problemsStage Manager organizes your windows. A radial menu gets you between them. Use both, not one.December 15, 2026
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Hot Corners vs a radial menu: four actions isn't enoughHot Corners caps at four triggers and fires accidentally. A radial menu puts eight to twelve wedges and sub-menus under your cursor.December 22, 2026
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Spotlight for app launching is overkill — use a radial menu insteadSpotlight indexes everything. For opening Figma you don't need an index — you need a direction.December 29, 2026
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The Dock is fine — but it's not enoughMouse travel to one edge, icons that crowd past 15, and no context awareness. A radial menu fixes the launcher half.January 5, 2027
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Zoom and Teams meeting controls on one flick — a radial menu layoutMute, camera, raise hand, share, leave — all buried in meeting chrome. A wedge-per-control, wired via Apple Shortcuts.January 12, 2027
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A radial tab switcher for Arc, Safari, and Chrome on MacCmd+[digit] jumps to the Nth tab — but Nth by what? A wedge mapped to a specific URL always goes to the same tab.January 19, 2027
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A radial menu for Obsidian and Notion: vaults, templates, and quick captureOpen vault, capture, daily note, switch workspace, paste, insert template — six wedges, one gesture.January 26, 2027
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A radial menu for Terminal and iTerm2 on Mac: profiles, SSH, and sessionsSame four SSH targets and three profiles, a hundred times a week. Put each on a wedge.February 2, 2027
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A radial menu for Slack: channels, statuses, and reactionsFive channels, two status toggles, and an emoji ring — one flick each, via deep-link URLs and Shortcuts.February 9, 2027
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A radial menu for 1Password: faster vault access on MacQuick Access is fine, but for the logins you hit hourly, a wedge is one flick — via 1Password's Shortcuts actions.February 16, 2027