Spark

I have been using Spark for 20 years. I tried the new Shortcuts app by Apple, and guess what: Spark is WAY SUPERIOR!!! It's amazing how good this program is and that it still works. Thank you so much for this!

This app is the bomb. (That's a good thing!) I've used it for years. I don't have to open it very often, just to add or change a keystroke. When I started, it was the only app of its kind to let you bring forward only the frontmost window when switching to another app using a keystroke--all the others brought forth all the app's windows which is extremely annoying. Sometimes it doesn't not find its own document and you get a blank window, as if starting a new set-up. But if you close Spark and open it again it usually works--just keep trying. Was super glad to see a recent update. Working fine on Monterey macOS 12.5.

Love this app. One thing I've been running into lately: I have a shortcut set to paste the date. It works fine everywhere except in "save as..." dialog windows. It won't work in the file name field, nor when creating a new folder in that flow. I tried toggling the daemon off and on, app is updated to the latest version, I removed it and re-added it to the accessibility allow list, etc. Any other ideas?

arggghhhh... does anyone have a way to make this precious app work in Big Sur or Monterey yet??? I sure do miss it's functionality. It was working just fine in Catalina.

Can't start spark agent either. Big Sur 11.4

I'm having a problem with my mac mini M1 Big Sur 11.4 I cant Start Spark Agent. It doesn't work for me. Is there any way to fix this?

Incredible, <br/> Spark seems to be ported to Apple Silicon! <br/> I’m currently running version 3.3.2 on my M1 Mac mini running Big Sur 11.1. without Rosetta. I couldn’t be happier

This app is AWESOME!!! Simple. Powerful. Elegant. And now runs on Catalina. I don't have to go looking for a replacement. As C-3PO would say, "Thank The Maker." In this case, Shadowlab! Truly great stuff. Thanks Joe H. and Gerrykai for the heads up!

I've been using and loving Spark on a Mac for many years. When I recently I updated to Catalina, the Text/Keyboard feature stopped working. I looked around for an alternate app but couldn't find one with a feature equivalent to Spark's Text/Keyboard, including the similar native feature in Catalina. Finally I found the review of Spark by Joe H. on this page, which solved the problem completely. In case you can't find it, here's a quote of the relevant parts: "Make sure to use the latest version of Spark (which is currently 3.2.1 : see (my) other comments below). The only place where you can see the correct version number is when you open the app and choose "About Spark" from the menu. To make all features function: go to your System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and remove the Spark app, and add it again. You might have to repeat this step, and even try a reboot. Also: in between creating or altering shortcuts it can help to stop & start the Spark Daemon. You also might have to start the Daemon manually after every boot/login." Happy Sparking!

An application that cannot miss ...

The more lightweight shortcut app i ever tryed

Great app! The workaround in Automator, Keyboard, Shortcuts etc. is a horrilble and absolutely not Apple-like solution that finally does not work. So, Spark is a very useful great app! Thanks!

A note on compatibility with Catalina: it works! Make sure to use the latest version of Spark (which is currently 3.2.1 : see (my) other comments below). The only place where you can see the correct version number is when you open the app and choose "About Spark" from the menu. To make all features function: go to your System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and remove the Spark app, and add it again. You might have to repeat this step, and even try a reboot. Also: in between creating or altering shortcuts it can help to stop & start the Spark Daemon. You also might have to start the Daemon manually after every boot/login. For me this resulted in my 50+ Spark shortcuts working like a charm again :-)

Omg, i thought this app was discontiued for OSX 10.15,..what a time and life saver this is!!

Solved! After so much tries, I found that removing manually the preference, made Spark work again. I didn’t remove manually the preferences before, because I thought AppCleaner did it while uninstalling Spark, but probably il left something behind.

I write here because I hope someone can help me to solve a issue which prevents Spark demon to work. After a support session for a issue with another software, in which the technician has given this command: "/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user". After the command I restarted the Mac, and Spark didn't work anymore. I found that demon starts and hangs a couple of minutes after which it closes. The same happens if I try to start demon from config application. I tried to remove (with AppCleaner) and reinstall Spark, remove boot cache starting Mac in safe mode, clean all the rest with Onyx, etc... and really don't know what other to try. All this on Mojave 10.14.2 with Spark 3.1b2 (I tried 3.0b11 too).

This review is for version 3.0b11 which I have used for many years. This is the best app-switcher/launcher I found and I love it. It has one essential feature that _many_ or all of the other lack: the ability to have only the front window of the switched-to app come forward instead of all of the windows. This is the most common way to use an app switcher and it's just weird that the others do not allow this option. If you switch and then want all the windows to come forward, just use System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts to set a key combination for Bring All to Front to say Shift-Option-Command-up_arrow: all Mac apps have this menu item under the Windows menu. Thanks for a great app!

3.1.b2 stopped working properly for me on a 10.12.6 machine, so I reverted back to an old Spark version 3.0b11 (470) I luckily found on a backup and all is well again. The 3.1.b2 version didn't respond when I clicked "Start Spark Demon" and many shortcuts I made stopped working including this custom one for Textedit to quickly change colors of sections of text I have selected:

I had it run this with shift-command-B:

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tell application "TextEdit"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell text area 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "TextEdit" to if exists then
set {x, y} to value of attribute "AXSelectedTextRange"
if x ≤ y then tell application "TextEdit" to set color of document 1's characters x thru y to {0, 0, 65535}
end if

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Nothing happens when I did the shortcut with 3.1.b2, but works perfectly with 3.0b11 (470). I guess I should just stick with the old version that works for now.

I should also mention the interface was jacked up with the "All Application's Hot Keys", etc. button riding up to where the top vertical half of the button was missing.

Great to see an update! Seems to work fine on Mojave, though I wasn't having any issues with the older version, other than warnings that it needed updating. I found the https://www.shadowlab.org/softwares/spark.php site won't load in Safari, but works fine in Chrome. Maybe a background rendering in the foreground?

Great to see version 3.1b2 is official now :-)

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https://www.shadowlab.org/donate.php?reason=Spark%203%20Bêta%20X