I have been using Elgato Stream Deck for over a year.It is a USB peripheral that provides a grid of buttons with a display underneath, so each button can be marked with an icon and/or text you specify.The goal of Stream Deck is to simplify esoteric operations on your computer by letting you place them on dedicated keys with custom artwork, so you’ll always know to press the blue button instead of typing Command-Shift-Option-3.I was initially skeptical about Stream Deck.I have a really nice keyboard full of keys that can map commands.Why not just remember those keyboard shortcuts?
However, after using the Stream Deck Mini I bought on a whim at Target for a few months, I decided to upgrade to the full-size Stream Deck.It turns out, yes, the concept of connecting commands I can’t remember from keyboard shortcuts, putting all the macros, shortcuts and scripts I spent hours building front and center and then quickly forgetting , it’s all worth it.I went from skeptic to convert in just a few months – and learned a lot.It might not look like it, but the Stream Deck is essentially a small, weird keyboard.It shares some basic characteristics with a keyboard: ergonomics are critical, and everyone’s ergonomics will be different.I have a lot of friends who have their Stream Decks on their desks, front and center, under their monitors.This would be easier to see, but I need to reach over the keyboard tray to press any buttons.
Instead, my Stream Deck is on the keyboard tray, just to the left of the keyboard.It’s easy for my left hand to press any button and get a quick glance down.Even better, it makes the Stream Deck feel like an extension of my keyboard, removing some of the mental friction when I stop typing and hit a button.Stream Deck does not program itself.You have to put an item on each button and decide what to put where, if you want to use more than the allotted number of buttons you will need to deal with the extra complexity (and back) of programming buttons that take you to other profiles .In some ways, it’s nice to get a blank canvas!You decide what the key does!You decide how they look!On the other hand…you have to make all these decisions, and if they don’t work well, you’re the one who needs to fix them.
Stream Deck Companion App… Enough?It does the job, but that’s all I can really say.I wish it were easier to do things like choose button colors and simple icons.(The app should indeed offer all of Apple’s SF symbols as icon options, but it doesn’t do much in that regard.) Instead, I need to turn to an app like Icon Creator, which lets me set custom colors, select An icon even overlays the text in the font of my choice.The text generated in the Stream Deck app is very ugly and has a limited choice of fonts.
If you’re someone who cares a little bit about how the Stream Deck looks – and you probably should, since custom buttons are its main draw – you’ll find yourself art directing buttons and button groups if you’re into that kind of thing .With a little work, you can get things the way you want.But I wish it all were easier and looked better.
When I was scripting Podcast Notes, my initial thought was to hit a button to start the script and then give myself a little note.It turned out to be a mistake – it was too much of a mentality to push buttons and type notes when I was supposed to be having a conversation on a podcast.In general, I found the workflow too complicated for me to press multiple buttons or press a button and then type on the keyboard.The whole concept is: push a button and a miracle will happen.Any more and the trick falls apart.
For my Podcast Notes script, I started experimenting with different button positions and ended up with an entire line of buttons that would run the script with pre-filled text.Conducting user interface experiments takes a lot of time and effort.This is not a task for everyone.But the beauty of it is that I was able to come up with a method that was designed for me and works the way my brain works.
Keeping it simple also means reducing the number of buttons a task needs to use.I ended up building a lot of my automations as a single shortcut that senses the current transaction state and switches accordingly, so I can place entire tasks instead of needing to press two or three different buttons in the right order at on a button and knowing that my automation will intuit what I need and do the right thing.When I started using Stream Deck, I honestly wasn’t sure what I would put on a button, whether it was a keyboard equivalent or a script or what, exactly.As it turns out, the answer is eclectic.
I use Stream Deck’s “website” type for a lot of things that don’t involve opening a website, like turning HomeKit devices on and off using the HomeControl app, opening remote servers in Terminal, and using screen sharing to my local server.All of these applications can be controlled by URL, and all Stream Deck’s website types do is pass the URL to the system.But for the most part, I use Keyboard Maestro or Shortcuts for automation.These automations can be very simple or extremely complex, but using the KMLink plug-in makes it easy to connect button presses to Keyboard Maestro.If you want to go this route, Keyboard Maestro’s own plugin introduces a lot of complexity.
Last lesson I learned.While Stream Deck can automatically switch between button sets when you use a particular app, I haven’t found an instance when I want to use a completely different set of buttons in an app.Instead, I built a series of button layers based on a broader context.I have one for podcasts, one for streaming video, and one for my Podcast Notes automation.Since I’m switching between apps so often, this approach feels better – when I look at my Stream Deck, I’m never surprised by what I see there.
I also experimented by placing ambient information in the button art itself.For example, I wrote a Keyboard Maestro macro that shows the number of listeners currently live, and I installed TJ Luoma’s amazing calendar macro that shows my meeting status in the Stream Deck button.But you know what?I prefer to see environmental information like this in my Mac’s menu bar rather than on the Stream Deck.The only exception I’ve found so far is a macro that writes the minutes I’ve recorded a podcast to a clock icon on the same row of buttons as my Podcast Note script.I think it has to do with grouping this information with buttons that I only view while recording.Maybe because they are together?Your travel expenses may change.
Is it worth using something like Stream Deck?It depends on what you want to do with your Mac, but many people can benefit from nested menus or complex keyboard shortcuts for shortcuts to some of their favorite apps and into colored buttons.Do you find yourself searching for a command through the help menu because you never remember where it is?Or do you have to try three or four different keyboard shortcut combinations to find the right one?It is much easier to press buttons with icons or text or color swatches and get the desired result.Over the years, I’ve had a macro that pastes HTML into BBEdit as Markdown; for the life of me, I’ll never remember the keyboard shortcut I assigned that command to.I don’t use the command very often to internalize it, so every time I use it, I have to remember if it’s shift-option or command-shift or command-shift-option.Right now I have a button with an arrow and the letter “md” on the top layer of my Stream Deck, and it’s actually kind of exciting when I realize I can press it.
It’s funny — Apple kind of went down the Stream Deck path when it launched the Touch Bar.Unfortunately, the Touch Bar lacks two key features of the Stream Deck: tactile buttons and customizability.If Apple swapped out some of the function keys on its keyboards for Stream Deck-style keys, it might really be doing something.
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