Do you want to learn how to develop your own apps for macOS? Apple makes developing for macOS incredibly easy, and in this tutorial series you’ll learn how. You’ll learn how to create your first app for macOS — even if you’re a complete beginner.

In this first part you’ll first learn about how to obtain the tools you need to develop for macOS. Then, while creating a simple “Hello, World!” app, you’ll take a tour of Xcode, discovering how to run an app, edit code, design the UI and debug your code. In Parts 2 & 3 of this series, you’ll create a more complex Egg Timer app and learn about the components that make up a macOS app, from how an app starts, to constructing the UI, all the way to handling user interaction. So what are you waiting for? The world of desktop apps awaits! Note: Here’s some guidance of where to begin with this series:. If you are new to Swift, this series assumes some Swift knowledge, so first check out our to get a great introduction.

If you already have iOS experience, this first part of the series will be a review. Take a quick look through the topics to make sure and then skip straight ahead to the next part of the series. Otherwise, keep reading.

This series is for complete beginners – no experience of developing for iOS or macOS is required! Getting Started To become a macOS developer, you will need two things:. A Mac running macOS Sierra: The macOS operating system only runs on Apple computers, so you need a Mac both to develop and run macOS apps. Xcode: This is the IDE used to create macOS apps. You’ll learn how to install this later in this section.

Once you’ve built your app, if you want to upload it to the App Store for distribution, you’ll also need to pay for an Apple developer account. But this is not a requirement until you are ready to send your app out to the world, and even then, only if you want to distribute through the Mac App Store. If you already have a developer account for distributing iOS apps, then you are all set – Apple has merged the developer accounts so that you only need a single account to distribute apps for any Apple devices. Unlike some other platforms, developing for macOS requires the installation of just one tool: Xcode. Xcode is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that includes everything you need to develop macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS apps. If you don’t have Xcode already, click on the Apple icon in the upper left of your menu and select App Store to open the Mac App Store.

You will need an App Store account to download Xcode even though Xcode is free. Search for Xcode and click the Install button to start the download. Once it has downloaded and installed (which may take a while – it is quite large) open it from your Applications folder. The first time you run Xcode, and after every major update, it will ask you for permission to install additional components. Enter your password and allow Xcode to install these components.

Following the long-standing tradition when learning a new programming language or platform, you are going to start by creating a Hello World! App for macOS. Open Xcode if it is not already running. You should see a Welcome to Xcode window – if you don’t see it, choose Welcome to Xcode from the Window menu.

Click Create a new Xcode project and when the next dialog appears, choose macOS from the tabs across the top. Select Cocoa Application from inside the Application section and click Next. Give your new app a name – HelloWorld – make sure that the language is set to Swift and that Use Storyboards is checked.

Uncheck all the other options. Click Next and Create to save your new app project. Running Your App Xcode has created the basic template for your app with all the required files.

Apps For Mac Air

At this stage, it is fun to run the app and see how much you get for free. Click the Play button in the toolbar to run the app or use the Command-R shortcut. Xcode will now compile all of the code into machine code, bundle up the resources required by the app and then execute it.

As part of Apple’s “Back to the Mac” event in late 2010, Apple introduced OS X Lion which included lots of features and user interface decisions inspired by the iPhone and iPad. While much of the signature Lion design like linen and leather was replaced years later in OS X Mavericks, the Mac’s concept of borrowing the iOS app launcher with a feature called Launchpad remains. Launchpad doesn’t get much love from Mac power users (there are plenty of other efficient ways to launch Mac apps) and Apple really hasn’t touched the feature in years. But it’s a feature I use regularly on my Mac — after making a few adjustments. Form and Function I’ll get this out of the way first as it’s superficial and not functional: I really like the icon for Launchpad, a rocket silhouette over a gray circle. The original icon in the age of realism was a metal disk with nearly the same rocket carved into it.

I’m a space nerd and the clever ‘Launchpad’ name for an app launcher is something I appreciate. Launchpad’s icon also has a purpose — and not just opening the app launcher. If you download a new app or an app update from the Mac App Store, you can see the download and installation’s progress in an indicator bar that automatically appears below the Launchpad icon. If you mouse over the Launchpad icon with your cursor, you can even see the installation state and the file size of the download. Hot Corner I’ve mentioned my affinity for before, and that’s actually how I open Launchpad. Not with an icon click or a keyboard shortcut but a mouse or trackpad gesture. I still keep the icon on my Dock for the reasons mentioned above, but I rarely click it to open Launchpad.

When my cursor hits the bottom left corner of my display, Launchpad appears as an overlay above the desktop and active windows. Click an app and it goes away to open the app, or repeat the same mouse gesture and Launchpad fades away. You can also open Launchpad with a trackpad gesture (pinch with thumb and three fingers), but I don’t always use a trackpad. Mac App Store Uninstalling apps has always been weird on the Mac, especially for Windows switchers familiar with removing programs with the Control Panel. By default, the way to uninstall apps on the Mac is to drag the app’s icon from the Applications folder in Finder to the Trash on the Dock, then empty the trash. Other apps include dedicated uninstallers that do a more thorough job of removing messy installations.

As a Windows convert, I find comfort in the third-party utility for removing software. If you’re trying to remove an app that was downloaded from the Mac App Store, however, you can do this easily in Launchpad with a simple keyboard shortcut. Simply hold the option key down, then all your apps will jiggle like on iOS and Mac App Store apps will have an X over the top left corner. Click the X to prompt Launchpad to show you the uninstaller dialog box, and confirm to remove the app. Organization As fond as I am of Launchpad, its default organization is just poor. The first page has its own arrangement of built-in apps from Apple, then third-party apps appear on the second page in a somewhat random order out-of-the-box. New apps that you install then appear in any open slots on page one with Apple’s apps, not after third-party apps on page two or after.

App Store For Mac Computer

Left to its own devices, Launchpad can get unmanageable really fast. It’s no wonder people prefer the Dock, Spotlight, Finder, Alfred, and other alternatives for launching apps!

Making An App For Macros

My strategy requires a little work upfront, then Launchpad becomes usable and fits in to my workflow smoothly. I still arrange the first page with Apple’s built-in apps (only making minor adjustments occasionally), but I sort third-party apps alphabetically starting with page two. Unfortunately there’s no easy way to automatically sort apps in this order, but it deserves to exist.

When new apps are installed and appear on page one, I move them to their proper place among third-party apps in alphabetical order. This generally doesn’t break any muscle memory of where apps are physically and I can always find my way to the app I’m looking for without resorting to search. Just like iOS, Launchpad supports folders by dragging and dropping app icons on top of each other, but I use folders sparingly myself. The main appeal of folders is grouping menu bar apps or other utilities that I never need to launch but that appear in the grid of icons anyway. If you have a mouse that supports swiping between app pages, it’s possible to wrangle Launchpad into a logical order that can work for you. And optimizing how you actually open Launchpad can make it faster and more effortless to activate than other options.