Make Your Own Touch Bar

Discover benefits of Apple’s input innovation and turn your ipad into one.

- Alan Stonebridge

Apple’s Touch Bar technology puts context-sensitive controls at the top of the keyboard in the hope of saving you time digging around in menus and windows to find the commands you need. Currently, the only official way to get a Touch Bar is to buy a MacBook Pro, and even if Apple were to update its Bluetooth-connected Magic Keyboard to include one, it’s unlikely to be affordable given the existing model costs £99.

However, you can add a Touch Bar to your existing Mac by adding an iPad and third-party software into the mix. If you don’t have an iPad there’s a Mac app that enables you to see what the Mac’s latest control method would add to your apps if you were to upgrade.

Be aware, though, that there’s one aspect of the real thing that you can’t replicate using the following methods: a Touch ID sensor for unlocking your Mac, validating payments online, waking your Mac, and more. (A real Touch Bar has a combined Touch ID sensor and power button at its right end.) That said, there are other ways to imitate some of the sensor’s benefits; MacID (£3.99, macid.co) enables you to unlock your Mac using the Touch ID sensor on your iPhone or iPad.

However, the bigger bonus of having a Touch Bar to hand is the range of time-saving shortcuts it provides in apps bundled with macOS, as well as a growing number of third party ones, which includes OmniGraffle 7, 1Password and Mail Designer Pro 3.

If you have a Mac with a built-in Touch Bar, don’t assume these pages are irrelevant to you; whether you’re using the real deal or an iPad as a stand-in, you’ll find tips later on in this tutorial on how to tailor the bar’s contents and ensure you’re getting the most from it.

Try it out for free