Having trouble? Issues updating, or Accessibility troubles? See Common issues.

v0.12.0 - April 2, 2025

PLEASE READ: Accessibility permissions need to be reset.

I've changed to using a company Apple Developer account to sign my releases, which unfortunately means you will need to remove and re-add Shortcat's Accessibility permissions, due to security reasons.

• ⬆️ Now requires macOS 13+
• 🆕 Supports Unicode 16.0 Emojis
• 🐛 Fixes emoji insertion on Sequoia (15.3+)
• 🆕 Opening Shortcat when already running will trigger activation. Useful for invoking Shortcat without keyboard shortcuts

v0.11.4 - January 31, 2023

• 🐛 Fixed an issue where the update mechanism wasn't picking up new releases correctly

v0.11.3 - January 29, 2023

• 🐛 Fixed a bug where N and P keys did not work correctly

v0.11.2 - January 29, 2023

• ↕️ Tab and Shift+Tab now work for navigating through results
• ↕️ Ctrl+N and Ctrl+P now work for navigating through results

v0.11.1 - November 23, 2022

• 🔍 Visible elements given a scoring boost
• 🦊 Support for Firefox Developer Edition
• 🐦 Experimental support for Flutter apps
  • I'm not aware of any Flutter apps to test with, please let me know
• 🔄 Continuous mode improvements:
  • Max tree age for refresh on input now 2s
  • Fixed a bug with raising the Shortcat panel at the correct moment

v0.11.0 - October 22, 2022

• 🔄 Continuous mode [alpha]
  • Shortcat remains active after actioning, and tries to deactivate when appropriate (focusing text field, menus).
  • Enable in preferences
  • I'm rather excited about this feature, as it has been a long time coming!
  • 🚧 Please report any issues or unexpected behaviours to chendo at shortcat dot app
  • Recommended to use with show hints on input
  • See Continuous mode for more info
• 📜 Scrolling / Arrow Keys: [alpha]
  • 🔀 Holding down Space and pressing HJKL (or IJKL) will send an arrow key event to the target window
  • 🆒 Works with modifiers
  • ↕️Space+Cmd+HJKL will send scroll events under cursor. You can use Ctrl on an element to move the cursor to its midpoint.
  • 🚧 Work in progress, expect changes to this feature!
• ✨ UI improvements
  • Result rows more compact, increased width of query pane to compensate
  • Removed status for now pending redesign
  • Query pane now positions to the left or right side of windows as well if there's room
  • Space+M will toggle query pane's position vertically. This is a hack.
  • 🔈 VoiceOver now announces selected result, general improvements
  • Added ability to hide query pane by default
• 🔍 Indexing improvements
  • Tabs are now enumerated in WebViews

v0.10.4 - October 9, 2022

• ✨ Usability improvements:
  • Improved hint font legibility
  • Added grey border around hints
  • Menu item result labels no longer cut off due to menu path
  • Element results shows context under result label
  • Selected result hint colour now blue
• 🔍 Outline headers are now indexed
• 🐛 Enter during blank query now correctly clicks at current cursor position
• ☠️ Cmd+Shift+N removed as conflicts with macOS screenshot shortcuts

v0.10.3 - August 29, 2022

• 🐛 Fix indexing bugs when system language is not English
• 🚤 Performance improvements (and more coming)
• 🕸️ tab keyword can be used to refine Safari tabs

v0.10.2 - August 26, 2022

• 📝 Cmd+Num behaviour changes:
  • Now immediately actions element
  • To select (old behaviour), use Cmd+Shift+Num
• 📝 Selection improvements:
  • You can now append the displayed hint in your query to refine further
• 🐞 Cmd+Click no longer sends two events
• 🙊 Now enumerates Electron apps properly on first attempt
• 🦊 Firefox enumeration improvements
• Improved compatibility with some window managers
• Added hint for emoji mode
• Removed backspace to exit scope

v0.10.1 - August 8, 2022

• 📝 Tab behaviour changes:
  • When Shortcat's panel is positioned within the window, pressing Tab will shift it up so you can see elements below
• Backspace when query field is empty exits to parent scope if there is one
• Ignore Bookmarks menu to improve performance for users with large amounts of bookmarks
• Ignore Recent Items menu to improve performance in scenarios involving remote filesystems
• Improve emoji insertion reliability in some apps
• Lower AX timeout thresholds to deal with slow applications
• Show error if desired element click action has no frame
• Default activation shortcut to Cmd+Shift+Space
• Fix text truncation on welcome screen

v0.10.0 - August 3, 2022

• 💫 Emoji support! Begin query with : to enter emoji search mode
  • 🔍 Synonym support! e.g. poop, turd, crap, etc., will all match 💩
  • Think an emoji should be matched by a word but isn't? Tweet at @shortcatapp
• ⌨️ Shortcuts for menu shortcuts now displayed in results, if you'd like a quick reminder
  • 📝 Note: Pressing the menu keyboard shortcut while Shortcat is active won't work as Shortcat has focus
• ⬇️Changing selection with arrow keys shows overlay
• 🪟 Minimised windows now indexed
• 🐞 Outlook (Legacy UI) now indexable in main split view
• 🐞 Xcode New File dialog workarounds due to bad Accessibility implementations (thanks Apple)
• 🚀 Performance improvements

v0.9.4 - July 30, 2022

• ✨ Microsoft Teams support
• ✨ Improved indexing in more Electron apps
• Microsoft Outlook side bar and message list now indexed
• Filter out Application as Window is more useful and matches anyway
• RadioButton priority increased to match other controls
• Improved text extraction from AXCell
• Add btn as synonym for button

v0.9.3 - July 17, 2022

• New: Improved searching with synonym support
  • Shortcat considers words with similar meanings as part of matching
  • For example Remove item... can be matched by delete, clear, destroy also
• New: Tap Control to focus a result (where applicable)
• New: Pressing Enter with no query will click at the current cursor position
• Shortcat will check for updates on start up except for the first launch
• Update Shortcat, Shortcat Preferences, and Shortcat Help now accessible from Shortcat
• Improved AXComboBox indexing
• Selected element highlight now has a breathe effect for better visibility

v0.9.2 - July 14, 2022

• Safari Web Views now indexes StaticTexts as well
• Fixed a crash in some scenarios when an element is actioned while holding modifiers

v0.9.1 - July 14, 2022

• Shortcat will appear now appear in the Dock when Shortcat has open windows to make access easier
• Fixed layout issues on Welcome screens

v0.9.0 - July 11, 2022

• ✨ Experimental support for Chrome, Firefox, and Electron apps!
  • This forces applications to expose Accessibility, which can affect performance or cause other behaviours
  • For example: VS Code will begin emitting audio cues. You can turn this off in VS Code preferences.
• ✨ Windows from all open applications are now searchable
  • Activating will raise window and bring app to foreground
  • Window titles are prefixed with application name for easier searching
• ✨ Open applications are now searchable
  • Activating will bring app to foreground
• Disable autocorrect for query field
• Fixed some bugs specific to Calendar.app
• AXSlider and AXGrid enumeration improvements

v0.8.3 - July 10, 2022

• Typing a query and pressing Enter before enumeration is complete will queue an action when Shortcat finds elements
• Increased enumeration timeout to 5s
• Fixed a layout bug on macOS 11

v0.8.2 - July 9, 2022

• Status bar notifies when there's a new update
• Show progress indicator if enumeration is taking a while
• Fixed bug where Shortcat does not appear when there is no active window
• Fixed Cmd+Number shortcuts only working once per invocation
• Finally fixed the size of the Shortcat icon 😅

v0.8.1 - July 4, 2022

• Dock support re-added
• Added option to change shortcut display delay interval
• Small bug fixes

v0.8.0 - June 27, 2022

• First release of from-scratch rewrite with improved architecture and interface!
  • Now requires macOS 11+
  • Some workflows have changed, but core functionality remains the same
  • New UI now shows a list view of results, enabling new features such as
• Searches current application's menu bar

v0.7.11 - June 6, 2020

• Resolved issue where overlay does not go away after use
• Notarised the archive
• Looking for experienced Mac devs/group to partner on the project. Please get in touch with me on Twitter (@chendo)

v0.7.10 - June 3, 2020

• IMPORTANT: This release has not been notarized. You will need to right-click and Open Shortcat.
• Updated beta expiry date to five years into the future
• If there is a license, beta expiry check is ignored
• Looking for experienced Mac devs/group to partner on the project. Please get in touch with me on Twitter (@chendo)

v0.7.9 - June 1, 2018

• Updated beta expiry date
• Work has stalled due to me founding a startup focused on supporting sex workers through technology. Read my Medium post for more details.

v0.7.8 - June 1, 2017

• Updated beta expiry date
• Work has resumed on Shortcat. Stay tuned!

v0.7.7 - June 1, 2016

• Updated beta expiry date

v0.7.6 - June 1, 2015

• Updated beta expiry date

v0.7.5 - December 6, 2014

• Last version compatible with Mountain Lion, see blog post
• Added support for Yosemite’s dark menu bar mode.

v0.7.4 - October 5, 2014

• FEATURE: Now supports the Dock!
• IMPROVEMENTS: Improved scoring algorithm based on proximity to element under cursor
• Re-enabled element information popover on Yosemite

v0.7.3 - September 4, 2014

• Disables the element information popover on Yosemite as a bug in Yosemite causes the functionality to break.
• Accessibility permission popup updated for Yosemite.

v0.7.2 - August 30, 2014

• YOSEMITE USERS: There’s a bug in Yosemite that causes an issue with Shortcat. Don’t upgrade yet.
• FEATURE: Element information is displayed when an element is selected or moused over
• No longer reports a keyboard shortcut is taken if it’s not enabled

v0.7.1 - July 1, 2014

• Extend beta expiry

v0.7.0 - May 31, 2014

• Adds experimental modal mode. Enable in Preferences
  • Use Cmd+R while active to refresh enumerated elements. Useful where it takes time for elements to change (browsers)
  • Known issues:
    • Modal mode doesn’t resume in some cases due to elements classified as TextFields (Finder’s list view)
• Now requires 10.8 Mountain Lion and above

v0.6.5 - April 6, 2014

• Last version compatible with 10.7 Lion, see blog post
• EXPERIMENTAL: Now supports searching non-Latin languages with Latin queries!
  • Example: You can now match “日本万歳” with either “nippon” or “にっぽん”
  • Read info at the blog post
• Link element’s Description attribute is now searchable
• Fixed non-Roman language case insensitivity matching issues
• No longer crashes when a shortcut that uses Control is mapped to Escape

v0.6.4 - December 17, 2013

• Fixed a bug where Shortcat would incorrectly use best match from previous valid resultset when there are no matches
• Fixed an issue where Shortcat would not click correctly
• Title elements should be searchable again

v0.6.3 - November 15, 2013

• Fixed a bug where Shortcat couldn’t enumerate within iframes
• Improved check box and radio button clicking

v0.6.2 - November 9, 2013

• Last version compatible with 10.7 Lion, see blog post
• Fix a few random crashes
• Fix crash on Lion when opening up Preferences
• Don’t use discrete GPU
• Using Shortcat to click menu bar icon now works correctly
• Overlay now updates correctly when screen configuration changes
• Element actioning improvements:
  • Checkbox and radio buttons are now pressed rather than clicked
  • Sliders are now accessible
• Fixed label width in Usage view

v0.6.1 - October 29, 2013

• Fixed broken app issues, apologies!

v0.6.0 - October 28, 2013

• Last version compatible with 10.7 Lion, see blog post
• Revamped engine allows for much faster matching at expense of slower enumeration
• Massive enumeration performance improvement in WebAreas:
  • Requires Safari 7 to be installed
  • Applies to Safari and apps that use WebViews
• Overlay now restricted to active screen for performance reasons
• Overlay works on multiple screens on Mavericks
• Attempted to make overlay more readable
• Shortcat now works without an active window
• Better text extraction for menu items
• Added opt-in metrics collection
  • Please help us out by enabling it in Preferences -> Advanced!
  • Details here
• Decreased memory usage

v0.5.3 - September 19, 2013

• Fixed an issue where if you press Return before query completes, it can action the result of an earlier query
• Unresponsive menu bar items should no longer cause Shortcat to stall
• Shortcat should now work with multiple instances of an application
• Remove “Show Dock Icon” as it conflicts with some apps
• Bug fixes for Mavericks
• Remove O, W and I from shortcut letters
• Fixed Name and Email text clipping in License view
• Begin transition to SSL for updates
• Updated support link
• Fix crash when cancelling out of adding a license

v0.5.2 - August 18, 2013

• Title/Label UI elements now link correctly to their labelled element
  • Fixes Charts, Shapes, Sections, etc. drop downs in Pages
  • and more!
• Add a Force Keyboard Layout feature. Can be found in Preferences -> Advanced
• Role searching now searches subroles! Example: .zoom for the green zoom button
• Add option in preferences to automatically check for updates
• Add option in preferences to automatically download updates
• Fix label wrapping issues on Lion in the preferences

v0.5.1 - July 15, 2013

• Fix a hang/crash on start for 10.7 Lion

v0.5.0 - July 14, 2013

• Shortcat now searches the menu bar
• Added licensing! Buy a license to support Shortcat development!
• Make Control+<key> and Tab/Shift+Tab element selection more responsive
• Add ‘Check for updates’ to menu
• Pressing Control+<key> rapidly no longer triggers Mouse To and Focus functions
• Matching elements with shorter text are now prioritised higher
• Changing screen configuration/resolution no longer breaks the overlay
• Preferences window no longer shows up when activating Shortcat and it was open
• Underscores now tokenises properly

v0.4.3.1 - June 10, 2013

• Fix crash when pressing Tab or Shift+Tab when there are no elements

v0.4.3 - June 9, 2013

• Menu bar icon is back! You can turn it off in the Preferences
• Dock icon is now hidden by default
• Now supports table headers
• All search fields are now searchable
• Cmd+Tab while Shortcat is active no longer activates the previously active app
• Tab and Shift+Tab now cycles through element results
• Help and Description for radio buttons now being searched on
• Fixes some crashes

v0.4.2 - June 4, 2013

• Fixes crash when trying to select an element when there are no results
• Fixes setObjectForKey crash
• Dock Icon is now visible by default, you can change it in the preferences
• Check for known issues at this Trello board

v0.4.1 - June 2, 2013

• Fix hang on startup on 10.7.x

v0.4.0 - June 2, 2013

• Important update! Please read as many things have changed.
• Major interface changes, please read the README for more details.
  • Selecting elements has changed: Instead of Space [shortcut], it’s now Control+[shortcut].
  • Tapping Control once will move cursor over element. Double tap Control will focus element.
  • Scoping via Shift has been removed for now. Needs reworking.
  • . now supports element-class searching. .button will only show buttons, etc. See README for more details.
• Preliminary support for non-Roman languages has been added!
  • You can now use IMEs in the query field
  • Basic matching of non-Roman languages should now work
• Major performance improvements
• Menu bar icon removed. Access the preferences via Cmd+, after activating Shortcat, or launch Shortcat again.
• Added crash reporting. Please submit crash reports!
• Improved usage tracking, see Usage pane in the preferences.
• Reduced memory usage and fixed some memory leaks.

v0.3.13 - March 20, 2013

• Added better usage instructions and some protips to the README. Check out the TL;DR and Protips section
• Fixed a bug where all elements were clicked in top left; Only links are clicked in top left
• Minor tweaks to matching
• Shortcat archive should no longer be bugged with The Unarchiver (thanks to @ziromr for reporting!)

v0.3.12 - March 9, 2013

• Modifiers now work when clicking links
• Clicking links now attempt to click from top left corner
• Extend beta expiry to July 2013
• Engine rewrite taking much longer than expected

v0.3.11 - Feburary 17, 2013

• Extend beta expiry to May 2013
• Currently undergoing significant rewrite for major performnace improvements; stay tuned!

v0.3.10 - December 9, 2012

• Application switch and window change will now deactivate Shortcat
• Extend beta expiry to March 2013

v0.3.9 - December 1, 2012

• Able to use Option-based shortcuts to activate Shortcat
• New menu bar and search icons by @infinityrobot
• Added optimized app icons for different resolutions
• Clicking links within Help menu now works correctly

v0.3.8 - November 19, 2012

• Added ability to mouse over the top matched element by double tapping Control.
• Improved shortcut assignment:
  • Fixed a regression where shortcut assignment was not splitting words correctly
  • Ignores the scheme in URLs (i.e. ignores http://)

v0.3.7 - November 10, 2012

• Added preferences window
• Added ability to specify shortcut in preferences. Activation shortcut will have been reset. Please change it to your shortcut of choice again.
• Add ability to start Shortcat on login in preferences

v0.3.6 - October 17, 2012

• Added ability to double-click. To double-click, simply double tap Enter when activating an element.
• Overlay is now Retina-enabled. Retina icons are coming soon!

v0.3.5 - October 16, 2012

• Fixes for non-English users:
  • Ignore accents when filtering elements
  • Strip non-alphanumeric characters when assigning shortcuts
• Allow global keyboard shortcuts to work when Shortcat is active
• Remove semi-opaque border by request from Alfred.app

v0.3.4.1 - September 29, 2012

• Having issues? Please let me know!
  • Twitter: @shortcatapp
• A fix (hopefully) for query field occasionally not accepting input
• Prevent scoping when a query is already in progress
• Bring app to front when showing dialogs
• Beta expiry changed to January 1st, 2013

v0.3.4 - September 26, 2012

• Public beta release
• Activating radio buttons and check boxes now use AXPress rather than rely on hitbox
• Elements with title elements not matching
• Add a help window that shows up once on start. Also accessible via status item.

v0.3.3 - September 21, 2012

• Deactivate on Cmd+Tab
• Fix even-numbered line links not activating
• Sparkle checks every hour
• Visual feedback if no element was found for a query
• Made query window stand out a bit more
• Deactivate on mouse click
• Ignore tiny elements
• Only use title attribute of Links

v0.3.2 - September 20, 2012

• First delta-enabled update!
• Fix spinner spinning when not actually doing anything
• Tweaked colour on focus ring and added rounded corners
• Added border and rounded corners to highlighters

v0.3.1.2 - September 20, 2012

• Added new icon
• Fix for clicking the mouse at its current position
• Updated MacRuby to 0.12

v0.3.1.1 - September 19, 2012

• Actioning an element before enumeration finishes works again

v0.3.1 - September 19, 2012

• Updated Sparkle for delta updates
• Major improvements to responsiveness
• Added progress indicator for when it’s processing
• Enumerating everything within Web Areas again
• Bug fixes and performance improvements for element enumeration

v0.3.0 - September 18, 2012

• Element activation improvements:
  • Much more stable shortcut algorithm based on element text
  • A query with an element’s exact shortcut will make that element the top match
  • No longer need to wait for highlight to use shortcut
  • Able to use Space, . or ; as a delimiter to a new query, i.e. <query>;<shortcut>.
  • Activating an element with a shortcut no longer activates immediately when doing <query> <shortcut>. Enter is now the only way to activate an element because it allows you to use modifiers like Ctrl, Command, Option etc.
• Scroll area scoping improvements:
  • Shortcuts now uses letters based on distance from home row
  • Can be used without waiting for highlight
• Enumeration improvements:
  • Now only enumerates links within web views by default. You can go back to the old behaviour by scoping to the web view by holding Shift then the shortcut for the web view.
• Fixed incorrect query window and border positioning for some more multi-monitor configurations
• Tweaked scoring algorithm
• Tweaked highlighter colours and translucency for better readability

v0.2.6.2 - September 2, 2012

• Fixed query field not getting input in Lion

v0.2.6.1 - September 2, 2012

• Fixed issue where query field would not take input when activated
• Fixed crash on Lion

v0.2.6 - August 26, 2012

• Revamped control system; No longer steals focus when activated
• Blue focus ring shows what window or scrollable view it’s targeting
• Holding Shift will highlight focusable elements. Simply type the shortcut while holding Shift and Shortcat will scope its search within that element
• Added ability to simply click by pressing Return when query field is empty
• You can now use modifiers when you perform a click, i.e. Control+Return will perform a right click, Cmd+Return will open a link in a new tab, etc
• Fixed a bug where exact matches were not as high in the list as desired
• Performance improvements: No longer hangs when trying to enumerate massive element trees like Tweetbot and web pages
• Alpha expires October 1st 2012

v0.2.5.1 - July 27, 2012

• Fixed link clicking not working in Mountain Lion

v0.2.5 - July 25, 2012

• Mountain Lion compatibility
• Gatekeeper signed
• About dialog now says dialog

v0.2.4 - July 17, 2012

• Added update mechanism (Sparkle)
• All links within WebAreas are always actionable. Searching may be slower with many URLs

v0.2.3 - July 3, 2012

• Added much better looking UI idea from @ileitch
• Fixed Cmd-A
• Shortcut text now bold for better visibility
• Able to change activation shortcut via defaults write com.sproutcube.shortcat activationShortcut "Space+OPTION" for example
• ’;’ will highlight all actionable elements
• Scoring algorithm tweaks. Now matches placeholders.