Mac Tutorial: How To Enable an App Extension

Starting with OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), Mac applications can include embedded app extensions. App extensions add custom functionality to your Mac. How you can use an app extension depends on what kind of extension it is.

At the time of this writing, there are four different kinds of app extensions available on the Mac:

Action: Action extensions can manipulate content in another supporting app. Action extensions often work in text editing applications like Text Edit.

Finder: Finder extensions add functionality to the Finder.

Share Menu: Share extensions allow you to share content with other

Today: These are widgets that can be added to the Today view in the Notification Center.

While there are several different kinds of app extensions available, every app extensions requires the user to enable them in System Preferences before they can be used. If you recently purchased an app and cannot figure out why you are unable to use a feature advertised in the app description, there is a chance that the feature you are looking for requires you to enable an app extension.

How to Enable an App Extension

To enable an app extension, open the System Preferences app on your Mac. In the System Preferences window, click on “Extensions.”

Screenshot of System Preferences on OS X El Capitan annotated instructions 'Go to extensions pane.'

Once you are in the “Extensions” section of System Preferences, you will see a list of all the app extensions you have on your Mac. To enable or disable an app extension, simply check or uncheck the box next to each extension in the list. That’s all there is to it.

App extensions pane in System Preferences on Mac.

File Cabinet Pro Version 2.0 Update Adds Global Hotkey Feature

File Cabinet Pro Mac app icon.

            Download on the App Tyrant Store button.

File Cabinet Pro Mac App screenshot showing Global hotkey tab selected in settings.

File Cabinet Pro version 2.0 is out.

What’s New?

-Global Hotkey support for automatically showing and hiding the File Cabinet window! This feature is disabled by default, however, you can go to settings and turn it on if you’d like. You can set your own hotkey or use the default hotkey we suggest. Please note that File Cabinet will do its best to prevent you from choosing a hotkey that will likely cause a conflict with other apps. For example, you can’t set the hotkey to Command+C because you wouldn’t be able to copy a selection to the clipboard.

-The icon in the menubar now changes to dark blue when File Cabinet Pro is the focused app. It will change to black when File Cabinet Pro is not the focused app.

-You can now “Go Back” by using the Command+[ keyboard shortcut.

-You can now “Go Forward” by using the Command+] keyboard shortcut.

-Major performance improvements, especially when viewing a directory with lots of files in it.

-Users on OS X El Capitan will enjoy additional performance improvements when viewing directories in Icon View because we now take advantage of new API Apple introduced in OS X El Capitan.

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