How to create real Mac Apps in 4 easy steps with Fluid app for Mac.
Instapaper is my favorite read it later app. One thing that has always bothered me is Instapaper not having a Mac desktop app. I do a fair amount of reading on my MacBook Pro so I had to either read my Instapaper stories on the Instapaper website or in Readkit neither of which was the optimal reading environment for me.
I was searching google for a particular Mac app the other day and I ran across a forum where someone mentioned using Fluid to create Mac desktop apps. I went to the Fluid website to check it out. Fluid lets you create a Real Mac App (or “Fluid App”) out of any website or web application, effectively turning your favorite web apps into Mac desktop apps. I read several reviews to be sure Fluid was safe to install on my Mac. I always trust the reviews of Federico Viticci at Mac Stories. His article 30 Web Apps You Should Turn into Mac Apps with Fluid: convinced me to give Fluid a try.
Creating a Fluid App out of your favorite website is simple.
- Download the Fluid app
- Launch the Fluid app
- Enter the website’s URL, provide a name, and optionally choose an icon.
- Click “Create”, and within seconds your chosen website has a permanent home on your Mac as a real Mac application that appears in your Dock.
I now have my Instapaper desktop app plus a few others.
Since I no longer needed Readkit to read my Instapaper articles on my MacBook I was able to switch to Reeder as my RSS client for Mac and iOS. If you would like to learn more about Reeder I recommend reading this article by Stephen Hackett ”Reeder is the best RSS client for Mac OS X users. It syncs with lots of third-party services, looks good, and makes it easy to share content with others”.
Fluid is free. You can download Fluid for free and create as many Fluid Apps as you like. However, for $4.99, you can purchase a Fluid License which unlocks a few extra features.