Organize Your Creative Workflow on Mac with Tabs of App Tiles

A creative project moves through phases in a single day: drafting, collecting references, editing, then review and sharing. Each phase uses different apps, but macOS shows them all in one pile. Switching from one phase to the next means finding tools again, even though the combinations repeat from project to project.

Short answer: the best app for grouping your creative tools by phase, in my opinion as its developer, is Jetty: each bar has tabs, and each tab holds one-click tiles for apps, files, folders, websites and Shortcuts. It is a $9.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store and needs macOS 14 or later.

Disclosure: I build Jetty.

Why a flat app list slows creative work

The Dock and Launchpad (on macOS 15 and earlier; Tahoe has the Apps view instead) assume every app deserves the same attention. You cannot say "these three apps are for drafting and these two are for review" and see that structure when you need it. People end up pinning tools from every phase or searching with Spotlight for the same names over and over.

What you can do with macOS alone

• Keep the Dock short. Control-click an icon, choose Options, then Remove from Dock, and keep the apps you use all day. See how to remove apps from the Dock.
• Use folders in the Dock. Add a folder of aliases to the right side of the Dock and it opens as a stack.
• Use Finder tags and sidebar favorites to keep project files close.

These work, but they do not give you a labeled set per phase that is visible next to your work.

Design-app specifics (Figma, Sketch, Photoshop) are in quick-launch your design apps.

One tab per phase

In Jetty you create a bar and put one tab on it for each phase. Names are up to you:

• A writer might use "Draft", "Research" and "Publish".
• A video editor might use "Capture", "Edit" and "Export".
• A designer might use "Concept", "Build" and "Handoff".

Each tab holds tiles. A tile can be an app, a file, a folder, a website or a Shortcut. Drag items in from Finder, drag tiles to reorder them, and right-click a tab to rename or remove it. The tab strip shows when a bar has more than one tab.

Reference material next to the tools

Drag a mood board folder, a style guide PDF or a project folder onto the same tab as the app you use with it. A folder tile opens a popup that lists its contents. A website tile can open the reference site you use most. Jetty has no recent-files list, so you choose what goes on a tab, and it stays there until you remove it.

Pick how big and where

Each bar can sit on the top, bottom, left or right edge, or float where you drag it. You choose Small, Medium or Large tiles and one to six rows (or columns on a side bar). You can use up to four bars, for example one per medium or per client. Bars float above normal windows and stay on screen when you switch desktops (Spaces).

What a click does

Each tile opens one thing. Jetty does not start a whole phase with one click. If you want that, build a Shortcut in Apple's Shortcuts app that opens several apps, and add a Shortcut tile that runs it.

Limits to know about

Bars sit on the main screen. There are no keyboard triggers for bars and no search. The menu-bar item lists your bars so you can show, hide or edit them, but launching happens from the bars.

If you want a keyboard-first launcher instead, read Raycast and Alfred compared with Jetty.

How we checked

Jetty's details on this page were checked against the app's source code and its App Store listing on 2026-10-10 and are collected on the facts page; I build Jetty. For built-in macOS steps, Apple's Mac User Guide is the reference for your version of macOS.

FAQ

How do I organize apps by project on a Mac?

macOS has no built-in grouping for apps. A Jetty bar lets you create one tab per project or phase, each with its own tiles. You can also keep a short Dock and use Spotlight for the rest.

Can I keep files and folders with my apps?

Yes. Jetty tiles can be files and folders as well as apps, websites and Shortcuts.

How many tabs and bars can I have?

You can have up to four bars at a time. Each bar can have several tabs.

Does a tab open all its apps at once?

No. Each tile opens one item. A Shortcut tile can run a shortcut you make to open several apps.

Get Jetty on the Mac App Store. $9.99 one-time purchase, macOS 14 or later.