How to use a website as your Mac’s desktop background

Plash is a free macOS app that lets you use any webpage as a wallpaper, effectively pinning it behind all other open windows and applications. Let’s explore how to use it and why it’s a worthy addition to your app arsenal.

Getting started with Plash

After installing Plash from the App Store, open the application. Once it’s running, you’ll notice a new addition to your menu bar in the form of an icon that resembles a water drop. Plash is controlled entirely via the drop-down menu that appears when you click the Plash menu bar icon.

Once you have activated Plash by clicking on the menu item at the top, you can start using it by adding the first website you want to use as wallpaper.

Click the Plash menu bar entry and select “Add Website” from the drop-down menu.

In the URL field, enter any website of your choice. Make sure you enter the entire web address and make sure to include the “https://” part.

Once you enter the URL, the “Title” field directly below may automatically populate with information that will be read by the website you selected. However, you can change this to any title of your choice by editing the text in the field. When you’re happy with your title, click “Add” and your desktop background will immediately display your chosen website.

Interaction with Plash

Plash’s main purpose is to pin a website to your wallpaper, making it always visible but blocking its current state from interaction.

However, if you need to interact with your background webpage, you can do so by enabling Browser Mode, which is toggled on/off via the Plash menu bar drop-down menu or via a hotkey that serves alongside other custom hotkeys can be configured on the Shortcuts tab in Plash’s main Settings window.

Customize the appearance of Plash

Once you’ve confirmed that Plash works at a basic level and pushed it to the background by disabling browser mode, it’s time to move on to some additional settings that will customize the appearance of the app to best suit you and suits your usage. Case.

In Plash Settings, under the General tab, use the Opacity slider to adjust the degree to which your original background image is visible. Slide it all the way to the right if you only want your pinned website to be visible. Conversely, if you want the site to function as a very light overlay, move the slider all the way to the left. Adjust this slider to a spot that looks best for you.

If you’re using more than one monitor, you’ll also find an option under the General Settings tab to choose which display you want Plash to appear on. Enable the Show on All Spaces option if you want Plash to appear on all virtual desktops on your selected display.

If you only want it to appear on one, exit Plash’s Settings, navigate to the desktop you want to limit Plash’s visibility to, reopen Settings, and then toggle Show on All Spaces. out of. Plash should now only be visible on this desktop area.

Finally, in this section of Plash Settings you can set an interval at which the app will automatically refresh the page. This is useful when using static pages or in other situations where a page may no longer automatically retrieve data as expected.

Mute Plash

There’s another important setting that’s a little hidden compared to the others: audio controls. Plash’s ability to output audio at scale can be adjusted in the Advanced tab. This is the only way to adjust the “mute audio” setting.

Note the additional settings in this section and determine if any of them need to be changed to suit your use case.

Use cases for Plash

At first glance, Plash and its capabilities seem very specific or tailored to very advanced users. I think the opposite is true. I can hardly think of a single user whose setup couldn’t be improved by Plash on a very practical level. Here are a few to consider.

Clearly visible clock or calendar

I don’t know about you, but the ubiquity of internet-connected devices has led to the absence of wall clocks in my interior design. As a result, I was a little annoyed that I had to take my phone out of my pocket or strain my eyes to see the time displayed in the macOS menu bar.

Plash is great for displaying a high-visibility clock that is easily visible from across the room at all times. In fact, this was exactly the reason I originally added Plash to my everyday Mac setup. Likewise, Plash is great for displaying a large, always-visible personal calendar.

Avoid closing websites while recording your screen

Whether you’re recording your screen for live streaming purposes or for screen sharing in a remote meeting/presentation, Plash can be used to great effect to ensure that you don’t inadvertently lose the capture of your browser window by accident Interrupt closing. Click on something you didn’t want or freeze the recording by navigating to another virtual desktop.

If you’re someone who streams or screen-shares with any frequency, you can absolutely benefit from Plash.

Keep track of a website that needs frequent updates

If you feel the need to constantly refresh a web page (e.g. because you’re waiting for an item to go on sale or information to become available), it can be tedious to go to a browser, then to a tab, then to switch to constantly update it manually.

By adding the website to your wallpaper and setting the refresh interval to a sensible value, you can easily share the desktop to receive an update. This is ideal if you’re waiting for a delivery and want to have tracking status at your fingertips.

Plash is an app that is easy to use and offers a seemingly endless list of possible use cases. With these qualifications, it’s a great app to grab even if you don’t have a specific use for it at the moment. Keep it in your back pocket and it will definitely show its usefulness in no time.