What is the most cluttered place in your computer? For me (and most of my friends), it’s the desktop. Everything goes there before they are sorted out to their destined location. The problem is, there’s no such thing as “sorting out time” (at least not for me). So, my desktop’s practically a pigsty.

And there’s another problem. Desktop is also the first and the last place that you will see (and maybe the most visited place) on your computer. I think I know now what most parents who live with their teenage boys must feel.

My temporary, non-elegant solution  to Mac desktop customization was to create another folder on my computer to take over Desktop’s job. The result: my desktop got cleaner, but it’s also deserted and useless.

Let’s get Bumpy

Then I ran into a Mac desktop customization application called BumpTop that might solve the desktop dilemma. It’s originally a Windows-only app, but the developer just released the Mac version with support for Mac-specific features such as Expose, QuickLook and also Multitouch Gestures (the last is for Pro version only).

Out of curiosity, I installed the app.

I ran the Mac desktop customization app and it quickly transformed my desktop into a three dimensional room with walls and a floor with my desktop files scattered over it. Great! Now the pigsty is turning into a 3D pigsty.

But BumpTop gives its users the ability to tidy up the room automatically. All you have to do is right click on the empty area of the floor and choose “Pile by type”

And you will get a tidy floor.

Piling up your files by type is not the only trick that BumpTop has. If you click on a file, you will get the option to enlarge or shrink the icon size. Based on my count, there are 5 steps up and 4 steps down from the original size.

While you are doing that, you will notice that the other icons which get in the way will move to give space. Nice touch to give a more realistic feeling of a room.

Select all the files (Command + A) and you will get more options in the sidebar.

You could double-click on a pile to see what files are piled there.

Re-decorating the room

BumpTop resides in the menubar. You can access the Preferences by clicking on the menubar icon. There are few things that you can do from the Preferences. There are the usual “start at login” and “automatically check for update” along with “upgrade to Pro” options. And there’s an option to change the background image of the walls and floor. You can also access this room decoration menu by right clicking on the desktop.

You can set different images for each individual element of the room by clicking on the blue button one by one and then browse for the image files. But you can also use one image for all of the element by checking the “Use floor’s wallpaper for all walls” box.

To liven up the walls, you could also pin some pictures on them. Just drag and drop the image files to any side of the walls. However, on the version that I tried (v. 1.04.2), you need to rename the image files before you can pin them to the walls. Hopefully, this bug will be fixed in future versions.

If you need to jot down some quick notes, look no further than the wall. You can create “Post It”=like notes with a click. But the annoying thing about this feature is that the free version allows users to create only 2 notes.

Enlarge your screen

In general, this app is a fun one to play with. But it would be more fun on a large screen. I think that people with claustrophobia should not use this app on a small display.

There are more features that have already been discussed in the article about Windows version of BumpTop. Don’t forget to check it out. There’s also a short video tutorial on the developer’s site to learn more about this app.

Have you tried BumpTop? Do you know other alternatives? Share using the comment below.