Stopwatch:
The Ultimate Guide to Stopwatch App for Mac

There are many reasons why you may need a stopwatch during your day. A stopwatch is an easy way to see how long something is taking. This has many applications, including timing a race, seeing how long something takes to happen in a science experiment, and seeing how long it takes your toddler to find the toy you hid, among many others.

How to use a stopwatch on Mac

For whatever reason, Mac computers do not come with a stopwatch application. However, before you head to the app store, there is a trick you can use to create an effective stopwatch on Mac.

Follow these directions:

  1. Start by launching the Terminal Application.
  2. Once open, type in this command: time cat
  3. Hit enter, and your stopwatch will start.
  4. When you are ready to stop your stopwatch, all you need to do is hit Control-C on the keyboard.
  5. Once the stopwatch stops running, the computer will send you back to the command prompt.
  6. You will see something like this:
$ time cat
ΛC
real 0m5.905s
user 0m0.001s
System 0m0.003s

Out of all of that, the number you care about is the top "real" number. That is the amount of time elapsed since you started the timer.

If putting in commands isn't your thing, you can go to App Store and get a stopwatch application.

How to use a stopwatch using Parallels Toolbox

Another alternative to using the command bar to create a timer is to use the stopwatch provided by Parallels Toolbox. Keep in mind that this is only for Mac, not PC. Using this stopwatch is simple. Follow these steps.

  1. Download the Parallels Toolbox.
  2. On your Mac applications bar, open up the Parallels Toolbox.
  3. A window will pop open, and you should see "Dashboard" and "Library" at the top. If it isn't already on it, select Library.
  4. Under Library is a list of categories. Select "Time."
  5. Once you have selected "Time," all applications that relate to time will pop up. Select "Stopwatch."
  6. This will bring up a stopwatch window. When you are ready to start timing your event, click "Start," and the stopwatch will begin.
  7. When you have completed your event, hit "Stop," and the stopwatch will end. You can also stop the stopwatch in the middle of the event if you need to. Hit resume, and it will start again.
  8. At any time while the stopwatch is running, you can also reset the stopwatch. All you need to do is hit the "Reset" button at the bottom of the stopwatch.

Investing in Parallels Toolbox is an excellent choice because it has such a vast variety of tools. Some of the tools included are airplane mode, date countdown, do not disturb, and resize images. Those are just a handful of the many applications Parallels Toolbox has.

While you can get a free stopwatch application for Mac on the App Store, Parallels Toolbox is a worthy investment. Rather than having a bunch of applications scattered all over your computer, you can have an all-in-one solution by using Parallels Toolbox.

Conclusion

Stopwatches have a lot of uses when it comes to timing events. You could use it in a professional capacity or for more mundane tasks at home. Mac does not have its own built-in stopwatch, so you either have to get an application from the App Store or rely on running a command.

Parallels Toolbox is a great choice of an application for your stopwatch needs. It has an easy-to-use stopwatch and many other useful applications as well. Having all your tools together in one application will help you do things faster and with more ease.