Pavel Jelic Within the macOS operating system, there are hundreds of different shortcuts and tricks that can make your daily Apple computer use faster and more pleasant. There is beauty in simplicity, and that is true in this case as well. Let's take a look together at 25 quick tips and tricks that are often overlooked and that every macOS user should know at the same time.
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25 quick tips and tricks for every macOS user
Desktop and application controls
- Activating Spotlight – if you want to activate Spotlight, which is a sort of Google search engine on your Mac, press the keyboard shortcut Command + Space. In addition to searching, you can also use Spotlight to solve mathematical operations or to convert units.
- Switch between applications – to switch between applications, press the keyboard shortcut Command + Tab. Press the Tab key while holding down the Command key repeatedly to move between applications.
- Close the application – if you are in the application switching interface (see above), you tab to a certain application, then release Tab and press Q together with the Command key, the application will close.
- Active corners – if you're not using them yet, you should at least give it a try. You can find their settings in System Preferences -> Mission Control -> Active Corners. If you set them and move the mouse to one of the active corners of the screen, a certain preset action will happen.
- Advanced Active corners – in case, after activating Active Corners, you keep running the set actions by mistake, hold the Option key while setting. Active corners are then only activated if you hold the Option key.
- Hiding the window – if you want to quickly hide a particular window on the desktop, press the keyboard shortcut Command + H. The application will disappear with its window, but you can quickly access it again with Command + Tab.
- Hide all windows – you can make all windows except the one you are currently in be hidden. Just press the keyboard shortcut Option + Command + H.
- Adding a new desktop – if you want to add a new desktop, press the F3 key, then tap the + icon in the upper right corner.
- Moving between surfaces – if you use multiple surfaces, you can quickly move between them by holding the Control key, then pressing the left or right arrow
The latest 16″ MacBook Pro:
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File and folder management
- Quick folder opening – if you want to quickly open a folder, just hold the Command key together with the down arrow. To go back again, hold Command and press the up arrow.
- Surface cleaning – if you have macOS 10.14 Mojave and later installed, you can use the Sets feature. To activate this feature, right-click on the desktop and select Use Sets from the menu.
- Immediate file deletion – if you want to immediately delete a certain file or folder, so that it does not even appear in the Recycle Bin, select the file or folder, and then press the keyboard shortcut Option + Command + Backspace.
- Automatic duplicate file – if you want to use a certain file as a template and you don't want its original form to change, right-click on it and select the Information option. In the new window, then check the Template option.
Screenshots
- Screen capture – Command + Shift + 3 will take a screenshot, Command + Shift + 4 will give you the option to select a part of the screen for the screenshot, and Command + Shift + 5 will show advanced options, including the one to capture a video of the screen.
- Only a certain window – if you press Command + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot of just part of the screen, then if you hold the spacebar and hover the mouse over the application window, you will get the option to easily and quickly take a screenshot of just that window.
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Safari
- Picture in Picture (YouTube) – while doing other things, you can watch videos on your Mac. Just use the Picture-in-Picture function by, for example, opening a video on YouTube and then right-clicking on it twice in a row. Just select the Picture in Picture option from the pa k menu.
- Picture in picture 2 – if you don't see the option for Picture in Picture using the above procedure, just right-click the sound icon in the URL text box at the top of Safari, where the Picture in Picture option should appear.
- Quick address marking – if you want to quickly share the address of the page you're on with someone, press Command + L to highlight the address, then Command + C to quickly copy the link.
Trackpad
- Quick preview – if you press the Trackpad hard on a file or link on a Mac, you can see a quick preview of it.
- Quick renaming – if you hold down the Trackpad firmly on a folder or file name, you can quickly rename it.
- Scroll using the Trackpad – to change the direction of scrolling with the Trackpad, go to System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Scroll & Zoom and disable the option Scroll direction: natural.
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Apple Watch and Mac
- Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch – if you own an Apple Watch, you can use it to unlock your Mac or MacBook. Just go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy to enable Unlock apps and Mac with Apple Watch.
- Confirm with Apple Watch instead of password – if you have activated the above function and you have macOS 10.15 Catalina and later, you can also use Apple Watch instead of passwords to perform various system actions, etc.
Notification center
- Quick activation of Do Not Disturb mode – to quickly activate or deactivate do not disturb mode, hold the Option key, then click the notification center icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
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Keyboard
- Controlling the mouse with the keyboard – in macOS, you can activate a function that can be used to control the mouse cursor and the keyboard. Just go to System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Pointer Controls -> Alternate Controls to activate the Enable Mouse Keys feature. Here, then go to the Options… section and activate the option Turn mouse keys on and off by pressing the Alt key five times. If you now press Option (Alt) five times, you can use the keyboard to move the cursor.
- Quick access to settings using function keys – if you hold down the Option key and together with it one of the function keys in the top row (i.e. F1, F2, etc.), you will quickly get to the preferences of a certain section that the function key is related to (e.g. Option + brightness control will switch you to monitor settings).
These are notorious things that keep repeating themselves in more and more articles. Please tell me how to easily move windows between different monitors. It's fun in WIN, I grab the mouse and move. It's horror at MAC. The window will enlarge by itself and I won't do anything with it. Either there is a trick, or no developer of the famous Apple thought to connect two monitors. :-(
Hello, I bought an original mouse for Mac, but even if I set the mouse movement to max, it is still very slow, does anyone know if the mouse could somehow be made even faster?? Apparently the mouse has low DPI. When I tried Genius MX7015 which has 1600DPI, it is much faster. So I probably wasted 2000 CZK for an original mouse