Your Mac probably has a ton of capabilities that you aren’t even aware of. Learn these Macintosh tricks to get the most out of your Mac.
Apple has provided its customers with state-of-the-art technological devices for several decades. They constantly push the envelope to design new features for the products that they sell.
For example, 15 years ago, no one would’ve thought it possible to have an all-encompassing touchscreen smartphone.
However, they also make sure to keep their original products, like the Macintosh, full of helpful tricks for the user.
That has lead to a bevy of Macintosh tricks that can boost your daily productivity and reduce stress from some of the most common frustrations.
Here are several things you can do to take away the minor inconveniences of using a computer.
1. Find the Mouse
You’re working on a project and have several things going all at once. You have a Word page open, several tabs open on Safari, and a Skype page open to interact with your coworkers.
Somewhere among all of these open windows that are compiled on your home screen is the mouse cursor… but you can’t find it.
Luckily, the Mac has a simple trick to find it again. All you need to do is shake your mouse and the arrow will puff up to show you where it is on your desktop.
Gone are the days of creating vicious circles with your mouse to find the cursor again!
2. Customized Screenshots
You’ve undoubtedly used the “print screen” button once or twice to capture a picture you’ll need later on.
However, you typically have to then paste it to Paint and crop out the portions you don’t want to keep… not anymore!
On a Mac, you only need to press “Command ? Shift ? 4” and it will let you take a screenshot of the selected piece of the screen you’d like to copy.
This will help you shave off at least 10 minutes to your day for every time you take a screenshot.
3. Unusual Letters and Symbols Shortcut
We all have those situations where a foreign symbol needs to be used in order to search the correct word and/or spelling.
However, those haven’t always been readily available to use. For years, you may have thought that Microsoft Word’s autocorrect was your only access to them.
If you’re searching for an “è” symbol to type in, you can just hold down “e” for a few seconds on a Mac and relative symbols will pop up as a suggestion to use.
Now you don’t have to worry about knowing the intended purpose behind foreign letters. Your Mac will help you to understand the proper time to use them.
4. Split Screen
We all run into a need for split screen on Mac several times a day. It takes precious seconds/minutes to properly size each window to your liking.
Little did you know, there was an easier way this entire time!
Simply hold down the green button (enlarge screen button) and drag that window to one side of the screen. Then you just need to click on the other window to fill the other side evenly.
Now your OCD is fulfilled with two evenly-spaced windows and you’re being more productive… a win-win for everyone!
5. A “Loss for Words” Tool
Who hasn’t had those moments when typing out a long summary where you have a word you’re intending to write, then you hit a blockage.
You can’t think of the word that you had in mind… Ugh! It’s on the tip of your tongue!
A Mac can help you out in those situations. You just need to hit Fn (bottom left of your keyboard) and F5 while typing. A list of words that may be relative to your sentence will pop up.
No more writer’s block to set you back several minutes while trying to think of the same word.
6. Search for a Word
There are always times where you type a huge paragraph, end it, and then realize you forgot another thought you were intending to put in.
Now you have to come through everything you’ve written for one specific word.. it’s annoying!
Many people get confused when a Mac or Macbook won’t pull up a search bar after hitting “Control + F”. On a Mac device, you’ll want to hit “Command + F”.
Once you press that combination, a tiny search bar will pop up to help you find the word you need.
7. Finding Your Apps Quickly
Everyone has been taught to comb through their Mac applications by using Finder and searching through its list.
No need to go that route anymore. The LaunchPad icon, which looks like a grey circle with a rocket ship in it, is always available.
After you click on it, it will show page by page of all your applications by icon, so that you can find your desired app quickly.
It’s always helpful to have visual icons to choose from, rather than the names of every app you own listed on one square window.
8. Minuscule Display Changes
Have you ever had those moments where your screen display or sound was just a bit too much over the top? Only a tiny bit less of it would be ideal, but the increment levels are too significant for things like the brightness buttons.
Now, if you want to control the brightness or sound a bit more, you can! You aren’t just stuck with the levels that the Macbook or Mac defaults to.
Instead, hold down on shift as you change the levels, it’ll allow you to change it in much more minuscule amounts.
Install These Macintosh Tricks into Your Daily Routine!
Gone are the days of having your workday set back by the limitations of your devices!
These Macintosh tricks will help you shave off some crucial minutes to your day.
Be sure to check back with Better Tech Tips often for the latest information on clever hacks to your everyday devices.