14 Truly Useful Mac Tips

This is a brief overview of  several of Tom’s suggestions. (Proper Honest Tech on YouTube). See the video for a complete description. But here’s a few to get you interested. 

If you have taken some videos that you would like to combine in to one, use a program on your Mac called Quickview. Open the first video with Quickview and then drag others on top of the viewer to add them together. Add more if needed. You can use the sliders on each end to edit the length or move them into a different order.

To move a file from one location to another, use CMD+C to copy it, then go to the desired location and use CMD+OPT+V to move the copied file into the new location. The file in the first location will be deleted so you won’t have a duplicate.

Sometimes we just need a bigger desktop but instead of that you can create multiple desktops with different apps. Maybe one for personal projects/apps and one for work with other apps or some of the same.  Use Mission Control (F3 function key to open Mission Control) to create another desktop different that the one you are working on.  On the Mission Control screen press the + button in the upper right corner to create the new desktop. Open apps that you need and get to work. You can have two or even three if needed. You can cut and copy and paste between the desktops. You can use a finger swipe to the left or right on a Magic Mouse to go from one Desktop to another. 

Automator is included with your Mac and it allows you to automate repetitive tasks. Type CMD+Spacebar to open search and type “automator” and the app will open. You may need to click “New Document” and then you’ll see several selections. Please watch the video for a demonstration of it’s potential. It can rename batches of files at once, split pdf’s into separate pages, rotate images, and much more.  

Quickly lock your Mac by going to the Apple icon on the menu bar and select Lock, or just press CMD+CTRL+Q.

To quickly rename a file, select it and press the Return key once to go into renaming. To rename a group of files, select them (CMD-A), then right click and a window (Rename Finder Items)  will open to give you some naming options.

Need to covert something (currency, temperature, length, volume, etc.), just press CMD-Spacebar to bring up the Spotlight Search and type what you are looking for. It’s very intuitive. If it did not give you what you are looking for add some more information. For example if I typed $50, it gave me the conversion in Euros. If I added “pounds” it would understand that I wanted British Pounds. For temperature, type the number and press OPTION+O to add the degree symbol.  Need a time? Type Time in Tokyo and it will tell you the current time in the city.

The remaining tips are:

Spotlight Search to open Apps

Live Text

Quick Do Not Disturb

Safari Profiles

Window hacks

Quick change audio inputs & outputs

Useful keyboard shortcuts

For the complete video see Proper Honest Tech