Some of these tips require the use of Terminal or Disk Utility. These are more advanced procedures and may not be for everyone. I mention them because they can be useful. To see what’s needed in the “Advanced” go to the Original source at the end of this article.
- Skip the Finder window – open Text Editor as a new document -Advanced
- Password protect a folder – Advanced
- Maximize screen space by hiding the Dock -Advanced
- Combine files into a PDF – no 3rd party app needed. Open Finder to the files you want to combine. Select carefully at that will be the order they appear in the PDF. Use CMD+click to select. Then CTRL+click or right click and choose Quick Actions>Create PDF
- Open relevant files for a meeting. Using macOS calendar app, you can automate this. Open the calendar event and look for Add Attachment option. Click on it and navigate to the file needed and select it (document, spreadsheet, etc). Set an alert/alarm for the event and choose Custom under alert option and select Open File. From there, select the specific file to open. When the date/time arrives, you files will open in time for the event.
- Customize Folder Icons – this is not hard but require multiple steps. See the article. Hand to have different colors or image to identify folders. Advanced
- Customize Folder colors – same as above but only changes the color of the standard folder image.Advanced
- Add spacers to Dock – spread out your app icons- using Terminal command. Advanced
- Open documents in Tabs instead of separate Windows – a useful feature of you have lots of things open in Finder, Pages, Numbers. Go to Systems Settings and navigate to Desktop and Dock, scroll down to Windows section and select Prefer Tabs when opening documents.
- 10.Group Mission Control Windows by Apps – If you have many open windows and desktops, use this feature. Go to System Settings, navigate to Desktop and Dock and scroll down to Mission Control (at bottom). Toggle on Group windows by application. This will help manage your work.
- Keep Apple Notes on Top – Frustrated by trying reference other documents while using Notes? Keep Notes on top of everything else. Here’s how. Open Notes, double click on the Note you need and it will pop up as a separate window. Then go to the Window menu in Notes and select Keep On Top.
- 12.Pin Folders to Finder Toolbar – Sometimes a folder is used very frequent. No need to drill down to it since you can anchor it to the toolbar in Finder. In Finder, go to the folder you want, hold down the CMD key while you drag the folder to the toolbar at the top of the finder window. Now, no matter where you are in finder, that folder will be at ready access.
- 13.Add App Folders to the Dock – First, create a new folder anywhere you want on your Mac, and inside this folder, create another folder based on the category of apps you want to group — for example, ‘Office’ for all your work-related apps. First, create a new folder anywhere you want on your Mac, and inside this folder, create another folder based on the category of app you want to group, of example, ‘Office’ for work related apps. After this, open a new Finder window, navigate to the Applications folder, and find the first app you want to include. Right-click on the app and select Make Alias. This creates a shortcut that you can place anywhere. Drag the alias into the ‘Office’ folder you just created. Repeat this process for all the other apps you want to include in this folder. Once you have gathered all your aliases into the folder, drag and drop the ‘Office’ folder to the right side of the Dock (near the Trash and the Downloads folder). Right-click on the folder in the Dock and select Folder under the Display As section to ensure it shows up as a folder icon rather than a stack. Then, choose Grid under the View Content As section to display the apps in a neat grid layout when you click on the folder. Now, you can remove individual app icons from the Dock to declutter, knowing that you can access all of them quickly through the folder you just created.
- 14.Quick access – add a bullet point with OPT+8, navigate between tabs in any app with OPT+CMD+left or right arrow. Open Settings in any app with CMD+, and finally access the Emoji keyboard with CMD+CTRL+Space
Medium is one of my favorite sites. Even though it’s not free, you can try it for $5/month to see if you like it enough to keep it. You select your preferences from a very wide range of topics for articles you’d like to see and then receive a daily email with 8-10 article links. Most are 3-5 minute reads. Many are very informative, well written, and which leads me to explore the topic more deeply. Occasionally you’ll hit a dud. Overall, I have been pleased with the quality of the articles. You can even write articles yourself and submit them. Make a little money too.
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Original source:
https://medium.com/macoclock/16-simple-tricks-to-become-an-s-tier-macos-user-b5a4b34d4372