Although macOS is designed to be easy to use around the world and without outside help, it is inevitable that its endless list of functions will go unnoticed. There are functions that we all know because they are easy to find. Others are less intuitive. But that’s what Mac cheat lists are for. To bring out the surprises that macOS hides.
Some of these tricks for Mac you will have discovered by accident. Others told you. And a third group, directly you do not know them. You may not need them. But surely they will be very useful in your day to day when you need to lock the screen of your Mac, edit PDF documents no third-party apps, insert emojis, instantly rename files, find something on the internet without opening Safari or minimizing open windows.
Quick actions with hot corners
Hot Corners is a macOS feature that allows you to perform specific tasks instantly by simply placing your mouse cursor in one of the four corners of the screen. This function is configured from System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Screen Saver > Hot Corners. You can assign a quick action to each active corner. By default, by placing the cursor in the lower right corner, you will be able to create a quick note.
The quick action list includes: start screen saver, open Mission Control, show Desktop, bring open app windows to the foreground, show Notification Center, show Launchpad, create a quick note, put screen to sleep, and finally lock screen.
With this trick you can lock screen from your Mac quickly so no one can access your computer without your permission. It is a faster way to execute this action from the Apple menu or by pressing the keys Control, Command and Q.
Change folder icons
If you need to put a little order in your folders macOS and it is not enough for you to give them an original name or assign them color labels, you can change their default icons for any image in PNG or JPG format. So you are sure to find each folder at a glance. One of the easiest and most practical Mac tricks to use.
To change the icon of each folder you will have to open the window of Get information from that folder. The quickest way to do this is by selecting a folder and pressing the keys command + i. In the window that will open you will see an icon in the upper left corner. You can extract that icon and paste it into Preview via Clipboard to get the icon as an image. And backwards. You can paste images to replace the icon. All you have to do is select the icon and press Command + C to copy and Command + V for paste.
An example of what you can do. From the original icon of the folders, you can give it different colors and/or add other distinctive elements. In a few minutes you will have the opportunity to create a custom icon set to differentiate your folders according to their content.
Preview as PDF editor
The official app for view images and other documents on macOS it is Preview. Among its most visible surprises is the possibility of edit PDF documents. Specifically, you can delete pages, change the order of those pages, combine two or more PDF documents, move pages from one PDF to another, protect a PDF with a password, sign PDF documents, compress a PDF so that it takes up less space…
Another practical section of Preview and PDF documents is the possibility of add notes, draw over and make all kinds of corrections, highlight text, add effects, extract text and/or images from a PDF to paste it into another type of document, etc.
In macOS, there are a number of files and folders that we don’t see with the naked eye. Usually it’s because we don’t have that need. These are system elements that should not be touched or simply files with data for the operation of macOS that do not look good aesthetically. Come on, the hidden files and folders are hidden for a reason.
But if you are curious or need to see that hidden content, you can do it with a simple keyboard shortcut. you just have to open Finder and press the keys Shift, Command and the period/colon key. Files and folders that were previously hidden will appear in any location. They differ from the rest because they are displayed with softer colors. Pressing that key combination again will stop you from seeing the hidden files.
Add emojis to all your texts and documents
In iOS and iPadOS you can set up multiple keyboards so you can quickly switch between the languages you write in. One of those keyboards is the Emojis keyboard. So can insert emoji in a flash. No matter if you are writing an email, a WhatsApp message or a Word document. But on macOS, there’s no such keyboard integration yet.
Instead, if you want use emoji on macOS, you can do it with a simple keyboard shortcut. In this way, you will be able to insert emojis in a Google search, in any application or document or in any page that you have open. Without depending on that application or page integrates emojis.
If you press the keys Control + Command + Space barwherever you are, the window will open character viewer. Specifically, showing the emoji available. They are organized by categories. To insert it, just drag and drop it where you want it to appear. And to make it easier for you, you can create a list of favorite emoji to have them on hand. Or directly look in the section Most used.
Minimize windows by double clicking
On more than one occasion we have the screen full of open windows, which makes it difficult to work correctly. There are several ways to bring order to that chaos. Ideal for this list of Mac tricks. For example, by sliding three fingers up on the trackpad, you will see all the miniature open windows. You can also temporarily hide or minimize windows.
For hide the window of an application, press the keys Command + H. The app will still be open. The document you have open will remain open. But the window will be hidden from view until you tap on that app’s icon again.
And to minimize the window and see its thumbnail in the Dock, in the lower right corner, you can do it in three ways. First, pressing Command + M. Second, by clicking on the yellow button in the upper left corner of the window. And third, the fastest method, doing double click title bar of the window.
To activate this last option you will have to go to System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar and open the section Dock and menu bar. One of the available options is “Double click on a window title bar to”. By default, the configured option is “Zoom”. Change it to “Minimize”.
Use a Memoji as an avatar
Cheats for Mac 2×1. First, create a Memoji from within the Mac. Second, use that Memoji as your macOS user’s avatar. From your Mac you can also create a custom Memoji that looks like you or a loved one. To create it you will have to open Postsselect any conversation and click on the Apps icon to see the Memoji Stickers.
From the Memoji Stickers window you can create new Memoji by tapping on the + symbol. Follow the instructions and you will get a version of you to use in conversations as a sticker. But you can also use it as an avatar. A faster way to create your own Memoji is to go directly to the next step.
To make it possible, we will System Preferences > Users & Groups. You will have to enter your user. To do this, you may have to open the lock in the lower left corner. Finally, by clicking on your avatar image you can change it to another image. There are default images but you can use your own. But you can also use a Memoji or a Emoji. Moreover, if you choose Memojiyou will see those already available and a + button to create it instantly.
In addition to using an Avatar Memoji on your macOS account, you can use it on your apple account. when you open System preferences, if you’re signed in with your Apple ID, you’ll see your name and an avatar. If you click on that avatar image, you can change it to a photo, an Emoji or a Memoji.
Ask Spotlight
Before Siri, macOS had spot light, your file search and indexing tool. At first it was only used to search for documents and folders. It soon added new features like looking up in the dictionary. Currently, Spotlight is used to consult anything that you can ask Siri or Google. Typing the question and without opening the browser.
You can open Spotlight just pressing the keys Command + Space bar. If you are connected to the internet, you can ask him what the weather is or will be like in your city, sports results, mathematical operations, definitions in the dictionary or on Wikipedia, etc.
Among the novelties of the latest versions of macOS, the following stand out: menu bar improvements mimicking iOS options. The most notable are the control center and the notification center. The former has its own icon and displays shortcuts like WiFi, Bluetooth, sound volume, screen brightness, etc. The second is displayed by tapping on today’s date and displays widgets and notifications.
But in the menu bar there are more icons. Some are from third party apps. Others are from macOS itself, like the one called now it sounds. It has the form of a Play button and you can activate and/or deactivate it from System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar. By default, it appears when something is playing.
With this icon you can control what plays, in audio or video, from any macOS app. For example, music from Apple Music, Podcasts, videos from YouTube or from another Safari source… If you have several simultaneous playbacks, you can pause one and resume another from the menu bar instead of switching windows.
Rename your photos and files
We end this list of tricks for Mac with one that it will save you a lot of time. Changing the name of a file is not the same as doing it with dozens of them. It usually happens with photographs. you have a lot of images with cryptic names and you need to put order for them to be easier to find.
On macOS, if you select multiple files, documents or images and right-click, you can go to the function rename. It will open a new window with several options to customize how the selected files will be renamed.
For example, you can choose a specific format, replace part of the name with other words, or add words or text while keeping the original content. If you choose to change the format, it is possible to indicate a word or phrase followed by a series of numbers to sort all files. What’s more, you can start this numerical series from a specific number instead of 0 or 1. In short, you will be able to control what name to give to several files at once.