I often talk about shortcuts and other ways to be more productive on yoru Mac. Here are 10 shortcuts that I actually use in my work every day including how I prefer to resize windows, switch apps, avoid typing my long email address and more.
You can also watch this video at YouTube.
Watch more videos about related subjects: Keyboard Shortcuts (84 videos).
You can also watch this video at YouTube.
Watch more videos about related subjects: Keyboard Shortcuts (84 videos).
Video Transcript
Hi this is Gary with MacMost.com. In this episode let me show you ten Mac shortcuts that I use everyday.
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So I often talk about shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts and other ways to get things done quickly and productively on your Mac. But which ones do I actually use. Going through my day there are several shortcuts that I rely on and use all day long.
So first let me admit to not being a big user of full screen mode. I've got three displays on my desk so I don't really need to go to full screen mode. I can have lots of windows open with lots of apps and I can see them all at once. But sometimes I like to take a window like this one and extend it to fill the screen. A lot of people just call this maximizing the window. Of course the green button will take you to full screen mode. Which is what I don't want. You can take the edges and drag the edges like this and you can even drag the corners to get to the edges there. You can go to full screen maximum size for a window by dragging it like that.
But there's a shortcut I use all the time. You see if you double click anything, like say an edge, it will snap to maximum size. So I was able to double click the top. You can double click, say, the right side and it will snap there. If you hold the Option key down it will do it for both sides. So, for instance, if I were to hold Option key down and then double click the right side here it will maximize the right side and the left side. Now corners will work for both the top and left or the bottom and the right or whatever corner it is. So if I double click on a corner like that you can see the corner goes to the edge. If I hold the Option key down it does it for opposite corners. So in other words hold the Option key double clicking on any corner of the window will maximize the window. I use this all the time.
I've got these two vertical screens on my desk. I often have one window at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom. It means I want to maximize the sides to go to the sides of the screen. It doesn't really make sense on this screen but it does on a vertical screen. So I often also use Option and double click the sides just to bring it to each side.
Because I work with tutorials I need to turn on Do Not Disturb quite often during the day so I don't get Notifications and Sounds, and Alerts and things like that. You can go and click on Notification Center, scroll down, and there's the switch for Do Not Disturb. You can also do it in System Preferences. But I like the shortcut of holding the Option key and clicking here on this menu button at the top right corner. You can see now it's grayed out which means that Do Not Disturb is turned on. I can turn Do Not Disturb off by Option clicking on it again.
In System Preferences Energy Saver I have my Mac set to Turn the Display Off After 15 Minutes. So go to sleep after 15 minutes which is important because a lot of times I distracted by something else or working on something else and I don't touch my keyboard for 5 or 10 minutes and I don't want my computer to go to sleep while I'm here. But it also means that if I know I'm walking away I want the machine to go to sleep right away. I don't want it to have to wait 15 minutes for that. So I like to use the keyboard shortcut for putting your computer asleep immediately which is Control, Shift, and then either the Eject key or the Power key depending upon what model Mac you've got.
I'm often copying and pasting things from one document to the other and what happens when you do that, like here I'm going to select some text on a webpage, is I'll copy and go over here and I'll paste. Notice how it not only pastes the text, but does the style, color, font, everything. Most of the time when I'm pasting I want it to use the style of whatever document I'm pasting into. So you can do that if you go into Edit you can see Paste and Match Style which is Option Shift Command V. So you basically just add those extra modifier keys instead of Command V. Sometimes it's a little bit different in different apps so always look in the Edit menu and look for that or hold down the Option key to see what appears there.
Now I Archive all of my email no matter what it is I just archive it. Then if I need something later I search for it. You've got a handy Archive button here at the top of the Mail window. But you could also use Message and then Archive right here. The keyboard shortcut for that is Control Command A. So I use Control Command A probably fifty to a hundred times a day.
Now I chose my email address way back in the mid '90's. If I knew I would have to type it so many times I probably wouldn't have chosen something so long. But it is easy to do Text Replacement on the Mac so I have a text replacement for my email address that I use constantly. So when I'm filling out a form like this I can enter just a couple key strokes. As an example I'm going to do two at symbols @@. As soon as I hit space it replaces it with my email address or in this case my example email address. Sometimes I have to hit the Delete key afterwards to get rid of the space there at the end.
You can set this up in System Preferences under Keyboard. Then go to Text and here you have your replacements. So all you need to do is hit the Plus button and then Add one. So you can see here I've added one for @@ and it replaces it with my email address.
Now just about everyday I'm faced with a website where I want to upload an image. When I go to upload the image I will click on Choose a Photo or Video and it comes up with an open dialogue box. It's never in the right place. So many times I've actually got the file I want to upload right here. So other people might go and try to navigate through to find this same location. But you can just drag and drop. If I were to drag and drop this image over here you could see it goes to the exact location and even selects that file. Now I can just hit return or click Choose. Also a lot of times you can just drag and drop things. Here there's an obvious way to simply drag and drop an image right into the uploads zone for this site. Sometimes there just a little button there and you can drag and drop an image onto the button to set that as the image to upload.
So, of course, like everybody else I launch apps throughout the day and there are so many different ways to launch apps. My go to is Spotlight. So Command Space and I start typing the name of the app. It comes up and then I hit Return to launch the app. Then if the app is already running I simply use Command Tab to switch between apps. Then I rarely quit apps. If I'm using an app like say Pages right here and I want to go to another app and get this one out of the way I almost always Hide it. You can do that by doing Hide and the name of the app, Command H is always the keyboard shortcut. So I use Command H all day long to hide apps and get them out of the way. Then I use Command Tab to then go back to that app.
So which shortcuts do you use everyday on your Mac. Tell me in the comments below.
I dictate into Notes on my phone and then transfer from Notes on my iMac into a word processable file, either Word for Mac or Pages. I nearly always dictate short messages from my phone rather than typing them.
Gary - I find using the Safari TOP SITES (12 site option) feature to launch websites improves workflow. Placing a TOP SITES icon on the menu bar next to the URL window (plus the useful forward/back icon). One-click opens a graphic display of 12 frequently used websites with local cookies in most instances providing immediate access to desired site/page. Second click and you are there. 12 sites provide instant access to 90% of my web destinations. Works for me...Hal
Gary - on the screen resizing, is there a short cut to put it back to the original size? Love these tips, thanks for doing the videos.
Stephen: No, since you are just changing the size. No previous size is "remembered."
I often have and would find it handy to use Option/Shift/Command/V; but seem to forget the shortcut from time to time. It should help to now have seen it again with both the audio-visual explanation, the example, and the Large Highlighted Keys. Also, Option, Command, and V have a certain logic for this maneuver, and I just have to remember to also click on Shift.
I wasn't aware of the Option and double-click way to resize windows but do use all of the other shortcuts mentioned. What I do use for resizing/repositioning windows is the app called Magnet (available on the App Store). It gets used a lot! It has 18 keyboard shortcuts available.
Currently I only use short cuts to copy and paste. I'm gonna watch your tutorial again and learn how to do at least 2 more things, like maximizing the screen that i'm working on.
Gary: there must be a way to get an expanded screen back to the original size. I understand that there is no remembering but if not that, what else must one do? there must come a point when the user wants things to go back to normal. How do we get there?
Barry: Well, the idea with this technique is you a *changing* the window size. The new size is the new normal. If you want to temporarily enlarge the window, then maybe Full Screen mode is the better way to go. Or, Option+Click the green button to use the standard "maximize" function and then Option+click again to go back. But that doesn't always get you a window the size of the screen. But if going back to the previous size is more important, then it is the way to go.
hi Gary, what actually happens when you Archive emails? I find it convenient to create a Filing Cabinet folder and then whatever sub-folders I need within that and store any emails I wanna keep in those sub-folders. Does Archive offer some sort of space-saving advantage? thx Nick
Nick: Depends on the email server you are using. In iCloud the emails go into the Archive folder. In Gmail, they simply lose the "inbox" label and are just part of your stored email without a label. There is no special space-saving advantage. I done' have any folders or subfolders (AKA mailboxes). I archive everything and if I need something later it is easy to search for it. I don't waste any time organizing email I probably won't ever need again -- and if I do need it again I'll find it almost as fast with a search anyway.
With regards to hiding apps rather than closing them, I thought there might be a drain on RAM resources when hiding vs closing apps. Do you think this should be a concern?
nick: It would only drain the battery if it was doing something. But if it is doing something, then if you quit it will stop, which I assume you don't want. For instance, you can hide Music or Podcasts while playing, but if you quit, it will stop playing. If you are rendering a video in Final Cut or iMovie, you want it to keep rendering. But otherwise, hidden apps that aren't doing anything wouldn't use any noticeable power.
Gary: was thinking about RAM resources, not power (I'm using a desktop Mac Mini), so essentially impact on performance due to multiple apps sitting in the background
nick: Memory shouldn't be an issue. Try it. Try not quitting apps you know you are going back to soon anyway. I never quit apps I use throughout the day.
Gary, I found a shortcut a couple of years or so ago for maximizing a window and returning the window to its previous size after you have maximized it. Simply click on the toolbar of an open window and drag it to the very top of the screen until it snaps to fill the screen. To return the window to its previous size, click on the toolbar and drag it away from the top of the screen, and it snaps back to its previous size.
Gene: That's another way to activate Full Screen mode for an app. You can do the same thing with the green button or Control+Command+F. The idea behind the Option+click the corner is to set the window to the size of the screen without using Full Screen mode.
Thanks, great tips!
I like to grab screenshots as a quick way to capture images online including 3D Maps.
i have a little A-Z (phone book like) that i write (all your really cool) hints down in. I know i won't remember everything so i save the shortcuts that i know ill use, and then after 4-5 times they become habit & i don't need to look at the book any more. Thats quicker (for me) than to got to your web page & try to remember which tutorial you gave the info in.
💜 your Hints & Tips!! 😆
Is there any way to make the window size you are viewing open in a default size--I usually like to view websites in "theater view", but I usually have to resize to get there?
Stan: Not without some sort of system extension. But if you have a window size you like, then just set it there and leave it there. Just don't close that window.
Command Shift V for pasting values in numbers and excel
The screen can also be extended to full screen (retaining the menu bar), and returned, by double tapping the spaces in the tool bar. Though it seems that you can't extend only vertical or horizontal "strips" so it won't be much help on Gary's vertical screen layout, but some trickery with the 'Magnet' app might get you there.
I like the idea that Narelle suggested above and I have started doing the same thing. I am always on my Mac and very rarely use shortcuts. However, I do use some. The one I use most is in Safari. I use "Command T" to open a new page and I have my Safari set up so it opens to my main Google Account (Google Drive). One thing I especially like about your tutorials, even in apps I do not use, is that you always give a "suggestion" or "tip" that can be used in other apps.
One of my favorites is when I'm trying to quickly browse through a bunch of files to find a particular one, is to highlight the file name and then hit the spacebar to bring up a quick look preview.
Regarding hiding"inactive" apps: Activity Monitor", which i (used to) keep running in the background is powered up while in hiding, I've just discovered.Quite expensive too. Also just found that the window expander commands don't work while the "three finger drag" is chosen.