17 Ways To Do Calculations On Your Mac

There are many ways you can perform math calculations on your Mac. Some are quick and easy, some are for special situations, and others are can be combined with automations.
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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you many different ways that you can do calculations on your Mac.
So if you want to know how to do mathematical calculations on your Mac I'm going to show you many different ways. Even if you already know a few of these you may learn of some more that could be useful in specific situations.
First, of course, let's go to the Calculator App. Launch the Calculator App anyway you like, add it to the Dock if you use it often. You can use the calculator to do basic and complex calculations. You don't have to use your pointer to click on the numbers there. You can just use the keyboard. So you can just type like this. You can also use parentheses with the keyboard to do more complex things. Then use Return or Enter as equals. You've got a few different modes for the calculator. You can click here and switch to Scientific Mode. You can go to Programmer Mode as well. If you like reverse pulse notation you can actually go to that mode as well. You even have a History List that shows you your past calculations and you can click on one to bring it back.
But as many Mac users know you don't need to use the Calculator App if you just want a quick calculation. You can use Spotlight. The default keyboard shortcut for this is Command Space. That brings up Spotlight Search. But you can just type a mathematical equation in here, like this, and it will give you an answer. You can even use parentheses here as well to do more complex calculations. By the way when you see the answer either in the Calculator App or here you can use Command and C to Copy it. You can see the little checkmark appears there. Now you can paste it into any app that you're working in.
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Another way to do calculations is to use Siri. You can use the Siri button up here or the keyboard shortcut that you've set. A quick click on this will bring up Type to Siri and then you can type something, like that, and this allows you to use things with parentheses pretty easily, like that. Press Return and you get the answer. You can also just talk to Siri using Hey and then Siri depending upon if you've set that up. Or another way to do it is to Click and Hold here, 3+4, the answer is 7. It can be handy to setup Voice Activation for Siri so you can do quick calculations without having to kind of exit what you're doing and go to a Calculation App or Mode.
Now a much more recent addition for calculations added to macOS Sequoia is Math Notes. You would primarily use it in the Notes App. So let's go to the Notes App up here and create a new note. Now you can type something like this and then equals = and you see it gives you the answer there. Press Return and it makes the answer part of the text. You can do all sorts of things here including using parentheses and using variables like this to get answers even then changing the values like that. This is a really neat function. I've got entire videos on just how to use this.
You can use the basic calculation functionality of Math Notes just about anywhere that you can type text. For instance, here in TextEdit you can see how I can do basic math, like that. I can't use variables but I can do calculations, even using parentheses like this. It works in lots of other apps, particularly ones made by Apple. So you can do it for instance here in Pages. But here is a more direct application in Mail. You can use it instead of doing a calculation, getting a result and then paste it in. For instance in this Mail message I can do something like this. Notice how it even puts the dollar sign there. It works in Messages as well, like that.
Of course Numbers is an app that is completely about doing calculations. It is a full spreadsheet app. So, of course, you can do things, like this, creating formulas that access values in other cells to get answers and then change the values of cells to change the answer. You can have multiple rows, lot of columns for really complex things all using Numbers. This is best used for record keeping, complex calculations, or when you want to setup some sort of sequence of calculations that you can form over and over again by just changing the values. Likewise you can use another spreadsheet app as well like Goggle Sheets of Microsoft Excel.
But Numbers isn't the only app where you can do spreadsheet calculations. In Pages you can create a table. These tables are little spreadsheets. So you can do the same thing here using an equals key to start a formula, clicking another cell to reference them, using operators like this and getting an answer and then being able to change values and see the result change. This works in Keynote as well.
Now you can also use Safari to do calculations. As a matter of fact this is done so often that Apple has just basically built this into the URL field at the top. So if I were to type something like this notice how it gives me a result there. I don't even have to go to anywhere. I just get the result. I can do pretty complex things with parentheses, for instance, like that. But if I press Return what usually will happen is whatever my default search engine is it is going to go and get me a result from that and bring up the Calculator App. This is Duck Duck Go web app and Goggle has a similar thing. Now I can continue to work with this calculator if I like. I can just have that in one browser tab if I like this calculator better than Apple's.
There are a lot of scripting and programming tools that either come with your Mac or are provided by Apple. So for instance, let's go to Script Editor. Script Editor is a way to write Apple Script Code or JAVAscript for automation code to automate things on your Mac. But the interface here can also just be an interpreter just running the lines as you are typing them. So here I've got it set to Apple Script. I can actually type in a calculation like that, click this button to run the script or just Command R and see the result go there. You can get complex with this as well, like that. Run that and you will get the result. If I switch to JAVAscript it is going to basically run the same way. Just some of the more complex math functions will differ between Apple Script and JAVAscript. This might not be super useful on its own, but if you're already using Apple Script or JAVAscript to do other things you can incorporate calculations into those workflows.
A much more modern way to automate your Mac is to use the Shortcuts App. You can use Shortcuts for simple calculations as well. If you search for Calc you'll see Calculate Expression. Add that in there and then Control Click, right click, or two-finger click on the parameter there and select Ask Each Time. Now let's go and have it show the result here, like that, and this simple little shortcut if I run it will prompt me for something and I can type something complex, like this, and it will give me the result. Let's go and name this. We'll just name it Calc and I'll go to the Details here and say I want to add a keyboard shortcut for it. I'll do Control Option Command Space for that. Even if I don't have Shortcuts running I can use that and I can do something complex, like that, and get the answer. I can make this part of a bigger workflow. I can even have what is selected be the Input or the Clipboard be the Input or instead of Show Calculations Result it can save it to the clipboard. There's lots of other things you can do to expand on just doing a basic calculation.
Apple also provides an app called Swift Playground which you can get from the App Store for free and it is an app for teaching you how to use Swift. Once you have that you can create apps with it. But you can also just create little playgrounds. I'm going to create one here and then notice how I can use it to type simple calculations and get the result.
Now as you would expect you can also use the Terminal to do some math. Just by using Terminal by itself, if you are using a shell in this case z shell you can see here and you can do math but it is not really very convenient. You can use Echo. But if you just do something like 1+1 it is just going to echo that back. You have to get it to interpret it which means you've got to put a dollar sign, two left parentheses, and then your equation and the two right parentheses to actually get it to interpret what's there. You can do even more complex things to have variables and work with those.
But a much easier way to do calculations in Terminal is to use the basic calculator or BC. Just type those two letters there and Return and you enter a different mode where you can just type simple equations like that or more complex things like this and get results. You can quit out of here and then do man for manual and then bc and then get all of the help information about using bc. There's also a lot of webpages online that teach you how to use it. There's a lot you can do with it. It's a full calculator app inside of the terminal.
Also, if you have a programming language installed then you can use that, usually in interpreter mode where it interprets each line. So, for instance, you may or may not have Python installed depending on if it came with something else that you installed or you installed it yourself or maybe your Mac is old enough that it is still there. You can run Python by tapping Python 3, like this, and then you can enter the Interpreter Mode and here you can do basic calculations like that.
Another way you can use Calculations is using the JAVAscript but inside your browser. So in Safari you first want to turn on Developer Mode to be able to access the ability to type in JAVAscript. So go to Safari Settings and then go to Advanced and Show Features for Web Developers. Once that is On you will see the developer menu here. So you want to go to a webpage. A good one to go to is just go to About:blank, that brings up a completely blank webpage. Now if you use Command Option and i it will bring up all of the tools. You want to make sure you select Console here at the top. Now you can type at the bottom here. You can type JAVAscript which includes just typing simple calculations like that. You can do more complex ones as well and get the result there.
Now here's an unusual spot where you can sometimes perform calculations. I hope this becomes more common. I'm using Pixelmator Pro which is now owned by Apple. Notice if I've got something here, like a shape, I can go to the Tools here on the right and say adjust the size. But let's say that I don't know the exact size. Like I want it to match the width of something that is 534 pixels and something next to it that's also 258 pixels but also 10 pixels in-between them. I can type that calculation like that and then press return. Guess what? It performs the calculation right there in the box. So Pixelmator Pro has got this. But it's not the only one. Adobe Photoshop also will perform calculations in here. Unfortunately it is not that common in other apps. Like you can't do it in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote, in the sidebar in similar situations. But hopefully it will become more common because it is really handy.
So there are a whole bunch of different ways to perform calculations on your Mac. Some useful in some situations. Some in others. Hope you find this useful. Thanks for watching.
17 Ways To Do Calculations On Your Mac

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