5 Basic Mac Techniques Every Mac User Should Know

To get the most from your Mac, every Mac user should know about context menus, the app switcher, mission control and more. Even if you already know these basic techniques, there are some tips for using each one.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let me show you five basic techniques that every Mac user should know. 
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So the first technique I want to show you is Context Menus. Context Menus are what you get when you hold down the Control key and click on an object on your screen. You get this menu here that allows you to perform actions on that object. You could also get Context Menus by using two fingers on the trackpad or right clicking on a mouse. Anytime you need to perform an action and you're not sure how to go about doing it think of the object on the screen that you want to perform the action on and try bringing up its Context Menu. You could see it works for Files here but it works for other things as well. I can Control click on the Toolbar at the top for instance. I can Control click on the blank space here in the Finder window. I can Control click on items in the Sidebar. I can Control click on the Desktop. In other apps like Pages here I can Control click on an image. I can Control click on some text. You can Control click just about anywhere and it will show you commands that can be performed on that object. 
So often I get questions from people about how they would do something and the answer is often Control clicking on that object and then that command is revealed in the Context Menu. 
The next technique I want to show you is the App Switcher. The App Switcher is what you get when you hold down the Command key and then you press Tab. That brings up the App Switcher and shows you all the apps that are currently running on your Mac. As long as you continue to hold down the Command key the App Switcher will stay there and you could press Tab to continue to move along it. When you get to the app that you want to use simply release the Command key and it brings that app to the front. So while you're using your Mac and you have various apps open it's easy to use the App Switcher to switch between them. You don't need to go and try to relaunch the app if it's already running. You could also do other things with the App Switcher. A quick Command Tab will simply switch to the previous app and Command Tab will switch back. So you can switch quickly between two apps with quick presses of Command Tab. You can also use Command Tab and then keep holding the Command key down as you tab through you can use Q to quit an app and H to unhide and hide it. 
Which brings me to my next technique which is hiding apps. A lot of people will just quit an app when they want to get to something behind it of use another app. But you can just Hide an app. Keep it going and this keeps the window in the current position, the Dock or Docks you have open opened, even things like selected text selected ready to go. You could just use Command H to hide an app. Then you could bring it back with the App Switcher or you could just go into the Dock and click on the app in the Dock and you could see was still there with the same thing selected, the same position in the document, and everything. Sometimes people quit apps still thinking like it's twenty years ago when memory management was an issue and leaving an app running, even if it was hidden, was taking up some sort of chunk of memory. But that's not how macOS works. It manages memory really well and it's perfectly fine to leave lots of apps running at the same time and Hide the ones you're not using currently. I only really quit apps if I know I'm not going to be using them again, say, for the rest of the day. 
Now sometimes it's not necessary to run an app at all. For instance if you want to view an image file you can select it and simply bring up QuickLook. You can do so by pressing the Spacebar. That brings up the QuickLook window. It's a window you can move around. You can resize and you can view an image. But not just an image. You can also view other things. For instance, here's a Numbers document. I could pretty clearly see what's inside of it just by pressing the Spacebar to use QuickLook. I can press the Spacebar again to dismiss it. I can even listen to sounds, view videos, and do something with just about every type of file. You could even leave the QuickLook window open and use the arrow keys to move between files. So if I move the QuickLook window over here you could see I've got this file selected. If I use the right arrow you can see it moves over to the next file. If I switch, say, to List View I could simply use QuickLook and then down arrow to go between all the files and view what's in there. 
There are other ways to view previews as well. For instance, if I take this Finder window here I could go to View and then Show Preview. It will show me a preview, just like QuickLook, here on the right side. I can do that in List View. I can see that in Column View as well. Even Icon View can have a preview here on the right. You can always turn it off by going to View, Hide Preview. 
Now the last basic technique I want to show you is Mission Control. This allows you to have multiple desktops instead of just one. Think of it like having multiple screens. Say you have a MacBook. You've got one screen. But let's pretend you have two but you can only see one at a time. If you use Control, not Command but Control, and up arrow you could see at the top here Desktop 1. I can add another desktop by clicking the Plus button here. Now it's like I have two screens on my Mac. I could drag a window or even more over to the second desktop. Now let's go to that second desktop and you could see I've got these two app windows open here. Control up arrow brings me back and I can go back to Desktop 1 where I've got these windows open here. An easier way to get between them is to use Control right and left arrows. So Control right arrow brings me over to this desktop. Control left arrow brings me back over to here. Mission Control also works with Full Screen apps. So, for instance, let's take Calendar full screen by clicking on the green button here. Now when I do Control up arrow you could see I've got Desktop 1, Desktop 2, and then the full screen app Calendar. So now I can choose which one I want to see and I could still use Control right arrow to move between them in one direction and Control left arrow in the other direction. 
So those are five basic Mac techniques that every Mac user should master. Doing so will increase your productivity and allow you to get the most from your Mac.

Comments: 8 Responses to “5 Basic Mac Techniques Every Mac User Should Know”

Darrell

4 years ago

The "App Switcher" is interesting in that "running" but "hidden" apps appear in the switcher lineup. Selecting one that does not already have its window open (app hidden) does nothing. It seems quite odd that they would include the icons in the Switcher App options when selecting them ends up doing nothing at all. It ends up not being an efficient workflow if the app you are seeing happens to be a hidden one. You end up having to relaunch the app outside of app switcher after all.

Gary Rosenzweig

Darrell: Is an app is hidden, it brings it to the front. If the app has no open documents or other windows, that of course doesn't do much as there is nothing to show. But the app is then the frontmost app. You can then use Command+n or Command+o to get to a document. No relaunching needed.

Tim pritchard

I hope this is not too far off the subject but was wondering where you got the Alice pages from. I couldn't find the website with the picture you had, thanks.💚🍏

Tim: The image is from the original illustrations from the original book. You can find them online if you search. I've been using the text and those images in Pages demos for years as I need something where I don't need to worry about copyright.

Mark Wright

Hard to follow for newbies. Way to fast. Maybe have some helpful videos that are very very slow for begineers. Show me where you clip, not just a quick flash. I am like the baby learning to crawl. Don't know where things are nor do I understand the lingo.

Mark: That's my "Mac Basics" series. I'm doing one or two a week.

Frank W

I have yet to be clear on how to have one window (app) on the left and one on the right using 50:50 of the screen. I know there are two desktops at the top, but I am crossing wires and confused.

FrankL Maybe this video will help you: https://macmost.com/mac-basics-how-to-use-split-view.html

Comments Closed.

5 Basic Mac Techniques Every Mac User Should Know

Comments: 8 Responses to “5 Basic Mac Techniques Every Mac User Should Know”

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