Old computer keyboards used to have a separate delete key that allowed you to take a character away from in front of the cursor instead of behind it. You can still do this on Macs today by using fn+delete. It even works in conjunction with other modifier keys. So you can use fn+option+delete to delete the whole word in front of the cursor.
Sick of always having to change your Finder searches from the current folder to search your entire Mac? You can set this default in Finder, Preferences, Advanced. You can choose Search this Mac or Use the Previous Search Scope instead of Search the Current Folder. You can still change it for individual searches after you set the default.
When you add bookmarks in Safari to the Favorites folder, Safari automatically assigns keyboard shorts to them. The first one will be Option+Command+1, the second Option+Command+2, and so on. Check it out in the Bookmarks, Favorites menu to see them all.
While Apple Music is a streaming music service, you can store music locally to listen to when you are offline. In the Music app on iOS, look for the cloud download button (looks like a cloud with a down arrow) when you are viewing a playlist or album. Tap that button to download and keep those songs for offline listening. The button will change to a iPhone/iPad icon with a checkmark inside it when the download is complete.
You probably know that you can use Command+Tab to switch between apps. But you can also easily switch between multiple windows in the current app. Instead of the Tab key, use the one above it. Command+` (AKA the ~ or tilde key) will switch between windows in the app you are using.
If you are connecting your Mac to a second screen, like you may do before a presentation, you may get into a situation where the System Preferences, Displays controls can’t be altered on the second screen because the second screen is off or not working yet. Click the Gather Windows button to bring all the displays’ settings to your main screen so you can change them while that second screen is not visible.
While browsing the web in Safari you may occasionally get a page that doesn’t fully load or shows some errors. When this happens, the first thing to try is to simply refresh the page. You can do this by pressing on the circle-arrow button at the right side of the address field at the top of the Safari window. Or, you can use View, Reload Page or the keyboard shortcut Command+R.
If you need to quickly see the hidden files when trying to open a file from an app, use the keyboard shortcut Command+Shift+period (AKA greater-than key). This reveals all hidden files and folders in the standard Open File dialog boxes in apps. Use it a second time to toggle this setting off.
Every decide to go through your Mac’s Trash before emptying it, only ti be frustrated because you can’t open any files while they are in the Trash to see what they are? Well, you can simply use Quick Look. Just select the file and hit the spacebar to see the contents. Most common file types are supported. Then you can use the arrow keys to move to the other files in the trash without closing the Quick Look window.
Want to see the names of your files in a larger font size in a Finder window? Just bring up the View Options controls by choosing View, Show View Options in the menu bar or using Command+J. Then change the Text Size setting. You can bump it up from the default 12 all the way to 16.
Say you have a folder full of documents that you don’t want to appear in Spotlight searches. For instance, you may have 9,000 data files for work in a folder that are full of text and always clog up your search results. You can remove this folder from searches by going to System Preferences, Spotlight, Privacy and using the + button to add that folder. Or, just drag the folder into that list to add it.
With the latest versions of OS X and iOS you can set reminders so that you get an alert when you enter or exit your car. The trick is that you should have your iPhone’s Bluetooth paired to your car. Then create a reminder in the Reminders app to remind you “At a Location” and select either “Getting in Car” or “Getting out of Car.” You can set these Reminders on your Mac, iPad, iPhone or any device that is hooked into your iCloud account and using the latest OS. Then your iPhone is most likely going to be the one to notify you since that is probably the device you will be pairing with your car.
If you select a file in the Finder, then use Edit, Copy or Command+C and then use Edit, Paste or Command+V to paste it into a TextEdit, Pages or some other text area, you’ll get the file name. But if you use Command+Option+C you will then be able to paste the full path of the file. This even works when you select multiple files or all of the files in a folder. You will then get each name or path on a separate line.
Scrolling areas, like your browser window, will only show the scroll bars on the right when you are scrolling using the trackpad or mouse. But you can turn them on permanently if you wish by going to System Preferences, General, Show scroll bars. Just change this to Always. I find this useful if you commonly use Screen Sharing as hidden scroll bars don’t work well in that case.
Want to see what you last copied to the clipboard? In the Finder, choose Edit, Show Clipboard. You’ll then get a little window that shows you the clipboard contents.
Want to save interesting web pages to a list in Reminders? While viewing the page in Safari, click the share button in your toolbar, then select Reminders. Or, go to File, Share, Reminders. Then you get to edit the title, link and specify a Reminders list. You can even click the “i” button to set a time or location to get an alert. So you can see a web page that could be useful at a specific time or location and quickly set a reminder for that time and location.
Want to know what the Mac Mail app is doing? Go to Window, Activity to bring up the little Activity panel. This will show you which servers Mail is contacting to send and receive email. It is useful when you need to know if Mail is done checking for new messages even though no new ones have appeared in your inbox.
We all know that you can ask Siri for sports scores. But you can do the same on your Mac with Spotlight. Just hit Command+space to bring up spotlight and type “Rockies score.” You’ll also get the upcoming schedule.
Sick of seeing your Time Machine backup drive or other external drives on your Desktop? You can hide them by going to Finder, Preferences and unchecking External Disks under Show these items on the desktop. To hide network drives, uncheck Connected servers. All of these drives would still be available to you in Finder windows, they just wouldn’t have Desktop shortcuts anymore.
To share a piece of text from a document or web page, just select the text, control+click on it and look for the Share submenu. You can quickly send the text as a message, an email, tweet it or select from many other options depending on what you have installed and configured.
