So you probably know that you can use Command+Tab to switch apps. Continue to hold the Command key down and press Tab multiple times to move through the apps in the App Switcher. You can also quit an app from here by pressing Q. For instance, if you use Command+Tab and see Safari, Mail, iMovie, Preview and Calculator, the selection should start with the second one, Mail. Continue to hold Command and press Tab again to go to iMovie. Still with Command held down, press Q and iMovie will quit. You can continue to hold Command and use Tab and Q to move through the apps and quit some of them. Shift+Tab moves backwards.
If your desktop is getting crowded with Finder windows, and you don’t want to close any, you can choose Window, Merge All Windows to bring them all together as tabs in a single window. Better still, in Sierra this works in many apps as well, such as Safari.
If you are using a MacBook and take it out of the house/workplace at all, be sure to turn off System Preferences, Sharing, File Sharing. There’s nothing wrong with turning it on to use it occasionally, and then off again when done, though AirDrop is a better option nowadays. But if you have it on and aren’t using it, your Mac will show up in Finder sidebars of other Macs connected to the same hotel/coffeehouse/airport Wi-Fi network.
When you do a Finder “Find” (Command+f), the search is performed on the titles and contents of files. But if you just want to search file names, you can type “name:” before the term, such as “name:vacation”. You can also just type the search term and click the “Name matches:” option that appears underneath.
In Sierra you can click and drag the Spotlight menu window. You can put it anywhere you want on the screen. But what if you want to put it back in precisely the default location: centered, near the top of the screen? You can do that by clicking and holding the Spotlight menu icon in the menubar. You have to hold for about 2 seconds.
If you are in a group conversation with more than one person in the Messages app, you can name the whole conversation so you don’t get it confused with other conversations that have similar people in them. On your Mac, click the Details button at the top of the Messages window while viewing the conversation. Then look for the Name field at the very top. You can do the same in iOS by tapping the i button.
If you need to find something in a document, but multiple instances of that thing exist, use the Find Next function’s keyboard shortcut to quickly flip through the document. For instance, if the word “apple” is in a Pages document 73 times, you can use Command+F to find the first one, but then Command+G (Edit, Find, Find Next) to move quickly through all of them. Just hold the Command key down and press G over and over. The same works for TextEdit, but other apps may have different menu items and keyboard shortcuts. It also works in webpages in Safari.
If you are part of a conversation in Messages that is a little too active, you can stop getting notifications from that conversation. On your Mac, tap the Details button at the top right in Messages with the conversation visible. It is a small i button in iOS. Then choose the Do Not Disturb option.
You can ask Siri in macOS Sierra about your Mac. Try “How much memory do you have?” to get your memory information, “How much hard drive space do you have?” to get available space, and “What processor do you have?” to get the speed. You can also ask “Which graphics processor do you have?”
Ever want to know how long it has been since your last shut down or restart? Run Terminal and issue the command: uptime.
You know that you can use Spotlight as an app launcher. Hit Command+Space to activate Spotlight, then start typing the name of the app, then press Return when the app appears. You can usually stop short of typing the whole app name, such as “tex” to get to TextEdit. But did you know you can also use initials? Try gb for GarageBand, as for App Store, qt or qp for QuickTime Player, fc for Final Cut Pro, ft for FaceTime, and so on. Even works for third-party apps, such as gc for Google Chrome.
In Mac Reminders, in the Reminders menu, you can set a Default List. This list will be used when another app or a notification is used to create a reminder. You can also set this on the iPhone and iPad in the Settings app under Reminders.
If you use Command and the plus or minus keys in Safari you can zoom in and out on the page. This can often mess up the page’s layout. But if you add the Option key and use Command+Option with the plus or minus keys, you can change just the size of fonts on the web page. This can also disrupt the page layout, but in a different way. So if you need to make text easier to read on a page, try both methods to see which works best for that page.
You probably know you can select a file in the Finder and use Command+i to view information about that file. If you select multiple files and use Command+i you get one info window for each file. But if you use Command+Control+i you get a single info window that shows you combined information for all of the files selected, such as the combined size.
Do you like some of the desktop background images that Apple includes with Sierra? Ever want to get to the image file itself to use in a project? You can do so by simply going to System Preferences, Desktop & Screen Saver, selecting the image you want from the Apple/Desktop Pictures list as your Desktop. Once you see it in the preview rectangle at the top, drag it from that preview rectangle to the Finder to export it.
When you drag file and folder icons on the Desktop, or in any Finder window where you are using icon view, they will snap to a grid if you have Snap To Grid turned on in View Options (Finder, View, Show View Options). But if you don’t use the grid normally, you can use it for just one drag by holding down the Command key and dragging. When you release the icons selected will snap to the nearest grid spot.
If you use Command+Shift+g to get around in the Finder, you don’t need to type every letter of a folder name. After a few characters, you can press the Tab key to autocomplete it. So if you type ~/Doc and then press Tab, you will most likely get ~/Documents/.
When you have a Safari window open with multiple tabs, using Command+w will close the current tab. If you want to do the opposite and close all of the other tabs and leave the current one open, use Command+Option+W.
In Sierra you can rearrange almost all menubar icons by holding down the Command key and dragging them left or right. But the ones you need most on the right so you don’t lose them when you are running an app that has a large set of menus on the left.
You can click and drag the top of a window to move it, or drag the edges to resize it. But if you try to do that to a window that is in the background it becomes the active one. However, if you hold down the Command key you can drag and resize non-active windows, keeping them non-active while you get them out of the way or expand them to see more of their content.
