Powerful New Features In macOS Tahoe Have Nothing To Do With Liquid Glass

In This Tutorial

Learn about the most useful power user features in macOS Tahoe, including customizing Control Center, creating multiple Control Centers, using Spotlight for actions and clipboard history, setting up Shortcuts automations, adding AI with Apple Intelligence, customizing folder icons, using the Journal app for activity tracking, and viewing password history.

Control Center Customization (01:13)

• Click the Control Center icon and use the Edit Controls button to customize.
• Add buttons for screenshots, Quick Notes, Focus, Mission Control, and Shortcuts.
• Drag items to arrange them or remove with the minus button.
• Use shortcuts to launch apps or trigger your own automations from Control Center.

Multiple Control Centers (03:31)

• In Edit mode, click the plus button to create another Control Center.
• Assign a unique icon and add buttons or shortcuts to each one.
• Create specialized Control Centers for different workflows or tasks.
• Switching between multiple Control Centers makes triggering actions faster.

Spotlight Actions (05:31)

• Use Command+Space then 3 to access Actions in Spotlight.
• Create calendar events, send messages, start timers, and move files directly in Spotlight without opening apps.
• Assign quick keys like “CNE” for new calendar events or “MF” to move files.
• Third-party apps and your own shortcuts can appear as Spotlight actions.

Spotlight Clipboard History (10:26)

• Use Command+Space then 4 to view clipboard history.
• Stores text and images with history durations of 30 minutes, 8 hours, or 7 days.
• Double-click to paste or right-click to copy an older item.
• Clear history or disable clipboard history in System Settings if desired.

Shortcuts Automations (13:07)

• Create automations that trigger shortcuts based on events like time of day, focus changes, or file additions.
• Example: Automatically move new PDFs from Downloads to a PDFs folder.
• Use Repeat and If actions to process each new file and filter by extension.
• Automations can run immediately, with confirmation, or with notifications.

Apple Intelligence In Shortcuts (18:17)

• Use local or online AI models to process data in shortcuts.
• Example: Reformat a list of names in the clipboard into a consistent style.
• Another example: Summarize a webpage to quickly answer the headline question.
• AI excels at summarizing and transforming content without writing complex logic.

Folder Icons And Colors (23:34)

• Control-click a folder to set a color or customize the folder icon.
• Use emoji icons for a splash of color to make key folders stand out.
• Best used sparingly for productivity, like highlighting current projects or active client folders.
• Combining colors and emojis can make important folders easy to spot quickly.

Journal App For Recording Activity (27:29)

• Journal can be used for quick, timestamped entries with text, images, or audio.
• Create multiple journals, like work logs, diet tracking, or exercise notes.
• Use short entries or bullet-style notes to track daily activity efficiently.
• Great for productivity and maintaining a simple historical record of actions.

Password History (30:18)

• The Passwords app now shows a history of previous passwords for each entry.
• Helps recover older passwords if a website fails to update correctly.
• No need to manually save old passwords in notes anymore.
• This feature improves reliability and confidence in using the built-in password manager.

Summary

macOS Tahoe adds practical power user features like deeper Control Center customization with multiple sets, Spotlight actions and clipboard history, smart Shortcuts automations with AI, folder highlighting, journaling for quick logs, and robust password history. Using these tools can save time, increase productivity, and replace several third-party utilities.