MacMost: System Preferences

Youc an adjust the way your Mac's screen looks many different ways. By using Color Profiles or Accessbility preferences, you can change how colors are displayed. You can also use features like Dark Mode and adjust highlight colors. The Desktop background picture you choose is also important.

A new feature of macOS Big Sur is Control Center. This is an iOS-like feature that brings together various system controls like volume, Wi-Fi, Do Not Disturb and other settings into a single panel you can access with one click in the menu bar.

The menu bar is something you use every day in almost every mac app. Here are some shortcuts and productivity tips for using the mac menu bar.

Here 5 ways to make the cursor on your mac's screen and your clicks more visible. This is handy for giving presentations or recording screen tutorials. You can use some built-in methods, or get third-part software with lots of extra functionality like the ability to show key presses.

If you ever have trouble reading text on your Mac because it is too small, there are many ways to adjust text in different places to help. You can make a universal change by adjusting your display resolution, use helper features like Accessibility Zoom, or change the display size for text in apps like the Finder, Safari, Mail and more.

Text Replacements are one of the most useful productivity features on your Mac. But even people that use them don't always use them to their fullest potential. Here are 10 examples of things you can do with Text Replacement on your Mac.

You can create your own custom keyboard shortcuts on your Mac for any item in the Mac menu bar. By going into System Preferences you can set a shortcut using the exact name of the menu item in an app or across all apps. You can also change the shortcut assigned to a menu item.

How can you type on your Mac if you keyboard isn't working or is missing? How can you control the cursor to click on things if your mouse or trackpad is not working? There are methods to type and point that you can use in an emergency or until you get a replacement. You can bring up the Accessibility Keyboard to type using the cursor, and use Mouse Keys to move to cursor using only the keyboard. The trick is to know how to bring those up when things aren't working.

The Notification Center appears on the right side of your Mac's screen and contains lots of useful information. To get the most from it, you should take the time to customize both the Today view and Notifications view. Eliminating notifications you don't care about and learning how to use the Today view widgets will help you get more from this useful macOS feature.

Most Mac apps have toolbars at the top of each window with a collection of buttons and other controls. You can customize these toolbars, adding more buttons, arranging them and removing them. You can always easily revert to the default set. Some apps, like the Finder, even let you do more with toolbars.

In macOS Catalina enhanced dictation is now part of Voice Control as part of your Mac's Accessibility features. It has several improvements over previous version of macOS dictation, including several ways to work to correct text, move the cursor, make selections and type difficult words.

You don't have to settle for using Apple's images as your desktop background. You can use any photo from your library or image you can obtain as a desktop background. You can also make your own graphics in an image editing app or Keynote to use as a background. You can combine photos and graphics to make an ideal background.

If you like to switch between light and dark mode frequently, you can create a keyboard shortcut or Dock icon to do it with one fast action. By using a very simple workflow in Automator, with no scripting required, you can create either a Quick Action or a application for your Dock. The Quick Action can then be assigned to a keyboard shortcut.

A new feature in macOS Catalina is the ability to track and restrict your app usage. You can use Screen Time for yourself, to attempt to limit your use, or as parent controls on a standard account on your Mac. You can also limit individual websites.

You see your Mac user account picture every time you log in to your Mac. You can customize this image easily in System Preferences with some default images, a photo, or any graphic you want. You can choose a photo and zoom in on one part of the image. You can create your own graphics or download an image to use.

Most Mac users never take the time to customize their login screen. But there are several options there you will want to change to increase security or have the login screen better fit your needs. There is one very easy change that every user should make, to include a message on the login screen in case you lose your Mac and want to increase the chances that it will be returned to you.

Hot Corners are shortcuts that you can set so an action is performed when you move the cursor to one of the four corners of your screen. You can set these up in System Preferences if you know where to look. You can use them to instantly put your Mac to sleep, trigger Mission Control and other actions. You can also set them to work only with modifier keys. There is a trick to knowing which corners work in a multi-screen setup.

Many apps will give you alerts that appear in the upper right corner of your Mac screen. You can set whether these alerts need you to click on them to dismiss, or they dismiss themselves automatically, or they don't appear at all. The settings for this are in System Preferences, under Notifications.

Dark Mode in macOS Mojave is a great new feature, but Apple didn't give us a way to quickly switch between light and dark modes. The little donation-ware app NightOwl gives you that control in your menu bar. You can also set a keyboard shortcut, select apps to stay in light mode, and set specific times to switch between modes.

If you are using more than one screen with your Mac, you can set where each screen is located relative to the others in your desktop's virtual space. You can choose which screen is the main one by dragging the menu bar representation to that screen. You can also adjust the rotation of your screens to use them vertically.