⌘ + Down for dbl click to open ⌘ + [, ⌘ + ] to go back/forwards in finder history
The forwards and backwards in finder history shortcut also works in a large number of other apps :)
Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
231–240 of 540 posts
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#232CMD + UP to up one dir in finder. Maybe I've got messed up settings or something, I don't know, but when I want to go up a folder I don't see a button or a an item called ".." that can be clicked. Did this drive anyone else nuts?
I have generally made the 3-pane view my default for this very reason (which has obvious left-right semantics for hierarchy traversal). I think maybe you can also command click the folder-name header? I think I once knew about CMD+Up but my general workflow is in the terminal these days, so Finder is mostly only used for selective-file-move/copy operations, and even then, called from terminal. It’s usually `open path1; open path2` then select and drag.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oops! Sorry! I meant Cmd-Opt-Space here. Also, yeah, the search is pretty janky in my usage as well.
> Oops! Sorry! I meant Cmd-Opt-Space here. Also, yeah, the search is pretty janky in my usage as well. Indeed, I thought that might be what you meant … but that opens the Finder search window for me, so I think that that shortcut also is not universal. Probably some of these differ depending on whether you've got a fresh install or an updated system that may carry along shortcuts from an older release. EDIT: adsche (…
Yeah, looks like ⌘⌃␣ is the actual default command.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#234cmd + k to clear the terminal
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#235Mouse keys -- as an anti-feature. (press option 5 times) My daughter enabled it while I wasn't at the computer and then thought my keyboard had died. Even took it in to get repaired, and got a new keyboard. There is no permanent indicator that it's enabled, and it persists after reboots (once logged in)... when I figured out my brand new keyboard still had several broken keys I started looking for S/W level issues. H…
What happened? What does mouse keys do?
It lets you use keyboard keys to move the cursor.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#236Cmd-Ctrl-Space (⌘⌃␣) for the character/emoji picker. Also, under Keyboard in preferences, check the "Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar" option to get it as a menu-bar icon. This also includes the keyboard viewer, which is handy to figure certain Shift-Opt-Whaterver combos for seldom-used characters. EDIT: Updated with the actual default command.
How do you close it? Cmd-W doesn't work for this type of window.
Hit the same key combo that invoked the character picker (⌘⌃Space in my case).
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#237my favourite feature is how the title bar icon in any app that’s editing a file (textmate/ word etc) is a pointer to the actual file unlike windows. - you can drag that file anywhere to move it. - CMD click it to see a breadcrumb menu showing where it is and navigate to the folder on a similar vein, dragging a file into an open file modal box makes it browse to the containing folder. In windows, dragging a file would…
I hate hate hate that they're hiding proxy icons in Big Sur.
Damn, what a bummer. Is there any way to re-enable it?
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#238Show hidden files (dotfiles) inside any finder window or file open dialog: Cmd + Shift + . Discovered after ~10 years
That’s wild. I’ll leave it off, though. I don’t trust Finder to handle file operations safely and effectively (too many dangling files, partial copies, and littered indexing files in my history).
If I have dot files, I’m gonna go all grey beard and handle them in a terminal.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#239Mouse keys -- as an anti-feature. (press option 5 times) My daughter enabled it while I wasn't at the computer and then thought my keyboard had died. Even took it in to get repaired, and got a new keyboard. There is no permanent indicator that it's enabled, and it persists after reboots (once logged in)... when I figured out my brand new keyboard still had several broken keys I started looking for S/W level issues. H…
Years ago, my nephew somehow stumbled across the accessibility shortcut for invert colors and "broke his computer"
I think it was either persistent, or he only sleep/woke his computer and never tried rebooting it.
Looking at my keyboard shortcuts it's cmd-alt-ctrl-8, and it is presently disabled.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#240I was able to use software that I installed without a problem for years, but now Gatekeeper makes installing software from outside of the Mac App Store a chore for little to no gain.
I’m curious what this complaint is about, since the only thing I’ve experienced is an annoying pop up window that you must approve similar to what one gets in Windows.