For anyone who hasn't already rebound Caps Lock to Ctrl - try to accidentally hit Caps Lock really quickly, and it won't activate. Press it normally and it will activate.
Psh. Caps Lock is to be mapped to Esc.
Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
261–270 of 540 posts
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#262- Ctrl + Cmd + Shift + 4 will let you take a screenshot of a region of your screen and copy it to the clipboard. It can then be pasted directly into most applications, from email clients to chat clients. No random screenshots sitting around. If you want to capture a whole window, press Space after the initial shortcut, then click the window. - While a menu is open, hold Option; if you're lucky, you'll get some additi…
After you press Ctrl + Cmd + Shift + 4 and start dragging a region, if you hold the space bar, you can move this region around the screen so you're not trapped with where you originally started dragging.
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Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate hate hate that they're hiding proxy icons in Big Sur.
Proxy icons?
The icon in the window title bar is often referred to as the proxy icon. I thought this was Apple's official name for it, but I can't find any evidence to support that in Apple's documentation.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#264Cmd-space to bring up spotlight Type whatever you want. Cmd-b Your default web browser with your default search engine will now open and perform your query. I can't stress this enough how much I use this workflow when writing code. Another thing for the OPs issue with the screenshots, (there's a few steps via terminal so maybe try the above shortcut to search for an article on how to do it) you can have all your scre…
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Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#265I recently discovered the Bluetooth device debugging menu. Hold Shift + Option and click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.
I don’t believe you need the shift. You just need to Option + click
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#266I’ve been using windows more recently since my personal Mac bit the dust and I’m trying to decide if there’s really that much reason to own a personal Mac. So now I realize for years I’ve been using this silent feature of macs for years called “not totally jacked up font rendering”. I would never have imagined this was a feature, but apparently there is a collective insanity in windowsland where the quality of font r…
I think newer versions of mac os x might have messed with your font rendering again.
They turned off subpixel anti-aliasing and it looks worse on older displays.
(I can't help but think of the "slowing down older iphones" thing)
search for "fix blurry fonts mojave"
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
> all the accents and letters Nowadays, holding down a key will show a pop-up with all the accent options, which you can then select by mouse or by typing the number under it, much like on iOS. The option route is my preferred one, as it's faster, but the new one is much more accessible to people without keyboard prowess.
Is there a way to shut off the long press functionality? Sometimes I just want to type “byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”, and I have already made the effort to learn accent key combos.
Pretty much this: https://www.howtogeek.com/267463/how-to-enable-key-repeating...
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#268Mac has a storage explorer called "Storage management app". I found it great for making space as it can sort by categories and file size. Before realising this, it was a pain to find decent software for the MacOS. I imagine this was added recently.
The Omni Group has had a free storage space app on the Mac for a long time called OmniDiskSweeper.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#269You can use image capture app to copy pictures when you connect camera via usb. If you create a "Developer" folder in your ~ it's gonna have a different icon and is canonical place to put all your code in mac world. Clicking wifi tray icon while holding option is going to give you a lot more info and some hidden tools.
Damn that option-click one is HUGE. Thank you. Where are these things enumerated? Everything in this thread is such tribal knowledge. I’ve gone looking for this information in the actual help docs and it frequently isn’t there. Is there a canonical source for Apple shortcuts/gestures in any of their ecosystems? Many of these things make life so much better.
Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using macOS?
#270I’ve been using windows more recently since my personal Mac bit the dust and I’m trying to decide if there’s really that much reason to own a personal Mac. So now I realize for years I’ve been using this silent feature of macs for years called “not totally jacked up font rendering”. I would never have imagined this was a feature, but apparently there is a collective insanity in windowsland where the quality of font r…
I remember watching a speech from Steve Jobs where he specifically said he learned about calligraphy or typefacing (I don’t remember the specific terms) to implement proper font rendering on macs. This was also before OSX came out.
It was interesting because I realized how subtly difficult font rendering is. Unless you’re using a monospaced font all of the characters have different widths, you have to figure out how to split text into lines, or how much to space text if the alignment is set to justify. In some of the fancier fonts on macOS, the characters actually change slightly if there are other characters nearby.