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macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

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Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#21

Post by steezeburger »

Philpax wrote: post #5

Does anyone have any advice for making the most of the Dock? I find it pretty unhelpful coming from an older Windows / Linux background: I just want easy access to the windows that are open on my current workspace on my current monitor, and it seems ill-suited to that. I usually have it on auto-hide because it takes up space without providing much value. I'm aware that I can do the three finger swipe to look at all o…

I like uBar a lot with Raycast or Alfred, but Spotlight works well enough too.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#22

Post by cosmic_cheese »

> Hold the Option key while expanding an outline view to recursively expand all children.

I use this pretty frequently and it’s always a drag to find when an app doesn’t implement it. It feels so silly to be forced to manually open/close numerous items when most other apps I use can expand/collapse them all in one go.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#23

Post by js2 »

adamnemecek wrote: post #6

When the Open/Save dialog is open, hit Cmd+Shift+G to open a dialog where one can input the path as a string. Really useful when switching between terminal and GUI.

That's covered, but it's even easier:

Press ~ to open a Go To File dialog prefilled with the home directory. Press / to open it prefilled with the root directory.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#24

Post by rcarr »

nomilk wrote: post #20

Love that this is straight to the point. My tips: - Use Alfred. Game changer. It's an immediate improvement on spotlight search, you can run commands with three keystrokes (rather than opening a terminal, just command + space, then > ), it gives clipboard history and fast append (lets you press command + c twice fast to append to clipboard, and opt + command + c to search clipboard history), and lets you make 'workfl…

Other good windows management options are Hammerspoon and BetterTouchTool:

https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/MiroWindowsManager.html

https://folivora.ai/

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#25

Post by BenFranklin100 »

Philpax wrote: post #5

Does anyone have any advice for making the most of the Dock? I find it pretty unhelpful coming from an older Windows / Linux background: I just want easy access to the windows that are open on my current workspace on my current monitor, and it seems ill-suited to that. I usually have it on auto-hide because it takes up space without providing much value. I'm aware that I can do the three finger swipe to look at all o…

It’s interesting hearing you say this. I come from Windows and thought it was just me.

I started using an app called Sidebar:

https://sidebarapp.net/

I find it superior to the dock. The applications on the task bar are persistent and only those active on the current desktop are shown. It handles multiple monitors too.

It has a few quirks I haven’t sorted out yet, but the overall experience is much closer to Windows 11.

Pro Tip: I use it conjunction with the dock by putting the dock on the side and shrinking the dock down to its smallest size and increasing the magnification effect.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#27

Post by Rury »

Philpax wrote: post #5

Does anyone have any advice for making the most of the Dock? I find it pretty unhelpful coming from an older Windows / Linux background: I just want easy access to the windows that are open on my current workspace on my current monitor, and it seems ill-suited to that. I usually have it on auto-hide because it takes up space without providing much value. I'm aware that I can do the three finger swipe to look at all o…

I mean, it does work pretty similar to the windows task bar? If an application is open, it is listed there in the dock with a mark under it. You can pin applications to the dock or remove them via right clicking it. Right clicking on one will provide a list the windows which are open to which you can select from, as well as a "show all windows" option which will hide everything else, and visually show just the windows for that application (you can also just force-click on the app icon to do this).

The only difference I see is that the windows taskbar provides a preview thumbnail when hovering over the icons. In which case, there's apps you can get for that.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#28

Post by rcarr »

jacurtis wrote: post #16
Philpax wrote: post #5

Does anyone have any advice for making the most of the Dock? I find it pretty unhelpful coming from an older Windows / Linux background: I just want easy access to the windows that are open on my current workspace on my current monitor, and it seems ill-suited to that. I usually have it on auto-hide because it takes up space without providing much value. I'm aware that I can do the three finger swipe to look at all o…

I hide the dock and basically never use it. Install Alfred or Raycast and Command+Space your way to everything. Its 100x faster. I can launch any app in about 3 key strokes, which takes For example cmd+space+c will launch or switch to chrome. cmd+space+py is pycharm, cmd+space+go is goland, cmd+space+fi is finder, cmd+space+me is messages, cmd+space+1 is 1Password. cmd+space+1p+space will start searching 1Password. T…

I also take this same approach on my phone. I'm on Android atm so I can use Nova Launcher for a completely blank home screen and then set a swipe gesture to bring up the search panel. On iPhone you can achieve similar by enabling removing everything from the home screen and using the app libary or search although it does look weird with the empty dock section at the bottom so I tended to just leave stuff like the browser in there.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#29

Post by voltaireodactyl »

nomilk wrote: post #20

Love that this is straight to the point. My tips: - Use Alfred. Game changer. It's an immediate improvement on spotlight search, you can run commands with three keystrokes (rather than opening a terminal, just command + space, then > ), it gives clipboard history and fast append (lets you press command + c twice fast to append to clipboard, and opt + command + c to search clipboard history), and lets you make 'workfl…

Fwiw I hear good things about aerospace but haven’t yet had a chance to give it a shot.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#30

Post by crazygringo »

kbutler wrote: post #10
Philpax wrote: post #5

Does anyone have any advice for making the most of the Dock? I find it pretty unhelpful coming from an older Windows / Linux background: I just want easy access to the windows that are open on my current workspace on my current monitor, and it seems ill-suited to that. I usually have it on auto-hide because it takes up space without providing much value. I'm aware that I can do the three finger swipe to look at all o…

I autohide the dock when I get a new mac, and usually manage to forget it exists. Command-Tab to switch apps, Command-Space to open apps. Why would I want the Dock?

I suddenly realize the only thing I use the dock for is to right-click the trash to empty it.

How do you empty the trash? It's never even occurred to me... how do you get to the trash except via the dock?

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