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macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

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Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#41

Post by jachee »

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…

Have you tried Stage Manager mode? It kinda does what you want, but with the windows on the side rather than the bottom.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#42

Post by k310 »

I am a cheapskate and use Quicksilver. Command spacebar, app pops up.

I hate the Finder. I used to use an app called cols that resized finder windows to an appropriate size. Stuck it in the finder toolbar. I looked for the applescript but can't find it. How tough is it to fill the finder window with all the columns so that the Magic Mouse doesn't wag the columns back and forth? Just fill the window. Cols, anyone?

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#43

Post by nomilk »

j7ake wrote: post #35
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…

Default osx spotlight search is just as good as Alfred? What’s different?

I tried reindexing a few times (each took a few hours) but spotlight search still rarely brought up the file/thing I was after. Examples:

Spotlight search would bring up a wikipedia entry for app store instead of the app store on my laptop: https://imgur.com/QV1w7Kq

Typing 'finder' and hitting enter (e.g. to browse for a file), would open finder settings, rather than finder itself.

I haven't used it in ~1 year, those are a couple of examples I can recall.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#44

Post by nomilk »

kadomony wrote: post #37
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…

> - There's still no good window manager for macOS. Rectangle is as close as it gets, but it's not good IMO because it only works on non full size windows. (the solution is just get ninja-like with three finger swipe, and endure using the mouse/trackpad more than you'd prefer) I use Magnet and it does the job well. If you're familiar with it, I'd love to know why you don't think it's a good window manager. Or do you…

I only tried the intersection of 'free' and 'trusted' (the latter being subjective, based on a glance at website/repo). I hadn't yet tried Magnet, but I see it's $5 so I'll splash out over the weekend and give it a try. Thanks for the rec! Any newb tips appreciated.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#45

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

crazygringo wrote: post #31
rationalbeaver wrote: post #18

"Hold Control and Option while clicking on a window to switch focus to that window without raising it." TIL. Amazing little hack.

What is this useful for?

Writing in a text field in one window while referring to another window, where the window with the text field would overlap the other window if it were frontmost.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#46

Post by nomilk »

kadomony wrote: post #38
j7ake wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Default osx spotlight search is just as good as Alfred? What’s different?

Alfred does a lot more beyond just searching.

Very true, for me, spotlight search felt so broken that Alfred would be worth it even if search was all it did.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#47

Post by daggersandscars »

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…

> There's still no good window manager for macOS. Rectangle is as close as it gets, but it's not good IMO because it only works on non full size windows. (the solution is just get ninja-like with three finger swipe, and endure using the mouse/trackpad more than you'd prefer)

I don’t know your requirements for good, but I like Mizage’s Divvy. Works on Mac and Windows and can configure gTile similarly on Linux.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#49

Post by gedy »

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…

You may like uBar: https://ubarapp.com/
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