Here’s my tip: Messages stuck with a badge but you have no idea what’s unread / how to clear it? Ask Siri for your unread messages. It’ll go through them and remove the badge.
macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
91–100 of 360 posts
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Default osx spotlight search is just as good as Alfred? What’s different?
I have no problems with Spotlight search. I use Alfred for the plug-ins, it's extensibility, workflows, clipboard history, everything else it can do. Alfred search, in fact, really irritates me in that I've not found a good way to limit the search space. No, I really don't want files inside various node_modules folders filling up the search results. I'll try Spotlight, or go directory traversing, again . Anyone have…
I'm on Sonoma (14.5). In System Settings > Siri & Spotlight,
1. I can deselect some pre-defined categories that Spotlight searches
2. I can click the "Spotlight Privacy..." button (at the very bottom right). Then I can add folders for it to ignore.
(My preference is for Spotlight to ignore almost everything, so that it isn't indexing stuff and eating CPU on this old Macbook Air. I only have it scan Applications, Calculator, and System Settings. I have it specifically ignore my entire home directory which is where all my git repos are.)
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#93Love 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…
I used to use Alfred, but I've since switched to using Raycast as I liked some of the UI integration a bit better. I recommend trying it out! https://www.raycast.com/
The product is good, but there’s a lot of telemetry that I was not comfortable with given that search bar like those may see very sensitive information.
I guess that’s the modern way to approach development.
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fwiw I hear good things about aerospace but haven’t yet had a chance to give it a shot.
Came here to recommend aerospace. It’s been amazing. My whole desktop is like a tmux session now. It’s very much changed how I work/use my computer. More than Rectangle did, more than LLMs have. (I still adore hookshot/rectangle though :)
I used Yabai for years until I found aerospace, and switched over instantly. Would highly recommend anyone to try it :)
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#95My favorites: To quickly find text, select some text and press ⌘E followed by ⌘G. In save dialogs, press ⌘= to switch between the compact and expanded layout. In save dialogs, press ~ to open a Go To File dialog prefilled with the home directory. Press / to open it prefilled with the root directory. Hold Option while opening the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth menus to access extra options. After copying a file, press ⌥⌘V to mov…
> After copying a file, press ⌥⌘V to move the file instead of pasting a copy of it. This one is very cool
Coming from other OSes it's very dumb though, since ⌘X does not work for files (but it does for text! It's really confusing)
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#96Love 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…
Have you tried out aerospace as window manager (https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace) ?
I’ve tried multiple different tools, but none really felt right - probably because I was using i3 on my desktop. And then I found aerospace, which is inspired by i3 and uses a lot of clever tricks to achieve this
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Default osx spotlight search is just as good as Alfred? What’s different?
Agreed. Spotlight search does quite well for me. I think there is a discoverability problem with native mac functionality. People tend to install lots of software that duplicates native features
> install lots of software that duplicates native features
I installed some software for key remapping and window tiling (karabiner and rectangle) when I couldn't figure out how to do it natively. You seem like you know what you're talking about; do you happen to have native recommendations?
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#98> When a video is playing, right click the speaker icon in the address bar or tab to enter Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.
You can also double right-click the video itself and enter Picture-in-Picture mode from that menu
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#99Does 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…
> cmd+space+1 is 1Password
FYI shift+cmd+space is also 1Password's quick access shortcut
Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is Raycast open source at all? With nearly $50M of funding (most recently $30M series B last fall) I have to wonder about the long term sustainability and whether I want to invest my time and workflows into the whims of a VC backed “free forever” plan. Alfred has been around for ages and I’m reasonably confident the developers aren’t going to screw me.
This is a concern of mine as well. Alfred is also just so ridiculously lightweight and efficient compared to, well, everything these days. At 18MB on disk and sitting at 0% CPU and 42MB RAM on my machine right now with no spread of support processes, it feels almost like an endangered species Tiger-era Mac app that’s managed to survive to the current day.
I should upgrade mine. I was on Alfred 3 before using Raycast.