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macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

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Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#151

Post by nottorp »

reddalo wrote: post #145
danielvaughn wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just want a Finder that actually works. It’s pretty incredible just how bad Finder is. It’s by far the worst piece of software I’m forced to use on a daily basis.

I honestly think that Explorer on Windows 11 is way worse than Finder. But I'd love a FilePilot [1] for macOS... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43091466

On Windows you have Total Commander at least :)

I've tried some clones for mac os, but they all missed some important (at least to me) functions. Like typing not going to the command line editor, or not having a command line at all.

So it's midnight commander from macports for most complex file operations for me.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#152

Post by latexr »

eszed wrote: post #82
j7ake wrote: post #35

Earlier 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…

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/kb/node-modules/

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#153

Post by liamkearney »

notpushkin wrote: post #72

> Press ⇧⌘/ to search all of the current app's menu items. Then use the Up/Down arrow keys to navigate the results and press Return to execute that menu bar action. Kinda like command palette for every app, I like it. Would be even better if it preselected the matching option. Unfortunately, this is broken in Firefox – they’ve bound ⌘ ? to their help page, and it opens then immediately closes the Help menu. You can r…

Shortcat basically does this. It indexes a lot of native AX APIs and also menu items

https://shortcat.app

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#154

Post by soci »

> Open/Save Dialogs

> Drag a file or folder from Finder into an open/save dialog to jump directly to that file.

Doesn't work consistently anymore (Sequoia 15.2). Instead of focusing on the file, it moves the file you selected from Finder to the folder shown in the save dialog. It completely breaks the workflow.

Surprisingly, it works as expected one out of ten times. It seems to depend on where on the save dialog you drag the file from Finder. Extremely frustrating!

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#155

Post by nottorp »

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…

Just for the record, you can cmd+space, type the name (or just a prefix in most cases) of an app and enter and launch it with just Spotlight.

Fast enough for me.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#156

Post by norman784 »

annnoo wrote: post #96
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…

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

Aerospace works pretty well, but has an issue that was a deal breaker to me, in apps that uses native tabs are not displayed as expected [0]

[0] https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#157

Post by nottorp »

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 have all popup and sound notifications off and from time to time i check the unread message count badges on the dock icons :)

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#158

Post by nottorp »

mingus88 wrote: post #107

Remember when Mac was intuitive? I dig these cheat sheets but wow, what a total shift in paradigm from when you had one mouse button and if a feature wasn’t discoverable then it wasn’t shipped

We sure (most) of these features haven't been available for ages?

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#159

Post by nottorp »

frizlab wrote: post #132
vbezhenar wrote: post #129

"Hold Option while double-clicking a window's corner to expand the window to fill the screen." - this is the most important tip for macOS, IMO. I still don't understand what's in their heads that they don't maximise Safari/Preview to the full width by default. I have 32" display and I'm using all my windows maximized, I just don't ever want them side by side or something like that.

That’s how you work, though. Having Safari fullscreen is really not great for me. Nor Preview. Actually the only thing I have fullscreen (not in its Space) is Xcode. EDIT: I meant window maximized to fill the screen, not fullscreen, which is what option-double-clicking a window corner does.

Full screen is not the same as maximized to fill the screen.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#160

Post by nottorp »

spidey1 wrote: post #81
nailer wrote: post #69

> Press ⇧⌘/ to search all of the current app's menu items. Shift command slash, got it. > Press ⌃F2 to move keyboard focus to the application's menu bar. Start typing the first few letters of a menu title to jump to that menu. Control F2? Control shift F2? None of those work on macOS Sequoiua.

Try Fn+Control+F2

You also need Fn on laptops. I just tried it. And it seems to start with focusing the apple menu without opening it, and the focus marker is hard to notice, at least in natural light where I am now.
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