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macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

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Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#231

Post by LimeLimestone »

colddevil wrote: post #170
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.

Yes, I was thinking the same.. For several years, I'm pretty happy with PathFinder by Cocoatech: https://cocoatech.io/ The things I miss the most when I accidentically open a Finder window: Cut files wit CMD+X to move them (never understood this when coming from Windows), cycle the files in a folder (start on top if you reach bottom and vice versa) and the comprehensive info bar on the right for files and folders. Gi…

Instead of CMD + X you can do CMD + C and paste with CMD + Option + V

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#232

Post by barrell »

iamsaitam wrote: post #149
barrell wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

What does aerospace provide that yabai can't? I'm using yabai pretty much like I used to in Arch with i3

I’ve never used yabai or i3. I think the docs/defaults/configurations just really sold me on aerospace. yabai never really caught my eye. I’ve never seriously used Linux

I also think Aerospace was positioned as “macOS native features only” which helped sell me on it. Aka no hacks or workarounds

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#233

Post by ctippett »

meling wrote: post #114
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…

One thing that’s been annoying me about desktop/window management is that whenever I’ve organized my windows that I need for one project on one desktop, I eventually need to upgrade vscode or warp or macOS needs to be updated. And then restarting an app it forgets on which desktop each window was running… I typically have 3-5 projects open that I switch between (and trying to organize them on different desktops has b…

Right click on the app icon in the dock → Options → Assign to: This Desktop.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#234

Post by saagarjha »

thomasstuttard wrote: post #167
mherrmann wrote: post #67

My 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…

How do you exit the find text, selection mode (⌘E, ⌘G)? I have tried pressing the escape key, with no luck.

Click elsewhere?

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#235

Post by chrisweekly »

soulofmischief wrote: post #113
tannhaeuser wrote: post #108

All I want is an app that can fix the "broken window" focus management. Like when I click a window, Mac OS brings to top all windows of the respective app, and when an app (say, Finder) has no window open currently, bringing it to front also unaskedly manipulates the stacking order such that other app's windows become the top most one, completely destroying the visual context. Also, back in the days I used Expose a l…

I'll never get over the fact that I had to pay $8 just to have two windows split side-by-side without using the obtuse and intrusive fullscreen mode.

$14 for Divvy (from Mizage) is beyond worth it, IME.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#236

Post by frereubu »

setopt wrote: post #229
traceroute66 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> searching for files Erm, what ? I use Mac, Windows, Linux and BSD daily. Of all four, searching for files on a Mac is a dream. Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows. And don't get me started on the inconvenience of searching for files on Linux or BSD, I mean, for starters you have to download a non-default tool like `fd` if you want to search at any rea…

> Apple Spotlight is and always has been lightyears ahead of whatever garbage Microsoft use on Windows. I certainly agree on that, and I also find it more convenient than the desktop search options I’ve tried on Linux (there I usually drop to the command line to search). But despite really wanting to like Spotlight, e.g. its integration with Apple Mail with email previews is great, I find it unusable for heavy work.…

I think something is wrong with your Spotlight index if it takes that long. Recently something went a bit funny with my Spotlight that made it take as long as you're describing, but after a reboot it's pretty instantaneous as usual. I work with large numbers of files (tens of thousands per project, with about 40-50 projects) so I don't think it can be that. I'm pretty sure there are ways to rebuild your Spotlight index.

I haven't come across issues with ordering, but my use cases are usually pretty simple, so that might be down to a difference in our workflows.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#238

Post by setopt »

spinningarrow wrote: post #187
etrautmann wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things that are hard: launching a terminal at a location, viewing or copying a files path, navigating a deep file system, column width in the column view, searching for files, finding file info, and lots of other.

> launching a terminal at a location A workaround for this (especially if you have a terminal always open) is to drag the file/folder you want to operate on into an open terminal window, which will paste in its path.

This is what I do as well. Note that nearly every MacOS app shows a file or folder icon in its title bar if you hover the mouse over it – this icon can be dragged into a terminal to open the current file or folder there. Also useful if I e.g. want to grep something in a currently open text file in the terminal, or something like that.

(There is a system setting to always show this in the title bar without hovering, which was the old default behavior before Big Sur if I recall correctly. I’m a bit annoyed that it’s now hidden away by default.)

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#239

Post by danaris »

crazygringo wrote: post #30
kbutler wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It's in the File menu of the Finder, towards the bottom.
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