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macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

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Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#321

Post by jachee »

Philpax wrote: post #208
jachee wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Way, way too obtrusive, and not dense enough. I like it in concept, but it's just not practical, especially on a laptop screen.

I get that. I use it on a pair of 27” 1440p monitors. It really supports my preferred method of multitasking, which is really rapid-switched single-tasking.

It will get out of the way on smaller screens, though. As soon as a window gets close to the previews, they get out of the way, unlike the dock.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#322

Post by eszed »

quacker wrote: post #92
eszed wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, Calc…

Are you saying that if I limit the Spotlight search space then Alfred will follow? Makes sense, if it's relying on Spotlight's index. I'll give it a try.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#323

Post by Rury »

edelhans wrote: post #104
Rury wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 window…

The big difference for me is that there is no way to quickly jump between multiple windows of the same application. I often have multiple different projects open in vscode and would love a way to switch between them without having to right-click and selecting one from the list. All I want is something like the windows taskbar with auto-grouping disabled.

> there is no way to quickly jump between multiple windows of the same application

Except that there is, and with multiple ways to do so:

1) CMD+Backtick

2) ALT+Tab + down/up arrow

3) force clicking the app icon

4) Clicking on "Show all windows"

5) Exposé

As far as I can tell, the only thing that's different between the windows task bar and the mac dock is the preview thumbnails.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#324

Post by XajniN »

I moved to macOS two years ago, after buying a Mac Mini with M2 Pro. I used macOS in the years before from time to time, but never committed to it, so I was surprised by the level of quality of so many small apps (both free and paid), that improve your productivity and experience of using a computer. But, without those apps, using macOS would be kinda crappy comparing to Windows.

I’m really wondering why there are no quality Windows alternatives to such apps like Alfred, Dropover, BTT, Karabiner, etc.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#325

Post by TheKarateKid »

dwayne_dibley wrote: post #172
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…

'Mac OS brings to top all windows of the respective app' - I bloody hate this behaviour.

It only does that if you click the app icon on the dock or use Alt-Tab to switch apps. If you just click a window it does not bring all of the other windows from that app to the front.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#326

Post by TheKarateKid »

tgv wrote: post #133
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…

> when I click a window, Mac OS brings to top all windows of the respective app I don't have that, and I can't remember having done anything to stop it.

On Ventura here, and it only does that if you click the app icon on the dock or use Alt-Tab to switch apps. If you just click a window it does not bring all of the other windows from that app to the front.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#327

Post by tannhaeuser »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #315
LeChuck wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you looking for this? https://hypercritical.co/front-and-center/ Found it further down the comments.

Yeah pretty much. I'm quite sure the behavior described as "modern" is what Mac OS X used to do when I had my first Mac ca 2003-2010.

On a second reading, that app is for switching on the "classic" behavior of bringing all windows to the top. There's something odd going on here as half the commenters, including me, complain about exactly that as undesired and what their Mac OS is doing without that app. Now which is it? Maybe is has to with using multiple monitors, like I'm doing? I've got to investigate more.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#328

Post by tannhaeuser »

Cenk wrote: post #195
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 believe the app “Front and Center” solves this: https://hypercritical.co/front-and-center/

It seems so, but what the Front and Center app serms specifically created for is switching towards the undesired behavior of bringing all windows to the front on click when that is exactly what my OS does and what I want to get away from. :confused:

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#329

Post by benkaiser »

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…

Brightintosh is the same as Vivid (roughly) and is actually open source, but the author ships the binaries as a Mac app store purchase for $2:

https://github.com/niklasr22/BrightIntosh

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