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macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

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Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#351

Post by copypasterepeat »

everettp wrote: post #349
copypasterepeat wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always feel like I'm missing something, but I find the creation of new folders really awkward. I'd like to just be able to right-click on a folder or even on a file or between two files and have it create a new folder there. But the new folder option is not available in those cases. I have to go to File->New Folder or click on the empty bottom of the screen, create the new folder there, and then drag it. Would love…

Command-Shift-N

Thanks but that doesn't really solve any of the issues. It still just creates a new folder on the bottom instead of the current selection.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#352

Post by sbuk »

greatgib wrote: post #344
sbuk wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I read comments like this, I know that it is someone that has switched from another OS. macOS is neither Windows, KDE or Gnome. An awful lot of the functionality that you deem 'nonsense' comes from the days of classic Macintosh and even from NeXTSTEP. In fact, nearly all the complaints I see in this and similar threads come down to people expecting macOS to behave like their previous OS did, and being surpri…

It is just people being used to efficiency and interface improved over years to be ergonomic for users. OS-X is surprising because there is a lot of marketing pretending that it is the most ergonomic when it is in fact the worst, and mostly it does not really improve other time.

"when it is in fact the worst"

That's very subjective. As a near 40-year user of Mac's, the consistency is quite remarkable. Mac OS 9 -> X was the biggest change, and even that was pretty consistent given just how different it actually was. After using Linux on and off for the last 20 or so years, I still prefer macOS when it comes to the crunch. It's not perfect, but to me at least, the best of a bad bunch.

Here's the thing; GNOME and KDE copied some bits from Mac OS, some bits from CDE/Motif, and a whole lot from Windows. The reason is obvious - familiarity and that IBM AT was largely the hardware people were installing these desktops on to. The "grandma test" (i.e. I taught my Gradma/Mum to use ${desktop}) is pointless. Instead, observe young children who have never seen a desktop computer interact with them. None of them fair well. IOS and to a very slight lesser degree, Adroid fair much better. All anecdotal, but do try it out - opens you're eye to just how bad the desktop is.

Real men prefer IRIX...

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#353

Post by tcoff91 »

urxvtcd wrote: post #337
tcoff91 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The workspaces feature in Aerospace is phenomenal and so much better than native macOS workspaces. I highly recommend it. Also the accordion layout of aerospace is better than Yabai’s stacks, and the way that resizing windows works is also better

I tried it, it's nice. There's an issue where high CPU usage makes it unusable though, last time I checked it was still open. Will probably try again in future.

I was able to get around this using renice to up the scheduler priority of the aerospace process.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#354

Post by reddalo »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #305
reddalo wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I’ve never really understood the love for Explorer in any of its iterations. It was just alright at its best in the Win7 era and somewhere between mediocre and bad in other eras.

I think peak Explorer was like back in Windows 98. Snappy and easy to use. With Windows 7 it became a mess with the ribbon thing. On Windows 11 it got even worse, it's slow.

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#356

Post by evanb »

kernel-panics wrote: post #213
matthew-wegner wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder. Note that you can also bind a hotkey to this! And in general in macOS, you can a bind to a hotkey to any menu item in any application. Search "keyboard shortcuts" in settings, then under Services -> Files and Folders.

To add to this: cdf: aliased to cd "$(pfd)" Doesn't really open a new Terminal, but usually, that's not what I want to happen anyway.

pfd is not standard and is doing all the work---what is it?

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#357

Post by euroderf »

ttepasse wrote: post #319
euroderf wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago I found+installed a small, simple Service to run "touch" on a file, but it broke a few OS upgrades ago. Anyone got a replacement ?

Once there was a nice app called ThisService which could convert shell scripts into services, but it is not developed anymore. The modern equivalent is "Run Shell Script" in Shortcuts or maybe Automator. Shortcuts has the advantage that you can use your shortcut directly in Quick Actions in Finder's context menu. I played around a minute and created this but I'm not a Shortcuts expert. https://www.icloud.com/shortcut…

Guess what! In the security dialog, when I get a file picker to pick the app, Finder is not in the list !

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#358

Post by noname120 »

jrmg wrote: post #264
noname120 wrote: post #142

This might interest you too: https://gist.github.com/devnoname120/4767a0aa18879217170fd0c... Disclaimer: I wrote this. It's a random gist that I wrote for me but it somehow got 150+ stars. Tbh I'm not even sure how people even heard about it because I didn't post it anywhere… Either way I guess people seem to like it, so hopefully you will find it useful too!

YMMV, but I’ve found that at least for my display, this: > When Macbook Air M1 is sleeping, external screens connected via USB-C keep waking up every few minutes and then go straight to sleep again. is fixed in Sonoma (yay!)

Good to know thanks for the heads-up! I'll wait for a confirmation from someone else and then update the article

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#359

Post by DavideNL »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #328
Cenk wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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:

Fyi, i'm not sure if it does what you want, but make sure to check out 1Piece. It has a ton of options...

https://app1piece.com/

Re: macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)

#360

Post by niek_pas »

baal80spam wrote: post #342
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting hearing you say this. I come from Windows and thought it was just me. I started using an app called Sidebar: https://sidebarapp.net/ I find it superior to the dock. The applications on the task bar are persistent and only those active on the current desktop are shown. It handles multiple monitors too. It has a few quirks I haven’t sorted out yet, but the overall experience is much closer to Windows 1…

My God, only on a Mac you can find a _sidebar_ app that has a subscription. How I hate that.

Not trying to be snarky: why do you hate paying a regular fee for regularly updated software? Wouldn't the alternative be upgrade pricing, which is essentially just subscription pricing with extra steps?
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