Dark mode, accent colour and tinted icons
Appearance settings go well past light and dark: accent colours, icon styles and even the colour of folders.
macOS Tips
A collection of macOS tricks tagged by device, category and profile. Filter, search and copy.
69 tips
Get back something you copied earlier
In macOS Tahoe, Spotlight keeps a searchable history of what you copy.
Put the controls you use most in the menu bar
Bluetooth, AirDrop and the rest can sit permanently at the top right instead of two clicks deep.
Type emoji and symbols in any app
The emoji picker and the full Character Viewer are one shortcut away.
Check which system services are using your location
Under the list of apps in Location Services there is a second list, with a dozen switches nobody has ever opened.
Stop apps opening on their own when you log in
The queue of programs that launch with your Mac is editable, and most of what is in it got there without asking.
Tile windows from the green button
The three coloured dots do more than close, minimise and maximise — hold the green one.
Rewrite and proofread text in any app
Writing Tools are not limited to Notes: they work in any text field, and they have a shortcut you can always reach.
Keep the Mac awake automatically with Amphetamine
One click in the menu bar stops the Mac sleeping, and Triggers do it on their own while an app runs or a display is connected.
Preview open windows from the Dock
Rest the pointer on a Dock icon and DockDoor shows a live thumbnail of each of its windows.
Park files on a floating shelf while you drag
Shake the pointer mid-drag and Dropover opens a temporary shelf, so you can pick things up now and drop them somewhere else later.
Snap windows into thirds and more with Rectangle
macOS tiles windows into halves and quarters; Rectangle adds thirds, two-thirds and a keyboard shortcut for every position.
Rename a batch of files in one go
The Finder can replace text, add text or number a whole selection of files at once.
Keep the Mac awake from Terminal
caffeinate stops the Mac from sleeping for as long as you say, or until a command finishes.
Use the iPhone as the Mac webcam
Continuity Camera turns the iPhone into a camera and microphone for FaceTime and video calls.
Dictate instead of typing
Turn on Dictation once and any text field takes your voice, with the punctuation added for you.
Jump to any folder, including the hidden Library
The Finder Go menu reaches any path by typing it, and shows the Library folder while you hold Option.
Use an iPad as a second display, or control it from the Mac
Sidecar extends the Mac desktop onto an iPad; Universal Control lets one keyboard and trackpad drive both.
Use your iPhone from the Mac screen
iPhone Mirroring puts the phone, its apps and its notifications in a window on the Mac — outside the EU.
Stretch the battery with Low Power Mode
Energy Mode trades a little performance for battery life, separately on battery and on the power adapter.
Test your internet connection from Terminal
networkQuality, built in since macOS Monterey, measures speed and responsiveness without a website.
Keep passwords, passkeys and codes in the Passwords app
Since macOS Sequoia, what Safari and iCloud Keychain save has its own app.
Combine PDFs and reorder their pages in Preview
Merging documents, moving pages and deleting the ones you do not need all happen in the sidebar.
Fill in and sign a PDF with Preview
No printer, no scanner and no paid PDF app: Preview types into forms and adds your signature.
Take screenshots and record the screen
Three shortcuts cover the whole screen, a selection and a single window, and the third one also records video.
Connect Terminal with the clipboard and the Finder
pbcopy, pbpaste and open bridge the command line and the rest of the Mac.
Edit text without Home, End or Forward Delete
The shortcuts that stand in for the keys a Mac keyboard does not have.
Expand abbreviations into full text
Type a few letters and macOS writes your email address, your postal address or a phrase you repeat all day.
Copy on the iPhone and paste on the Mac
Universal Clipboard moves text, images and files between your devices with the usual copy and paste.
Make the Mac ask before a plugged-in accessory connects
An Apple silicon laptop decides on its own whether to trust what you plug into it. Check which rule yours is following.
Stop strangers AirDropping things to your Mac
Set to Everyone, AirDrop lets anyone in the same carriage put a picture on your screen.
Stop your Mac reporting back to Apple
Usage analytics, data for developers, your searches and ad personalisation each have a switch, spread across three panels.
See every window of the app you are using
App Exposé spreads out the windows of the current app, including the ones hiding on other desktops.
Let macOS update itself
One switch in Software Update and another in Privacy & Security keep the security fixes arriving without you noticing.
Look after the battery of a Mac that lives plugged in
Optimised charging and a charge limit stop a permanently connected laptop from sitting at 100% all day.
See what is actually filling your disk
Storage settings break the disk down app by app, and explain that mysterious System Data entry.
Stop the desktop appearing every time you click the wallpaper
By default a click on any visible scrap of wallpaper sweeps all your windows aside. You can restrict it.
Closing a window does not quit the app
The red dot leaves the app running. Command-Q is what actually closes it, and the Dock tells you which is which.
Make the Finder sidebar and toolbar yours
The Finder is where you will spend the most time: put your folders one click away and add the buttons you need.
Tidy a chaotic desktop with Stacks
One command sweeps every loose file into neat piles by kind, and keeps doing it for the new ones.
Put widgets on the desktop
Widgets do not have to stay inside Notification Centre, where you never go looking for them.
Decide when the screen turns itself off
Separate timers for battery and mains, so the Mac neither locks while you read nor stays lit all afternoon.
Set up the Dock the way you want it
Hide it when you are not using it, keep only the apps you open, and stop minimised windows piling up on the right.
Encrypt the startup disk with FileVault
Your disk is already encrypted; without FileVault the Mac can unlock it on its own, with no password from you.
Show the path and the free space in Finder windows
Two hidden bars tell you which folder you are actually in and how much room is left on the disk.
Pick a Finder view and make every folder use it
Four ways to look at a folder, four shortcuts, and one button that saves you setting them again folder by folder.
Force quit an app that has stopped responding
The Mac equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete for a single frozen app.
Stack the windows of each app in Mission Control
With fifteen windows open, Mission Control is a mosaic you have to read. One checkbox turns it into piles, one per app.
Carry on with the Mac what you started on the iPhone
Handoff passes the page, the email or the note you have open from one device to the other, with nothing to save or send.
Run a command by pushing the pointer into a corner
Each corner of the screen can trigger an action, and a modifier key stops it firing every time you reach for the scroll bar.
Install and uninstall apps that are not in the App Store
There is no installer wizard: you drag the app into a folder, and you delete it by dragging it out.
Your login password is not your Apple Account password
macOS asks for two different passwords at different moments, and confusing them costs a lot of failed attempts.
The menu bar belongs to the app, not the window
On a Mac the menus live at the top of the screen and always belong to whichever app you are using.
Watch CPU, memory and temperature from the menu bar
Activity Monitor tells you what is happening now; Stats keeps the numbers visible all the time.
Give each job its own desktop
Mission Control shows every open window at once and lets you split your work across desktops you swipe between.
Move a file instead of copying it
There is no cut for files on a Mac. Copy it, then paste holding Option, and it moves.
Warm up the screen when the sun goes down
Night Shift on a schedule, and True Tone all day, so the display stops being the bluest thing in a dark room.
Preview a file with the space bar
Select a file, press space, and see it full size without waiting for an app to open.
Turn down the animations of macOS
Windows that stop zooming and desktops that stop sliding make the whole system feel quicker.
Build a folder that fills itself
A Smart Folder is a saved search that looks and behaves like a folder, and stays up to date without you touching it.
Stop your desktops swapping places
macOS reorders Spaces behind your back, so desktop two is not where you left it. One checkbox freezes them.
Open anything with Spotlight
One shortcut to launch apps, find files and do quick conversions, without touching the Dock.
Work on one thing at a time with Stage Manager
It parks everything you are not using down the side of the screen and lets you build sets of windows that travel together.
Switch between open apps with the keyboard
The Mac equivalent of Alt+Tab switches apps, not windows — which is why it sometimes seems to skip things.
Set up a Time Machine backup
Point macOS at an external disk once and it keeps hourly versions of everything by itself.
Set up right-click and tap-to-click on the trackpad
There is no second button, but there is a right click — and you can stop physically pressing the trackpad down.
Fix the trackpad scrolling the wrong way
macOS scrolls like a touchscreen, not like Windows. One switch decides which way the page moves.
Use the Mac in a moving car without feeling sick
Dots along the edge of the screen move with the vehicle, so your eyes stop arguing with your inner ear.
Pick a wallpaper that follows the time of day
Dynamic and aerial wallpapers change by themselves, and your own photo is one click away in the Finder.