macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)(saurabhs.org)
saurabhs.org
macOS Tips and Tricks (2022)
https://saurabhs.org/macos-tips
359 comments
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 lot to navigate, but it has completely lost any spatial determinism and usefulness for me. These issues are very noticable, and feel gross and like a team of ignorants has messed around; it's very irritating that nobody is speaking about it.
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/
https://app1piece.com/
Thanks! That's an instant purchase for me. Looks like the APIs to permit this have only been available since Ventura.
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 use Forklift instead : https://binarynights.com/
I can use it as an orthodox file manager (with the f keys I remember from Norton Commander). I also like using it to access remote filesystems over nfs and sftp, and also S3 buckets. It also works well with Dropbox and iCloud. There is a great sync feature to keep source and target directories synchronised. It's also good for diffing directories at a glance. It's good at managing archive files too. Plus the regex file rename feature is often handy for me - I have a few presets saved for various purposes. It's also my go-to MacOS uninstaller, as it gathers the related files.
I can use it as an orthodox file manager (with the f keys I remember from Norton Commander). I also like using it to access remote filesystems over nfs and sftp, and also S3 buckets. It also works well with Dropbox and iCloud. There is a great sync feature to keep source and target directories synchronised. It's also good for diffing directories at a glance. It's good at managing archive files too. Plus the regex file rename feature is often handy for me - I have a few presets saved for various purposes. It's also my go-to MacOS uninstaller, as it gathers the related files.
Same. I tried to use Finder for a while but landed on Forklift. I consider it the best choice of file manager tools for MacOS.
What exactly is so bad about Finder? I've never had any issues with it.
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
Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder.
> viewing or copying a files path
Right-click on directory or file and press Option > Copy "<filename>" as path name.
> navigating a deep file system
Not sure what you mean.
> column width in the column view
Option + click & Drag. Or do you want them to adjust to files/folders name length?
> searching for files
What's wrong with Command + F?
> finding file info
Do you want more than what is shown by Command + I or in the "details" column?
Right-click on directory > Services > New Terminal at Folder.
> viewing or copying a files path
Right-click on directory or file and press Option > Copy "<filename>" as path name.
> navigating a deep file system
Not sure what you mean.
> column width in the column view
Option + click & Drag. Or do you want them to adjust to files/folders name length?
> searching for files
What's wrong with Command + F?
> finding file info
Do you want more than what is shown by Command + I or in the "details" column?
> 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.
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.
except Excel's ribbon menu items. As far as I know there's no method to hotkey those like ALT+[<letter>] on windows. Same for Outlook's categorize email function.
That's because Microsoft has never used Apple's SDKs for their window widgets...
Those are not "menu items" as generally understood in macOS.
To add to this:
cdf: aliased to cd "$(pfd)"
Doesn't really open a new Terminal, but usually, that's not what I want to happen anyway.
cdf: aliased to cd "$(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?
> 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 reasonable speed.
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 reasonable speed.
This just tells me you've never used they only file search dream - Everything search, unfortunately Windows only. Spotlight has never come close to that
> Everything
I was going to say Everything was awesome as a file searcher except for its non-easily searchable name.
But when I checked in a raw Edge instance it was in fact the first result. Ho hum.
It's produced by Voidtools in case YMMV: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
I was going to say Everything was awesome as a file searcher except for its non-easily searchable name.
But when I checked in a raw Edge instance it was in fact the first result. Ho hum.
It's produced by Voidtools in case YMMV: https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/
> 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’ve tried customizing it to disable lots of search backends that I don’t need, but still for reasons I don’t understand, it sometimes takes 5+ seconds to process my search results before showing anything, and even the average search often takes a second and is not well-sorted.
In comparison, Alfred is always instant at searching on my computer, and I really prefer how you can explicitly tell it what you are searching for (e.g. `'filename`, `in file contents`, `=math`, etc.) whereas Spotlight tries to guess this and often guesses wrong. It’s also easier to customize if you want to integrate e.g. specific web searches in it.
I’ve tried Raycast since lots of people praise it, but I still find Alfred to have a nicer and more responsive interface, but perhaps it’s just what I’m used to.
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’ve tried customizing it to disable lots of search backends that I don’t need, but still for reasons I don’t understand, it sometimes takes 5+ seconds to process my search results before showing anything, and even the average search often takes a second and is not well-sorted.
In comparison, Alfred is always instant at searching on my computer, and I really prefer how you can explicitly tell it what you are searching for (e.g. `'filename`, `in file contents`, `=math`, etc.) whereas Spotlight tries to guess this and often guesses wrong. It’s also easier to customize if you want to integrate e.g. specific web searches in it.
I’ve tried Raycast since lots of people praise it, but I still find Alfred to have a nicer and more responsive interface, but perhaps it’s just what I’m used to.
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.
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.
I agree with OP, searching for files is awful. Many times it doesn't find a file I know it is inside a subdirectory of where I am right now.
Things got much better when I moved from Spotlight to Raycast.
Things got much better when I moved from Spotlight to Raycast.
Searching on my Mac's SSD is great.
Searching on my SMB network share doesn't work. At all. It's not just that Spotlight won't index it. It's that you can't even search by filename within the current folder you're viewing.
Searching on my SMB network share doesn't work. At all. It's not just that Spotlight won't index it. It's that you can't even search by filename within the current folder you're viewing.
> 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.
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.)
(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.)
Also, remember the commands pbcopy and pbpaste which along with pipes allow one to do a myriad of tasks.
At least it has a column view.
- Awkward sorting by name (mixing folders and files), unless you change the default
- Does not snap files to a grid by default on icon view, leaving some folders looking like a mess
- Not possible to figure out what's the exact path of the open folder - I just want a full path in the header/title bar. Or let me copy the full path without having to open "get info"
- Does not snap files to a grid by default on icon view, leaving some folders looking like a mess
- Not possible to figure out what's the exact path of the open folder - I just want a full path in the header/title bar. Or let me copy the full path without having to open "get info"
> I just want a full path in the header/title bar
Apart from the Path bar in the bottom, there is also an old school title bar method:
It doesn’t work for great for tabs, though, because tabs are short and paths are long.
> Or let me copy the full path …
There are some alternative fun and old methods:
* If you're hovering over the title bar of a finder window there is a little folder icon, the so-called proxy icon which gives access to the current folder. One can drag and drop it and it moves the folder. Dragging a folder or the proxy icon on the Dock icon of Terminal or iTerm opens a new window with the working directory directly set to the folder. But dragged into a text field you're getting the text path. Right click gives you a dropdown for navigation in the current folders path.
The proxy icon was stable in Finder until recently, now you need to hover. But you can re-activate the permanent display of the proxy icon under System Settings → Accessibility → Display, I think.
* MacOS has, since the Next days, the concept of Services. Services are little actions which the System and (good) Apps can provide to do something with with something. Services are found in the context menu or the App menu. If you're right clicking on a folder (sadly not the proxy icon), there are Service Actions by Terminal and iTerm for opening a window or tab for a selected folder.
* AppleScript:
But you can use AppleScript everywhere in MacOS. The Script-Menu, as an own App, as an Automator action or a Shortcut, you can give those hotkeys, possible use them in Alfred or Raycast, etc.
Apart from the syntax it will be a sad day, if Apple retires the AppleScript architecture.
Apart from the Path bar in the bottom, there is also an old school title bar method:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool true
killall Finder
It doesn’t work for great for tabs, though, because tabs are short and paths are long.
> Or let me copy the full path …
There are some alternative fun and old methods:
* If you're hovering over the title bar of a finder window there is a little folder icon, the so-called proxy icon which gives access to the current folder. One can drag and drop it and it moves the folder. Dragging a folder or the proxy icon on the Dock icon of Terminal or iTerm opens a new window with the working directory directly set to the folder. But dragged into a text field you're getting the text path. Right click gives you a dropdown for navigation in the current folders path.
The proxy icon was stable in Finder until recently, now you need to hover. But you can re-activate the permanent display of the proxy icon under System Settings → Accessibility → Display, I think.
* MacOS has, since the Next days, the concept of Services. Services are little actions which the System and (good) Apps can provide to do something with with something. Services are found in the context menu or the App menu. If you're right clicking on a folder (sadly not the proxy icon), there are Service Actions by Terminal and iTerm for opening a window or tab for a selected folder.
* AppleScript:
tell application "Finder"
if exists window 1 then
set currentDir to POSIX path of ((target of front Finder window) as text)
else
set currentDir to POSIX path of (path to desktop folder)
end if
set the clipboard to currentDir
end tell
But you can use AppleScript everywhere in MacOS. The Script-Menu, as an own App, as an Automator action or a Shortcut, you can give those hotkeys, possible use them in Alfred or Raycast, etc.
Apart from the syntax it will be a sad day, if Apple retires the AppleScript architecture.
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/shortcuts/5898ff4c3f2e49ff8ec6bff4013...
One insane caveat: For this to work you'll need to grant Finder Full Disc Access in System Settings → Security. Yes, it sounds insane. It is. But it works.
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/shortcuts/5898ff4c3f2e49ff8ec6bff4013...
One insane caveat: For this to work you'll need to grant Finder Full Disc Access in System Settings → Security. Yes, it sounds insane. It is. But it works.
Guess what! In the security dialog, when I get a file picker to pick the app, Finder is not in the list !
Oh, and you can drag app icons into the Finder symbol bar. Possibly an App made from that AppleScript. Not tested.
Thanks for the tips. The defaults command worked well for my needs.
Sounds like you want "Show Path Bar" (in the View menu), though it lives at the bottom of the window not in the header.
The sorting by name criticism is a weird one to me though. You want it to not sort by name when you tell it to sort by name, and instead sort by file vs folder and then within those two groups sort by name?
The sorting by name criticism is a weird one to me though. You want it to not sort by name when you tell it to sort by name, and instead sort by file vs folder and then within those two groups sort by name?
I should have paid more attention to the menu bar. Show Path Bar helps with my needs.
For sorting I want it to sort like File Explorer or Dophin. So folders on top (sorted by name), then files (sorted by name). It works if I change Settings > Advanced > Keep folders on top.
For sorting I want it to sort like File Explorer or Dophin. So folders on top (sorted by name), then files (sorted by name). It works if I change Settings > Advanced > Keep folders on top.
Sorting folders seperately is definitely a personal preference thing. This behavior drives me nuts in Explorer and Linux file managers.
I’d support this being an option in the View menu or View Options palette, but I think I would lose my mind if this behavior were made default with no way to turn it off.
I’d support this being an option in the View menu or View Options palette, but I think I would lose my mind if this behavior were made default with no way to turn it off.
Same, honestly. I find it very pleasant to use. Especially compared to a lot of Linux file browsers
It never seems to receive focus when I'm expecting it to
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. Give it a try :)
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. Give it a try :)
Instead of CMD + X you can do CMD + C and paste with CMD + Option + V
I used it for years and got so fed up with its pain points, including frequent crashes, a licensing system that never worked and nagged me despite legitimate purchase, and updates which reset and lost my preferences and sidebar organization. I’m now galaxy brained back to Finder again.
There's an app from Sindre Sorhus that adds CMD+X functionality to Finder.
https://sindresorhus.com/command-x
https://sindresorhus.com/command-x
”There is an app from Sindre Sorhus” is a complete sentence. :)
(Command-X is nice, even for a long time Mac user)
(Command-X is nice, even for a long time Mac user)
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 to hear if someone can offer tips for this.
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.
I recommend Alfred to replace Finder, Divvy for window management, iTerm2 for terminal, and homebrew to manage CLI utils.
This combination has served me well for many years.
This combination has served me well for many years.
And Linux Mint Cinnamon to replace MacOS ... how bout that?
The frustration with Finder led me to building my own tool. Not trying to replace Finder but more like a companion app - https://www.fileminutes.com/
I've been using Pathfinder for years (https://cocoatech.io/)
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
[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.
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.
Anyone who thinks finder is the worst file browser hasn't used Windows for 25+ years. Explorer can't even search files on the hard drive of the computer it's running on.
Explorer has its thumbnail processor on the same thread as the UI so if you have a lot of pictures in a directory it'll just hang indefinitely. Sometimes if you have too many files it won't display any at all.
If explorer crashes, it's the same process as your desktop and taskbar, so that disappears too.
Explorer has its thumbnail processor on the same thread as the UI so if you have a lot of pictures in a directory it'll just hang indefinitely. Sometimes if you have too many files it won't display any at all.
If explorer crashes, it's the same process as your desktop and taskbar, so that disappears too.
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.
For the shit people give Finder, it's astonishing how bad Explorer is.
I miss Finder's tree view in Explorer so much.
I miss Finder's tree view in Explorer so much.
i mean ... is it possible to move a file? the context menu doesn't seem to have a corresponding entry.
currently have a weird situation where a bunch of folders are arranged horizontally and go beyond the right border of the window. but there is no horizontal scroll bar indicating that.
the windows xp/nt/2000 file explorer is the pinnacle of file exploring experience. basically every linux file explorer just more or less copied it - for good reason. but no - apple has to reinvent the wheel and came up with a messed up hexagon.
currently have a weird situation where a bunch of folders are arranged horizontally and go beyond the right border of the window. but there is no horizontal scroll bar indicating that.
the windows xp/nt/2000 file explorer is the pinnacle of file exploring experience. basically every linux file explorer just more or less copied it - for good reason. but no - apple has to reinvent the wheel and came up with a messed up hexagon.
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I gained a reputation at my workplace for complaining about this.
Nonsense default behavior, slow as heck, search barely works, keybindings are totally illogical.
It's totally unacceptable.
Nonsense default behavior, slow as heck, search barely works, keybindings are totally illogical.
It's totally unacceptable.
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 surprised that it doesn't.
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 surprised that it doesn't.
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.
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...
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...
You may be interested in https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
> 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.
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.
[deleted]
> when I click a window, Mac OS brings to top all windows of the respective app
Do you mean Cmd + Tab? Because this doesn't happen for me at all. When I click on a window, just that window is focused, but if I Alt + Tab to an app all those windows come to the front, which I find annoying too.
Do you mean Cmd + Tab? Because this doesn't happen for me at all. When I click on a window, just that window is focused, but if I Alt + Tab to an app all those windows come to the front, which I find annoying too.
Hijacking for a quick tip I'm not sure everyone is familiar with. On macOS, most know that Cmd + Tab will cycle through the open apps. Less well-known, Cmd + ` will cycle through windows within an app.
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.
Made an account just to reply.
I use https://rectangleapp.com/ on Mac and it's great. I mostly use shortcuts Left Half and Right Half, and also Maximize (Not the fullscreen mode thank God)
Might as well recommend enabling moving windows around with by clicking anywhere on the window with a keybind just like in most Linux desktop environments https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/321918/move-window...
I use https://rectangleapp.com/ on Mac and it's great. I mostly use shortcuts Left Half and Right Half, and also Maximize (Not the fullscreen mode thank God)
Might as well recommend enabling moving windows around with by clicking anywhere on the window with a keybind just like in most Linux desktop environments https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/321918/move-window...
I (personally) forked rectangle a few years back to give me thirds of a window, for a 32" display running in 4k@1x.
I use (basically) left, middle, right, and top half/bottom half.
I use (basically) left, middle, right, and top half/bottom half.
Rectangle supports thirds, "two-thirds", fourths, "three-fourths", and sixths (top/bottom * thirds).
I appreciate that! When I switched to MacOS, I demoed both Rectangle and Magnet and found that, despite being paid software, Magnet offered a much more intuitive experience.
I'm happy to pay for software anyway, but after spending $4000 on a computer I expected such basic desktop manager features, which have been common since the 90s, to come with the package. This is not something extensions are supposed to do. This kind of crap is why I ditched GNOME.
I'm happy to pay for software anyway, but after spending $4000 on a computer I expected such basic desktop manager features, which have been common since the 90s, to come with the package. This is not something extensions are supposed to do. This kind of crap is why I ditched GNOME.
Back when I was forced to use a Mac I used BetterTouchTool for this. It's a fantastic tool in general, and the window management is sensible.
$14 for Divvy (from Mizage) is beyond worth it, IME.
'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.
I can't reproduce this behavior so maybe it's changed in recent versions.
I switched to Windows/WSL because of this!!
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.
> Like when I click a window, Mac OS brings to top all windows of the respective app
It doesn't happen here with any of the app currently in use: Chrome, Finder, Terminal, Outlook, or Teams.
It doesn't happen here with any of the app currently in use: Chrome, Finder, Terminal, Outlook, or Teams.
I guess that it is not what you want to hear, but just use a Linux desktop, like cinnamon!
Apple pretend to do ergonomic but their window manager is full of frustration. Using cinnamon is a breeze with everything working well as expected. Even having multi-screens and having apps in menu on the correct screen where they are located.
I usually have open multiple Firefox, console, folder, pdf windows and my life under os-x was a nightmare.
Impossible to have one bottom icon per window (I tried everything, even U-bar that was my hope is just garbage), to not have all windows of the same app open when you click on the icon like Firefox, having to do right click on the icon all the time to go from one window of console to the other, terminals having tabs and window mixed in the menu bar,...
Apple pretend to do ergonomic but their window manager is full of frustration. Using cinnamon is a breeze with everything working well as expected. Even having multi-screens and having apps in menu on the correct screen where they are located.
I usually have open multiple Firefox, console, folder, pdf windows and my life under os-x was a nightmare.
Impossible to have one bottom icon per window (I tried everything, even U-bar that was my hope is just garbage), to not have all windows of the same app open when you click on the icon like Firefox, having to do right click on the icon all the time to go from one window of console to the other, terminals having tabs and window mixed in the menu bar,...
Yeah thanks, actually I've left Linux for Mac OS, and while I do have Linux (and Windows) notebooks for specific needs I have no plans to return to it as my main machine. The reason is simply that I couldn't stand witnessing mainstream Linux desktop regressing into dysfunctionality for me (as in causing physical pain), and I'm sick of developers fetishizing de-facto proprietary containers, programming languages, system frameworks, or ideologies instead of creating apps I would actually want to use.
> when I click a window, Mac OS brings to top all windows of the respective app
https://imgur.com/a/mr1E2sW
https://imgur.com/a/mr1E2sW
tannhaeuser presumably talks about clicking the corresponding button in the dock. Although, granted, that's the "app" button.
It's been many years since I used a mac, but I feel like the alt+tab (mac+tab?) menu had this behavior also.
Maybe this app will do
https://hypercritical.co/front-and-center/
Yea I also hate that. If i have two terminals on two screens then click on one, all the terminals are now in the foreground and blocking the IDE/whatever…
Maybe this is something that was changed on recent versions of macos but I can't reproduce this. I've tried terminal, iterm, browser windows, etc.
It only happens when you click on the dock icon, not the app itself, i remembered it incorrectly.
I solve this (really nonsense) issue with Hammerspoon and this simple script:
local hyper = {"ctrl", "alt", "cmd"}
hs.loadSpoon("MiroWindowsManager")
hs.window.animationDuration = 0.3
spoon.MiroWindowsManager:bindHotkeys({
up = {hyper, "up"},
right = {hyper, "right"},
down = {hyper, "down"},
left = {hyper, "left"},
fullscreen = {hyper, "f"}
})> [Expose] has completely lost any spatial determinism
Could you elaborate on that?
Could you elaborate on that?
Not the OP, but I never know where a specific application will show up. Sometimes Chrome is on the left and my IDE is on the top right, sometimes it's the opposite. If it relates to the window location, I can't tell. Always mostly the same set of five or six applications, too.
Oh, you all mean when expose or whatever it's called shrinks the windows down and spreads them all out? Yeah, I've never found it a useful way to switch apps if I have more than a couple open. Visually searching for the window I want like that isn't fast for me, and if the windows get too small it's not helpful.
Original Expose ca 2003 minimised windows from their live positions on the regular desktop to thumbnails in a quick and smooth animation and would leave minimised thumbnails at different sizes resembling their relative live sizes and aspect ratio.
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 > <cmd>), 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 'workflows' to make frequent tasks extremely streamlined (I use one to open LLM prompts in five LLMs, so I press command + space 'llm <prompt>' and 5 browser tabs open with the same prompt in grok, claude, chatgpt, perplexity, and (local) deepseek.
- Itsycal: an 'install and forget' calendar for your menu bar (it also uses vim keybindings to move around the calendar which is a fun yet practical easter egg)
- There's still no good window manager for macOS. Rectangle is as close as it gets, but it's not good IMO because it only works on non full size windows. (the solution is just get ninja-like with three finger swipe, and endure using the mouse/trackpad more than you'd prefer)
- Vivid for double the screen brightness
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 > <cmd>), 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 'workflows' to make frequent tasks extremely streamlined (I use one to open LLM prompts in five LLMs, so I press command + space 'llm <prompt>' and 5 browser tabs open with the same prompt in grok, claude, chatgpt, perplexity, and (local) deepseek.
- Itsycal: an 'install and forget' calendar for your menu bar (it also uses vim keybindings to move around the calendar which is a fun yet practical easter egg)
- There's still no good window manager for macOS. Rectangle is as close as it gets, but it's not good IMO because it only works on non full size windows. (the solution is just get ninja-like with three finger swipe, and endure using the mouse/trackpad more than you'd prefer)
- Vivid for double the screen brightness
I used to use Alfred, but I've since switched to using Raycast as I liked some of the UI integration a bit better. I recommend trying it out!
https://www.raycast.com/
https://www.raycast.com/
The product is good, but there’s a lot of telemetry that I was not comfortable with given that search bar like those may see very sensitive information.
I guess that’s the modern way to approach development.
I guess that’s the modern way to approach development.
Raycast has only rudimentary file workflows. Constant efforts for monetization (VC money) and milking AI hype are just cherries on top.
There’s so much AI cruft on that page that I can’t even tell what the product is supposed to be.
Only one AI section out of 12 total sections, and while the second section has an AI example, it's only one out of five.
It's basically Alfred with more (?) functionality. Which is basically Spotlight with more functionality. Which is basically a tool to "do stuff" from anywhere on the device.
It's basically Alfred with more (?) functionality. Which is basically Spotlight with more functionality. Which is basically a tool to "do stuff" from anywhere on the device.
Looks interesting.. how does it compare to Launchbar?
https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html
https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html
> - There's still no good window manager for macOS. Rectangle is as close as it gets, but it's not good IMO because it only works on non full size windows. (the solution is just get ninja-like with three finger swipe, and endure using the mouse/trackpad more than you'd prefer)
I use Magnet and it does the job well. If you're familiar with it, I'd love to know why you don't think it's a good window manager. Or do you just mean there's not a good NATIVE window manager for the OS?
I use Magnet and it does the job well. If you're familiar with it, I'd love to know why you don't think it's a good window manager. Or do you just mean there's not a good NATIVE window manager for the OS?
+1 for magnet. Indispensable to the extent that on rare occasions I use others Macs where it’s not installed I’ll gift it to them (and they invariably become passionate about it).
I only tried the intersection of 'free' and 'trusted' (the latter being subjective, based on a glance at website/repo). I hadn't yet tried Magnet, but I see it's $5 so I'll splash out over the weekend and give it a try. Thanks for the rec! Any newb tips appreciated.
I used to use tiling window managers on Linux, but I found out that my Mac usage contains lots of “graphical” apps that don't like to live in a quarter of the screen or something like that.
So I've embraced overlapping windows. I strategically place them so that the import parts are visible. For example, my IDE is full screen, but the browser is only 70% with and height or so (so that the left 30% and the bottom 30% of the IDE are visible, which conveniently lets me peek into the log of the currently running program.
I have a Hammerspoon configuration that conjures up a modal window on a keypress, and then additional keypresses move the current window to a predefined position and size, e.g. m to maximize and p for the top right corner (70% width and 70% height).
I also have some keybindings in that modal window to jump to an app, e.g. w for the browser, i for the IDE, t for the email client, space for the terminal.
I very very rarely manually move a window around, one of the preset positions/sizes usually works for me.
So I've embraced overlapping windows. I strategically place them so that the import parts are visible. For example, my IDE is full screen, but the browser is only 70% with and height or so (so that the left 30% and the bottom 30% of the IDE are visible, which conveniently lets me peek into the log of the currently running program.
I have a Hammerspoon configuration that conjures up a modal window on a keypress, and then additional keypresses move the current window to a predefined position and size, e.g. m to maximize and p for the top right corner (70% width and 70% height).
I also have some keybindings in that modal window to jump to an app, e.g. w for the browser, i for the IDE, t for the email client, space for the terminal.
I very very rarely manually move a window around, one of the preset positions/sizes usually works for me.
> I've embraced overlapping windows.
Same. My eyesight getting worse has been a big factor for me. The days of having all my active tools neatly organized and visible simultaneously is over, even with multiple large monitors.
Same. My eyesight getting worse has been a big factor for me. The days of having all my active tools neatly organized and visible simultaneously is over, even with multiple large monitors.
Why not just have all your windows fullscreen and three finger swipe between them like macOS was designed to be used. If you dont like the extremely opinionated macOS window design why not just use Linux?
> There's still no good window manager for macOS. Rectangle is as close as it gets, but it's not good IMO because it only works on non full size windows. (the solution is just get ninja-like with three finger swipe, and endure using the mouse/trackpad more than you'd prefer)
I don’t know your requirements for good, but I like Mizage’s Divvy. Works on Mac and Windows and can configure gTile similarly on Linux.
I don’t know your requirements for good, but I like Mizage’s Divvy. Works on Mac and Windows and can configure gTile similarly on Linux.
Used Divvy for years, but switched to Moom last year and I’m very happy with it. One feature I particularly like is being able to set up “chains” of window positions to a single shortcut, so you can trigger it multiple times and it will cycle through different positions. I do miss the little grid layout window a bit, but Moom works a lot better for me overall.
Divvy+Stay is the magic combo for me: https://cordlessdog.com/stay/ (moves windows back to my external monitor when I plug it in)
Divvy is great, still working, yet development seems abandoned.
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
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 is really nice, when it works. As soon as I use more of CPU, for example to compile something, it gets unusably slow, as in 5 seconds to do anything slow. The worst part is that the workspaces are virtual, so when you kill it, you're left with a tens of pixel-sized windows in Mission Control.
So I went back to yabai. It gets the jobs done fine.
So I went back to yabai. It gets the jobs done fine.
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
[0] https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace/issues/68
I lived with Alfred for many-many years, but Raycast seems much better this days. Simpler yet richer and constantly developed, many plugins, it's simple to do your own and... it has window manager
Is Raycast open source at all? With nearly $50M of funding (most recently $30M series B last fall) I have to wonder about the long term sustainability and whether I want to invest my time and workflows into the whims of a VC backed “free forever” plan.
Alfred has been around for ages and I’m reasonably confident the developers aren’t going to screw me.
Alfred has been around for ages and I’m reasonably confident the developers aren’t going to screw me.
This is a concern of mine as well. Alfred is also just so ridiculously lightweight and efficient compared to, well, everything these days. At 18MB on disk and sitting at 0% CPU and 42MB RAM on my machine right now with no spread of support processes, it feels almost like an endangered species Tiger-era Mac app that’s managed to survive to the current day.
As much as I'd like to imagine investors are shoveling money into a pit because they want us to have nice software, the sheer amount of money feels like the only two options are (A) to reach profitability we're raising prices way up to juice the people who have become dependent on Raycast when it was affordable, or (B) blah blah incredible journey, our team is being acquihired for a sort of related project and Raycast will slowly wither and die as we realign priorities with the people who pay us.
I'm sure they'd like to squeeze Alfred and other competitors out of existence while they have the VC runway to underprice their software, but I'm not going to help them do that.
I'm sure they'd like to squeeze Alfred and other competitors out of existence while they have the VC runway to underprice their software, but I'm not going to help them do that.
I should upgrade mine. I was on Alfred 3 before using Raycast.
It’s positively comedic that Bluesky, an entire large social network has taken less funding ($36M according to [1]) compared to Raycast (… an application launcher).
[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bluesky-514d#financi...
[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bluesky-514d#financi...
Development has been slow lately, but Quicksilver[0] is still around as a FOSS alternative. We have an upcoming release that should refresh things a bit for Seqouia.
[0]: https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver
[0]: https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver
Launchbar[0] is also still around - not actively developed, but actively maintained. Happy user since 10 years already, even though I own a lifetime Alfred license.
[0]: https://obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html
[0]: https://obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html
I went from Alfred to Raycast and then back again. They're both great, but I prefer Alfred. To each their own!
Other good windows management options are Hammerspoon and BetterTouchTool:
https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/MiroWindowsManager.html
https://folivora.ai/
https://www.hammerspoon.org/Spoons/MiroWindowsManager.html
https://folivora.ai/
Default osx spotlight search is just as good as Alfred? What’s different?
Agreed. Spotlight search does quite well for me. I think there is a discoverability problem with native mac functionality. People tend to install lots of software that duplicates native features
> install lots of software that duplicates native features
I installed some software for key remapping and window tiling (karabiner and rectangle) when I couldn't figure out how to do it natively. You seem like you know what you're talking about; do you happen to have native recommendations?
I installed some software for key remapping and window tiling (karabiner and rectangle) when I couldn't figure out how to do it natively. You seem like you know what you're talking about; do you happen to have native recommendations?
Welp. I don't know what I'm talking about. But at least for key remapping, I use `hidutil`. For example, to remap right ctrl to fn:
For window tiling, can't say I've ever looked into it.
hidutil property --set '
{
"UserKeyMapping": [
{
"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc": 0x7000000E4,
"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst": 0xFF00000003
}
]
}
'
For window tiling, can't say I've ever looked into it.
I was using Karabiner for years just to remap caps to a hyper key. A few months ago replaced it with a launchagent to run something like this remapping caps to F19 (and using F19 instead of hyper, in hammerspoon) -- has been working great.
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. <Sigh> I'll try Spotlight, or go directory traversing, again. Anyone have a solution for that?
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. <Sigh> I'll try Spotlight, or go directory traversing, again. Anyone have a solution for that?
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, Calculator, and System Settings. I have it specifically ignore my entire home directory which is where all my git repos are.)
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, Calculator, and System Settings. I have it specifically ignore my entire home directory which is where all my git repos are.)
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.
Spotlight search seems to have gotten better, while Alfred search has had me rebuild my index more than just a few times and it doesn't cope well with nested directories.
Something happened in 15.1 onwards for me where Spotlight has become way faster and way better. But yes, Alfred used to dominate in search and speed as well.
Something happened in 15.1 onwards for me where Spotlight has become way faster and way better. But yes, Alfred used to dominate in search and speed as well.
I tried reindexing a few times (each took a few hours) but spotlight search still rarely brought up the file/thing I was after. Examples:
Spotlight search would bring up a wikipedia entry for app store instead of the app store on my laptop: https://imgur.com/QV1w7Kq
Typing 'finder' and hitting enter (e.g. to browse for a file), would open finder settings, rather than finder itself.
I haven't used it in ~1 year, those are a couple of examples I can recall.
Spotlight search would bring up a wikipedia entry for app store instead of the app store on my laptop: https://imgur.com/QV1w7Kq
Typing 'finder' and hitting enter (e.g. to browse for a file), would open finder settings, rather than finder itself.
I haven't used it in ~1 year, those are a couple of examples I can recall.
Alfred does a lot more beyond just searching.
Very true, for me, spotlight search felt so broken that Alfred would be worth it even if search was all it did.
Such as?
I should do a lot more with Alfred, but apart from using it as a launcher my most used feature is the clipboard search. After invoking it by typing 'clip' into the box, I get an incremental search on all clipboard contents it has tracked, and can re-copy any of those items to the current clipboard by pressing enter. Very useful and efficient when it's part of your workflow.
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 been sort of futile.)
Anyone know how to pin a window to a desktop so that it remembers this across restarts?
Anyone know how to pin a window to a desktop so that it remembers this across restarts?
Right click on the app icon in the dock → Options → Assign to: This Desktop.
Fwiw I hear good things about aerospace but haven’t yet had a chance to give it a shot.
I wanted to like it, but like all tiling window managers for macOS, it feels too tacked on and janky. For instance, Finder tabs simply aren't possible when using Aerospace.
I settled for Cmd+Ctrl+[h|j|k|l] window snapping via Hammerspoon, and let my Arch/Hyprland box keep the tiling window manager.
I settled for Cmd+Ctrl+[h|j|k|l] window snapping via Hammerspoon, and let my Arch/Hyprland box keep the tiling window manager.
aerospace is good!
I've recently switched from Amethyst to Aerospace and am really liking it
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 :)
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 :)
I used Yabai for years until I found aerospace, and switched over instantly. Would highly recommend anyone to try it :)
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
I also think Aerospace was positioned as “macOS native features only” which helped sell me on it. Aka no hacks or workarounds
Aerospace is much better than yabai especially workspaces feature without disabling SIP
I'm using yabai with SIP enabled. The only thing that is missing is sending a window to another workspace. To do that I launch Mission Control and simply drag the window to desired workspace. It turns out I don't do that often so I can live with that.
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 find rectangle to be pretty good after needing a replacement for sizeup when development stopped there. My solution is to just ignore the existence of the full screen windows in favor of using the max window size shortcut to fill the current display. Then I can send a window to another display or resize it with shortcuts that are easy enough to get used to and avoid all the transitions that take seconds. The whole full screen experience is so bad otherwise, and this is from someone that is very used to the trackpad and all their gestures.
I have found simple hammerspoon scripts to be a great alternative to a windows manager. You can map keys to some parts of the screen. It also supports multi-display systems.
I just made my own window manager with Hammerspoon. First I copied whatever rectangle/magnet was doing and then added my own logic on top of it to fit the style I work with windows.
As a bonus I can hit hyper-l (L for layout) and it'll open the correct apps + place them correctly depending on where I am and how many monitors are connected.
And caps-lock is of course mapped as hyper with Karabiner Elements, it even has a preset for it.
As a bonus I can hit hyper-l (L for layout) and it'll open the correct apps + place them correctly depending on where I am and how many monitors are connected.
And caps-lock is of course mapped as hyper with Karabiner Elements, it even has a preset for it.
Is your config publicly avail anywhere?
Also, I was only using Karabiner for caps remapping and was able to satisfactorily replace it with this type of built-in hidutil call: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43203239 -- remaps to F19, which I use as a hyper modal in hammerspoon. Works well, and I was happy to let go of Karabiner given how deeply it has to dig into the OS, and I wasn't using any of its more powerful features anyway.
Also, I was only using Karabiner for caps remapping and was able to satisfactorily replace it with this type of built-in hidutil call: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43203239 -- remaps to F19, which I use as a hyper modal in hammerspoon. Works well, and I was happy to let go of Karabiner given how deeply it has to dig into the OS, and I wasn't using any of its more powerful features anyway.
I did the same, though I'd modeled my setup after my prior swaywm workflow. Hammerspoon was really the only thing that made macos usable for me.
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
https://github.com/niklasr22/BrightIntosh
I've been using SizeUp for window management on macOS for...15 years now I think? https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/
I've been using SizeUp for 15 years too, but I just switched to Rectangle a few months ago. Mostly because it's faster. You wouldn't think it matters, but for some reason it does.
[deleted]
Magnet is pretty good for window management, IMO.
Spotlight has ALWAYS been terrible...
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 move the file instead of pasting a copy of it.
Terminal:
Press ⇧⌘A to select the output from the previous command.
Press ⌘L to clear the output from the previous command.
Press ⌃⌘V to paste and format text that is properly escaped for the shell.
Press ⌃T while a command is executing to view runtime statistics about the execution so far.
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 move the file instead of pasting a copy of it.
Terminal:
Press ⇧⌘A to select the output from the previous command.
Press ⌘L to clear the output from the previous command.
Press ⌃⌘V to paste and format text that is properly escaped for the shell.
Press ⌃T while a command is executing to view runtime statistics about the execution so far.
How do you exit the find text, selection mode (⌘E, ⌘G)?
I have tried pressing the escape key, with no luck.
Click elsewhere?
> To quickly find text, select some text and press ⌘E followed by ⌘G.
This is really nice. Once I am in this 'search' mode, I couldn't figure out how to get out of this mode.
- Edited to make question more descriptive.
This is really nice. Once I am in this 'search' mode, I couldn't figure out how to get out of this mode.
- Edited to make question more descriptive.
[deleted]
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 of my windows, but that takes over my full screen and the previews constantly move location, so I can't build any muscle memory for it.
Really, I'm just looking for a classic, unobtrusive task switcher that lets me quickly navigate through what's on my screen without having to muddle through anything else (i.e. the Windows taskbar with all collapsing turned off)
Edit: I appreciate the suggestions about using Cmd+Tab or Raycast or Exposé or such, but I'm really just looking for a taskbar equivalent that doesn't require me to use a hotkey or switch "visual contexts". I want something that's persistent and shows the visible applications and their windows, and lets me click on them to raise them. A big part of this for me is being able to see what I have open at a glance, especially due to macOS's historically poor window management.
Edit edit: This is on me for using the words "task switcher" - that brings to mind Alt-Tab when I really meant to refer to the taskbar.
I'm aware that I can do the three finger swipe to look at all of my windows, but that takes over my full screen and the previews constantly move location, so I can't build any muscle memory for it.
Really, I'm just looking for a classic, unobtrusive task switcher that lets me quickly navigate through what's on my screen without having to muddle through anything else (i.e. the Windows taskbar with all collapsing turned off)
Edit: I appreciate the suggestions about using Cmd+Tab or Raycast or Exposé or such, but I'm really just looking for a taskbar equivalent that doesn't require me to use a hotkey or switch "visual contexts". I want something that's persistent and shows the visible applications and their windows, and lets me click on them to raise them. A big part of this for me is being able to see what I have open at a glance, especially due to macOS's historically poor window management.
Edit edit: This is on me for using the words "task switcher" - that brings to mind Alt-Tab when I really meant to refer to the taskbar.
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 < 2 seconds and often less than a second with muscle memory.
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.
That launches apps. You can also just start doing math problems (calculator) by just cmd+space and start typing out a math equation. cmd+space+ai+space and just start asking a question to AI.
These only scratch the surface. But cmd+space, which is an easy modifier combo that you can do anytime, will basically unlock unlimited power. Once you get the muscle memory down you can literally launch any app in less than a second without even looking. If the app is already open, it just brings that app to foreground. Once you have that, you can use alt+tab to switch between apps that are already open. This is useful if you are just swapping between two or three apps for reference quickly. Furthermore alt+tilde (the squiggle key above tab and below escape on most latin keyboards) will switch between open windows of the same type. FOr example if you have 2 chrome windows open, it will switch only between those windows.
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 < 2 seconds and often less than a second with muscle memory.
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.
That launches apps. You can also just start doing math problems (calculator) by just cmd+space and start typing out a math equation. cmd+space+ai+space and just start asking a question to AI.
These only scratch the surface. But cmd+space, which is an easy modifier combo that you can do anytime, will basically unlock unlimited power. Once you get the muscle memory down you can literally launch any app in less than a second without even looking. If the app is already open, it just brings that app to foreground. Once you have that, you can use alt+tab to switch between apps that are already open. This is useful if you are just swapping between two or three apps for reference quickly. Furthermore alt+tilde (the squiggle key above tab and below escape on most latin keyboards) will switch between open windows of the same type. FOr example if you have 2 chrome windows open, it will switch only between those windows.
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.
Fast enough for me.
I also take this same approach on my phone. I'm on Android atm so I can use Nova Launcher for a completely blank home screen and then set a swipe gesture to bring up the search panel. On iPhone you can achieve similar by enabling removing everything from the home screen and using the app libary or search although it does look weird with the empty dock section at the bottom so I tended to just leave stuff like the browser in there.
I feel like I achieve the same app opening speed with built-in Spotlight e.g. `cmd+space me` opens Messages for me too, without any third party software
> cmd+space+1 is 1Password
FYI shift+cmd+space is also 1Password's quick access shortcut
FYI shift+cmd+space is also 1Password's quick access shortcut
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 11.
Pro Tip: I use it conjunction with the dock by putting the dock on the side and shrinking the dock down to its smallest size and increasing the magnification effect.
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 11.
Pro Tip: I use it conjunction with the dock by putting the dock on the side and shrinking the dock down to its smallest size and increasing the magnification effect.
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?
This looks much closer to what I was looking for, thank you! Will try when I can :)
- +1 for Stage Manager
- check out Witch (https://manytricks.com/witch/)
- you could also use Keyboard Maestro and build your own interface
For me, the dock is a drop target for files. Got a PNG and want to open it in Photoshop? Drag it to photoshop on the dock, for example.
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?
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?
How do you empty the trash? It's never even occurred to me... how do you get to the trash except via the dock?
Replying to myself:
Good news: there's a command under the Finder menu (to the left of File) "Empty Trash..."
Bad news: there's no obvious easy way to view the contents of the Trash before emptying it, without clicking on it in the dock. It's not under "Go", you can't add it to the sidebar either with Settings or by dragging it, and various instructions to navigate to "~/.Trash" don't work in Sequoia.
Good news: But you can add it to the sidebar by opening the Trash and using File > Add to Sidebar. And it shows up with its nice custom trash icon.
Good news: there's a command under the Finder menu (to the left of File) "Empty Trash..."
Bad news: there's no obvious easy way to view the contents of the Trash before emptying it, without clicking on it in the dock. It's not under "Go", you can't add it to the sidebar either with Settings or by dragging it, and various instructions to navigate to "~/.Trash" don't work in Sequoia.
Good news: But you can add it to the sidebar by opening the Trash and using File > Add to Sidebar. And it shows up with its nice custom trash icon.
IIRC Finder has an option to delete files from the Trash 30 days after they're put there. I just enable that option and forget about the Trash completely.
You clearly aren't regularly deleting tens of gigabytes of files at a time... ;)
You can generally permanently delete with one action - but be sure you want to!
GUI: select item(s) and Option-Command-Delete
Command-line: rm -rf folder-or-file-path (or srm to securely remove)
GUI: select item(s) and Option-Command-Delete
Command-line: rm -rf folder-or-file-path (or srm to securely remove)
I empty the trash with command-shift-backspace. I use the dock icon to open it, but I think there’s an entry in the Go menu
It's in the File menu of the Finder, towards the bottom.
I have all popup and sound notifications off and from time to time i check the unread message count badges on the dock icons :)
You can try dockdoor to get Windows-style hover previews.
https://github.com/ejbills/DockDoor/
https://github.com/ejbills/DockDoor/
You can try https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
See if that suits your needs
See if that suits your needs
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.
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.
You should use Exposé for that.
To swap between applications, use Cmd-Tab.
To swap between open windows of the current application you can use Cmd-Backtick.
To swap between applications, use Cmd-Tab.
To swap between open windows of the current application you can use Cmd-Backtick.
So, the easiest way to swap between windows:
Cmd-Tab, up arrow, arrow keys to the window you want, enter
Cmd-Tab, up arrow, arrow keys to the window you want, enter
which is a lot of steps compared to just clicking the relevant window in a taskbar :(
I never use the taskbar on any system because it’s slower than shortcuts like this.
The dock just annoys me. I’ve been a Mac user for almost 15 years and it has never seemed useful for me. I cmd+tab or use Alfred to switch apps. To switch between windows of one application it’s cmd+`.
Note that you can also use cmd+tab and then while continuing to hold the chord use the pointer to select an application switch to.
Note that you can also use cmd+tab and then while continuing to hold the chord use the pointer to select an application switch to.
> Note that you can also use cmd+tab and then while continuing to hold the chord use the pointer to select an application switch to.
You also do things like (for example) start a drag, ⌘+tab to show running apps, then drop on an app icon without using the dock.
You also do things like (for example) start a drag, ⌘+tab to show running apps, then drop on an app icon without using the dock.
The command-tab switcher has a lot of hidden functionality:
I always only use cmd-tab to open the switcher, then I use arrow keys to pick an application, up/down arrows to view an application’s windows (arrow keys and enter to select a specific one)
You can also hit Q to quit an application from the switcher and probably more things I’m currently forgetting.
I always only use cmd-tab to open the switcher, then I use arrow keys to pick an application, up/down arrows to view an application’s windows (arrow keys and enter to select a specific one)
You can also hit Q to quit an application from the switcher and probably more things I’m currently forgetting.
Wait... What? That application-window trick is awesome. How have I been using been using Macs for twenty+ years and never found that? Discoverability = not-awesome.
As repetitive as these top-tips threads can be, we need one every now and again. Someone's guaranteed to learn something from them, and I'm grateful it was my turn today.
As repetitive as these top-tips threads can be, we need one every now and again. Someone's guaranteed to learn something from them, and I'm grateful it was my turn today.
I have mixed feelings about discoverability. I'd usually rather functionality be available in a non-discoverable fashion than unavailable because designers couldn't figure out how to surface it in the UI. And, one of the things I like about vim and emacs is the interface can be extremely minimal with all the functionality I need behind key shortcuts and the like. (Although, emacs has a nice solution of `C-x C-b` list all the available shortcuts for the current window and `M-x` listing all the available commands.
The way I learned these shortcuts was reading macOS's help back in 2007, but the quality of documentation bundled with macOS has gone downhill quite a bit.
The way I learned these shortcuts was reading macOS's help back in 2007, but the quality of documentation bundled with macOS has gone downhill quite a bit.
There are also very good third-party replacements for cmd+tab. the one I use is called Contexts. Improves the experience massively
The main thing for me was the windows previews, I used to have hyperdock but stopped showing the windows previews. Right now I am trying DockDoor, so far is ok but you need to speed up the fade animation or it has some annoying behavior (reopens preview if pointer gets hover).
I basically use it to see which programs are open. Also when you get into macOS window hell, it can be helpful to see at a glance if anything on the dock isn't open (programs opened which are not in the dock will appear on the other side of the | )
John Siracusa has an app which is extra and opinionated Dock, although not directly for windows:
https://hypercritical.co/switchglass/
There's a detailed FAQ.
https://hypercritical.co/switchglass/
There's a detailed FAQ.
Contexts has both hotkeys and a visual side bar that may do what you are asking.
I wrote https://robata.app for getting an overview of my open windows a while back. Let me know of any changes you would suggest. Thanks.
That looks really nice, but it's not quite what I'm looking for - thanks anyway, though!
https://contexts.co/ is the best alt+tab switcher I've ever used and it also provides a taskbar like you want.
I'm a fan of learning the defaults and using them (verse having an environment that takes time to setup).
As others have said, CMD+Space is sufficient, just hide the dock.
As others have said, CMD+Space is sufficient, just hide the dock.
You may like uBar: https://ubarapp.com/
This also looks like a great option! I have a vague memory of trying this before and finding it lacking, but I might need to re-evaluate.
I like uBar a lot with Raycast or Alfred, but Spotlight works well enough too.
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 windows for that application (you can also just force-click on the app icon to do this).
The only difference I see is that the windows taskbar provides a preview thumbnail when hovering over the icons. In which case, there's apps you can get for that.
The only difference I see is that the windows taskbar provides a preview thumbnail when hovering over the icons. In which case, there's apps you can get for that.
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.
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.
The App Exposé gesture works really well for that purpose. It's gesture-based, but you can configure a hot corner to trigger it too.
> 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 rebind it to something else (e.g. ⌥ ⇧ ⌘ /) in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts → Firefox, menu title: Get Help.
One other problem is, it doesn’t always find the command I’m looking for. E.g. when I typed “dev”, it didn’t show “Web Developer Tools” at first. I then checked Tools menu (it was there), then tried typing it in the Help menu again, and sure enough, it found it this time.
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 rebind it to something else (e.g. ⌥ ⇧ ⌘ /) in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts → Firefox, menu title: Get Help.
One other problem is, it doesn’t always find the command I’m looking for. E.g. when I typed “dev”, it didn’t show “Web Developer Tools” at first. I then checked Tools menu (it was there), then tried typing it in the Help menu again, and sure enough, it found it this time.
The menu immediately closing was recently fixed[1] in Firefox 136. We'll look into the content of that menu not working correctly. Thanks.
1. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1935257
1. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1935257
Shortcat basically does this. It indexes a lot of native AX APIs and also menu items
https://shortcat.app
https://shortcat.app
I've never gotten this to work on an ISO-keyboard (chunky enter key).
It opens "Help" in every single app, even Apple's like Finder or Safari.
I've tried GB, German, US-International, and my default EurKey layout. None of them work. This shortcut always felt like an Alt+F4 prank to me.
The help menu is what searches all menu items.
Yeah. I think the idea was to help the user find out where a command is, so they can use menubar directly next time. Not the brightest idea IMO.
no, when hitting Command-? the help menu bar opens a search box that takes you directly to matching menu items -- like Spotlight for menu items. you can activate them directly from the search box. no learning involved
Thank you! This has been driving me crazy ever since I switched to Firefox.
Personal-Bookmarks::
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.
Hold Option while resizing a window to resize from the center of the window. Hold Shift while resizing a window to lock the aspect ratio.
When a window is inactive, use the Command key to interact with it without making it active.
If an app has windows in multiple spaces, click the app's Dock icon repeatedly to cycle through the spaces with that app's windows.
Quickly move the Dock to a different side of the screen by holding Shift while dragging the resize handle.
Press ⌘B to search the web for the current query. Press ⌘⏎ or ⌘R to reveal the selected file in Finder. Use the name: filter to only search in the filename. Add kind:folder to only search for folder names. Hold Command to show the path to the currently selected file.
QuickTime Player: Grab a single frame from a video by pausing on the desired frame (using the Left and Right arrow keys to navigate individual frames) and pressing ⌘C.
Photo Booth: Hold Option while taking a picture to skip the countdown. Hold Shift while taking a picture to disable the screen flash.
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.
Hold Option while resizing a window to resize from the center of the window. Hold Shift while resizing a window to lock the aspect ratio.
When a window is inactive, use the Command key to interact with it without making it active.
If an app has windows in multiple spaces, click the app's Dock icon repeatedly to cycle through the spaces with that app's windows.
Quickly move the Dock to a different side of the screen by holding Shift while dragging the resize handle.
Press ⌘B to search the web for the current query. Press ⌘⏎ or ⌘R to reveal the selected file in Finder. Use the name: filter to only search in the filename. Add kind:folder to only search for folder names. Hold Command to show the path to the currently selected file.
QuickTime Player: Grab a single frame from a video by pausing on the desired frame (using the Left and Right arrow keys to navigate individual frames) and pressing ⌘C.
Photo Booth: Hold Option while taking a picture to skip the countdown. Hold Shift while taking a picture to disable the screen flash.
> Press ⇧⌘/ to search all of the current app's menu items
This is the one feature I miss most from using macos. I got used to it back when Ubuntu used unity as its DE and called it "HUD". Didn't work everywhere (looking at you, java), but a huge timesaver.
This is the one feature I miss most from using macos. I got used to it back when Ubuntu used unity as its DE and called it "HUD". Didn't work everywhere (looking at you, java), but a huge timesaver.
Ubuntu had to basically patch every toolkit for it to work. Not maintainable.
There are so many hidden/obscure keyboard shortcuts in macOS, from time to time a post with a nice collection (and usually some hidden gems) appears on the front page here.
But I always wondered if there is a place where you can find all of them, for reference.
But I always wondered if there is a place where you can find all of them, for reference.
Also pity that macOS makes very little effort to communicate these, so they almost feel like Easter eggs…
"Hold Control and Option while clicking on a window to switch focus to that window without raising it."
TIL. Amazing little hack.
TIL. Amazing little hack.
What is this useful for?
Writing in a text field in one window while referring to another window, where the window with the text field would overlap the other window if it were frontmost.
this doesn't work for me on 15.3.1
For a mouse-first OS, there sure is a heavy dep on keyboard modifiers. Day to day it doesn't bother me so much, and I even like some of them, but so much functionality is hidden with no mouse-based option. Opt-Shift-V? :/
Windows does this much, much better. I can't think of a feature where you need to use the Windows key to modify the options presented in the GUI (though the Windows key has some unique shortcuts). I'm sure someone else will correct me.
Apple has a concise list of keyboard shortcuts/modifiers listed here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650
Windows does this much, much better. I can't think of a feature where you need to use the Windows key to modify the options presented in the GUI (though the Windows key has some unique shortcuts). I'm sure someone else will correct me.
Apple has a concise list of keyboard shortcuts/modifiers listed here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102650
Many of these features Windows has no analogue for. Consider:
> By default, clicking inside a scroll bar will scroll partially towards the clicked location. Hold Option while clicking in the scroll bar to jump directly to the clicked location.
There is no way to present this option in the GUI without cluttering up the scroll bar, so neither Windows nor macOS do so. But at least this feature is available for power users.
I admit that in places where there IS space in the UI (menu bar, right click), I find it odd that the option-variants are not listed unless option is actively being held.
> By default, clicking inside a scroll bar will scroll partially towards the clicked location. Hold Option while clicking in the scroll bar to jump directly to the clicked location.
There is no way to present this option in the GUI without cluttering up the scroll bar, so neither Windows nor macOS do so. But at least this feature is available for power users.
I admit that in places where there IS space in the UI (menu bar, right click), I find it odd that the option-variants are not listed unless option is actively being held.
> I find it odd that the option-variants are not listed unless option is actively being held.
Most likely to keep menus reasonably short and usable, which is particularly important on the smaller Macbooks and on iPads in Sidecar mode which can easily turn long menus into scrolling messes.
Also, progressive disclosure. This way allows the options to exist without overwhelming less technical users.
Most likely to keep menus reasonably short and usable, which is particularly important on the smaller Macbooks and on iPads in Sidecar mode which can easily turn long menus into scrolling messes.
Also, progressive disclosure. This way allows the options to exist without overwhelming less technical users.
> Many of these features Windows has no analogue for.
Holding Shift and clicking scrollbar does jump directly to the clicked location on Windows.
Holding Shift and clicking scrollbar does jump directly to the clicked location on Windows.
Here’s my tip: Messages stuck with a badge but you have no idea what’s unread / how to clear it? Ask Siri for your unread messages. It’ll go through them and remove the badge.
When the Open/Save dialog is open, hit Cmd+Shift+G to open a dialog where one can input the path as a string. Really useful when switching between terminal and GUI.
That's covered, but it's even easier:
Press ~ to open a Go To File dialog prefilled with the home directory. Press / to open it prefilled with the root directory.
Press ~ to open a Go To File dialog prefilled with the home directory. Press / to open it prefilled with the root directory.
[deleted]
> On modal dialogs/sheets, press Command + the first letter of the button to press that button. ⌘. is the shortcut equivalent of the Escape key.
This was my favorite, but no longer works on Sequoia or whenever was the version that changed modal dialogs.
This was my favorite, but no longer works on Sequoia or whenever was the version that changed modal dialogs.
[deleted]
- I love Shortcat (https://shortcat.app/). It lets you do almost anything on your screen without having to leave your keyboard.
- Also, Houdahspot (https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/) for advanced searching and file-filtering (you can even exclude results from certain folders). It has search templates, saved searches (which appear as files in Finder), and the ability to export the current search as a Smart Folder (amazing!).
I just wish that Smart Folders worked on iOS and Dropbox …
- Also, Houdahspot (https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/) for advanced searching and file-filtering (you can even exclude results from certain folders). It has search templates, saved searches (which appear as files in Finder), and the ability to export the current search as a Smart Folder (amazing!).
I just wish that Smart Folders worked on iOS and Dropbox …
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!
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!)
> 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
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
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
Apple has been using these non-discoverable keyboard modifiers since the very start. I remember using them with System 6 back around 1990.
Their design philosophy has always been discoverability for regular features, and then these extra "hidden" features for power users.
Nothing has changed.
Their design philosophy has always been discoverability for regular features, and then these extra "hidden" features for power users.
Nothing has changed.
Yep, a number of these tips are Classic Mac OS holdovers.
I think the issue goes beyond this. I get that Apple was always opinionated and wanted to ship intuitive features. Now they lost track of the intuitive and continued with the opinionated part, which degrades the experience in my opinion.
Just because you didn’t know about a feature doesn’t mean it didn’t ship. Why do you think those modifier keys were on the keyboard to begin with? Because many of these features have been there for decades.
For a long time, Macs shipped with a tutorial that trained people to double-click. Unlike a second button, it's not discoverable.
[deleted]
And I'll add:
cmd+opt+shift+esc force quits the current app (cmd+opt+esc opens the force quit window, as the former doesn't work sometimes).
Cmd+q quits the current app, and, when command is held and we're cycling through apps with cmd+tab, it quits the currently selected app. If you need to quit multiple apps at once, hold cmd, press tab to select the apps to quit, and just quit them with q.
cmd+opt+shift+esc force quits the current app (cmd+opt+esc opens the force quit window, as the former doesn't work sometimes).
Cmd+q quits the current app, and, when command is held and we're cycling through apps with cmd+tab, it quits the currently selected app. If you need to quit multiple apps at once, hold cmd, press tab to select the apps to quit, and just quit them with q.
Discovered today:
Cmd-click a window that is not currently focused; it'll register the click without making that window take the foreground
Cmd-click a window that is not currently focused; it'll register the click without making that window take the foreground
Huge miss in the "Native UI Conventions" which has a lot of keyboard shortcuts is that emacs/readline shortcuts are supported basically everywhere there's a text field: ^A ^E ^K ^Y opt-left/right behave as expected. Sadly no ^W tho.
I always miss that separation between command key and control key in other OSes.
I always miss that separation between command key and control key in other OSes.
It's interesting but also annoying because localized versions of macOS don't have the same shortcuts, or at least I cannot make them work. The main problem is that some special characters such as / are in a different key and they also require modifier keys to type them.
I'm not affiliated, but when this kind of thing comes up, I always want to share GoToFile[0].
As far as I've seen, this is the only app for Mac that doesn't just reuse Spotlight search (which I find to be terrible).
I looked for exactly this type of app for years before finding it, and when I did, it didn't seem real with the old-fashioned website and zero mentions on sites like HN. But I can assure that it works great and it's maintained. I just wish the author would promote it better so it gets more attention and isn't so hard to find.
[0] https://www.soma-zone.com/GoToFile/
As far as I've seen, this is the only app for Mac that doesn't just reuse Spotlight search (which I find to be terrible).
I looked for exactly this type of app for years before finding it, and when I did, it didn't seem real with the old-fashioned website and zero mentions on sites like HN. But I can assure that it works great and it's maintained. I just wish the author would promote it better so it gets more attention and isn't so hard to find.
[0] https://www.soma-zone.com/GoToFile/
I remember a launcher that was kind of bare bones and didnt use spotlight for indexing, it compiled its own index, and was able to do great fuzzy searching, but I forgot the name and cant find it, anyone else have a clue?
Certainly LaunchBar as mentioned above.
LaunchBar?
Possibly QuickSilver?
No, it's not that, it look more "command-line" style, very minimal UI... if that helps
> Hold Option while pressing the Page Up/Page Down keys to also move the cursor while scrolling.
Not working for me on Sonoma, which is too bad because this always gets me when I think I've scrolled up.
Not working for me on Sonoma, which is too bad because this always gets me when I think I've scrolled up.
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.
I’m really wondering why there are no quality Windows alternatives to such apps like Alfred, Dropover, BTT, Karabiner, etc.
Regarding Terminal:
Press ⌘L to clear the output from the previous command.
A shout-out for https://espanso.org a wonderful and free text expander configurable in a YAML file.
Love espanso! Particularly because it is FOSS and cross-platform, allowing me to use my snippets across macOS, Linux, and windows!
Nice list!
If you need a pixel ruler, ⇧⌘4 and hit Escape to discard the screenshot
If you need a pixel ruler, ⇧⌘4 and hit Escape to discard the screenshot
There's also this: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/free-ruler/id1483172210?mt=12
> 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!
> 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!
That's never happened to me. I'm on Sequoia 15.3.1 and just tried it out, and can't get it to move a file at all. It correctly selects the dragged file/folder every time. No matter if I drag it right on top of an existing folder in the open/save dialog. I've just tried with multiple applications.
Definitely seems like a bug. Maybe you have some kind of system extension interfering? Or I hate to tell you to reinstall macOS, but hopefully that would fix it?
Definitely seems like a bug. Maybe you have some kind of system extension interfering? Or I hate to tell you to reinstall macOS, but hopefully that would fix it?
One Windows shortcut that I use habitually is Ctrl + left or right arrow keys and optionally with shift in order to navigate by or select entire words at a time instead of single characters.
I’ve looked into MacOS approaches to achieve the same functionality in the past, but I never seemed to find anything of use. I’m wondering if anybody here would be aware of a solution.
I’ve looked into MacOS approaches to achieve the same functionality in the past, but I never seemed to find anything of use. I’m wondering if anybody here would be aware of a solution.
Option-Left/Right to move by word; Command-Left/Right to move to the beginning or end of the line.
Install the sanest keyboard text navigation bindings globally: http://xahlee.info/kbd/osx_keybinding.html
(I'd been mapping individual app configs to this for years before finding this, but the seamless OS-wide application is big upgrade)
(I'd been mapping individual app configs to this for years before finding this, but the seamless OS-wide application is big upgrade)
> Hold the Option key while expanding an outline view to recursively expand all children.
I use this pretty frequently and it’s always a drag to find when an app doesn’t implement it. It feels so silly to be forced to manually open/close numerous items when most other apps I use can expand/collapse them all in one go.
I use this pretty frequently and it’s always a drag to find when an app doesn’t implement it. It feels so silly to be forced to manually open/close numerous items when most other apps I use can expand/collapse them all in one go.
GitHub uses this shortcut, too. (e.g. Option-click to collapse/expand all PR comments.)
My one and only tip: use AI file renaming: https://keepitshot.com. This is the app I have recently fallen in love with. It has drastically improved my file search experience with Spotlight.
I am not affiliated with them.
I am not affiliated with them.
Anyone know how to copy and paste without formatting into Outlook for Mac, without having to click the tiny dropdown box it creates when pasting formatted text? Outlook appears to have no setting for this and also ignores the key combination that works for most other apps…
dont know whether that works on apple or not - but i just paste into an unformatted textbox (e.g. browser address bar) and copy again from there
command-option-shift v maybe?
…and also ignores the key combination that works for most other apps…
> 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.
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.
This will depend on whether you have the function key row set to act as function keys or as special keys (based on the icons printed on them).
One of my favourite tips is to hold down Command while dragging important apps, files and folders to the Finder toolbar in order to ‘pin’ them. You can then drag files to ‘Open in…’ (eg, images to ImageOptim) or just launch apps.
> When a video is playing, right click the speaker icon in the address bar or tab to enter Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode.
You can also double right-click the video itself and enter Picture-in-Picture mode from that menu
You can also double right-click the video itself and enter Picture-in-Picture mode from that menu
Does anyone know of a good solution to manage menubar on Mac? Have M2 Pro with a notch which hides many of many items and it's so difficult to access them unless I quit a few of them.
I have used HiddenBar for a while and it's been pretty solid. It's open-source: https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden
Bartender or dozer depending on what you want
Icebar
I second Ice - it's great
https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice
https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice
Any recommendations for some kind of file manager to replace finder?
I like ForkLift and QSpace. ForkLift "feels" more Mac native, but QSpace is kind of the everything tool use see in the Windows world.
QSpace is bad. You can't use it without turning off the firewall:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1ea3aye/qspace_fil...
(I like the functionality in QSpace. I just happened to be looking for a Finder replacement a day before this post came out and downloaded whole bunch of them)
https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1ea3aye/qspace_fil...
(I like the functionality in QSpace. I just happened to be looking for a Finder replacement a day before this post came out and downloaded whole bunch of them)
PathFinder is the only one I can think of. I find it overly complicated when all I really need is Finder - the endless jank.
When i first moved from Windows to MacOS i was shocked there was no default shortcut to start Apps from the Dock, like Windows Key +1, 2, 3 etc. (It is configurable though)
Ubuntu Unity had that first, way before Windows had morphed the task bar to something dock like.
For calculator obviously Cmd-1/2/3 for the different modes but when you're in programmer mode 'R' changes the base (8/10/16)
Huh. I didn't know about most of these little touches. It would be nice if the same level of care and thought were placed in the major Linux desktops.
How do I right click and add a blank text file to a folder?
I've used Apple's Automator app to add a new custom Quick Action which does exactly this. After right-clicking a folder, the right-click menu shows my custom Quick Action to create an empty text file.
This requires about 5 to 10 minutes to set up. You'll find instructions for this on the web or via some LLM. I've looked right now for a suitable article, but the ones I've found are subtly different from my Quick Action. I've asked ChatGPT and its instructions seem to be correct.
This requires about 5 to 10 minutes to set up. You'll find instructions for this on the web or via some LLM. I've looked right now for a suitable article, but the ones I've found are subtly different from my Quick Action. I've asked ChatGPT and its instructions seem to be correct.
Switch back to windows - for me that is one of the things I struggle with on MacOS.
Creating a file at a path where I have my file explorer is so ingrained in me. It feels awful when I have to open an app then click through to save file where I want all those clicks are supper annoying because I already was in that place.
Awful thing getting current path from Finder to paste it in save dialog is also not really easy. So I am just not creating new files on MacOS.
On one hand I kind of get the idea that well you start with opening an app and then save your work and most likely it could be in default documents folder.
But years of other way I was used to work it feels annoying.
Basically I use Windows for like 30 years now and in that last 10 I use MacOs as primary OS for my personal device.
Creating a file at a path where I have my file explorer is so ingrained in me. It feels awful when I have to open an app then click through to save file where I want all those clicks are supper annoying because I already was in that place.
Awful thing getting current path from Finder to paste it in save dialog is also not really easy. So I am just not creating new files on MacOS.
On one hand I kind of get the idea that well you start with opening an app and then save your work and most likely it could be in default documents folder.
But years of other way I was used to work it feels annoying.
Basically I use Windows for like 30 years now and in that last 10 I use MacOs as primary OS for my personal device.
This one kills me too.
I don't miss anything about Windows.
Except this.
I've been using a Mac for 15 years now, and I still want to right-click and create an empty text document.
I don't miss anything about Windows.
Except this.
I've been using a Mac for 15 years now, and I still want to right-click and create an empty text document.
I use Supercharge for this. Creates a new text file with ⌥+N. Lots of other handy tweaks as well.
https://sindresorhus.com/supercharge
https://sindresorhus.com/supercharge
Don't forget you can drag the proxy-icon from any open document or folder. Handy for the open/save-dialog
What I miss is when they had these T&Ts native to the OS. Like way back in the 90's...
It is weird to say, but I wish macOS had Windows 10 interface. It's incredible to me how backwards macOS is in comparison to W10, that is already deemed clunky. Finder is an abomination, window management seems like embodies ADHD, separate apps needed for basic things like direction of scrolling or switching windows...
Is it really a good UI if they need to write a talmud to explain it?
awesome tips. Thanks for posting.
For screenshots:- does anyone know of a way to take scrolling screenshots? I often need to take screenshots of webpages that are long.
For screenshots:- does anyone know of a way to take scrolling screenshots? I often need to take screenshots of webpages that are long.
Chrome dev tools > the three little dots at the top right of the window > capture full size screenshot.
I always look for it in the three little dots that are next to the 'x' in the dev tools drawer, but it's actually behind the dots in the top nav that show screen dimensions, throttling, device orientation, etc.
I always look for it in the three little dots that are next to the 'x' in the dev tools drawer, but it's actually behind the dots in the top nav that show screen dimensions, throttling, device orientation, etc.
Firefox has this built in. That’s how I do it.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/take-screenshots-firefo...
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/take-screenshots-firefo...
I am a cheapskate and use Quicksilver. Command spacebar, app pops up.
I hate the Finder. I used to use an app called cols that resized finder windows to an appropriate size. Stuck it in the finder toolbar. I looked for the applescript but can't find it. How tough is it to fill the finder window with all the columns so that the Magic Mouse doesn't wag the columns back and forth? Just fill the window. Cols, anyone?
I hate the Finder. I used to use an app called cols that resized finder windows to an appropriate size. Stuck it in the finder toolbar. I looked for the applescript but can't find it. How tough is it to fill the finder window with all the columns so that the Magic Mouse doesn't wag the columns back and forth? Just fill the window. Cols, anyone?
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Nice. Now I only need a mac.
you guys didn't already know this stuff?
"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.
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 is because the green button is a «zoom» button, which maximizes the window to display its contained document: https://blog.xoria.org/macos-tips/#window-management
I am not sure if I agree with the choice either, but that’s the explanation.
I am not sure if I agree with the choice either, but that’s the explanation.
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.
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.
As a tip for security sensitive users, I would also recommend this third party application to check your macOS security settings:
https://paretosecurity.com/mac
https://paretosecurity.com/mac