I’m sure most of you know how to use a Mac, but here are some tips and tricks that help make your life a little easier. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet, or at least organized.
Why is the Volume on my Mac Locked?
The volume is locked so that it will not change even if a popup comes up or another application tries to change it. A lot of applications do this and the only way around it is to lock your volume down yourself through System preferences.
How do I take a screenshot on my Mac?
Option + Command + Shift + 3 will take a picture of the entire screen. Option+Command+Shift+4 will take a screenshot of one specific area on your screen. Just click and drag to select the area you want in the screenshot.
What does CTRL-click do for Finder items?
When you CTRL-click a Finder item, it will show you all of the folders that file is located in. That comes in pretty handy when you’re trying to find files.
How do I get back previous versions from Time Machine?
Open Time Machine Preferences and click on Select Disk. Then select the disk with all of your backups and choose “Enter Time Machine.” You will then be able to find previous versions of the file by scrolling up or down.
What is Spaces?
Spaces allows you to divide your applications into different spaces, like one for work-related apps, one for games, one with everything else, etc. To open it go to Apple logo > System Preferences > Spaces.
How do I change Spaces?
You can change your spaces by clicking on the space you want to switch to and it will swap with what you currently have open. If both are open, just click on one of them. You can also press Control + Option + Left/Right Arrow to quickly move between two spaces.
How do I change where the pointer moves when I hover over an item?
In System Preferences, under Keyboard & Mouse, you can change the direction of the arrow. Options are to always point left, always point right or to move with your mouse. You can also turn it off completely by moving the direction all the way to either end.
How do I quit an application?
If you press CMD + Q it will ask if you want to Quit the application. If you hit CMD + Option + Esc it will bring up Force Quit. This is really useful when an app freezes on you, or is acting like it’s not letting go (like Google Chrome). You can also bring up the Force Quit menu by pressing Apple Logo > Force Quit.
How do I show all of my applications?
Hit CMD + Tab to get a full screen of your apps. If you have more than one monitor you will see all of the spaces, so just hit it again to cycle through them. You can also use the four arrow keys to go forward or backward through your apps.
How does Exposé work?
Exposé allows you to not only bring up any window in full screen, but you can also see all of the windows open for an application. Hit F9 and it will show everything that is open for that specific app. Hit F9 again to go back to your regular screen.
How do I make my Dock transparent?
You can set the opacity of the dock with CMD + OPTION + D. You can also resize it or make certain app icons bigger by clicking and holding on them, then dragging them where you want them.
How to Turn Off or On a Volume Limit for a Volume Limit with a Mac
You can set a volume limit for when your Mac gets too loud. You can also change the level in which it turns on, so if you want to keep your speakers quieter than usual this is how you do it.
Conclusion
I hope you learned something new from this. I didn’t list everything that a Mac can do, but these are all of the ones that I use on a day-to-day basis. If there’s one thing I have to say about Macs it’s that they’re easy to learn and use, even if you’ve never used them before. Thanks for reading!