Unproductive work can get on one’s nerves quite fast. If you are on a MacBook and are unhappy with how long it takes to share files with others or struggle with other productivity requiring tasks, consider checking the tips below.
Command-Space
When you need to locate something on your Mac, press Command-Space. When you need an exchange rate or a fast sum, press Command-Space. To launch an application, press Command-Space. Then, tap it and begin typing the object, currency, total amount, or application name. It should show up in the Spotlight search box that you just opened. In case it is not selected, select it and press Return. It is easy, quick, and efficient.
Finder Control
Quite often, you might spend a lot of time on the Finder window, switching back and forth between mouse and keyboard. You can also find yourself switching between Column and List views. When you do this, you might tap the Finder’s icons or start moving the mouse up to the View menu. You don’t have to; simply type the following into the Finder window:
To open the Icons view, use Command-1.
To open the List view, use Command-2.
To open the Columns view, use Command-3.
Command-4 would display the Cover Flow view.
Gestures
When you realize that you can use four fingers on the touchpad to scroll between active windows – or touch Control and the left or right direction buttons – operating in full-screen mode (ideal route to use: Control-Command-F when in a suitable app) becomes way simpler.
Text Clippings
Text clippings are the most effective method for automatically pasting frequently used content into any app.
They’re simple to make. You can simply select a section of text that you use frequently and drag it to the Desktop.
They are also simple to use: simply drag and drop that object from the Desktop into any app, and they get you out of having to type those things over and over again.
Clutter on the Drive
Too many files for you to handle get in the way and ruin the workflow. For starters, get rid of desktop clutter so that you are not as distracted.
Lack of free space is another issue, and what you can do is to permanently remove files you no longer need or transfer some data to external storage.
Character Accents
Tap and hold the letter you’d like to highlight. Keep it down until a contextual menu appears, displaying all of the accessible accents for that character, then click the number beneath the accent you would like to use. If no accents appear, it means that none are available.
Print to File
Are you saving items to particular files regularly? What you should do is, Open File > Print, then open the PDF item in the bottom left and scroll to the bottom to the Edit Menu. In the next box, tap the Plus button; in the Finder that emerges, maneuver to the folder where you generally focus on saving things.
Click it and then Save. When saving a file to that folder in the long run, simply tap Print, even better, if you type ⌘-P, and choose the new item from the PDF drop-down list.
Smart Search
So you’ve changed your Safari search preferences from Google to something else? Go to Safari Preferences > Search and select a new search tool from the drop-down menu. Here’s a quick way to search with Spotlight:
- To launch Spotlight, press Command-Space;
- Enter your question here;
- Then press Command-B to go directly to the search engine results in Safari.
You can now press Command-Tab to bring back to your previous application, where the data you just discovered may be useful.
A Tip That Might Come in Handy
If you frequently copy/paste between documents, webpages, and other information sources, you’re probably annoyed that Mac’s default nature is to paste the text with formatting (including URLs) preserved. It can cause problems with the look of the file you’ve spent the entire time of the week operating on. This means you have to spend extra time to resolve the issue.
It doesn’t have to be in this manner – you can make a minor change in System Preferences to have the formatting default to what is being used in the target document anytime you paste anything into any good app.
This is how it’s done:
- Navigate to System Preferences;
- Open the Keyboard;
- Activate the Shortcuts Pane;
- Choose App Shortcuts, then All Applications.
- Tap the Plus sign;
- Type Paste and Match Style in the first box;
- Command-V in the second box.
When you press Command-V to paste anything from one source into any Apple-compliant application in the future, the template from the other document will be dropped.
To make that happen in Word, you must type the word Paste and Match Formatting instead of Paste and Match Style.
