32Best Mac tips, tricks and timesavers

Your Mac can do hundreds of clever things. Here are some of our favourite macOS shortcuts, hidden features, tips and tricks

Welcome to our roundup of the best macOS tips, tricks and secret features. In this article we will tell you about some of the most useful features that have been introduced to the Mac operating system  over the years.

We also have some lesser-known tricks, tips, hints and hacks for those of you who want to go a bit deeper.

This feature will help you discover some amazing tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of your Mac. 

Hat tip to Keir Thomas who has provided many of these tips over the years.

1.Use Siri to change system settings on your Mac

If you don't feel too much of a plonker talking to your Mac, you can use Siri to quickly make changes to your settings. Save time by using Siri rather than going though the system  Preferences menus searching for the setting you require.

Activate Siri by pressing cmd+spacebar and then:

Say "increase brightness" and Siri will brighten up your display for you.

Or "turn on bluetooth" to switch on the bluetooth chip.

Try asking "how much space is left" to find out how much storage you still have available.

2.Correct Siri's mistakes

If Siri has misheard you, just click on the text where it has attempted to transcribe your words and correct them there before pressing return.

You can also use this method to search using Siri without actually saying anything! Well you might need to say one word to get started, but then you can select that word and type in your question - handy if you don't want the person sitting next to you at work to know you were searching for film times for the Lego Batman movie.

3.Copy and Paste between devices

We love this feature  that arrived in macOS Sierra.Universal Clipboard is an extension to the Continuity features introduced in Mac OS X El Capitan. With Universal Clipboard you can cut and copy items on your macOS and iOS devices, and paste them on to other devices.

This means you can copy and paste text, images, photos and even video  between devices without having to resort to AirDropping or mailing them to yourself.

It's a seamless process - if it doesn't work, check you have bluetooth turned on on both your Mac and iPhone. 

You just press Control-C on your Mac and then hold down and select Paste on your iPhone (or vice versa). So long as you're logged in using the same Apple ID on both device  , it'll work automatically.

While it's not the most complex feature, we think that Universal Clipboard could be one of the most practical, and useful, new features introduced in macOS Sierra.

It doesn't transfer the file across the internet. Instead it uses peer-to-peer sharing via Bluetooth (we suspect it's similar to AirDrop).

4.Sync Desktops on multiple Macs

If you're anything like us, your Mac filing system involves everything being saved to the Desktop. One of the best new features that came to MacOS in Sierra is the way that the Desktop now syncs across iCloud - so you can go to your iCloud Drive on any of your devices and access the files and folders on your desktop. This is great if you have more than one Mac because you can essentially merge both desktop  together.

It's not just your Desktop that automatically syncs across iCloud Drive, you can also access your Documents folder there too. The only limitation is how much space you have available on iCloud Drive, if you are paying for more than the standard 5GB this could be a useful feature. Luckily prices  of iCloud storage have fallen recently: 50GB now costs 79p per month.

To start sharing your Desktop in iCloud go to System Preferences > iCloud. Make sure that iCloud Drive is selected at the top and click on Options. Select Desktop & Documents to share those files.

iCloud will then upload your files to the cloud.

Once you have done this you will be able to access files on your desktop at home anywhere you can log on to the internet. Just go to iCloud.com and log on and then open the Desktop folder there.

5.Autocap and full stop like on your iPhone

If you like the fact that when you type on your iPhone or iPad the first word of a sentence is automatically capitalised, and a full stop is added automatically after you press space twice, you will like these new options that arrived in Sierra.

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text, and select: 'Capitalize words automatically', and 'Add period with double-space'. (A period is a full stop, of course. This US term appears even if you have a British keyboard setup specified.)

Select these the two options by ticking in the boxes then the necessary capitals will be added in TextEdit, Pages, and similar apps automatically, while hitting space twice in a row will bring up a full stop and following space instead, just like in iOS.

If you're using the new MacBook Pro  2016, incidentally, an option for the new Touch Bar feature will appear below these: 'Touch Bar typing suggestions'.

6.Locate your cursor

Chances are you have discovered this for yourself, but it was our favourite feature introduced with El Capitan in 2015 so we're going to mention it here.Next time when you can't see your mouse pointer on the screen just shake your mouse, or wiggle your finger on the trackpad: it's what we all do instinctively, but doing so will make the cursor grow in size momentarily so you will have no trouble spotting it.

Don't like this behaviour? Perhaps you need to move their cursor rapidly for other reasons, perhaps when using illustration apps or playing games on your Mac.

It is possible to disable this cursor behaviour if you need to. Go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display and deselect Shake mouse pointer to locate.

7.See everything you have open on your Mac

It wasn't just the growing curser that had us excited in El Capitan, we were also over the moon when the old style Exposé behaviour returned.In Mac OS X Yosemite, when you pressed F3 (or the key that represents Mission Control on your keyboard - if it's a Mac keyboard it will be marked with three small boxes), documents associated with apps were gathered together, overlapping each other.

We preferred it when Expose didn't overlap documents and we could actually differentiate between them.

Thankfully, since El Capitan when you select Expose you'll see minimised views of all the documents you had open so you can see and select the one you want.

8,QuickType on your Mac

You know how when you are typing on your iPhone or iPad you can see three suggested words you might be intending to type next? You can get a similar QuickType function on your Mac in certain apps.

If you use TextEdit or Notes, it is possible to hit Esc+Alt while typing a word and see a number of guesses at to which word you might type next.

The list of suggested words will appear and you can select by clicking one of them.

For example, type "hello", then space, and then hit Alt+Esc (in some cases just Esc), and you will see a list of possible next words.

9.Sign things using your trackpad

If you've got a finger and a Mac laptop or Magic Trackpad then you can sign PDFs within Preview.Open the PDF you need to sign and click on the toolbox icon at the top right of the Preview toolbar (next to the search field). Then click the signature icon beneath (it looks like a squiggle).Then click Create Signature, ensure the Trackpad tab is selected, and then click to begin as directed. When you've finished you can select the signature from the menu, then drag it to wherever you want it to appear.

If you intend to make good use of this feature then you might want to use a touchscreen stylus, which will works just as well on a trackpad as it does on an iPhone or iPad. (A biro won't work, so don't try it!)

10.Get organised with Tags and Stacks

Over the years Apple has added little touches that are designed to help us file things and find things on our Macs.For example, searching with Spotlight makes it really easy to find things, and Quick Look means you can get a glimpse of a file before you open it, so you can be sure it's the right one. But some times you need to be a little bit more organised to avoid wasting hours searching.

One way that you can get organised is to use Tags. You can use these colour coded tags to differentiate between different projects or areas of the work you do.

The most useful thing is being able to attach multiple tags to something. Perhaps something is related to more than one project, if that’s the case tag it to both projects and you will always be able to find it.

This all might sound like boring admin, but it can actually save you time, because you don't have to file things away in folders like you may have in the past, you can just save them in one place but attach the relevant tags to them. Then when you need the files associated with a particular project all you need to do is search for them.

Except you don't have to search for them - you can access your Tags from the left of the Finder, or, you can create a Stack, which can live in your Dock.

To create a Stack drag a Tag from where they're listed in the sidebar of a Finder window to the right-hand side of the dock near the Trash. A space should open up for you to drop the icon, and clicking on that stack in future will show only files or folders that use that particular Tag.

11.Look inside Folders in Spotlight

Speaking of Spotlight, if you search for something using Spotlight, a folder may be shown in the list of results.What's not obvious is that you can use the cursor keys to highlight this folder, then tap the Tab key to move the highlight over to the right of the window so that you can select an item within it.Hitting Enter will open any highlighted entry. Tapping Shift+Tab will move the highlight back to the left-hand column.

12.Recentre Spotlight's window

You probably know that the Spotlight window can be moved around the screen by simply dragging it, but did you know that you can return it to the centre of the screen instantly and automatically by clicking and holding the Spotlight icon at the top right of the desktop? Neat!

This works even if you've already typed something into the Spotlight window, and performing this particular trick means what you've typed won’t be deleted.

13.Take a Quick Look at files in the Finder

Quick Look is another handy way of identifying the files  you are looking for. Click on the file, press Space and you'll see a preview of it which you can skim through to see if it's what you were looking for, without even needing to open the file.The Finder has always offered a preview pane as part of the Columns view mode. As you might expect, this showed a preview of the currently clicked-upon file.What you may not know is that this Quick Look preview can also be activated in any view mode: icon, list, column, or Cover Flow.To activate the preview window, click View > Show Preview. Alternatively, tap Shift+Cmd+P.Click the same button or hit the same keyboard combo to hide it again.A bonus tip here: this preview is boosted with the same trackpad/Magic Mouse gestures you might use elsewhere, which can really help when viewing pictures or media.For example, place the mouse cursor over the preview pane while viewing a picture and you can use the same pinch-expand gesture as you might use in Preview.While playing a video here you can cue back and forth using the two-finger scroll gesture, just like you might in QuickTime Player.

14.Translate to and from Spanish, German, etc

The Dictionary app doesn't have to be limited to your own language. You can activate more than one language by opening the Dictionary app (search for it in Spotlight, cmd+Space) and opening the Preferences panel (Cmd+,), then putting a tick alongside the languages you want.

You can also drag them up and down to rearrange the order in which they appear during lookups.

You could add a Spanish/English dictionary, for example, to make it easy to find the translations you need when wriring in Spanish.

Once the Spanish dictionary is activated, you can look up any word in most apps by right-clicking it and selecting the Look Up option, or by hovering the mouse cursor over it and tapping Ctrl+Cmd+D.

15.Rename files and folders while saving

It's the little things that make all the difference, so how about this one: when saving a file using the "expanded" File > Save As dialog box (i.e. after you've clicked the little arrow alongside the filename so you can see your files  and folders), you can right-click any file or folder in order to rename it there and then without any need to invoke Finder.

This is very useful if you want to use a filename that's already in use. Believe it or not, this feature didn't arrive until El Capitan, although it's limited to list and Cover Flow views, and isn't available when icon view is being used.

The right-click menu also gained a similar rename option in El Capitan that wasn't present before!

16.Check the signal strength and battery of your iPhone hotspot

If you can't get on to a network via your Mac, it's really easy to share your connection to your Mac from your iPhone.

On your iPhone go to Cellular/Mobile Data > Personal Hotspot and turn it on.

Now click on the WiFi icon in your Mac menu bar, find the iPhone and enter the password displayed on your phone.

Once you are connected you can see how good the signal strength is and the battery status of your iPhone so you know how long you can stay connected.

17.Hide the fact that you're watching video on your Mac

Convinced that you can get work done while watching video at the same time?

One of the new features that arrived with Sierra in 2016 was the ability to watch videos  in a small window, known as picture-in-picture (PiP) mode.

If you open a video in iTunes or Safari (as long as it uses HTML 5) you can pin the video to the corner of your screen where in theory you can watch it while you continue to go about your tasks on your Mac.

Channel 4's streaming service All4 offers a PiP mode, as does BBC iPlayer.

Vimeo supports the PiP feature. Start playing the video and then press the icon for Picture-in-picture which will appear next to the expand icon.

YouTube doesn't officially support PiP but but there is a workaround. Start playing your YouTube video and then right click on it. A menu will appear with a black background, but you don't want this menu, so right click again with that menu still on the screen and you will see a new menu with the option to Enter Picture-in-Picture. Click on that and the video will jump to the top right corner of your screen.

18.Record your iPhone or iPad's output

Did you know you can view your iPhone or iPad screen on your Mac's display and record the content displayed there?

It used to be that the only way to do so was complicated setups involving AirPlay mirroring and third-party software. Now all you need do is attach the device to your Mac via USB and then open QuickTime Player.

Select File > New Movie Recording.

QuickTime will default to your Mac's iSight camera (assuming it has one), but click the small down arrow alongside the record button and your iPad or iPhone will show up as an option.

Of course, you haven't got to record anything, and can simply expand the QuickTime Player window to full-screen for some cool game-play mirroring! You can also select the New Audio Recording option in QuickTime Player to record only audio via your phone or tablet’s microphone.

19.Switch to mini-player in iTunes

When music  is playing within iTunes, clicking the small album art icon next to the currently playing track title at the top of the window will instantly switch iTunes to the mini-player window.

If there's no album art associated with that track a musical note icon will appear there instead, but this trick will still work. Hold down Option/Alt while clicking and you'll leave the main iTunes window visible while opening the mini-player.

Hold down Cmd and you'll open a floating window showing a large version of the album art, complete with QuickTime Player-like controls at the bottom. Right-click the album artwork in this window and you'll see options to make the artwork bigger or smaller, or even make it expand to the full height of the desktop. Neat!

20.Find cakes in Photos

Photos in both macOS and iOS had been languishing behind rivals, such as Google Photos, for a while. But in macOS Sierra, Apple gave Photos a shot in the arm.Photos now scans your images and can detect over 4,000 different objects and seven different facial expressions.It also adds categories to images automatically, using metadata from the photos and tags.So you can search for things like "birthday cake" or waterfall" and Photos will be able to return the results.Another Photos feature you mignt not be utilising is the support for third-party extensions, with these extensions being sold via the App Store. Extensions expanded the functionality of Photos tremendously.

21.Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch

If you have an Apple Watch you can set up your Mac so that you never have to key in your password again. You can use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac automatically.If you're wearing your Apple Watch, and both your Mac, and Watch are running the right version of their respective operating system (macOS Sierra, iOS 10.3, watchOS 3), then the computer should automatically unlock without requiring a password.

22.Quickly free up space

Running out of space on your Mac? MacOS Sierra will come to your aid.There are a number of options available to you (you can see them for yourself by clicking on the Apple logo top left of the screen, About This Mac > Storage > Manage).You can choose to store files and photos in iCloud, only keeping recently opened files and optimised photos on the Mac when they are required.You can also choose Optimised Storage, which saves space by removing iTunes movies and TV shows and only keeping recent email attachments.You can also choose for your trash to be emptied periodically. 

23.Stop wasting your battery

Version 10.2.3 of macOS Sierra added includes a feature to warn MacBook owners if they've set display brightness so high that it's likely to impact battery life.If you click the battery icon in the top menu bar on a MacBook, a dropdown menu appears showing your current power source and a few power-related options, and also highlights apps that are placing disproportionate demands on the battery.Even if you discover that the battery-draining apps are ones you can't do without, you can at least try to cut down a little.As of macOS 10.12.3, the the sub-menu of 'Apps Using Significant Energy' was expanded to a more general 'Using Significant Energy'. As well as power-hungry apps, this now includes your display, if the brightness is set above a certain point.

24.Night Shift your Mac screen

Speaking of display brightness, the Night Shift feature added in version 10.12.4 of Sierra, makes it possible to tone down your display to make it more comfortable to use at night.If you implement the feature your Mac's display will adjusts its colours in the evening so it uses less blue light and instead uses what Apple calls "the warmer end of the spectrum".You'll notice a yellowish cast on your screen when you use your Mac at night. This could be particularly beneficial for someone who suffers from insomnia as apparently the blue light keeps people awake.

Hide the bars to get extra space.If you are using a laptop with a small screen you probably already know that you can automatically hide the Dock, so that it only appears when you hover your mouse/trackpad pointer at the bottom of the screen.If you don't know how to hide your Dock, right click or alt-click on the Dock and choose Turn Hiding On.Since El Capitan you have also been able to hide the menu bar from the top of your screen. Go to System Preferences > General and select the option: 'Automatically hide and show the menu bar'. This works in a similar vein to the way you can choose to hide the Dock.With both the Dock and Menu bar hiden you can reclaim almost 2cm of space from your screen, particularly beneficial to users of smaller laptops such as the 12-inch MacBook, where every pixel counts.

25.Pin Tabs in Safari

In Safari you can 'Pin' favourite sites to the menu bar - a simple way of adding a shortcut to Facebook, YouTube or any site you visit frequently.Go to Window > Pin Tab. Or just right-click on the tab and select Pin Tab from the menu that appears.

26.Show the full URL

Another handy Safari tip. In Yosemite Safari stopped showing the whole URL - a feature designed to help avoid users  being taken in by phishing scams, wherein the URL is obfuscated. In other words, if you're visiting https://netactive.blogspot.com then all you'll see in the address bar is net.com .If this isn’t what you want, perhaps you want to see the full URL of the article you are reading, you can change things so that the whole URL is shown.

Open Safari's preferences dialog box (Cmd+,) then click the Advanced icon and put a check alongside Show Full Website Address.

27.Tell which Safari tabs are playing audio

Here's another Safari tip.You can identify which of your open tabs is playing audio by the speaker symbol that appears in the far right of the Safari tab.It's possible to mute the audio with a single click on the speaker symbol without even opening the tab.Alternatively, you can Option/Alt click on the speaker icon of the tab you do wish to listen to and mute the audio on all the other tabs.

28.Private web browsing in Safari

One last thing to mention with Safari. You can open a private browsing window.Go to Safari > File > New Private Window (or shift-cmd-n). You can tell if a window is private because the search bar will be grey. Any new tabs you open in this window will be private.For even more privacy, you can choose to always search with privacy-obsessed DuckDuckGo as your default search engine. Go to Safari > Preferences > Search, and click on the Search Engine. Then select Duck Duck Go from the Search Engine dropdown list. You can choose from Google, Bing, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo.

29.Use Notification Centre to see where your friends are

You can add the Find My Friends widget to Notification Centre and see where your friends are.Though some find it a bit 'stalkery', Find My Friends is a helpful feature, especially if you combine it with Family Sharing, so you can see where all members of your family are.Being able to add it to Notification Centre makes it much more accessible.In order to use Find My Friends you have to set it up on your iPad or iPhone - although you will be able to choose to share your location from your Mac - and you will only be able to see friends if they choose to allow you to.You, and they, will also need to have location services turned on on their device. Turn Location Services in at Privacy > Location Services.

30.Make calls and more on your Mac

Having tracked your friends down in Find My Friends, you can also make and answer calls on your Mac.The phone call is actually routed via your iPhone. To call a friend either open the FaceTime app and choose the Audio tab, open the Contacts app and locate them there, or just search for their name using Spotlight. Once you have found the number for your friend click on the handset beside it to place the call.You can also call directly from a webpage if you have located a number there. Just click on the down arrow that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over the number and choose to call using your iPhone.Similarly, if anyone calls you on your iPhone you can answer the call on your Mac. 

31.Send audio messages

You've been able to send iMessages from your Mac since Apple launched Mavericks in 2013. Back in Yosemite, the Messages app gained a little microphone icon alongside where you type. Perhaps surprisingly, this wasn't for dictation. Instead, it allows you to send short audio clips to other iMessage users, just like in iOS.Just click the icon, speak, and then click the red square button to end the recording. Then click the Send button. The audio quality also isn't great - we're talking only slightly better than mobile phone - but that's probably because the audio is compressed to make sending and receiving quicker.Recipients using an iOS devices will see the audio files as waveforms along with a play button.

32.Send text messages to Android phones from your Mac

Speaking of Messages, you aren't limited to just sending messages to your iPhone-wielding friends and family.You can also send and receive SMS text messages - which means you can communicate with your friends who have Android and Windows devices. To send a text message to a friend open Messages, and tap in their mobile number (or search for them - if your friend is in your contacts their number will show up).