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MacOS Hacks...keyboard shortcuts and tips..and maybe some things you didn't know


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So I'm not new to MacOS, I'm a happy convert lol. If you're new to Macs or have just been fiddling your way through since you switched from Windows, here are some tips, setup hacks that'll hopefully help.

How do I right click? There's no buttons on the trackpad...

Go to Settings--> Trackpad-->at the top make sure the Point & Click heading is highlighted, then go to Secondary click, check the box to make sure it's enabled, then select the action on the trackpad you want to associate with it. Click in the bottom right corner, Click in bottom left, or click or tap with two fingers.

How do I take a screenshot?

Now we all have a need to do a screenshot from time to time, to prove a point, show an example, troubleshoot, etc. But there's no PrntScrn button at the top of the Mac keyboard. No worries. To take a screenshot on MacOS. Hold down Command + Shift + 3 to quickly take a screenshot of the entire screen. If you want to do a selective screenshot of a certain part of the screen, hold down Command + Shift + 4 and then drag to select the area and release to grab the screenshot.

How do I see my applications?

So there's no start menu that'll show you what's installed on your Mac, but you can see all the installed applications by opening up a Finder window. That's this guy on the dock (at the bottom of your screen, so like the taskbar in Windows)

Once you open a Finder window on the left side, select Applications, this will show you everything you have installed on the Mac. Once you open an application you'll see the icon in the dock at the bottom, if you want it to remain there so you can quickly open it/get to it, then right click aka secondary click ;) , and you'll see an option to "keep in dock".

Copy & Paste shortcuts

Now this isn't a drastic change, the control key is there on a mac keyboard BUT the keyboard shortcuts are a little different for something we do pretty intuitively. Instead of Control + C or Control + V...you're using Command + C for copy and Command + V for paste. Just a slight switch. The same adjustment applies to doing a Find command if you're searching for something in a document or webpage (Command + F)

Frozen application? But wait I can't use Task Manager

So coming from Windows you'd use task manager to forcefully close out an application that's not responding. In MacOS it's called Force Quit. Two ways to do this, go to the Apple icon in the upper left of the screen, then select Force Quit, it'll bring up all the applications running and then you can select one to force close. The keyboard shortcut for this..Command+Option+Esc.

Want to do a screen recording? You can use Quicktime player that's built into your Mac for that!

Want to show or capture a screen recording for a presentation, troubleshooting, etc. Launch Quicktime player on your Mac. It'll automatically open a finder window, assuming you're trying to play a video, but you can just close it by hitting cancel. Then you're going to go to the top of the screen (you should still see Quicktime player, meaning it's the active application) and then select File--> New Screen Recording. It'll give you the option to record the entire screen or just a selected portion.

Need to find something quickly...use Spotlight

That little magnifying glass in the upper right corner, just click on it, type what you're looking for in that box and it searches your Mac for it.

Clean it up, throw it in the...Trash

Looking to get rid of something then move it to the trash..no seriously it's called the Trash on a Mac, not a recycle bin. But it functions the same way, when you right click on an item or highlight multiple items the option is to Move to trash. Once it's there you still need to empty the trash for it to fully be gone from your Mac. The trash is located in the right end of your dock on the bottom of the screen.

One more thing....Install antivirus software on your Mac!

Seriously there's a misconception that Macs don't get viruses and that's simply not true. Now many years ago viruses weren't as common to target Macs because they weren’t the predominately used computer for the consumer, but even then the ability to exploit was there, but hackers went for the biggest exploit potential. There are more than a few Antivirus programs, and malware programs to scan your Mac.

Antivirus programs:

  1. Avast (Free and Paid)

  2. Norton (Paid)

  3. BitDefender (Paid)

Malware Scanner

That's all I got today, hope this was helpful! Got a specific MacOS related question? Let me know!

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