Mac Productivity Hacks, Tips and Tricks!

Показать описание

Don't forget to Subscribe for more Tech videos including Tech How To's!

Follow us on Twitter: @LifeHacksIRL

Some useful links for more detail on some of the tips in the Video:

Mac Productivity Hacks, Tips and Tricks!

The first one I’d like to talk about is split view, it’s something that’s been out for a while that a lot of people I talk to don’t seem to know is even there, yet there are so many situations where it’s just so handy!! Split View allows you to have two apps take up the full screen together, placing them split side-by-side. I find this really handy when I need to make notes on something I’m reading in Safari.

The next one I’d like to talk about is apps with tabs, this is where you can combine an app’s open windows into a single window with tabs. I find this especially useful if you use any of the iWork suite of apps.

Now the next Mac productivity hack is probably one of the most powerful once you realize what it can do. The spotlight search box!

Spotlight can find apps, documents, photos, and other files on your Mac, and use Spotlight Suggestions to get news, sports, movies, stocks, weather, and more from the web using sources like Wikipedia, Bing, Maps, and iTunes. Spotlight can even get conversions, calculations, and definitions for you.

There’s different ways to use spotlight. First you can click the magnifying glass in the upper left to access it. But the most convenient way I find is pressing command+space. I use this most of the time to open apps that I don’t keep on my dock!

For example, when I open Google Chrome, I just open spotlight, start typing in chrome, and after two characters it’s already presented me with the right option, I just press enter and boom I’m in chrome!

Spotlight is also useful for simple math, like what’s the tax on buying my coffee this morning. If my coffee is three dollars then multiply by the amount with tax and boom!

And like I said earlier you can do simple wiki searches like, what is an apple watch. And you can even do a simple currency conversion.

This next tip is more for people that have come to the Mac from the Windows world like myself. When I first started using Macs I found the user interface a bit disorienting at first, but I made one change that I found really helped me. I changed how the application folder looks. I made the app folder pop up to a list that looks very similar to the start button, I found this made it easier to see what’s on my computer. I don’t open apps much that way anymore as I mostly use spotlight, but I still keep the apps folder setup this way for ease of use. By default it often opens in a finder window or a big square that takes up a lot of the screen. If that works for you then to each there own. But if you like the whole start menu idea simply right click or control click the apps folder and choose list. And now you have the list like the start menu!

This last tip isn’t for everyone, but it’s awesome if you can do it! Unlocking your Mac with an Apple Watch!! It’s so convenient!! I’ll admit it’s not as cool as Touch ID on the new Macs, but for the majority who still don’t have those models this is pretty darn handy!! I’ll leave a link in the description for all the details about how to set this up, but I’ll go over the basics in this video.

Go to the system preferences by pressing apple in the upper left hand corner and then choose security and privacy. Then check “Allow your apple watch to unlock your mac”! It’s quite simple to activate but there are some conditions quoted on the apple webpage, but those conditions are mostly all normal setup options anyway! If you have an apple watch I recommend giving this a try!!

Well, there we are! Some of the best Mac Productivity hacks, tips and tricks I’m aware of. If you have any Productivity hacks, tips or tricks you think would help people please share them in the comments below!! While you’re there also feel free to subscribe to our channel for more “Tech How To’s” every Week! And if you found this video useful please press the like button! Also don’t forget to follow us on twitter @LifeHacksIRL.

As always, Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next one!