One of the neat things about using a Mac is that macOS features various levels of interaction and customization, but many of us only ever scratch the surface of what's possible. If you regularly perform certain actions on your Mac, often there's another way of doing it that's easier, only it's not so obvious unless someone points it out to you.
With that in mind, here are few quick macOS tips that once you start using should make the time you spend on your Mac a more effortless experience. The following assumes you're running macOS Sonoma or later, but many of these tips should work on earlier versions of Apple's Mac operating system.
Access more Preview file format options
When you come to save or export a file in Preview, Option-click the Format dropdown to get access to several additional file types.
Float notes over app windows
In the Notes app in macOS, it's possible to float individual notes over other windows so that they stay visible regardless of which application is active. This makes for a convenient way to reference an existing note while writing an essay or report, for example. It also comes in useful if you want to take notes when researching something online.
To float a note in the Notes app, double-click the note to open it in a separate window, then select Window -> Keep on Top from the menu bar. The note will now remain above other open application windows, even if you switch between apps using Stage Manager. Just remember that your floating notes can't share the same screen as another app that's in fullscreen mode.
Add app, file or folder shortcuts to Finder's toolbar
Simply begin to drag the item within the Finder window, then hold down the Command (⌘) key and drop it onto an available space in the toolbar.
Quickly access specific system settings
If your Mac's keyboard has icons printed on some of the functions keys, you can press them to perform special features. For example, pressing the F11/12 keys with speaker icons adjusts the volume. If you hold down Option when you press one of these keys, the specific preferences in System Settings that are associated with the feature will open instantly. Option-F11/12 opens the Sound pane, for instance.
Tired of Typing? Dictate
macOS supports simultaneous use of keyboard input and Dictation, without any disruption in your flow of thought. In other words, you can keep typing after hitting the Dictation shortcut (assignable in System Settings... > Keyboard). So whenever your fingers need a rest, you can complete the sentence you were just typing by saying it out loud.
Automatically close Safari tabs
macOS can close Safari's browser tabs on your behalf, based on when you last viewed them. Select Safari -> Settings... in the menu bar, then click the Tabs section. Next to "Automatically close tabs" you'll find options to make the browser auto-close tabs that have not been viewed After One Day, After One Week, or After One Month.
Mail attachment downloads in Finder
In macOS Sonoma or, when you download an email attachment from Mail and view it in Finder, the file includes a new mail symbol next to it to let you know it's an email attachment. If you right-click the attachment, there's even a "Reply to [name of sender]" option in the contextual menu that when selected will open the Mail compose window, ready for you to type up your reply message.
On a Mac that has a top row of function keys, Apple includes volume and brightness controls that can be used to make adjustments in stepwise increments. However, there may be times when you want to make more fine grained adjustments to these settings than the default increments allow.
Whenever you tap the volume or brightness controls on your keyboard, you'll see an indicator appear on your Mac's screen with 16 fixed increments separated by lines. With the help of a keyboard modifier, it's actually possible to make more nuanced quarter-step changes to sound volume and screen brightness using a total of 64 increments.
Before you press the volume or brightness controls, hold down the Option and Shift keys together on your keyboard. Now go ahead and make your adjustments, and you should see the onscreen indicator move forwards and backwards in smaller increments (four over each segment). Holding down just the Option key will take you to the Sound or Displays settings.
It's a simple tip, but it's really useful for when just tapping the control on its own feels like too much of a jump, and you'd prefer more accurate control over.
Say you want to look up a topic online, so you type a search word or phrase into Safari's address bar. The first link in the returned results looks promising, so you click it. On the site you're sent to, you see another link about a related topic, so you click that, too. Then another link grabs your attention, and you decide to check it out. Soon you're distracted by some other tangential subject, and before you know it you've fallen down a rabbit hole of clicks and links without finding out much about what you were actually looking for in the first place.
If that sounds familiar, the "Return to Search Results" feature in Safari can help. It saves having to tediously click the previous page button multiple times to return to your original search results, or start rooting through your web history to locate where your latest online meander began. You can find it in Safari's menu bar, under History > Return to Search Results, or even better, use its Command-Option-S keyboard shortcut.
Note that this feature only works if your wayward browsing occurred in the same tab that you used to initiate the search, so if a link you clicked on opened a new tab and you continued browsing in that, the "Return to Search Results" menu option will be grayed out. Also, the search needs to be performed from Safari's address bar or from the website of the search engine that Safari is set to use.
In macOS Mojave or later, the Finder includes Quick Actions that make it easier to perform quick edits to files without having to open the apps associated with them. In the default set that Apple includes with every macOS install, there's a very handy Quick Action that allows you to remove the background from a selected image or photo.
The feature lifts the subject out of the picture and turns it into a PNG file, which makes the background transparent. The Quick Action works best on images with a clearly defined subject in the foreground, like a person or object, set against a fairly uniform background.
To use the Remove Background feature in macOS, simply right-click an image file in Finder, hover your cursor over the Quick Actions submenu, then click Remove Background.
Wait for the image to be processed, and you should soon see a transparent PNG version of the file appear in the same location as the original image, titled "[original filename] Background Removed.png.".
If you are tired of pop-ups and banners interrupting your web browsing experience, it's worth getting to know Distraction Control, a new Safari feature that helps you focus on the content that matters by minimizing intrusive elements on webpages. While it's not designed as an ad blocker, Distraction Control can significantly improve your reading experience by hiding static distractions.
To nix a distracting item on a webpage, click the Page menu icon in the address bar and select Hide Distracting Items. Then simply hover your pointer over the item in question, whereupon it will be auto-selected for removal. With another click, the distraction will disintegrate before your eyes. When you're finished, click Done in the address bar. If you're on a webpage where you've hidden items, a crossed out eye icon will appear in the address bar, indicating that you can make them visible again by revisiting the Page menu and selecting Show Hidden Items.
