You should never have to strain to read or see what’s on your computer screen. So, here are several adjustments you can make to improve your Mac experience.

Find your pointer faster

Starting with the simple things, you may have trouble seeing your pointer on the screen or just lose track of where it is.

You can adjust the size of your pointer, so it’s easier to spot. Open System Settings.. from the Apple menu and go to Accessibility > Display. Use the Pointer size slider to increase the size of your mouse or trackpad pointer. A super handy feature on Mac is that you can shake your mouse to briefly increase the size of the pointer and thus making it simpler to find. This setting is in the same spot as the cursor size. Go there and enable Shake mouse pointer to locate.

Make text bigger in specific apps

If it’s reading words that you’re having a hard time with on Mac, you can make the text size bigger.

Font size in Messages: Go to Messages > Settings... and on the General tab. From here, move the slider at the bottom for Text Size.

Font size in Mail: Go to Mail > Settings..., and on the Fonts & Colors tab, change the text sizes using the Select button for each font at the top.

Font size in Safari: Go to Safari > Settings..., and on the Advanced tab, check the box for Never use font sizes smaller than and pick a minimum size in the drop-down list.

Font size in Notes: Go to Notes > Settings... and move the slider at the bottom for Default Text Size.

For other Apple or third-party apps on your Mac, check the app’s Settings/Preferences or the Help section for instructions on increasing the font size if available.

Make desktop text and icons larger

In addition to increasing the size of the text in apps, you can make your screen font and icons larger as well. You can do this for text and icons on your desktop, in Finder, in your sidebars, and in your menu bar.

You can increase the size of the items on your desktop pretty easily. Right-click or hold Control and click an empty spot on your desktop and select Show View Options.

Choose a Text Size from the drop-down list and use the slider for the Icon Size. You can change the size of the font in Finder if you use Icon, List, or Column view. Open Finder and click View > Show View Options from the menu bar. Choose a Text Size and Icon Size.

For an overarching larger icon size in sidebars, head to Apple menu > System Settings... > Appearance and select Small, Medium, or Large for Sidebar Icon Size.

Text in the menu bar

You can increase the size of the text in the menu bar. Head to Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility. Select Display, and select Large as the Menu bar size. You’ll need to log out and back in to see this change.

Use system-wide large text

Besides the above finer options, you can also significantly increase the overall text size of all apps and windows. To do that, go to Apple menu > System Settings... > Displays and choose an option next to Larger Text.

Adjust the appearance of your desktop

You can make some simple tweaks to make items easier to view on your desktop, in menus, and for borders. These types of adjustments are related to the colors on your screen.

Turn transparent areas of the desktop gray in Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility. Select Display and enable Reduce transparency.

Darkening the borders also reduces transparency and makes things simpler to see. Go to Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility. Select Display and enable the switch for Increase contrast.

If seeing white on black is easier on your eyes, you can head to Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility > Display and enable Invert Colors.

For statuses and information, you can choose to see shapes instead of or in addition to colored text. Go to Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility > Display and enable Differentiate without color.

Adjust the overall contrast for the display. Head to Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility > Display and move the Display contrast slider.

For protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia, or a color tint, you can use filters. Go to Apple menu > System Settings... > Accessibility > Display. Enable Color Filters. Select the Filter Type and then use the adjustments options that display to personalize the filter or color tint.

Use Night Shift

Another built-in Mac feature called Night Shift can make your screen easier on the eyes. You can turn it on quickly from the Control Center or schedule it to turn on regularly. In Control Center, click Display and then the Night Shift. To Schedule Night Shift, open Apple menu > System Settings... > Displays and click the Night Shift.

Apple actually added two audio modes for apps to take advantage of, Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum. Voice Isolation is definitely the more useful of the two. Wide Spectrum is not so useful unless your group call has an actual group in one room. That’s because it focuses the audio onto the background noise, minimizing your own voice.

The setting you want for most situations is Voice Isolation. It tunes out background noise when turned on, so you come through clearly and cleanly. That could be removing traffic noise or just the general background hum of a coffeehouse.

To enable Voice Isolation:

• Open an app that supports Mic Modes, such as FaceTime
• Click the FaceTime icon in the menu bar, then click Mic Mode
• Choose Voice Isolation

Generally speaking, it is safe to leave a MacBook plugged in all the time. A huge number of MacBook usage are in scenarios where a MacBook is sitting on a desk, connected to a charger, and often to an external display, keyboard, and mouse too. These “use a laptop as a desktop” situations are incredibly common in the workplace and school with Apple laptops, and for many home users as well.

When a MacBook is plugged in and charging, it will typically perform at it’s best, since there is no need to engage in energy conservation or battery life extension. It’s not totally unusual for some MacBook users to have discovered their laptop feels like it’s running slower than usual when running on battery particularly when battery life is relatively low, and in fact it often is running slower because of the Low Power Mode feature, which directly throttles performance to extend battery life.

While there’s nothing wrong with keeping a MacBook plugged in all the time, and you’ll often have the best CPU performance by doing so, there are a few things to keep in mind that may contribute to the broader battery health and battery longevity of your MacBook, so it’s important to keep those in mind.

Important considerations for keeping MacBook plugged in

Most modern laptop and gadget batteries are lithium-ion based, including those that are found in MacBooks, which means they degrade over time and with usage. The battery in a MacBook is designed to be used. Keeping a lithium-ion battery at 100% charge constantly may reduce the overall lifespan of a battery, but modern Macs include battery maintenance features that help to prevent this. Nonetheless, it’s still good practice to use your Mac laptop as a laptop from time to time, and let the battery discharge to 20%-30% or so, and then charge it again.

Apple explains the various factors that can contribute to Mac battery health and battery lifespan as follows: “All rechargeable batteries are consumable components that become less effective as they get older—and their age isn’t determined only by time. A battery’s lifespan depends on its chemical age, which is affected by factors such as its temperature history and charging pattern. As your notebook’s battery ages chemically, its charging capacity gets smaller.”

Let’s pay particular attention to the ‘temperature history’ and ‘charging pattern’, because those are both often directly controllable by MacBook users.

Modern versions of MacOS have built-in battery optimization features that aim to extend the lifespan of the devices battery. One of the primary means of doing this is by learning your laptop usage and charging habits, and then delaying the amount of time the MacBook spends fully charged. For example, let’s say you get to your desk every day at 8am, plug in your MacBook, and then leave your desk every day and disconnect the MacBook at 4pm – macOS battery optimization will observe and learn this schedule, and then hold your laptop battery at an 80% charge level until the end of the day, when it will then charge the battery to 100%. Apple Silicon Mac laptop batteries will use fast charging tech to get to 80% capacity, and then they automatically switch over to a slower charging style referred to as ‘trickle charging’, where the remaining 20% will charge much slower, at a defined time, or sometimes not at all.

Battery Optimization is enabled by default on every modern Mac, but you can confirm it is enabled on your particular Mac laptop by going to  Apple menu > System Settings > Battery > Battery Health > clicking the tiny (i) button next to Battery Health make sure “Optimized Battery Charging” is enabled. Battery Optimization should be enabled on Mac laptops for best performance and longevity.

Avoid extreme heat

Extended exposure to high heat or extreme heat can negatively impact battery health and battery life, and it’s also not great for any tech in general. Heat can directly damage lithium-ion batteries. Keep the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro out of direct sunlight, and away from heat sources. Do not smother the laptop, which can prevent heat from dissipating as designed.

Additionally, if you run the MacBook in clamshell mode (meaning closed, but still on and connected to an external display), you will want to make sure it is well ventilated around it, particularly with the modern MacBook Air since it does not include a cooling fan. The fan-less design of the Apple Silicon MacBook Air series makes it a very power efficient and silent computer, but it is known to throttle performance when overheating or in clamshell mode and under heavy usage.

Aside from potential battery issues, high heat will often cause CPU performance to reduce and throttle. If you’ve ever used a MacBook outside in the sun on a warm day, felt the computer get very hot to the touch, and then suddenly become almost unusably slow with beachballs, it’s likely because the Mac is overheating and the system is reducing performance and other activity to try and cool things down. There are a variety of helpful ways to keep a MacBook cool in hot weather and high temperatures if you want more specifics, but a little common sense goes a long way.

Keep macOS updated

It’s important to keep up to date with macOS software updates and install those updates when they are available. Not only do macOS system software updates routinely fix bugs and security issues, they may also address any known issues with energy usage, battery optimization and usage, or other power management related circumstances. You can update macOS by going to  Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update.

Window Tiling

With macOS Sequoia, Apple has introduced a new window tiling management feature that aims to make it easy to arrange open windows into a layout that works best for you. When you drag a window to the edge of the screen, ‌macOS Sequoia‌ suggests a tiled position by displaying a frame, and you release the window to drop it right into place. This way, you can quickly arrange two app windows side by side, or place four windows in corners to keep several apps in view at once. When a window has been dragged to tile on one side or the other, dragging it back immediately resizes it to its original width and height.

macOS 15 also adds new tiling options to the green traffic light in the top corner of windows. Hover your pointer over the green button, and a menu appears with options to move and resize or fill and arrange all open windows.

Safari Video Viewer

When watching a video in Safari, click the menu icon in the left-hand side of the address bar and select the new Video Viewer option. This makes the playing video expand within the Safari window into a kind of theater mode that blurs everything out behind it, bringing the content front and center.

It also includes a native playback controls interface that replaces YouTube's – or the UI of whatever video you are playing. Options include AirPlay, volume, Picture in Picture, and playback speed.

Move & Resize Windows Controls

Accessed from the menu bar, a new "Move & Resize" option in the Window menu allows you to easily manage and arrange windows on your screen by offering various tiling and resizing options. You can move a window to the top, bottom, left, or right half of the screen, or position it into one of the four corners if you prefer a quarter-screen layout.

macOS also provides more flexible arrangements, such as splitting the screen horizontally or vertically, where you can tile windows side by side or one above the other. For even more control, there's a feature to quickly return a window to its previous size and position, making it easy to undo any changes.

iPhone Notifications

In System Settings > Notifications, there's an "Allow notifications from iPhone" menu that gives you several options. These include options to enable or disable sounds for notifications from iPhone, select which specific app notifications to mirror, and turn the entire feature on and off.

Show Passwords in Menu Bar

If you want to make access to the new Passwords app a lot more convenient, go to Passwords ➝ Settings... and check the box next to "Show Passwords in Menu Bar." When you're next on a website in Safari that you have login credentials for, click the key icon in the menu bar, and you'll see the dropdown menu automatically detect which login details you're looking for, ready for you to select. This also works with other browsers that have the iCloud Passwords browser extension installed.

Highlight Text in Notes

The Notes app now supports colors for typed text, allowing for highlighting. Apple added five colors, including pink, purple, orange, mint, and blue, with the colors able to be added through the formatting interface. Simply click on the Aa button in the toolbar to get to the color options when a word or phrase is selected.

Math Notes

Apple has added a powerful new feature to your Mac's Calculator app: Math Notes. This integration between Calculator and Notes offers a versatile tool for all your calculation needs. It's particularly handy for splitting bills, calculating group expenses, or working through more complex mathematical problems.

Math Notes allows you to type equations directly into a note, with automatic solving when you add an equals sign. You can perform a wide range of calculations, including defining variables for more complex math. For example, if you're planning a night out, you could write "dinner = $57" and "movies = $24" in a note, then simply type "dinner + movies =" to get the total cost. To access the feature, click the calculator symbol at the bottom left of the calculator window and select Math Notes.

You're not limited to accessing Math Notes through the Calculator app – you can also use the feature directly within the Notes app using any new or existing note. In fact, you can get Math results almost anywhere in the operating system. If you type an equation into Spotlight, for example, you'll get a result, and the same goes for apps like Messages.

Private Wi-Fi Address Options

In System Settings > Wi-Fi, if you click the Details button next to the currently connected network, there's a new Private Wi-Fi address option that may be familiar to users with iOS devices. A fixed private address reduces cross-network tracking by using a unique Wi-Fi address on the network. You can make it Fixed, Rotating, or turn off the option.

Record and Transcribe Voice Notes

Apple has made a significant enhancement to the Notes app, introducing a built-in audio recording feature that streamlines the process of capturing and transcribing voice notes. The new audio recording tool in Notes offers more than just simple voice capture. As users record, the app automatically generates a real-time transcript, making it easier to review and search through recorded content.

To record a voice note, simply click the new waveform icon in the Notes toolbar. An interface will appear on the right showing the audio recording controls, as well as a speech bubble icon that you can use to view the transcript. When you've finished your recording, it will be saved in the note along with the accompanying transcription.

Window Title Bar Double-Click Options

In System Settings > Desktop & Dock, there's a new option to change the behavior of a window when you double-click its title bar. In Sonoma, the default behavior is to zoom the window, but in Sequoia you can change "Double-click a window's title bar to" Fill, Zoom, Minimize, or Do Nothing.

Here’s how you can turn off the auto-typing of periods after hitting space twice.

• Go to the  Apple menu and choose "System Settings"
• Scroll down in the list and choose "Keyboard"
• Look for the Text Input section for "Input Sources", and click the "Edit" button next to that
• Locate the switch for "Add period with double-space" and toggle that off
• Click "Done"

Now when you hit the space bar twice, the Mac will no longer automatically type a period.