This video is brought to you by ClearVPN!
Do you know the little red button in the vehicle of Agent K in Men in Black?
INSERT VIDEO It turns out the Option key on the Mac is like this little red button (or,
in our case, white or black) that you occasionally use to add a bit of boost to your productivity.
Ever since my latest Mac tips & tricks video, which I’ll link at the end of this one,
I got curious as to what will happen if I interact with the Mac using the Option key
all the time.
So I used some tape and am here to share my discoveries with you.
I’ll start simple.
When you resize a window on the Mac, if you hold the Option key, you will resize the dimensions
of the window from its center point instead.
By pressing the Option + Command + L keys.
This combo opens the finder app in the Downloads folder - my most used folder.
Even though I’ve placed my downloads folder as my default finder folder, this shortcut
is the fastest way for me to get there.
I often use my Mac with an external monitor, and the quickest way to get to the display
settings, to adjust maybe the position of the devices or fix a resolution, is to press
Option + either brightness up or down.
This shortcut opens system preferences and gets you directly into display options.
Similar to this shortcut pressing Option + Volume up or down takes you to the sound preferences
on the Mac.
This is great if you want to select a different input or output quickly, let’s say, while
you are in a meeting.
Following the same principle, Option + Mission control takes to the preference of Mission
Control.
The rest function buttons don’t do anything else.
I’ve tried it, and it’s not worth wasting your time.
Subscribing to the channel, however, is not a waste of time, so go ahead and do that…because
WHY NOT?
Now, let me share with you my absolute favorite shortcut I learned.
Click on the notification Center (the clock with the date in the menu) while holding Options
to toggle on and off DND mode.
Imagine you are in a meeting where you are about to close a client with whom you are
sharing your screen and you start getting messages from your mom.
Just make the ninja move of holding the option and pressing on the clock, and boom.
The person on the other line won’t even know what happened unless they saw the embarrassing
message prior to that.
When you copy an item, press Command + Option + V to paste it, which will essentially move
it or trigger a so-called cut action.
When working in list view in the finder, you have the option to expand the folders to see
all nested subfolders and items.
When holding the option key and pressing the folder arrow to expand it, you can essentially
expand all nested folders to see the entire content of the folder.
When working on an app that allows you to save your progress, let’s say on a document
or an image, more often than not, you’ll see the option to save the file, but where
is Save As?
To showcase it hold an option while in the file menu, and you’ll notice that Save As
will appear.
It might replace the Duplicate option or appear as an additional item, but it’s there.
Also, depending on the app that you are using, the option button might replace or reveal
some other functionalities, like closing all active windows.
To dig deeper, in any app, you can hold the option key while browsing through the menu
items to see alternative options that you might find use of.
Alternatively, when you right-click on something to reveal the secondary menu, if you hold
the Option key, you’ll most likely find additional functionalities that you can take
advantage of.
One useful example of this would be when working with files and folders.
If you right-click and hold the Option key, you’ll reveal the option to copy the path
of the folder and file, which you can later use.
I went ahead and started pressing the buttons on the keyboard while holding the option key
to see what would happen.
While going through the letters, I figured you could type special characters.
You don’t need to know them all, but it’s worth remembering the important ones like
Option + R for a registered trademark, Option + 2 for a trademark, or the most popular Option
+ G for copyright.
No need to google them.
The next tip is life-saving for me.
If you often deal with files, as I do, you most likely end up in situations where you
drag a bunch of files from one place to another.
Inevitably you get to a prompt that tells you that such file or files already exist,
and you can choose between keeping both, stopping or replacing them.
Well, often, that’s not helpful because I want to move the files that don’t exist
and skip those that are already in there.
Press the option key while the prompt is active, and suddenly the button Keep Both is replaced
by my favorite Skip button.
Next, if you want to know more about your network, like your IP information, for example,
hold the Option key while pressing on the wifi settings in the control center, and you’ll
find everything you need.
IP Address, Router information, Channel, and even Noise levels.
While on the topic of network, if you’d like to be sure that your data is safe and
you are protected, you can lean on ClearVPN’s AES-256 encryption and cutting-edge protocols
and browse with ease.
I use ClearVPN to change my location for those region-exclusive content streaming opportunities
and move around the internet privately, accessing all the content I need.
I can connect to any public network without any hesitation.
Using the app is just a tap away, thanks to the unique design and user experience.
With ClearVPN, I can connect up to 6 devices to my account, which is more than enough for
my needs.
ClearVPN is available on Setapp, a platform with tons of premium productivity-focused
apps and tools.
For just $9,99, which is a fair price for a decent VPN service alone, you’ll get access
to more than 230 apps and tools for your Mac to help you solve thousands of other tasks.
Such as task or finance management, enhancing your remote work, and, of course, securing
your Internet connection!
Follow the first link in the description below or simply use promo code thisise to take advantage
of an exclusive 30-day free trial.
Holding the Option button while pressing on elements in the Control Center reveals further
information.
For example, if you press Option and the Bluetooth button, you’ll see detailed information
about your connected devices, including firmware version.
Entering DANGER ZONE.
While on the topic of some basic Mac operations, Command + Option + Delete immediately deletes
a file without moving it to the trash.
You do get a warning for it, but still, be careful because you won’t be able to restore
it.
Next, we get to Thanos level snapping-the-fingers power.
Option + Shift + Command and Delete empty the Trash without a confirmation dialog.
Although this operation saves you a few clicks, you should be sure you want to do that because
it takes a nano-second to realize that everything you worked on has vanished.
Next, when right-clicking on an app in the dock, you can reveal the option menu of the
option menu while holding the Option key.
This way, you can quickly get access to the Force Quit option or simply tell all other
apps to hide right away.
Moving on to the next helpful tip.
When pressing the Option + Command + D, you can quickly hide and reveal the dock.
This is very handy when working on a project you are jumping into a meeting where the dock
gets in the way, and you want to get rid of it quickly.
Once you finish the meeting, Option + Command + D brings back the Dock.
When typing, Option + Delete will delete the word to the left of the insertion point.
Option–Left Arrow will move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word,
and as you can expect at this point, option–Right Arrow will move the insertion point to the
end of the next word.
Basically, you can use the option and arrow keys to move around one word at a time.
In terms of controlling the Mac, Option + Command + the Power Button will put your Mac
to sleep.
Alternativelly Control + Option + Command + the Power button will quit all apps then
shut down the Mac.
Don’t worry, if you have any opened documents that are unsaved, you’ll get a prompt asking
you whether you want to save them or not.
Option + Shift + the brightness control will adjust the display brigthness in smaller increments.
The more useful Option + Shift combo to me is the volume control where I get a more granural
control over my listening experience.
While on the same combo type, Option + Shift + keyboard brightness will adjust the brightness
of the built-in keyboard at more refined increments.
When you grab a file to move it to a new folder if you hold the Option key you will create
a copy of the dragged item.
You can be sure that will happend because the pointer will change upon holding the Option
key and a green plus icon will appear.
Alternatively, if you want to create just an alias to whatever you are dragging around,
you can hold Option + Command and an arrow will appear.
This way, you’ll create a shortcut.
In Safari, when scrolling, you can use the arrows to go up and down a long page.
If you want to up the increments of your scrolling, you can hold the Option while pressing the
arrow keys to scroll in larger steps.
If you hold Option + Tab, you can move around the buttons inside of a webpage and ideally
browse without using your mouse.
If you enjoyed this video, you’d definitely find something new to learn in my latest MacOS
tips & tricks video, like the ability to showcase your inputs and outputs in Control Center.
As always, it’s been an absolute pleasure, This is E
Over and out