This video is brought to you by Miro! One of my most successful and loved videos
on this channel is the MacOS Beginners Guide I published last year, which is just as relevant
today. After so many views and amazing feedback, I think it only makes sense to follow it up with
a guide for those of you who are now familiar with MacOS, and feeling comfortable using it on
a daily basis. Think of this video as part 2 - a guide for intermediate, where I will show you
tips and features I personally use all time that will make you extremely efficient when
using your Mac. None of them are complicated, yet all of them are super useful. In the end,
I’ll go to some power shortcuts as well. Let’s warm up with a very simple one - zooming
in systemwide. This is something that I can’t live without and it’s one of the first things
I do with a new Mac. Open System Settings and go to Accessibility. Under Vision, go to Zoom
and Enable use scroll gesture with modifier key and select the Control button for example. Once
this is enabled, no matter where I am, I can simply hold control and scroll in and out to
where my mouse pointer is. Having this ability at my fingertips eliminates the need to even
think about zooming in on a browser and in many cases on documents. It’s feature that literally
saves my eyes from suffering when trying to read a fine print or look at something small. In fact,
I take this feature so seriously that a lot of times I use it to just space out from the UI and
the elements around the apps that I use and just focus at the task at hand - for example, writing.
The next very simple feature that I can’t live without daily is taking screenshots. This is
built-in and enabled by default and it can be executed in a few ways. In it’s simplest form,
you can press Command + Shift + 3 and you’ll take a screenshot of the entire screen in front
of you - exactly like taking a screenshot on your iPhone by pressing volume up and the power button
at the same time. The screenshot stays floating on the screen for few seconds before it ends up
either on your desktop or downloads folder or wherever else you decide to change it to go to.
The destination can be changed by opening the built-in screenshot app. Another way to take a
screenshot and this is the most used way for me is to press Command + Shift + 4 and the mouse
cursor turns into a cross-hair icon which you can move around and drag to grab a screenshot
of just a simple element. Note that when you start dragging you see the dimensions of the
screenshot in pixels - how cool is that. Here’s how I use it all the time. Let’s say
I need a logo for a project of mine. I simply snap it on the fly and drag it directly while
floating into my photo editing app, where I remove the background in a flash and export
with transparent background just like that. If you want to present a website to someone, or a feature
that is part of an app, you can do the following: VLOG: Let’s say I want to showcase my website in a
presentation. I open my website in a browser and press Command + Shift + 4 like before,
but then I hit the space bar and now I can take screenshots of windows, no matter the
app. This is so cool, I even have a nice built-in shadow. + WHY NOT
Next up, forget about command + V. Many times when you paste text from somewhere you end up pasting
the formatting as well. I can’t tell you how many times I witness people wasting their time removing
the formatting of whatever they copied. Most often, this happens while compiling an email and
pasting information from outside, only to end up with an email that looks unprofessional. Instead,
learn to paste with Command + Option + Shift + V. Pasting like this, removes the formatting,
placing the text as plain text. VLOG: Text replacement
Weather I am preparing a guide like this or a compilation video like my latest iPhone
Accessories episode, I spend quite a lot of time organising ideas and products. Since I
am a visual person I find it way easier to compile my thoughts in a way that allows me
to see how everything fits together. For that, I use Miro which is a visual platform to connect,
collaborate, and create. Miro is available on pretty much all devices and I’ve recently
started using it for my more complicated projects as it allows me to create a combination of charts,
maps and other frameworks organised in different boards which I can later share with my associate
when it’s time to shoot. Miro brings teams together, no matter the location - office,
remote or hybrid. You can keep the ideas flowing by creating, building and sharing with the help
of sticky notes, images, mind maps and more to visualise projects and ideas of any scope.
There are tons of different templates that you can use to start your visual journey while also
taking advantage of the built-in AI assistant to let’s say create mind maps from scratch,
so join the over 50+ million users and check out Miro, the first link in the description below.
Let’s talk hot corners. Each of the corners of your Mac screen can be used as a hot corner - a
place where you can drag your mouse to and trigger an action - something I showcase in my Step by
Step guide on how I setup a new Mac video, which I’ll link at the end of this episode. So my hot
corners are set up as follows. If I bring my mouse to the top left I open the Launchpad - the place
where all my apps exist. Top right opens Mission Control which I use a lot, especially when working
on a dual monitor setup. The bottom left launches the screen saver which aside from looks is yet
another way I can quickly lock the Mac if I want to step away - assuming you have activated the
lock option on the Screen Saver. Finally, the bottom right triggers the Application Windows,
which is handy if I have few windows of the same app opened, allowing me to find
the active window I want to move to next. Next, let’s talk about renaming files.
Instead of tapping on the name of the file and waiting a second only to tap again to rename,
or even right click to select the option to rename, simply select the file and hit Return
and you’ll be ready to change its name. In most cases, MacOS cleverly leaves the file extension
out the selection so you can quickly rename without worrying that you’ll mess up the file
type. If you want to take things further, you can batch rename files by selecting them and right
click to choose rename. This way, you can replace, add or format the text of the files selected.
VLOG: Renaming batch of files Ok…so one of the reasons I love the Apple
Watch is the tight integration with the Mac. The most used case of the marriage between these two
devices is unlocking the Mac automatically with the Watch. To enable this, go to System Settings,
touch ID and password and enable the watch you want to use to unlock the Mac which should be
using the same Apple ID as your Mac. Next time you open your laptop, you’ll feel a gentle tap
on the wrist right away and you’ll save yourself from having to type that super long password.
Next, at this point I assume you know you can use Command + Tab to move around your active apps,
but did you know that you can Command + Q while Command-tabbing to quickly quit an
app - instantly? This comes in handy when you complete a work sprint and you want to
quickly clean up your space and close the tools that you won’t be needing any more.
VLOG: Search the current folder setting Let’s say you want to create a listing for
something you are selling and the platform you are uploading your images to has an image size limit.
In that case, instead of looking for an image optimiser tool or resizing images individually,
you can do the following. In Finder, grab the images you want to convert, right click to open
the Quick Actions menu and choose convert image. Aside from changing the format of the images,
for example PNG to JPEG you can choose a smaller sized format where MacOS even gives you an
estimate of how big the new images would be upon converting. This will not replace your originals
but instead create copies and note that MacOS is very good at this as even at its smallest format
they will still look very sharp and crispy. Shortcuts
Now, let me show you some shortcuts that I use almost all the time,
starting with probably the most unpopular one, yet the one I am sure you’ll utilise right away:
Command + L - this shortcut selects the full URL of a website you are currently interacting with.
This is super clutch when you want to quickly copy the URL to paste somewhere else…and yes,
it works in other browsers as well. Option + Command + H is your Zen shortcut.
It hides all open windows and leaves only the currently active app in front of you - one of
the fastest ways to eliminate distractions. Control + Command + Space - Pull up emojis
Shift + Command + 5 - Pulls up the Screen Recording Menu which can be used for recording
or screenshots. From there, you can also change your screenshot folder destination and more.
Command + [ left or right bracket ] allows you to go backwards and forwards in finder. If you
are in the process of organising a batch of files, this might come in very handy.
Control + Command + Q - immediately lock the screen. This
comes in very handy while working in an office and you want to grab a cup of coffee for example.
Command + Comma - opens the settings window of the app that is currently in use.
The Option key on the Mac btw hides a plethora of hidden features that you can take advantage
like tapping on the clock on the Apple Menu to quickly toggle Do Not Disturb mode. If you want
to learn more hidden Option options, check out this video here. If you are stepping into the
Mac world for the first time, check out the Mac Beginners guide here. Like & Subscribe to
the channel, as well as my newsletter, and as always, it’s been an absolute pleasure,
This is E Over & out