macOS tools and tips

macOS tips

Here are some useful tips if you are new to macOS. Even if you are not new, these keyboard shortcuts may come in handy.

If you are switching from Windows to macOS, these tips may be useful.

Taking screenshots and videos

On a macOS, there are a few screen shot key shortcuts that can be very helpful:

command + shift + 3 - takes a screen shot of your entire screen(s - it will create an image for each screen you have)
command + shift + 4 - allows you to select an area on the screen to take a screen shot (it will create one image of your selected are)
command + shift + 5 - brings up a tool that allows you to do all of these things as well as create a video (with audio) of all or part of your screen.

In the case of command + shift + 3 and command + shift + 4, if you also hold your control key (so, command + shift + contol + 3), your screen shot will be in your clipboard which means you can paste it with command + v in a lot of applications.

If you have a screen shot in your clipboard, you can open the Preview and then create an image from the clipboard using the File -> New from clipboard.

For screen recordings, you can use Quicktime Player to capture an area or the full screen. Open the application and, under the File menu, select New Screen Recording, or press command + control + n.

Disabling macOS notification center

During a presentation or screen share, you might want to disable your notifications on macOS to prevent distractions or possible embarrassment.

The Notification Center can be quickly disabled by Option-Clicking the menu bar icon in the top right of your screen. This disables notifications until the next day. Option-Click again to re-enable immediately. Alternatively, click on the Notification Center icon, then scroll up to reveal the "Do Not Disturb" toggle.

If your laptop is a MacBook with a Touch Bar, note that you can assign a handy "Do Not Disturb" button on your Control Strip. In System Preferences, navigate to Keyboard settings and click "Customize Control Strip…" to add this.

Locking your screen

Click on the Apple logo  menu
Click “Lock Screen”

Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut ⌃+⌘+Q (ctrl+cmd+Q).

On your macOS Touch Bar

Open System Preferences > Keyboard
Click Customize Control Strip…
Drag the Screen Lock icon to the Touch Bar
Done!

With Alfred

With enabling Alfred and e.g. replacing Spotlight's Cmd + Space shortcut, you can do speedy locking with your keyboard:

Press Cmd + Space.
Type in lock. After repeating this for a while, you can just type l.
Enter to lock the screen.

Keeping your Mac awake

There are some great app-based solutions that will keep your Mac awake listed in the macOS utilities table below, but there’s also a really simple built-in way to do this:

> caffeinate -dis

The options being used here are -d to prevent the display from sleeping, -i to prevent the system from idle sleeping, and -s to prevent the system from sleeping when running on AC power. Running the caffeinate command like this will just start a never ending process in your Terminal that you can later ctrl+c (⌃+c) to exit, allowing the system and displays to sleep once again. You can also set a timeout (in seconds) with the -t option to automatically exit the caffeinate command at some later time. For example, to prevent the system or displays from sleeping for 1 hour, you can run:

> caffeinate -dist 3600

macOS utilities

The following macOS utilities are favourites among GitLab team members. Make sure to join the #macOS Slack channel for Questions and tips about using macOS.

Category	Utility	Description
Cursor	Yoink ~$8 USD, free trial	creates a holding pen for drag-and-drop activities to allow cross-monitor or allow rearranging windows during the drag process
Date/Time	Clocker	Helps you keep track of the time of your team members in different time zones.
Date/Time	There	Helps you keep track of the time of your team members in different time zones.
Date/Time	Itsycal	Itsycal is a tiny menu bar calendar. If you want, it will display your events as a companion to the macOS Calendar app.
Date/Time	Mini Calendar	Mini Calendar is a lightweight application, which helps to access monthly calendar quickly and easily.
Date/Time	Dato ~$3 USD	System menu bar date and time replacement with current time in various time zones and calendar events
Date/Time	Status Clock	Status Clock places a second clock on the menu bar for showing the UTC time. Perfect for anyone doing sysadmin work or tasks that require referencing UTC (or any secondary timezone).
Desktop background	Downlink	Every 20 minutes (or every hour, you pick), Downlink updates your desktop background with the freshest images of Earth.
Media	BeardedSpice	BeardedSpice is a menubar application for macOS that allows you to control web based media players and some native apps with the media keys found on macOS keyboards.
Menubar	Bartender	Lets you organize your menu bar icons, by hiding them, rearranging them, show hidden items with a click or keyboard shortcut and have icons show when they update.
Monitoring	iStat Menus	An advanced macOS system monitor for your menubar
Notes	Tyke	A little bit of scratch paper that lives on your macOS menu bar.
Productivity	HazeOver	This app automatically highlights the front window by fading out all the background windows.
System control	Lungo	Lungo prevents macOS from falling asleep and your screen from dimming.
System control	Amphetamine	Amphetamine can keep your macOS, and optionally its display(s), awake through a super simple on/off switch, or automatically through easy-to-configure Triggers
System control	Keeping You Awake (Free & Open Source)	Prevents your macOS from entering sleep mode for a predefined duration or as long as it is activated
System control	Macs Fan Control	Control fans on macOS computers
System control	ToothFairy	If clicking on 2 things to connect your AirPods is too much, this makes it a single click
System control	Muzzle	A simple macOS app to silence embarrassing notifications while screensharing
System control	Choosy	Granular browser selection. Use Chrome for Google apps, Firefox for YouTube, or Zoom links without a browser redirect
Window manager	Rectangle	Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas (based on the no longer supported Spectacle
Window manager	Divvy	Allows you to quickly and efficiently “divvy up” your screen into exact portions and save arrangements to shortcuts and keybinds
Window manager	Magnet	macOS doesn’t tile windows aside from full-screen split, for more options, use Magnet
Window manager	Moom	Moom makes window management as easy as clicking a mouse button—or using a keyboard shortcut, if you're one of those types of people.