Macs are designed to do just that—a reference design on the outside and the perfect macOS on the inside. The trackpad supports gesture control, and the ecosystem blurs the lines between Apple devices. These computers are made for people – and that's why they're so comfortable.
Contrary to popular belief, Macs support lightning roulette in India and high-powered games, making this computer a strong competitor in the market.
Calling out emoji on your Mac
What do you do when you need to put an emoji while working on a Mac? Out of habit, do you copy emojis in messengers or social networks?
There is an easier way to insert emoji – using the Control+Command+Space shortcut. Press this combination, and a window will pop up with a selection of emojis. You can also find it under Edit > Emoji and Symbols.
And if you click on the keyboard icon in the upper right corner, the special characters menu will open.
You can replace the standard profile avatar with an emoji. It will be upset if you enter the wrong password when logging in and happy if the password is correct. To customize the icon:
- Go to “System Preferences” and hover over the profile picture;
- An arrow will appear at the bottom of the image – click on it and go to the Memodji section;
- Select an existing character or create a new one in the opened menu. When creating a memodji, you will be prompted to choose a pose and even a background style.
- Don't forget to update your macOS to the latest version!
Spotlight is not only a folder and file search.
Almost any file on your Mac can be found using the Spotlight search engine. To open it, click the magnifying glass icon on the macOS menu bar (or shortcut). And type in words from the document you want to find in the field that appears.
Tip: When searching for a particular phrase, highlight it with quotation marks. Then the system will search for exactly that combination of words.
But Spotlight can not only search files. The tool can also count and convert currencies and values. Just type the desired expression in the search field (using spaces).
Smooth brightness adjustment
You're probably used to adjusting your Mac monitor's brightness with the buttons on your keyboard. But it can be adjusted more finely and precisely.
To do so, press Option + Shift + the Brightness key. And then, the indicator will increase not one division at a time but more smoothly. This trick also works with the volume.
Sorting icons in the macOS menu bar
You can customize the macOS menu bar in the way that works best for you.
For example, by holding down the Command key, you can move the icons in the macOS menu bar.
And to remove an icon you don't want, drag it down (to the desktop area).
You'll find even more options under System Preferences > Menu Bar and Dock.
Hide a folder on your Mac
MacOS has a built-in disk utility that lets you hide any folder from prying eyes. It creates a kind of protective container in which the folder is placed. Only the owner of the password can access its contents. We published detailed instructions on how to lock a folder on your Mac here.
Text Dictation
This trick is handy for students and those who attend seminars or conferences. With the Dictation feature, you don't have to hurry to write down the speaker's words. After all, they'll write them down themselves. Instead, put your cursor in a text document and press the Control key twice.
To turn on the feature:
Open System Preferences > Keyboard and go to the Dictation tab;
Enable Dictation and select a hotkey combination to activate Dictation.
Scanning Documents on a Mac
If you have used only one Apple gadget, then later, when you buy other Apple equipment, you begin to notice what opportunities are revealed to you when you use the devices together. Many features are available when a person uses two or more gadgets. For example, many people know that scanning documents on the iPhone is possible, but not everyone has heard that such a possibility exists on the laptop. It is a cool trick because while working in Word, you can add scanned documents to it.
To scan documents on your Mac thanks to your iPhone, follow the steps below:
- Activate the Bluetooth option on both devices.
- Right-click on your desktop and click “Import from iPhone or iPad.”
- Select “Scan Documents.”
- When you do, the Camera app will automatically open on your smartphone.
- Scan the necessary files and save them.
- Your documents will immediately appear on your Mac desktop.
It's the kind of thing that makes you not want to use other third-party programs. With Apple, document scanning is fast, and most importantly, there's no need to transfer files from one device to another. Instead, it's all done automatically.
Sharing the Internet from iPhone to Mac
You can often see people sitting with a Mac and working on the street or in a cafe. In the latter case, they can connect to the Internet via the institution's Wi-Fi, but how do people work in parks? The solution is simple-they're sharing the Internet from their iPhones to their Macs. How to do it:
- Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on your MacBook and iPhone.
- Activate modem mode in the iPhone settings:
- Go to Settings → Modem Mode to do this.
- Set the slider to the active position next to “Allow others.” In the same menu, you can also set the password for your Wi-Fi hotspot.
Now select your Wi-Fi on your Mac and connect to it by entering the password you set in the previous step. Finding your network among the suggested ones is straightforward: instead of signal bars, your network label will look like two paper clips connected. Now you can quickly go online from your Mac whenever you want.
Continuing to work on another Apple device
One of the most popular chips in the Apple ecosystem is HandOff. It allows you to start work on one device and continue on another. It's because of this feature that many users prefer the Mac. And some will say the iPad is no replacement for a MacBook. Even if one agrees with that, still, very often, the tablet comes to the rescue, and it is excellent when you can use it to complete the work started on the laptop. For example, when you're working with someone on one project, and you're using a Mac, and the other person is doing a task on an iPad, the moment you should drop a link, you click on the Safari shortcut in the Doc panel and all the tabs from the iPad are displayed on your laptop. Of course, there is a universal clipboard function, but it doesn't always work correctly, and thanks to the HandOff feature, everything happens several times faster.