🔍 Your new favorite Mac shortcut: ⌘ + spacebar. This opens a new Spotlight window. Use it to search for a program, file, contact or anything else.
10 Mac tricks to boost your productivity
From smartphones to tablets to desktops, we love our tech gadgets. And no matter how long you’ve used yours, there’s always something new to learn thanks to advancing technology and rolling updates.
Apple’s iPad is among the most popular tablets out there. If you use one, we’re willing to bet there are tricks you’ve never tried, like the split keyboard or Focus mode. Tap or click here for more iPad tips to help you get the most out of the mighty little tablet.
If you’re more of a MacBook or Mac desktop fan, we’ve gathered useful 10 tips and tricks to help you get more done.
1. Command-Space to open Spotlight
Spotlight lets you search for apps, documents, emails, contacts and other items on your Mac. Want to find things even faster? Press Command-Space on your keyboard to instantly open Spotlight. Type in what you’re looking for and a list of relevant searches, folders, maps, images, messages and other files will appear. Use your mouse or arrow keys to find what you’re looking for.
Once you have your results, you have many options including preview, open, copy and show location.
Related: 10 secret keyboard tricks to save you time every single day
2. Notification Center widgets
Widgets let you view reminders, appointments, birthdays, the weather, top headlines, notes and more right from the desktop — available on macOS Big Sur and later.
Scroll to the bottom of the Notification Center and click Edit Widgets then click the add button in the corner of any widget. If the widget is available in different sizes, click the small, medium or large button before adding it.
You can drag widgets around to reorder them and click the remove button to remove a widget if you no longer want to use it.
3. Split view
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Windows users may have more compatible programs and video games at their disposal, but they have plenty of reasons to envy Mac owners. That’s because macOS is largely unaffected by Windows’ most common security threats, and certain features like Spotlight make it easy to search for missing files or apps without leaving the keyboard.
Cmd + spacebar: This Mac shortcut opens Spotlight, an incredibly powerful tool for finding documents quickly, opening apps or searching the web right from your desktop.
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