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Apple products are popular for offering hundreds of features that simplify your work. Still, users either don’t know about these features or do not want to experiment with their devices. Even long-term macOS users have not dug down to the bottom of the tasks that you can do with your system.
Using the Mac productivity ideas mentioned in this article, you can get more from your computer without additional spending. Whether you are using a Mac, Mac Mini, a MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air, you can try these ideas on your system for better productivity; so, let’s get started.
Hide the dock
Dock is an amazing tool that gives you easy access to apps, documents, and folders, but you might sometimes want to hide it for a day or two, just for a change. If you are using the Dock in its default settings, it might be consuming a lot of screen space.
Probably, if you are using it for quick access to applications, you can alternatively use Spotlight. It’s taking up quite a considerable space by staying there doing nothing most of the time. You can also tweak settings to make the Dock appear on hovering when you need it occasionally.
View clipboard history
Everything that you copy on your MacBook stores in the clipboard, which exists on your computer with no physical interface. We often copy or cut something from one location and then forget to paste it at another location, which sometimes causes data loss.
If you are using a MacBook, you can view clipboard history to see the last item that you have copied. However, the clipboard on mac saves one thing only, so if you copy something and copy another text without copying the previous one, you will have to repeat the process.
Try text replacement
The in-built text replacement feature will allow you to be more productive by enabling you to type a shortcut. macOS will automatically expand it to make your work easy and quick. You can even create custom emoji shortcuts for fun.
For example, if you want to create a custom shortcut for your email address, you can type @e, and your system will type in your email id. For enabling text replacement, go to System Preferences, click Keyboard, select Text, and click on the + button. In the Replace field, type in the shortcut and enter a phrase in the With field that you want the shortcut to apply to.
Control your Mac with voice
Dictation is an outstanding feature that is underused, but a majority of Apple users are not aware of it. You can use this feature to execute any command on a busy evening. Though it’s not an ideal option for handling busy office tasks, you can use it at home to improve productivity.
Open the Apple menu, navigate to Accessibility under System Preferences. You can enable voice control and use a list of commands that your system already knows. Alternatively, you can assign new commands or choose to limit them to perform in a specific app.
Use keyboard shortcuts
Apple keyboard offers a plethora of shortcut options that will help you to speed up your work. Press Command + W keys to close the current tab. Pressing and holding down the Command + Q keys will quit the current application or program completely.
Press down Command + ~ keys for switching to another window of the same program. In addition, you may also press down Command + C to copy the text, images, or other content. Command + X will cut the selected text, and you can paste it any other location by holding down Command + P keys.
Work on multiple desktops
This might come as a surprise to you, even if you are a long-term Mac user, but your system allows you to use multiple desktops. Press Ctrl+Up to launch Mission Control which will give you an overview of the current application.
At the top of the screen, you will find the + sign, click on it to add extra desktops. This will allow you to work on different windows simultaneously for better productivity. For quickly switching between Desktops, click Ctrl + right arrow keys or Ctrl + Left arrow keys.
Sign documents digitally
When someone sends you an official document which you need to sign and send back to the sender, the process seems annoying. Right? You will need to take a printout of the document and then sign and scan it before emailing it.
Now think about receiving a document, signing it right within your iPhone or MacBook, and finally emailing it back. Sounds interesting? You can do it in the Preview window by opening the document, clicking Briefcase, and selecting the Signature icon. Click Create Signature and draw your signature on Trackpad, save it, and sync it via iCloud to use it on other Apple devices.
All the above-mentioned suggestions will improve your macOS productivity, but you will also need to optimize your Mac’s storage regularly to ensure better performance in the long run.
