5 underappreciated macOS settings I exploit to energy up my MacBook

The historical past of macOS extends again many years, and Apple has been iterating on the working system year-over-year since its very inception. As such, the favored desktop OS has been endowed with a rising assortment of options, customization choices, and different helpful system instruments all through time.

A number of the settings discovered inside macOS are comparatively well-known, together with the choice to allow tabs in Finder, to regulate the dimensions and positioning of the Dock, and to tweak the aesthetics of the consumer interface. Hidden under the floor, nevertheless, are a set of extra obscure (and but extremely helpful) settings that each Mac proprietor ought to find out about.

Listed here are 5 underappreciated and underacknowledged settings inside macOS that I at all times make use of when powering up a MacBook or some other Apple-made pc.

5

Tiled home windows have margins

Profit from your monitor’s display actual property

On a contemporary set up of macOS, the ‘Tiled home windows have margins’ toggle is switched on by default. This setting provides a small quantity of padding round open software home windows which were positioned side-by-side, to be able to give every interface room to breath. In the event you’re working the OS on a big exterior show, then this selection is sweet to have, but it surely makes so much much less sense on a cramped laptop computer display.

By unchecking this window margins setting, snapped home windows will show proper subsequent to at least one one other, with none of the padding. This lets you take full benefit of the restricted display actual property of a MacBook, with extra content material displayed on display and fewer of your wallpaper displaying by means of.

To take away the padding round tiled home windows, observe these steps:

1. Navigate to System Settings > Desktop & Dock.
2. From right here, merely toggle off Tiles home windows have margins.

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You may by no means need to open the Passwords app once more

With the discharge of macOS 15 Sequoia, Apple launched a standalone Passwords app. Reasonably than having to dig by means of System Settings to find and replace saved account credentials synced with iCloud, this new app streamlines the method to an amazing diploma.

Lesser-known, nevertheless, is the hidden Passwords Menu Bar possibility that may be enabled. When toggled on, this provides a quick-access shortcut to all of your saved account usernames and passwords proper from the system’s predominant Menu Bar, whereas nonetheless sustaining a stage of safety through passcode or biometric unlock.

So as to add the Passwords shortcut to your Menu Bar, observe these steps:

1. Launch the Passwords app.
2. From the Menu Bar, click on on Passwords > Settings…
3. Right here, you may be prompted to enter your password or to authenticate biometrically.
4. As soon as in, examine the Present Passwords in Menu Bar possibility from inside the Passwords Settings window.

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3

Three finger trackpad drag

Drag round home windows and spotlight textual content with out lifting a finger

Inside the PC house, Apple is understood for its glorious implementation of trackpad gestures. Owing to its top-down strategy to each software program and {hardware}, the corporate has been in a position to craft a set of gestures that really feel silky clean, responsive, and pure.

Whereas mostly used gestures are enabled by default on a contemporary set up of macOS, one specifically is disabled: Use trackpad for dragging. This selection unlocks the flexibility to tug round open software home windows and to focus on textual content through a three-finger swiping gesture, versus counting on a press-and-drag movement. Except for being an accessibility characteristic, it feels surpringly fluid to carry out this gesture — as soon as I received used to it, I by no means regarded again.

To allow three finger dragging in your trackpad, observe these steps:

1. Launch System Settings.
2. Navigate to Accessibility > Motor and click on on Pointer Management.
3. From right here, click on on the Trackpad Choices… button.
4. Toggle on Use trackpad for dragging, and choose Three Finger Drag from the Dragging model dropdown menu.

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2

Sizzling Corners + Shift

Sizzling Corners are nice, however this hidden tweak makes them even higher

Many macOS customers are already acquainted with the Sizzling Corners characteristic, which helps you to arrange actions to happen when hovering a mouse cursor in direction of designated corners of the display. Lesser-known, nevertheless, is the flexibility to complement Sizzling Corners with a modifier key.

In my private expertise, I usually discover myself by accident triggering Sizzling Corners once I do not imply to, which is the place this hidden tweak comes into play. It means that you can press down on one of many following keys when choosing a fast motion: shift, ctrl, choose, and cmd. This manner, triggering Sizzling Corners by chance is averted, with out having to disable the characteristic itself.

To configure Sizzling Corners with modifier keys, observe these steps:

1. Launch the System Settings app.
2. Navigate to Desktop & Dock and click on on the Sizzling Corners… button within the backside right-hand aspect of the window.
3. A separate window will pop up, with 4 dropdown menus corresponding to every nook of your show.
4. When choosing an motion from every dropdown menu, accomplish that whereas holding down a modifier key.
5. While you’re glad, click on on the Executed button within the decrease right-hand nook.

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1

Spaced out Dock icons

A easy terminal command for organizational followers

The Dock is a macOS staple, and its function is multifunctional. It means that you can pin often used apps and folders to it, reduce lively home windows into miniature thumbnails, entry the system’s Finder and Launchpad, and drag undesirable recordsdata to Trash.

Whereas Apple gives a number of customization instruments to regulate the Dock to your liking (together with the flexibility to resize and reposition it), there’s truly a hidden customization instrument that I at all times make use of. By performing a easy Terminal command, you possibly can add ‘hidden’ icons to the Dock, which might then be repositioned or stacked subsequent to one another to create a way of visible hierarchy.

So as to add empty icon slots inside the Dock, observe these steps:

1. Launch the Terminal app from inside the Launchpad or from Finder > Functions > Utilities.
2. Copy and paste this command into the Terminal window, after which press Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{“tile-type”=”small-spacer-tile”;}’; killall Dock
3. Each time you enter this command, a brand new clean icon will seem inside your Dock. From right here, you possibly can transfer it round similar to some other app icon.
4. To take away an undesirable clean icon, merely drag it out of the Dock and it’ll disappear.

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