Miscellaneous stupid Mac tricks, cool Mac tricks, and stupid cool Mac tricks Thread

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xoa

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  • #1
    No major overarching point and not sure if anyone will be interested, but just a place to share Apple stuff that doesn't really deserve its own thread but simultaneously is too neat to want to let completely go by. To start, and what finally motivated me:
    Ambiguous PNG Packer: Craft PNG files that appear completely different in Apple software
    Pull up that image in Safari (or the Finder, at least on my system) and then Firefox and the same PNG will render completely differently. Can make your own stealthy double-PNGs too!

    Silly and Apple will probably patch it in short order but pretty neat too. Perhaps a few deeper implications as well. I wonder what Apple's neural hash would make of that...
     
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    Ben_H

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  • #6
    japtor said:
    Old one that I never use but have in the back of my head: option-shift- volume/brightness keys for finer adjustment.

    This one goes back to the classic days and still works, command click to click on background stuff without bringing it forward.
    Click to expand...
    Thanks for the reminder on this one. I used these finer controls for years, then in the 3 years I used a Touch Bar Mac they somehow completely exited my brain. It will be very useful for my M1 MBA, where 5 notches of brightness is too dim but 6 notches is too bright.

    5.5 notches of brightness is the just right porridge of brightness for me it turns out.
     
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    mishka

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  • #7
    Back in FW times if you had a bootable system on a FW drive you could unplug it during the boot-up and the Mac wouldn't crash, just pause. Then you replug and it'd just continue like nothing happened. It was with Classic. Never tried it with Mac OS X and newer tech.

    Another one, actually pretty mean. Back in the Windows NT era you would create a file on a Mac with the Cyrillic character "р" in its name and copy it to the mounted share of an NT server. The server would crash shortly afterward.
     
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    Megabat

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  • #8
    If you want to switch to an app with (a) minimized window(s), you can cmd + tab to the icon, then hold option and release cmd to un-minimize the most recent window. Also, cmd + ~ switches between open application windows; if you shortcut while cmd + tabbing, you can cycle through apps in reverse of the tab order.

    This might not necessarily be a trick, as you don't have to do anything to benefit from it, but: the "Wake for network access" option in Battery/Energy Saver settings. WoL is enabled by default on macOS, which can't be taken for granted elsewhere. This power setting goes a step further and wakes your machine upon any request for its resources. Ultimately, there's no messing around in the BIOS or e.g. ethtool, you can immediately and always expect a response when you ssh into a sleeping Mac.

    Oh, also: you can type a query/url into the Safari search bar and hit cmd + return to open that new search/page in a new tab without leaving the one you're currently on.
     
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    cateye

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  • #9
    This might not necessarily be a trick, as you don't have to do anything to benefit from it, but: the "Wake for network access" option in Battery/Energy Saver settings. WoL is enabled by default on macOS, which can't be taken for granted elsewhere. This power setting goes a step further and wakes your machine upon any request for its resources. Ultimately, there's no messing around in the BIOS or e.g. ethtool, you can immediately and always expect a response when you ssh into a sleeping Mac.
    Click to expand...
    It's worth noting this feature requires Bonjour Sleep Proxy support on the network the Mac is connected to. Airport Base Stations, Time Capsules, and Apple TVs provide this, but only some third party wireless routers do.
     
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    velocity_uk

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  • #10
    japtor said:
    Old one that I never use but have in the back of my head: option-shift- volume/brightness keys for finer adjustment.

    This one goes back to the classic days and still works, command click to click on background stuff without bringing it forward.
    Click to expand...

    To add to this, option clicking on the brightness or volume buttons opens their respective pref pane.

    Talking of pref panes and an obvious but overlooked tip - you can go to View>Organise Alphabetically to do just that, and also View>Customise to remove any panes that you don't use.
     
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    daGUY

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  • #11
    I haven’t needed to use it in years, but Internet Sharing (System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing) is one of those underrated but extremely useful niche features if you happen to have the occasion to need it.

    Basically, it lets you easily “share” an active Internet connection from any network interface (Ethernet, wifi, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth, etc.) to any other. I used this back in the day to get my Nintendo Wii on the Internet before I actually had a home wifi network by sharing the Internet connection from my iMac’s wired Ethernet over wifi, which the Wii could then connect to.
     
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    JimCampbell

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  • #12
    daGUY said:
    Basically, it lets you easily “share” an active Internet connection from any network interface (Ethernet, wifi, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth, etc.) to any other.
    Click to expand...

    When I used this (many years ago) it was invaluable. Back in the early days of broadband, the UK providers would jealously guard bandwidth and they didn't supply routers.* You got one connection and it was for one machine. They'd ping the connection periodically and if they found you'd stuck your own router on there, they'd throttle your connection. I had our Mac Mini media centre hooked up to the broadband connection, so it would register as the permitted single machine if pinged, then used internet sharing to use it as an improvised router for everything else in the house.

    *Rather, I think they did… but if you got one from them, they assumed you had a multi-client set-up in your house and the monthly bill went up a lot regardless of how much data you were actually shifting.
     
    japtor

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  • #14
    Megabat said:
    If you want to switch to an app with (a) minimized window(s), you can cmd + tab to the icon, then hold option and release cmd to un-minimize the most recent window. Also, cmd + ~ switches between open application windows; if you shortcut while cmd + tabbing, you can cycle through apps in reverse of the tab order.

    This might not necessarily be a trick, as you don't have to do anything to benefit from it, but: the "Wake for network access" option in Battery/Energy Saver settings. WoL is enabled by default on macOS, which can't be taken for granted elsewhere. This power setting goes a step further and wakes your machine upon any request for its resources. Ultimately, there's no messing around in the BIOS or e.g. ethtool, you can immediately and always expect a response when you ssh into a sleeping Mac.

    Oh, also: you can type a query/url into the Safari search bar and hit cmd + return to open that new search/page in a new tab without leaving the one you're currently on.
    Click to expand...
    Huh didn't know the unminimize one, but wait there's more! You can also hit H or Q to hide or quit apps from the app switcher too. Maybe shift works too to hide all but that app? Command shift tab does the same as command tilde to reverse cycle apps, adding shift to command tilde also reverses window cycling.

    And for Safari stuff, works for clicking links or doing the address bar return trick:
    Command: new tab
    Command shift: new tab fore/background (opposite of default preference)
    Command option: new window (add shift for background)
    Option: download

    You can also paste/drag stuff to the Downloads pane if it's open to download stuff.

    Arasirsul said:
    Does anyone have a stupid Mac trick to get Safari to _always_ open a link in a new tab when middle-clicking?

    It works fine here. It works fine on a lot of other sites. Hit Google Search, though, and middle-click opens the page in the tab I'm already in.
    Click to expand...
    Been a while since I've messed with my settings, but iirc for whatever reason command click is more consistent about it vs middle click (at least from the mapping I used in BTT).
     
    MrElbbiw

    MrElbbiw

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  • #15
    If you run....

    Code: 
    osascript -e{'set text item delimiters to linefeed','tell app"google chrome"to url of tabs of windows as text'}

    ...at the terminal then you get a newline separated list of the URL for each open tab in all open Chrome windows. Combine it with a little grep and xargs magic and you can easily pass a set of links to download into something like wget or youtube-dl.
     
    stevenkan

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  • #16
    daGUY said:
    I haven’t needed to use it in years, but Internet Sharing (System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing) is one of those underrated but extremely useful niche features if you happen to have the occasion to need it.

    Basically, it lets you easily “share” an active Internet connection from any network interface (Ethernet, wifi, Thunderbolt, Bluetooth, etc.) to any other. I used this back in the day to get my Nintendo Wii on the Internet before I actually had a home wifi network by sharing the Internet connection from my iMac’s wired Ethernet over wifi, which the Wii could then connect to.
    Click to expand...

    Yup! I did this way back when, even before Apple built it into the OS. In OS 7/8/9 (??) I had purchased a $10 $89 shareware application called "IPNetConnect" or some similar name to permit internet sharing via single-link multihoming on my PowerMac 6100 with its AAUI port. Does anyone remember what that application was called? Google is failing me.

    edit: Aha!!! It was Sustainable Softwork's IPNetRouter!

    edit^2: corrected the price. Did I really pay $89 as a starving student? Apparently I did!
     
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  • #17
    Most Achaians probably already know this, but you can use System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts and then the "App Shortcuts" to change the hot key combo for any arbitrary menu item you want. I've used it to change the "Quit" command in Safari and Firefox for example from ⌘Q to ⇧⌘X or the like, because it'd drive me bonkers to reach for "⌘W" to close a window, accidentally hit ⌘Q right next to it, and whomp whomp goodbye to 50 open windows/tabs I was working on aaarrrghhhhh ("don't keep so many windows/tabs open you silly goose" I AM WHAT I AM). And Safari has mysteriously lost "Last Session" on multiple occasions for me.
     
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    Ben_H

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  • #18
    An old trick but it still works. If you want more Windows-like mouse movement, you can completely disable mouse acceleration with:
    Code: 
    defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling -1
    It's important to note that you need to restart for this to kick in. Also note that you have to redo this after using a Magic Mouse since the Magic Mouse sometimes overwrites this setting when you connect it (though weirdly, the Magic Mouse itself will work during that session without acceleration. it's just that the next time you go to restart your Mac there may be mouse acceleration again).

    You can also disable trackpad acceleration by replacing "mouse" with "trackpad" but I wouldn't recommend it. Apple's trackpads without acceleration are very weird and overly sensitive the point of being almost unusable. It's very obvious they were designed to be used with the acceleration on.
     
    daGUY

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  • #19
    Most Achaians probably already know this, but you can use System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts and then the "App Shortcuts" to change the hot key combo for any arbitrary menu item you want.
    Click to expand...
    And not just change existing ones – you can even add keyboard shortcuts to menu items that don’t have one by default! For instance, I mapped command-shift-comma to System Preferences.
     
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    kefkafloyd

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  • #23
    In dialog boxes, pressing command and the first letter of a button triggers that button (99% of the time).

    e.g., in a "Cancel, Save, Don't Save" scenario, cmd-s saves, cmd-d doesn't save, and cmd-. cancels. Ever notice how you can't hit the return key to trigger the default button in the empty trash dialog? Cmd-E does that for you.

    This stuff has been there since the Classic days.
     
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    Hap

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  • #24
    Rather than navigate through an Open/Save dialog box to where you want to go in an application, simply drag that folder (or the icon proxy in the title bar) to the dialog box. The Open/Save path will change to that folder.

    Only convenient if you already have a finder window open there, but that's frequently how I work.
     
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    xoa

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  • #25
    Hap said:
    Rather than navigate through an Open/Save dialog box to where you want to go in an application, simply drag that folder (or the icon proxy in the title bar) to the dialog box. The Open/Save path will change to that folder.

    Only convenient if you already have a finder window open there, but that's frequently how I work.
    Click to expand...
    This also works to put a path into the terminal.
     
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    stevenkan

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  • #29
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    daGUY

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  • #33
    xoa said:
    Hap said:
    Rather than navigate through an Open/Save dialog box to where you want to go in an application, simply drag that folder (or the icon proxy in the title bar) to the dialog box. The Open/Save path will change to that folder.

    Only convenient if you already have a finder window open there, but that's frequently how I work.
    Click to expand...
    This also works to put a path into the terminal.
    Click to expand...
    Yes, I use both of these all the time and (I could be wrong but) I don’t think there’s an equivalent on Windows.

    One thing I use the former trick on all the time: downloading a file from a site in one browser tab, then uploading the file I just downloaded to a different site in another tab. I’ve got the Downloads folder in my dock, so all I have to do is click the file upload button on the site where I’m uploading the file, and when the dialog pops up, drag and drop the file from the dock folder onto the dialog to have it select the file.
     
    Hap

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  • #34
    daGUY said:
    xoa said:
    Hap said:
    Rather than navigate through an Open/Save dialog box to where you want to go in an application, simply drag that folder (or the icon proxy in the title bar) to the dialog box. The Open/Save path will change to that folder.

    Only convenient if you already have a finder window open there, but that's frequently how I work.
    Click to expand...
    This also works to put a path into the terminal.
    Click to expand...
    Yes, I use both of these all the time and (I could be wrong but) I don’t think there’s an equivalent on Windows.

    One thing I use the former trick on all the time: downloading a file from a site in one browser tab, then uploading the file I just downloaded to a different site in another tab. I’ve got the Downloads folder in my dock, so all I have to do is click the file upload button on the site where I’m uploading the file, and when the dialog pops up, drag and drop the file from the dock folder onto the dialog to have it select the file.
    Click to expand...

    Doing the same in Windows moves the file to the current dialog box location. It's just another File Explorer window.
     
    leet

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  • #37
    jeanlain said:
    Double-click the edge/corner of a window and see what it does.

    I had suggested that one to Apple a few years before they implemented it in High Sierra. Maybe I can take credit from it.
    Click to expand...
    Just reminds me that I miss the Classic Mac OS behavior of being able to toggle between the window size you set and the window resized to fit the contents.
     
    daGUY

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  • #38
    leet said:
    jeanlain said:
    Double-click the edge/corner of a window and see what it does.

    I had suggested that one to Apple a few years before they implemented it in High Sierra. Maybe I can take credit from it.
    Click to expand...
    Just reminds me that I miss the Classic Mac OS behavior of being able to toggle between the window size you set and the window resized to fit the contents.
    Click to expand...
    That’s still there if you double-click the titlebar, no? Or option-click the green Full Screen button.
     
    leet

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  • #39
    daGUY said:
    leet said:
    jeanlain said:
    Double-click the edge/corner of a window and see what it does.

    I had suggested that one to Apple a few years before they implemented it in High Sierra. Maybe I can take credit from it.
    Click to expand...
    Just reminds me that I miss the Classic Mac OS behavior of being able to toggle between the window size you set and the window resized to fit the contents.
    Click to expand...
    That’s still there if you double-click the titlebar, no? Or option-click the green Full Screen button.
    Click to expand...
    Well don't I feel foolish! Apparently that wasn't one of the changes in the OS X transitions that ended up with me primarily using column view these days.
     
    daGUY

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  • #40
    Another fun one in macOS is to hold Option and then click around the menu bar and menu extras – there’s all kinds of “hidden” information and features that’ll pop up. Like, option-click the Wifi icon and you’ll see all kinds of details about the network you’re currently connected to (IP address, security, channel, etc.). Really handy way to get at information you don’t regularly need.
     
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