MacTips-MacTalk

Excerpt from the book MacTalk·Life Meta-Programming. Some content (e.g., keyboard shortcuts) may be outdated; please use your own judgment.

MacTips Quick Reference (Table of Contents)

1. Speaking English in Terminal
2. Opening Applications Quickly with Spotlight
3. Using Spotlight Annotations to Locate Files
4. Batch Processing Images with the sips Command
5. Opening Email Directly with Command+I
6. Automatically Emptying Trash with Shift+Command+Delete
7. Using du -sh * to Check Directory Space
8. English Auto-Completion
9. File Operations
10. Showing Hidden Files
11. Using Your Hot Corners
12. Maintaining Your Mac
13. Closing Windows by Application Group and Preventing Window Overlap
14. Screenshotting
15. Recommended Useful Tools
16. Mac’s Native Input Method
17. Safari Tabs
18. Monitoring Mac Performance
19. Batch Copying Files
20. Application Switching
21. Remote Copying
22. FTP in OS X
23. Backing Up
24. Inode and History
25. Go2Shell
26. Safari’s Reader
27. Remote Desktop Connection for Mac
28. Document Version Control
29. Quickly Sending Emails with Attachments
30. Quickly Creating Notes
31. Mac’s Universal Keyboard Shortcuts
    “32. Terminal Command open
32. CatchMouse: Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
33. Activating Windows
34. File Inspector
35. Screen Magnifier
36. Voice Recognition
37. time Command
38. Typing Special Characters
39. OS X Three-Finger Tap Search Function”
40. F.lux: Adjusting Screen Color Temperature
41. Using pmset noidle to Prevent Mac from Sleeping
42. Network Sharing
43. Quick Look
44. Showing Desktop
45. Installing and Uninstalling Applications
46. Disk Images
47. Copying a List of Filenames from a Directory
48. Multi-Touch Gestures
49. OS X Preview Application
50. Keyboard Shortcut to Show/Hide Desktop Contents
51. Holding Option Key for Shortcuts
52. Space (Spaces)
53. Hiding Applications
54. Using File Color Labels
55. Creating Calendar Events from Email Dates
56. Small AppleScript Programs
57. Homebrew
58. Quickly Finding Files by Filename
59. Setting User Login Options
60. Customizing Your Login Window
61. Mac Keyboard
62. QuickTime
63. Quickly Importing iPhone/iPad Photos to Mac via Dropbox
64. Quickly Creating Calendar Events
65. Graphics Card Monitoring Software: gfxCardStatus
66. Creating Smart Folders
67. Automatically Opening Previously Opened Documents
68. Smart Mailboxes
69. Hidden VIP Feature
70. Opening All Subfolders of a Folder in Finder
71. Slow Animation
72. XtraFinder Plugin
73. Charging iPhone While MacBook is in Sleep Mode
74. Recovering Damaged Screenshot Images
75. Adding Chinese Dictionary to OS X’s Built-in Dictionary
76. File Sharing
77. Deleting Applications
78. Command+Up/Down Arrow Keys
79. Reading and Note-Taking Apps on Mac
80. Checking Power Status
81. Pixelmator
82. Search Command mdfind
83. Metadata Command mdls
84. Function Keys
85. Command file for Viewing File Information
86. Configuring Multiple Network Environments
87. Generating PDFs from Man Pages
88. Virtual Machines
89. Enabling the Root User
90. Hidden Space Switching Feature
91. Free Text Editor: Imagine
92. Removing Duplicates from Right-Click Menu
93. Setting Mouse and Trackpad Scrolling Directions Independently
94. Making Non-Retina Mac Apps Retina-Compatible
95. File Comparison
96. FTP Tool: Cyberduck
97. File Renaming
98. Multiple Users Logging into One Application
99. Force Quitting Applications
100. Opening Multiple Instances of an Application via AppleScript
101. Automator
102. Using Safari’s Default Search Engine to Search Text in Applications
103. Rotating Screen
104. keycastr: Displaying Keyboard Shortcuts During Video Recording
105. Copying Screenshot to Clipboard
106. CheatSheet
107. HTML5Player
108. Rebuilding Spotlight Index
109. Using Keyboard to Operate Dock and Menu Bar
110. Defining Your Own Keyboard Shortcuts
111. Selecting Text
112. Folders in Dock
113. Finder’s Width
114. Dashboard
115. Tips for Using Dock Folders
116. Introducing a Few Simple Commands
117. The Magical Option Key
118. Audio Processing Software: XLD
119. Protecting Your Data Files
120. Disabling Notifications
121. Finder Toolbar
122. Spotlight Search with Command+* to Locate File’s Folder
123. Restarting Finder Shortcut
124. Picture-in-Picture Screen Zoom
125. Pasting Plain Text
126. Terminal Command lsof
127. Wired File Transfer via AirDrop
128. Previewing Applications During Switching
129. Advanced Spotlight Search Techniques

MacTips Main Content

1. Speaking English in Terminal

When speaking English, we naturally expect standard pronunciation. On Mac, you don’t need a dictionary—just type say yes in the Terminal, and your Mac will say “yes” in English.

2. Opening Applications Quickly with Spotlight

Many new Mac users know Spotlight’s search function. In fact, you can also use it to open applications quickly. Press Ctrl+Space to open Spotlight, then type “Contacts” or “cont” to find the Contacts app, and press Enter to launch it.

3. Using Spotlight Annotations to Locate Files

OS X’s file system supports Spotlight annotations, helping users locate files more precisely. Select a file or folder, press Command+I to open its Info window, and add your own keywords in the Spotlight Annotations field. After closing the Info window, open Spotlight and type the keyword to locate the file or folder accurately.

4. Batch Processing Images with the sips Command

If you want to batch edit a group of images (resizing, rotating, flipping, etc.) but don’t know or don’t have Photoshop, you can use the sips command efficiently. For example:

# Resize all JPG images in the current user's Pictures folder to 800px width, height scaled proportionally
sips -Z 800 ~/Pictures/*.JPG
# Rotate 90° clockwise
sips -r 90 ~/Pictures/*.JPG
# Flip vertically
sips -f vertical ~/Pictures/*.JPG

More commands can be viewed with sips -h.

5. Opening Email Directly with Command+I

While browsing a webpage in Safari, if you want to send the current page via email, press Command+I to open Mail with the current page attached.

6. Automatically Emptying Trash with Shift+Command+Delete

To quickly delete files and empty the Trash: In Finder, select the file and press Command+Delete to move it to Trash. To permanently delete it, press Shift+Command+Delete to automatically empty the Trash.

7. Using du -sh * to Check Directory Space

To see how much space each file and subdirectory occupies in a directory on Mac, you don’t need to check each one individually. Open Terminal and navigate to the directory, then type du -sh * for a clear overview.

8. English Auto-Completion

When using system apps like TextEdit, Pages, or Keynote, typing an English word and pressing Esc will auto-complete it. For example, typing “brill” and pressing Esc will prompt suggestions for “brilliance.” If Esc cancels input in some apps (e.g., Safari search bar), use Fn+F5 instead. This is very helpful for frequent English writers.

9. File Operations

In Finder, open a file by double-clicking or pressing Command+O. Unlike Windows, pressing Enter while selecting a file renames it, not opens it.

10. Showing Hidden Files

In Terminal, type ls -a to show hidden files in the current directory. In Finder, press Shift+Command+.` to show hidden files. To hide them again, press the same shortcut once more.

11. Using Your Hot Corners

OS X provides powerful Mission Control features. Today’s tip: Hot Corners. Open System Preferences → Mission Control → Hot Corners to configure the four corners of your screen. For example, set the top-left corner to put the display to sleep. When you leave your computer, just move the mouse to the top-left corner to turn off the screen—very convenient.

12. Maintaining Your Mac

OS X is a simple operating system. You generally don’t need antivirus software, and most