Using Mac OS
I originally wrote this post back in 2016 and had to update a lot of it as some of the apps were no longer working! So I’ve moved over to my new site and updated it a bit.
I love Mac OS. Honestly it makes my life so much easier just using Mac, and how it syncs is awesome. Since M1 came along the performance is unreal too.
So here’s a little(ish) list of my favourite Mac OS stuff that I use regularly to improve productivity or just make things easier.
Screenshot functionality
There’s more than one way to capture screenshots in MacOS using keyboard shortcuts, and it’s often quicker to use some screenshot features than it is to save the image and edit it afterwards. Here's the lot:
⌘ + ⇧ + 3: Capture entire screen & save
⌘ + ctrl + ⇧ + 3: Capture entire screen & copy to the clipboard
⌘ + ⇧ + 4: Capture selected area & save
⌘ + ctrl + ⇧ + 4: Capture selected area & copy to the clipboard
⌘ + ⇧ + 4 then Space: Capture a window & save
⌘ + ctrl + ⇧ + 4 then Space: Capture a window & copy to the clipboard
I especially love how you can drag a screenshot into other apps like Slack or Keynote.
Dictation
I'm not sure why Apple don't make a bigger deal about dictation, as it's pretty awesome and built right into the OS, activated simply with a double tap of the ‘fn’ key.
It works damn well too. I don’t use it a huge amount, as I’m often working in cafés and quite frankly don’t want to look like a weirdo, but it’s great for typing up ideas at home quickly.
Turn off the screen quickly
Press ctrl + cmd + Q to quickly dim the display and lock the machine. I use this constantly when I’m nipping away from my computer and don’t want to waste the battery or have prying eyes look in.
Craft Docs
Craft is similar to Notion or Confluence, but a little more simplified for the better to focus more on design. Craft is just the quickest and easiest way to produce sharable documents that look absolutely wonderful.
I use this a huge amount to share documents with clients such as training plans or quotes, and you can even build quite a powerful but simple tracking dashboard.
When you share a document with someone, they can view it on any web browser and it looks awesome, has dark mode and a way to navigate through documents. Check out how simple and awesome this doc looks.
There’s a bunch more features too like collaboration and tons of templates which I haven’t even delved into, and I’m already thinking the fiver a month is worth it.
Ulysses
iA Writer used to be my go-to for writing, especially in markdown, and I originally said iA was my favourite of this list. But I'm sorry to say iA; Ulysses has surpassed you.
I was reluctant to download this app initially and chose iA over it as the cost is pretty steep (35 quid!) but it's hands down the best long-form writing experience on Mac.
Where iA is clean and simple, Ulysses is clean and simple 2.0 - adding features you'll come to love. Some of my favourites include;
ability to check all markdown syntax with a quick shortcut
goals! you can add a 'goal' of word/character count etc and it is displayed in a sidebar in a great format
libraries,comments, notes, tags!
It costs a lot more than most basic text editors, but if you spend a lot of time writing on your Mac, Ulysses is without a doubt worth every penny.
ClipMenu
ClipMenu is a free clipboard manager for Mac OSX that stores the last 20 things you copied, then allows you to re-copy them right from the menu bar. It’s such a great time saver especially when editing data from a bunch of sources.
There are plenty of alternatives on the app store, but you should download ClipMenu because it’s free.
Things
I’ll start off by saying that yes, Things costs a bomb, especially for a Todo app. It’s 40 quid (yep!) on Mac OS, and you then have to buy it again on iOS - adding another £7.99 for iPhone and £7.99 for iPad!
But it’s a bit more than just a todo app, and can be used for project management too, and it’s just really well made and an absolute pleasure to use. I’ve tried a hell of a lot of productivity apps (including Omnifocus) and Things has been consistently the best Todo app out there.
Due to the high price, it’s not for everyone though. I’d say if you don’t really need the project management side of things from a todo app, then you’d do fine with Wanderlist, Todoist or just simply Apple Reminders. But Things is the one for me.
Reeder 5
Reeder is an RSS reader app that’s basically perfect. It looks great, it’s really fast, you can sync a bunch of accounts at the same time, swipe through posts and view the full articles right in the app really quickly.
I’ve taken to using this as part of my morning routine to get the news I’m really concerned with, and it syncs across my iPad and iPhone using my Feedly account. It just makes the news more personal and useful - you can waste a lot of time reading something like the Metro that’s not really going to improve your knowledge or life.
It’s £7.99, but trust me; worth every penny.
Battery Monitor
Battery Monitor is free and offers just a bit more useful information about your current battery life, such as battery health and time remaining of charge. Useful for those on the go or with older MacBooks. It has a cool little notification bar widget too.
A Few Simple OS Changes
Head to the console (called Terminal, built into your Mac) and type:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
This activates full folder paths in your finder window, much like Windows has, just something useful that should be part of the OS anyway.
Head to console and type:
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -int 0.1
This will make the autohide function of the dock appear much faster. You’ll need to type ‘killall Dock’ afterwards just to refresh the dock. A timesaver for that irritating lag on the dock appearing when you’re in a fullscreen app.
Hold down ⇧ + alt whilst changing the volume on your Mac.
This will make the volume increment in quarters rather than a whole ‘pop’. Useful for when you’ve got headphones on.