#Command Shift 5 Mac

Instead of opening Settings on your Mac and hunting for the sometimes hard to find section you want, use Spotlight. Press Command-space and start typing the name of the setting, such as Displays or Login Items.

If you have an image on a Mac you need to turn into a JPEG, select it in the Finder, right click, scroll down to Quick Actions and choose Convert Image.

You can add any Mac Shortcut to your dock. Open Shortcuts, open the specific Shortcut, choose the File menu, and Add to Dock.

It looks as if the Mac lets you assign keyboard shortcuts to any app except the Finder. But you can. Just assign the shortcut to “All Applications”. These shortcuts select a specific menu item and if that’s there, it works, and if it isn’t there, nothing happens.

Use that empty desktop on your Mac: right click on a blank spot, choose Edit Widgets, then pick a widget, pick a size, click the plus to add it — then drag to wherever you like.

You can add keyboard shortcuts to any app on the Mac by choosing Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, then App Shortcuts. Click on Plus to add a new keyboard shortcut and pick from the list of applications. Type the menu title exactly — including ellipses if it has them. Then type a keystroke, but don’t pick one that already exists.

You can rearrange most of the icons in the Mac’s menubar — exceptions include the clock and Control Centre — by holding down the Command key and dragging to left or right.

Macs have a whole Control Centre full of tools, but if you just want one, open Control Centre, click on Edit Controls, then click and hold on a control. Drag it to the menu bar.

Right click at the top of any Finder window and you change what tools are there — rearrange them, add some, or reset it to the default options.

If your Mac keeps saying there are zero results for any search you make in the Finder, go to Settings, Spotlight, scroll to the bottom and choose Search Privacy. Click the plus sign, add your Mac’s drive, click OK. And then immediately select the drive, click the minus sign. This forces Spotlight to rebuild its search database.

Be careful with this. But if you go to the Finder, Settings, and click on Advanced, you can tick to select “Remove Items from the Bin after 30 days”. It does what it says, it permanently deletes anything in there, so it keeps you from filling up your storage space. But you can’t undo that delete.

On a Mac, when you save a document, you can use keyboard shortcuts to choose where it goes. With that Save dialog open, press Command-Shift-D to jump to your desktop. You can go to Documents, iCloud, Applications, anywhere. In the Finder, choose the Go menu and see the shortcuts you need. More tips for writers on 58keys, link in bio.