5 Important Things Your Mac Wont Tell You

Macs are loaded with awesome hidden features, so many that even Apple itself hasn’t made all of them obvious. Even better, most of the features are built into the computer’s functionality and are convenient and easy to use. Following are 5 important things that your MAC won’t tell you that will boost productivity and are just plain fun to use.

1. Awesome Keyboard Shortcuts

What’s not to love about keyboard shortcuts – especially the long list of options you can use on your Mac. The system’s keyboard shortcuts are well worth learning. Keep a cheat sheet handy (from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236) if you want to improve productivity (and also make you look like a genius in front of anyone watching you). You can even create your own keyboard shortcuts. The important thing to remember is that not all of the apps list their shortcuts in a visible place under Menu bar menu selections.

2. Security

Whether you an average Joe wanting to password protect encrypted files or a CEO of a major business looking for the epitome of security for a special project, Mac has you covered. You can easily encrypt important folders and data files. This adds an extra layer of protection. If you enable “FileVault”, then when your Mac shuts down, the drive will be encrypted and secured. Using “FileVault” is just one of the many security options offered by Mac OSX so you’ll want to take time to delve into all the other security options that Macs offer.

3. Not Your Average Dashboard

The Mac’s dashboard has its fans and detractors. Some people complain about it whereas others appreciate its ingenuity. The Mac’s dashboard puts a wealth of unique capabilities at easy access of your fingertips. You can even download a seemingly endless variety of cool widgets to use that make it easy to find a cheap flight, get a reminder of special events or appointments, or find out your MAC’s memory stats, check out the weather and more, all at your fingertips. We use it most for

4. Features that Boost Productivity

Besides its obvious features, we list a few that are all about encouraging productivity. You’ll definitely want to learn how to take advantage of the following Mac features.

Proofreading

If you have a Mac, you’re already aware that it has the ability to talk to you. What most don’t realize is how handy its special “text to speech” ability can be when proofreading text. Research has shown that when we read through something we have written, we typically end up skipping over words that are incorrectly placed or double words because it’s a natural trait to mentally correct these grammatical errors. To proofread (or proof hear) a piece of text, simply select it, right-click, click on ‘Speech’ and then click on ‘Start Speaking’.

Exposé

This useful feature makes it possible for you to display all open windows at one time, show only application windows, hide all your windows to show the desktop, and open the dashboard. All available actions can be triggered by either using the mouse button, the F3 key, or even better, running the mouse cursor into the screen’s corners.

Sticky Notes

While most computers, including Mac, have the Sticky note feature, it is usually under-appreciated. Sticky notes work as great, in your face reminders of important things to do or to keep important text/links available for quick reference. Mac offers sticky notes as a standalone application, though we prefer to use it as a dashboard widget

5. Notifications

Clicking on the notifications icon on the top right of your screen show you all your notifications in one place. This helps you see which notifications you need to respond to and take action accordingly. You can also disable notifications by holding and pressing the icon for the Notification Center located in the menu bar. People usually turn notifications off if they’re sharing their computer screens.

We’ve barely touched on the available hidden useful features that your Mac isn’t telling you about so you’ll definitely want to spend some time uncovering the clever things they can do.

John Nats is the writer and editor of TechiGyaan he shares his knowledge on blogging tips, SEO tips, WordPress tips and much more. You can connect with him on Facebook, Twitter

Also Read: How to Set Up a Web Server on Mac OSX, Function F4 in Excel for Mac OSX