75 useful answers · Page 3 of 4
Shortcuts, files, and settings for getting things done on your Mac.
Search this topicOpen the Smart Folder, use the Action menu, and choose Show Search Criteria. Adjust the attributes or conditions, then save the changes. Review a few results to confirm the scope is right. Changing search criteria alters which files are listed; it does not rewrite the contents of the matching files.
On macOS versions with window tiling, hover over a window’s green button and choose a half-screen layout under Move & Resize. Place the second window in the other half. These are desktop tiles rather than a separate full-screen space. The Window menu also offers supported layouts.
On a Mac with window tiling, drag the window toward the desired corner and release when the highlighted quarter appears. Holding Option while dragging can bring up a tile target sooner. You can also choose a quarter layout from Window > Move & Resize when available.
Activate the window and choose Window > Fill where available, or use the fill-desktop layout under the green button’s menu. The window expands within the desktop instead of opening a separate full-screen space. This is useful when you want a large work area while keeping ordinary desktop window behavior.
Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock, find Windows, and turn off the relevant drag-to-tile options. You can control side-edge tiling, menu-bar filling, and Option-drag tiling separately on supported versions. Disable only the behavior that interrupts your work, then drag a window again to verify the change.
Open System Settings > Desktop & Dock and find Windows. Turn off Tiled windows have margins, then check your tiled layout. This changes the space left around tiles, not the content padding inside an app. If a particular window has its own minimum size, its layout may still differ from another app’s.
Select the file in Spotlight and hold Command to show its path. Use Command–R to reveal the selected result in Finder. Check the enclosing folder when similarly named files appear, rather than opening the first result and assuming it is the current version you meant to use.
Press Command–Space to open Spotlight, type your search, and move through results with the arrow keys. Press Return to open the selected item or Space for a preview. Command–Space closes the search again. Check which result is highlighted before opening it, particularly when several documents have similar names.
Hold Command while clicking each desired file in Finder. Command-click an already selected file to remove it from the selection. Review the highlighted items before copying, moving, or deleting them. Clicking another item without the modifier can replace the selection, so keep Command held while building the set.
In a list, click the first file, hold Shift, and click the last file to select the items between them. For icon layouts, dragging a selection rectangle can be more useful. Check the highlighted set before acting, because the current ordering determines which files fall within a range.
Press Fn–Delete to perform a forward delete on a keyboard without a dedicated forward-delete key. Ordinary Delete removes the character before the cursor. Place the insertion point carefully and test with a single character first, especially when editing a filename or a line where nearby text must stay intact.
With the app active, press Command–H to hide it. Its work remains open, unlike quitting with Command–Q. Return by selecting the app again. Hiding can clear the desktop while keeping documents ready, but it does not stop background activity or save changes that the app has not yet saved.
In apps that support it, use Option–Shift–Command–V for Paste and Match Style. The pasted words adopt the surrounding document’s style instead of carrying the original formatting. Check the Edit menu if that shortcut is unavailable, and review the result because tables, links, or app-specific content may need separate cleanup.
Open System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements, select the entries you want, and drag them to the desktop. macOS creates a property list.plist file that you can copy to a backup location. Keep it private if the expansions contain personal information, and label the backup so you can identify its date.
Open System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements on the destination Mac and drag the saved property list.plist file into that window. Click Done and test a few shortcuts in a supporting app. Review the imported triggers to avoid surprises where the other Mac already uses the same abbreviation for different text.
Use Shift + Command + 4 to select an area. For the entire display, use Shift + Command + 3.
In “How to take a screenshot on a Mac”
Hold Control along with the screenshot shortcut to copy the capture. Paste it into a compatible app with Command + V.
In “How to take a screenshot on a Mac”
Some protected media apps restrict screenshots. The shortcut cannot override that restriction.
Open copies of your PDFs in Preview, show their page thumbnails, and drag pages into one document. Arrange the pages, then save the combined copy.
In “How do I combine PDFs on a Mac?”
Confirm you are dragging its thumbnail into the other document’s thumbnail sidebar. If the file is locked or restricted, obtain an editable copy from its owner rather than trying to remove the restriction.
In “How do I combine PDFs on a Mac?”
Yes. Select the thumbnails you need rather than moving the entire file. Review the resulting order before saving.
Open the HEIC image in Preview, choose File → Export, select JPEG, and save with a new name or location.
In “How to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac”
No. Renaming the extension does not rewrite the image into JPEG format.
In “How to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac”
Apple supports opening images together, selecting them in the sidebar, and exporting. Verify one image first so your format and quality choices are correct.
Source checks for these answers: September 21, 2026 – September 22, 2026. Product instructions and local requirements can vary.