524 tips · new ones added continuously
Every tip is one concrete thing you will do better or faster. Filter by what you use and who you are — or just search.
Presentation is 80 MB and won't go through email? Built-in image compression shrinks it to a fraction of the size — two clicks, no visible loss.
Ctrl+D
Duplicate an object, move it into place — and the next Ctrl+D copies with the same offset built in. A row of evenly spaced elements in seconds.
Need to send three pages out of a fifty-page PDF? Print the range “12-14” to PDF and the new file is born. No installing anything.
A contract, an attachment, and a scanned addendum, all in one file: Preview handles it on a Mac, free PDF24 on Windows — just don't upload sensitive documents anywhere.
Highlighting and annotating a PDF is handled by the free Acrobat Reader, Edge, and Preview on Mac. Feedback belongs in the file, not in a five-paragraph email.
Before a meeting or a coworker pulls you away, write one sentence: what you're doing and what the next step is. Coming back then takes seconds, not a quarter hour.
Type @name in the body of an email — Outlook adds the person to the recipients automatically and highlights that something's expected of them. No more overlooked tasks buried in the CC line.
Plenty of monitors and laptops run at 60 Hz even though the hardware can do more. One setting, and scrolling suddenly feels buttery smooth.
With an external monitor and keyboard, a laptop can run closed and save desk space. Just change one setting for what closing the lid does.
Most people sit in their chair exactly as it arrived from the store. Three checkpoints — elbows at desk height, knees at a right angle, feet on the floor — take a minute to fix.
Default pointer and scroll-wheel speed is tuned for monitors from a decade ago. Two sliders save hundreds of arm movements a day.
A monitor rotated 90° shows a full document page, a long email, or code without endless scrolling. Windows and Mac both handle it right in settings.
Build your own Quick Action in the Shortcuts app in five minutes — select photos, right-click, and they're the right size for email.
Move the cursor past the edge of your Mac's screen — and it shows up on the iPad. One keyboard, one mouse, two devices, zero setup.
A hidden option in Accessibility changes how you use the trackpad — drag windows and files with a light three-finger touch, no holding down and no thumb fatigue.
A verification text arrives and Safari on your Mac offers it right in the field to fill in — the phone stays in your pocket. Just turn on message forwarding.
You might already own a second monitor — your iPad. Sidecar turns it into a wireless Mac display in two clicks, even on the road.
Fn+Q
An idea or a phone call in the middle of work? Fn+Q brings up a floating note over whatever you're doing — and it saves itself to Notes.
Drag a document you have open straight into an email or chat using the small icon in the window's title bar — no hunting for the file in Finder.
Option+→
Option plus an arrow key jumps by word, Cmd jumps to the start and end of a line. Switchers from Windows type on a Mac with the handbrake on until they learn these.
You don't need to hunt through special character tables for accented letters on a Mac — hold a letter down and a menu of all its accented variants pops up.
Cmd
The icons in your Mac's menu bar aren't nailed down — hold Cmd and drag them elsewhere, or drag one downward to remove it entirely.
Cmd+Option+C
Need the exact path to a file for the terminal, a script, or an email to IT? Finder can copy it with one shortcut — it's just well hidden.
Your Mac's built-in camera is mediocre. Just set your iPhone near the monitor and the Mac offers it as a webcam — wirelessly, with nothing to install.
Your Mac sees your iPhone's hotspot right in the Wi-Fi menu, even when it's off on the phone. One click and you're online — no touching your phone.
Your Mac can receive and dial calls from your iPhone. The phone can stay on the charger in the hallway while you talk through your computer's headset.
Cmd+Shift+/
Not sure where an app hides a certain feature? This shortcut opens menu search, finds the command by name, and points an arrow at where it lives.
Finish an email you started on the tram, on your Mac, exactly where you left off. Handoff passes work in progress between your devices automatically.
Does an invoice belong in the project folder and in accounting? Tags solve the age-old dilemma of where to save a file — it can show up in more than one place at once.
Select photos, right-click, Create PDF — done. Finder's Quick Actions can even convert formats or remove a background without opening an editor.