502 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.
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.
Chrome, Edge, and Firefox can all fill in a PDF form directly. And when the form has no fillable fields, Edge and Firefox just let you type the text straight onto it.
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.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint quietly save copies of your work as you go. File → Info → Manage Document recovers even files you never saved.
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.
No need to dig through settings: swiping on a notification on iPhone offers an hour of silence; holding one on Android turns off just the annoying category.
Stop retyping details off paper. iPhone can scan text with the camera directly into a text field; Android does the same through Google Lens.
Android can trigger battery saver by percentage. iPhone has no built-in schedule — but a Shortcuts automation turns on Low Power Mode entirely on its own.
iPhone offers to share the password automatically as soon as someone nearby tries to connect. Android generates a QR code that scans and connects.
You can't scan a code on your own screen with the camera. But you can hold your finger on it in Photos, or open it through Google Lens.
A long press on an icon opens a shortcut menu: new email, selfie, private tab, navigate home. One tap instead of hunting inside the app.
Google Messages sends a text at a scheduled time when you hold down the send button. iPhone does the same in iMessage via Send Later.
Tap the space bar twice at the end of a sentence — your phone inserts a period and a space, then capitalizes the next sentence. iPhone and Android.
On iPhone, slide your finger off the 123 key onto a digit and the keyboard snaps back to letters by itself. Gboard has a key hold or a permanent number row.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.