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.
Hold Alt and drag with the mouse — Word selects a rectangle of text across lines. Perfect for deleting a column of characters that a normal selection can't grab.
F2
Renaming a symbol with F2 changes a function or variable everywhere it's used, across files. Smarter than find and replace.
Alt+↓
Alt+up/down arrow moves a line or block to a new spot, Shift+Alt+arrow duplicates it. No more juggling Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V.
Edge and Firefox can move your tabs into a column on the side. Twenty tabs with readable titles instead of a row of nameless little teeth.
Ctrl+F5
Broken layout, an old version, a button that doesn't respond — Ctrl+F5 forces the browser to download the page again, from scratch.
Forgot sudo? Don't retype the command: “sudo !!” reruns it with admin rights. And “!$” inserts the last argument from the previous line.
Dragging a file from File Explorer or Finder into a terminal window inserts its full path — correctly quoted, without a single typo.
Open the current folder from the terminal in your graphical file manager with one command: “open .” on a Mac, “explorer.exe .” on Windows and in WSL.
Ctrl+W
A typo at the start of a long command isn't a reason to hold down Backspace. Ctrl+W deletes a word, Ctrl+U a line, Ctrl+A jumps to the start.
Ctrl+R
You don't have to fish a long command from last week out with the up arrow. Ctrl+R searches history for any fragment and autocompletes the whole thing.
Jumping between two directories? You don't have to type the full paths back and forth — “cd -” always jumps to the previous folder.
One command uploads your public key to a server — from then on you log in without a password, faster and more securely.
The file ~/.ssh/config remembers addresses, usernames, ports, and keys for you. Connecting to a server shrinks down to two words.
Slack has a conversation with just you — a private space for notes, links, and half-written messages, synced between your computer and phone.
Read a message on your phone at the bus stop and now there's no trace of it at work? Alt+click puts it back among the unread. And Esc, the opposite way, clears a whole channel.
Holding an arrow key or Backspace repeats at a speed you can configure. Two sliders almost nobody ever touches — and typing instantly feels snappier.
Need to get files onto another device on the same network? Python turns any folder into a downloadable web page.
A work laptop and your own computer on one desk doesn't have to mean two keyboards. A USB switch flips between them with a single button.
After 20 minutes at a screen, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. The eye muscles relax and you skip the dry, burning eyes come evening.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You might already own a second monitor — your iPad. Sidecar turns it into a wireless Mac display in two clicks, even on the road.
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.
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.
Google Calendar and Outlook can both show a second time axis next to your own. Plan a meeting across time zones by looking, not by doing math in your head.