89 time-saving tips

Make using your Mac, iPhone or iPad easier and speedier with our expert tips! You’ll learn to master multitasking, speed up searches, and much more.

Get more space

To make full use of the desktop, set the Dock to hide — Ctrl-click the divider for this option. The Dock will reveal itself again when the pointer hits the edge where it lives. There’s an equivalent hidden option for the menu bar in System Preferences > General.

Block intrusions

Your workspace is your space, even if those pesky notifications that pop up make you believe otherwise. The quickest way to shut them out is to hold Opt and click Notification Center’s icon (top right), so it becomes dimmed. This hides incoming items until the next day or you repeat the action.

Cramped Desktop?

If your Mac has a Retina display, choose a higher ‘looks like’ resolution from System Preferences’ Displays pane. Window furniture shrinks; use an app’s zoom feature to keep things readable. Use EasyRes (free, Mac App Store) to do this from the menu bar.

Slim System Prefs

Finding it hard to pick out the pane you need in System Preferences? If you only use a few, choose View > Customize and clear the checkboxes next to panes you use rarely. Those panes remain accessible in the View menu, or by clicking and holding the button that shows a grid of dots.

Turn off toolbars

If you can memorize key combos or menu items’ locations, hiding toolbars can free up room for what you’re working on. This is usually done in an app’s View menu; if the icon's easy to tell apart, choose Customize Toolbar and hide text labels.

Find the pointer

Lost track of the pointer? Remedy this in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display: turn on ‘Shake mouse pointer to locate.’ Shake the pointer and it will temporarily grow in size. If you use this a lot, consider dragging the ‘Cursor size’ slider right to make the pointer larger all the time.