It is sometimes hard to explain to people why I enjoy working on a Macintosh. It isn’t because they are shinier or I have fallen prey to the “reality distortion field.” Rather, there are a lot of nice tweaks, that are sometimes not so obvious, that make working with the Macintosh such a nice experience.
Quit or hide an application through the app switcher
When using the Command-Tab key combination to cycle through your open applications, you can easily quit or hide the currently selected application. Simply use the standard key combinations of Command-Q to quit the selected application or Command-H to hide it. This is a quick way to get rid of the clutter that can accumulate through a long work session. Just keep one finger pressed down on the Command key and hit Q or H instead of tab to move onto the next application. Oh, and also, to switch direction, hit Shift when Command-tabbing in case you go past the application you wanted.
Getting the folder structure of a file in an application
I love this one and use it all the time. In almost any application, when you are working on a document and you would like to see it in the Finder, Command-click on the application’s title bar.
Then, select any of the parent’s folders to jump to it in the Finder.
Most everything is draggable
Speaking of the title bar of an application, often times you can drag the icon to wherever you need it. No need to go to the Finder, get the file and go from there. Just drag the icon from the title bar to your email to attach it or a website to upload it. Oftentimes, if I have a screenshot that I have opened in Preview, I will just drag and drop the icon onto a website like Jira or Zendesk to upload it.
Scroll background items
I really like not having to set the focus to another window to scroll it. For example, if I am working on an Excel document next to an Word window where I am taking notes, I can scroll to view more columns without leaving Word. I simply hover over Excel and use the multi-touch functions to scroll the Excel document to where you need it – vertically or horizontally.