In front of our Mac, it's most common for us to spend hours opening and closing files. Every small change, note, or correction requires this process that we repeat over and over again in our daily computer use. There is, however, a way to view and edit files on the Mac without opening them. Let’s talk about how we can do it.
What is Quick Look and how can we use it to be more productive
Quick Look is a Mac tool that lets us preview the contents of almost any file without opening it in its corresponding application. Reviewing a PDF, checking the contents of an image, or even looking at data in a spreadsheet with Quick Look is just a matter of pressing a key.
Which one? To open Quick Look, simply select a file in the Finder and press the spacebar. Instantly, a window opens with a preview of the file.
If we’ve selected multiple items, we can move through them with the arrow keys. We can adjust the size of the Quick Look window by dragging its corners, or expand the view to full screen with a click on the two-arrow button in the top bar.
How to edit files from Quick Look without complications
Quick Look goes beyond just previewing, as it lets us make certain edits directly from its interface, eliminating the need to open the document in a specific app. These are some of the options available to us:
- Rotate images and videos: One click on the rotation icon is enough to turn our media files. If we want to be faster, we can press the Option key to change the direction of the rotation.
- Trim audio and video clips: when facing a clip, dragging the yellow handles on the editing bar lets us select and keep only the part we want and remove the rest.
- Add annotations to documents: In PDFs, we can insert signatures, highlight text, or add comments.
There’s more. When we select multiple items, Quick Look lets us browse through them or display them in a grid. Meanwhile, with a single click on the share button, we can send a file via email, Messages, or AirDrop. We can also open it in its default application.
With Quick Look, managing our files has never been so fast or efficient. At a time when we want to measure productivity in seconds, having tools like this makes a significant difference in speed and, above all, in comfort.
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