With every new version and update, our Mac gains new features. Some attract plenty of attention, while others go almost unnoticed—and some of those quieter additions can substantially change what we do on our computer and how we do it. At Hanaringo, we regularly cover these small details in our training sessions and in our articles, so today we are looking at seven very useful macOS Tahoe features no one told us about.
Spotlight, customisation, Safari, automation and much more
Spotlight is becoming more powerful all the time. In macOS Tahoe, we can use it to access our clipboard history, including everything we have copied over the previous eight hours. We simply press Command + Space, followed by Command + 4, and we will see a list of items ready to be copied again. We should bear in mind, however, that this feature is disabled by default, so we will need to enable it in System Settings > Spotlight before we can use it.
Another particularly useful Spotlight feature is the ability to filter search results directly from the search interface, making it easier to find exactly what we need. Whether we are looking for PDFs in Mail, images in Photos, documents or open Safari tabs, we can type “Mail”, followed by “PDF” and then “ticket”, for example, to find the airline tickets we have received by email.
Along the same lines, we can create Quick Keys. These shortcuts, made up of just a few letters, allow us to open apps or run actions with ease. We could use something like “sm” to send a message, add the recipient and the content, and then press Return to take care of everything else.
In macOS Tahoe, we can customise almost every part of the menu bar. We can remove items, rearrange the existing ones and add whichever controls we need from a long list of options. We simply open the System Settings app, go into Menu Bar and click Add Controls… to see everything available.
In Safari, we can enable Picture in Picture mode much more directly, with controls for skipping forwards, going backwards and even skipping adverts. This allows us to continue watching videos without having to dedicate an entire window to them. We simply click the options button in the search field, choose Enter Picture in Picture and we are done.
Returning to Spotlight for a moment, we can now also search through the tabs we have open in Safari. This saves us from having to work our way through dozens of windows when we are using a large number of references.
To help us work more efficiently, automations in the Shortcuts app can now run automatically according to schedules we define, when accessories are connected, when Focus modes are enabled or even when the battery level changes. It is an excellent way to configure intelligent actions, such as opening certain apps when we connect a monitor or preparing backups of our files at specific times.
At Hanaringo, we help both individuals and businesses master these tools. Our most popular training sessions cover initial setup, advanced macOS management, improvements and explanations relating to security and privacy, and much more. Sessions are always personalised, conducted by phone and, when necessary, include remote access to the Mac’s screen. If you want your Mac to work better—and to work better with it—you already know where to find us.
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