Mac Tips & Lessons
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macOS Classes5 Lessons
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New in macOS Sequoia3 Lessons
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Getting Started with the Mac13 Lessons
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14+ Tips for Getting Started with a New Mac (and older Macs)
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How to tell which macOS you are using
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Getting Around your Mac
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Working with Finder Windows
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Accessing Folders and Navigating Folders
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A Look a the Folder Hierarchy of the Mac
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Using Keyboard Shortcuts
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Notifications and the Notification Center
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Searching with Spotlight Search
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System Preferences Overview
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Mac Quick Look Demystified: Preview Files with Ease!
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Quickly access Mac system settings with Menu Bar or Dock
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Learn Cut, Copy, and Paste on Mac
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14+ Tips for Getting Started with a New Mac (and older Macs)
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Menu Bar Lessons for the Mac4 Lessons
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Dock Lessons for the Mac11 Lessons
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Automatically Hide the Dock
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Open Recent Documents from a Closed app with the Mac's Dock
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Open an App's Recent Documents through the Dock on the Mac
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Change the Position of the Dock
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Working with Applications in the Dock
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Documents and Folders in the Dock
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Customizing the Dock
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Add Printers to the Mac's Dock
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3 Easy Tips for Organizing your Folders in the Mac's Dock
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Unlock Hidden Settings for the Dock
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How to Add Folders to the Mac Dock
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Automatically Hide the Dock
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Finder Lessons for the Mac24 Lessons
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Opening an Enclosing Folder from a Finder Window
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Adding a Folder to the Sidebar in a Finder Window
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Cycle through your Open Finder Windows
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Set What Folder A New Finder Windows Shows
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Finder Window View Options
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View Unopened Documents with Quick Look
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Arranging Files and Folders
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Actions and Tasks
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Finder Windows as Tabs
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Customizing the Sidebar
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Customize the Finder Window Toolbar
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Show the Path Bar in a Finder Window
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Keep Folders on Top
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Show the Status Bar in Finder Windows
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Set what is searched in a Finder Window
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Hide your Hard Drives from the Desktop
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Add Documents to a Finder Window Toolbar
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Resizing Finder Window Columns
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Copy the location of a File or Folder as Pathname
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Set what your Finder Windows Open To
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Show the Mac's Clipboard in a Window
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Create a PDF from Multiple Images with Quick Actions on the Mac
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The ultimate guide to the Mac's Finder: 24+ tips included!
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Need help Organizing Your Mac? Master Smart Folders Today!
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Opening an Enclosing Folder from a Finder Window
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Manage Applications on the Mac24 Lessons
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Easily Open the Applications Folder
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Apps and Significant Energy
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Set which Applications Open at Login
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Add the Applications Folder to the Dock
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Close Windows when Quitting Apps
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5 Ways to Find and Open your Applications on the Mac
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Finding your Applications Folder
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Switching between Open Applications
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Hiding Open Applications
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Launchpad and Applications
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Opening Applications with Spotlight Search
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Installing Applications
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Removing or Uninstalling Applications
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Applications in Full-screen Mode
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Finding an App’s Preferences or Settings
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Open Apps with the Launchpad Icon
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Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Switch between Open Apps
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Shrink Apps to Prevent the MacBook Pro Notch from Obscuring App Controls
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Prevent In-App Rating & Review Notifications
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How to Check App Version History on Your Mac
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How to Use Multiple Desktops with Spaces
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Switch between open apps with the Mac's App Switcher
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Enhance your Mac experience by Installing iOS apps
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Add a Signature to a Document
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Easily Open the Applications Folder
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Manage Files and Folders on the Mac30 Lessons
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Selecting Documents and Folders
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Working with Save Dialog Boxes
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Deleting Files and Folders
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Copying, Moving, and Grouping Files
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Move Selected Files into a New Folder
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Specifying Applications for Documents
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4 Ways to Open a File on the Mac
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3 Ways to Force Quit an App on the Mac
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4 Ways to Edit Finder Window Sidebars on the Mac
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Create A New Folder with Selected Files on the Mac
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Using Spring-loaded Folders
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Compressing Files and Folders
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Convert and Compress Images with Quick Actions
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Viewing Document Information
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Renaming Files in Batches
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Tagging Files and Folders
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Set What App a Document Opens With
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Open Windows Media or WMV Files
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Tips for finding your Downloads Folder
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See Folder Sizes in a Finder Window
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Duplicate Documents with Stationery Pad on the Mac
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Reverse the Print Order of your Document
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Creating PDFs on a Mac: Two Easy Methods
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Save Time and Effort: How to Select Multiple Files on Your Mac
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How to Easily Zip and Unzip Files on Your Mac
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Learn how to use Find and Replace on the Mac
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Rename Multiple Files on the Mac
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How to Manage Storage on Your Mac - Easy Tips & Tricks!
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Ever Wondered How to Rename Mac Files? Top 7 Tips Here!
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11 Easy Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Desktop Experience
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Selecting Documents and Folders
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General macOS Lessons21 Lessons|1 Quiz
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Have your Mac Learn Spelling
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Close Notifications with a Swipe
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Working with the Today View
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Using Siri
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Using Mission Control
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Add Virtual Desktops with Spaces on the Mac
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Sharing Files with AirDrop
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iCloud Options
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Take a Screenshot of your Display
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Add Emojis as Text
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View All Open Windows as Thumbnails
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Copy, and Paste and Match Style
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Type Special Characters with the Keyboard Viewer
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Set where Screenshots are Saved
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Add a Timer to Screenshots
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Hide all your open windows to show the Mac's Desktop
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Turn on Do Not Disturb Temporarily
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Using Split View
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The Mac’s Magic Shortcut to Trashing Files and Photos Quickly
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10 Little Known Tips for the Mac
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Keyboard Navigation on the Mac
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Have your Mac Learn Spelling
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Preferences or Settings for the Mac34 Lessons
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Organize and Hide System Preference Panes
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General Preferences
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Working with Printers and Scanners
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Share Connected Printers with other Macs
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A Quick look at Sound Preferences
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A closer look at Internet Accounts
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Creating User Accounts
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Set an Animated Emoji for your Mac User Profile
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Customize the Date and Time in the Mac's Menu Bar
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Adding Parental Controls
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Change the Cursor Size
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Show the Date in the Menu bar
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Change the Clock in the Menu Bar from Digital to Analog
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Set the Scroll Bar to Always Show in a Window
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Create a New user Account
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Text Replacement
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Quickly Look up Information with the Trackpad
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Shortcuts for opening System Preference Panes
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Rename your Mac
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Searching your System Preferences
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Set the Default Browser on the Mac
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Reduce the Transparency in the Menu Bar and Dock
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Open Preference Panes from the Dock
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A closer look at Wi-fi Settings
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Using Hot Corners
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Select what macOS Updates you want to install
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Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Menu Items
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Use Keyboard Navigation to Move Focus
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Enable Fast User Switching to Switch between User Accounts
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Use Touch ID to Switch between Users on the Mac
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How to Zoom into your Mac's Display for Easier Reading
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How to Extend Your Mac Display to Your iPad
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Disabling Showing the Notification Center from the Trackpad
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Can Force Click Boost Your Productivity on your Mac? Find Out How!
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Organize and Hide System Preference Panes
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Troubleshooting Lessons for the Mac16 Lessons
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Finding Help for your Mac
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Backing Up with Time Machine
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Restoring Files with Time Machine
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Erase a Hard Drive
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Force Quit an App on the Mac
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Restart or Relaunch the Mac's Finder
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Force Quit Apps from the Apple Menu
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Putting it All Together
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Automatically delete items in the Trash after 30 Days
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Troubleshooting Bluetooth Connections
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Manage Storage Space with macOS Monterey and Earlier
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Reclaim Local Mac Storage Space by Removing iCloud Drive Downloads
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Disable Unused Sharing Options on Your Mac If You’re Not Using Them
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Forget Wi-Fi Networks that are Troublesome
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View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac
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Erase All Content and Settings on a Mac
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Finding Help for your Mac
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New in macOS Mojave12 Lessons
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Dark Mode Appearance
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Dynamic Desktop Pictures
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View Recent Apps in the Dock
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Gallery View for Files in Finder Windows
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macOS Software Updates in System Preferences
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Desktop Stacks for Files on the Desktop
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Keep Desktop Folders on Top of Files
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View File Metadata
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Quick Actions and Markup Files
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Continuity Camera from your iPhone or iPad
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New Privacy Options
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New Screenshot Options
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Dark Mode Appearance
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New in macOS Catalina19 Lessons
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See which apps will no longer work with macOS Catalina
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See which apps are 32-bit
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Opening Recent Folders from the Dock
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Reorganized System Preferences
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New Window Management Options
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New Screen Time Preferences
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New Music App
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New TV App
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New Podcasts App
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Manage your iOS Devices through the Finder
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What's New in the Photos App
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What's New in the Notes App
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What's New in Safari
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What's New in the Mail app
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New FindMy App
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New Catalyst Apps
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New Security and Privacy Features
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New Redesigned Reminders App
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Use an iPad as a second Display with Sidecar
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See which apps will no longer work with macOS Catalina
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New in macOS Big Sur15 Lessons
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What hasn't changed with macOS Big Sur
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Notification Center
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Allow Wallpaper Tinting in Windows
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Filtering Mail Messages
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New Control Center
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A look at the Finder Window Toolbar
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New with Desktop Pictures
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Play Startup Sound
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Drag and Drop Controls to the Menu Bar
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Battery Usage Preferences
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Change the Date & Time in the Menu Bar
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Do Not Disturb location in macOS Big Sur
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See what is Now Playing
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It’s Time to Consider Upgrading to macOS 11 Big Sur
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How to Reveal the Proxy Icon in Big Sur
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What hasn't changed with macOS Big Sur
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New & Updated in macOS Ventura12 Lessons
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How to Manage your Open Windows with Stage Manager
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New Setup Options and Filters in Focus on the Mac with macOS Ventura
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View Forecasts and More in the New Weather App on the Mac
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Add Multiple Stops to Routes in the Maps App with macOS Ventura
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Create Templates for Reminders Lists with macOS Ventura
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Maximizing Your Storage on macOS Ventura: A Guide to Managing Space
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Discover the New Clock App on MacOS Ventura
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How to Keep Scroll Bars Always Visible on Mac (macOS Ventura)
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Manage App Store and Streaming Services Subscriptions through the Mac
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Save time typing text and Emojis on your Mac with Text Replacement!
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3 Ways to Remove the Background in a Photo
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Stop Apps from Launching when your Mac Starts Up
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How to Manage your Open Windows with Stage Manager
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Favorite Features in macOS Sonoma9 Lessons
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Make Your Favorite Websites Act Like Apps with macOS Sonoma
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macOS Sonoma: Screensavers & Wallpapers
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Click your Wallpaper to Show the Desktop
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Add Widgets to your Mac's Desktop
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My 3 Favorite New Features in Reminders with macOS Sonoma!
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iCloud Passwords for Chrome: Seamless Access to Your Passwords
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Make your next Zoom Presentation stand out with Presenter Overlays
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Turn off Click Wallpaper to Show Desktop
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Build your own Apple Passwords app in 5 minutes! A Step-by-Step Guide
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Make Your Favorite Websites Act Like Apps with macOS Sonoma
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New in macOS Monterey6 Lessons
Using Mission Control
Learn how to manage all your open windows and create virtual spaces using Mission Control on the Mac.
Did you know you could view all your open windows from your open applications as thumbnails? You can also click on any one of the thumbnails to open that window! You can also move any window from one space or virtual desktop to another,. thereby doubling or more how many ‘screens or displays your have! This is all done through the Mac’s Mission Control. This is a powerful feature that offers many options, all to help make you more productive. Learn how using Mission Control on the Mac can help you be more productive by helping you manage multiple window and spaces in this video for the Mac.
Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):
In this video, we’re going to take a look at Mission Control on the Mac. Mission Control lets us manage our open windows, as well as different spaces on the Mac. Well, let’s see what I mean. Let’s go to My Mac.
Now let’s go and open up a few windows here. What I’m going to do is, I’m going to go down to my Finder, click on it, and we’re looking at my home folder. Let’s go and open up a few more. Let’s move this over to the left, Command-N. Let’s go to my Desktop here. Command-N, we’re going to go to Documents, and then Command-N again. Let’s go to Downloads.
Let’s go and move these around. What I am doing is I’m simulating how I work regularly. I have windows open all over. I also have different apps open. Now let’s go and open up Calendar, Contacts. Now let’s open up Safari and let’s go over to Apple, let’s create a new window and let’s go over to Yahoo. Now I have several apps open with several windows.
Now the problem when you have a cluttered desktop like this is it’s difficult to get to a specific window. Let’s say I wanted to go to my downloads folder. How do I get to my downloads folder? Well, right now what I would have to do is I would have to go to the Finder, I’m going to click on the Desktop. Then I go up to window, and then we go over to Downloads, and there’s my downloads folder.
Now what I want to do is I want to go back over to Apple and Safari. Well, I can see it peeking out here, but let’s say this was hidden behind another window. Let’s go and hide it here. Now I can’t even see Apple, so how do we get to Apple? Well, what I’d have to make sure that I’m in Safari and then go over to window and select Apple.
Using Mission Control: There’s an easier way to do this. We can use Mission Control. Mission Control gives us easy access to all of our open windows. It also helps us manage our spaces. We’ll talk about spaces towards the end of the video.
Now what I want to do is I want to go back over to my Downloads, but I’m going to use Mission Control. The keyboard shortcut for Mission Control is the Ctrl key and the up arrow key on your keyboard. If you have a trackpad, you can also just swipe up with three fingers. I’m going to use a keyboard shortcut Ctrl key and then the up arrow. Watch what happens. I can see all of my open windows.
I want to go to my Downloads. All I have to do is just look for my downloads folder here. There it is. We can see we have a blue border around it. This means that my cursor is above that window, and when I click on this, it brings it to the front. Now what I want to do is I want to go to Yahoo. I have a trackpad, so I’m going to use the three-finger swipe. I just swipe up with three fingers. It brings me to my Mission Control, and now I just go over to Yahoo here, click on it, and I’m at Yahoo.
I want to go to my Calendar, I swipe up with three fingers, find my Calendar, click on it, and it opens up my Calendar. That’s how we can use Mission Control to help us open up various windows. Now, I mentioned that it also helps us with spaces. What are spaces? Well, when we open up an app in fullscreen, let’s go and open up my Calendar here in full screen. I click on the green dot. It goes into full screen.
Spaces and Mission Control: What it’s doing is it’s creating a space for this. Now I have my Calendar space, and then when I swipe over to the right, I’m looking at my Desktop. Let’s go and open up Yahoo in fullscreen. Click on the green dot; there is my Yahoo. Now I have my Yahoo or Safari in a space. I have my Calendar in a space, and then I swipe over to the right I have my Desktop.
These are what we call spaces on a Mac. With Mission Control, we can easily access these different spaces, just like with our windows. When I swipe up to get to Mission Control, all of my windows will go into thumbnail size. If we look up towards the top, you’re also going to see we have this gray bar, and I can see Desktop 1, Safari, and Calendar. I want to go to my Calendar. I click on Calendar here; it brings me to Calendar.
I want to go back to my Desktop; I swipe up with three fingers; I go over to Desktop. We can rearrange our different spaces. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to swipe up, we get our three spaces. Before I talk about how we can rearrange these, you’re going to notice that it is just text. When I move my cursor above any one of these spaces, I get a thumbnail.
Rearranging Spaces in Mission Control: Now, let’s see how we can rearrange these. Let’s say I wanted to have Calendar next to my Desktop, all I have to do is click and drag this over, and now my Calendar is next to my Desktop. Now when I go over to my Desktop and swipe over to the left, I’m going to go over to my Calendar. I swipe over to the left again; I’m in Safari.
To go back over to my Desktop, I swipe over a couple of times, or what I could have done is gone to Mission Control. Let’s go back into Mission Control; we can also create more desktops. You’re going to see I have Desktop 1 here. If we go over to the right, you’re going to see we have this plus. When I click on the plus, we get a new desktop.
Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to move this over to the left, drag it over, and now I have my two desktops. What does this mean? If I go to Desktop 1 here, and now I swipe over to the Left, I’m looking at Desktop 2. I swipe back over to the right; I’m at Desktop 1.
How can I use this? Well, what we can do is we can open up different apps in different desktops, or we can move windows over to different desktops. I wanted to have my contacts here in that other Desktop, so then I’m not looking at all of these other windows. I need to move this over to that other Desktop. To do that, we go back into Mission Control, and then we go over to our contacts here, and I drag that on top of my Desktop 2.
Now let’s go and do that. Click and drag, and now when I let go here, I move my contacts to that second Desktop. I swipe back over to the left; I’m looking at my Finder windows and Safari. Now let’s go and move Safari into its Desktop. To do that, we go over to our plus here; it creates a new desktop. I’m going to move this over to the left, and now I just drag Apple up to Desktop 3. Now I have Safari, my contacts, and then my Finder.
I want to go to my Calendar, I can swipe over or what I can do is swipe up and go over to my Calendar. I swipe back to the right; I’m looking at Safari, Contacts, and the Finder. We can close desktops if I swipe up three fingers, or what I can use is Ctrl, up arrow. When we go up to our spaces here, you’re going to see when I move my cursor above one of the spaces; there’s an X, all I have to do is just click on the X closes that space. It does not close the app. You’re going to see that it moved Safari over to my Desktop 1.
What do you think is going to happen when I close this space? It’s going to move contacts back over to Desktop 1. It doesn’t close the gap; it just closes the space. Now we do have a few preferences for Mission Control. These are located in the System Preferences. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to go to my System Preferences. Then what we do is we go over to Mission Control.
Have Mission Control Arrange Spaces: What we can do is we can have Mission Control automatically rearrange our spaces based on the apps that we’re using. As we use our apps, Mission Control will go and rearrange my spaces here. Let’s go back over to my Mission Control preferences. I can also set when I use spaces to have my Desktop scroll to a space with open windows for an app. I can group windows by application. When I do this, let’s go ahead and select this. What it’s going to do is it’s going to group all of the windows per application.
Remember I have, if you find your windows open, I’m going to swipe up. Now we can see all of my Finder windows here. They’re all grouped. To open up any one of them, I just click on it. Now the problem with this is you can’t see the individual windows, so what I like to do is I want to leave this off. I’m going to go back over to my System Preferences and turn this back-off.
Multiple Displays and Spaces: If you have multiple displays, you can set up separate spaces for each display, and then we have the Dashboard. The Dashboard is an older app that is seldom used anymore, and it’s off by default. If you use the Dashboard, what you can do is you can turn this on. I don’t even have a lesson for it in the tutorial because it’s just seldom used.
Shortcuts: Below that, we have our keyboard and mouse shortcuts. To access Mission Controls, it’s Ctrl, up arrow. To access our application windows, it’s Ctrl, down arrow. When we access our application windows, what it will do is it will only show us the windows for a specific application. When I go over to my Finder here, I’m in my Finder. I’m going to use Ctrl, down arrow.
Now I can see only the Finder’s windows because that’s what I have as my frontmost application. Ctrl, down arrow, again brings us back. If I want to show the Desktop, I can use F11, and then if I want to show the Dashboard, I can use F12. We also have Hot Corners, I have a separate lesson on Hot Corners, but when I click on Hot Corners, what I can do is I can set one of the corners on my display as a hot corner. When I move my cursor into that corner, it’s going to perform a certain feature.
In this case, I have it set for Mission Control in the upper right-hand corner. Now when I move my cursor in the upper right-hand corner here, move it to the very edge. It opens up Mission Control. Move it to the edge again; it closes it. Again, I have a separate video on Hot Corners. Now you can also add Mission Control to your Dock for easy access if you don’t want to use a keyboard shortcut or if you don’t have a trackpad.
To do that, what we need to do is we need to go to our applications folder. I’m going to go over to my applications folder. Then we have Mission Control. It is just an app. All we have to do is just drag this down into our Dock. Then to access Mission Control, I click on it. I’m in Mission Control. Click on it again; it closes it. We can also add Mission Control to our Dock for easy access. That’s how we use Mission Control on the Mac.