Shulou(Shulou.com)06/01 Report--

Mac's interface is already clean and beautiful, but by making some visual and functional adjustments here and here, you can further refine it and speed up the process. The tweaks we focus on today will provide you with a minimalist Mac experience. We are talking about using the less is more approach to customize the operating system. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Tidy up the Finder sidebar

By default, the sidebar in Finder lists shortcuts to several locations you may need. But what about you? Only you know the answer, but there's a good chance you won't use it all. To delete unwanted shortcuts, first press cmd+, or right-click in the blank space of the Finder toolbar, and then select customize Toolbar from the pop-up menu. To display Finder preferences Next, in the Sidebar tab of preferences, uncheck the box next to the location you want to hide from the sidebar. Unchecking the box next to the hard drive will also hide the hard drive icon on the desktop.

I have chosen to hide all locations under favorites, except for the most commonly used locations: iCloud drives, downloads, documents, screenshots, and airdrops. I use Spotlight to display anything I need, including the Applications folder. I have completely hidden the device part because I use a menu bar called Pop-up Mini Program to eject the disk. If you must navigate to the home folder, do the following:

If you want to add an unlisted location to the sidebar, just open it in Finder, click the folder icon at the top of the window, and drag it to the appropriate location.

Clean up Dock

Do you use all the applications that reside on your Mac dock? If so, how often do you use it? Many of them sit there looking "just in case"-but you may not need them all. We suggest removing icons that you don't use every day. To remove an application from dock:

Click the application icon and drag it out of the dock bar, then release it when the Delete option appears, or right-click the application icon and click option > remove from Dock

Once you get rid of unused or rarely used icons in this way, you don't need to scan a few colored icons to find a few applications that have been in use. Get into the habit of using Spotlight to open applications, not only losing icons, but also faster. Note: if an application is open, its icon will appear and cannot be deleted.

Organize the menu bar

Many applications display icons in the menu bar that you may never use. The menu bar is full of icons, and you stare at it unwittingly, trying to bring up the ones you need to click. Sound familiar? We've all been there.

It is impossible to avoid using many useful menu bar applications. Another way is to customize and organize the menu bar from time to time. Hold down the Comm and key and move the system icon around the menu bar, or drag and drop it into the menu bar to make it disappear.

Note: even if you should press cmd + Spacebar to bring it up, you can't get rid of the Spotlight icon in the menu bar.

Hide Dock and menu bar

Now that you've cleaned up the Dock and menu bar, it's time to make sure they don't get in your way all the time, but instead start them quickly when needed. To do this, you must set them to auto-hide by going to system preferences. You will find that the options under the auto-hide and show menu bar are generally the same as the Dock under the auto-show and hide wharf options.

Delete unused applications

With so many interesting Mac applications available, it's hard not to try them all, but it's important to uninstall all applications that take up valuable system space and have little value. We recommend using App Cleaner to delete the application. It displays your application in a neat alphabetical list, and when you delete any application, it even handles all relevant residual files hidden in the Mac depth.

With App Cleaner, you can also delete system applications like Chess, but removing too many regular applications can be risky and cause operating system problems. We do not recommend using system applications.

Choose new applications carefully

Before you install anything directly on the network, check to see if Mac already has similar tools and how to stack them. Some of the best Mac software is pre-installed and has the advantage of being perfectly compatible with the entire Apple ecosystem. You may be surprised that you don't need all the features of the application, such as quick editing of images, finding words, and taking screenshots. OS X has tools that have these features built in.

If you choose to use a third-party application, choose an application that simplifies your workflow and saves you trouble. You will find these Mac application recommendations very useful.

Clear the desktop

It is recommended that you do not treat the desktop as the entire contents of all other files or folders you have saved, but rather leave the desktop blank. Leave only beautiful wallpaper to attract your attention from time to time. As for making your most frequently used files and folders accessible, why not create a separate folder for them and provide sidebar shortcuts in Finder for quick access? In any case, Finder is always open, so it's still easy to open these documents at any time.

Incidentally, you may want to use the keyboard shortcut cmd + option + h more frequently. It hides all applications except the current application-perfect for saving yourself from any application chaos that occurs.

Use Spotlight frequently

The more times you use Spotlight to find files, the less time it takes to organize them. You can dump them into several folders, and you can find them quickly just by searching. Get into the habit of using Mac's built-in search mechanism for all content. What could be easier than hitting cmd + space and typing a keyword or two to reach every corner of OS X?

When you first started using Mac, you hardly used Spotlight except to open the application. I keep forgetting that this feature even exists. Once I tried to use it, I realized that Spotlight was powerful, especially since El Capitan introduced improved functionality. One of the great advantages of Spotlight is that it allows me to abandon the detailed folder structure and use a basic minimum hierarchy.

Whether you insist on using Spotlight or switching to its third-party alternative, such as Quicksilver or Alfred, is up to you. The key is to let Mac do the work for you.

Create a custom keyboard shortcut

If you find that the mouse clicks on a menu item too often during the day, it's time to remember its keyboard shortcuts. If you have difficulty remembering shortcuts, why not create a custom shortcut that you must remember? You can do this from system preferences > Keyboard > shortcuts > Application shortcuts. After navigating to that location, click the + icon below the right panel, as shown in the following illustration. This opens a dialog box in which you must:

Select an application for shortcuts to add menu titles to the commands you want to use shortcuts add keyboard shortcuts of your choice to replace menu commands Click the add button to complete the shortcut

Note: when you open the appropriate application, you need to type the menu commands exactly according to the commands displayed in the menu.

Conclusion

Cleaning Mac desktops takes no time and never ends. You don't have to fiddle with complex settings. Even a few simple adjustments can have a huge impact on your workflow. Keep trying some!

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