Guides

Open the files of a folder, like Downloads or a project folder, from the menu bar with Folder Peek, or put the folder in the Dock as a stack.

Run your shortcuts from the menu bar with Short Run, in folders and with keys, or add a control for them in Control Center.

Drop files, folders, and links on the menu bar to send them with AirDrop with the free Menu Drop app, or put the AirDrop control in the menu bar.

macOS puts apps in the Dock, not in the menu bar. Super Menu adds one menu with the apps that you choose, also as icons, like a small Dock.

Show your own text in the Mac menu bar, like the main task of the day, with the free One Thing app.

Fit more icons in the menu bar, like next to the notch of a MacBook, with the free Menu Bar Spacing app or a Terminal command. Not possible on macOS 27.

See at a glance if your Mac is online, with a menu bar icon that turns red when the internet stops working, or check it with the ping command in Terminal.

Get a notification when the battery of your MacBook is at the percentages that you choose, like 20%, with Battery Indicator.

Organize the icons in the Mac menu bar into groups with separators, with the free Spaced app, and move or hide icons with the built-in ways of macOS.

Show how much of your day or workday is left as a pie or a bar in the menu bar with Day Progress, or set a timer in the Clock app.

See a monthly calendar with one click in the menu bar with the free Menu Bar Calendar app, or your events and world clocks too with Dato.

Reminders has no menu bar item. One Task shows your current task in the menu bar, and one click can complete it and show the next task.

See the events of today in the menu bar with the free Today app, and join a video call from the menu, or see them in the Calendar widget.

The menu bar clock of macOS shows only your time zone. Add world clocks to the menu bar with Zone Bar, Second Clock, or Dato.

See the reminders that are due, and complete them, from the menu bar with Dato, or put a Reminders widget on the desktop.

Show the battery percentage in the menu bar with macOS, and the time remaining with Battery Indicator, Activity Monitor, or pmset in Terminal.

Show the date in the menu bar with the clock settings of macOS, or show the full date, the year, and the week number in your own format with Dato.

macOS cannot show the week number in the menu bar. The free Week Number app does, and the Calendar app can show week numbers in its calendar.

See the time in UTC in the menu bar with the free UTC Time app, and copy it as ISO 8601 or Unix time, or get it with a command in Terminal.

Finder cannot change the dates of a file. Set the date created or the date modified with the free Actions app in Shortcuts, or with touch in Terminal.

macOS saves the files that you get with AirDrop in the Downloads folder, and has no setting to change it. Supercharge moves them to the folder that you choose.

See the width and height of an image in the Get Info window of Finder, or right in the right-click menu with Supercharge.

Get the SHA-256 checksum of a file with a command in Terminal, or copy it from the right-click menu of Finder with Supercharge.

macOS never cleans up the Downloads folder by itself. Supercharge moves old downloads to another folder after the number of days you choose.

Copy the path of a file or folder in Finder with Option+Command+C, or with a Copy Path item in the right-click menu from Supercharge.

Make an empty text file in the current Finder folder with Option+N in Supercharge, or with TextEdit or the touch command in Terminal.

Command+X does not cut files in Finder. Copy with Command+C and move with Option+Command+V, or use the Command X app to cut and paste.

Coming from Windows? In Finder, Command+Delete moves a file to the Trash. Supercharge makes the Delete key alone do it, like on Windows.

Eject all external drives with one click or a keyboard shortcut in Supercharge, or select the disks on the desktop and press Command+E.

Hide the files on your Mac desktop with one click or a keyboard shortcut in Supercharge, or with the “Show items” setting of macOS.

Finder has no command to invert a selection. Select all and deselect files by hand, or use one keyboard shortcut with Supercharge.

Make a shell script executable with chmod in Terminal, or with a Make Executable item in the right-click menu of Finder from Supercharge.

See what a .DS_Store file stores, like icon positions, the view, and the sort order of a folder, with the free DS_Store Inspector app.

In Finder, Return renames a file, and Command+O opens it. Supercharge makes Return open files, like Enter on Windows.

Open a Terminal window at a Finder folder from the path bar, or from the right-click menu with Supercharge, an alternative to Go2Shell.

A zip file made on a Mac has .DS_Store files and a __MACOSX folder that people on Windows see. Remove them with the free Actions app, or with zip in Terminal.

Finder cannot reopen a closed tab. Find the folder in Recent Folders, or press Shift+Command+T with Supercharge, like in a browser.

Make a PNG or JPEG file from the image on the clipboard with Command+V in Finder and Supercharge, or with New from Clipboard in Preview.

macOS has no setting for an animated GIF as the wallpaper. The free Plash app shows an animated GIF behind your windows and icons.

Play a YouTube video as your desktop wallpaper on Mac, muted and in a loop, with the free Plash app and the embed URL of the video.

Show a live website, like your calendar, a dashboard, or the weather, as your desktop wallpaper with the free Plash app. macOS can only show images and aerials.

Switch the resolution of a Mac display with a keyboard shortcut: use the Set Display Resolution action of Shortcutie in the Shortcuts app.

Set your own keyboard shortcuts for the keyboard backlight of a MacBook with Supercharge. Or use the brightness keys, or the slider in Control Center.

macOS has no keyboard shortcut for natural scrolling. With Shortcutie, a shortcut turns it on or off, like when you change from the trackpad to a mouse.

Hold Option+Shift while you press a volume key for smaller steps, or make smaller steps the default for the volume and brightness keys with Supercharge.

Find which app takes a global keyboard shortcut on Mac with the keyboard shortcut inspector of Supercharge, an alternative to the old ShortcutDetective app.

macOS has no setting to hide the mouse pointer (the cursor). Supercharge hides it after a few seconds without movement, or with a keyboard shortcut.

Disable the keyboard, the trackpad, and the mouse to clean your MacBook without shutting it down, with Cleaning Mode in Supercharge.

Middle-click with a three-finger tap or click on the trackpad, with Supercharge. macOS has no middle-click, but Command-click opens links in a new tab.

Mute and unmute the microphone in all apps with one keyboard shortcut in Supercharge. macOS has no shortcut, only the input volume in Sound settings.

macOS has no setting for a keyboard shortcut that opens an app. Set one for each app with Supercharge, or make a shortcut in the Shortcuts app.

Make Caps Lock turn on at once, without the short delay of macOS, with Supercharge or with the hidutil command in Terminal.

macOS has no keyboard shortcut for the screen saver. Set one in Supercharge, or start the screen saver with a hot corner.

Make Command+W close a window only when you hold it or press W twice, in the apps that you choose, with Supercharge, or change the shortcut in System Settings.

macOS has no keyboard shortcut to change the sound output. Supercharge switches to the next output, like from the speakers to the headphones, with a shortcut.

Change F1 to F12 between the standard function keys and the brightness, volume, and media keys with one keyboard shortcut in Supercharge.

macOS has no keyboard shortcut for Night Shift. Set one in Supercharge, or turn Night Shift on in Control Center or with a schedule.

Stop the app switcher of macOS from opening when you press Command+Tab, with one setting in Supercharge. Good when you press it by accident.

Turn off the screen of your Mac, but keep it awake, with Sleep Displays in Supercharge, a hot corner, or Control+Shift+Power on some keyboards.

macOS has no keyboard shortcut for Dark Mode. Set one in Supercharge, or turn Dark Mode on in Control Center or automatically at sunset.

Make Caps Lock press Control, Option, Shift, and Command at the same time with Supercharge, for keyboard shortcuts that no other app uses.

Group the apps in your Dock with spacers, with a button in Supercharge, or with a command in Terminal.

Mission Control can only show your windows. Supercharge lets you close, minimize, or quit them there with a right-click or a keyboard shortcut.

A hidden Dock still shows each time the pointer is at the edge of the screen. Supercharge stops that, and a Terminal command can do the same.

With iCloud Drive, TextEdit shows a file dialog each time it opens. Make it open a blank document instead, with Supercharge or with a Terminal command.

Fill the screen with a window, without fullscreen, with Fn+Control+F or Fill in the green button menu, or with a click on the green button with Supercharge.

macOS minimizes all windows of one app with Option+Command+M. Supercharge minimizes the windows of all apps with one keyboard shortcut.

On a Mac, a click on the Dock icon of the active app does nothing. Supercharge makes it minimize or hide the app, like on Windows.

See your app icon design in the real Dock, next to your other apps, with Icon Preview. It updates when you save the image file.

Quit all open apps with one click or a keyboard shortcut in Supercharge, or with the Quit App action of the Shortcuts app.

macOS cannot quit an app after you stop using it. Supercharge quits or hides the apps that you choose a few minutes after you switch away from them.

Make the hidden Dock show at once, without a delay, with Supercharge or with a Terminal command. Supercharge can also stop the Dock from showing.

Command+Tab leaves the minimized windows of an app in the Dock. Supercharge brings them back when you switch to the app.

The clock of macOS is small, and fullscreen apps hide it. Dato has a floating clock that stays above all windows, also in fullscreen, at the size that you want.

Make apps ignore a single press of Command+Q with Supercharge, an alternative to QBlocker, or give the Quit command of one app another shortcut.

macOS saves screenshots as PNG files. Change the format to JPG, HEIC, or TIFF with one Terminal command, or change it from a shortcut with Shortcutie.

macOS keeps every screenshot until you delete it. Supercharge moves old screenshots to another folder, so the desktop stays clean.

macOS has no command to clear the clipboard. Supercharge clears it from the menu bar, with a keyboard shortcut, or automatically after a minute.

Use the free Gifski app, an alternative to GIF Brewery, or the “Make GIF” action of the Shortcuts app.

Convert HEIC photos to JPEG with the Convert Image quick action in Finder or in the Files app, or with the free HEIC Converter app on Mac.

Copy text that you cannot select, in an image, a video, or an app, with Text Lens, or with Live Text in Preview for a screenshot.

Make images from a text prompt on your Mac, without the internet, with the free Imago app and the FLUX.2 model. Image Playground uses servers too.

Make an SRT or WebVTT subtitle file from the speech in a video on your Mac with Aiko, which transcribes 100 languages offline.

See the colors of an Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) file, and copy their values, with the free Simple Color Palette app.

Press Option+Shift+Command+V to paste as plain text, or use Pure Paste to make Command+V always paste without formatting, in every app.

Use System Color Picker to pick a color from anywhere with a keyboard shortcut and copy it as Hex, or use the built-in Digital Color Meter app.

Record the microphone, the sound of your Mac, or both, with Recordia, an alternative to Soundflower, or with Voice Memos and QuickTime Player.

Put black boxes over the private parts of a screenshot with Black Out, which also removes the metadata, or draw filled rectangles with Markup in Preview.

Remove the GPS location from a photo in Preview, or from many photos at once in the right-click menu of Finder with Supercharge.

macOS saves a screenshot to a file or copies it to the clipboard, but not both. Supercharge also copies each saved screenshot.

Read a QR code or a barcode anywhere on your screen with Text Lens or Supercharge, or scan it with the camera of your iPhone.

macOS 26 and later has a clipboard history in Spotlight: press Command+Space, then Command+4. Supercharge opens it with one keyboard shortcut.

See the clipboard with “Show Clipboard” in Finder, and its history in Spotlight. The free Pasteboard Viewer shows every format that is on the clipboard.

Write down a thought at once in Scratchpad, one plain text note in the menu bar that syncs with your iPhone, or with Quick Note in the Notes app.

Transcribe audio and video files to text or subtitles on your Mac with Aiko, or see the transcript of a recording in Voice Memos.

Translate selected text with the Translate command of macOS, or translate text that you cannot select, like in an image or a video, with Supercharge.

Record a part of the screen with Shift+Command+5, and convert the recording to a GIF with the free Gifski app, which keeps text sharp and colors smooth.

macOS turns off Universal Clipboard only together with all of Handoff. Supercharge turns off only the clipboard, so Handoff keeps working.

Write plain text without formatting in Plain Text Editor, a simple notepad for Mac, or set TextEdit to plain text.

Set the default web browser in “System Settings › Desktop & Dock”, or switch it from the menu bar in one click with Default Browser.

Make email links open in Gmail, Outlook, or another email app or webmail with Mailway, or choose an installed email app in the settings of the Mail app.

Figma links and Zoom and Microsoft Teams meeting links open in the browser first. Velja opens them directly in the desktop app.

Use Velja to open each link in the right browser or profile, or change the one default browser of macOS.

Slack has no setting for the browser. With Velja, the links that you click in Slack open in Chrome, or in a Chrome profile, and other links open as before.

Velja removes tracking parameters, like the UTM parameters of Google, from the links that you open from other apps and the links that you copy.

Send a link from the share sheet of your iPhone, and it opens in the browser of your Mac with Hyperduck. Or use AirDrop, Handoff, or iCloud Tabs.

Call or message a favorite person with one tap from a Home Screen or Lock Screen widget with Favorites Widget, or use the Contacts widget of iOS.

Open a website, an app, or a shortcut from a widget on the Lock Screen with Quick Launch, or use the controls of the Lock Screen.

Open an app from the Lock Screen of your iPhone: replace the flashlight or camera button with a control, or add up to four app buttons with Quick Launch.

Make a blurry wallpaper from any photo with the free Blear app, with a slider for the blur, or blur only the Home Screen wallpaper in the settings of iOS.

Combine videos into one on your iPhone with a shortcut that uses the free Combine Videos action of the Actions app.

Combine voice memos and other audio files into one file on your iPhone with a shortcut that uses the free Combine Audio Files action of Actions.

Use your iPhone as a random number generator: pick a number in a range, like 1 to 100, with the free Randa app or with Shortcuts.

The Shortcuts app has no action that makes a UUID. The free Actions app adds a Generate UUID action. On Mac, a shell script can also make one.

Convert a date to a Unix timestamp, or a timestamp to a date, in the Shortcuts app with the free Actions app, or count the seconds with a built-in action.

Show one photo, or a few photos that you choose, in a Home Screen widget with Photo Widget, or show an album with the Album widget of the Photos app.

Make images from a text prompt on your iPhone, without the internet, with the free Amazing AI app and Stable Diffusion. Image Playground needs servers.

Show a short note as a sticky note widget on the iPhone Home Screen and the Mac desktop with Memo Widget, or use Stickies and the Notes widget.

Show your reminders on the Lock Screen with the Reminders widget, or only the one task that you must do now with the widget of One Task.

Show a goal, a note, or a short list on the iPhone Lock Screen with the widgets of Any Text, or show the titles of your reminders with the Reminders widget.

Apple Watch faces show only a monogram of a few characters. With Any Text, write a text on your iPhone, and show it on the watch face.

Remove the duplicate items of a list in the Shortcuts app with one action: Remove Duplicates from List of the free Actions app.

Ask for Face ID before a shortcut does its work, with the Authenticate action of the free Actions app. iOS itself can require Face ID to open an app.

The JavaScript actions of Shortcuts run on a web page in Safari, or control Mac apps. The free Actions app adds an action that runs JavaScript on any text.

Scan a document in a shortcut on iPhone and use the scan in the next actions, with the Scan Documents action of the free Actions app.

Share a grocery or shopping list with your family on iPhone, sorted by store section, with the Bare app or with the Reminders app.

iPhone cannot shut down a Mac. With Hyperduck, a shortcut on your iPhone runs a shortcut on your Mac that shuts it down, restarts it, or puts it to sleep.

Sort a list of text or numbers in the Shortcuts app, ascending or descending, with the Sort List action of the free Actions app.

Get the speech of a video in your photo library as text or subtitles with Aiko, which transcribes about 100 languages on your iPhone, or use Live Captions.

See the transcript of a recording in Voice Memos, or share the recording to Aiko to transcribe it in 100 languages on your iPhone.

Turn a video into a Live Photo on your iPhone with a shortcut that uses the free Make Live Photo from Video action of the Actions app.

Use ChatGPT in the Shortcuts app with the built-in Use Model action, or with the Ask AI action of AI Actions and your own API key.

Ask ChatGPT a question on your Apple Watch with Ask AI, and get the answer on the watch, without taking out your iPhone. Or use Siri AI on watchOS 27.

Use Claude in the Shortcuts app with the Ask Claude action of the Claude app on iPhone, or with AI Actions and your own Anthropic API key.

A variable in Shortcuts is gone when the shortcut ends. The free Actions app adds global variables that all your shortcuts and devices share.

See the time between two dates, the working days until a deadline, or the date 90 days from today, with the date calculator of Dato, or with Numbers.

Run an internet speed test on your Mac: the download speed, the upload speed, and the responsiveness, with Speediness or with networkQuality in Terminal.

Clear all notifications in Notification Center, or clear them all, also the banners on the screen, with one menu item or keyboard shortcut in Supercharge.

Flush the DNS cache of macOS with one command in Terminal, or with the “Flush DNS Cache” button of Supercharge, without Terminal.

A Calendar notification is easy to miss. Make it stay with the Persistent style, or get a fullscreen reminder with a button to join the call with Dato.

See how long you have used your Mac in the menu bar, and get a gentle reminder to take a break, with the free Pandan app, or set a timer.

macOS can say the time every hour with a voice. For a short sound at each full hour, like on a digital watch, turn on the hourly chime of Dato.

Keep your Mac awake, like while an AI agent works, with Lungo (an alternative to Amphetamine), the caffeinate command, or the sleep settings of macOS.

Find and stop the process that uses a port, like 3000 or 8080, with two commands in Terminal, or with the Kill Process action of Shortcutie.

Make an app ask again for the camera, the microphone, or screen recording. Reset its permissions with Supercharge, or with a command in Terminal.

Test the camera of your Mac, and check your hair and lighting before a video call, with Camera Preview, Photo Booth, or QuickTime Player.

Stop the Music app from opening when you press Play on the keyboard or on AirPods, with a setting in Supercharge. macOS has no setting for this.

macOS cannot send a Wake on LAN packet. The free Actions app adds a Wake on LAN action to the Shortcuts app, which wakes a computer from its MAC address.