Setting Up a New Mac

I put together an in-depth video around how I setup a new Mac and... there is a lot. Here is a recap of everything I covered:

• Dock
  • Clean up apps to show only apps you use
  • Position it on the left
  • Make a little smaller
  • Make sure downloads folder is:
    • sorted by date modified
    • displayed as a stack
    • view contents as a grid - ensures that items can be quickly dragged out
• Activity Monitor > Icon show CPU usage - I'm probably going to get rid of this due to the M1 Max.
• Setup spaces (three fingers swipe up on the track pad)
  • First space is dedicated to email
  • Second is to my current work
  • Third is for music
• System Settings
  • Desktop & Screen Saver > Add folder of your images, rotate every 30 minutes and random order
  • Dock & Menu Bar > (uncheck) Show recent applications in Dock
  • Mission Control > Turn off rearrange Spaces
  • Mission Control > Hot Corner > Top right: Desktop (I'm probably going to remove the Quick Note hot corner)
  • Accessibility > Zoom > Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom (using Control)
  • Security & Privacy > General > Use Apple Watch
  • Sound > Sound Effects > Turn off: Play sound on startup
  • Sound > Sound Effects > Turn off: Play user interface sound effects
  • Touch ID > Add other fingers
  • Keyboard > Modifier Keys... > Change Caps Lock to Control
  • Keyboard > Text - text expansion. I normally use a different program for this. I'll talk about this in the next video.
  • Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control > Switch to Desktop 1...3
  • Trackpad > More Gestures > App Exposé
  • Displays - if you have an external monitor you can move the bar over to specify the "main screen" which will be where the desktop icons show up. I normally have this on my larger screen.
    • Display Settings > True Tone. This will mess with your colors.
    • Night Shift will adjust things as well. I use a third party app (flux) for this so I turn it off.
  • (skipped in the video) Setup Printers and Time Machine if you have them
• Finder
  • Right click on the Desktop:
    • Stack by kind
    • Sort by date added
    • Show view options - can change the icon size
  • Preferences
    • General
      • Show external disks on Desktop
      • New finder window to show the home folder
    • Sidebar
      • Customize side bar - showing pictures and movies
      • Removing recent tags
    • Advanced
      • Perform search in current folder
  • View > Show Path Bar
    • You can also control click the title bar to get the path
  • Quick walk through of Finder
    • Can change how to view files and folders (List, Column, Icon, Gallery)
    • Ability to sort files (right click Sort By)
    • Ability to group them by last modified or file type (Group By icon in toolbar)
    • Can customize toolbar
    • Hidden files (⌃⇧G)
• Archive Utility Preferences
  • After expanding: move archive to Trash
• Sign into App Store - go through your list of purchased apps and install them
  • I also find it useful to go through the Applications folder on my old Mac and go through it to make sure I have all my needed up (and skip installing apps I haven't used in the past 6 months)

Shortcuts

It is important to me to focus on work and not be distracted by selecting apps from the Dock or hunting through menus to find a particular command. I am always thinking about the tasks I repeatedly do throughout a day and then try to find ways to eliminate those repetitions through automation or find shortcuts to make it faster. I especially try to avoid my mouse/trackpad when I can. The keyboard is usually always faster.

Here is a quick key of the shortcut symbols:

• Control: ⌃
• Option: ⌥
• Command: ⌘
• Shift: ⇧
• Arrow keys: ←↑↓→
• Tab: ⇥
• Delete: ⌫
• Space: ␣
• Globe (fn key): 🌐  (there isn't a standard one for this yet :) )

Any app

• Any app
  • Preferences: ⌘ ,
  • Help: ⌘⇧/ (easier to think of this as ⌘?) - quickly search for a particular command
  • Quit: ⌘Q
  • Full screen: ⌘⌃F
  • Find (for many apps): ⌘F
• Text editing (think of ⌥ as modifier for words and ⌘ for the entire line and ⇧ to select):
  • Move by a word: ⌥→ OR ⌥←
  • Jump to the front of the line (home): ⌘← OR ⌃A (Emacs binding)
  • Jump to the end of the line (end): ⌘→
  • Delete letter to the right of cursor: ⌃D
  • Delete word: ⌥⌫
  • Delete an entire line: ⌘⌫
  • Select word: ⌥⇧→ OR ⌥⇧←
  • Select line up/down: ⇧↓ OR ⇧↑
  • Select whole line (starting at end or beginning of the line): ⌘⇧← OR ⌘⇧→
  • Select to the beginning or end of the document: ⌘⇧↑ OR ⌘⇧↓
  • Emoji: ⌘⌃␣ (or on the new keyboards: 🌐)
• Text edit - plain text toggle: ⌘⇧T
• Spotlight: ⌘␣
• App switcher: ⌘⇥
  • To go right on the list: ⇥
  • To go left on the list: `
  • Closing windows: Q
• Windows switching
  • Switch between open windows within the app: ⌘`
  • Close window: ⌘W
  • Close the entire app: ⌘Q
• Saving files: ⌘S
  • Switch to saving to the desktop: ⌘D
• Changing spaces: ⌃1, ⌃2, ⌃3, ⌃←, ⌃→
  • Seeing all of them: ⌃↑
  • Seeing all open windows for an app: ⌃↓
  • Moving windows between spaces: click and hold window and use ⌃1, ⌃2, or ⌃3
• Finder
  • Quick view (when you have an item selected): ␣
  • Delete item: ⌘⌫
  • Get info: ⌘I - Good for seeing how big something is
  • Show View Options: ⌘J - used to make sure certain folders always open a particular way
  • Go to path: ⌘⇧G - this was recently redesigned and it looks great
  • Eject: ⌘E
• Screenshots: ⌘⇧4
  • To capture the entire window: ␣
  • For more controls and to take video: ⌘⇧5
    • You can also customize where things are saved here
• Dock
  • Moving its position: ⌥⇧+ drag with mouse
  • Hide: ⌘⌥D
• System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts - take a look through these
• Accessibility - Zoom In: ⌃ + two finger swipe up/down
• Tip for the trackpad: Act as if there is still a button. Use your thumb as a "button" and use your index finger to drag items around.
  • System Preferences > Trackpad > Force Click and haptic feedback
    • If you hard click on a word it'll pull up the definition but you can do this by right clicking on it, so I normally turn this off.

Hope that helps! There are a bunch more text editing shortcuts, but this covers the ones I use 90% of the time. Keep an eye out for actions you repeat often and then look online to see if you can find a shortcut for it.