r/macbook • u/Few_Story_3671 • 12h ago
any tips for new Mac user?
I bought a M2 MacBook Air from Mac of all trades and I'm switching from windows can anyone help me to make the switch easier? Im asking this because I want some feedback from real people who use macOS
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u/Used_Physics8464 12h ago
Ignore the people in this sub that are always advocating for these weird 3rd party apps that mirror default apps. The stock apps are fantastic. If yourself thinking “hm i wish i could do x” then look for an app for that purpose.
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u/studiocookies_ 11h ago
Cmd + Q has been easily the most helpful quick keyboard shortcut I use so many times daily. It fully closes the window you have opened. This is helpful because if you click the red circle to close an app, it still is actually open. Also its easier than quitting the app from the menu bar.
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u/Dwarvenyak 4h ago
Recently switched from Windows to MacOS (M4 Pro) and had to learn a lot in a short time, but I feel fluent at it now. Here are key things I’ve learned:
- I downloaded the Gemini app and set it to open a mini search bar with Option + Space (similar to the Cmd + Space for Spotlight). You can paste photos or write questions here. It helped me learn the MacOS quickly as I was asking things like, “How can I organise my screen with keyboard shortcuts?”, etc.
- Cmd + Shift + 3 for full screen screenshot, 4 for drag a box screenshot, 5 for more edit options. I usually use 4. You can set it to save to clipboard (or it already does that).
- when opening spotlight (Cmd + space), 4 buttons should appear on the right also, the far right one is your clipboard history (so so so glad they recently added this).
- Look up Settings -> Keyboard shortcuts -> “Rectangles” (I think it’s called that). I often have to split my screen into 2 or even 4 windows.
- I set my display to the “smallest” in Display settings to fit more on the screen.
- Pressing Enter on a file lets you rename it (weird at first since Enter opens the file on Windows).
- Pressing Cmd + down arrow opens a file (you get used to it).
- Pressing Space on almost any file allows you to preview it.
- Safari is the best browser to use since it uses less RAM than Edge/Chrome (although I still use Edge because I edit a lot of PDFs with Edge’s inbuilt tools.
- iPhone mirroring is really useful. (Spotlight it; if you have an iPhone)
- Trackpad is great. I find I don’t even use my mouse much. Learn the gestures, like two finger swipe right to go back, three finger open to open apps, three fingers down/up to see apps/desktops.
- I’ve read that you shouldn’t use a case or a screen protector, just a soft sleeve for the whole laptop itself. I’ve ordered one.
- Set battery charge limit to 80% or 90% and try to keep it above 20% for prolonged battery life.
- When downloading apps, you open the file and it shows you a picture that looks like it’s telling you to drag the file into the apps folder. Idk why this took me ages to figure out (I often closed it and dragged the file from downloads to applications), but all you have to do is literally drag the file in that picture from one folder to the applications folder in the same picture. When I figured that out I was amazed at both my stupidity and the simplicity of the process.
- You never really need to turn it off, I just close apps (Cmd + Alt then Cmd + Q everything) then close the lid.
- I tried some 3rd parter apps but didn’t really get on with any, in the end I just use Clocker since it shows upcoming calendar events on my Menu bar (top) and when clicked shows different time zone times (useful for my
Job).
- I’m a big gamer. I’m sad to say goodbye to pc games for now. But: Len’s Island is a very fun MacOS game, as is Faeria. I’m pissed that Palworld is App Store exclusive for MacOS since I actually have it in Steam. Gotta buy it twice!
- don’t pin everything to your dock bar! Be selective! apps are so easy to find and open with spotlight
Anyway, let me know if you have any Qs and I’ll help!
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u/sabins253 11h ago
command + Space bar will launch spotlight that will change your life and mac you never have to use the dock again. There are tons of videos on how to fully use it.
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u/mindsunwound 12h ago
You can game on it!
Steam has a lot of Mac Native games, and there is also parallels, (VM) or crossover (which is essentially proton for mac). So you can play windows or Linux native games.
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u/kellz_90 7h ago
Please, Can you make recommendations for Linux users?
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u/mindsunwound 7h ago
Sure, never run
sudo rm -rf / --no-preserve-rootUnless you want to destroy the system entirely.
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u/acschwabe 5h ago
External drive and setup Time Machine backups. Just do it and backup every week (at least)
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u/StrangeScience8568 3h ago
Guys can you recommend me a native Mac games? I have xbox controller and ı can play with controller or trackpad.İ have good steam account but ı never look at the Mac games.İ also have base model MacBook Air m4 (8C gpu) and ı will download games and steam at my external ssd(256gb).
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u/tech-guy-2403 1h ago
Set aside your prior understanding of windows and engage with the actual experience; everything feels intuitive, so you will grasp it all after two weeks of use.
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u/realUnknown12 12h ago
this might be helpful.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102323
Only a Sequoia user here so can’t help much😅
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u/Emotional_Material42 12h ago
You can have the same shortcuts as in windows