MacOS Mojave: 5 Yearned-for Productivity Features That Streamline Work

Following the iOS 12 update that refreshed how users tap and swipe through their iPhones and iPads, the tech company officially launched macOS Mojave on Monday. Coders, visual editors, and writers rejoice, this update seems heavily focused on your all-nighters, and finding ways to make them more tolerable. This is all thanks to a major aesthetic change and a slew of newly improved shortcuts and menus.

Last year’s High Sierra upgrade brought about notable overhauls to the Photos, Safari, Notes, and Spotlight applications. But Mojave’s biggest selling point are all about work, from the long-awaited Dark Mode to new commands that are supposed to help you streamline your workflow.

To begin de-cluttering your workday, make sure your Mac device is compatible with Mojave and then backup your current operating system. And if you’re running low on disk space, you’re going to want to delete a few movies the software needs around 20-gigabytes of space to get going.

MacOS Mojave: Dark Mode and Dynamic Desktop

The pleas of designers and programmers working late into the night have been answered, Dark Mode is here and it’ll dim the traditionally bright tabs and applications of your MacBook to a shadowy gray that’s easier on the eyes. This visual feature can also be set to work on a timer, so as the day turns to night your screen will become progressively darker.

One study of chronic headache sufferers found that bright lights caused headaches in 29.3 percent of subjects, while 73.4 percent of participates who took part in the experiment reported more minor aggravation. To ease eye-strain, Apple introduced “Night Shift” to iOS 9, which limited that amount of blue light emitted by iPhones. Dark Mode won’t be an exact replica of this, but less white light will still likely make your next all-night cram session a lot more bearable.

## MacOS Mojave: Launchpad Is Now A Menu

Apple has completely reworked Launchpad, that silver spaceship icon. Instead of blurring out your whole screen to show you the applications you’ve downloaded like an iPad, it has now been organized into a list.

Clicking on Launchpad in Mojave will be akin to pressing the Start button in a Windows operating system. It’ll prompt a vertical list that only takes up a portion of your screen. This will show users more apps in less space, perfect for not interrupting your workflow when you just want to open up a quick program.

MacOS Mojave: New Keyboard Shortcuts

Mojave has also introduced a host of new keyboard shortcuts. While macOS is known for its user-friendly interface, these key commands put what once took a couple of clicks at your fingertips. If mastered, these can turn any casual Mac owner into a maximum-efficiency power users.

• Shift + Command + A = Opens Applications Folder
• Shift + Command + U = Opens Utilities Folder
• Shift + Command + H = Opens Home Folder
• Command + Comma = Opens Preferences for any app you’re currently on.

MacOS Mojave: Simpler Screenshots

Previous versions of macOS gave you the ability to screen capture your entire display with Shift + Cmd + 3, or crop out your own screenshot with Shift + Cmd + 4. Mojave has added Shift + Cmd + 5 to enable you to easily snap a perfectly rectangular picture of any tab.

Screenshotting your entire desktop can take a few crops to get what you want, and that can be difficult trying to work the cropping tool manually. Now, this third option lets you resize your window and captures at exactly the same size.

MacOS Mojave: Edit Files on Preview

Single clicking an image or PDF and pressing the Space bar file allowed users to quickly preview a blueprint or photograph, but now Mojave has added an edit feature to make giving quick notes a breeze. Instead of having to open Preview to, say, markup a draft of a magazine page you can now highlight the PDF, hit Space and immediately start drawing and writing.

This will be a go-to tool for editors or creative directors that need to give quick and seamless feedback to writers and designers. No need to wait for Preview to load, it can all be down straight from your desktop.