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31 guides verified macOS 15.4 Updated April 2026
02 / Mac › 04 · Use

Mac Use: Use .

Mac Use: Master the shortcuts and hidden features Apple buries three menus deep — and the rituals that turn a Mac into a real instrument.

Guides
31
Avg time
4min
For
15.4
● Section 04 · Mac · Use
⌘⇧4
Use it.
Photograph · MacBook workspace
via Unsplash
→ Editor's letter
April 2026 Iris & the Mac desk 31 guides · all verified

The hardest thing about a Mac isn't learning it. It's discovering what's already there. Apple has spent twenty years burying its best features under right-click menus, modifier keys, and the assumption that you'd find them by accident. We made these thirty-one guides so you don't have to wait that long.

How we organize Six rituals — Capture, Search, Window, Text, Files, Voice — each one a habit worth building. Pick the one that matches what you do on a Mac most.
→ The complete index

Thirty-one ways to actually use it.

All Beginner Power Updated
01

Capture & share

Screenshots, screen recording, and the keyboard surface that turns a Mac into a clipboard for the rest of your day.

7 guides · avg 4 min
  1. 01.01 How to screenshot on MacFeatured Capture 4 min
  2. 01.02 Record your screen with audio in QuickTime Capture · Audio 5 min
  3. 01.03 Annotate, crop, and mark up screenshots without Preview Capture · Markup 3 min
  4. 01.04 Send a screenshot straight to your iPhone with Universal Clipboard Continuity 2 min
  5. 01.05 Change where Mac screenshots get saved (and why you should) Capture · Files 3 min
  6. 01.06 The screenshot toolbar's hidden timer and pointer-show toggle Capture · Power 3 min
  7. 01.07 Capture a single window without its drop shadow Capture · Pro tip 2 min
02

Search & summon

Spotlight is finally the launcher Apple promised. Here's how to actually live in it.

5 guides · avg 4 min
  1. 02.01 The new Spotlight: clipboard, math, file actions, natural searchNew Spotlight 5 min
  2. 02.02 Limit Spotlight indexing to keep results clean Spotlight · Settings 3 min
  3. 02.03 Use Quick Look as a launcher you didn't know you had Quick Look 3 min
  4. 02.04 Search inside PDFs and images from Finder Finder 4 min
  5. 02.05 Build smart folders that update themselves Finder · Power 6 min
03

Windows & spaces

Mission Control, Stage Manager, Split View — the three ways macOS organizes work, and when each one earns its keep.

6 guides · avg 4 min
  1. 03.01 Mission Control gestures, hotkeys, and per-app spaces Mission Control 5 min
  2. 03.02 Snap windows like Windows 11 (without an extra app)New Window mgmt 3 min
  3. 03.03 Stage Manager, finally explained — and when to turn it off Stage Manager 6 min
  4. 03.04 Hot corners: the underused trackpad of the desktop Power 3 min
  5. 03.05 Move windows between Spaces with one keystroke Spaces 2 min
  6. 03.06 App-aware desktops: pin Slack to Space 3 forever Spaces · Power 4 min
04

Text & typing

Text Replacement, dictation, emoji, and the cursor-movement keys that make every other app faster.

5 guides · avg 3 min
  1. 04.01 Text Replacement: the productivity feature Apple gives away free Text · Power 4 min
  2. 04.02 Dictate anywhere with the new on-device model Dictation 3 min
  3. 04.03 Every emoji and symbol shortcut, organized Text · Reference 3 min
  4. 04.04 Move by word, line, paragraph — the keyboard map Text · Reference 2 min
  5. 04.05 Multi-cursor editing in any text field Text · Power 3 min
→ Editor's picks

Start here.

All Use guides →
⌘⇧4
Capture · Lead 2h ago

How to screenshot on Mac, the full menu.

Eight shortcuts, one you definitely don't know, and the new Sequoia tweak that finally lets you skip Preview entirely.

Iris Verified 4 min
Spotlight · New Yesterday

The Spotlight features that finally killed our launcher app.

Clipboard history, math, file actions, natural-language search — what's new in 15.4 and what to enable.

Iris Verified 5 min
Window mgmt 3 days ago

Snap windows like Windows 11 (without an extra app).

Sequoia's new tiling layer, the keyboard combos you actually want, and a ten-second turn-off if it gets in your way.

Iris Verified 3 min
→ The cheat sheet

Nine combos that earn their keep.

⌘+⇧+4
Screenshot a region
Hold space after to grab a window. Drop in ⌃ to copy instead of save.
⌘+Space
Spotlight
Search, math, conversions, app launch. Add ⌥ for the new clipboard view.
⌘+`
Cycle windows in app
The shortcut that ⌘+Tab users keep forgetting they need.
⌃+↑
Mission Control
Or three fingers up on a trackpad. ⌃+←/→ to flip Spaces.
⌘+⇧+.
Toggle hidden files
Inside Finder, Open dialogs, Save dialogs — anywhere with a file picker.
⌘+⌥+Esc
Force Quit
The escape hatch you forget about until the spinner won't stop.
fn+fn
Dictation
Two taps and start talking. On-device in 15.4, no internet required.
⌘+⇧+5
Screenshot toolbar
Recording, timer, hide pointer, save destination. The whole capture surface.
⌘+K
Connect to server
Finder's hidden network browser. smb://, afp://, ssh://.
→ Frequently asked

Mac, answered.

The questions readers send the desk most often this month. If yours isn't here, search above — odds are good we wrote about it.

Q.01 What's the fastest way to take a screenshot on a Mac? +
⌘+⇧+3 for the whole screen, ⌘+⇧+4 for a region. Hold Space after that second one to grab a single window without its drop shadow. The full menu — recording, timers, save destination — lives behind ⌘+⇧+5. Full guide →
Q.02 Where do my screenshots actually save? +
By default, the Desktop. You can change it from the screenshot toolbar (⌘+⇧+5 → Options → Save to). We recommend a dedicated folder you sweep weekly — your Desktop will thank you.
Q.03 Is Spotlight finally good enough to replace Raycast or Alfred? +
For most people in 15.4: yes. Clipboard history, math, file actions, and natural-language search are all built in. The two cases where third-party launchers still win: deep custom workflows (Raycast Snippets) and shared team commands. Otherwise — try Spotlight for a week first.
Q.04 Do I need Stage Manager? +
Probably not. Stage Manager is genuinely good if you work with two to four apps and want them grouped, but Spaces does most of what it offers with less ceremony. Try it for three days; if you don't reach for it instinctively, turn it off.
Q.05 How do I show hidden files in Finder? +
⌘+⇧+. in any Finder window or file picker. Same shortcut hides them again. No Terminal required since Sierra, despite what older guides will tell you.
Q.06 What's the dictation shortcut on Mac in 2026? +
Two quick presses of fn on most keyboards. In 15.4 the model runs on-device — no network, no Apple-side transcription — and it's noticeably faster than the cloud version was last year.