When it comes to your computer, they tend to become personalized pretty quickly. They cost a heap of cash, we save everything from banking details to photos of us as babies on there. And, while many people would love to have the Mac Vs. Windows conversation repeatedly, it really does boil down to personal choice. For example, using Airdrop to quickly share files or screen mirroring if you have a capable telly. You might even want to use Chromecast (more information on that here https://setapp.com/how-to/set-up-and-optimize-chromecast-for-mac). The point is, if you can think it up, you can probably do it.
Typically though, if you have an iPhone, getting an iPad of Mac is just smart – the Apple Ecosystem is super smooth to use on the go and even more so if you are a freelancer.
But, what cool stuff can your Mac do? How can you customize it?
Wallpaper
You know that saying – keep it simple, stupid? Well, of course, wallpaper was going to one of the most natural things to change. But to keep it fresh, set up a range of your favorite images and have it set to change automatically. To do this, you just go System Preferences > Desktop & Screensaver. From there, you have a range of options that will help you set up something you are happy with. You can click then random order box if you like to be surprised or set it up to only display what you want and when. Simple and effective.
Hot Corners
Many people don’t even know this is a thing. When you are in the Desktop & Screen Saver menu, you will see the Screen Saver tab. The bottom corner will have a button that says Hot Corners.
This little button will open up a quick world for you. You can set each corner to invoke specific actions. For example, if you edit a lot of photos, perhaps one will bring up Lightroom or Photoshop, the other might be Photos or your photography website. You can set up pretty much anything you can imagine that works well for you.
Color
Some people love dark screens, others love pink. If you are pretty much sick of seeing any links in blue and want sky blue instead then this is for you. System Preference > General then hit Highlight color & choose a color. There are 8 choices given, but you can select Other and play with the color picker until you find what you want.
Time
The menu bar has a lot of potential – if you are willing to spend the time to set it up. Did you know, for example, you can have so much more than just the time on the bar. In fact, you can have the time with second, flash the time separators, the 24-hour clock, am/pm indicators, the day of the week, the date and even an announce the time function. To access all these goodies, click the time in the menu bar and go to Open Date & Time Preferences to get started.
App Icons
If you really want to give you Mac the personal touch, then you can change your app icons. The process for changing isn’t too tricky, and if you have a specific aesthetic, you enjoy, then this will be one for you. First, you’ll need to find and download all of the icons you want to use. If they are in a .icns format, then you won’t need this next step.
Select the .png or .jpeg and click Preview, then Edit, Select All and then copy the selection. Locate the app that you want to changes, select it, and click Get Info or Command-I. Click the small icon in the top left of the app and then Paste (Command-V) the new image in place.
It is worth noting that it works for almost all apps, but might not work on Apple’s own apps.
Dock
If you have a lot of programs on your dock, it can feel cluttered and clunky. But, you can add space between each one to ease that overfilled look. If you don’t love the spacers when you add them in, you can simply drag them away.
To add spaces, open up Terminal and then enter this code:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add ‘{“tile-type”=”spacer-tile”;}’; killall Dock
Don’t panic when your whole dock disappears for a moment – it will be back. You’ll notice that there is now an invisible tile while can be dragged to anywhere you’d like to add a space on the bar.
Spotlight Searches
If you often work in coworking space, but you have files that you don’t want to be listed during a search, then there is a simple way for you to exclude them from the searches. Go to System Preferences and click Spotlight, then click Privacy, then go to the + and add the folders that you don’t want to pop up in future searches.
Finder
Finder is a fantastic tool – most of the time, but you can make the organization a little bit better. Finder has plenty of settings that simply make it look neater. You can arrange things in Kine, Size or Date Added. If you are very good at remembering to label your folders with the correct names, then the excellent look of alphabetic order might be the one for you.
There are of course many more things you can do with your Mac to personalize it, some are more technical than others. Of course, if you are really intent on making it your own, you might like to grab some stickers and make something super cool. Or, design your own screensavers and desktop backgrounds. Another great option is using the iTunes Artwork screensaver (but for this one, if you work in shared space you need to really stand by your music choices!) Macs are a lot of fun, once you get into it, you might find you just love the simple monochrome look.