Mac OS X El Capitan: 10 Productivity Tips
Apple's Mac OS X El Capitan has its share of features that can help employees be more productive in their work. Some of the tips we're sharing here deal with the operating system itself, while others are concerned with the small applications that come with the operating system. When it comes to making the most of time spent at a computer, every little bit helps.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/blt567efc023e2fa4c6/64cb3eba95778ada97286b5d/Image_1.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
In any operating system there are the big features, like how to find a file and launch an application, and then there are little features, like how to change the color of a menu bar. The funny thing is, sometimes the features that seem little can have a huge impact on productivity.
Apple's Mac OS X El Capitan has its share of features that can help employees be more productive in their work. Some of them, like two-factor authentication for iCloud accounts, could come into conflict with existing enterprise security protocols. Many others, though, can be used by any employee given Mac OS X 10.11 and its variants.
Some of the tips we're sharing here deal with the operating system itself, while others are concerned with the small applications that come with the operating system. There are certain applications that I kept out of consideration. Mail, for example, is an acceptable email client, but most businesses standardize on a mail client for their employees. Unless your company is Macintosh-only, your email standard will likely be something other than Apple's offering.
[ What's ahead for your career? Read 10 Best Tech Jobs Of 2016. ]
There are those who will say that many of El Cap's improvements merely mirror features that Windows already had in place. These observers may be right. But that really doesn't matter when the people on your team now have the opportunity to be more productive and less frustrated with their computers. When it comes to making the most of time spent at a computer, every little bit helps.
Of course, one person's productivity tip is another person's cumbersome distraction. I'd love to know your best productivity tips. Has El Capitan made a big difference in your ability to get work done? Have I missed a feature that has made a bigger difference for you? Let me know in the comments section below -- and I'll be on the lookout for even more productivity tips to share.
Apple's Notes application has gradually evolved from a place to jot quick thoughts to a full-featured application that begins to compete with packages like Evernote and Microsoft's OneNote. One of the major steps in that direction is the ability to add a checklist to a note. A simple click on the "Checklist" menu item and you have a list that can keep track of your progress. Couple this with the ability to bring PDF and other file formats into notes, and to then synchronize the notes across all your (Apple) devices, and Notes begins to look like a very real contender in the productivity department.
How many times have you seen a busy person frantically sorting through the open applications on their desktop, trying to find where they left that critical piece of information? With split view and full-screen windows, you can now "lock" an application window to one side of the screen and have a second application locked to the other side. It's simple enough: Left-click and hold the green "full screen" button in the upper left of the window, and drag it to the side where it should live. If you're cutting and pasting between two applications, it's the cat's meow, it is.
No one will mistake Apple's voice control for a full dictation package like Dragon NaturallySpeaking, but it really is quite good. And now it's even better since you can invoke it by speaking to the computer rather than hitting a key combination. To enable this feature, go to the Accessibility menu in Settings, scroll down to "Voice Command," and you can turn on voice invocation and set your magic phrase. This is a feature best used with a headset in a relatively quiet office. If everyone is yelling at their computers all the time, things could get ugly.
If you have a Macintosh and you are using only one desktop/screen, you're not using one of the biggest productivity tricks there is. Put different applications (or groups of applications) on different desktops, then scroll between them rather than having to start and close applications each time you need them. Multiple desktops have been around for a long time, but El Capitan makes it much easier to take advantage of them. Simply go into Mission Control (the F3 key on a Macintosh keyboard), then click and hold on the application you want to place on a particular desktop, and drag it to the desktop pane at the top of the screen.
Remember earlier, when I wrote that Notes is becoming a more complete application? Here's another example of its new power: Folders for notes. Now, instead of having all your notes in a single, massive list, you can create folders to keep everything organized. When in Notes, click on the View menu, then select "Show Folders." Adding a new folder is as easy as clicking on the "+" sign at the bottom of the folder pane.
(Curtis Franklin, Jr.)
If you have certain tabs you keep open all the time (or simply visit multiple times each day), you can now pin those pages right to the toolbar. Right-click on the page's tab and select "Pin Tab." That's it. Now, every time you open a new Safari window, that page will launch -- in the screen image you can see the "pin" as the red square at the top left of the tabs lineup. This isn't a new feature in the world of browsers, but it is new to the world of Safari, and it can save aggravation every morning. That has to be worth something, right there.
Since the early days of grep we've been trying to figure out how best to translate what we want to see into words the computer can understand. El Capitan makes that a lot easier with natural language searches. Want to see spreadsheets you've created this month? Type "spreadsheets created this month" into Spotlight. It isn't Star Trek computer-level smart, but it's a huge step in the right direction -- and a big time-saver for anyone who has to find things on their computer.
I know I keep harping on Notes. With El Capitan, the application really has evolved from "Why did they put this in the operating system?" to a truly valuable tool. All you have to do is drag a file icon into a note and it will be attached. Further, if you're synchronizing your notes with your iOS devices, you'll be able to see the attachments on your phone and tablet. It's another step in the direction of Evernote from an application that is included for free with Mac OS X.
If you're in an open-plan office, this one is huge. If you're anywhere else, it still can save lots of annoyance. When a web page suddenly starts playing a sound file, a speaker icon appears on the Safari browser tab. You can click on that icon and mute the tab. Cool, right? You can also mute the entire browser, so your browsing experience will be quiet, while you can still use Skype and other communications applications. This feature seems very basic, but it's been a long time coming. Enjoy it.
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like