Tag: macOS

How to Recover Closed Browser Tabs – Chrome and Safari on Mac and iPhone

How to Recover Closed Browser Tabs - Chrome, Safari, iOS 13, macOS CatalinaAccidentally closing a browser tab can be infuriating. Fortunately, the process is easy to undo for both Chrome and Safari. Here’s how you can recover closed Chrome or Safari browser tabs on a Mac or an iPhone.

Chrome

How to Recover A Closed Chrome Tab in macOS

To reopen a closed Chrome tab on a Mac, press Shift-Command-T (⇧⌘T) on the keyboard.

Recover Closed Chrome Tab on Mac Shift-Command-T

How to Recover A Closed Chrome Tab in iOS

To recover a closed Chrome tab on an iPhone, first, tap the More (More tab bar icon) button on the bottom right of the screen, and then tap Recent Tabs.

Recover Recent Chrome Tabs on iPhone

Safari

How to Recover A Closed Safari Tab in macOS

To reopen a closed Safari tab on a Mac, use the “undo” keyboard shortcut Command-Z (⌘Z).

Recover Closed Safari Tab on Mac Command-Z

How to Recover A Closed Safari Tab in iOS

To recover a closed Safari tab on an iPhone, tap the Tabs button on the bottom right of the screen, and then tap and hold on the Plus (Add navigation bar and tab bar icon) button in the middle of the screen to bring up the Recently Closed Tabs window. From there, you can pick any tab to recover.

Safari on iPhone Add New Tab Tap and Hold to Recover Closed Tabs

Do you find these tips on how to recover closed browser tabs helpful? If you would like to learn more Safari keyboard shortcuts, check out this post.

How to Change Icons in macOS

Changing your Mac’s user interface can be difficult. Apple thinks they have the best UI and they don’t really offer their users the chance to spice things up. 

For example, you can feel so utterly powerless when you need to do something as simple as giving a folder a new icon.

That is if you didn’t know where to start.

If you do, it’s actually very easy.

Here’s how you can change icons in macOS. This works on folders, as well as files, drives, and apps. If something on your Mac has an icon, this will work. Although if you are changing the icon of a stock macOS application, like Mail or Music, you’ll need to turn off System Integrity Protection first. Once the change is made, you will want to turn SIP back on.

How to Change macOS Folder, Drive, App or File Icons

Let’s say for whatever reason I wanted to change a folder’s icon to the logo of everyone’s favorite search engine.

Here’s what the macOS default folder icon looks like. Simple yet still reminding you of the letter folders that people used to carry around in the office.

macOS Default Folder Icon

And of course, here’s the Google logo, in all its glory.

Google Logo

And now onto changing the folder icon.

    1. Go to google.com, right-click on the Google logo and select Copy Image, or better and easier still, right-click on the image above and select Copy Image.
    2. Right-click on the folder you want to change and select Get Info.
    3. In the Folder Info window that appears, click to select the folder icon on the top left and press Command-V on your keyboard – see screenshot down below
    4. You have now successfully given your folder a new icon.

How to Change Icon in macOS

Did I mention this was going to be easy?

Want to learn more macOS tricks? Check out our Mac and macOS tags.

What other issues have you come across while working on your Mac? Let us know in the comments and we might just have a solution for you.

How to Add Words & Spellings to macOS Spellcheck

You would think your Mac should know every word and spelling you throw at it since it must have a huge vocabulary. However, that is not always the case. Every so often, you’d see something you type highlighted with a dreadful red dotted line below it. The line means either you just made a typo, or macOS does not know the word. If you did type correctly and want it remembered for the future, here’s how you can add the word or spelling to macOS Spellcheck.

Before we dive in, it’s worth mentioning that in order to teach macOS Spellcheck new words and spellings, you can use any text editor application you have available on your Mac. Apple’s Pages and Microsoft’s Word are two nice choices. Something simpler like the TextEdit app is a good way to go too.

In our example, we will be using the Notes app built into macOS.

How to Add Words and Spellings to macOS Spellcheck

    1. First, begin by typing up the word or spelling you want to add to Spellcheck. If you see the dotted line, that means the word or spelling is not recognized.
    2. Then, control(⌃)-click or right-click on the word or spelling. If you have a trackpad, click or tap with two fingers.
    3. In the menu that appears, select Learn Spelling on the top and you are all set. You’ve now taught macOS the word or spelling.
    4. Now, this happens sometime. If you don’t see Learn Spelling on the top of the menu, select Spelling and Grammar further down instead and click on Show Spelling and Grammar.
    5. In the Spelling and Grammar window that appears, click on Learn and that does the trick too.
    6. You’ve now added the word or spelling to Spellcheck. To confirm, type it again and you should no longer see the dotted line.

macOS Spellcheck - Learn Spelling

macOS Spellcheck - Spelling and Grammar

macOS Spellcheck - Spelling and Grammar Window - Learn Spelling

What are some of the words your computer could not recognize? Want to learn more about checking spelling and grammar on a Mac? Here’s the link to Apple’s guide on the topic.

macOS Notes App Text Too Small to Read?

macOS Notes App Icon

The Issue – macOS Notes App Text Too Small to Read

Apple’s macOS and iOS are shipped with their own version of a Notes application. I love the Notes app for three reasons. First, the app is powerful and at the same time really simple to use, and it’s not bloated with features I don’t need. Second, it is free. Third, my notes sync automatically to all my devices connected to iCloud.

However, for years I did have one issue with the Notes app in macOS, and that’s that the texts have always been too small for me to read.

Here’s a screenshot that’ll give you some idea of what I needed to deal with.

Screenshot of macOS Notes App Showing Tiny Texts

I had however made peace with the text size. After all, squinting my eyes isn’t that difficult. It wasn’t until very recently when I played around with the app that I found there’s an extremely easy fix.

The Fix – How to Change macOS Notes App Default Text Size

To change the default text size in the macOS Notes app, follow these steps.

    1. With the Notes app active, click Notes in the menu bar and select Preferences, or use the keyboard shortcut Command-Comma (⌘,)
    2. Drag the Default text size slider to your desired position. For me, I find the text size in the middle to work the best

With the default text size set to the middle, here’s what the same note looks like. I must say it’s a very pleasant improvement. 

Screenshot of macOS Notes App Showing Larger Texts

Well, that’s it. That is the extremely easy fix if the texts are too small to read in the macOS Notes app.

If you happened to stumble upon this post because you had the same issue with the macOS Notes app, I hope this proved helpful. This certainly proves you can find just about anything on the internet, eh? 

How to Lock Screen in macOS

[UPDATE]

There is a keyboard shortcut to lock the screen in macOS, and it’s Control + Command + Q.Keyboard Shortcut to Lock Screen in macOS

[ORIGINAL POST]

One of my all-time favorite things with Windows is how easy it is to lock the screen. You simply press the Windows key and L. With that, your screen is instantly locked, keeping your secrets and browsing history safe from unwanted prying eyes when you are away. The key combo makes such perfect sense too – Windows Lock, lock Windows. However, what if you are on a Mac? How do you lock screen in macOS?

In macOS, even though you don’t have a handy keyboard shortcut, it’s rather easy all the same. You might even find it easier once you know how to do it.

How to set up Hot Corners to lock screen in macOS

Locking your screen in macOS is done by moving your cursor to a “Hot Corner” to activate the “Lock Screen” command assigned to it. Before you ask, a hot corner is just one of the four corners you have on the screen.

Here’s how to set up a hot corner to lock your screen when you move the cursor there.

    • First, go to System Preferences, Desktop & Screen Saver

Alternatively, you can type “hot corner” into Spotlight and hit Enter. That’ll get you to the “Desktop & Screen Saver” system preferences too

    • Then, click on the Screen Saver tab and click on Hot Corners in the bottom right corner
    • Finally, choose one of the four corners, select Lock Screen from the dropdown and click OK

A word of advice, you’ll want to select the corner that you interacted with the least. For me, I have the bottom left corner assigned to locking my screen

Now trying moving your cursor to the hot corner, your screen will be locked instantly. Easy, right?

How to set up Hot Corners in macOS to lock screen

What is your favorite macOS or Windows feature? Do you find today’s post helpful? Let us know in the comments!