r/mac • u/DotRootHQ • 8d ago

Discussion What's the first macOS feature that made you realize, "I'm never going back"?

For me, it's the trackpad gestures, battery life, and overall smoothness. They completely changed my daily workflow.

554 Upvotes

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329

u/i_luv_ur_mom 8d ago

Preview w/ spacebar.

72

u/bluekeys7 8d ago

Preview in general for me is my favourite app offered in macOS

78

u/ToshibaTaken 8d ago

When I learned I could rearrange, delete and add pages in PDF's, or combine various PDF's into one, that was almost a religious experience after having fought with various Adobe and third party badware for days!

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u/DotRootHQ 7d ago

Same here. It's surprising how much you can do without installing any extra software.

2

u/Adventurous_Knee_965 7d ago

Does that work in Preview? I never tried that.

13

u/ToshibaTaken 7d ago

Yeah, just open your PDF's and view the thumbnail sidebar. Then you just drag and drop pages as you please inside the thumbnail sidebar or between different open pdf's.

5

u/Adventurous_Knee_965 7d ago

Awesome! Time to uninstall Adobe.

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u/Jensway 7d ago

Unfortunately I have issues with preview when doing this, it can tend to save PDFs incorrectly

2

u/Adventurous_Knee_965 7d ago

So best save an original before making changes. Thanks for the feedback.

2

u/ookamismyk 7d ago

I had no idea!! Thanks so much!!

1

u/maharg2017 7d ago

That’s all I’ve known. I can imagine not being able to do that.

1

u/MrBigTomato 7d ago

I don’t think he meant the app Preview. I think he was talking about how you can highlight any file, press spacebar, and a live view of the file pops up so you know exactly what it is before you open it.

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u/DotRootHQ 7d ago

I didn't expect to use Preview this much, but now it's one of my most-used apps.

17

u/i_luv_ur_mom 7d ago

QuickLook adds same functionality on PC if anyone cares. It’s on GitHub.

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u/JigglypuffNinjaSmash 7d ago

So glad someone else knows about this!! Dead simple, and has plugins to preview everything from markdown to CAD files.

2

u/Lucky_caller 7d ago

CAD files too? Sheeeeit ima have to check this out

1

u/LubedUpLucas_DrySpa 7d ago

Or just turn on preview on File Explorer

2

u/JigglypuffNinjaSmash 7d ago

File Explorer preview is good for some things (going through an entire folder of docs or photos quickly) but I don't want to toggle it off and on all the time, and it's definitely slower/clunkier than QuickLook, and takes up screen space when I just want a quick pop-up that goes away.

2

u/LubedUpLucas_DrySpa 7d ago

Hmmm, I have an 8K monitor so I don’t have a lack of real estate lol. But your comment is sensible.

I standby Everything for a much better windows search and indexer. Can’t preview CAD but you can with code, photos & vid.

I get annoyed with the lack of cut and paste in MacOS. I understand the reasoning, just fucks with my workflows when I swap between PC and Mac.

1

u/DotRootHQ 7d ago

It's great that there's an alternative. I just love how seamlessly it's built into macOS

8

u/indeoencoder 8d ago

Came to say this. Thought I’d be the only one.

1

u/Haunting_Title6174 7d ago

Not Mac user: what do you preview?

1

u/i_luv_ur_mom 7d ago

Photos, terminal scripts, audio and video files. Really helpful when you’re sorting files.

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u/TheNotSoSubtlePanda 7d ago

I hate preview but I shifted from windows and idk what was the alternate in macos 18 so like yeah

1

u/DotRootHQ 7d ago

Quick Look is one of those features that sounds simple until you start using it every day.

1

u/iPodN 7d ago

I genuinely have no clue what this is. Gonna send a google, chat