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Mac Pro Tips: How to install yabai and skhd

In our last post, we briefly went over yabai, which is a tiling window manager for macOS. If you’re not experienced with Linux systems, the concept of a window manager (WM) is likely foreign to you, so I’ll pause briefly to provide an explanation and definition of a window manager, specifically a “tiling” WM.

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Mac Pro Tips: Window Management.

If you’re one of the many mac users who’s spending a significant amount of time on your computer, you’ve likely spent some time thinking about how to speed up your workflow.

how to search mac mail rules on Apple Macs
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How to Search Mail Rules on a Mac

If you’re wondering why you can’t figure out how to search mail rules on your Mac, it’s because Apple has not included a way to search your email rules for the Mac Mail app. Stupid, right? You would think that with all the other things that Apple gets right, something as basic and obvious as a way to search mail rules would be a no-brainer. Anyways, if you need to search your mail rules, here’s how to do it.

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Mac Finder Slow or Not Responding? What to do With A Frozen Finder

Don’t you just hate it when the Finder on your Mac freezes up? It’s an unfortunate situation, one we all know far too well – You’re caught up in the hunt, command-tabbing between apps and windows and spaces all willy-nilly, looking for the one .csv file you need to send your boss before you’re done, oh so done with your workday.

how to customize the reply toolbar in mac mail app
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How to Customize the Toolbar in a Reply Email in Apple Mac Mail

Nearly everyone knows how to customize the tool bar for the Mac Mail app – that is, they know how to customize the primary email tool bar on their Macbook or Mac.. But when you are editing a reply email, the tool bar for that reply email is different than the primary tool bar. Here’s how to customize the reply toolbar in Mac Mail app. This information is current as of Big Sur; YMMV (your milage may vary) with other versions.

Here's What 'AmpDevicesAgent Wants to Use Your Confidential Information' Means
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Here’s What ‘AmpDevicesAgent Wants to Use Your Confidential Information’ Means

“AMPDevicesAgent wants to use your confidential information stored in iOS backup in your keychain” screams the intrusive popup, over and over no matter how many times you tell it “Deny”. Given the relative lack of information provided, and given that the scant information that is provided includes the ominous word “confidential”, of the three choices offered to satisfy the popup, which are ‘allow’ (no), ‘always allow’ (heck no), and ‘deny’ (yes, that one), that last option (‘deny’) should be your default, or even knee-jerk, reaction, especially as the other two options require you to enter your password (eek). At least until you can figure out what the heck it all means.

How to Stop Mac Messages from Popping Out and Opening a New Window When You Click on a Message
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How to Stop Mac Messages from Popping Out and Opening a New Window When You Click on a Message

It has been the bane of Mac users’ existences ever since Big Sur: how to prevent Messages from opening a new chat window when you click on a new message that has arrived? Starting with Big Sur, double clicking, or even just newly clicking, on a new message in Messages (formerly iMessage) when transitioning from any other app causes the new message to be opened in a new window, rather than it just going to the message within the Messages list. This happens whether you have your trackpad set to “tap to click” or you have your trackpad set to require an actual physical click (well, even those aren’t actually physical, so we guess that we should say “actual simulated physical click”).

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Mac Mail Search Not Working on Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina? Do This

If your Mac mail search is not working in Catalina, Monterey, or Big Sur (or really any other version), read on! Sometimes it’s the most obvious, and simplest, thing that you do last. In 2021 (and now 2022) there were tons of articles and posts answering questions about how to fix email search on a Mac, and many of them suggest complicated (and yes, sometimes necessary) methods for restoring the search function for your Mac email, everything from reindexing Spotlight to reinstalling the OS (eek!). So if email search is not working on your Mac, we’re here to hopefully save you some frustration.

How to Deselect All or Multiple Emails in the Mac Mail App
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How to DESELECT All Email Messages in the Mac Mail App

Don’t you just hate it when you accidentally hit Command-A (⌘-A) and end up selecting all of the email messages in the mailbox or folder you are currently in? Of course, ordinarily you can just hit ‘escape’, or even hit ⌘-A again, and it will deselect them all. But for at least some people running Mac OS 11.6 Big Sur (and maybe others), does that work? Nooooo! And with apologies to Steve Martin, excuuuuuuuse us!!! Why the heck not? Here’s how to deselect all email messages if you have accidentally selected them all.

How to More Easily Delete Messages in iMessage without the X in Big Sur
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How to Delete Messages Now that iMessage Doesn’t Have X to Delete Message in Big Sur

Frustrated that iMessage on the Mac doesn’t have the X to delete a message thread any more? Us too. Starting with Big Sur iMessage no longer has the X on which you used to be able to click to easily delete a message conversation. In fact, it’s pretty darned frustrating, and why Apple would remove that handy (and, let’s face it, very small and lightweight) feature is beyond us. However, there you have it.

How to Disable the Notification Panel in Mac OS Big Sur
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How to Disable the Notification Center Notifications Panel on Your Mac or Macbook

Apple is so very helpful, aren’t they? That’s one of the reasons that they shove the notification center, with the notifications panel screen, in your face whenever you accidentally move your trackpad or mouse too close to the upper righthand corner of your screen. Annoying, isn’t it? And kind of shocking that when you go to your notifications preferences there is no way to disable the Notification Center, or even to at least make it stop flying out that notifications panel. Well, we’ve got you covered; here’s how to completely disable the Mac Notification Center.

dockstar alternative
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Missing Dockstar? Get Dock Icon Mailbox Badges with This Dockstar Alternative!

If you are looking for a Dockstar replacement to give you multiple mailbox or folder notification badges on your Mail dock icon, or if you wondering how to have multiple email notifications badges on your Mac Mail dock icon, you’re going to love this Dockstar substitute!

Check the server name or IP address and then try again If you continue to have problems contact your system administrator
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Before Losing Your Mind Trying to Connect to Your Time Capsule Try This

If you’ve suddenly been unable to connect to your Time Capsule or other backup drive, getting the error “There was a problem connecting to the server … Check the server name or IP address, and then try again. If you continue to have problems, contact your system administrator”, here’s what to do.

activity monitor apple mail
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Whatever Happened to Activity Monitor in Apple Mail? And How to Get it Back

Are you trying to find where is the Mail activity monitor on your Mac? If you are something of a geek, you probably really appreciated that the Apple mail app on your Mac allowed you to monitor every time an activity fired up in mail via a little monitor at the lower left of your Mail.app window. Here’s how to get it back.

How to Get to the Beginning of, Search, and Print a Long iMessage Thread
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How to Get to the Beginning of, Search, and Print a Long iMessage Thread

If you have an iPhone or Mac, and want to get to the beginning of a long text message conversation, you don’t have to manually scroll through pages and pages of the text message thread to view old messages. Here’s an easier way to do it, along with how to search text message history, and how to print out all or some of those text messages!