Macbook tips

Some tips and command for MacOS.

Command

Install Homebrew First

See the homepage.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install Bash git completion

brew install git bash-completion

Add bash-completion to your ~/.bash_profile or .extra

[ -f /usr/local/etc/bash_completion ] && . /usr/local/etc/bash_completion

How to Change Screenshot Save Location

create new folder in Desktop

mkdir ~/Desktop/screenshots/

Copy and paste this command to the terminal window:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop/screenshots/

Monospaced font with programming ligatures: FiraCode

Use brew and cask: Not officially supported, might install outdated version

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install font-fira-code --cask

screenshot: see the != symbol

Setting the Mac hostname or computer name from the terminal

See the reference. change the primary hostname of your Mac:

scutil --set HostName <new host name>

Main font-bundle for sketch icon-font plugin

• FontAwesome
• Material Design Icons
• Ion Icons
• Simple Line Icons (@bohn002)
• Ant Design Icons

See the detail

Install jq command

jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor. Try it online.

IDE

• GraphQL IDE for better development workflows
• Visual Studio Code
• SSH Tunnel Manager
• Elegant Facebook Messenger desktop app
• Discord App
• Gitter is a chat and networking platform
• Docker for Mac
• Wechat in China
• Google Chrome
• Telegram Desktop Messenger
• iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm
• Evernote skitch
• MPlayer OSX Extended video player
• Universal Database Tool: DBeaver Community
• Phiewer is the easiest and fastest way to view your images
• FileZilla Client not only supports FTP, but also FTP over TLS (FTPS) and SFTP
• Project discussions: Slack
• Postman
• TablePlus - native app which helps you easily edit database data and structure
• Keka - the macOS file archiver
• Elmedia Player - Best media player for macOS
• Robo 3T - Mongodb Client
• Microsoft Remote Desktop
• Security-first diagramming for teams.
• Mipony - Mipony, your download manager
• IINA - The modern media player for macOS
• Fig adds IDE-style autocomplete to your existing terminal. Move faster with Fig.
• AppCleaner is a small application which allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps.
• MacWhisper - Quickly and easily transcribe audio files into text with OpenAI's state-of-the-art transcription technology Whisper

Tips

Show all filename extensions in Finder

See the following screenshots:

How to change the ScreenShot Keyboard Shortcut

You can see the reference.

Change the Shell in Mac OS X Terminal

You can see the reference.

open the terminal app and select the preferences

Using a Windows PC Keyboard on Mac with Remapped Windows & ALT Keys

See the reference

1. Select your windows keyboard.
2. Click the dropdown next to OPTION Key and select Command
3. Click the dropdown next to COMMAND Key and select Option

Change default shell in terminal (iTerm2)

chsh -s /bin/bash

See Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

Tmux scrollback in terminal (iTerm2)

You can copy my .tmux.conf config file and update the profile of iTerm2 as following screenshot:

Native Sierra-tabs on VSCode

See the issue comment

See Use tabs in windows on Mac

Change keyboard mapping for windows keyboard

See the solution.

Change Hot keys in iTerm2

Go to iTerm Preferences → Profiles, select your profile, then the Keys tab. Click Presets... and choose Natural Text Editing. See tbe reference.

Turn on three finger drag for your Mac trackpad

Change Spodlight shortcut key

Jump between words in a bash command

In iTerm2, if you want to use Option + Right Arrow to jump between words in a bash command, you can set it up as follows:

1. Open iTerm2.
2. In the top menu, select iTerm2 -> Preferences.
3. In the Preferences window, select the Profiles tab.
4. On the left side, select the profile you are using (usually Default).
5. Select the Keys sub-tab.
6. Click the + button at the bottom right to add a new key binding.
7. In the pop-up window, set it as follows:
   • Keyboard Shortcut: Press Option + Right Arrow.
   • Action: Select Send Escape Sequence.
   • Esc+: Enter f.

This way, when you press Option + Right Arrow, iTerm2 will send Esc+f, which in bash will move to the beginning of the next word.

Similarly, you can set Option + Left Arrow to jump to the beginning of the previous word:

1. Repeat the above steps, click the + button to add a new key binding.
2. In the pop-up window, set it as follows:
   • Keyboard Shortcut: Press Option + Left Arrow.
   • Action: Select Send Escape Sequence.
   • Esc+: Enter b.

This way, when you press Option + Left Arrow, iTerm2 will send Esc+b, which in bash will move to the beginning of the previous word.

After completing these settings, you should be able to use Option + Right Arrow and Option + Left Arrow to jump between words in bash commands in iTerm2.