I am currently using a couple of Apple devices for both work and personal stuff and through the years I’ve developed a number of different workflows that have made working with the OS a bit easier. I love how Rahul Chowdhury shares Mac Tips on X and on Hulry. I am usually blown away at how much is hidden under the hood that I am not taking advantage of.
I am no expert neither do I spend countless hours exploring various applications or the OS but I figured, through my daily usage, I’d share a thing or two that I have found interesting and worth sharing. Enjoy!
Introduction
MacOS Monterey was announced at WWDC 2021 and with it came a new feature which allows you to use a single mouse or trackpad and keyboard to control any nearby Mac or iPad devices called universal control.
This feature was demoed using a MacBook and an iPad but it works with other Macs.
Personal Setup
I simultaneously use my trusted 2017 MacBook Pro and Mac mini for work but I prefer the flexibility of moving around with the MacBook Pro and having the freedom to work from anywhere. Most importantly, I enjoy typing on the butterfly keyboard ( which I’ve really done a number on the keys ). I have literally seen images where people simply take off the MacBook screen, keep the trackpad and keyboard then simply connect it to their monitor. I think that’s pretty sick and I’d definitely do something similar if I had the resources.
Before I got the Mac mini, the MacBook Pro was connected to my monitor through an HDMI cable and it was natural moving the cursor to the edge of any open window to move focus to another window on the monitor. I carried this forward to my current setup and that’s how weirdly I discovered universal control and although I am probably late to the party, this is arguably my best macOS feature of recent memory.
This feature has really helped me focus on crucial or more important tasks on the MacBook Pro while I take calls and work on some quick fixes on the Mac mini. This is far from an ideal use of these devices as I’d prefer to take calls and do minor work on the less powerful MacBook Pro but until I can get an M Series variant, I’ll stick with this setup.
Summary
I think it’s actually insane that I came across this feature by mistake. I’d watched a couple of videos on YouTube that talked about it but I’d initially thought it was meant to control iPad devices only.
I don’t remember having to activate this on my MacBook Pro but I’m pretty sure once I updated to the latest macOS version at the time, it became available. There’s a really nice guide on the Apple website that shows step by step how to activate this feature as well as supported devices ( I hope you’re in luck ).
Let me know if this helps and if you find it productive. Cheers!
What’s your favourite feature of macOS ? I’d love to hear it.