In 2016, the MacBook Pro from the same year was launched with a change that would change the keyboard concept. Some of these models, would come integrated with the already known by all TouchBar. A touch bar that allowed us to navigate from our keyboard, on the screen and interacting with different elements. Here we are going to teach you some tricks to get the most out of your TouchBar.
For those who do not know it, the TouchBar is a new world in MacBook. It has as many possibilities as infinity is the universe. Mainly, what it usually shows us is almost always the Esc button, in addition to the Siri button, the volume and the brightness. Along with this, a little arrow appears that unfolds before us a series of possibilities among which is the Launchpad, the backlight of the keys or Airplay. It is a complement that makes shortcuts much easier for us. Now, we ask ourselves, what can I do with my TouchBar to take advantage of it? Here we are going to teach you.
The most famous tricks
What you will surely miss the most with this TouchBar are the function keys, that is, F1, F2, F3 … In order for them to appear, we will have to hold down the fn key in the lower left corner of our keyboard. This will show the 12 function keys next to esc. However, if we want to continuously use this key we will have to go to System> Keyboard> Shortcuts. Select Function Keys and once there, click on ‘+’. In addition, within the Keyboard tab, if we click on “customize Control Strip”, we can have access to the modification of the different functions that our TouchBar normally offers us.
Other of the best known functionalities is the ability to navigate between the different tabs when we are inside Safari. This allows us to make our experience with the browser much more useful and simple. On the other hand, another of the shortcuts that we are allowed to do in Safari is to be able to select one of the websites that we have saved in favorites, since these will appear in our TouchBar automatically.
Also this TouchBar will allow us to interact with incoming calls. When someone calls us, their name will appear as well as the buttons to pick up or pick up the call. In the case of answering this call, the time of the call can be displayed on the TouchBar as well as the buttons to hang up, mute or go to make a video call with that person.
The least known
If you are a regular consumer of multimedia on platforms such as YouTube or your own harvest, the TouchBar is going to become a huge ally. This touch bar will allow us to interact and move freely through the content in an exhaustive way. This will help us to be able to move in a more simple and comfortable way, for example if we have to edit a video, we will no longer have to worry so much about the mouse. If that is true, that the TouchBar works very well when used together with the trackpad, so using them at the same time is fully compatible. There are buttons that we can add such as the LaunchPad or Mission Control, with which we can make shortcuts that will make us forget the trackpad or mouse again.
At this point you will wonder if these functions are only compatible with native Apple applications. Well, no, there are third-party applications that have wanted to get on the bandwagon of touch functions within the TouchBar to facilitate the user experience. Some of the best known can be Microsoft Office (where writing is greatly facilitated), Skype, Pixelmator, 1Password, PDF Expert or Focus. All of them have included functions within the TouchBar. To name a few, specifically Microsoft Office, which is the one that most users use, has included functions within its entire package. For example in Word, you can select the type of text, size or highlight. This greatly facilitates the achievement of a faster and more efficient text. In Excel or PowerPoint we are faced with similar functions but integrated within the functions that these programs offer us
We recommend that if you have a MacBook with TouchBar, you dare to start using it more regularly. This will completely change your concept of browsing your MacBook and of performing the different actions that you used to do until today. It is a tool that if you know how to use, greatly facilitates the work with your MacBook.
