I always run into Mac utilities that are trying to patch a missing feature of macOS. Some of these are helpful tools but there are ones that are completely unnecessary since macOS provides a way to replicate them by default. The problem is that sometimes these features are hidden or require a bit of automation via Automator. I’m going to start a series here to share these tips, so you don’t have to clutter up your menubar (and waste system resources) for pointless utilities.
Toggle dark mode via keyboard
- Open Automator and create a new Quick Action.
- Set “Workflow receives” to “no input” in the top of the window. Also make sure it’s set to “any application”.
- Search for “Change System Appearance” action on the left and drag it into the right side of the window. Automator now should look something like this.
- Save it as “Toggle Dark Mode” or “Change System Appearance”.
- Go to System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts and choose Services on the left.
- Find your newly created service in the list, then assign a keyboard shortcut to it.
- You can now toggle dark mode via the keyboard shortcut you’ve picked in any app.
Show hidden files in Finder
You can just open any Finder window, press ⌘⇧. (Command+Shift+dot) to show or hide hidden files without installing anything special.