OS X El Capitan (version 10.11) is the twelfth release of OS X, of Apple Inc.‘s server and desktop operating system for Mac computers. It was released on September 30, 2015, for end users as a free upgrade through the Mac App Store. With the release of this version the major focus was put on Apple performance and user experience.
This edition has been introduced with some hidden features that users would surely want to explore in order to retrieve 100% out of it. Some of these remarkable features are:
1. Spotlight Search is Smarter
El Capitan helps to find stuff quicker with refinement in spotlight search. Let’s assume you want to invoke information regarding sports information, video search and stock quotes, all the results will come up with more or less details in the Spotlight box. And the size of the search box is not fixed anymore; you can drag it to the height you want.
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You can invoke Spotlight search by clicking the magnifying glass in the right top corner of the menu bar. You can move the box of search results anywhere you want. Type in the search string and if the result set does not fit in the box then you can drag it down by placing the cursor on the bottom edge.
2. Searching in common language
There is a chance that you have worked on a document last week but you forgot what you have named it. Never mind. Open the Documents and search document, assuming we have ordered the documents by date. Or type into the Spotlight search something like “Documents that I have worked on last week”, then results will appear in box. You can also speak the command, by pressing the Function button twice.
3. Simultaneous display of windows on the screen
We can open two programs at the same time parallely in the full-screen view to easily locate the track of live windows. Each running program is assigned half of the display, but you can adjust the relative portion of the windows.
We can minimize the running window by holding the green full-screen button, one of the three provided buttons (red, amber and green) which are on the top left hand side of each window. After holding, its shape will change showing that it’s ready to be snapped. Then drag it to top of the screen. Click on the other program and it will automatically fit into the other half of the screen. Thus both are accessible and live.
4. Wiggle to enlarge the cursor
Sometimes we can’t find the cursor; El Capitan provides the answer to this problem. Wiggle the mouse to find the cursor. Once the mouse is wiggled, it enlarges the cursor massively so you can find it. It remains large as long as you wiggle and returns to the normal size once you stop which saves time.
5. Mail Enhancement
Mails have a number of enhancements when used in full-screen mode. While composing a message in full screen, one can swap over to another conversation or click on their inbox which makes copying a text from another email or adding attachments from one message to another message by dragging them easier.
If a mail comes containing a phone number or an invitation to an event, there is a toolbar at the top of each message which can be used to add content to apps like Calendar and Contacts. A right swipe will mark mails as read or unread and a left swipe lets you delete messages.
6. Photos Enhancement
El Capitan comes with the addition of third-party editing tools within the Photos app. All the Photo editing apps in the Mac App Store will be sharing their tools with Photos, so it’s possible to edit images with these apps without actually leaving the Photos app. Thus in the Photos app when you tap on the “More” button, it will show up all third-party apps that it is supporting.
7. Safari
As a part of Safari’s improvement, there is now a Pinned Sites feature that shows frequently visited websites on the left side of the tab bar. So when a website is pinned, it keeps on updating in the background, thus when you are viewing it again it will always have recent info. Such a feature is good for sites like Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter, which you use often.
8. Maps
The Maps app has a new Transit view feature, which displays subway, walking, bus, train, and ferry routes, for planning a trip that involves mass transit routing in advance. Before, getting transit directions required using a third-party mapping service.
9. Disk Utility
The useful and widely used disk utility in EI Capitan has been overhauled and now looks prettier than ever. You’ll find multiple options and new additions in disk utility, like a repair permission feature.
Enter the password when asked. The disk will be checked and any error which persists will be reported and will be fixed if possible. Disk utility is indeed helpful to fix disk related errors. If the problems cannot be fixed using disk utility or if it’s crashing, it’s time to use a reliable third party tool like Mac Data Recovery Guru and move all your important data first. Mac Data Recovery Guru is especially helpful when a disk is about to fail or stopped responding and you don’t want to lose all your crucial files and folders..
10. Hiding Menu Bar
You can hide the Menu Bar that runs across the top of the screen as well as the bottom. Go to System Preferences, choose General in the options, and then select the box marked automatically hide. This means that you can opt for a screen that’s completely clean.
Undoubtedly, these features make the latest El Capitan more powerful and of course a must try version of the OS X. Once you start exploring these hidden treasures of the Mac OS X 10.11, you will definitely start admiring it.
Source: lifehack.org
