Mac OS Mojave is out: these are the most useful innovations

There are all sorts of little things in Mojave that can improve your workflow or otherwise improve your experience, such as easier trimming of video, the ability to upload photos via your iPhone, an improved App Store and clarifying the access that different apps have to your camera and microphone, but there are a number of things that you can really get excited about and that have put five things in a row.

1. Dark mode

The dark mode is something that you might use in most apps just like me because it looks more pleasant. In the general settings, you can turn on Dark Mode in your system preferences, if you do not immediately choose when installing Mojave. You can even set which accent colors you can set. So. Nice. The dark background that you get by default when you turn on Dark Mode is also part of the dynamic background. You can set it up with your desktop and the picture will change as the day progresses. Handy if you sit somewhere where you do not see the open-air but want to have a subconscious indicator of where you are in the day. And beautiful.

2. Stacks

Stacks is a blessing for people who have a lot of files on their Mac, specifically on the desktop. I am extremely happy with it, because at last you can choose to group all the photos together, or all the files that you have created today, or how you want to organize them. If you choose Group Stacks in the Finder at View, you can arrange that and then you just have to click on a stack to fish out or open a file. Ideal.

3. Adjusting screenshots and recording video

If you are a fan of the way you can adjust screenshots after taking in iOS, you will also be able to appreciate this (I am very happy with it anyway). Just like on your iPhone, you get a small preview window in the corner when you take a screenshot and if you click on it you can then draw on it, crop it and make other adjustments before you save the screenshot permanently. Extremely useful if you want to forward something quickly or otherwise want to adjust your screenshots.

Also new is that besides Command-shift-3 and 4 you can now also use 5 to quickly make a video. Ideal if you want to show something and want to forward it quickly. You can choose whether you want to capture the whole screen, a window or a specific part of the screen. Very nice, also to capture videos by the way.

4. The new Gallery View

Browsing through your files becomes a lot easier with the new Gallery Mode. You can view all sorts of files in it and below that are the thumbnails of the other files in that folder. Switching with the arrow keys and what is especially striking about this mode is how fast it all goes. Even on my old 2012 Macbook Pro it goes like a train and that was rather different.

It also makes it easier to adjust the things you view in Gallery View. Preview has also been improved in the sense that you can easily make adjustments while you are looking at something. Be careful not to accidentally mist a fine photo and then save the changes.

Better dealing with passwords

In Mojave you can ask Siri what your Netflix password is and then you’ll get it from her too. Not spoken, that would be awkward, but you can find it in your passwords stored in Mac OS. If it’s on your Mac, Siri can tell you.

In addition, you can be protected from yourself by looking at Safari’s settings. If you go to preferences there you can see in the passwords tab for which services you use the same passwords because there is a yellow exclamation mark. You immediately get a link to the place where you can change that password, so that you are doing something more secure digitally.