- Mission Control Macbook Pro Touch Bars
- Macbook Pro Touch Bar Not Working
- Macbook Touch Bar
- Macbook Pro Touch Bar Review
Open Mission Control. Use any of these methods to open Mission Control: Swipe up with three. The MacBook Pro's Touch Bar lacks a compelling purpose, but it doesn't have to be that way. These apps and tools make it incredibly useful, and make us wonder why Apple didn't include any of. May 08, 2020 Turn MacBook Pro's Touch Bar into function keys. Simply follow the steps below. Macbook pro preview. Access features like Mission Control and Launchpad, and control music playback and volume. It also includes an. Open Mission Control. Swipe up with three or four fingers on your trackpad, or double-tap the surface of your Magic Mouse with two fingers. Open the Mission Control app, which is in your Applications folder. Press the Mission Control key on your Apple keyboard or Touch Bar.
The Touch Bar puts access to your MacBook's commands and controls right at your fingertips. It even adapts automatically, changing its available options based on the apps you're using and what you're doing. Pretty cool, right? But one of the most valued features of the Touch Bar is the fact that you can customize it, making frequent tasks and commands a breeze.
In this article, we'll take a look at the Touch Bar feature on the MacBook Pro. We'll walk you through the basic functions of the Touch Bar and how you can customize it for different apps and uses on your MacBook Pro.
What is the MacBook Pro Touch Bar?
The Touch Bar is a smart, multi-use touch-operated bar. The MacBook Pro was the first Mac to introduce the Touch Bar, which replaced the topmost row of physical keys on its keyboard.
The Touch Bar has the same functionality as the standard keys it replaces (including volume, brightness, and Function keys). What's more: In a feat of versatility, the Touch Bar can also change its available options according to the app you're currently working in.
Located on the far right of your Touch Bar is the Control Strip. The Control Strip's default settings include brightness, volume control, Siri, and much more.
Access classic functions
If you relied on the classic Function keys for a variety of uses, no need to worry! To use the typical F1–F12 keys on your MacBook Pro, press and hold the Function key (fn) on the bottom left corner of your keyboard. Holding the Function key will pull up each of the traditional Function keys across the Touch Bar.
How to customize your Mac's Touch Bar
The Touch Bar allows you to customize its default functions. To change or rearrange these options, go to View in the Top Navigation bar and select Customize Touch Bar. This screen should appear:
In the upper left of this menu, you'll see the Default Set. This is the set of options that will appear when this application is running.
To customize these options, simply click and drag the icons to the bottom of your screen and they will appear on the Touch Bar. You can also use your finger to select a command or function directly on the Touch Bar and move it to your new preferred location.
Customize the Control Strip
One of the best features of the Touch Bar is that you can customize it for each individual app you use.
If you want to customize the Touch Bar for a particular app, start by launching the desired application (it'll need to be one that supports customization).
With the app open, navigate to View in the Top Navigation Bar and select Customize Touch Bar. Next, touch the Touch Bar's Control Strip area to switch over to Control Strip customization. This screen should appear:
How to customize your Mac's Touch Bar
The Touch Bar allows you to customize its default functions. To change or rearrange these options, go to View in the Top Navigation bar and select Customize Touch Bar. This screen should appear:
In the upper left of this menu, you'll see the Default Set. This is the set of options that will appear when this application is running.
To customize these options, simply click and drag the icons to the bottom of your screen and they will appear on the Touch Bar. You can also use your finger to select a command or function directly on the Touch Bar and move it to your new preferred location.
Customize the Control Strip
One of the best features of the Touch Bar is that you can customize it for each individual app you use.
If you want to customize the Touch Bar for a particular app, start by launching the desired application (it'll need to be one that supports customization).
With the app open, navigate to View in the Top Navigation Bar and select Customize Touch Bar. Next, touch the Touch Bar's Control Strip area to switch over to Control Strip customization. This screen should appear:
From here, you can customize your Control Strip to include Mission Control, Play/Pause, Night Shift, Screenshot, Screen Lock, and much more.
Using Touch Bar with native applications
The Touch Bar has a wide range of functionality within native (Apple) applications.
In the Messages app, for example, you can create a new message, access a variety of your frequently used emojis, and even use a few quick replies. In Apple Mail, you can use Touch Bar to easily compose, reply to, archive, mark as junk, and flag messages.
Using the Touch Bar with third-party applications
The Touch Bar also has some great functions in third-party applications. Spotify in particular lets you use the Touch Bar to search for music, control volume, play/pause, and rewind or fast forward through tracks.
Other ways to tune up your Mac (and boost its speed)
There are other small customizations you can try on your Mac. Did you know you can speed up your Mac's startup? Or delete large hidden folders scattered around your drive? This is possible with a Mac tune-up app, CleanMyMac X.
It's notarized by Apple, so it's perfectly legit to use on your Mac.
Tricks you can do with CleanMyMac X:
- Find large hidden files and space wasters
- Disable Launch Agents and hidden background apps
- Tune your Mac for maximum speed
- Find long lost and unused applications via Uninstaller
Mission Control Macbook Pro Touch Bars
And lastly, with CleanMyMac X's System Junk tool, you can reclaim wasted space and clean up your Mac to achieve maximum performance.
Macbook Pro Touch Bar Not Working
You can run start with a free version of CleanMyMac X. It's available here.
Macbook Touch Bar
I like to keep my devices for a long time — as long as possible, actually. I do not need (nor want) a new iPhone and MacBook every year, or even every other year. (Or more!) Putting Apple's issues aside, the company is quite good at keeping old hardware running the latest software, and generally their hardware is very high quality (except for the utterclusterfuck that was 'keyboard gate'). I find it pretty easy to keep devices for 4-6 years, if they are taken care of.
Until a couple of weeks ago, I was using a 2014 13' MacBook Pro (with MagSafe, not USB-C). This was my only machine, for work and everything else. I decided to finally upgrade that 6-year-old machine with the latest model, which was recently updated. As I said, I like to keep hardware as long as possible in general. But in this case, there were a few other important reasons why I waited until now, as opposed to, say, upgrading a 5-year-old machine last year.
- I was absolutely not going to buy one of those shittykeyboards. (I had used them on company-owned work machines.)
- The 13' models remained maxed out at 16GB of RAM for a long time. My 2014 machine had 16GB of RAM, so it just didn't feel worth it to upgrade — even if the RAM was faster, along with other spec improvements.
- I hated the Touch Bar and I was hoping for a model to be released without it.
With the exception of the Touch Bar (which has massively improved with a physical esc key and separate Touch ID button), these issues have finally been addressed. The shitty keyboards are gone and the 13' models can have up to 32GB of RAM. This is my first personal MacBook with a Touch Bar and I still hate it as much as I did on my old work laptops. The keyboard, however, is delightful.
* * *
If you also miss and prefer the old function keys, consider this configuration for your Touch Bar.
From left to right, the Touch Bar includes: a space, screen brightness buttons, keyboard brightness buttons, music controls, mute and volume buttons, a space, screen lock button. I also have this set to be static (or 'Touch Bar shows: expanded control strip'), so it never changes to include app-specific buttons. You can configure these settings in System Preferences > Keyboard.
Pro tip: you can take a screenshot of the Touch Bar with cmd-shift-6.
There are a few things to point out about this setup. First, the initial spacer in the Touch Bar is great for preventing accidental touches when reaching for the physical esc key. The other controls are almost identical to the old physical keyboard function keys (which I like), but without the 'Mission Control' and 'Launchpad' keys, which I think are actions better invoked via track pad gestures. Finally, I decided to add a screen lock button on the right end of the Touch Bar because it felt too empty otherwise, and the spacer to its left helps prevent accidental touches. Of all the options, screen lock felt the most useful, and it has been. It is actually very convenient to be able to lock your screen as quickly as you can unlock it with Touch ID.
Macbook Pro Touch Bar Review
This setup certainly makes me like the Touch Bar more, but I would still rather it be gone. As for the rest of this machine, it is a huge improvement over what I had and I do not have any complaints about it. It is incredibly fast and I love the new design. I hope I can keep this machine for as long as my others.
