New Mac Setup

↑

OS Settings

Trackpad
- Tab to Click
  
  System Preferences > Trackpad > Point & Click tab > check “Tap to click”
- Three Finger Drag
Magic Mouse

Issue: Tracking speed too slow even at max setting.
Fix: use defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling to check current speed; should be 3 default. You can specify to a higher value, e.g., 5, by using the following cmd:
```
defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling 5
```
Then log out and log back in to take effect.
Scroll bar: show when scrolling

System Preferences > General > check “Show scroll bars: When scrolling”

I like this setting because the Finder will look less cluttered. Otherwise, there will be obnoxious grey columns of scroll bars in the Finder windows.
Finder
- Use column view as default
  
  Open Finder > View > Show View Options > select “Always open in column view”.

Programming Tools

Install Homebrew: tool to install software on mac
Git: version control
```
brew install git
```
Visual Studio Code: powerful editor
Xcode Command Line Tools

Some OS comes with Xcode pre-installed, check if you have it:
```
xcode-select -p
```
If you see a path like /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools, you have it installed.

If you don’t have it, you can install it with:
```
xcode-select --install
```
Terminal syntax highlighting for Zsh shell. 打造赏心悦目的终端界面 😎
- Oh My Zsh
  
  Oh My Zsh terminal looks like the following, and your VS Code terminal will also inherit the same style.
  
  GitHub - ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh
  
  Besides its good looks, Oh My Zsh is a framework for managing your zsh configuration, and it comes with a lot of helpful functions, helpers, plugins, themes.
  
  Oh My Zsh plugin directory:
  - ~/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/ (for built-in plugins) 自带插件目录
  - ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/ (for custom plugins) 用户自定义插件目录
- zsh-syntax-highlighting
  
  This is a minimal plugin for Oh My Zsh that provides syntax highlighting for the zsh shell.
  
  Once you have installed Oh My Zsh, you can check if you have installed zsh-syntax-highlighting by looking into the plugin directory.
  1. If you don’t see the zsh-syntax-highlighting folder there, you can install it by running the following command in your terminal:
    # Cloning the GitHub repository directly into the Oh My Zsh plugin directory: git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git \ ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
    Do NOT install it via Homebrew if you are using Oh My Zsh, because Oh My Zsh won’t be able to find it automatically. ↩︎
    
    For custom plugins, git clone into ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/.
    Oh My Zsh will automatically load plugins from this directory.
  2. Then, enable syntax highlighter in your ~/.zshrc file: Find the plugins=(...) line and add zsh-syntax-highlighting at the end:
    plugins=( [plugins...] zsh-syntax-highlighting)
    Note that plugins are separated by spaces (do not use commas).
  3. Finally, reload Zsh by running source ~/.zshrc or restarting your terminal.
  4. Test if it works.
    echo "This is a test"
    If you see different colors for different parts of the command, it means syntax highlighting is working. It looks like the following on my machine:
    
    Valid commands are in green, strings in yellow, etc.
    
    Invalid commands will be highlighted in red.
  It is possible you only install the plugin without Oh My Zsh, but then you need to configure it manually. Follow instructions on the GitHub page.

OS Productivity Tools

iBar: Rescue your cluttered menu bar

As of Tahoe 26, macOS provides native support to hide menu bar icons.
Alfred: productivity app to replace Spotlight and more
Rectangle: Window management
CapsLock: Keyboard shortcut
AltTab: App switching

It support selecting windows of the same app. Each window has its own preview thumbnail.
CleanShot X : $30 one-time purchase; 30% discount for students with valid .edu email.

Download the free version from Xclient
- Record shortcuts for screen recording:
  - Capture Area: ⌃⌘A
  - Capture Window: ⌃⌘W
- Hide Wallpaper when capture Window
  
  Preferences > Wallpaper > Window screenshots > Choose “Transparent”
  
  You can adjusting “Padding” to reduce the extra space around the window. I like to set it a bit smaller than the default.
  
  You can remove all paddings by sliding to the leftmost position and uncheck “Include window shadow” as follows:
  
  A sideeffect of this is that the screenshot will be cropped without radius and the boarders are removed as well. It looks less pretty when you are used to the default macOS style.
- Open Annotate tool directly after taking screenshot:
  
  Preferences > General > After capture > check “Open Annotate tool”
- Overlay Thumbnail
  
  I like to disable this feature because it is distracting.
  
  This way, after taking a screenshot, the annotation window will open directly without showing the thumbnail overlay. You can add annotations, save, or ⌘W to close the window if you want to discard the screenshot.
Here is a nice tutorial on CleanShot main features.

Office Software

TeXShop

Follow instruction HERE to install LaTeX tools.

Bibtex reference manager:
- Mendeley: easy to start with but lacks flexibility. No dark mode.
  
  OK for basic use.
- Zotero: powerful and flexible; need some time to learn the features; recommended for seasoned LaTeX users. ↩
  - can import directly from Mendeley; will keep your original library collections. 👍
  - support dark mode;
  - Safari extension: automatically installed with the app but you need to enable it in Safari settings;
    
    It is supported by Zotero Connector, which can also be installed in Chrome and Firefox.
- JabRef: cannot open it after installation. ❌
MS Office

Just install the Microsoft 365 Office suite. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, and more. So you don’t need to install them separately.

Miscellaneous

f.lux: turn screen warmer at night 暖黄色屏幕护眼
BetterDisplay : Free version is sufficient for most users; buy the Pro version to unlock advanced features. [穷鬼 app 🤪]

Flexible HiDPI scaling; useful for 2K external monitors that do not support Retina resolution.

Turn on HiDPI mode by clicking the menu bar icon > Click “High Resolution (HiDPI)”.

💡 It helps to a certain degree; remember, it is only a marginal improvement over non-Retina monitors. To get the best display quality, invest in a 4K monitor if you have 💰.

In short, 有用但不大。还行吧，比没有强。🤣
VLC video player
AppCleaner: uninstall apps completely, including config files
Itsycal: calendar in menu bar; good integration with Mac native Calendar app

FAQ

Q: I installed zsh-syntax-highlighting via Homebrew, but Oh My Zsh cannot find it. What should I do?
A: If you installed zsh-syntax-highlighting via Homebrew, you might see an error like this when you start your terminal:

# Install via Homebrew
brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting

[oh-my-zsh] plugin 'zsh-syntax-highlighting' not found

Note that if you use Homebrew to install it, the plugin will be installed in the Homebrew directory, and Oh My Zsh won’t be able to find it automatically.

Homebrew usually installs packages in /usr/local/opt/ (Intel Macs) or /opt/homebrew/opt/ (Apple Silicon Macs). You can find the exact path by running:

brew --prefix zsh-syntax-highlighting

Oh My Zsh only looks for plugins in its own plugin directories:

~/.oh-my-zsh/plugins/
~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/

To fix this, two options:

If you decide to install with Homebrew, you need extra configuration by addting the plugin path to your ~/.zshrc file. ↩
```
# Add this line to your ~/.zshrc file
source $(brew --prefix)/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
```
手动管理太麻烦了。
“Pure” Oh My Zsh approach ✅

Install zsh-syntax-highlighting by cloning the GitHub repository directly into the Oh My Zsh plugin directory, as described above.

Ref

Mac Install Guide by Daniel Kehoe