Double-click a picture in Apple's Photo app, and the Touch Bar turns into a row of thumbnails, so you can easily pick through all the pictures in your library in a few seconds. Once you find the. Apple’s handy Boot Camp software ensures its machines play nicely with Windows for those who need access to it. But some things, like the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar and Touch ID, aren’t supported. Price: £229.99 Final Cut Pro at the Mac App Store. It’s not exactly surprising that Apple’s flagship video editing software would receive the Touch Bar treatment, but the Final Cut Pro X. I opened the app, but only see a blank window titled “Touchbar Pet”. Look at your touchbar! I still don’t see anything on my touchbar. You may have changed your touchbar settings at some point. Go to your computer’s System Preferences. Click “Keyboard”. Set “Touch Bar shows” to “App Controls” 4. Reopen the Touchbar.
All-mighty Mac system monitor
Control CPU, memory, and whatnot with iStat Menus app.
A few years ago, Apple dropped static function keys on some MacBooks Pro for a touch-sensitive bar it named Touch Bar. It has the ability to become just about anything you want, and can change depending on what app you’re using, and which inputs may be required.
Touch Bar attempted to revolutionize portable computing, and the results have been mostly positive. Though some miss static keys up top, the overall takeaway is the MacBook Touch Bar is far more useful than function keys.
But how do you use the Mac Touch Bar – and what is it really best at? We’ll tell you all about the MacBook touchbar, why a Touch Bar MacBook Pro is a good buy, and how to optimize your Mac to take full advantage of Apple’s latest shift for MacBook.
How does MacBook Pro Touch Bar work?
When you’re using your MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, there’s nothing specific you need to do to activate the Touch Bar. Simply put, it’s always on, active, and monitoring what you’re doing on-screen so it can change what’s displayed on the Touch Bar to better suit your needs.
The Touch Bar itself has two main components: the control strip, and the Touch Bar. The control strip is a series of system-wide buttons on the right side of the Touch Bar, where things like volume, Siri, and screen brightness can be controlled. It can be minimized or expanded as needed.
The Touch Bar occupies about 90 percent of the top of your keyboard width, and the buttons change based on what you’re doing on-screen. If you are entering a password for a website, the “OK” and “Cancel” buttons may be displayed on the Touch Bar as well as on the screen. This helps you process the request faster, as you don’t need to toggle the mouse pointer and click. When you’re using Safari, a list of page thumbnails will display on the Touch Bar, and you can click or drag through the list to toggle between pages open in your browser.
And if you really need those function keys, simply press the Function (fn) key on your MacBook keyboard, and Touch Bar will display them for you.
What you can do with the Touch Bar
It may be easier to list what can’t be done with Touch Bar! Apple has done a good job of making sure the macOS system uses Touch Bar, and many developers have woven Touch Bar features into their app as well.
The Control Strip
https://bjhpmtx.weebly.com/blog/chrome-remote-app-mac. As noted, the control strip on your touch Bar houses system wide functionality. Within it, you’ll find the following:
- Notification center: Tapping the Notification Center button on the Touch Bar brings up the slide-out notification center on your Mac’s screen.
- Do Not Disturb: This button allows you to toggle the settings of the Mac’s Do Not Disturb feature.
- Screenshot: A tap on this button brings up the Screenshot option on your Mac, which allows you to capture a portion of the screen, the entire screen, or record your screen and save it as a video.
- Dictation: Quickly opens up the Mac’s dictation feature.
- Input Sources: Opens the keyboard Input Sources from your Mac’s system settings.
- Show Desktop: Quickly removes all open windows from your screen to reveal your desktop wallpaper
- Screensaver: This is like putting your Mac’s screen to sleep; it immediately activates your Mac’s screensaver.
- Screen Lock: A tap on this button locks your Mac, which requires a password or TouchID to gain entry again.
- Sleep: This immediately places your Mac into sleep mode.
How to use Touch ID
Using TouchID on your MacBook Pro is simple. On the far right side of the Touch Bar is the Touch ID sensor, which also serves as your Mac’s power button. Like older iPhones, the Mac uses fingerprint biometrics to secure your Mac instead of relying on a password. Hackers can guess a password, but faking a fingerprint is much more difficult!
First, be sure you’ve gone into the system settings, selected TouchID, and set up your fingerprint for use on your Mac. From that point forward, simply opening your Mac’s lid and placing a finger on the TouchID reader next to your Touch Bar will activate your Mac.
TouchID can also be used to authenticate payments and log into websites or apps.
Finder
When you open Finder on your Mac, the Touch Bar’s buttons will change and present you with several options. You can change how Finder looks (the layout), start a search, share an item, or tag an item. Like most apps, there are also forward and reverse navigation options which provide quick options for scrolling forward or back through Finder.
Mail also has a few Touch Bar features, and is a great example that the Touch Bar is meant for quick actions that are used by most users.
Note: We are discussing the built-in Mail app, here. If you use a different third-party app, its Touch Bar items may be slightly different.
Within the Mail app, Touch Bar can perform the following functions:
- Hide the side bar: The left side of Mail’s window shows all of your mailboxes and folders. You can hide them really quickly with Touch Bar.
- Create an email: Touch Bar has a button hat quickly opens a new window to create an email.
- Archive: If you want to archive an email, simply tap the ‘Archive’ button and it’ll vanish from your inbox!
- Reply: Touch Bar for Mail has a button dedicated to replying to emails.
- Trash: quickly trash an email with the press of a button on the Touch Bar.
- Move: When an email is selected in Mail, the left side of your Touch Bar will display a large “Move to” button. When tapped, it brings up a sub-menu for moving an email to a specific folder.
Primary system controls
Touch Bar’s control strip has some primary functions you should familiarize yourself with. Here’s how each works:
- Volume control: The MacBook Pro Touch Bar has mute, volume up, and volume down buttons. Tapping on the ‘mute’ button will mute or unmute your MacBook. Pressing volume up or down will move your volume up or down one point on the scale, while holding down either button will continually raise or lower the volume.
- Keyboard brightness: Much like volume control, but for your backlit keyboard. Tapping keyboard brightness up or down will brighten or dim your keyboard incrementally, while holding down either will scale your keyboard brightness continually.
- Screen brightness: Tapping up or down here will raise or lower your screen brightness, much like it does with volume control or keyboard brightness.
One thing to keep in mind is the control strip remains minimized most of the time, defaulting to keeping the mute button open as well as a single button for screen brightness and volume. When you hold down on screen brightness or volume, you can drag your finger along the Touch Bar to raise or lower the volume as you like!
The control strip is also customizable. Simply go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Customize Control Strip to alter it.
How to screenshot
To take a screenshot via Touch Bar, first make sure the screenshot button is active in your Touch Bar by visiting System Preferences > Keyboard > Customize Control Strip and dragging the screenshot button onto your Touch Bar if it’s not already there.
Once it’s on your Touch Bar, click the small arrow next to the minimized control strip, select the screenshot button, and your Mac’s screen will display the options available, like capture the entire screen, a portion of the screen, or recording your Window.
How to make the function keys
Touch Bar may not display the function keys all the time, but they’re still available! All you have to do is hold down the ‘Function’ (fn) key on your Mac keyboard to surface the function keys on the Touch Bar.
How to customize MacBook Pro touch bar
You can customize the Touch bar any time by visiting System Preferences > Keyboard > Customize Control Strip, but that only allows you to change the buttons displayed on your Mac. BetterTouchTool takes your Touch Bar to a different level, allowing you to configure your TouchBar far more than Apple allows. You can create shortcuts, target specific apps and create unique shortcuts for them, and create your own custom widgets using AppleScript, URL schemes, and HTTP requests.
Hidden features of Apple Touch Bar
Each app has its own Touch Bar buttons that appear when you use them. Zoom, for example, has options for muting and ending video chats with ease.
A great app for keeping tabs on your Mac is iStat Menus, which lives in your menu bar and keeps a close eye on your Mac’s overall performance. If you notice an app is slow or sluggish – maybe not responding to your Touch bar inputs – iStat Menus can tell you what’s going on with it as well as your Mac’s overall performance.
Boost Your Mac!
CleanMyMac X is a sensational app for cleaning up your Mac. It can quickly remove apps and associated files, update existing apps, and clean up random junk on your Mac while monitoring for malware! It also has a menu bar widget that provides a quick look at how your system is performing, how much memory you have available, your CPU load, and the health of your network connection.
Conclusion
Getting to know your Touch Bar may make you more productive, and will definitely have you enjoying your MacBook Pro a lot more. So will the apps mentioned here today!
And each – iStat Menus, CleanMyMac X, and BetterTouchTool – are available for free during a seven day trial of Setapp, a suite of nearly 200 productivity apps for your Mac. Once the trial is over, retaining unlimited access to the entire Setapp catalog is only $9.99 per month!
Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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The Touch Bar seemed more like a gimmick than a useful tool when it first appeared in MacBook Pros years ago. Now it's a common feature on all models and is supported by a multitude of Mac apps. It adds convenient, touch-based controls similar to mobile.
What Is Touch Bar Mac
● Adds touch input to Mac apps
● Adds touch-based system controls
● Provides virtual Function keys
● Easy customization
● Relies on Apple's T1 or T2 Security Chip
● Now available on all MacBook Pro models
● Adds touch-based system controls
● Provides virtual Function keys
● Easy customization
● Relies on Apple's T1 or T2 Security Chip
● Now available on all MacBook Pro models
Apple's Touch Bar is a unique feature to its MacBook Pro family that adds touch-based controls to Mac apps and system controls. It relies on an OLED panel covered by a thin glass digitizer that allows users to tap, swipe, and more — just like on an iPhone or iPad. It's supported by a long list of apps.
What is the Touch Bar
It's an OLED 'Retina' display that replaces the physical Function keys on a MacBook Pro.
This feature first appeared in October 2016 on the 4th-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. The entry-level 13-inch model originally intended to replace the MacBook Air did not have this feature.
However, Apple eventually added it to the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro in July 2019. The 16-inch MacBook Pro replaced the 15-inch model in November 2019.
According to Apple, it's optimized to be viewed at a 45-degree angle. It also reproduces the wide DCI-P3 gamut with a 'Retina' resolution. It's powered by Apple's bridgeOS platform — which is based on watchOS — residing in Apple's custom silicon for Macs.
This feature adds touch-based capabilities to Mac apps and provides native touch-based system controls. All native Mac apps support this feature, like Mail, Messages, Apple Music, Photos, Safari, and more. Siri has a dedicated button on the OLED strip as well.
- 1Password
- Adobe Photoshop
- Evernote
- Final Cut Pro X
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Office
- Pixelmator
- Sketch
- Spotify
This feature supports tap, touch and hold, horizontal swipe or pan, and multi-touch gestures.
Mac Touch Bar App Switcher
This feature is comprised of two main components.
At the top is a thin digitizer glass layer that converts analog touch to digital signals. This layer connects to the OLED screen underneath using a flex cable. At the end of this cable is a touch controller chip.
To the left of the OLED panel is its hardware-based display driver. This screen plugs directly into the motherboard and is secured in the MacBook Pro chassis using a heavy adhesive.
The Touch ID sensor is not integrated into the Touch Bar itself. Instead, it's a separate hardware component that resides on the power button located immediately to the right of the OLED screen. A separate sapphire crystal cover protects the Touch ID sensor while the OLED screen's Control Strip section displays Touch ID prompts, giving the appearance of one continuous strip.
However, there is a narrow gap between the digitizer and the sapphire crystal cover on the 4th-generation MacBook Pro models, as shown above, presenting a unified appearance despite the two separate components underneath. Apple widened this gap in the fifth generation to separate these two features better.
The Touch ID sensor and OLED strip are controlled by Apple's T1 or T2 Security Chip, depending on the model, which runs independently from the parent Intel-based processor. The Apple T1 Chip made its debut alongside the OLED strip and Touch ID sensor for Macs and runs bridgeOS 1.0. The T2 Security Chip first appeared in the iMac Pro in 2017 and runs bridgeOS 2.0.
On a basic level, the main Intel CPU sends rendering information to the T1 or T2 chip, telling them what needs to be displayed on the OLED strip. In turn, Apple's custom silicon assigns the appropriate pixels to be displayed on the OLED strip.
When the user touches the digitizer layer, Apple's silicon forwards that information to the main processor. That said, the path would be App > MacOS > Intel CPU > T1 or T2 > Touch Bar. Reverse that path for user input.
The newer, second version resides in Apple's 5th-generation MacBook Pros with the Magic Keyboard. These are:
- 13-inch MacBook Pro (2020)
- 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019)
This version measures 1,004pt x 30pt (13.94 x 0.42 inches) and has a standard configuration of two areas divided by a single 16pt gap: A maximum app region (685pt) and a maximum collapsed Control Strip region (304pt). This version is narrower than the 1st-generation setup due to the physical Esc button now present in the top left corner of the keyboard area.
The first version, shown above, appears in 4th-generation MacBook Pros released before November 2019:
- 13-inch MacBook Pro (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
- 15-inch MacBook Pro (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
* The 2016 and 2017 entry-level 13-inch models with two Thunderbolt 3 ports do not have this feature.
This version measures 1,085pt x 30pt (15.07 x 0.42 inches), which translates to a 2,180 x 80 display. It has a standard configuration of three main areas divided by two 16pt gaps: A system button (64pt), a minimum app region (685pt), and a maximum collapsed Control Strip region (304pt).
Overall, the Control Strip provides system-level controls for performing actions, like adjusting the volume. This first appeared in the PowerBook 500 series in 1994 and other devices but was eliminated as part of moving over to Mac OS X.
The app region provides app-based controls while the system button provides functions like Escape, Cancel, and Done.
To customize the Control Strip buttons, click the Apple icon followed by 'System Preferences' on the drop-down menu, or click the 'System Preferences' icon on the Dock. Select 'Keyboard' and then the 'Keyboard' tab to access the 'Customize Control Strip' function. https://bjhpmtx.weebly.com/how-to-crack-apps-on-mac.html. Users can also click 'View' within any app to edit the Control Strip layout.
In both cases, drag items displayed on the main screen into the Control Strip and then drag items left or right on the OLED strip as needed.
To change touch buttons in apps, click 'View' on the menu bar followed by 'Customize Touch Bar.' Users can then rearrange, remove, or add buttons within the app.
If users need to keep the function keys for specific apps, click the Apple icon followed by 'System Preferences' on the drop-down menu, or click the 'System Preferences' icon on the Dock. Select 'Keyboard' and then the 'Shortcuts' tab. Choose 'Function Keys' listed on the left and then add the apps listed on the right using the '+' symbol.
Finally, to have MacOS read related touch-based commands aloud, hold the Command key while pressing the Touch ID / Power button three times. This toggles on the VoiceOver function.
![Bar Bar](https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2017/05/tenor mac app.jpg?itok=C8Z3sxec)
While composing a message, suggested words and emojis will appear on the OLED strip. Tap them to enter those words into the message body. To quickly change the text format, select it on the main screen, and then tap the formatting options on the OLED strip.
When listening to music, playback controls appear on the OLED strip. Users can drag a vertical line to scrub through a song, and use standard functions like Play/Pause, Back to restart the song, and Next Track to skip to the next one in line. Similar features are provided for video in the Apple TV app.
With Safari, thumbnails appear on the OLED strip when more than one tab is open — these are grouped together if the pages reside on the same website. Open a new Safari window or click within the address bar, and site suggestions appear on the OLED strip based on recently visited websites.
The Photos app provides swipeable thumbnails on the OLED strip to easily move through the user's gallery. Volume and Siri buttons reside to the right on the Touch Bar while a Like button resides to the left along with basic editing tools like Auto, Rotate, and Crop.