6 MacBook Pro Touch Bar Tips

Some lucky Mac users are beginning to receive their nice and shiny new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar Macs. I’ve been quietly toying with mine this morning in order to bring you a few smaller hints, tips, and observations.

Function keys

Touch Bar replaces the Function keys, but you can bring them back by just pressing the fn key. This behavior is customizable – open System Preferences Touch Bar options and you can customize what the fn button invokes. You might want to access traditional System Controls instead.

Power of five

The Touch ID sensor on the new MacBook Pro’s can support up to five prints/users. So that’s five prints for one person, or one print each from five, or any combination that makes sense. The Guest account does not require a print.

Incoming call?

If you’ve paired your iPhone with your TouchBar Mac you’ll see the Touch Bar change when it detects an incoming FaceTime of phone call. Like an iPhone, just tap green to take the call or red to decline it.

YouTube hack

In Safari, the Touch Bar lets you scrub through those annoying YouTube ads, even the usually non-skippable 30-second preview. (No doubt Google will ‘fix’ this).

Spin ‘em around

Open Photos on your Touch Bar Mac and take a look at the available controls. Tap the Edit key and these change to provide crop, auto edit and other functions. The one you’ll get the biggest initial kick out of will be the rotation tool in the center, swipe this to get the image you need.

Take a Touch Bar Screenshot

Apple has created a new shortcut that lets you take a screenshot of what’s happening on your Touch Bar: Press Shift -Command – 6 to grab a picture of what is currently displayed on your Touch Bar, or use Grab to take a timed shot. You can press Control-Shift-Command-6 to copy the picture to the clipboard. NB: This feature is currently only available in macOS 10.12.2 beta 3.

Also read: How to bring back the MacBook Pro startup chime

Got any more tips? Let me know in comments below.