The Mac stands out as a superior device for boosting productivity. While we can all expect Apple to continually roll out software enhancements to boost productivity, like web apps in Safari and interactive widgets in macOS Sonoma, there exist underrated and handy features like Hot Corners that we should maximize more. Here’s everything you need to know about using Hot Corners on Mac.
- What are Hot Corners on Mac?
- How to access and enable Hot Corners on Mac
- How to set up Hot Corners with Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac
- How to turn off Hot Corners on Mac
What are Hot Corners on Mac?
Hot Corners are shortcuts that utilize the four corners of your screen to trigger or activate an action when you move your mouse pointer to a corner.
Like Keyboard shortcuts, Hot Corners lets you trigger various functions without navigating through menus. What makes it better than keyboard shortcuts is that it’s so much easier to move your mouse to a corner instead of pressing several keys simultaneously.
Actions Hot Corners can perform on Mac
This Mac shortcut lets you convert the four corners of your screen into “hot” spaces that immediately trigger one of 10 different actions. By default, the lower right corner is set to Quick Note.
Below are the 10 different actions you can assign to a hot corner:
- Mission Control: Mission Control gives you an overview of all the items currently open on your Mac
- Application Windows: This shows you all the opened windows for a particular app clustered in one view. For example, it would show you all your stickies in a single view Desktop
- Notification Center: This shows your widgets and notifications from your apps. Since you can just access this by swiping two fingers from the right side of your trackpad to the left or by clicking the date and time from the menu bar, people rarely assign this to a hot corner
- Desktop: This action moves all your windows aside so you can easily access files on your desktop. The windows instantly return once you move your cursor away or select a file.
- Launchpad: The Launchpad looks and behaves like the iPhone or iPad’s Home screen. It lets you navigate and access apps installed on your Mac.
- Quick Note: Putting this on a hot corner immediately opens a note for quick “jotting down” ideas.
- Start Screensaver: As the name implies, this action lets you trigger your screensaver. While only a few people use screensavers, this can be handy if you’re going away from your screen for a few minutes and want to hide the contents of your desktop.
- Disable Screensaver: If you’re using a screensaver, it may appear after a few minutes of being idle, like when thinking hard and long about the best way to word an email. This hot corner action prevents your screensaver from coming on.
- Put Display to Sleep: This hot corner action lets you turn off your display instantly.
- Lock Screen: Using this hot corner action lets you immediately put your screen to sleep. In contrast to simply putting it to sleep, locking your screen requires you to input your password to re-access your desktop.
How to access and enable Hot Corners on Mac
- To access Hot Corners, go to Apple Menu → System Settings.
- Select Desktop & Dock on the sidebar → Then scroll down and click Hot Corners.
- To set up Hot Corners, select one of the four drop-down menus representing each hot corner.
- Click which hot corner to assign an action → Select Done.
- Once enabled, just move your mouse pointer to the Hot Corner on your desktop to trigger your assigned action.
How to customize Hot Corners
If you want to make changes, just head back to the Hot Corners settings and tweak the assigned actions or hot corners according to your preference.
How to set up Hot Corners with Keyboard Shortcuts on Mac
One of the frequent complaints against hot corners is the tendency to trigger them by accident. To prevent this, you can add modifier keys, requiring you to press specific keys while swiping to a corner to activate the action.
You can use the Command, Shift, Option, Control, or a combination of these keys. Just hold a key or several keys before or while clicking on any of the pop-up menus. The symbol of the keys should appear before the action, such as ⇧ Mission Control, when you press Shift.
How to turn off Hot Corners on Mac
There’s no turnoff button to disable Hot Corners. Instead, just select the hot corner with an assigned action and change the action to nothing or the – symbol.
- Go to Apple Menu → System Settings → Desktop & Dock.
- Scroll down and click Hot Corners.
- Click a drop-down menu → Select the (–) symbol → Click Done to save your preferences.
FAQs
If your computer settings are managed by someone else, like an administrator or IT department, you might first need them to allow you to modify your Mac’s settings. If you’re using one or more extra monitors, hot corners may not work on them (extended display) and will only work on the primary display.
You can turn off hot corners by removing the assigned action in the settings.
You can assign hot corners on any of the screen’s four corners. By default, only the bottom-right has a given action (Quick Note). You can set up hot corners and add and change the assigned functions for each hot corner.
Wrapping up…
Hot corners are a great way to quickly access functions and apps on your Mac without navigating through menus. This saves you time and effort, so it’s worth exploring if you haven’t already done so. Do you love them too? If so, share why below!
Read more:
- How to make desktop shortcuts on Mac
- Mac Keyboard Shortcuts for Notes App
- How to Quickly See All The Keyboard Shortcuts for Any Mac App with CheatSheet
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