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tobyjsullivan/new-macbook-checklist.md

Last active April 1, 2025 19:29
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new-macbook-checklist.md

New MacBook Checklist

Setup to adjust macbook to my personal preferences.

System Settings

General

  • About > Name: (change default hostname)

Keyboard

  • Input Sources > Edit... > Add (+) > Dvorak
  • Input Sources > Edit... > All Input Sources:
    • Show Input menu in menu bar: On
    • Add period with double-space: Off
    • Use smart quotes and dashes: Off
  • Key repeat rate: Fast
  • Delay until repeat: Short
  • Keyboard shortcuts... > Function Keys > Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys: On

Trackpad

  • Point & Click (tab)
    • Tracking speed: 8/10
    • Click: Light
    • Tap to click: On
  • More Gestures (tab)
    • Swipe between pages: Off

Mouse

  • Tracking speed: 9/10
  • Double-click speed: 6/10

Control Center

  • Wi-Fi: Show in Menu Bar
  • Bluetooth: Show in Menu Bar
  • Sound: Always Show in Menu Bar
  • Battery
    • Show in Menu Bar: On
    • Show Percentage: On
  • Clock > Clock Options...
    • Show date: Always
    • Show the day of the week: On
  • Spotlight: Don't show
  • Automatically hide adn show the menu bar: In Full Screen Only
  • Recent documents, applications, and servers: None

Appearance

  • Appearance: Dark
  • Click in the scroll bar to: Jump to the spot that's clicked

Siri & Spotlight

  • Ask Siri: Off
  • Spotlight > Search results:
    • Applications
    • Folders
    • System Settings
    • (Disable all others)
  • Spotlight Privacy... > Add (+):
    • code checkout directories
    • ~/Downloads

Desktop & Dock

  • Dock:
    • Size: Small(-ish)
    • Magnification: Medium
    • Automatically hide and show the Dock: On
  • Windows:
    • Prefer tabs when opening documents: Always
    • Close windows when quitting an application: On
  • Mission Control:
    • Group windows by application: On
  • Hot Corners...:
    • Bottom Right: Start Screen Saver (replace Quick Note)

Displays

  • Adjust arrangement of external display
  • Advanced... > Show resolutions as list: On

Lock Screen

  • Start Screen Save when inactive: For 2 minutes
  • Turn display off on battery when inactive: For 3 minutes
  • Turn display off on power adapter when inactive: For 10 minutes
  • Require password...: After 5 seconds
  • Show user name and photo: Off

Apps

  • Chrome
  • Contexts
  • iTerm2
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Spotify
  • Things
  • Clocks

Dev tooling

  • Install homebrew
  • brew install fzf
  • Setup git lb:
    • Append the following to ~/.gitconfig 
      [alias]
    lb = !git reflog show --pretty=format:'%gs ~ %gd' --date=relative | grep 'checkout:' | grep -oE '[^ ]+ ~ .*' | awk -F~ '!seen[$1]++' | head -n 10 | awk -F' ~ HEAD@{' '{printf(\"  \\033[33m%s: \\033[37m %s\\033[0m\\n\", substr($2, 1, length($2)-1), $1)}'
    • Source: https://ses4j.github.io/2020/04/01/git-alias-recent-branches/

iTerm2

  • Settings > General > Selection:
    • Clicking on a command selects it to restrict Find and Filter: Off
  • Settings > Profiles (default profile):
    • Colors:
      • Editing: Dark Mode
      • Use different colors for light mode and dark mode: Off
  • Settings > Profiles > Keys > Key Mappings > Presets... > Natural Text Editing

~/.zshrc

https://gist.github.com/tobyjsullivan/79d87f2b279f7b59a8d0f9b6b2aedf53

VS Code

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