Although early versions of operating systems came with user manuals, there are very few instances where an OS instructs you on how to use it. macOS does have some elements of a "how-to" but it's more geared towards new features they add. Some of the most useful features are often hidden or seldom taught. Whether you're a seasoned macOS user or you've just unboxed your first Mac, these five features are underrated, undermentioned, and are excellent to have in your toolkit.

5 Smart Folders

Excellent for automatic organization

Smart Folders in macOS are a superb way to organize your files without actually doing so. Smart Folders are less of a folder and more of a search, allowing you to group files together that fit within certain criteria that you set. You can use date, file type, and other criteria to group files together for easy access later. You can create a smart folder by opening Finder and navigating to File > New Smart Folder.

This has been supremely useful in my studies for grouping assignments together of different tags and creation dates without having to do so manually. I can just set them up and forget about it. You can get really granular with Smart Folders as well. You can sort files by font used within them, audio bitrate, and for photos you can sort by ISO, flash usage, and so much more.

4 Spacebar to preview

Saves so many clicks

When inside Finder, you can right-click on documents and images to use Quick Look, which is excellent for taking glances at files without having to open the entire thing. To do this even faster, you can simply highlight the file you want to take a look at, and hit Space to do exactly the same thing. All this time, I had been wasting valuable time right-clicking and manually navigating to Quick Look when a quick hit of the spacebar would've done the trick.

3 Automator workflows

A great way to automate slightly complex tasks

Automator is an extremely powerful tool within macOS that is often overlooked. It's a shame that this isn't utilized more often, and even if you're not a power user, chances are there is something Automator can help you with. You can use it to batch rename files, exit or start a collection of apps at the same time, and even convert/save files for you in the manner you configure them. It's very nifty, and doesn't take a ton of expertise to set up. You don't need any kind of coding knowledge, it's relatively easy to use and is certainly one of the most underrated macOS features.

One of the more useful Automator workflows I have set up is one that automatically cleans my Downloads folder for me periodically. It will place files that have been in there for a long time in the Trash, which saves me valuable space. I'm not someone who keeps important stuff in Downloads for too long; if I know I need it later, I'll move it.

2 Hot Corners

Another effective time-saver

Configuring macOS' Hot Corners is a great way to create a familiar shortcut for a variety of different functions, triggered by clicking on any of the four corners of the display. All four corners are configurable individually, and you can configure them to open Mission Control, show the Desktop, open Launchpad, or my favorite, make a Quick Note.

1 Live Text

One of the most underrated features

Apple's Live Text is one of the best features of products in their ecosystem that is talked about the least. Being able to select text from photos and videos and treat it like text you'd find on a web page is seriously a lifesaver. Applications for Live Text are plentiful, but a niche one that's extremely helpful is when completing the initial setup of a router, having easy access to copy and paste the SSID and default password is so convenient. Or, if you're a bit lazy and haven't changed the default password (you definitely should), you can always refer back to the picture to copy and paste.

Taking a photo of something with my iPhone isn't just a lazy way of saving the text on it for later; it's actually my preferred method to copying it down manually. Tracking numbers, addresses, emails, essentially anything that you could need to save for later access on your Mac is made stupidly simple by Live Text.

Some of the most useful functions are the least used

Especially when it comes to operating systems, the most useful stuff is overlooked for the road most commonly traveled, but it's worthwhile to take the time to learn some of these useful shortcuts and features. I still learn new ways to use both Windows and macOS all the time, and my workflow is constantly changing as I integrate some of the neat things I learn about both operating systems.