How to Use Mac Hot Corners to Launch Mission Control & Other Useful Commands

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There are hundreds of Mac keyboard shortcuts to help boost your productivity and streamline multitasking. Mac hot corners are nifty shortcuts that are simple to set up and even faster than common keyboard shortcut commands. Below, we'll show you how to set up hot corners on your Mac. Once I started using hot corners I wondered how I ever got along without it. 

Related: This Simple Gesture Is the Fastest Way to Share Photos between iPhone, iPad & Mac

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Why You’ll Love This Tip

• Launch up to four commonly-used commands with the flick of your mouse.
• Access handy features such as Mission Control and Quick Note without even having to use keystrokes.

How to Set Up Hot Corners on Mac

To learn more time-saving Mac shortcuts, sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter. To set up a hot corner, you will select a pre-programmed shortcut in System Preferences. Then, whenever you move your cursor to that corner of the screen, you will activate that command. For example, I have my computer set up to automatically go to sleep whenever I shift my cursor to the lower-left corner. You can set up a shortcut for only one corner of your screen, or add a shortcut for each corner. In the example below, we’ll show you how to set up a hot corner to launch Mission Control:

1. Click on the Apple Menu.
   
2. Click System Preferences.
   
   
3. Click Desktop & Screen Saver.
   
   

4. Click Screen Saver.
   
   

5. Click Hot Corners.
   
   
6. Select which corner of your screen you would like to use for a hot corner and click on the drop-down menu. 
   
   
7. You will see a list of common macOS commands. Choose Mission Control from the drop-down menu.
   
   
8. If desired, repeat steps 5 and 6 for the other corners.
9.  To disable a hot corner select the hyphen (-) option to remove the shortcut command.
   
   
10. Click OK.
    
    

Now test out your new hot corners! Just drag your mouse to the corner of the screen you selected to activate your shortcut. In the beginning, you may find yourself activating the hot corners by accident, but after a little practice, I found this happened less and less.  I love this feature and use it every day. Once you get used to it, this is a great tool for streamlining your workflow.