Tips You Didn't Know About Your Mac: Use Your Finder As A Calculator

Published by on October 1, 2008

Previously I thought this was a tip that everyone knew, but after running some quick numbers for our head designer, and Mac-enthusiast, and seeing the reaction on his face, I realized I should share this tip.

Prior to learning this tip, whenever I wanted to do any calculations on my Mac, I had to pull up my dashboard, and constantly switch back to my desktop.

I would look up the numbers, switch to dashboard, switch back, etc. etc. Now, thanks to the Finder, I cut out the loading time on the dashboard completely.

Use The Finder As a Calculator

How do you do it? Simply type in the calculations, and be sure not to use the = sign.

2+2 … = 4. It’s a smart calculation, so it looks at the old PEMDAS, so 2 + 2 * 5 = 12.

Try it for yourself, just type Command (apple)+Space bar, to bring up the finder menu.