Preview Files Without Opening Them

Quick Look is a feature that we cover in every basic Mac lesson. It lets you view the contents of any file without using an App to open it. It works with PDFs, documents, images, movies, spreadsheets, Keynote presentations, and more. It’s easy to learn and an essential skill for any Mac user.

Check out the video below or go to YouTube to watch in High Definition.

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You Tube Video Transcript

I’m going to double-click the Finder in the Dock to open a Finder window and work in the Documents folder.

Here I have a mix of spreadsheets. PDFs, images, movies, and even a Keynote presentation.

I want to examine this PDF, so I double-click and it opens in Preview. I can browse the contents then quit preview when I’m done

With Quick Look I can examine that same PDF without ever opening Preview. Click to select the file. Tap the spacebar and Quick Look provides a Preview of the PDF without ever opening the Preview App. To leave Quick Look just tap the space bar.

Quick Look lets you browse text files. You could read an entire book without ever opening an App.

Select an image, tap the spacebar and you can view it full size.

You can preview movies without opening any movie player and scroll through a Keynote presentation without ever opening Keynote.

All you have to remember is, select the file, tap the spacebar, then tap the spacebar again when you want to leave.

Thanks for watching.

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