Tech News
← Back to articles

How I use a drop-down terminal for faster command line work on my Mac

read original related products more articles

Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

ZDNET key takeaways

A drop-down terminal makes for an efficient CLI.

MacOS doesn't include a built-in drop-down terminal.

With the help of iTerm2, you can make this happen.

I've used drop-down terminals for a long time because I don't have to take my fingers off the keyboard to run a command. Instead of grabbing the mouse, opening the desktop menu, finding the terminal, opening the terminal, running the command, and closing the terminal, I can hit a keyboard hotkey combination to open the terminal, run my command, and hit the same hotkey to dismiss the terminal.

Additionally, I can configure a drop-down terminal to occupy only a certain amount of space, allowing me to leave it open if needed without interfering with other apps.

In other words, drop-down terminals are a very efficient method of using the command line.

Also: 6 features I wish MacOS would copy from Linux

... continue reading