How to View Pictures on Mac Without Double Clicking in 2022

Don’t want to double click to open and view pictures on your Mac? Learn How to View Pictures on Mac Without Double Clicking in this guide.

Double clicking on a picture will open it on the Preview app or Photos app on your Mac. However, you can skip this and quickly view pictures and other files on your Mac without having to open them.

This is possible thanks to a feature called Quick Look. Quick Look lets you preview pictures, videos, files, and more without having to open them. It also provides with tools that let you edit, rotate, and markup images. You can trim audio and video clips too. 

To view photos using Quick Look without having to double click, do this, select a picture by clicking once, then press the space bar to open it using Quick Look. You will see a preview of the photo. 

Related: How to Edit Pictures on your Mac

How to View Pictures on Mac Without Double Clicking

How to View and edit files with Quick Look on Mac

Quick Look makes it easy to view pictures and other files without having to double click or open them. Quick Look offers a full-size Preview of the file or photo. 

This makes it easy to view the contents of a picture or any other file without opening them. You can also use Quick Look to rotate photos, trim clips (audio and video), and use Markup to add text and other elements. 

You can use Quick Look for items in Finder, desktop, emails, messages, and other places on your Mac.

To use, Quick Look, select one or a few items on your Mac and then hit the Space bar. A Quick Look window will open with the preview of the file. If you chose multiple files, then the last selected file will be shown first. 

You can perform the following functions in the Quick Look Window,

• Resize the window: Drag the corners of the window. Or click the Full-Screen button in the top-left corner of the Quick Look window. To exit the full screen, move the pointer to the bottom of the window, then click the Exit Full-Screen button that appears.
• Zoom in and out of an item: Press Command-Plus (+) to make the image bigger or Command-Minus (–) to make it smaller.
• Rotate an item: Click the Rotate Left button or press and hold the Option key, then click the Rotate Right button. Keep clicking to continue rotating the item.
• Mark up an item: Click the Markup button. See Mark up files.
• Trim an audio or video item: Click the Trim button, then drag the yellow handles in the trimming bar. To test your changes, click Play. To start again, click Revert. When you’re ready to save your changes, click Done, then choose to replace the original file or create a new one.
• Browse items (if you selected multiple items): Click the arrows near the top-left of the window or press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key. In full screen, click the Play button to view the items as a slideshow.
• Show items in a grid (if you selected multiple items): Click the Index Sheet button or press Command-Return.
• Open an item: Click Open with [App].
• Share an item: Click the Share button, then choose how you want to share the item.

To close a Quick Look window,

When you’ve finished, press the Space bar or click the Close button to close the Quick Look window.

When you open a Live Photo in the Quick Look window, the video portion of the photo plays automatically. To view it again, click Live Photo in the bottom-left corner of the photo.

How to Browse your photos in Photos on Mac

You can view your photos organized in different ways and browse your photos by when they were taken.

In the Photos app, you can browse photos using the sidebar to the left of a Photos window. You can check how the photos are organized by clicking on the following items in the sidebar. 

Library – This option lets you browse photos and videos by organizing them date wise. You can browse by days, months or years. 

Memories – Check collections of photos and videos that are already edited by Photos for you. These photos and videos will have music added to them as well. 

People – Photos app will differentiate photos on your device based on the people present in them. 

Places – Browse photos based on the locations they were taken at. 

Albums – View albums that you have created or shared. The Photos app might automatically create albums to organize photos and videos by categories like Media Types.  

How to Browse your photos by days, months, or years

Step 1 Open the Photos app on your Mac

Step 2 Click on Library in the sidebar.

Step 3 From the toolbar, select any of the following:

• Years: Access photos and videos specific to a year in your photo library.
• Months: Photos and videos will be grouped by month and organized by the days or the location they were taken.
• Days: View photos taken on any day.
• All Photos: View all the photos and videos in your device at the same size, from newest to oldest.

Step 4 Now, double click on a day, month, or year to see the photos in it. If you are using a trackpad, you can pinch open or close on the day, month or year to change views.

How to View Pictures on Mac Without Double Clicking – Conclusion

Just to view a picture, you don’t have to open it by double clicking. Instead, you can use Quick Look to preview images without opening them. Using Quick Look, you can preview other files like documents, videos, and more. Quick Look also offers other tools to edit, rotate, and markup images and clips. 

This guide explains everything with respect to Quick Look and How to View Pictures on Mac Without Double Clicking. We hope this guide was helpful. 

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