Have you ever been faced with the situation where you’re trying to install something and they asked you to open the Terminal application on a Mac? You’ve looked around and have no idea where the Terminal app was. The guide will show you quickly where you can open the Terminal and you could be able to simply follow the instructions by entering the commands that are asked of you in your installation.
[Updated] If you are using macOS Mojave, macOS Catalina, Big Sur, Catalina, Monterey, Ventura or above, you can still open the Terminal app through one of these ways.
How to Open the Terminal on Mac
The Terminal is a useful program that can allow you to change the settings, open any application, show hidden files and folders, etc. on your Macbook. The good news is that you can simply open the Terminal by using three ways: from Finder, LaunchPad, and Spotlight.
From Finder
Open the Finder from the Dock, then select the Application in the Favorites on the left side of the window. Find and go to the Utilities folder. Or you can go to the Utilities folder by clicking on Go >> Utilities.
Just double-click on the Terminal icon to open it.
From Launchpad
Go to the Launchpad icon in the Dock, find and click on the Utilities. Once open it, you will see a set of macOS utility apps including Grab, QuickTime, TextEdit, Disk Utility, Stickies, Activity Monitor and Time Machine, Console, Boot Camp Assistant, etc.
Finally, just find the Terminal and double-click the icon to open it.
From Spotlight
You can also open the Terminal by going to the magnifying glass on the top right corner – this is called Spotlight Search. Spotlight Search is an easy way to find almost anything on your Mac.
Once you click on that, just type “Terminal” in the search field and the Terminal window option will come up. Click on it to open the program and now you can write down the unix commands for installing the program, etc.
More: You can quickly open the Spotlight Search by pressing Command + Space.
Using Siri To Open Terminal
First of all, make sure that you have Siri enabled on your Mac. You can do this by going to System Preferences > Siri.
Once you have ensured that Siri is enabled, simply say “Hey Siri, open Terminal” and Siri will launch the app and bring up a command prompt for you to use.
Or you can click on the Siri button on the top-right corner of the menu bar and ask Siri to open Terminal for you.
Pin Terminal to a Dock
A Dock on macOS is a toolbar that provides easy access to your favorite apps and folders. You can add the Terminal to your Dock so that you can quickly launch it whenever you need to.
To do this, first open the Terminal by going to Applications > Utilities > Terminal. Then, click and drag the icon for the Terminal from the top of the window down to your Dock.
Or you can simply open the Terminal application by using one of these methods above, and then right-click on its icon on the Dock, and select Option >> Choose the “Keep in Dock” option.
How to Exit Terminal
There are two ways to exit the Terminal program. The first, just right-click on the Terminal icon in the Dock and select Quit option or press the Command + Q from your keyboard to quit the app immediately.
