Master Notification Center

In a default installation of OS X, Notification Center can be activated in two ways, as follows:

• Swiping from right to left with two fingers on a trackpad, if your computer has one; start the swipe gesture from the very right edge of the trackpad. This can take some practice to get right!

• Clicking the Notification Center icon at the top right of the screen.

However, you can add two quicker and substantially more intuitive ways to activate Notification Center, as follows.

Using Hot Corners to Activate Notification Center

OS X lets you configure hot corners to activate certain desktop functions, which is to say you can push the mouse cursor into any of the four corners of the screen to activate things like Mission Control or Notification Center. Because the Notification Center icon is at the top right, it makes significant sense to configure the top-right Hot Corner to activate it. 

To do so, open System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences), click the Mission Control icon, and then click the Hot Corners button at the bottom left of the program window. In the drop-down dialog box that appears, click the drop-down list at the top right—the one relating to the top right of the screen preview—and select Notification Center. Then click OK and close System Preferences.

The changes take effect immediately, so give it a try—push the mouse cursor into the top-right corner, and the Notification Center will appear. Click any- where outside of Notification Center to dismiss it.

To turn off the Hot Corner, repeat the previous steps, but in the drop-down list for the choice of what function to activate for the top-right Hot Corner, select the hyphen at the bottom of the list.

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut to Open Notification Center

You can also (or alternatively) assign a keyboard shortcut to open and close Notification Center. For some reason Apple doesn’t include this in a default install.

To do so, open System Preferences and click the Keyboard icon. Then click the Keyboard Shortcut tab, and in the list on the left select Mission Control. On the right of the window, check Show Notification Center. You’ll immediately be prompted to type the keyboard shortcut you want to use. The choice is up to you, but I find that Option+Commmand+ Tab works well and isn’t already assigned to a function in OS X. I hold down Option+Commmand with my left thumb while tapping Tab with a finger.

To remove the keyboard shortcut, repeat the previous steps, but this time remove the check alongside Show Notification Center in the list.