Reading and media

Read articles in Reader, translate a page, find text on it, watch video picture in picture, take screenshots and share tabs from Lilo.

This guide shows you how to read an article without clutter, translate a page, find text on it, keep a video in a floating window, take and annotate a screenshot, and share a page or a tab. Most of these actions are also in the command bar: on the page, press ⌘L, type : and their name. (⌘T would open a new blank tab, and the action would apply to that tab.) Shortcuts you can assign to the ones that have none are in Customize Lilo.

Read an article in Reader

Open Reader

On an article, choose View > Show Reader. In the command bar, the action is Reader View.

Adjust the text

The bar at the top of the article has four buttons: smaller text, larger text, theme (each click moves on through automatic, light, sepia and dark) and column width (narrow, normal, wide). Lilo keeps your last choice and uses it for every article, on every site.

Leave Reader

Choose View > Hide Reader. The page reloads as it was.

Reader shows the title, the site name and author when the page gives them, an estimated reading time and the article text. If Lilo can’t find an article on the page, it beeps and leaves the page as it is.

Translate a page

Translate

Choose View > Translate Page, or right-click an empty part of the page and choose Translate Page.

Download the language if asked

The first time you translate from a language, macOS may ask to download it.

Show the original

Choose Translate Page again to restore the original text.

Lilo translates into the first language in your Mac’s preferred languages (System Settings > General > Language & Region). The translation runs on your Mac with Apple’s Translation framework, and text the page adds later is translated as it appears. If the page is already in your language, Lilo beeps and changes nothing.

Find text on a page

Open the find bar

Press ⌘F, or choose Edit > Find > Find…. If you selected text first, the find bar starts with it.

Type what you're looking for

Matches are highlighted, and the bar shows which one you’re on, such as “2 of 7”. Turn on Match case to match capital letters exactly.

Move between matches

Press Return for the next match and Shift-Return for the previous one. Find Next (⌘G) and Find Previous (⇧⌘G) do the same from anywhere on the page.

Close the find bar

Press Esc.

To search for a word without opening the bar, select it and press ⌘E (Use Selection for Find), then ⌘G for each next match. On a page with more than 1,000 matches, the bar doesn’t show a count.

Watch a video picture in picture

Start a video

Play the video on the page.

Pop it out

Choose View > Picture in Picture, or right-click the page and choose Picture in Picture. The video moves to a floating window that stays above your other apps.

Bring it back

Choose Picture in Picture again, or use the controls of the floating window.

With Auto picture-in-picture on (Settings > Audio and video, on by default), a call or a playing video pops into a floating window by itself when you switch away from its tab or from Lilo. With Keep calls in the sidebar on, a tab using your camera, microphone or screen docks in the sidebar instead of floating.

Take a screenshot

Choose what to capture

Choose File > Take Screenshot, then Selected Area (⇧⌘2), Visible Area or Full Page. You can also point at the address bar, click the camera button, and choose Full page, Visible area or Selection….

Paste it, or edit it

The screenshot is copied to the clipboard, and a card confirms it. Click Edit on the card to open the editor.

Annotate

Draw with Arrow, Rectangle, Ellipse, Text, Pen and Highlighter, hide details with Blur, number steps with Numbered badge, or Crop the image.

Save or copy

Click Save to save a PNG into your downloads folder, choose Save As… from its menu to pick a place, or click Copy to copy the edited image.

A full-page capture of a very long page stops before the end, and Lilo tells you so.

Send the link: choose File > Share… to open the macOS share menu (Mail, Messages, AirDrop and others). The page title goes in as the subject where the service has one.
Show a QR code: choose File > Create QR Code… to open the page on a phone.
Copy the link: press ⇧⌘C (Edit > Copy Page URL). Hold Option in the Edit menu for Copy Page Link as Markdown (⌥⇧⌘C).

When a site, such as a video call on example.com, asks to share your screen, Lilo shows a picker of your tabs instead of the whole screen.

Choose a tab

Pick a tab in Choose a tab to share, or search for it. Use the arrow keys and Return, or click Share.

Or share a window or the screen

Click Window or Screen… to use the macOS picker instead. When the page asks for sound, check Share audio too first to add what your Mac plays. The call’s own voices are never sent back into it.

The shared tab is captured inside Lilo, video only, and handed to that page alone. The sidebar marks the tab while it is shared. Closing the tab ends the share.