How to Show a Paper Tape in Calculator App for Mac

If you find yourself adding up many numbers or just performing a continuous string of math that is critical to keep track of, you should know that the Mac Calculator app includes a paper tape feature. For those who aren’t familiar, a paper tape keeps a running trail of each item entered into a calculator, making it easy to follow and audit anything in the calculation. Obviously useful for many occasions, the deceptively simple Calculator app in OS X includes this ability, and you can also save and print the generated number tape if desired.

There’s not much complexity to using this handy Calculator feature, but it’s so useful that you’ll wonder how you functioned without it, and if you’ve been relying on the Spotlight Calculator you should make the switch to this.

Enable the Paper Tape in Calculator for Mac OS X

1. Open Calculator app from /Applications/
2. Pull down the “Window” menu and choose “Show Paper Tape” (or hit Command+T)
3. Perform calculations as usual, the paper tape will now keep track of each number entered

Saving or Printing the Paper Tape of Calculations

When you complete a set of calculations that you want to keep a record of or save for whatever reason, you can then choose to print the paper tape, or save the paper tape as a file.

You can also hit the ‘clear’ button to wipe the tape clean and start over.

You’ll find this useful for many tasks since it’s fairly easy to lose track of many calculations, so whether you’re adding up expenses or doing taxes, use the Paper Tape, maybe even save or print out the results, you’ll thank yourself for the convenience.

This is just one of many great features of the Mac Calculator app, which is well featured and largely under appreciated, able to do function as a Scientific or Programmer calculator, calculate currency exchange rates and tons of units of measurement, and so much more. It’s certainly worth a second look if you have any mathematical needs. For simpler tasks and basic calculations, you may find that using Spotlight as a calculator remains the quickest on a Mac however.