Simple Mac OS X tips

[glosterseagul]

I thought I would try and start a tips thread. I was talking to a chap from microsoft about Word and he ended with giving me a couple of Cool tips.

So try and keep them simple, short and to the point and cool :cool:

TIP:
When you have several applications open hold down apple key and press tab. This lets you tab thro the apps, let go when the one you want is selected and that one comes to the front.

[abhishekit]

middle mouse button is safari opens a new tab
and regarding the earlier tip, a lil add on.. cmd+~ lets you go through all windows a single app.
cheers

[HexMonkey]

I'll add this since I've seen a few problems it would have helped with:
Use command-drag to rearrange the menus on the right of the menubar or to remove them.

[tomf87]

OPTION+Volume Key (any one) opens Sound preferences
OPTION+F14 or F15 (screen brightness) opens Display preferences

Hold down OPTION+CMD while clicking Shutdown or Restart will cause that action to happen without further prompting.

EDIT: Also while holding CMD+Tab, you can keep holding CMD and use mouse to select app. Click to activate.

[matthew24]

Select a piece of text and drag it to the desktop.

[glosterseagul]

Drag the applications folder onto the dock, then click and hold to show contents of folder.

[stoid]

While in the CMD-Tab application switcher, hit CMD-Q to quit the hi-lighted application.

[Diatribe]

Thought I'd share a little something. Probably known. For those who don't - enjoy.

[stoid]

Thought I'd share a little something. Probably known. For those who don't - enjoy.

OOOoooohhhh!!! Pretty! :D

Also, for switching between tabs in Safari, you can use Apple-Shift-(right or left arrow key)

[OutThere]

Press Cmd+Shift+4 to select an area to take a screen shot of, but while you have the selection tool up, press space and you can select a window to take a screenshot of. Press space again to go back to the selection tool. The desktop, the menu bar and the dock count as windows.

[stoid]

Pressing:
Apple-Control-Shift-3 will take a screenshot and put it on the clipboard rather than creating a file.

Apple-Control-Shift-4 will take a selection screenshot to the clipboard rather than a file.

[mikepctp]

Find the Virtual PC Folder and drag / drop it in the trash... you shouldn't be running that stuff on a Mac... :D

MP

[Sparky's]

Drag ANY often used folder or HD into the dock for instant access.

and the easy trash "cmd+delete" to put something into the trash and "cmd+shift+delete" to empty the trash

[mactastic]

Option + Mute = Instant access to System Prefs.

Command + Tab brings up the application icons and each successive push moves you forward one, but once there command +` moves you backwards through them.

Turn on the zoom feature under the Universal Access tab. Then Command - Option - = will zoom you in to your mouse pointer. Command Option - will zoom you back out.

Drag and Drop works nearly anywhere.

Hold down the shift key when you minimize a window to the dock.

[mklos]

Option + Mute = Instant access to System Prefs.

Command + Tab brings up the application icons and each successive push moves you forward one, but once there command +` moves you backwards through them.

Turn on the zoom feature under the Universal Access tab. Then Command - Option - = will zoom you in to your mouse pointer. Command Option - will zoom you back out.

Drag and Drop works nearly anywhere.

Hold down the shift key when you minimize a window to the dock.


Open a Finder window and press the Apple Key while clicking the top center text...it will tell you the path of where the current window is from.

You can drag anything into the toolbar in the Finder Window in Panther.

You can hit F14 and F15 to brighten/dim the display on most computers with those keys available.

Drag a document onto the printer icon in the dock (you have to put that icon in the dock yourself) and it will automatically print out.

If you have a bunch of Finder windows open and you want to close them all at once, hold the option key down while pressing the red button (close button) in a Finder window and watch them all close at once.

If your in a Finder window and you option double click on the something to open/lanuch it, it will launch it and also close the Finder window.

If you option click on the desktop, or anywhere in the finder it will go to the Finder and hide all applications you have open.

I guess thats enough for now!

[cb911]

Open a Finder window and press the Apple Key while clicking the top center text...it will tell you the path of where the current window is from.

excellent!! :D now i can do away with that 'path' function in the toolbar. more room for icons!! :)

and my tip:

CMD+power button - for a quick reboot if your Mac has jammed or something. alot quicker than just holding the power button and waiting for it to shutdown and then reboot again. :)

and not really a tip, more of a slightly amusing time waster:

open a Finder, or other window, then open Terminal and type 'killall Dock'. keep the Terminal window selected (in front) and just hold Shift while you click the minimize button on the Finder, or other window. it will slowly start to minimize. after it's started to shrink a bit, hit Enter in Terminal. :D that will quit the Dock and stop the window minimising, keeping it in it's 'shrunken' state. don't worry, the Dock automatically starts again.

you can move the shrunken window around, and still select icons in it. you can just close the window when you get sick of it.

this also looks good if you change the position of the Dock after each 'killall Dock'. then you'll have the windows minimizing to different parts of the screen. really trippy stuff. :D i showed this to a bunch of PC users and it was kinda funny :)

[briankonar]

drag any volume to the dock.

right click (control + click) for hierarchial menu.

i see way to many dock's with 100 applications in them. :rolleyes:

[rdowns]

Here's one nobody mentioned. Whenever your computer freezes, hit control-alt-delete. Oh wait, never mind...

[johnnyjibbs]

Drag any file onto an application icon in the dock which can open that type of file to "open with". E.g. try dragging an iPhoto photo onto the Preview icon or Photoshop to open it in those programs. (The icon goes dark if the app will accept the file).

Make a folder of aliases to most of your frequently used programs/documents and put that in the dock for easy access (like Windows Start Menu)

To change the icon of a particular folder or file, select it in the Finder, Get Info (Command-I), select the icon at the top so that it glows blue and then paste an image file onto it (Command-V). To revert the icon, simply select it again and press the delete key.

[wordmunger]

drag any volume to the dock.

right click (control + click) for hierarchial menu.

i see way to many dock's with 100 applications in them. :rolleyes:
Though I don't have quite 100 apps in my dock, I do have 30 or so. I don't like going through hierarchical menus to get to my apps. Why is this a problem?

[mklos]

I just thought of another cool tip that hasn't been mentioned...

If you don't want the confirmation box to restart or shutdown your Mac then hold the option key down when click on either Restart or ShutDown and your Mac will just do what you told it to without confirmation boxes!

[glosterseagul]

Much as I hate to say it....

Buy a non apple 2 button Mouse as it works on OSX. Saves on the alt-click!

[stcanard]

drag any volume to the dock.

right click (control + click) for hierarchial menu.

i see way to many dock's with 100 applications in them. :rolleyes:

Now that's cool, I had no idea I could right-click a folder in the dock to get a menu like that!

[glosterseagul]

Drag the applications folder onto the dock, then click and hold to show contents of folder.

right click (control + click) for hierarchial menu.


This is the same as above? What is the control + click? Isnt it just click? :confused:

[glosterseagul]

middle mouse button is safari opens a new tab


what is this? :confused:

[Maritan]

This is the same as above? What is the control + click? Isnt it just click? :confused:

Control+click is the equivalent of right clicking a 2/3 button mouse. And it's quicker than clicking and holding on a folder in the dock. Ctrl+Click gets the menu out immediately as opposed to clicking and holding, for which you have to wait a couple seconds.

[dukemeiser]

Command+Option+W closes all windows in the frontmost application.
Command+` cycles through open windows in frontmost application. (` is left of the "1" key)

[Panopticon]

Anyone familiar with Quark Xpress' little hand-grabbing quick key?

Mac OS 9 used to have it as 'option-[hold down] click', and now OS X has 'apple-option[hold down] click'.

This is cool for navigation inside the finder - simply put the pointer anywhere that's white, and click and hold 'apple-option'. If your window is smaller than the contents of the folder, you can now grab it like you would the pasteboard in QX [option<?>], or in the Adobe suite of applications [spacebar].

Incedentally, MS Internet Explorer 5 has this function as well... I've migrated to Safari and really wish Apple would add this key into it... its better than that scroll bar, or using the scroll wheel on the mouse.

[glosterseagul]

bounce :)

[MacMaik]

Enable accessibility options. Now combine Command with your mighty-mouse's scroll-ball or mouse scroll wheel. Whoohoo instant zoom.

When your mac is hung, hit the power button short enough to push it into sleep mode. After wake-up, usually Finder spotted that an application was not behaving well. Was a life saver for me!

Time Machine can be made to work with non-Apple NAS devices and over SMB shares. You'll need to create a sparsebundle filesystem on your harddisk first (google for the instructions).

command-space to get to spotlight, type few characters of the application you need to start. Hit enter. No need for 30 apps in the dock. Other people use QuickSilver.

Command-T opens a new tab in the Terminal window.