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Any cool mac tricks, secrets, or easter eggs?

N

norcalstadium

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 4, 2007
80
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About seven weeks ago, I made the switch from PCs to Macs. Since the switch, I've learned some neat tricks. For example, holding down shift makes certain actions go in slow motion. A more useful trick I've learned is if you press ctrl+command+d while the curser is over a word, a little definition box will pop up by that word.

Do you guys know any other cool or useful tricks?
 
their's a bunch one useful one is ctrl -shift-3 = take a screen shot
the same instead of 4 brings up a cross and can take a screen shot of a selection
 
A neat trick is pressing control+option+command+8. Another one is going to terminal then typing "emacs", then press "esc" and then "x", then type "doctor" or "tetris".

puckhead193 said:
their's a bunch one useful one is ctrl -shift-3 = take a screen shot
the same instead of 4 brings up a cross and can take a screen shot of a selection
Click to expand...

I think you mean command+shift+3 and command+shift+4. Although another cool feature is when you press command+shift+4 press space afterwards, that allows you to take a screenshot of a window.
 
Of course, there's the oldest Easter Egg of them all: the signed insides of original Macs. Were they Apple IIs, though? I forget... Anyway, the original Apple team signed the insides of some of the first run of one line of Macintosh computers. Beat that Egg! ;)
 
Try these out:

1) cmd-click Finder window title: It shows a Pop-up menu showing path to current folder/document

2) Hit Command Key and Tab Key to cycle through your running apps.
 
Frisco said:
Try these out:

1) cmd-click Finder window title: It shows a Pop-up menu showing path to current folder/document

2) Hit Command Key and Tab Key to cycle through your running apps.
Click to expand...

That reminds me, you can change the style of the text/icons of a window by command clicking on the little button in the top right of the window of a program.
 
Screen secret

okay for this one hold down "control,option, apple button,shift period" And your screen will be brighter and do the same thing but shift comma and your screen will get duller.:p
 
talsania said:
okay for this one hold down "control,option, apple button,shift period" And your screen will be brighter and do the same thing but shift comma and your screen will get duller.:p
Click to expand...
A lot of these aren't "secrets" or "tricks" at all, but merely standard keyboard shortcuts. You can see the list here.
 
Slow down genie effect by holding down shift when clicking on the window minus button or documents in the dock.

Alt-click and drag column divider in Finder column view resizes columns evenly.
 
cmd + click link = open link in new tab
fn + backspace = delete letters to right of cursor
option + backspace = delete 1 word at a time
 
A useful feature can be the Summarize service.

If you're on a website or have a long document open, basically anything with text, highlight the text, then from the program menu choose Services > Summarize

i.e. in safari you'd highlight the text then press Safari > Services > Summarize

A really cool one I just found out about after 5.5 years of using a mac.
 
norcalstadium said:
About seven weeks ago, I made the switch from PCs to Macs. Since the switch, I've learned some neat tricks. For example, holding down shift makes certain actions go in slow motion. A more useful trick I've learned is if you press ctrl+command+d while the curser is over a word, a little definition box will pop up by that word.

Do you guys know any other cool or useful tricks?
Click to expand...

yeah i know another few tricks i learnt a few years back one is control alt (option) then command then 8 so control alt command 8 makes your screen go like x ray vision, use a photo they look seriously weird when that effect is done.

another one is a simple one it is command F5 this will activate voice over, this function is actually designed for blind people, you can also change settings of the voice by going help on the main mac toolbar make sure your on finder (you can see it right near the apple sign in the top left corner on what program you are currently using) then press help and type "voice over utility" it should give you that on the drop down, click on it then on the left tab of voice over utility you will see verbosity or speech i think the feature has multiple voices and can change pitch, rate of speech so makes it go quickly and a few other functions. :):):)
 
DanJojo said:
yeah i know another few tricks i learnt a few years back one is control alt (option) then command then 8 so control alt command 8 makes your screen go like x ray vision, use a photo they look seriously weird when that effect is done.

another one is a simple one it is command F5 this will activate voice over, this function is actually designed for blind people, you can also change settings of the voice by going help on the main mac toolbar make sure your on finder (you can see it right near the apple sign in the top left corner on what program you are currently using) then press help and type "voice over utility" it should give you that on the drop down, click on it then on the left tab of voice over utility you will see verbosity or speech i think the feature has multiple voices and can change pitch, rate of speech so makes it go quickly and a few other functions. :):):)
Click to expand...

Any particular reason you resurrected this thread? How did you come upon it anyway?

Btw, the CMD+OPTION+CTRL+8 shortcut has been already mentioned.

iBookG4user said:
A neat trick is pressing control+option+command+8. Another one is going to terminal then typing "emacs", then press "esc" and then "x", then type "doctor" or "tetris".



I think you mean command+shift+3 and command+shift+4. Although another cool feature is when you press command+shift+4 press space afterwards, that allows you to take a screenshot of a window.
Click to expand...

Scarlet Fever said:
press cmd+opt+ctrl+8
Click to expand...
 
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