MacBook Tips and Tricks

[shakerbaby]

Okay I am new to Macs and am impressed so far that I wont be going back to PC's however I need help in learn some of the key combinations.

For example I loved the Ctrl+Alt+Command+8 tip I read recently.

Spill the beans, impress me more. What other ones are there?

 

[mad jew]

Here are some.

 

[Willehard]

Hold down ctrl and scroll with your trackpad or mouse

 

[TaylorB]

I found that holding the Apple (clover looking thing) key, shift and then pressing 3 at the top takes a full screenshot. Then if you do the same thing, except press 4 at the top you can either drag and make your own sized picture, or you can get a window up and press spacebar to take a picture of that. I find those very useful.

 

[shakerbaby]

Thanks guys this is the type of stuff I want to learn, however I cant get the hold down Ctrl and use the trackpad to scroll one working.

 

[TaylorB]

To scroll using the track pad you place two fingers on the pad at once and then move them in whatever direction you want to scroll. If you hold control while doing it, you zoom in.

 

[shakerbaby]

To scroll using the track pad you place two fingers on the pad at once and then move them in whatever direction you want to scroll. If you hold control while doing it, you zoom in.

Nice one. Cheers

 

[TaylorB]

I'm glad you like it. It is definitely one of my top 5 shortcuts.

 

[frome]

Other cool ones include holding shift when minimizing windows, opening dashboard, closing a widget and when using expose. Also in dashboard press apple-r and the selected widget will do a swirl and reload...

 

[shakerbaby]

Other cool ones include holding shift when minimizing windows, opening dashboard, closing a widget and when using expose. Also in dashboard press apple-r and the selected widget will do a swirl and reload...

Cool

Cant get the apple-r one to work though. Do you mean hold down the command key and r?

 

[Egaas]

Get Quicksilver. It can do so many keyboard shortcuts easily, that's all the tricks you need.

 

[1=1?]

For example I loved the Ctrl+Alt+Command+8 tip I read recently.

More things like this please.

 

[Dockmasterlynn]

Macbook tricks and short cuts

How do you make the open web page when closing go back to the safari icon and not on the doc?

Thanks
Macbook pro 17

 

[i.phone4]

using 4 fingers on the trackpad swipe up, down, right, left. three finger swipe right or left will show the previous/next page in safari.

 

[letswastetime]

How do you make the open web page when closing go back to the safari icon and not on the doc?

Thanks
Macbook pro 17

It is a setting you can change in system preferences, under dock.

 

[RockPortTech]

Thank you so much, as a new Mac user but longtime Windows user they come in handy.

 

[marmitelover]

Command-A = Select all items in the front Finder window (or desktop if no window is open)
Option-Command-A = Deselect all items
Shift-Command-A = Open the Applications folder
Command-C = Copy selected item/text to the Clipboard
Shift-Command-C = Open the Computer window
Command-D = Duplicate selected item
Shift-Command-D = Open desktop folder
Command-E = Eject
Command-F = Find any matching Spotlight attribute
Shift-Command-F = Find Spotlight file name matches
Option-Command-F = Navigate to the search field in an already-open Spotlight window
Shift-Command-G = Go to Folder
Shift-Command-H = Open the Home folder of the currently logged-in user account
Command-I = Get Info
Option-Command-I = Show Inspector
Control-Command-I = Get Summary Info
Shift-Command-I = Open iDisk
Command-J = Show View Options
Command-K = Connect to Server
Shift-Command-K = Open Network window
Command-L = Make alias of the selected item
Command-M = Minimize window
Option-Command-M = Minimize all windows
Command-N = New Finder window
Shift-Command-N = New folder
Option-Command-N = New Smart Folder
Command-O = Open selected item
Shift-Command-Q = Log Out
Option-Shift-Command-Q = Log Out immediately
Command-R = Show original (of alias)
Command-T = Add to Sidebar
Shift-Command-T = Add to Favorites
Option-Command-T = Hide Toolbar / Show Toolbar in Finder windows
Shift-Command-U = Open Utilities folder
Command-V = Paste
Command-W = Close window
Option-Command-W = Close all windows
Command-X = Cut
Option-Command-Y = Slideshow (Mac OS X 10.5 or later)
Command-Z = Undo / Redo
Command-1 = View as Icon
Command-2 = View as List
Command-3 = View as Columns
Command-4 = View as Cover Flow (Mac OS X 10.5 or later)
Command- "," (the comma key) = Open Finder preferences
Command-` (the apostrophe key) = Cycle through open Finder windows
Command-Shift-? = Open Mac Help
0ption-Shift-Command-Esc (hold for three seconds) - Mac OS X v10.5, v10.6 or later only = Force Quit front-most application
Command-[ = Back
Command-] = Forward
Command-Up Arrow = Open enclosed folder
Control-Command-Up Arrow = Open enclosed folder in a new window
Command-Down Arrow = Open highlighted item
Command-Tab = Switch application--cycle forward
Shift-Command-Tab = Switch application--cycle backward
Command-Delete = Move to Trash
Shift-Command-Delete = Empty Trash
Option-Shift-Command-Delete = Empty Trash without confirmation dialog
Spacebar (or Command-Y) = Quick Look (Mac OS X 10.5 or later)
Command key while dragging = Move dragged item to other volume/location (pointer icon changes while key is held--see this article)
Option key while dragging = Copy dragged item (pointer icon changes while key is held--see this article)
Option-Command key combination while dragging = Make alias of dragged item (pointer icon changes while key is held--see this article)

may be a little confusing sorry but that isn't even all of them!
enjoy!

marmitelover

 

[cgaw]

Tricks

Command-S: Save
Command-Q: Quit
Command-P: Print
Command-C: Copy
Command-V: Paste
Command N: New Window
You could find others at System Preferences-Keyboard-Keyboard Shortcuts.
_____________________
Macbook Air 11'', 1.4 GHz, 2GB RAM, 64GB
iMac 27'', 2.9 GHz, 4GB RAM, 1TB
iPad 2, 32GB
iPod Touch 4, 32GB

 

[AirThis]

Some terminal commands you might (or not...) enjoy. These are all case sensitive.

Configure Dock with no glass reflections

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean 'TRUE'; killall Dock

To put it back:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean 'FALSE'; killall Dock

Show/unshow hidden folders in Mac

Show hidden folders:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

Hide hidden folders:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

View settings related to sleep

pmset -g

You can also change these settings. For more detailed info, search MacRumors

Names of all Mac Apps using an open network socket with IPaddress/DNS name where they are connected

lsof | grep -i tcp

Please note that the IP addresses given are REVERSED (i.e. 10.16.1.2 would be expressed as 2.1.16.10)

List of tcp sockets that your Mac is using (destination address on right)

netstat -an | grep -i tcp

Precise amount of time since the system last booted (including sleep):

uptime

To see the free disk space for all mounted Volumes (including Time Capsule) attached to your system:

df -h

To open Itunes (or anything else) from the command line

open -a Itunes

In similar fashion, to open iPhoto:

open -a iPhoto

For non-Apple programs, it's a bit more complicated. You need to give the App's full path as an argument:

open /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011/Microsoft\ Word.app/

For the above command with Word, you're probably wondering how to guess where to put the spaces and backslashes. There's a trick:

Type "open /App" (without quotes) and then hit <tab>. You will be presented with:

"open /Applications/"

Append the letters "Mic" and hit <tab>. You will be presented with:

"open /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011/"

Append the letters "Mic" and hit <tab>. You will be presented with:

"open /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011/Microsoft\ "

Append the letters "Wo" and hit <tab>. You will be presented with:

"open /Applications/Microsoft\ Office\ 2011/Microsoft\ Word.app"

Now hit enter. Word will start.

To kill Word from the command line

killall 'Microsoft Word'

To see all the commands you typed

history