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April 26, 2005

Mail | Drag and drop attachments via the Dock

If you want to send someone an image by email, you can drag the image file down to the Mail icon in the Dock.

1. In the Finder, navigate to the folder containing the image file.

2. Drag the image file to the Mail icon in the Dock (the strip of icons across the bottom of your screen).

As a result
Mail will move to the foreground, and a new message window will open with the image file already attached to it. All you have to do is address it.

For me, it's by far the simplest, fastest, best way of doing attachments. I avoid having to navigate through folders ala the Attach button.

If you want to send a bunch of files, you can select them all and drag the bunch of them to the Mail icon in the Dock.

Alternatively, if you already have a new email message window open, you can drag the file you want to attach directly into the message.

Posted by Brad at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2005

Oops! Undo

Oh, the cruel irony. I was just polishing up some fine points on the "Undo" command, previewed it, and accidentally closed my browser window and lost my post. I need a new posting method. One that gives me the option to undo. (Safari has an undo, but it doesn't work if you are typing in a text box on a web page. Urgh!) I know the solution, I just need to implement it.

Anyway...

The keystroke, or keyboard shortcut for "Undo" is:
APPLE+Z
where APPLE is the key with the Apple icon on it, and Z is the letter 'z.'

In other words, hold down the APPLE key - there's one on each side of the space bar - and press the 'z' key. I've written it in all caps as a convention - so it stands out from the normal words. Note that this does not mean capital 'z,' which would mean pressing the SHIFT key as well, to make the 'z' a capital 'Z.' (I thought that for a while myself. But of course, APPLE+SHIFT+Z is the "Redo" command, which is used to re-do something you undo-ed ;-)

The point of keyboard shortcuts is that they are faster than using the mouse. Most keyboard shortcuts are common accross all applications, and most of them are very common tasks which you may use many times a minute, so if you spend a little time learning the basic ones, it's definitely worth it.

If you look at the Edit menu pictured above, you'll also note that to the right of each item in the menu, there's a squiggly thing with a letter beside it. These are the keyboard shortcuts for each menu item. As you know, "Undo" is APPLE+Z. Taking that as an example, from the menu we can see the keyboard shortcut for "Copy" is APPLE+C. "Paste" is APPLE+V, and so on.

Also, what I've been calling the APPLE key is actually called the "command" key. Like many people though, I tend to confuse the "command" key with the "control" key. They both start with 'C' and only the "control" key is labelled: "cntrl." The APPLE key has no name - just the squiggly icon you see in keyboard shortcuts in the menu - and an Apple icon. So it's called the APPLE key.

So many qualifications for such a simple, little panic button.

Posted by Brad at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2005

Help

While you are waiting for the book Mom, you might want to get familiar with the "Help Viewer" application (ie.program). Your Mac has a universal help system available, which will tell you the basics about whichever application you happen to be using. The Help Viewer application can be launched from the "Help" menu, which is always the last menu to the right, in the top menu bar. Help Viewer is like a mini-web browser that will display help info for whatever application you are using when you launch Help Viewer.

If you launch Help Viewer when you are using the Finder, it will open to the page, "Mac OS Help" which contains general infomation about how to do all kinds of stuff with your Mac. I'd recommend browsing through "New to Mac OS X?" This section contains really basic orientation info. Check out the sections for new computer users, and for people who've switched from Windows. You might also want to explore "Browse Mac OS Help."

Here's a trick you can try right now: hold down the APPLE key (beside the space bar), and the SHIFT key, and then press the QUESTION MARK key. Help Viewer will launch and display help info for Safari, or whatever application you are using when you press the keys. Very handy for figuring out how to use an unfamiliar application.

Posted by Brad at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)

April 02, 2005

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual

Mom, I sent you a copy of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther edition. It should arrive in about a week.

As far as manuals go, it's a real page turner. But then I'm the kind of person who would sit down with a nice cup of tea and start reading from the beginning to the end. You may not find it gripping enough for that. If not, it will be a good reference book to turn to when you want to find out how to do something in particular.

I hesitated to send this because the next major update of Mac OS X 10.4, a.k.a. Tiger, will be out any week now. However, the Tiger edition of the Missing Manual apparently won't be out until the summer, which seems a long time to go without any book help. "Panther," in the title of the book refers to OS X 10.3, which is what you are currently using. And "OS" obviously stands for "Operating System" ;-)

For more info on the book, check out the O'Reilly Online Catalog

Posted by Brad at 07:39 PM | Comments (1)