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January 31, 2007

Keyboard Shortcuts for Speed

What is a keyboard shortcut?
A keyboard shortcut is a combination of two keys (usually) which, when pressed simultaneously, accomplish a task. For example, if you wanted to copy some text, you could select it, and then move the cursor to the "Edit" menu, and select "Copy." Alternatively, you could select the text, and then use a keyboard shortcut to tell your Mac to copy it by holding down the APPLE key and pressing 'c' for copy. My convention for writing the "Copy" keyboard shortcut is "APPLE+c."

Why use keyboard shortcuts?
In a word - speed. While it may only take a second or two to move my mouse to select the "Copy" from the "Edit" menu, it probably takes less than an eighth of a second to accomplish the same thing using the keyboard. And if you are a laptop user like Mom, the time to move the cursor using the track pad on a laptop can get very long. Perhaps up to 4 or 5 seconds. So the gains in speed are even more dramatic.

How can a normal person learn all these arcane commands?

Half the problem is finding out what the keyboard shortcuts are.
Fortunately, the most useful ones are ideally placed: most items in most menus have the keyboard shortcuts listed right beside them. Like so:

Notice the weird looking characters running down the right side of the menu list? Those tell you the keyboard shortcuts for each command. Also notice that that squiggly clover leaf looking icon is also displayed on the APPLE key. Thus, we can see the keyboard shortcut for "Undo Typing" - hold the APPLE key and press the 'z' key. (Incidentally, the Apple key is actually called the "Command" key, but like many people, I find I get the "Command" and "Control" keys mixed up, so I call it the "Apple" key.)

The other half of learning keyboard shortcuts is remembering them.
Considering that knowledge is essentially familiarity, learning keyboard shortcuts is simply a matter of finding some way of forcing yourself to use them. You might try learning one a day. Or you might simply notice you are using the same command repeatedly on a particular task - say, copying and pasting text back and forth from one document to another - and take the opportunity to use the keyboard shortcuts for that task. You'll get the task done quicker and have learned 2 keyboard shortcuts.

I expect you'll also be glad to know that the shortcuts have been designed to make them easier to remember. Copy, for example, is APPLE+c - 'c' for copy. Cut is APPLE+x - the 'x' looks like scissors. Paste is APPLE+v - 'v' looks like the insertion symbol one might use marking up text by hand.

Another benefit: Windows keyboard shortcuts are pretty much the same as on the Mac. Windows shortcuts use the CONTROL key rather than the APPLE key. But otherwise, are pretty much the same, as far as I know.

Not only that, but on the Mac, keyboard shortcuts typically apply across all applications. APPLE+s is Save, no matter what application you are using.

In the next post, I'll give you an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts from Apple, as well as a revised list of the most common commands. So stop mousing around already!

Posted by Brad at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2007

Control-click words

Not sure about a word? Not sure how to spell it? Don't know what it means? Want to find out more? Control-click it, i.e. hold down the CONTROL key and click the word. 

Control-clicking a word will give you option to spell check, use Spotlight to search for the word in all documents on your Mac, search the web with Google, or look up the word in OS X's system-wide Dictionary.

This tip would effectively end the days of leaning across to your colleague and asking them if they know how spell 'naive,' or of reading an article and simply ignoring the words you don't

This is what is known as a disruptive technology - if you don't disrupt your familiar habits and go out of your way to use it, you disrupt your colleagues.

(Go on - select 'disruptive technology' and control-click it to Google what it really means.)

Posted by Brad at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2007

The "Where'd It Go" Dictionary (Windows Version)

One for the switchers: the Windows version of the "Where'd It Go" Dictionary.

If you are a PC-based person who is new to the Mac, bookmark this handy guide from MacTipsAndTricks.com. It will allow you too look up common functions for Windows and find out where the equivalent functions are in Mac OS X.

So if you want to use your digital camera with your Mac, and know only that you would use 'Camera and Scanner Wizard' on Windows, you can look up "Camera and Scanner Wizard" in the guide and it will tell you,

When you connect a digital camera or scanner to your Mac, either iPhoto or Image Capture opens automatically and prepares to download the pictures automatically.

And here's a tip to make the guide more useful: once the page loads in your web browser, use your browser's 'find' command to search for the thing you know in Windows: hold the APPLE key and press the 'f' key. (It works in all browsers.) The guide is not exhaustive, but if you searched for "camera" or "scanner" or "wizard," you'd find out what you needed to know. One to bookmark!

I like to keep more important bookmarks in my Dock. Grab the icon in your web browser's address field and drag it down to the right side of the Dock.

Posted by Brad at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2007

Address Book | Back up

Save yourself some grief later, and back up your Address Book now. Why?

It's too quick and easy not to bother. And if Apple have made it so easy to back up and restore your contact info, we can assume they did so for a reason. Few, if any, other applications have back up built-in.

To back up
Open Address Book and choose "Back up Address Book" from the File menu. A dialog will open asking you where to save the backup file. By default, Address Book will opt to save the file in your Documents folder (in your Home folder). That's a good place to save it. The date will automatically be included in the file name.

To Restore from back up
In Address Book, choose "Revert to Address Book Backup" from the File menu. A dialog will open asking you to locate your backup file. Select the backup file and click the Open button. Address Book's backup files end in ".abbu" which presumably stands for "Address Book Back Up."

Since it's so simple and quick, it makes sense to back up your Address Book regularly.

Posted by Brad at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)