March 30, 2007
Selecting Text
To select a word
Double-click it.
(Click it twice in rapid succession.)
To select a paragraph
Triple-click it.
(In some applications, like Firefox or Preview, triple-clicking selects a line of text.)
To select a block of text
Click the start position, then hold the SHIFT key and click where at the end the area you want to select. This doesn't just work in text you are writing. It also works with text you are reading, like a web page in Safari, or an email in Mail.app.
Posted by Brad at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2007
OS X Keyboard Shortcuts!
As promised, Apple's official collection of common Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts, available from their support site.
Download Whitewater's collection of common Keyboard Shortcuts. This is a shorter compilation of shortcuts. The file will download to your desktop for printing, future reference, never getting around to actually looking at, etc.
Remember, all the keyboard shortcuts available are listed next to each item in every menu of every application you use. Now that's good design.
Posted by Brad at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
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)
December 19, 2006
Eejits Guide to Mac
Paula from Whitewater writes:
Most of us suity-type bods who were PC-based freak out when joining Whitewater, as we are faced with the dreaded Mac on top of trying to get our heads around a new company and new clients.
First, welcome to Mac for Mom! You can think of it as Whitewater's new repository of Mac tips. It's geared toward new Mac users like my Mom. She's a PC-based suity-type bod too.
Second, I expect many of the people who were PC-based were using older versions of Windows which, like Mac OS 9, are quite different to Mac OS X. So that is quite a change. But don't freak out just yet. The good news is that, according to David Pogue of the The New York Times, learning Mac OS X is a perfect way of preparing oneself for newer versions of Windows like Vista.
Windows Vista
From: Vista Wins on Looks. As for Lacks... by David Pogue, for The New York Times. (Registration may be required. To find out how to view sites that require registration, while skipping the tedious form filling, read about BugMeNot.)
Posted by Brad at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2006
About Versions of OS X
Some of the information on this blog may not apply to the version of Mac OS X that you are using.
If you have an older version of Mac OS X, you may find references to features which don't exist for you (yet). Since it's very difficult to constantly specify versions of OS X, and therefore, also specify which versions of particular applications I am referring to, I'm simply going to side step the issue. Tips will always be written to be relevant to the latest available version of OS X and related applications at any particular moment in time. If we all keep OS X up-to-date, it shouldn't really be a problem.
We are currently using Mac OS X 10.4 (or Tiger). Mom's currently using Mac OS X 10.3 (or Panther), but she'll be upgrading at Christmas. The next version of OS X - 10.5 (Leopard) - is expected some time in the new year.
Posted by Brad at 04:11 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 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)
