Satchel Writes A Blog

Quick Tips & Tricks for New Apple Users

Apple really has done a remarkable job of positioning itself in the last few years, mostly through the marketing help of the wildly popular iPod. As more and more people switch to Mac, there are several little tips and tricks that seem natural after having used OS X for a few years but are completely alien to new users. So I thought I’d compile a list of the most helpful little tips and tricks to getting OS X to work like you want it to.

Tab/Keyboard Controlled Form Dropdowns

This was one of my biggest pet peaves with OS X. When filling out web forms I usually do it all with tabbing. First name, tab, last name, tab, address, tab, city, tab, state, tb, zip, etc… with OS X it was impossible to do this to a point - namely when it gets to any sort of dropdown selection menu. This would force you to grab the mouse to select your state, birthdates or anything else that you choose from a list rather than just tab and find your selection with the arrows or typing the first context clues (i.e. tab to State list and type “w” which brings it down to WA). Well I recently discovered there’s an easy way to fix this. This solution actually prompted me to put together this list, all you need to do is open up System Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse [Hardware] and change the radio selection under “Full Keyboard Access” from “Text boxes and lists only” to “All controls.” Done, fill out forms without ever having to leave your keyboard again!

Alt+Tab?

If you’re a multi-tasker and use Windows - Alt-Tab is likely one of your most common keyboard combinations. Well OS X has Expose which trumps alt-tab for controlling your multi-tasking. In addition to setting up my F9-F11 keys for Expose (F9: All Windows, F10: App Windows, F11: Desktop), I also have Active Screen Corners for All Windows in the upper right and Desktop in the lower right which allows for easily dragging files either to other applications or the desktop without needing to use the keyboard (all of these settings are available under System preferences / Dashboard & Expose [Personal]).

But maybe you like alt-tab? Well OS X has the similiar Apple+Tab which functions nearly the same. One nice feature about OS X’s Apple+Tab is when the application icon is selected in the pop-up menu you can give it keyboard commands. For example when I’m closing things down I usually Apple+Tab and Apple+Q to quit all my programs one at a time through the popup menu - a whole lot quicker than selecting each application in the dock and then quitting from there.

But what about alt-tabbing within an application? First off, I love tabbed web browsing, but when I’m browsing Digg.com I prefer opening each digg story in it’s own window so when I click the link to see if it’s any good it’s tabbed alone in the same window as the orignal story. Usually I end up with 10-25 different Digg Story windows open. Well OS X offers another version of Alt+Tab that cycles between windows of the currently active application, simply Apple+~ to bounce between windows.

Right-Click

This trick is exclusively for MacBook users who wish to have an easy way to right-click. Under System Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse [Hardware]/Trackpad under Trackpad Gestures check “Place two fingers on trackpad and click button for secondary click” which does exactly as it says. Similiar to the two-finger scrollpad, just place two fingers on the pad and click and Presto - right-click.

How To Install Software

This one is pretty straightforward but I see a lot of new Mac users getting caught up on this one. For most OS X software installation is as simple as dragging the application to the Applications folder. Commonly files you download will be either .dmg or .pkg.  Files with .dmg will open a disk image which contains the files you need to install - once install simply “eject” the disk image to remove it. Files with .pkg are more like your traditional Windows installation - just double-click the file and it will run you through an installation process.

Simple Screenshots

2 quick and easy ways to create screenshots in OS X. Apple+Shift+3 will take a fullscreen screenshot and throw it to the desktop as Picture 1.jpg whereas Apple+Shift+4 will give you crosshairs to draw a box around what you would like to take a screenshot of. Piece of cake.

Three Finger Salute

“Macs never crash.” Something you often here from Apple fanatics and, for the most part it is true. In the 2 years of using OS X I’ve only had the entire system freeze to the point of requiring a manual power-off once. That said, applications still crash/freeze often enough that the 3-finger salute (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) is something you need. The OS X alternative is simply Apple+Option+Escape.

Spotlight Search

For those used to the way search works on Windows know that withouth a third-party search utility it’s usually quicker to just randomly browse through folders to find finders than using Microsoft’s built-in Find. Not so on an Apple. Spotlight finds files in mere seconds due to it’s fantastic and constant file indexing. Be warned however that learning to use spotlight often may kill any desire to organize your file structure since they are so easy to find. =)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Just 2 quickies that are used all the time.
Apple+Q Quits the current application.
Apple+W Closes the current window.

Minor Tweaks

Here are some other minor tweaks that get things back to what may be more intuitive for you.
Scroll Arrows Want the top arrow and top and the bottom arrow on the bottom rather than the odd default of grouping them together? System Preferences/Appearance [Personal]/Place scroll arrows: At top and bottom
Keyboard Characters Looking for those weird keyboard characters such as €, ¥, §, ☁, •? Under System Preferences/International [Personal]/Input Menu just check Character Palette and the character input menu will appear in your menu bar as a US Flag (or your country’s flag). Also helpful is adding a Keyboard Viewer which allows you to see what symbols you get using modifier keys such as Option.
Zoom
Under System Preferences/Universal Access [System]/Seeing if you check Enable access for assistive devices and make sure that Zoom is on. this allows you to zoom in to, say, a small flash video that you want to fill more of the screen.  The keyboard shortcut is Apple+Option+= (or +) and to zoom out it’s Apple+Option+-. Also you can adjust the options - I prefer the screen image only moves when the mouse pointer reaches an edge, so I can zoom in on flash movie trailers and still move the mouse out of the way. =)

OS X Enhancing Software

I could create a huge list here but instead of doing that I’m just going to give you one, Quicksilver. I’m sure I’ll talk more about this in the future, but if you don’t know about Quicksilver, it is the single most important piece software you can download for OS X. At it’s most basic it’s a keyboard based program launcher, but as you begin to dive more and more into quicksilver you will slowly begin to see the power it wields. Wanna email a file to a friend? With Quicksilver it can be done with 4-5 keystrokes, without even needing to open Mail. Want to add a couple items to your grocery list? Just a few keystrokes and it’s done, no need to even open the file. The possibilities with Quicksilver are endless!
MenuMeters Simple little piece of software that gives you basic stats in your Menubar such as free memory and CPU usage.