Making Your Life Easier on a Mac, Part II

Last week, I posted 5 Mac shortcuts designed to help users save a little time and be a little more productive.  As mentioned last week, the list of Mac shortcuts is phenomenal.  I've chosen a few more shortcuts and tricks this week that might assist you.

1. Take a picture!  So many times we find reasons to share pictures of our screen, but there's no "Print Screen" key on a Mac.  Use the combo Command, Shift, 3 to take a screen shot or Command, Shift, 4 to select your picture area.  The picture will be downloaded to your desktop as Picture 1, Picture 2, and so on.

2.  Make your calculator fit your needs.  The calculator application on a Mac is opened first as a standard calculator.  It can be changed to a scientific or programming calculator by going to View, then choosing your preference.

3.  One thing that is heard from many former PC users when they move to Mac is, "I want my right click!"  A right click on a mouse usually opens up many shortcuts and additional options.  On a Mac, the right click is a control click.  Simply hold the control button down and click on the track pad if you're using a laptop.  All your options will then become available!

4.  Rainbow Wheel, i.e. Spinning wheel of death: How many times have we suffered from this?  It can happen for many reasons, but there is a way to get rid of it.  Alt, Command, Esc is equivalent to Ctrl Alt Delete on a PC.  Try that key combo to Force Quit the application that is not responding.

5.  Close a window or quit a program:  Sometimes when using multiple applications, many, many windows are open.  The windows you are done with can be closed quickly by using the key combo Command W.  Quit the entire program by using the key combo Command Q.

Try these tips this week and soon they'll become habit.  Hopefully, you won't have any reason to use Tip #4!

Making Your Life Easier on a Mac

One of the best things about using a Macintosh computer is the shortcuts!  I counted them - there are 191.  If you'd like to see the complete list, click here.

There are about five shortcuts that I think are the best for productivity.  This can assist you in the classroom and make your life a little easier.  They are listed below with examples of how to use them:

1. Command Tab:  Hold on the Command key and hit Tab.  This will show all the applications you have open.  Continue to hit Tab until the white box is around the application you want to use, then let go of both keys.  The chosen application will be moved so you can easily access it.

2. Expose: This is different for different computer models, but can be changed. Using either the F9 or F3 key, you can see every document, application, and window that is open and running on your computer.  If neither of those keys work, use the Expose and Spaces area in System Preferences to set it up.  Choose the key you prefer where it says "All Windows."

3.  Show Desktop:  Use the function and F11 key at the same time.  Again, if your settings do not allow this function, just change it in System Preferences where it says "Show Desktop."

4.  Increase screen size: Command +.  This will make your screen size larger so you can zoom in on one area.  Decrease by using Command -.

5.  Quick View:  At some time, you'll get to the point where you have so many documents that you're not sure which one is which.  Using the Finder menu, you can easily view documents before they're open.  Click on the document you'd like to preview, then click the spacebar. A temporary window appears.  (See below)

You can preview the document, then click on the spacebar again to close out.

Habits are formed through repetition.  Throughout this week, try these shortcuts regularly until that  habit is established, then venture to the Apple Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts linked above or look for continued posts to this blog for more ideas.