Post your favorite Mac tip

[fiveightandten]

As a new user, there's some fantastic info in here. Much appreciated.

-Nick

 

[gazmercer]

One of the things I managed to do the other day that was quite cool was while in Safari (at least I think thats where I was) I highlighted some text that I wanted to keep.

Now usually in windows I would open up Wordpad and then paste the relevant text into the document. On the MAC I highlighted the text I wanted and dragged it to my desktop, VOILA !! instant text file.

Problem is I am at work on a PC and cannot remember if this is the exact way of doing it !!

 

[zeroz52]

How about APPLE+F to "Find" a word or phrase on a page...

In the words of the great Peter Griffon " That is fricken sweet."

I have had my mac for two weeks now, and....what a useful Thread.

 

[switcher.mac]

if you have an apple remote, hold down the play/pause button for your mac to go to sleep. I love that when I'm watching movies before I go to sleep.

Niiice. Used that last night. +1 for you, sir!

 

[RiDE]

One of the things I managed to do the other day that was quite cool was while in Safari (at least I think thats where I was) I highlighted some text that I wanted to keep.

Now usually in windows I would open up Wordpad and then paste the relevant text into the document. On the MAC I highlighted the text I wanted and dragged it to my desktop, VOILA !! instant text file.

Problem is I am at work on a PC and cannot remember if this is the exact way of doing it !!

You are correct... just highlight text... click/hold... drag to desktop.

 

[NanoBite]

^^ That tip works for images too, which is very useful.

 

[CrossBones]

Why isn't your title changed RIDE? MOtM

 

[Kilted1]

Ever had lots of windows open and need to get to an icon or something behind several windows.
Try this Reposition the widows behind your current one by holding down the command key and Click on the title bar of the window behind and drag it to a new position

 

[RiDE]

Why isn't your title changed RIDE? MOtM

Not sure.... I think I have to wait for DB to give me the "crown"...

DB... where are you???

 

[switcher.mac]

Ever had lots of windows open and need to get to an icon or something behind several windows.
Try this Reposition the widows behind your current one by holding down the command key and Click on the title bar of the window behind and drag it to a new position

Niiice! +1

 

[metalsam]

Or you could press F11...

 

[surfwax95]

Typing in a window while Dashboard is active:

Occasionally, I need some info from a widget that I can't copy/paste into an active window. So, rather than open Dashboard, remember some text, activate the window, type, activate Dashboard, etc. try this:

Click in the form in the window where you'd like to type.
Activate Dashboard.
Get the widget info you want displayed.
With Dashboard still activated hit Command+Space to activate Spotlight.
Hit Command+Space again to deactivate Spotlight.

Now you're back in the original window/text field with Dashboard still activated.

Start typing.

Run the maintenance scripts without having to download Onyx
Open Terminal.
Type: sudo sh /etc/Daily to run the Daily maintenance script.

Replace "Daily" with "Weekly" or "Monthly" to run the respective scripts.

It's caps sensitive, so be wary of that.

"Move" and "Copy" drag
Hold down the Option key while dragging to copy a file.
Hold down the Command key while dragging to copy a file and delete the original (move).

Quick Sleep
Command+Option+Eject will sleep the computer without having to navigate any menus or shut the lid on portables.

Hide all apps
Command+Option+click the desktop to hide all open apps.

Open certain folders quickly
With Finder activated, hit Command+Shift+A to open the Applications folder. Replace "A" with "U" for utilities or "H" for the Home folder.

Drop files on dock apps to "Open with..."
If you'd like to open a file with a program other than the default, simply drop it onto a dock icon. Great for images that would normally open with Preview, but you'd like to view them in Photoshop. (Good for HTML, as well)

 

[Kilted1]

Or you could press F11...

Good one

 

[XMARLTONX]

This is more of an iTunes trick but it helped me a ton last night.

View>Show Duplicates

Saved me 1.1 GBs of space, and I thought I had my iPod stuff down for over a year now.

 

[farmcock]

I like disk images...

being able to create an encrypted disk image to store my passwords in and then assigning the disk image a password. That's pretty safe. Can't do in windose that I know of.

 

[opus_az]

Pairing your Apple Remote with your computer

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302545

You might have seen the video of the guy roaming MacWorld with his Apple Remote and mucking with all the presentations. It's as funny as it is childish and annoying, which seems to make it ideal for my co-workers' sense of fun. But now I'm protected from their shenanigans.

 

[Glenners]

I used f9 all the time! It's so great when you have multiple windows open!

 

[dennis495]

Where is the Command key? I have a Control key. Same thing? My Mac is only a few months old.

 

[UserofMacOSX]

I seem to get to use Command+Option+Esc a lot.

Other than that, I sort of like Command+Tab.

 

[eric]

Where is the Command key? I have a Control key. Same thing? My Mac is only a few months old.

command is the "apple" key.