Mac OS X Power-User Tips & Tricks at URSA

Along with some serious hand’s on experience today, here’s a few more resources that you might find of help:

• Mac Central Keyboard Shortcuts – a MUCH larger and expanded list than what I have below.
• CustomGuide has a great Mac OS X Quick Reference Card – a nice 1-page front and back reference to print and keep nearby. They have many others like this for most programs you probably use. Sign up for a free account to access all of their free quick reference guides.

We’ll spend some time today looking at keyboard shortcuts since the goal of today’s training is to get that left hand out from underneath your chin while working on the computer. Here’s the name and symbol of all of these ‘custom’ keys in the image at right:

We’ll use this list as the agenda for the training, and as a reference. We may not get to all of these, but we’ll give it a shot!

• System Preference Goodies
  • Expose – See everything, or nothing at all…
  • Spaces – Set up different work ‘areas’ or desktops to group similar tasks
  • Speech – Tell your computer what to do, or have it read anything back to you.
  • Trackpad – Make your trackpad do more than just move your mouse around – add right-click and window scrolling with different gestures.
  • Universal Access – Built in screen zooming, Zoom (Option Command + & -) Have to turn on first (Option Command 8)
• Desktop Shortcuts
  • QuickLook (Spacebar)
  • Spring Loaded Folders
  • Applications Folder (Shift Command A)
  • Desktop Folder (Shift Command D)
  • New Finder Window (Command N)
  • Close Window (Command W)
  • New Folder (Shift Command N)
  • Screen Capture (Shift Command 4)
  • Hide (Command H)
  • Spotlight (Command Spacbar)
  • Command-Z will undo the last thing you did… Anywhere.
• TextEdit or other Text Editor like Microsoft Word
  • Hidden Keyboard (Option Key)
  • Thesaurus (Option Esc)
  • Select All (Command A)
  • Copy, Paste, Cut (Command C, V, X)
  • Undo (Command Z)
  • Bold (Command B)
  • Italic (Command I)
  • Underline (Command U)
  • Save (command S)
  • to desktop (Command D)
  • New (Command N)
  • Don’t save (Command D)
  • Quit (Command Q)
• Safari
  • Jump down a page (Spacebar) or up a page (Shift Spacebar)
  • Enter a new Web address (Command L, then just type – no need to delete the blue text)
  • Switch tabs (Control Tab to go right, Shift Control Tab to go left)
  • To quickly go to one of your first 9 bookmarks in the Bookmark Bar (Command 1 – 9)
• Finder
  • Application Switching (Command Tab)
  • Window Switching (Command ~)
  • File/Folder icon in Open window: Control click to see path, click, hold and drag to copy to a new location.
  • Click the Finder icon in the doc opens up a new window.