13 replies to this topic

[teacher]

I know I will not be the only new Mac user in the months to come so I thought perhaps a place to post tips and tricks for the new user might be in order.  We can index them here for future reference so you don't have to read the whole thread to find them.  Please feel free to add your tips and tricks and I will link to them by editing this post.Right Click with LaptopsControl Click with FirefoxHold & Click with FirefoxExposeiChat Video FixesInformation pleaseIntel based Mac Sound SettingsThunderbird Shortut

Edited by teacher, 31 December 2006 - 05:38 PM.

[teacher]

Right clicking with LaptopsI found the easy right click to enable me to do those right click chores.  It turns out it is quite simple.  You put two fingers on the touch pad and then click the mouse button.  It only took a time or two of practice to get it to right click every time.  

[Neil P]

Exposé!At first I thought it was a cheap gimmicky feature that I would never use. Now, it's hard for me to live without it. F9 is the main operator here, pressing it will neatly (and instantly) tile all windows, giving you a view of every open window you have. Mousing over each window will show its title, clicking will bring that window to the front.F10 works similarly, only this time it will tile all windows from the currently active application. The Apple website gives Photoshop as an example, I use it most frequently for Firefox. With the download window open, I can keep it in the background and use this to periodically check on it.F11 will hide all windows, showing the desktop. Hitting it again, or clicking a window, will bring them all back.F12 will bring up Dashboard (Dashboard isn't really part of Exposé, but it's at least closely related)Personally, I don't even use the shortcut keys. I have mouse shortcuts set up for each corner of the screen. They are set in System Preferences -> Dashboard & Exposé. Now, a mouse flick to the bottom left corner of the screen will show all my open windows, to the top right will minimize them, etc.You can change the shortcut keys (Apple keyboards--or at least the one I have--go up to F16 (not the Fighting Falcon), and with Shift, Control, Option, and Command for combos, you can go nuts making shortcuts if you want to) or even add Exposé features to extra buttons on a mouse.

[teacher]

In Firefox, holding down on the mouse clicker for a couple of seconds pulls up your PC-right click menus.  It includes flashgot, undo, and if you are over a link, it has the normal open in a new tab, open in a new window, copy link.    These capabilities do not appear to work with Safari.

[RobertM]

teacher, on Aug 27 2006, 03:35 PM, said:

In Firefox, holding down on the mouse clicker for a couple of seconds pulls up your PC-right click menus. ... These capabilities do not appear to work with Safari.

Before anyone gets too used to this (I found it handy when I had to recharge my mouse and had to use the one-button Apple one and was too lazy or whatever to move my hand over and hit Ctrl), I must say that Firefox 2.0, currently in beta, appears to have removed this funcionality. My guesses include that maybe it's an older way, like a holdover from OS 9 or something (I wouldn't know since I wasn't a heavy Mac user back then) ... or maybe the fact that Firefox is a little click-and-hold happy, i.e., doing it where it shouldn't (like on the toolbar, in edit boxes, etc).Of course, Ctrl+Click still works, as does my preferred method, a multi-button mouse. (Or the new touchy-clicky thing on newer laptops.)

[roger2002]

If you are having trouble with iChat video not connecting, these are the steps I took to correct the problem on my systems: Step #1: Change the port in iChat Preferences -> Accounts -> Server Settings to 443. It might say 5190. Restart your computer and try iChatAV. If it works, you are done and do not do any of the following steps. Step #2:You should check to see that the Mac's firewall is not active. Go to "Apple pull down menu" -> System Preferences -> Sharing -> Firewall and hit the "Stop" button. Reboot your computer and try iChatAV. If this works you are done.Step #3: If #2 doesn't work follow the same procedure to get to the Apple Firewall window and press the "New" button; then in the "Port Name" pull-down menu click "Other"; then enter the following ports in the "TCP" box (copy and paste these numbers with commas exactly to the tcp box 5190, 5220, 5222, 5223, 5298)and enter the following ports in the "UDP box (copy and paste these pnumbers and commas and hyphen exactly to the udp box 5060, 5190, 5297, 5298, 5353, 5678, 16384-16403). Enter a name in the description box such as "iChatAV". Now press "OK". Reboot your Mac and try iChatAV.( If you have an external firewall, these are the same ports you need to open in it as well. See your router manufacturer's website for more detailed instructions on setting up your router for iChat.)Step #4: Go to sys prefs/quicktime/streaming/streaming speed set what you get from your ISP.Step #5:In ichats prefs click on video and change bandwidth limit to NONE. There are three test iChatAV sites at appleu3test01, appleu3test02 and appleu3test03. You can enter these screenames as "buddies"(AIM not .MAC) to test your system's ability to iChat.I saw the basic form of this list on Apple's Discussion pages here. Another couple of great resources for iChat are Ralph Johns and mvldesign.com

[teacher]

I was reading the Mac tips on the Apple site and I started experimenting with one.  It said that Command+l would give you info on your fonts.  In trying to figure out if it was an L or an I I, I discovered that Command+i will give you info about the web site you are viewing.  It is really pretty cool.  It will show you details like CSS style sheets used, tables, scripts, forms, media and general info.I tried the same command in mail, and it popped up with information about my pop accounts.  So it looks like command plus the letter i equals information about whatever you are using.

[teacher]

Here's a handy tip but forget it if you don't have an Intel Mac.   Go into your preferences and you can set one volume level for your headphones.  Tune it to how you like.  Then switch and you can set a separate volume level for your speakers.  It seems with the Intel you can set each sound device to different levels.  That way you can boot up without your headphones and have it quiet in the library, classroom or other location and then plug in your heaadphones and no further changes will be required to have sound.  

[teacher]

Here's a neat tip that I ran across in Macworld.  I have ued the Network Utility but I did not notice all the capabilities of it.  I had not thought of using it for email.If you get an email that you wonder who it is really from, then1.  Open Netowrk Utility.  2.  Go to the Whois tab.  3.  Type in the domain name without the http:// or the www in the text field.4.  Select a Whois Server from the drop-down menu.5.  Click on the Whois button.That will tell you who is really sending you the email.  

[LilBambi]

Great topic! I have already made use of some of them!I especially like F11 Neil!Here's a tip for Thunderbird users (especially those coming from Windows where Ctrl U brings up a View Source window on the highlighted email):Thunderbird: View Source on Highlighted Email: Command (%) U

[Neil P]

Fran, most shortcuts that are Control + <key> on Windows seem to be Command (⌘) + <key> on the Mac. That doesn't seem to be the case all the time, but it does for most things that I've tried it on.I have another small tip, this one about typing symbols that on Windows would normally be used with the alt key + some set of numbers from the numpad. In OS X, they don't do anything. It's even easier, though: hit Option and then pretty much any key on the keyboard.Option + 2 gives ™, option + 3 £, option + 4 ¢ and down the line. You can type accented letters with option + ` and then the letter (release after hitting `) è. To get an é, you just hit option + e. Hitting option + i will then let you do letters with ˆ (much like option + ` does): â, î, etc. There are tons of them, way too many to list here. You can get this pdf that lists quite a few of them.Another option is the character pallete. Disabled by default, but easy to enable: Go to System Preferences -> International. Click the Input Menu tab, and then check the box next to Character Palette. It will then add a flag in the menu bar which you can click for easy access to the character palette, from which you can insert characters. You can find most characters (including ⌘ and ⌥) by going to View: Code Tables and selecting Unicode. They are U+2318 and U+2325 respectively.This may have been widely known to old Mac hands, but I've really been trying to figure out how to make those symbols for a while  

[Neil P]

Looking at my last post on my dad's computer (windows) I notice the command and option symbols don't show up.

[LilBambi]

so that's where you found the command key character (⌘)  

[LilBambi]

©®℗♥❖%¤❦❿✾✞Yep, but didn't find the ⌘