Some really useful TechRadar Mac tips in this article, highly recommended!
In Depth: 40 cool OS X tips to save you time and effort: "
Every year, the latest Macs get faster and faster. But do we? No matter how many teraflops it can flip, your computer's ability to save you time and effort depends on you finding your way around its features and functions.
Even if there's nothing you don't know how to do, it's knowing the quickest and simplest way to do it that divides the true power user from the person who's still trying to get that coffee they promised themselves before they started that job that was going to take them five minutes.
Unlike certain other operating systems, of course, the Mac OS has a habit of making it pretty obvious what buttons you need to push. But its very ease of use can lead even seasoned users into competence complacency.
Okay, so you've sprinted up that gently sloping learning curve and are sunning yourself on the lush plateau of computing confidence. Take a peek just ahead of you, though. What's that twinkling through the undergrowth, a few short steps out of reach? Yes – it's efficiency nirvana: the place where you can relax because everything takes a little bit less time than you expected.
The following tips don't delve into uncharted territory or unearth strange artefacts from the bowels of the operating system. They just shed new light on familiar everyday tasks, revealing secrets and shortcuts to smooth your journey.
Follow our map, take note of the pitfalls, and we'll see you safely from 'to do' to 'done' in time for elevenses.
01. Customise your toolbars
Don't: Think keyboard shortcuts are the only way to speed up your work.
Do: Customise the toolbars in Finder and Apple apps such as Mail and Safari.
Go to View > Customize Toolbar, then drag the icons for your favourite features into position. Its almost like programming your own app (without the coffee-stained Grateful Dead T-shirt).
02. Jump to Finder locations
Don't: Mouse around your Mac to get to key system locations.
Do: Use keystrokes in Finder to go straight to them. Holding Command+Shift, press A for Applications, C for Computer (overview of all storage), D for the Desktop, H for your Home folder (the one with your name on it inside the Users folder), I for your iDisk (if you use MobileMe), K to browse your local network, or U for Utilities.
03. Take a Quick Look
Don't: Open files in an application when you just want to check their content.
Do: Use Mac OS X's Quick Look. Select any text, image or PDF file in Finder and press Command+Y to preview it in a pop-up window. Add the Option key for a full-screen slideshow; this works with multiple selections including different file formats. Use the cursor keys to scroll up and down within documents and move between files, and press Esc when you're finished.
04. Keep your favourites in the sidebar
Don't: Navigate manually to your favourite folders every time.
Do: Use the sidebar at the left of every Finder window. If you don't see it, press Option+Shift+T. Drag any folder onto the area under Places to keep it here. You're only dragging a shortcut: the folder itself doesn't move. If you want to remove it from the sidebar, you can drag it off without affecting the content.
05. Navigate Finder
Don't: Chase files and folders round Finder with your mouse.
Do: Learn the key shortcuts to browse efficiently. Press Command+N in Finder for a new window, and set its view mode to icons, list, columns or Cover Flow by pressing Command with 1, 2, 3 or 4.
In List view, click any column heading to sort by that criterion. Pressing tab will cycle through them in alphabetical order. Move up and down the list with the cursor arrow keys; with a folder highlighted, press ' to see its contents or ' to close it again.
In any view, press Shift+Command+N to create a new folder in the current location. To check where the current folder is, either Command+click its name in the window title bar or look at the path bar at the foot of the window, activated via View > Show Path Bar.
06. Accelerate your mouse
Don't: Dawdle around the screen.
Do: Use the Keyboard & Mouse pane of System Preferences to increase tracking and scrolling speeds. With todays big screens and high resolutions, you may need maximum tracking to get from left to right without falling off your mouse mat.
Thanks to the accuracy of modern mice, you should still have fine enough control. Faster scrolling also saves fingerache in websites, text documents and your Inbox.
07. Print from Finder
Don't: Waste precious time printing off a folder of documents one by one.
Do: In Finder, select all the files you want to print (use Shift or Command to select multiple items). Then go to File > Print. Each document will open in its associated application and output using its Print command with its existing or default print settings.
08. Set file associations
Don't: Put up with documents constantly opening in the wrong application when double-clicked.
Do: Tell Mac OS X which app to use. For example, should text files open in Word or TextEdit? To choose, right-click a file and choose Open With, then pick an app from the list. If you want to make your choice apply to all files of this kind in future, select the file and press Command+I (Get Info).
Under Open With, choose an app, then click Change All. If you can't get a file to open in a particular app, try launching the app first, then press Command+O and browse to the file.
09. Work with multiple items
Don't: Perform actions on multiple items individually when you can do them all at the same time.
Do: In Finder, you can select multiple folders by Command+clicking, then expand them all to reveal their contents by pressing the right cursor key (and left to close them again). Or select multiple files in the same way and press Command+O, or drag them all onto an application icon in the Dock, to open them all at once.
Note that in icon view you can Shift-click to select items that aren't next to each other; in List view you do this with Command, while Shift selects every file between the first and second you click.
In many cases you can also open multiple files from within an app by using File > Open (or Command+O) and then Shift or Command-clicking within the Open dialog box.
10. Make your own shortcuts
Don't: Curse the lack of keystrokes for your favourite commands.
Do: Create your own. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts. At the top of the list are various ready-made combos for Mac OS X functions, which you can edit by clicking in the Shortcut column or disable by unticking.
Below, there's a section for applications; it's empty by default, but click the + button and you can add a shortcut for almost any menu option in any app. Select the app from the drop-down list, or leave it on All Applications for elusive commands such as those in the Services menu.
The name of the option isn't confirmed as you type it, so after clicking in the Key Shortcut box and pressing your desired combo you'll need to go and check that it works.
11. Tidy up your login items
Don't: Wait for a random selection of applications to load every time you restart your Mac.
Do: Go to System Preferences > Accounts, make sure your account is highlighted on the left, and click the Login Items tab on the right.
This lists the apps that will launch automatically when you start up or log in. Ticked items load without displaying anything, while unticked items will be seen during the startup process and may leave windows open.
You can remove an item from the list by selecting it and clicking the minus button below. Don't get rid of anything that other software may rely on – such as iTunes Helper, or Microsoft Database if you're running Office – but feel free to kill products like Skype if you don't use them regularly.
On the other hand, you might be able to save time and effort by auto-running additional apps you do use every day, such as Mail and iPhoto. Click the plus sign, press Shift-Command+A in the file browser to go into Applications, and pick the apps you want (remember you can select more than one by holding Command).
12. Quick and calculating
Don't: Fire up the calculator app just to do quick sums.
Do: Get answers even faster with Spotlight. Press Command+[Spacebar], then type, for example, '59/365*100' to discover that your MobileMe subscription is costing you 16p a day. You don't even have to press = or Return, as the answer will appear instantly below.
To start a new calculation, press tab. If you find you do need the more advanced features of Calculator, just start typing its name and press Return when it appears as the Top Hit.
13. Tell Spotlight where to go
Don't: Let Spotlight waste its time… and yours.
Do: Tell Spotlight what to show first and where not to look. In System Preferences > Spotlight, click the Search Results tab and drag the categories – Documents, Contacts, Movies and so on – to dictate the order in which items will appear. Untick any categories you dont want.
For example, you may find Mail messages clutter your results, and prefer to search those within Mail. In the Privacy tab, click + and select any drives or folders that you want Spotlight not to bother searching – an external drive full of media that you manage in iTunes, perhaps.
14. Finders keepers
Don't: Search repeatedly for the same thing.
Do: Save your searches. Press Command+F in any Finder window to bring up the search options and enter your terms.
Having found the files that meet your criteria, click Save, at the top right, to store your search as a Smart Folder, listed under Search for at the foot of the sidebar to the left of every Finder window.In future, just click this to re-find all files (including any new additions) that meet the same criteria.
For example, search for Contents | Contains [the name of a work project] plus Last modified date | is | within last |7| days to find everything you've done on the project in the last week with one click.
There are also Smart Folders in Mail to categorise messages without moving them out of your Inbox.
15. Drag and dance
Don't: Fiddle around arranging your windows next to each other just so you can drag items between them.
Do: Use Application Switcher or Exposé while dragging. Start in the app that contains the item you want to drag, or in Finder if it's a file. Click on the item with the left mouse button and hold down, ready to drag it.
With your other hand, press Command+Tab to switch to the application where you want to drop the item. If you get to the right app but the wrong document window is on top, press Command+' (same key as the tilde symbol [~]) to switch windows. Or drag to a screen corner you've set up to activate Exposé, then continue dragging onto a window.
16. Let Spotlight do the work
Don't: Hunt around your Mac for the app or file you want.
Do: Use Spotlight. Hit Command+[spacebar] to open Spotlight, then type all or part of what you're looking for, whether it's a filename, text, email or contact.
Results appear below; press Return to open the Top Hit, or use the cursor keys to move through the list. Press Command+Return to open the folder containing the item rather than launching the item itself.
17. Search, don't scroll
Don't: Scroll through an enormous list in Finder to find what you want within a crowded folder.
Do: With the folder open, type what you're looking for into the search box at the top-right of the window (press Command+F to go to this). In the bar below, click on the folder name instead of This Mac to limit the search to this location.
18. Reveal windows with Expose
Don't: Lose track of windows among all the open applications.
Do: Use Exposé to find windows quickly. This Mac OS X feature has three functions: to show all the open windows side by side, to show only the windows belonging to the application that's currently in front, and to clear all the windows out of the way while you look at the Desktop.
You can set how Exposé is activated in the Exposé and Spaces pane of System Preferences. Click the Exposé tab and you'll see which corners of the screen do what when the mouse is moved there; use the drop-down menus to change this.
Below, you can also alter the key shortcuts. Note that modern Mac keyboards use the function keys for specific tasks, such as adjusting volume, so F10, F11 and F12, for example, will only work if you hold Fn too (or tick the option in the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard & Mouse pane).
The best choice is F3, which is labelled for the job: press it to see all windows, or with Ctrl for the current app's windows, or with Command to reveal the Desktop.
19. Switch between apps
Don't: Go through the Dock or Spotlight to switch to an app that's already running.
Do: Hold the Command key and press Tab to bring up the Application Switcher, which shows the icons of all the currently running apps in a translucent bar across the middle of the screen. (Windows users will recognise this as the equivalent of Option+Tab.)
Keep holding Command while pressing Tab to move between these icons. Stop on the one you want and release the Command key.
Or to hide an app that's getting in the way, press H (still holding Command) while its icon is highlighted here. Pressing Command+Tab is also a quick way to check which apps are running.
20. Switch between windows
Don't: Drag windows around looking for the one you want underneath.
Do: Use window switching. Use Exposé (see previous tip), or press Command+' (the same key bearing the tilde [~] symbol) to cycle through the windows open in the current app; add Shift to cycle back in reverse order.
21. Find within web pages
Don't: Fail to find content you've already found.
Do: Go straight to it with Safari's Find function. How annoying is it when you search the web for something, then click a page in the results and can't find the thing you were searching for in the page? With a few extra keystrokes, this need never happen.
After typing a word or phrase into the Google box at the top-right of the Safari window (or into any online search engine), hit Command+A followed by Command+C before pressing Return.
Once you've clicked through to a result, press Command+F followed by Command+V to highlight all instances of the phrase on the page. Step through them by pressing Return.
22. Search Safari
Don't: Scroll through your history and bookmarks to track down previously viewed web pages.
Do: Search Safari by pressing Shift+Command+/ (think of it as Command+[?]) to go to the Help box and then typing what you want. This will search all the page titles in your history and bookmarks.
If you want to search the content of pages, use Spotlight; to search only within Safari rather than your whole system, go to Home/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari (add this location to your Finder sidebar for quick access) and search within this.
23. Use the address field
Don't: Search the net for a site you already know the name of.
Do: Go straight to it. Apparently we're all so accustomed to using the search box that we type into it even when we already know what site we want to go to.
It's quicker to type the name of a site, such as 'youtube', straight into the address field, without bothering to add 'www' or '.com'. Nine times out of ten it'll work.
24. Copy to Google
Don't: Go everywhere to find out more about something you read on the web.
Do: Select text within a website in Safari, right-click and choose Search with Google to do exactly that. Also, when you right-click an item such as an Address Book contact, you'll get the option to search for its name in Spotlight.
25. Pass it on
Don't: Bother messing around with copy and paste to tell someone else about the web page you're looking at.
Do: Press Shift+Command+I in Safari to create a new Mail message with the URL of the current page already in the body. (We're still waiting for an equivalent for Twitter.)
26. Tame your tabs
Don't: Get your Safari windows in a twist.
Do: Master tabbed browsing. Command+click a link to open it in a new tab. Add Option if you prefer a new window (you can reverse these combinations in Preferences > Tabs).
Add Shift to switch to the new tab (or window) at the same time. Press Command+T to start a new tab; its default content is set in Preferences > General.
If you have several windows open, consolidate them into tabs within a single window using Window > Merge All Windows.
27. Prepare PDFs in Preview
Don't: Resort to Adobe Acrobat Professional to extract or rearrange PDFs.
Do: Use Preview's sidebar. When you open a PDF, this lists thumbnails of all the pages (you can show or hide it using Shift+Command+D).
Click a thumbnail – or use Shift or Command to select several – and press Command+C, then Command+N to make a new PDF containing just this. You can also drag pages from one PDF's sidebar to another.
28. Befriend your bookmarks
Don't: Let cumbersome controls scupper your bookmarks.
Do: Use simple shortcuts. Safari's handling of bookmarks can be clumsy, but they're too useful to ignore. To create a quick bookmark, press Shift+Command+D (not Command+D) to add the current URL to the Bookmarks menu without having to choose where to put it.
You can organise them later in the Cover Flow view. Press Option+Command+B to switch to this, and the same to go back to the page you were browsing; or, Option+Command+click the Bookmarks icon at the left of the Bookmarks bar to open this view in a new window.
For easier access, go to Safari > Preferences > General and set New tabs open with to Bookmarks; then you can always view your bookmarks by pressing Command+T.
29. Fly through forms
Don't: Plod through the same personal details in every web form.
Do: Take advantage of Safari's auto-complete abilities. As you type into a field that matches one you've filled in before, such as First name or Email, Safari should guess what you're going to type; just press Tab to accept it.
To fill a whole form instantly, press Shift+Command+A. You should only need to add a few bits and bobs to finish the job.
30. Find your way back
Don't: Use the Back button to find your way back through search results.
Do: Use tabs or a clever new Snow Leopard feature. When clicking a link in a page of results, hold Command to open it in a new tab; then you can click back on the first tab (or use Shift+Command+') to go back to the results page.
But Snow Leopard has a better trick: when you search with the Google box at the top right of Safari's window, click through to one of the pages found – the cross button at the right of the box turns into an orange arrow, which you can click to go back to the results page.
31. Stay vertical
Don't: Struggle to copy or reformat a column (rather than a continuous line) of text.
Do: Hold the Option key while you drag to select. This works in both TextEdit and Word to select everything within a vertical strip of your document, whether separated by tabs or spaces.
32. Snip and save
Don't: Copy and paste to save a bit of text for later.
Do: Use Mac OS X's shortcuts. In TextEdit (and other Cocoa apps, but not Word), select text and use Shift+Command+Y to turn it into a note in the Stickies app (not to be confused with the Stickies widget).
Or go to TextEdit > Services > TextEdit > New Window Containing Selection.
33. Grab and go
Don't: Spend time exporting graphics, websites or other work in formats suitable for showing to colleagues or clients.
Do: Use screen grabs. With whatever you're creating visible onscreen (turn off any grids, guides and other clutter in your software), press Ctrl+Command+Shift+4 to show a crosshair, then drag this around your work to copy it to the Clipboard.
Switch to Mail, create a new message to your intended recipient, click in the body of the message and paste the grab (Ctrl+V).
34. Take out the garbage
Don't: Strip unwanted characters manually out of text from emails, websites or non-native file formats.
Do: Take advantage of Mac OS Xs built-in reformatting tools. In TextEdit – or other Cocoa text editors, but not Word – select your text and go to TextEdit > Services > Format > Reformat (or press Command+Shift+7) to strip out characters.
You'll find more options in this submenu. However, do note that it's not smart enough to spot where multiple line breaks should be left as a paragraph break, but it's quicker for you to put the breaks back in than take the line ends out.
35. Look it up
Don't: Go to Google or a dictionary site to look up words and their meanings.
Do: Use Mac OS X's built-in dictionary. On the application menu, click Services to reveal tools that work in most Cocoa apps including iLife and iWork. Select some text and pick Look Up In Dictionary. This opens a dictionary entry in a window with a search box, as well as a Thesaurus button.
Or press Ctrl+Command+D for a neater dictionary. (Remember TextEdits spellchecker is also available in Edit > Spelling and Grammar.)
36. Don't count old messages
Don't: Waste time checking for unread emails.
Do: Mark old messages as read. The Mail icon in the Dock shows how many unread items you have, which is absolutely fine if you read everything as it arrives, but otherwise will constantly reflect several hundred messages you've glanced at and ignored.
One solution is to start each day by reading any relevant mail, then press Option+Shift+Down arrow to select all messages below and Shift+Command+U to mark them as read. Then when the icon shows mail you'll know it's new.
37. Copy colour corrections
Don't: Waste time making the same adjustment to many photos.
Do: Copy and paste adjustments. Whatever's wrong with one photo, such as dodgy exposure or an unwanted colour cast, is likely to be wrong with others taken at the same time.
When using the Adjust palette in iPhoto's Edit mode to correct the first of your snaps, notice the Copy button at the bottom right. After setting the sliders to suit, click Copy.
Now move onto the next picture and, with the Adjust palette still open, click Paste. The same settings are applied. Tweak if necessary: the original adjustments will still be applied the next time you click Paste.
38. Date your snaps
Don't: Stare at screens full of photos with meaningless filenames.
Do: Rename them all with a couple of clicks. By default, the image titles shown in iPhoto (press Shift+Command+T if you're not seeing any) are the filenames created by your camera, typically something like 'IMG_0123'.
This conveys no information; it would be much handier to name them with the date taken, avoiding the need to look this up elsewhere. Select any number of pictures, right-click and choose Batch Change (or press Shift+Command+B), then choose Set | Title | to | Date/Time.
You even get to choose the date format – although, because of the geeks that we are, ideally we'd have liked an alphabetically sortable Year/ Month/Day option…
39. Squash and send
Don't: Manually resize images before emailing them.
Do: Use Mail's built-in resize options. When you attach an image to a message, an Image Size pop-up menu appears at the bottom right of the window. Choose Actual Size, Large, Medium or Small.
The latter options reduce pics to around 1280x800, 640x400 or 320x200 pixels respectively (your mileage may vary depending on your camera's aspect ratio). The only caveat is that Mail isn't the most efficient when it comes to minimising file size.
For even smaller uploads, select images in iPhoto and use Share > Email to set the desired reduction, then click Compose Message to attach them to a new email.
40. File your mail
Don't: Clog your Inbox with mailing list fodder.
Do: Use Mail Rules to sort messages. In Mail, first click any email from a regular sender. What you need is the sender's name, as displayed in the From column.
Mail won't let you select this directly, so you need a cheat: press Shift+Command+F to forward the message, select and copy (Command+C) the name after From: in the body of the new email (without the address in angle brackets), then press Command+W to close without saving.
Now go to Mailbox > New Mailbox and press Command+V to name the new mailbox. Click OK, then go to Mail > Preferences > Rules and click Add Rule, Set From | Contains, then click in the text box to the right and press Command+V to enter the senders name.
Below, set Move Message | to mailbox: and use the menu to select your new mailbox. Click OK, and in the future all messages from this source will stack up in this folder instead of in your Inbox.
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