This document provides numerous tips for improving Mac productivity and customizing the Mac interface. It describes shortcuts for quickly switching between apps and windows, moving and copying files, customizing the toolbar and sidebar, using Spotlight to find files, adding signatures in Preview, tweaking the Dock, accessing more file info, finding menu items and preferences, using accent keys, and various shortcuts using modifier keys like Option and Command. The tips are intended to help users work more efficiently on a Mac.

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Turbocharge Your
Mac Productivity
Mac Productivity
Allison Sheridan
SVMUG - July 2013

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slideshare.net/nosillacast/presentations

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Random Finder Tricks
Quicklook
View photos, flip pages within a PDF, preview a video
file
Command + Tab to Switch Apps
Command + ~ to switch windows in one app
Moving/Copying files between folders
Copy/Paste actually works
Option-drag copies rather than moves the file (hint:
look for the green plus to be sure you’re copying)

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Tame the Left Sidebar
Use the left sidebar to get quick access to
things you use often
Drag in files, folders, applications, even
Cloud storage
Tired of them? Hold down Command ( ),⌘
then drag and poof! They’re gone!
Command key keeps you from tearing
them off accidentally
Remember the sidebar is visible in
Save/Open dialog boxes too
I live by the left sidebar!

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Tame the Finder Toolbar
Did you know you can drag things into the Finder Toolbar
too?
Applications, Files, Folders
I keep AppDelete in my toolbar so I can easily drag
applications up to delete them
One click access to commonly used
files, Command-drag to remove

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Customize Finder Toolbar Even Further
Right click...

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What ISThat New Button?
Arrange files by
Kind
Application
Date
Opened/Added/Modifi
ed/Created
And my favorite By
Size
Ever wanted to sort by
date in Column View but
thought you could only
do it in List View?

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Conquer Column Widths
Can’t read the file names?
Double-click on the line
between the columns
Want to fix ALL the
columns at once?
Option-double-click on that same line & they all fit!

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Finding Things with Spotlight
You’re looking for a file
You know who it’s from, or the file type, or around
when it was sent
But you can’t remember for the life of you where you
put it
“Regular” Spotlight is too hard to navigate
Instead use the Spotlight Search box in any Finder
window
Great filters on search - file type, length, size, dates, the
list is HUGE and there’s even a GUI for it

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Find Things with Spotlight

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Gestures
Why should you care about gestures?
To stop clicking so much - Carpal Tunnel be gone!
Oldies but goodies
Single tap to click
Two-fingered tap gives you right click
Web Browsers - Two fingered swipe goes back and forward
Works in Safari, Chrome and Firefox
Wish it worked in the Finder!

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Four Fingered Fun
See all your open applications by
four fingers straight up
See all your open windows in
the current application by four
fingers down
Five finger pinch in takes you to
Launchpad
Five finger pinch out takes you
to your desktop
Four fingers left/right switches
between full-screen apps
Bonus Tip:
3 Fingered drag and resize!

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Preview - Signatures
Ever been emailed a form to sign?
You have to print it, sign it, scan it back in and mail it
Worse yet, print it and then FAX it like it’s 1972?
Preview provides a very tricky solution
First sign a piece of paper
In Preview click on Signatures, then click the plus
button at the bottom
...

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Preview - Signatures
Hold the signature up to
the blue line, and
Preview will capture it
From now on you can
simply tap the signature
button in the
Annotations toolbar to
drop in your signature

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Trick Out your Dock
Hiding
Magnification
Play with the position on screen
Drag Applications, Files and Folders
into the dock - and out of the dock
Apple made it a LITTLE harder to
accidentally pull them out
Just drag farther till you see the
poof of smoke

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Get More Info Out of Finder
Command-click the name at the top of a Finder window
to see the full path
Finder Show Path and Status Bars

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The All-Knowing Get Info
⌘-i or File Get Info➔
Add comments for easier
spotlight searches
Find out how big your file is
Change what application opens
this file
Change what application opens
all files of this type
Figure out why your OS is yelling
at you about permissions

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Where is That Menu Item?
I have a poor memory
I can never find the menu item I’m searching for
Actually I’m too impatient to read!
Use the Help menu in any OSX App to highlight it!
//÷/

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My Eyesight Isn’t as Good as it Used to Be
Command + in Web Browsers and Mail.app will
increase the font size for you
This one even works in Windoze (with Cntrl +)
Control-Two Fingered scroll up to zoom in, scroll
down to zoom back out
Play with how you like the screen to move
You can change if it’s control-scroll
System Preferences --> Accessibility --> Universal Access

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Where’s that Darn Preference?
Use the search window and it will find what you’re
looking for buried in the right preference
Remember I said I’m too lazy to read?

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Find That Umlaut - KeyboardViewer
Want to be cool and write
words like éclair with the
accent on the e? Or Goushá?
Open System Preferences
Open Language & Text
Click on the Input Sources Tab
Check the box for Keyboard &
Character Viewer
Check the box to Show input
menu in menu bar
...

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KeyboardViewer cont.
Click on the Menu Bar app
Pop open the KeyboardViewer
Keyboard Viewer
Keyboard Viewer
With Option Key
Umlaut: hold down Option-u
(and then another u for ü)
Keyboard Viewer
With Option-Shift Key
Option-Shift-K
for the Apple Symbol!

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CharacterViewer
Click on the
Menu Bar app
Pop open the
Character
Viewer
But Wait!
There’s MORE!
Drag these
symbols into
your text

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SaveYour Favorite Characters

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Random Keystroke Fun
Missing the Delete key from Windows?
Try function-Delete
Tired of clicking to the end of a line?
Try command-right arrow
Command-left arrow to go back

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The Great & Powerful Option Key
Option click the Wifi Signal in the Menu Bar
Don’t actually know why
you need to know this stuff...
but it’s cool!

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The Great & Powerful Option Key
Option-click on the speaker icon in the Menu Bar
this turns into this
Really useful to change your microphone or speakers
instead of opening up Sound Preferences
Bonus tip - Option tap any sound function button

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The Great & Powerful Option Key
Command-Option-i
Show Inspector
Show Inspector allows you to flip through a series of files
with the Arrow Keys to see each of their info
Command-i
Get Info

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The Great & Powerful Option Key
Wonder where the Library disappeared to?
Hold down Option when you click on Go and it will
be revealed

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Email: allison@podfeet.com
Twitter/App.Net: @podfeet