keyboard shortcuts
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Mac 101: Put your display to sleep fast
Quick! The boss is coming! Hide your screen! What, you don't have Spaces set up so you can switch to that handy Excel worksheet you've got open? That's okay -- just put your display to sleep. Of course, there are other reasons to want to quickly turn off your display, but they all have one simple key combination: Control + Shift + Eject. It works with both desktop and laptop Macs. Moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard wakes it right back up when you're ready. Of course, if you want to put your whole computer to sleep, you can use Option + Command + Eject. There are other helpful shortcuts, too, in this article deep in the TUAW archives. Thanks to our own Michael Rose for this one. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
WoW Rookie: Leaner, meaner character controls
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.How do you control your character? If you move with the W-A-S-D keys and stab at spell and ability icons on-screen with your mouse, you're missing out on a whole world of options that can streamline your game. Simply by setting up your character controls a little differently, you can make your game play easier and more efficient. WoW Rookie pulls together a whole host of options to mull over. One of the first points to consider: How do you move your character? If you read a bit of WoW and gaming sites around the 'net, you've probably seen the phrase "mouthbreathing keyboard turner" bandied about. You're a keyboard turner if you use keys (usually W-A-S-D) on the keyboard to turn and move your character. Your character can turn (and get behind and around things and other players) much, much faster if you whip around with the mouse rather than slowly pivoting in place with your keyboard. So why's that such a big issue?
The Daily Grind: Do controls make or break an MMO for you?
With all the different options for controls in MMOs, some are devotedly tied to keyboards for movement - either the WASD crowd, the arrow keys, or occasionally the folks who use the numeric keypad. Other players we know who love PvP tend to be heavily mouse-driven, often with macros tied to different buttons on their mouse, able to unleash a devastating string of attacks with just a couple of clicks. In the Western market, we tend to see a combination of controls, offering users their choice. As we play through the Eastern free-to-play titles, we notice a great many that are click-to-move, offering limited keyboard/remapping support. This of course started discussion on our end. Some of the team are dedicated keyboard fans, and really dislike playing click-to-move only type games. Others are very used to using their mice and the idea of being required to use keyboard for movement seems clunky and slow. What we thought we'd ask today is this - if you found a game you were interested in playing, but it locked you into a control for movement that you didn't like (such as click-to-move, or WASD only if you're an arrow-key fan) would it cause you to put down the game? Or would you try to get used to a completely foreign set of control/movement keys? Do control options (or the lack thereof if you can't change your keymap) make or break an MMO for you?
WoW Rookie: Keyboard shortcuts
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know.Accept this fact: to be good at playing WoW, you need to learn to use your keyboard at least some of the time. You don't have to bail on your mouse, but it's very helpful to learn some of the very basic keyboard shortcuts that will make your life in the game that much easier. (Easy is good, right?)Using the game interfaceThere are hotkeys for almost everything you do in-game. You can find most of them by just hovering your mouse over the icons that you click -- as no doubt you may have already noticed. Let's start with the button bar that you use to bring up your Quest Log, Spellbook and other things. You'll see that when I hover my mouse over the gold cup icon, a tooltip pops up. The L in parentheses after "Quest Log" means you can just press your L key to bring up the log instead of clicking the icon. (Don't worry that it's a capital L, just press lower-case L. When a keyboard command is capitalized, it's written as "Shift-L".) After the break, you'll see a list of keyboard shortcuts for the game interface.
Mac 101: use a tab to navigate dialogs
Recently we here at TUAW were asked about navigating dialog boxes and applications with the keyboard. It is really easy to use the tab key to select different parts of the window and different buttons in a dialog box, if you know how to enable this behavior.Open System Preferences > Mouse and Keyboard, and click the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab. You are presented with two options at the bottom of the window (in the "Full keyboard access" section): Text boxes and lists only or All controls. By default, "Text boxes and lists" should be selected, but if you want to be able to select other buttons in a window with the tab key then you need to select the "All controls" option. Now when you encounter a dialog box (or window), just press the tab key to switch between the various buttons on the screen. If you would like to go to a previous button, use shift + tab. When you've got the button you want highlighted, press the enter key or space bar. It's as easy as that! For more tips and tricks like these, visit the Mac 101 section on TUAW.
Mac 101: Make your own keyboard shortcut
There are two types of Mac users: the mouse-centric, the keyboard jockeys, and those who refuse to sleep with Windows users. OK, three types.This tip is for users like me whose knowledge of each application's set of keyboard shortcuts is prodigious. Even we get stumped occasionally when a shortcut doesn't work as expected or is simply missing. This is very easily remedied.In the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane in System Preferences, you'll see a little "+". Click it, identify the application you're after and type the name of your target menu item. Next, simply pick a shortcut, click "Add" and you're done! You shortcut is in place and you can avoid another time consuming journey from your home keys to your mouse.
TUAW Tip: endo's keyboard shortcuts rock
Hi, my name is David Chartier, and I'm an RSS-aholic.[your collective response: Hi David]The last time I refreshed my newsreader was... well, probably a minute or two ago, and then 30 minutes before that. You see, I'm obsessed with news, and I've been using some sort of a newsreader for around three or four years now. Since I began writing for TUAW and Download Squad, I've probably tossed my OPML (an exported list of your RSS feeds) into more newsreaders than I can imagine, and one of my greatest loves has always been Adriaan Tijsseling's endo, which we've mentioned a few times before on TUAW. While I typically use NetNewsWire as my main reader, I'm giving endo a thorough run-through again as it has really matured into a great, stable product, and it has a lot of pleasant surprises and unique features that make sifting through large amounts of feeds and headlines a pleasure. In fact, with how well things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if endo upset my newsreader balance, at least for my regular reading. See the rest of the post to find out why...
Love your Finder: A keyboard shortcut for adding items to the sidebar
While the Mac web generally (and justifiably) has quite a few gripes with the long-disregarded Finder, it actually offers quite a few unsung features that make working with your files efficient and fun. The upcoming changes to the Finder in Leopard certainly do look nice, but I think it's about time we set aside our differences with the Finder, if only for a moment, and rekindled our love with its truly pleasant and useful features. Hence an unofficial new TUAW mini-series: Love your Finder (I call it a mini-series because a lot's changing in October when the new Finder finally arrives in Leopard).Take the File > Add to Sidebar (command-T) feature that I forgot all about until listening to Thursday's MacBreak Tech episode. The beauty of the Finder's sidebar is that you can drag anything you want into it, including folders (including those from networked volumes like an iDisk), files and even applications. Your customized sidebar is then available in every Open and Save dialog throughout Mac OS X, making it a great spot to quickly place and remove projects you're working on, apps you need for a short time and important folders in which you need to often save or retrieve things.The sidebar gets even cooler, however, if you can wiggle that keyboard shortcut to your workflow. Got a file you need to remember later today? Cmd-T. A pictures folder you use for blogging that's buried deep in your Home folder? Cmd-T. A bunch of applications you're testing out for business or pleasure? Boom - that shortcut makes it easy to turn your Finder sidebar into a pseudo-cork board for all the stuff flying up and down your todo list, since all you have to do to remove an item is click and drag it off the Finder window to get that satisfying 'poof.'Combine this trick with our Mac 101 tip for adding your own items to the Finder's toolbar and you can put together one mean, lean window that can let you browse your files faster than ever before.
An AppleScript for selecting the iChat menubar item
I understand if this might sound kinda weird, but hear me out: As an iChat user, I love the flexibility of its UI and the clever menubar item that displays all available contacts. Since I've found myself flying without displaying the buddy list more and more often lately, I've been wishing for a way to select iChat's menubar item with a simple keyboard shortcut, giving me quick access for viewing who's online no matter what app I may be using at the moment. Thinking out loud this morning, I even posted this wish on Twitter - only to find Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software (makers of MarsEdit, FastScripts and more) coming to my rescue moments later! Demonstrating the wonders of AppleScript, Daniel quickly whipped up a script that does exactly what I want. To make the script painlessly easy to use, it can be tied to a shortcut with his excellent FastScripts or a Quicksilver trigger, providing instant access that selects and displays the iChat menubar item and all available buddies. Easy breezy iChatting, without needing to keep my buddy list always visible.If you want the script, head over to Daniel's Twitter post that contains the tinyURL download link. Toss the script you download into your ~/Library/Scripts folder (or anywhere else you like to store them), and then point your favorite keyboard shortcut utility at it to make your iChat life a bit easier. Thanks Daniel!
TUAW Tip: Aperture keyboard shortcuts for scrolling through your library
Click To Play play_blip_movie_291511(); One of the things I mentioned in my Aperture podcast that I love so much about this app is its plethora of features designed especially to increase efficiency for power users and pro photographers. This tip centers around Aperture's keyboard shortcuts that allow for some very useful navigation and scrolling of the library browser, which is the pane that displays thumbnails of all the images in the currently selected album, project or folder. Instead of just explaining the shortcuts or giving you a screenshot, however, I thought I would go one step further and put together a short demo video of the shortcuts and the browser in action, additionally pointing out the small shuttle control on the right that helps detail just how quickly you're scrolling. It isn't anything fancy, but it should give you an idea of just how cool and actually useful this feature is.For those who want the actual keyboard shortcuts, they are: J, K and L to scroll up, stop and scroll down, respectively.
KeyCue 35% off at MacZOT today only
Last October was when we first mentioned KeyCue from ergonis software, the utility that displays all the keyboard shortcuts for the app you're in, and even though I fell in love with it I somehow missed its update to version 3.0. Luckily, today's MacZOT was just the reminder I needed, as KeyCue is on sale today for only $12.99, a 35% discount from its regular $19.99. If you've ever wanted a handy birds-eye view of every shortcut for an app without having to dig around in menus and manuals, KeyCue is definitely the way to go. It even works with just about every app I've thrown at it, including Firefox and Photoshop. This latest 3.0 version added a performance boost of up to 10x when collecting shortcuts, as well as a theming engine with a new Dashboard theme that darkens the rest of the screen when activating the shortcuts window.KeyCue is a great app that I personally recommend, and it's a steal at today's MacZOT price.
Apple updates Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts doc
Keyboard shortcuts are one of the finer pleasures of computing, especially on a Mac. While we've been blogging all manner of these shortcuts, especially some of the gems in Mac OS X, there is always the One True Keyboard Shortcut Document to Rule Them All; the one maintained by Apple themselves. The doc came across my RSS feeds which means that it has recently been updated, though I admittedly couldn't tell you exactly what is new. When it comes to a list of shortcuts like this, I think I exhibit the Homer Simpson syndrome, where I always learn something new that inevitably knocks out one of the older shortcuts. Take Option-Command-Right Arrow when in the Finder's List View, for example - I have no idea if that's new (though I highly doubt it; List View has been around for ages), but it expands both a folder and all of its subfolders. Option-Command-Drag (again, probably not new, but new to me) to create a file alias in a new location will also prove darn handy, as my home network is finally demanding more and more use of aliases across my machines and hard drives.No matter how you work, taking a glance at this recently updated doc just might help you get things done a little better.
KeyCue 2.1
I am a keyboard command junkie but there are only so many shortcuts I can remember from day to day. That's why I started using KeyCue a year or so ago and I highly recommend it to anyone who relies on keyboard shortcuts but has trouble remembering the many hundreds that are available at any given time - which, face it, is most of you.KeyCue gives you an instant overview of all the menu shortcuts available to whatever application you are working in. You trigger it with the Command/Apple key and there you have all the shortcuts you need at a glance.Ergonis, the developer of KeyCue, is also the dev behind PopChar, which many of you probably already know and love. KeyCue is for keyboard menu shortcuts what PopChar is for special characters.KeyCue 2.1 is the latest update and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer and it's Universal Binary. It's $20 to buy, but you can try it for free. The upgrade to 2.1 is also free for anyone who bought KeyCue in the last 2 years.
TUAW Tip: Initiate Bluetooth File Exchange with a keyboard shortcut
TUAW-lover Andrew accidentally discovered that if you select a file in the Finder and press Apple + Shift + B (aka Command+Shift+B), it brings up the Bluetooth File Exchange application and prompts you for which device you want to send the selected file(s) to.I love keyboard shortcuts and I know an awful lot of them but this is one that I either never knew or once knew but quickly forgot. Incredibly handy!Thanks, Andrew!
The function keys are your friends
I just love learning new keyboard shortcuts. Anything that keeps my hands on the keys and off of the mouse makes me happy. I thought I had a good repertoire of shortcuts memorized, but every now and then I come across a few that are new to me. Such was the case when I stumbled across these gems at Appleology: F2 plus Control = Navigate the menu bar, starting from the left hand side. F3 plus Control = Navigate the dock, using the left and right arrow keys to move between icons and the up and down arrow keys to view the navigate thought the contextual menu. F4 plus Control = cycle through all of the open windows. F8 plus Control = navigate through the right side of the menu bar. Note that this only works with some menu bar icons. In fact, I was only able to select the Remote Desktop icon this way Pretty nice. If you knew this already consider it a refresher, if not I hope you find these shortcuts useful.
Full list of iPhoto's keyboard shortcuts
I'm a keyboard jockey. I want to keep my hands on the keyboard and away from the mouse as much as I can, which is why I appreciate Macsupport's complete list of iPhoto shortcuts. They're divided into categories, including importing, organizational, import/export, ratings slideshows, book creation and more. There were a few I was unaware of, like, "Apply a page design through the end of a book: Select the first page you want changed and press the Option key when choosing a design from the Page Design pop-up menu" and " Switch between portrait and landscape constrain setting when selecting an area: Press the Option key while dragging." Those are pretty good.While you're there, check out their list of shortcuts for iMovie HD and iWeb as well.
