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iTunes 101: Making the most of contextual menus
I love contextual menus. In Mac OS X, you find them when you right-click, two-finger-click (on a trackpad) or when you hold down the Control key and click. They're handy in scores of applications and in the Finder; if you're looking to supercharge your iTunes usage in particular, Macworld's Kirk McElhearn has published 10 ways to use contextual menus with iTunes. One particularly useful option is to "Start Genius" from any track. When selected, iTunes will instantly create a genius playlist from that track. The "Add to playlist" option is also useful. When selected, you get a hierarchical menu all available playlists (smart playlists are excluded). Simply click the one you're after and the track is added. Contextual menus also work on multiple tracks at once. Make your selections by either Command- or Shift-clicking, then right-click one of the highlighted songs to see the contextual menu. From there you can add that group to a playlist, adjust ratings, convert tracks to Apple Lossless format, and so on. There's an important iTunes contextual menu that didn't make Macworld's list. If you connect your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to your computer, you can right-click the device's icon in the iTunes sidebar to see a specific contextual menu for that iOS gadget. You can quickly eject, restore or back up your device; also, if you're about to update your version of iOS but iTunes is warning you that you need to transfer purchased items from your device back to iTunes pre-update... well, here's where you do it, via the Transfer Purchases command. For all ten Macworld tips, read Kirk's article. In the meantime, please share any favorites with us below.
5 tips for switchers
Every now and then I'll have an "I never knew about that" moment as I come across a setting or nuance in Mac OS X that I never realized existed. Take, for instance, character viewer, which allows you to display a variety of characters in your document. Whether you're a switcher or seasoned Mac veteran, here are five tips that could help improve your Mac experience.
Mac 101: Right-click on a laptop
Oh, the one-button mouse. You either love it or you hate it. Veteran Mac users adore the elegance and simplicity; switchers bemoan the loss of a second (or third) mouse button. Of course, the problem is easily fixed by either holding down the Control button or -- wait for it -- buying a two-button mouse.On a laptop, you've got another option. MacSupport points out this simple method of using a "two-finger tap" in place of a right click. To set things up, follow these steps. In the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane, select "Trackpad Gestures" under the Trackpad section. From there, select "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click" and you're all set. Now, tapping the trackpad with two fingers will execute a right click.
10.4.7 enables two finger right-click on 15" MacBook Pros
Many commenters on our Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update post have noticed that two finger right-clicking has been enabled on 15" MacBook Pros. It seems to work just fine on mine, and this update should evoke a sigh of relief to all those using the trackpad hack we blogged to accomplish the same thing since the hack has annoying side effects, such as needing to be re-enabled after each restart.As a side note: it seems a little strange that this wasn't documented; I scanned the extended release notes on the 10.4.7 update and didn't see this anywhere.
