Karan

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  • Mac 101: The wonderful magical Shift key

    by 
    Erica Sadun
    Erica Sadun
    12.08.2010

    Oh that Shift key. So normal, so overlooked, so simple ... and yet so magical. TUAW reader Karan recently dropped us a note, reminding us about its slow-speed enchantment. "I don't think a lot of Mac users know this," he wrote, "but the Shift key has a very cool (although obviously just for extra eye-candy) feature on the Mac." When depressed, the Shift key will slow down certain on-screen animations, giving an extra long visual boost to window transitions. For example, you can shift in the following scenarios: while minimizing an application window to the Dock while clicking the Full Screen button in QuickTime X (or while using a pinch to zoom to full screen) while sliding four fingers down to invoke Exposé while sliding those same four fingers up to "Show the Desktop" while selecting a minimized Dock or Exposé window Karan adds, "The above are the main areas I've found that I can use this neat little Shift trick, and I think it would be fitting of the 'Mac 101' title since I've encountered veteran Mac-users who are unaware of this." TUAW agrees, and here you are. Thanks, Karan