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Mac 101: Drag an entire application from one space to another
Spaces is a very nice way to manage all of your Mac's applications. You can have certain applications set to open in certain Spaces, and you can drag windows between spaces by clicking the Spaces application icon in the Dock (or menu bar). But did you know there is a simple way to drag all of application's windows between spaces?To do this, simply launch Spaces (using either a key combo, Dock icon, or menu bar item), then find the application whose windows you wish to move from one Space to another. Command + drag one of the windows, and all of the windows from that application will follow. It's that simple. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
Mac 101: Instantly create todos in Mail.app
Have you ever been reading an email in Leopard's Mail.app and thought, "Oh, I need to remember that"? If you can right click, then you can remember anything, quickly and easily, using Todos. When you come across something in an email you want to remember, first highlight the text. Next, right-click on it and select "New Todo." The current message window will then show a notepad-style view of the selected text. From there, you can change the due date and priority. Finally, assign that todo to the iCal calendar of your choice by clicking the orange arrow/circle beside the item. Mail displays Todos in the sidebar. To see your tasks in iCal, select "Show To Do List" from the "View" menu.Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
Mac 101: Make any text speak to you
Have you ever wished your Mac could read a long text document to you? Well, with the speech service, you can easily have your Mac read as much or as little text as you want. While in Safari, TextEdit, Pages, and other applications; select the text you want to be read, then click the application name in the menu bar. Go to Services > Speech > Start Speaking Text. Your Mac will then use the default voice to read the text. It will continue reading until it reaches the end of the selected text, or you can select Services > Speech > Stop Speaking to end it immediately. You can change the default voice by opening System Preferences (Apple menu > System Preferences) and going to Speech > Text to Speech. Once there, select a voice from the drop-down "System Voice" menu.Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section!
Mac 101: Shorten text using the Summarize Service
Have you ever been reading a long article and wished you could somehow magically make it shorter? With a Mac OS X service called "Summarize," you can do with a few simple clicks. In many applications such as Safari, Pages, and TextEdit, you can select a block of text and click the application name in the menu bar > Services > Summarize. Once you're in the summarize service, you can quickly and easily shorten the selected text by moving the slider between 1% and 100%. As you move it, the text will magically get shorter, while at the same time keeping the basic meaning of the text that you originally selected. The service is so accurate that it's sometimes scary.When you're done, you can save your summarized text by closing out the window -- you will be asked to save or discard. The result is a .rtf file.Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today!
Mac 101: Tabbed windows in iChat
New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled tools. As a Mac user, you've got several options for chat clients -- Adium, Fire and IRC are all worthy -- but in this post we're going to focus on Apple's iChat. Create an account When launched for the first time, iChat will prompt you to create an account. You've got five options, namely MobileMe AIM Jabber Google's GTalk Jabber Make your selection and enter your information. If you're new to instant messaging, simply click the "Get an iChat account." Now your account is ready to go. Among my favorite features of some of the non-Apple chat clients: tabbed windows. This allows you to collapse all of your open chats into a single window. That way, there's no need to have two or more windows open. Here's how to enable this in iChat. From the Preferences window, check the "Messages" tab. Next, select "Collect chats into a single window." That's it! Now, iChat will list all of your open chats in a drawer along side your chat window. To move from one to the other, just click your chat partner's name.
iTunes 101: Use smart playlists to limit size
Want to make an iTunes playlist that will fill your iPod, without making one that's too big to fit? With an iTunes Smart Playlist you can do this and much more. In this Mac 101 tip I'll show you how.Start by making a new Smart Playlist by selecting File > New Smart Playlist (or hold down the option key and click the gear that appears in the bottom left hand corner). You can select what you want from the drop-down menus in the middle section. For instance, I chose "Genre ... is ... Rock," but you can choose any of the options you want. Check the box next to "Limit ..." and type in how much storage your iPod or iPhone has, then select "GB" or "MB" from the next drop-down menu for Gigabytes and Megabytes. You also should make sure the "Live updating" checkbox is checked. When you're done, click OK. You then need to make sure that you sync this and only this playlist to your iPod by going to your iPod (under devices) > Music, and select "Sync Music," and "Selected Playlists." Then put a check mark beside the playlist you just created. Re-sync, and you're done! Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today.
Mac 101: Active Screen Corners
New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled tools. If you've ever had a panicked moment at work when you need to clear your screen quickly (because you're working on a colleague's birthday card, of course!), Active Screen Corners are for you. They can also activate your screen saver, and help you manage Spaces and Exposé. To use Active Screen Corners, first open System Preferences (by selecting it from the Apple Menu). Then, click the "Exposé & Spaces" icon. In the Exposé tab, you'll see there are four corners that you can activate. To use an Active Screen Corner, just move your mouse all the way into that corner. To reverse the action, just move your mouse out of, and then back into, the same corner. For each corner, there are several handy options. Read on to see what you can do with your Active Screen Corners.
Mac 101: Multi-touch Tips
With the introduction of the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros last month, Apple included several ingenious features for the multitouch trackpad. In this Mac 101, I'm going to walk you through a couple of extra-finger tricks. Using Two Fingers Scroll -- If you're in a long document, or webpage, you can easily scroll through it by moving two fingers, side-by-side, up and down the trackpad. This feature works in almost any application. Rotate -- If you're in Preview.app or iPhoto, you can easily rotate a photo by rotating two fingers (like twisting off a bottle cap). This will work in only a few Apple applications, and may work with some third-party apps. Pinch Open and Close -- In Preview.app or iPhoto, you can zoom in on a photo by "pinching" the trackpad using two fingers. This is similar to the way you would zoom a photo on the iPhone. Using Four Fingers You can launch Exposé by swiping four fingers downward on the trackpad. This will allow you to view all open windows as tiles on your screen. This is the equivalent to using fn + F9. You can view your desktop by swiping four fingers upward on the trackpad. This will allow you to see everything on your desktop, without the clutter of open windows. This is the equivalent to using fn + F11. Other Application Uses While reading your email in Mail.app, try swiping three fingers up or down on the trackpad. This will allow you to move to the next / last email without clicking or using the arrow keys. While in browsing the web in Safari.app, try the two-finger "pinch" to zoom in on text. You can also use three fingers to swipe back and forth through the recent browsing history. If you want more cool multi-touch trackpad features, check the "Trackpad" section of System Preferences. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
6 easy steps to migrate your Mac using Time Machine
If you use Time Machine in Leopard, then transferring your stuff to a new Mac might be a bit simpler than you thought. With Migration Assistant, you can easily transfer Applications, Documents, Settings, and more. In this Mac 101, we're going to show you how it's done, and how you can do it yourself! var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/6_easy_steps_to_migrate_your_Mac_using_Time_Machine; 1. Make sure you have a recent backupMake sure you have a recent Time Machine backup on the machine you wish to transfer your information from. To check, go to System Preferences (Apple menu) > Time Machine. If you see a recent backup, then you're set; if not, click "show Time Machine status in the menu bar." In the resulting menu bar item, click "Back up now." Time Machine will make a new backup. 2. Make sure you're not leaving anything behindIn the Time Machine System Preference pane, click the Options button. In the dialog box, you can see all the folders you have chosen not to backup -- check these to make sure you really don't want them. If you do, click the folder and chose the "-" (minus button) at the bottom. Click OK and backtrack to step 1 to create a current backup. 3. Getting the new machine readyFrom this point, you can deviate into two directions: If your Mac is new: Boot up the new Mac and go through the setup screens. When the setup assistant asks if you want to migrate information from your old Mac, choose "From Time Machine backup or other disk." If your Mac has an existing account, don't fret. Just open "Migration Assistant" located in /Applications/Utilities. 4. Connecting your Time Machine drive to the new machineOnce you have completed the above step, click continue. Migration Assistant will ask you to specify the backup you would like to transfer to the new machine. %Gallery-35574%Continue reading for more details...
Mac 101: Address Book A-Z
New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled applications. Address Book is the contact management software bundled with every new Mac. It's easy to use and well integrated with Mail and iCal. Let's explore some of its capabilities. Creating a new record There are three ways to do this. The first is to select "New Card" from the "File" menu. The second is to click the "+" icon below the "Name" column. Finally, you can press Command - N on your keyboard. Next, fill in the fields. Some have drop-down titles. For example, you can label a phone number as "work", "home" or "mobile". Finally, you can add a note to the notes field. Adding a photo is fun. Just click the photo box next to a contact's name and a new window appears. From there, you can browse to a photo on your computer or take a snapshot with your iSight camera. You can even apply some filters to the photo by clicking the Filters button on the right hand side of the window. That photo will appear on that person's record, on email messages retreived with Apple's Mail and on a synchronized iPhone or iPod.
Mac 101: Keep your battery happy and healthy
There's a good tip at CreativeBits today on prolonging your battery's life. Specifically, it's about letting it run through "cycles."When your battery is fully charged, be it in your laptop, iPhone or iPod, and you let it run until the device dies, you've used up one cycle. Over time, it will lose its ability to retain a full charge. However, there are simple steps you can take to prolong its life (or draw out its death. However you choose to look at it). The folks at CreativeBits recommend at least one cycle every two weeks.You can also use tools like CoconutBattery and iStatPro to see how many cycles your laptop battery has completed and to monitor its health.For a more thorough look at your laptop's battery check out our article on battery calibration.
Mac 101: Find where a file came from
If you frequently download files via iChat file transfer or Safari, then you may want to know where the files came from later on. This information can be found using a simple Get Info command in the Finder. Right-click on the questionable file and select "Get Info" (you can also click once on the file and press command + I). Once you are in the Get Info window, click the "More Info" disclosure triangle. Look in the "Where from" field to identify your file's origin. If you downloaded the file from an iChat file transfer, you will see the person's name, handle, and date/time of download. If you downloaded the file using Safari, you might see the URL for the site you downloaded the file from. Please note that this will not work for all files, and your experience may vary if you are using non-Apple browsers or chat tools. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
Mac 101: Take screenshot and copy to clipboard
Are you obsessed with taking photos using the built-in screenshot utility (or by pressing command + 3/4)? Chances are you might have a ton of files left over on your desktop after a long screenshot session. If you don't need the files piling up on your desktop and just want to paste a picture somewhere, pressing Control + Command + Shift + 3 for a full screenshot (or 4 for cross hair selection tool). The screenshots will be copied to the clipboard where you can paste them into a document.Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today!
Mac 101: Stop drives from showing on desktop
Some people hate having any icons showing on their desktop. If you are one of those people, then you might not want icons showing for attached disks, hard drives, or iPods. Here's how to get rid of these annoying icons. Open Finder preferences by clicking "Finder" in the menu bar and selecting preferences (or by pressing command + , while in a Finder window or first clicking on the desktop). Once there, click the General tab. Under the "Show these items on the Desktop:" area, use the check-boxes to select which items you want/don't want to show on the desktop. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
Mac 101: Change fields for creating a new Mail message
If you usually CC/BCC someone in Mail, then why not add it to the default Mail message window? Start by creating a new mail message and click the small box that appears next to the subject line. When you do this, a drop-down menu will appear. Click on the "Customize" button. The window will morph into a full size window showing all the available options. Clicking the check boxes beside each item will allow them to appear each time you compose a new message. When you are done, click the "OK" button to save the changes. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today!
Mac 101: Drag-n-Drop your way to a new Mail message
Do you find yourself constantly copying/pasting text from other applications into a new Mail message? If you do, then you'll enjoy this tip. Instead of copying and pasting, just highlight the next you want to appear in a new Mail message. Drag and drop the text on top of the Mail icon in the Dock. A new message will be created with the text you just dropped on it in the body. Just type in a subject and address and send it off ... easy as 1, 2, 3. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today!
Mac 101: Get a Google Map from Address Book contact
How many times have you looked at an Address Book contact address, only to realize that you don't know where they're located? What do you do? Most would copy and paste the address into Google Maps, but there is a better way! In a contact's Address Book card, right-clicking on an address and clicking on "Map Of" will launch your default browser and map out the address in Google Maps. If you are using Tiger, you will need to install a plug-in, however, this tip works beautifully in Mac OS X Leopard. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.
Mac 101: Keywords in iPhoto
It's easy to fill your iPhoto library with pictures. However, the task of finding the ones you're after isn't. The Events feature of iPhoto '08 is helpful, and you can improve it with Keywords.Think of keywords as tags. You can assign any keyword(s) to any photo, like "Suzie," "Summer" or "Beach." Then, simply search "Suzie" to find relevant photos, sorted by event. Here's how to do it.From the "View" menu, select "Keywords" (or hit Shift-Apple-K). Next, click beneath your photos to reveal the keyword text field. Enter as many comma-separated keywords as you like; previously used keywords will auto-complete.Here's an added bonus. You can also search by keyword via the Image Browser in Pages (see above).
Mac 101: Save a Genius playlist in iTunes
The feature of iTunes 8 that Apple wants to you notice is called "Genius." Basically, it generates playlists, either from your songs or the iTunes Store, based upon a track selected from your library. In this post, we'll look at creating and saving a Genius playlist on your Mac.First, select the target track in your library. I wanted to generate a playlist for work, so I selected a mellow track by Band of Horses. Next, click the Genius button (with the icon) in the lower right-hand corner of the iTunes window. Presto! Your playlist is created. But there's still room for tweaking. At the top of the window, you'll see the track upon which your new playlist is based. Next to that, a drop-down menu lets you select the number of songs to include. Choose from 25, 50, 75 or 100.Finally, you can exclude an individual song by deselecting the gray checkbox next to its title. When you're happy with the result, click "Save Playlist" in the upper right-hand corner.Your new playlist will now appear with the others, named for the original target song.
Mac 101: Using your Windows keyboard
If you switch frequently between a Mac and a PC, chances are you have to deal with a Windows keyboard from time to time. Thankfully, this can be easy with third-party utilities, or even features already built in to Mac OS X. For most switchers, the hardest part about learning to use a new Mac is dealing with your muscle memory. For example, if you're really used to typing Control + C to copy something, Command + C means using your thumb instead of your pinky to perform the operation. In System Preferences, you can click Keyboard and Mouse to change how your modifier keys (that is, Control, Command, Option and Caps Lock) work. Click the Keyboard tab, and then click the Modifier Keys button at the bottom of the window. You can map the Control key to the Command key (and vice versa, if you prefer) to help ease you in to Mac key commands.
