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Daily Trick 20. Quick Equation

I believe most of us have already known that we can type in an equation on the Spotlight and straightaway get the result without the need to open Calculator. Also, I believe that only few of us know that we can do a quick equation without using Spotlight.

How can it be done?

  1. Type in the equation, let say (5*3)+8*9-3
  2. Highlight all of the equation and hit Cmd-Shift-8
  3. The equation will be immediately changed to 84
  4. It's important to note that some applications don't have this feature

So, next time if you want to do a quick equation, you should use this instead of Spotlight. Cheers from UsingMac!

Categories: Daily Tricks
Tags: Calculator, Daily Trick

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15 Comments

Chris Wanja

If you just type in Spotlight, it will do it right there for you. No need to shortcut or highlight text. You can use parentheses as well to do more complex equations. 

Alex

In what applications does it work????, I have't found one in which it does

Ajan

I agree with Chris.
Is it only with 10.5??

Wendy

I tried in TextEdit.

Chris Wanja

@Ajan - Yes, it does only work in 10.5 Leopard only. 

Ben

You can also just put the sum into the search box in safari and the first sugested item is the answer. (Just found that when testing this tip.. pritty niftey huh?)

Mark

That's an awesome tip…but, I've been using CalcService a freebie from DevonTechnologies that does the same, and more. My favorite feature is with the simple key combo cmd = it will place the result of a selected equation into the document itself. I encourage everyone to try it.

Harazy

I've tried this successfully in Leopard. However, it's no longer work in Snow Leopard.

ggo

Works in SL TextEdit. Opens ApplescriptEditor to do the math.

whoami

Works in SL TextEdit. Opens ApplescriptEditor to do the math.

thomas sabo

Honestly, I've always been more of a fan of just putting the monitor to sleep than screen savers. Sure they look pretty awesome, but if you're sitting at your computer, are you really doing so with the screen saver on?Good luck for the dates. It has been some times since we last heard about the next tour. I hope they can run it accordingly now.dRBPK5AV1ugIrLmo

headphones

Honestly, I've always been more of a fan of just putting the monitor to sleep than screen savers. Sure they look pretty awesome, but if you're sitting at your computer, are you really doing so with the screen saver on?Good luck for the dates. It has been some times since we last heard about the next tour. I hope they can run it accordingly now.wbzAoBFTqrjSBsPh

jubbiseo

Honestly, I've always been more of a fan of just putting the monitor to sleep than screen savers. Sure they look pretty awesome, but if you're sitting at your computer, are you really doing so with the screen saver on?Good luck for the dates.Best Real Estate Agent

Cheap Zentai

Honestly, I've always been more of a fan of just putting the monitor to sleep than screen savers. Sure they look pretty awesome, but if you're sitting at your computer, are you really doing so with the screen saver on?Good luck for the dates

stone cold

Hi, i think you’ve made some truly interesting points. Not too many people would actually think about this the way you just did. I’m really impressed that there’s so much about this subject that’s been uncovered and you did it so well, with so much class. Good one you, man! Really great stuff here.

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