UsingMac.com
Mac Tricks and Tips, Wallpapers and Applications for Mac Users
Display Date & Time
Mac provides you various ways to display your Date & Time. You can either display it to cling on your menu bar or to snap on your Finder Window.
Cling to Menu Bar
Snap on Finder Window
Full-Screen-Shot Minimizing File Size
Lately, most of the people use large monitor as their desktop. If you have monitor size of 1680×1050 pixels then if you print screen the entire screen, the file size will be much larger than after adjusting.
If you clever enough, you will make use your photoshop and shrink the file dimension. Therefore, if you want to print five screens then you have to repeat that five times. That will be troublesome, I think.
The easiest way is by adjusting your screen resolution inside Display Preference Pane. Using QuickSilver search for playpref and you will got application you want. Or you can go under System Preference.
10 Most-Famous Dialog Box
You must have seen these dialog box. The most common one and the most useful. Here I will give detail for the order of ⇥ key pressed.
Finder
Shutdown
- Cancel Shutdown
- Confirm Shutdown
Logout
- Cancel Log Out
- Confirm Log Out
Making Up Toolbar and Sidebar
We can drag and drop our folders into sidebar, you already know that right? But have you ever imagined to drop your folder into toolbar?
Folder to Toolbar
It is easy, just drag your folder above the toolbar and wait for rectangle to appear, then drop it..
And some important notes :
- Command-Click on the folder inside toolbar will delete your original folder (the one outside toolbar)
- Command-Drag the folder to remove it from toolbar, but it also delete the folder
Comparing Boot Time, Thumbs Up for Mac
Pick up interesting topic about comparing Mac and Windows booting time. Here is the quote..
I frequently hear apocryphal stories about Macs booting much faster than Windows boxes. There’s a great set of Mac boot time benchmarks on the Silver Mac site that provide solid empirical data to back up those claims:
...
Wow, PC boot times really do suck, right? Well, maybe. It depends on the PC.
Thanks to Jeff Atwood for his information. And he talk further about improving boot time for Windows. Visit him for more information on that.
By the way I feel the same way as him. When using Windows, the boot time is way too slow compare with Mac, but I am not as excellent as Jeff Atwood in wrapping the information in detail.
Thumbs up for Jeff, thumbs up for Mac – Four Thumbs Up for both.
Categories:
Utilities,
Walkthroughs
Tags:
Info
Control Your Naughty Dock
There are times (always happen) when I wrongly click one of apps icon on my dock. Suddenly, our dock launch that apps without warning. For you also, be careful.. Then, how to bring your dock to its place?
I suggest you to force it, force it with your full force. Talk is easier than act, how? You can use this..
Therefore, you do not have to be shocked on misfire – I mean, mis-click. Enjoy it..
Categories:
Tips and Tricks,
Utilities
Tags:
Dock
Specify Your Mouse
There are many kinds of mouse in this world of Mac. But I think, only one kind that you like, right? I suggest you to try to make your mouse become the kind that you like.
Go inside “Keyboard & Mouse Preference Pane” (QS – keymouse), under “Mouse” tab and you will see something like this..
And your mouse also has special ability to cooperate with your ⌃ key that can provide feature to zoom in/out your view. It also can smooth images when zooming.
Changing Spotlight Sluggish Default
Recently I just read this blog about quick spotlight tip. Maybe I will share my knowledge with you.
- Spotlight’s supposed to be fast and get you to the right file immediately. Why default the Return to the Show All version of Spotlight?
- Show All should really be the last item in the Spotlight list, but at least Apple made a way to get to the Top Hit item easily. Simply click the Command after finishing typing.
- Holding Command-Return will open the Top Hit. Very simple and extremely useful
- What’s even nicer: If you press Command and then Up/Down, you can skip to the top result in each category.
- So if you wanted to get to the first item in the Documents category, but you have the Music and Applications above it, just push Command and then Down key until you are in to documents
- You can even let go of Command and then move by just one item
Thanks to the nice tips from Dustin Bachrach, now we can easily spot and open our desired file.
I think that with this addition Command key for accelerating spotlight viewing result reflect that Mac really appreciate its user's comfort and convenience.. How do you think?
Categories:
Spotlight,
Tips and Tricks,
Utilities
Tags:
Spotlight
Mouse Versus Rat, I Bet On Mouse
For some reasons, I just love my mouse cursor display. If you do not agree with me, raise your hand. Maybe I will give this ugly big rat photo I just taken after it takes a bath.
Oh, I hear some people screaming..
Hidden Power of Mac, Ride the Wind of Information
Let's exploit more of your Mac unbelievable power. Here it is, ⌘I (Get Info from icon). I have this file iPhone.jpg
Who Let the Dock Out
Let see what we get from Mac, an animated Dock. Dock which can be scaled up or down, can be positioned, and many other special abilities.
Magnification
You can trigger this on to make smooth magnification on the icon when your mouse move over the icon. This is very special. You must try it.
Software Paradise - Mac It
Mac Firework - Let's Party
People like party. People also like firework's party. So in conclusion, people will also like this mouse trail. It is called Startrail.
Now, you can watch such wonderful firework party with your parents, your girlfriend, or even with your gramps instantly from your Mac.
Mac the Great Chef - Yummy!
YummySoup! provides you with all delicious, yummy foods' recipes to make you easier to catch your stomach's attention.
Mac Screen Shot - Rumble
For most of people, image take a very good part in creating mood. Sometimes, someone want to take some screen shots from some images to use into some purposes (and I think I use some words that you spell it some).
Mac supplies you with the feature to taking screen shot, that its smoothness is the best. You can capture screen shots into the form of file or you can capture into clipboard for making further modification to your print screen.
I think you all know how to use this print screen thing works. Therefore, I will just give you some tricks of screen shot making.
Customizing Screenshot Shortcut
Do you realize that, Mac uses Command-Option-3, Command-Option-4, Command-Option-Shift-3 and Command-Option-Shift-4 for screen shot taking? Those are very long keystrokes.
For people who often use this screen shot. I suggest you customize your shortcut. You just need to go to QuickSilver and use keyword keymouse and then customize your screen shot shortcut. For your reference, I only customize shortcut for save picture of screen as file to F13. You see, just one key, we can take picture of the entire desktop.
Tasty Reminder - Mac iCal
Now you do not have to fear of your boss. You will always come on time, either to your office or to some extremely important meetings. iCal makes sure you to alert you of those things. iCal also provide you to look for specific time. You can make schedule for month, week, and even a day. You can group your event into categories, like for work purpose or for home needs. And also you can label your categories with colors.
Monthly Schedule
Mac - The Sleeping Beauty
When you idle your Mac for quite a long time, your Mac will enter half asleep state and shine its beauty. The Screensaver is like this. First time I saw it, I made a big 'Wow!!' It is so beautiful, the animation is so natural, that I will skip firework party to watch this screensaver.
Mac Spotlight : Brighter your Day
Feeling stress on finding specific file that buried inside the ton of files. Like searching a sand in the ocean. With Mac, you do not have to worry about that. Mac, just like a car, has a very powerful, very bright, and extremely smart Spotlight. Spotlight can search everything that you want. Whenever, wherever you need it, spotlight will show you the way. I mean, you can find it at every corner.
You can make yourself your own spotlight shortcut (if you have QuickSilver, you can open with spotp). And something like this will show up. You can see there is two kind of shortcuts for spotlight.
