Some common (but confusing) shortcut symbols

Using keyboard shortcuts efficiently is probably one of the most annoying differences you'll experience when you first start using your Mac. The drop down menus generally all have the shortcut combinations displayed, but the symbols can often be quite confusing.

(Command/Apple) - Think of this as the "Control" key for Windows.

(Alt/Option) - Think of this as the "Alt" key for Windows. The icon does sort of make sense... It's a path that is split... giving you an alternate option...

(Control) - Doesn't really map to a Windows key, just there so Mac can have lots of finger tangling shortcut combinations

(Escape) - Ok, this isn't a common shortcut key, but it does make an appearance every now and then.

Some useful, generic Mac shortcuts

For many shortcuts you can try replacing "Ctrl" (Windows) for "Command" (Mac) and it should still work. eg. ctrl/cmd+n (new), ctrl/cmd+c (copy), ctrl/cmd+x (cut), ctrl/cmd+v (paste). There are some shortcuts that are more Mac specific, here's a few that I find quite useful and you should be able to use them regardless of what program you're running.

• cmd+space - Spotlight! (Super useful, I'll explain later)
• cmd+tab - Switch between applications*
• cmd+tilda - Switch windows within applications*
  *Note: these both are equivalent to Window's "ctrl+tab", except Mac has the concept of an "active application" which is why you have "cmd+tab" to change your "active application" and then "cmd+tilda" to switch within the application itself.

• cmd+q - Quits the current application
• cmd+h - Hides the current application. Re-open the application by "cmd+tab-ing" to it, or select it from the dock. (I generally don't use this, but good to know if you accidentally hit this combo)
• cmd+w - Closes the current tab (or window if no tabs) of the application, does not quit the application. (Should work for most applications)
• cmd+shift+w - Closes the current window (ie. closes all tabs) of the application, does not quit the application. (Should work for most applications)
  Note: Unlike windows, closing a window in Mac doesn't necessarily close (quit) the application. So hitting the red circle/cross on the top left of the window or using the shortcut combo will generally only close the window, not the application.
• cmd+comma - Opens the properties/settings window for that application
• ctrl+click - Simulates a right click (or if you're using a trackpad you can set two fingers to be 'secondary tap' under System Preferences > Trackpad)
• cmd+alt+esc - Opens the 'Force Quit' dialog - similar to ctrl+alt+del in Windows.

Spotlight (cmd+space)

Spotlight basically allows you to quickly open any application, file, folder etc that is on your Mac.

1. Hit "cmd+space" and Spotlight will appear on the top right of your screen.
2. Start typing in the name of a application, file, folder etc you want to open.
3. See the results get displayed dynamically and use the up/down arrow keys to select what you want.
4. Hit "enter" and there you go!
   Note: hitting 'esc' once will clear the text in Spotlight, hitting it again will close Spotlight

I've found Spotlight "learns" what applications/files you use most often, so you'll end up needing to type less

Another cool feature of Spotlight is you can use it as a calculator (eg. start typing in 2*21, you should see "2*21 = 42" appear as your first result). If you hit enter now, the calculator will open (unfortunately without the calculation you just entered) or hit escape twice to get back to whatever you were doing.

Mac specific applications

Many people will say that lots of software will only work on Windows, and they are probably right. However, you'll find that more and more programs are now compatible with both Windows and Mac.

Now, if Windows only software exists, there has to be Mac only software too right? Correct! So here are three Mac only applications that I find quite useful (all free of course)

• Adium - A nice, simple instant messaging application that supports most of the common chat services (Google Talk, MSN etc)
• Skitch - A cool screen capture tool that lets you take a shot of your screen (or part of it), draw/add text to it, and then share it online or save it to desktop (There is also a paid version available, but I think the free one is already super useful).
• The Unarchiver - Somewhat like winzip/winrar combined - lets you expand compressed files (.zip, .rar, .gzip, .tar etc).
  ps. if you still have a Windows machine, I recommend 7-Zip for expanding compressed files.

There is one other Mac specific application that definitely deserves a mention - Quicksilver. There are many people that will swear by Quicksilver, saying that it's super powerful and helps them use their Macs super efficiently - I've seen it in action and indeed you can do lots of crazy and cool stuff with Quicksilver. However, I found when I installed it, I never quite got past the "cmd+space, open file/application" use case, so I decided to just stick with Spotlight. Give it a go if you want, it's free too.

So that's Part 1 of my attempt to help those who are new to the Mac world. Part 2 will follow shortly (hopefully) and will contain similar random-ish pointers that appear in no particular order. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I'll attempt to help you!

Sunday, 1 November 2009

#305 - It's amazing/interesting to think about what you have learnt during the day and find one thing that you feel is worthy to share.

This obviously comes from the post from last week as it was the first time I really sat down at the end of each day and thought about what to write about. In the past I have probably casually just thought about the day that has just passed, but never in much depth. It definitely takes some time to pick out the thing to write about, but I feel it is worth it - especially at the end of the week when I read through my notes I've jotted down for each day. Admittedly at the end of some days it felt like nothing special enough happened that day to write about - after all I can't expect all days to be exciting - just have to make sure there aren't too many of them

Monday, 2 November 2009

#306 - Rule of thumb: Red wine doesn't go with seafood - Wine and seafood: Red rags

For those that know me, I hardly drink wine (in fact I hardly drink alcohol). So the random fact of my day is drinking red wine while having seafood can leave a strong and unpleasant fishy taste in your mouth. Iron levels in wine is the cause for the fishy after-taste since iron reacts with the healthy unsaturated fat in fish to form unstable chemical compounds that cause the unpleasant fishy odours. So it seems like it as long as the wine has low iron levels, you can enjoy your seafood dinner - though white wine in general have lower iron levels than red, so probably still a safer choice.

Tuesday, 3 November 2009

#307 - Sweeps is gambling for dummies.

Today was Melbourne Cup and when I came into work today saw an email about entering the "Sweeps". There were multiple $2 and $5 sweeps and I had no idea how sweeps worked, other than you had to put money in and you *might* get some back if you won. It was only after lunch that I found out how sweeps worked - everyone who entered gets assigned a random horse and then at the end of the race, the winnings are paid out in some sort of proportion to the winners (the payout split seems to differs slightly depending on the sweeps organiser).

Guess sweeps works for people like me who don't know much about the horses so getting assigned a random horse is just about the same as picking a horse myself. Maybe I should've tried my luck in the Melbourne Cup sweeps - though it would've helped if I knew how sweeps worked in the first place.

Wednesday, 4 November 2009

#308 - A high IQ doesn't mean much, being able to make rational decisions is just as important. - Clever fools

I've always thought that IQ tests are quite pointless and silly - a person isn't "smart" because they can figure out what pattern comes next in the series. Being able to analyse, think logically and connect the dots are definitely important, but in my opinion what makes a person "smart" is how they interact with people, how they make decisions and how they justify their actions.

This is obviously very vague but that is because being "smart" means so many different things in different contexts. The New Scientist article "Clever fools: Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart" talks about rational decision making as being an important aspect of an individual's intelligence which I feel is very true. It's a pretty good read and one of the things that I like are some of the analogies used to illustrate how purely measuring IQ is quite limited: "A high IQ is like height in a basketball player...There's a lot more to being a good basketball player than being tall, and there's a lot more to being a good thinker than having a high IQ." -David Perkins

Thursday, 5 November 2009

#309 - Time flies!

Today was a bit of a strange day, a series of events made me realise how time flies! In the morning news today they mentioned it has been a year since Obama was elected as President - to me it definitely didn't seem like a whole year has passed since all the US election frenzy. Then at work, a colleague mentioned that in a few short weeks we will have reached the end of another decade and will be starting a new one: 2010. Ten years ago it was "Year 2000" with all the Y2K worries. Ten years ago I had just started high school. Finally, while filling out some forms I realised that I had been working full time for nearly 9 months now - it might not sound long to some people, but to me it feels like I'm still new and just started not long ago.

Friday, 6 November 2009

#310 - An extra little bit of attention can go a long way.

Not quite sure how this popped into my mind today, but it just did. Simply put, I believe that an extra bit of thought and attention when we do things can make a big difference. Not quite sure how to express it nicely, but basically, spending an extra second or two every now and then to think about what you are doing and if you can do anything different to make things better pays off. It might be beneficial to yourself (eg. noticing the dark clouds outside and packing the umbrella) or others (eg. suggesting that other idea that they might just find helpful). Many times the extra attention will probably go unnoticed, but sometimes you'll be happy you packed the umbrella and the other person might just find that extra little idea to be perfect.

Saturday, 7 November 2009

#311 - The humble mouse movement is controlled by the "Mouse Acceleration Curve"

When you are using a computer, more often than not you'll also be using the mouse to point, click, drag etc. But have you ever thought of how the physical movement of the mouse is translated into the movement of the cursor on your screen? I haven't, until today. For the past few months been using my MacBook Pro and every now and then I will be using the mouse instead of the track-pad and the mouse movement just felt wrong. It'll move fine but then as I am approaching the target (eg. a button) the cursor seems to slow down and become rather unresponsive - very very annoying when playing World of Goo!

Getting rather annoyed at the "broken" mouse movement, I decided to see if there was a fix for it and after a bit of googling I realised neither my mouse nor laptop was broken, instead Apple just had a different (read crappier) "Mouse Acceleration Curve" compared to Windows.

This article I found explains the whole thing quite well - basically, it's obvious that the movement translation can't be a 1:1 ratio - needing to move 1cm physically to move the cursor 1cm on the screen is not practical (this is about as much though as I gave to the mouse movement prior to today...but there is so much more!). The simplest possible solution is to change the ratio to say 3:1 - but that causes another problem: "you'd have to move your mouse about [2.1 mm], no more, no less, to move from the center of the close button to get to the center of the minimize button".

The solution? Use both. When the mouse is moving fast use a X:1 ratio to move a far distance with little motion; while when the mouse is moving slow use a 1:1 ration to get the precision needed. As the article explains "For mouse motion to feel natural (at least for most people), the curve has to start by moving upward fairly moderately, then gradually flattening out as the value of X increases...A comfortable and useful curve is shaped like a curve. Mac OS X's curve, however, is shaped more like a cliff". This explained the "broken" feel I got when using my mouse - general movement across the screen was all ok, but because of the abrupt flattening at the top of the cliff, when I slowed down to click on the target, my mouse practically slowed down to a halt.

Luckily, it can be easily fixed. There are some 3rd party applications (shareware) that can give you a more control over the acceleration curve. USB Overdrive and SteerMouse seem to be two most popular. However, I went with the free option and downloaded drivers for my mouse off the Microsoft website. Now back to playing World of Goo - unfortunately this means I can no longer blame my lack of co-ordination on bad mouse movement!