Pain in the Tech comments on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users]

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by MikeyLikesIt

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:17:58 -0700

I just found an article that discusses APE, which I mentioned above as being required to install PullTab, which lets you replace the Command+Tab function on OS X.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/03/14/unsanity-updates-utilities-application-enhancer-unsupported-by-apple

The article basically talks about the fact that Unsanity makes products that users love for the interface benefits that they grant, but notes that developers blacklist support for users who have APE installed because it causes a lot of conflicts with other software. Being new to the Mac, I don't want to take any risks, so I'm going to uninstall APE and PullTabs and just work with Witch, and assign the Window Switching fucntion to the Option+Tab keys, which don't seem to be used for anything. (Tab Switching is done with Ctrl+Tab)

Anyway, since I made the post, I didn't want others having this same problem, and besides, this actually makes the installation much simpler. Just get Witch and configure it:

http://www.manytricks.com/witch/

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by MikeyLikesIt

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 17:10:11 -0700

I too love the two finger scrolling, and the two finger click that pulls up the context menu. Be sure to enable these in your sys prefs. I saw this on the iPhone in a demo, but didn't know they had introduced the same thing into their touchpads already. Very Innovative and actually faster than an alternate mouse click.

I think the reason you are getting sent back in the browser is probably because you are holding down Option while swiping your fingers left/right, which is a shortcut for back/forward navigation.

I also like the Ctrl+Up/Down Swipe, which lets you zoom in and out of your screen. Great for presentations.

Delicious Spotlight Integration: If you use delicious for bookmarks, like me, then I have to highly recommend you install the Spotlight Delicious plugin, which indexes your delicious bookmarks and provides me with by far the best way to seach my bookmarks that I've ever found (ultra fast and multiple keyword searching). http://ianhenderson.org/delimport.html

Enjoy

I can't believe this ... I've only been using Mac for 4 days and I'm already very happy with the conversion on many levels.

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by MikeyLikesIt

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:54:46 -0700

Thanks for putting this info online. I just got a new MacBook this week, and am switching over from Windows XP, mostly because I build websites and wanted a Unix based OS to do development on.

One of the most useful things I found solves the problem with Alt+Tabbing (on Windows) or Command+Tabbing (on Mac). Once completed, you'll be able to restore minimized windows from the dock, just like you can on Windows. Somebody created a nice video on YouTube that covers the method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWa3iuZnHJs

Here are some links to the resources mentioned in the video (You will need to install 3 separate components): Application Enhancer: http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/ape/ PullTab: http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/pulltab/ Witch: http://www.manytricks.com/witch/

I didn't try this myself, but you may be able to get away with only installing Witch if you are willing to assign the Keystrokes to another combination, such as Option+Tab and Shift+Option+Tab. Might save you some work and you would then still have the standard Mac Application switcher on Command+Tab.

Witch is highly configurable, so you can set the options however you like after playing around with it.

Cancel Window Switch - Workaround/Solution: One thing that I found annoying at first was that after starting a window switch (W..itch), I was used to using the escape key to cancel if I decided I wanted to stay where I was, but on the Mac I have this launches the ultra cool media browser that you normally control with your remote. This is probably only on some Macs, but I don't know. To solve this I changed a couple settings in Witch: System Prefs > Witch > Behavior > Window List > select "Show Cancel ..." option System Prefs > Witch > Behavior > Window List > deselect "Start with 2nd ..." option

Anyway, hope that helps everyone. I loved it myself and it's made my transition to Mac much more comfortable.

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Anonymous

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 02:00:47 -0800

one thing I didn't find for a long time was to ba able to swich between different windows of the same programm... it's "command (apple) - <"... now I use it every day ;-) another thing I just discovered recently: ^ in shortcut descriptions means "ctrl" and ALT does excately what it sais: it excecutes an alternativ control to the one already there... this is treated much more consistent than in windows... just my two pennies... peace s

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Karl

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:21:30 -0800

Andy, Regarding your FTP problem to hide all programs then maximize just the one you want... I'm assuming you tried control-command-H from your FTP program? That hides all programs except the active one. That is in the Application menu, so it can be so completely obvious, you look past it. Also, a great FTP program to get around what you describe is Panic's Transmit. It's shareware, and very very slick. http://www.panic.com/transmit/

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Karl

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:00:55 -0800

Control-F3 will give you access to the dock, from there, arrow key to the minimized app window or hidden app. For all the standard keyboard shortcuts: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Onyx

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:13:01 -0800

On Daniel's Comment, hide the application instead (command+h). It doesn�t put it into a new dock entry, and in this instance, when you command+tab to the application This is great but I do not want to do this every time for an application to alt-tab it and bring it to the front after it has been minimized to the dock. Is there a program, widget, script that mimics the windows alt-tab window restore from minimized? This frustrates me coming from windows. ;-D Also, Can I enable the dock to drag folders to it? Is there a program/widget that allows this? Cheers

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Anonymous

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 11:16:49 -0800

> I still think there should be (and probably is) a keyboard command to �extract� windows that are �minimized� to the dock. I found one mentioned on a blog, but could not get it to work on my iBook due to problems with the �alt� and �fn� key modifiers. Do you remember what command that was?

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Andy Atkinson

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:10:44 -0800

At the time that article was written, I wasn't aware of hiding windows with "Command+H" as I am now. There certainly *is* a difference between hiding a window and minimizing it. I still think there should be (and probably is) a keyboard command to "extract" windows that are "minimized" to the dock. I found one mentioned on a blog, but could not get it to work on my iBook due to problems with the �alt� and �fn� key modifiers. Regarding "maximize," I was talking about a "windows-style" maximize, where the current active window is increased to the maximum size to fill the screen. I do *not* think this is a waste of space on a small screen, like the 12" screen on my iBook, although to the best of knowledge, OS X does not support any concept of "universal maximize" like Windows does. The trick of course, is getting used to Expose, which is great, and allows me to accomplish everything I can in Windows and more. I still find OS X to be cumbersome however, when there are some files on my desktop that I want to drag into my active window (like dragging files into an FTP client). My options are to used Expose, or hide it, both don�t work very well on a 12� screen at XGA resolution. In Windows I would minimize all windows, then maximize *only* the active window I want, this is clunky to do in OS X, since the only way I can think to accomplish it is to hide or send every window to the dock, the unhide or pull out only the window I want. Everything would change on a larger screen with a full keyboard of course, kind of like those larger screens and keyboards on the Intel iMacs. Hmmm...

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Daniel

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 11:19:35 -0800

I know this is kinda old now, so I don't know how much more you've learned... but being a new Mac user myself (I have a MacBook Pro), I've thoroughly researched various things that have helped me adjust. Maybe I'm misreading it, but it sounds like you don't fully grasp the concept between restoring a window and max/minimizing it. Restoring it is whehn, in Windows, you click on the taskbar tab and it comes to the front. Maximizing it is when you make it fill the whole screen. Filling the whole screen is not generally an option in OSX because it wastes space. Anyway, as for being able to minimize a window and access it from the keyboard- instead of minimizing it so the genie effect sucks it into the right side of the dock, hide the application instead (command+h). It doesn't put it into a new dock entry, and in this instance, when you command+tab to the application, it brings it back to the front. You seem like you want to use the keyboard a lot, and I think this will be of great use to you if you don't know about it.

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by mommedia

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:05:19 -0800

I have one of the older models as well. There's a neat little program called iScroll2 which brings the 2-finger scrolling to our iBooks as well. I installed it and have been using it ever since. You can give it a try here: [http://www-users.kawo2.rwth-aachen.de/~razzfazz/iscroll2/](http://www-users.kawo2.rwth-aachen.de/~razzfazz/iscroll2/ "iScroll2") This guy also tells a bit about the firefox scrolling behavior, for anyone who might be interested in fine-tuning this a bit.

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Anonymous

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:21:54 -0800

Go to about:config (type in the address bar) in Firefox and change mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action to 0.

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Andy Atkinson

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 13:13:29 -0800

I have been meaning to give Camino a try. I have a lot of Firefox extensions, although I am becoming increasing disappointed with its sluggish performance on OS X, combined with the fact that the "Ctrl-Tab" keyboard shortcut for switching tabs broke in FF 1.5 I should have clarified that 2-finger scrolling is a feature of newer Apple machines (like the 1.33Ghz iBook), as the 1.33Ghz PB a friend of mine has does not have this feature. Looks like Apple made an upgrade to their touchpad. Thanks for the Camino suggestion!

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Anonymous

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 11:34:49 -0800

To make a screenshot of a window: Cmd-Shift-4, _then_ Space, then click on the desired window.

Comment on [Basic Tips for New Mac Users] by Micah Fitch

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 09:20:47 -0800

I'm assuming you are using firefox... horizontal scrolling does the same thing as scroll-wheel scrolling with the shift modifier on. In firefox, this makes the pages go back and forward. Use Camino! (or Shiira)