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@marktheunissen
Created September 20, 2012 20:06
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Mac Productivity Brown Bag

Mac Productivity

Apple OSX General

System

  • Hide the dock. It's valuable screen space. At least move it to the left or right side, as vertical is more valuable.
  • Use Spotlight / Quicksilver to quickly open applications, search machine.
  • Paste plain text into email or anywhere with CMD+SHIFT+OPTION+v
  • Remap caps lock to CTRL.
  • Dashboard is neat - fix the weather widget moving with a hack.
  • Lock screen using Keychain access preferences.
  • Option button changes options on menus, for example, right click on item in dock, hold option to change menu items.
  • iStatMenus for system stats
  • Caffeine to prevent machine from sleeping
  • Screenshots using SHIFT+CMD+4 (or 1-3)
  • Emoji
  • Increase your key repeat rate in Preferences.
  • Use CMD+arrows to navigate end/home.
  • Use FN+arrows to pageup/pagedown.
  • Use Option+arrows to move word boundaries.
  • Highlight rapidly using SHIFT+ the above shortcuts.
  • Double click to select words.
  • Use CMD+(x/c/v) for Cut/Copy/Paste.
  • Use CMD+z for undo, normally CMD+y or CMD+SHIFT+z for redo.

Desktops

  • Use multiple desktops to divide work & play, even projects.
  • Control + Up to activate Mission Control, but it's swooshy and annoying.
  • Use Total Spaces, which allows you to turn off animations for rapid desktop switching with CTRL+[num].
  • Assign applications to desktops.
  • Move applications by grabbing the title bar and switching desktop while still dragging, or you can use the Mission Control interface.
  • Finding wallpapers in Google

Windows

  • Divide an application into windows, position one on each desktop.
  • CMD+tab to switch application, OSX knows to switch to the open window on the current desktop.
  • Minimize is weak, use CMD+H to hide apps, CMD+[tab] to immediately go back to hidden app.
  • Use CMD+q to quit an app.
  • CMD+[tab] is powerful, you can quit apps, use the mouse, cycle forward and backwards, hit ESC. Works like a stack.
  • Position Windows using shortcuts, avoid dragging apps around. Use Moom.
  • Cycle through open windows in an app using CMD+`

Tabs

  • CMD+SHIFT+[] for switching tabs. OSX allows you to override any application's shortcuts easily. Any app that doesn't support defaults can be added here.
  • CMD+num to select tab directly.
  • Use CMD+w to close a tab - works in any application.
  • Control dialogs with the CMD+s for 'Save' and CMD+d for discard. Tab and space to select.
  • Use Esc to cancel dialogs.

Finder

  • Use like TotalCommander, or an "Orthodox file manager".
  • Apple-N for new window in finder
  • Use Moom to position.
  • Hide the sidebar.
  • Option+drag to copy
  • Space to quick-look
  • CMD+SHIFT+(h/d/c/a) to go to Home/Desktop/Computer/Applications
  • Use CMD+E to eject volumes.
  • To navigate folders, use the arrow keys combined with CMD.
  • CMD-down to launch.
  • CMD-backspace to send to trash
  • CMD-shift-backspace to empty trash
  • Start typing name of file/folder to go there immediately.
  • Enter to edit file name.

Browsers

  • Filling out forms with the keyboard. Use TAB to move, arrow keys and letters to select state, space to accept.
  • CMD-T to open a new tab
  • CMD-SHIFT-T in browser to undo closed tab
  • CMD+L goes to the location bar (CMD+K in Firefox for search bar)
  • Tell the browser to remember your open tabs when closing.
  • Use favicons instead of verbose bookmarks to keep more favorites in bar.
  • Google calendar favicon shows current day of month.
  • Escape works on lightboxes.
  • CMD-click for opening a link in a new tab.
  • Use seperate browsers for work/home, keep Google cookies separate, any other accounts.
  • App tabs in browser allow you to pin your apps and have them in a predicatible place, to switch using CMD+num

Gmail

  • Gmail's 'archive' function allows you to obtain 'inbox zero'.
  • Gmail labs 'undo' feature will save your life.
  • Use 'mute' to avoid followups ending up back in your inbox
  • You can embed images and emoticons. Don't attach images if you can avoid it.
  • Turn on keyboard shortcuts for gmail. Use '?' to get a reference.
  • Unread count labs feature is useful in app tabs.
  • Archive and move to next with {. Use j/k/p/o/x/e to handle email.

Jira

  • Use favorites (stars) to keep your projects at the top.
  • Keyboard shortcuts (hit '?')
@mirzu
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mirzu commented Sep 20, 2012

Mike's Additions:

  • Divvy - Alternative to Moom
  • Skitch - for quick Screen shots.
  • Snap Ruler - for measuring things (I like it better than the browser options)
  • Color Snapper - for grabbing colors from things
  • Numbers - make pretty charts, prettier than google docs
  • Alfred - Alternative to quicksilver (macs that don't have one of these are broken)
  • Pixelmator - Cheap image editor that kinda rocks
  • Pathfinder or TotalFinder - sexy finder magic

@mirzu
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mirzu commented Sep 21, 2012

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