I usually end up with three or four browser windows open, and they've all got multiple tabs within them. It becomes a pain to quickly switch between them. Should I open multiple new windows, and just use expose? Should I start using spaces in Leopard?
Safari has a neat feature, under the WINDOW menu item: "Merge all windows". I use this frequently, as I, too, find after a long surfing session that I have too many windows plus tabs open.
I've been using Macs for years, but I still feel slow when I navigate around the system. I recently watched an editing tutorial, and I was blown away by how fast the guy was able to navigate the finder, mostly through keyboard shortcuts.
I've started to take advantage of the apple-tab command to switch between programs, but I still don't make much use of expose, quicksilver, or any of the more complex methods.
I often find that I'll accidentally have multiple finder windows open, but I still won't be in the directory that I want. I've been using the "places" list in Leopard to help with this, and it's kept me a bit more organized.
Are there any shortcuts or tips that people have success with? I know there are many turbo users on this board, and it would be great to hear some advice.
Thanks,
Bob
P.S. One other interesting thing would be to see how people browse the web the most effectively. I usually end up with three or four browser windows open, and they've all got multiple tabs within them. It becomes a pain to quickly switch between them. Should I open multiple new windows, and just use expose? Should I start using spaces in Leopard?
Right now I do most of my work on a Macbook - sometimes I hook it up to a 24" monitor, where the extra screen real-estate really helps.
Try Spaces if you have Leopard. I set mine up Brady-Bunch style with nine spaces and different apps assigned to each one. Much less clutter that way. I keep Safari in the center space since that's what I use most often and I can control-arrow navigate very quickly from there.
While writing, if you aren't sure about the spelling of a word, type as much as you know, then hit ctrl + escape to reveal a pop-up of possible completions. It's been great in 10.3 and 10.4 in apps like "TextEdit"..
The two MOST USEFUL and HELPFUL keyboard/mouse shortcuts I would say are "ctrl+command+d" while your mouse is over words will give you an instant dictionary/thesaurus. Works in most applications!! It's improved my spelling and quality of my posts ever since I learnt about the feature. (you may be required to enable this from your system preferences.
As well right clicking on words (misspelt) will generally reveal a spell checker with viable solutions!!
oh and a 3rd not so helpful one is "alt+command+d" hides and reveals the dock bar at the bottom. but does come handy when wanting to resize a window a bit larger then the doc permits (like safari).
__________________
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can't be sure they're genuine." - Abraham Lincoln
Click on a window's "zoom" button to quickly toggle between the most recent manually set window size and the minimum size required to display the window's contents. And to access an alternate behaviour, click the "zoom" button to expand the window quicly to fill the screen when (and only when) the "option" key is held.
Damn...
..seriously - what is the point of maximizing every window like 10.5 does when you can only see one at a time anyway?
The problem with shortcuts is unless you use them all the time, it's hard to remember them all. Well at least it is for me, YMMV if you are younger and have murdered fewer brain cells.
For instance, the one mentioned earlier - command-control-d. When I read it I thought, "This is cool". Then tried it and suddenly remembered that I had read about this sometime in the past and then forgot all about it.
The very, very basic ones that I think most users should know and use all the time are command-Q (Quit), command-S (Save) and command-X-C-V, (Cut, Copy, Paste). These are like second nature to me and I've used them since OS7.
Beyond that, one trick that I really like with my 2 button, scroll mouse is to set up Expose in the Expose and Spaces System Preferences panel to display all windows when I click the scroll wheel (middle mouse button) and to clear the desktop when I hit control-middle mouse button. This is way faster than trying to use the F-keys, since I can't usually reliably hit the F-key I want without looking at the keyboard.
For instance if I want to drag something from one window to another, like a file in a Finder window or a piece of text in a document, I'll start to click and drag, then hit the scroll wheel with my middle finger and then move whatever I'm dragging to the window I one once Expose has kicked in.
Expose is the best OSX UI addition that has come along, IMHO. Quicklook in Leopard is close.
Another little OSX trick that I didn't know about is that when using column view in Finder windows, the columns don't always show the full file names because they are too narrow. On the bottom of the column dividers is a little double line symbol. If you double click that the column expands to fit all the file names in that column. Quite useful.
__________________ The price of apathy toward public affairs, is to be ruled by evil men. -- Plato.
After merging windows in Safari I tried to unmerge one tab by dragging it and could not. And then somehow I did without using the menu, but I can't repeat the task. Any ideas how to do it.
In "List" view in "Finder", cycle through and change the column header active for sorting ("Name", "Date Modified", "Kind", etc.) from the keyboard using ctrl-tab...
Linear Mode
