But if you want one site to always feature you can pin it to the Top Sites screen to keep it there permanently. Safari's Top Sites feature is an extremely handy way to jump to your recently viewed websites. You can check off each task as you go from within Mail or iCal. If you have a whole bunch of things to be getting on with during the day, you can add a set of To Do notes using the button at the top of the Mail interface.
You might know that you can set applications to launch when your Mac boots using the Accounts pane of System Preferences, but did you know you can hide an app after it has launched in this way? Simply check the box next to the app's name. You can then select Show in Large Type to view the number at an easily readable size as you dial. If you have difficulty when viewing a contact in Address Book, try clicking on the phone type (Mobile or Home, for example) next to the contact's number.
Pressing Shift+Command+4 will allow you to select a portion of the screen to grab or, if you press before selecting an area, you can hover over individual windows and click to snap an image of just that.
Pressing Shift+Command+3 will take a full screen grab as well as a grab of any secondary displays you may have attached.
There are a number of shortcuts in Mac OS X that allow you to capture an image of your computer's screen. You can also set a keyword that triggers your Mac to begin listening for commands so you can preface a sentence with "computer" to avoid confusion. Make sure you're in fairly quiet surroundings to avoid accidental inputs or use a hot key to set when you want to speak a command. You can now speak simple sentences such as "Get My Mail" and your Mac should react accordingly. Head to System Preferences and, under Speech, turn Speakable Items on. Save keystrokes, mouse clicks and a whole load of effort by controlling certain commands with your voice. Simply press Shift+Command+I to open a new message with the link and subject included for you. If you're browsing the web and decide you want to share a link with a friend via email, you don't have to bother with the hassle of copying and pasting.
There are a bunch of sounds available to download for free online, ready to freshen up your audio experience. If you're a little bored of the standard Mac OS X system sounds you can add your own to the mix.Īs long as they're nice and short (and in the AIF or WAV format), you can drag and drop audio files into the MacintoshHD/Users/"your username"/Library/Sounds folder and then apply them to any application that makes use of the system sound library, such as Mail or iChat. Now all files of this type will open in the application you selected. If you want to set all files of this kind to open in a specific app, simply select the file and hit Command+I.įrom the Get Info window, select the app you want from the drop-down menu under Open with: and then click the Change All… button. If you right-click or Control-click on a file you can choose to open it in any compatible application from the Open With menu. Keeping the Command key held and moving between the Tab and Q key will enable you to close multiple apps quickly. You can also quit apps from the Application Switcher by keeping the Command key held down, pressing the Q button when you have selected the app you want to close. When you have a bunch of applications open you can jump between them using Command+Tab or Command+Shift+Tab to invoke the Application Switcher, which enables you to pick the icon of a running application and move to it. Make sure you pick a memorable command so you can remember it easily next time you need to access the function. Now you can fill in the Menu Title field and create your shortcut. Now click on the Application Shortcuts option from the pane on the left and pick your app from the drop-down menu. In System Preferences, head to Keyboard and click on the Keyboard shortcuts tab. If there's a command you use frequently that doesn't have a shortcut assigned to it, you can create one yourself. Now head back to the Get Info screen for the folder or app you want to adjust and select the small icon image at the top of the display before hitting Command+V to paste your new icon image. Press Command+A to select the image and hit Command+C to copy it. Now find the icon you would like to use and open it in Preview. Select the app or folder you would like to give a new icon to and press Command+I to bring up the Get Info screen. You don't have to stick to the default Mac OS X icons.