Tab between buttons in Dialog Boxes

Posted on October 14th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality by admin
On a PC you can use the keyboard to select buttons in dialog boxes in 2 ways: using the shortcut key (Alt + the underlined letter) or by the tab key to go to the next control. On the Mac you are stuck using the mouse: or are you? Here’s a tip from Mac Tips and [...]

Quit Application Gotcha

Posted on September 17th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality by admin
In Windows to dismiss a window you can click on the X in the upper right of the window. As explained in a previous post, there is an equivalent on the Mac, the red circle with an x in the upple left. But there is a small gotcha difference. In Windows, if it is the [...]

Where is it?

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality Tagged with: , ,
by admin
You’re used to finding things in certain places on your machine but on a Mac the places are different. Here’s some help finding things. I’m going to go down the list on the left side of Windows Explorer and point out where you’ll find things in the Mac Finder. Desktop: hurray it’s the same name in [...]

Adding Special Characters

Posted on July 12th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality Tagged with: ,
by admin
In Windows you can bring up the Character Map application to select and insert special characters into documents. In MacOS there is similar functionality and I think it is easier to use. Under the Edit menu in the menu bar in most (all?) applications at the bottom is the Special Characters… command. Select it and the [...]

More guides for switchers

Posted on July 4th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality, Website Tagged with:
by admin
Walt Mossbery is one of the top tech columnists. He just published some general tips for switchers. These are pretty basic but good if you are a brand new switcher. He points out a couple of basic Apple web pages that are very useful. These are Mac101 and Switch101. These provide a lot of tips on [...]

Executing Menu Items from the Keyboard

Posted on June 17th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality Tagged with:
by admin
In Windows most menu items have one of the letters underlined which means that you can execute them from the keyboard by hitting that key. On the Mac you don’t see any such indicators. On a whim while seeing the dialog box in iTunes for the thousandth time when I deleted a podcast which defaults to [...]

Inserting Special Characters

Posted on May 24th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality Tagged with:
by admin
On the PC there is a built-in application called Character Map where you can find and copy special characters to the clipboard and then paste them into a document. On the Mac it is done more elegantly. In applications that edit text go to the Edit menu and select Special Characters… (or Command-Option-T). This will [...]

Running Applications at Startup/Login Time

Posted on May 21st, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality Tagged with:
by admin
In Windows you put a link to an application in the startup folder at C:\Documents and Settings\username\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. On the Mac you open System Preferences and go to the Accounts subsection. There you click on the Login Items tab to see the applications that will start when you login. Select an application from the list and [...]

Tips

Posted on May 20th, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality, Built-in Applications Tagged with:
by admin
UsingMac has a page of 101 tips that include some that are very useful. For example: Control-F2 is Jump to MenuBar. After typing this you can use the arrow keys to move the selected item in the menu bar (and submenus). Hit enter to execute the command. This enables you to execute menu commands using just [...]

Burning iso images

Posted on May 1st, 2008 in Basic OS Functionality Tagged with:
by admin
iso images are copies of the actual bits that go on a CD. They are often used to install large applications like Linux operating systems. They are very easy to burn to a CD (or DVD) from the Mac. Open the Disk Utility (in the Utility folder of the Applications directory) and click on the Burn [...]
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