by on January 9, 2011 4 Comments

50 Killer Ways to Work Faster with LaunchBar

LaunchBar Mac Application LauncherLaunchBar, the super cool application launcher, has saved me hours each year in productivity improvements. At it’s simpliest LaunchBar lets you launch applications on your Mac without you ever having to lift the keyboard. However to call this program a mere application launcher does it a great disservice. Where LaunchBar really shines is in all of the things you can do in addition to launching applications.

I started thinking about all the cool things that I do with LaunchBar and the more I thought about it the more new ideas came my way.
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Below is a list of all the awesome things you can do with LaunchBar that you might not of realized. I describe each item along with the shortcut command to perform the action. Remember for each of these actions you need to first invoke LaunchBar (Option+Space). [Read more...]

by on September 11, 2009 Leave a Comment

Uncovering hidden features in Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard was released recently. Despite Apple’s claim that this was a minor update to Leopard there are some interesting changes under the hood. In this video from Macworld, some of those new features are highlighted.

Some of the new features demonstrated in this video include:

  • Displaying the date in the menu bar
  • Basic screen recording software
  • The Expose windows now display in a sortable grid
  • The ability to keep you dock clutter free by minimizing windows to the application icon
  • An improved Stack display
  • The ability to select text in columns inside PDF
  • Text substitutions that you can customize

If you have any other shortcuts or if you uncover anything new in Snow Leopard, let us know.

by on September 11, 2009 2 Comments

11 Ways to get more out of Spotlight

I feel like I’m on a Spotlight kick. Rather than reinvent the wheel, check out this article that highlights some additional ways you can use Spotlight.

Here is one that I didn’t know:

7. Open The Parent Folder

So Spotlight just found the file that is buried deep somewhere on your computer. Pressing enter will automatically launch the file, but what if you wanted to reveal the file in Finder? The trick is to hold down the Command key while pressing enter. This will open the parent folder of the file so you can see it in Finder.

If you are not into using a mouse, there is another way to do this. From the spotlight results window, use the arrow keys to move down to the file you are interested in and press Command+R which is the universal shortcut for “Reveal in Finder.” Pretty cool.

Check it out and if you have any other tips for using Spotlight let us know.

by on June 25, 2008 3 Comments

Use Spaces to organize the OS X desktop

Today’s installment of Learning OS X features the application Spaces. Spaces allows you to organize your OS X desktop by grouping your applications into virtual desktops or “Spaces”. If you like to multitask then the Spaces application will help you organize your desktop into various contexts. In this example I create two Spaces, one for personal information management and one for web browsing.

Let’s begin by enabling Spaces. Click the System Preferences and select Expose and Spaces. This will open the Spaces configuration window. There are two buttons labeled Expose and Spaces. Make sure that Spaces is selected. Select the check box Enable Spaces to turn on Spaces.

The application allows you to configure a number of Spaces by adding and removing rows and columns. For this example, I will setup two Spaces.

In addition, you can assign specific applications to open on a specific Space. I am specifying Safari to open in Space two and the Address book to open in Space one.

There are keyboard shortcuts to easily switch between spaces. The default behavior that I use most frequently is the Control key plus the left and right arrows to switch between these spaces.

Close the System Preferences and try out your new Space. Open Safari and your Address book. You will see that they open on two different Spaces. Use the Control + Left Arrow and Control + Right Arrow to switch between the two Spaces.

Spaces is a great way to organize your desktop. If you have any interesting uses for Spaces tell us about it.