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Our favourite Apple Mac OSX features
There are lots of cool little features hidden deep inside Mac OSX and in this article we've listed 10 of our favourites. Their availability may depend on the precise version of OSX you're running and in most cases they apply to Leopard and Snow Leopard versions.
Genie Slowdown Effect (and others)
You know how the minimise window button invokes the lovely little genuie effect? Well you can slow it down to appreciate the full glory of it. It's rumoured that this was added to keep Steve Jobs happy as he was mezmerised by the way the minimise effect worked. You'll also find it works with Expose.
WHAT TO DO: Simply hold down the SHIFT key when you click the minimise button.
PDF page turning in Cover Flow view
This allows you to flick through the pages of a PDF document without actually opening it, and whilst in it's thumbnail cover view size.
WHAT TO DO: Open Finder, set the view to Cover Flow and navigate to a PDF document so it is in focus at the top centre of cover flow. Now, hover you mouse over it and after a second you'll notice two small arrows appear on the icon. Click them and it'll allow you to flick through the document.
Cover Flow quick view
You might know about this one but we love it in cover flow view. It gives a very good sized full preview of a document or folder without actually opening it.
WHAT TO DO: Open Finder, set the view to Cover Flow and navigate to any file or folder. Press the SPACE BAR.
Cover Flow slide show
Having highlighted a batch of documents, however many in number, this flicks through them in a slide show with brief pauses. You can manually control the show, pause it, forward, etc.
WHAT TO DO: Highlight a batch of documents in the lower window (Click on the first and drag the mouse vertically up or down the screen to highlight). Then, press the SPACE BAR. Not only will Cover Flow Quick View open but it'll begin a slide show of all the files and you can expand it to full screen view.
Spotlight calculator
Spotlight is a fully fledged calculator. There is absolutely no need to use anything else.
WHAT TO DO: Press CMD-SPACE BAR to open Spotlight and type your calcuation in. Anything you want. Look below it and you'll see OSX automatically calculates it and displays it where you might be used to seeing search results. Brilliant little trick.
Spotlight Dictionary and World Reference
Did you know Spotlight acts as a full dictionary and reference guide on all manner of subjects?.
WHAT TO DO: Open Spotlight and type any word you want into it. Look below where you're typing and you'll see OSX gives you a definition on the word you've typed. If it's a country, City, or all manner of other subjects, it'll give you a brief description of what it knows about it! Intriguing and somewhat addictive to play with!
Ghost highlight in grid view
When you click on an item in the Dock menu (with grid view enabled) you'll be used to the folder opening above and you then move your mouse to the file or program, yes? Well, sometimes the mouse can be difficult to track as you move it across the contents of the window. OSX allows you to use a ghost highlight to make it a little easier.
WHAT TO DO: Click on the Dock item and keep the button on your mouse held down. The window will open as normal, but now you'll see that when you move the cursor over it there is a ghost box highlight within grid view. It makes a difference.
iPhone auto-complete text
Did you know that predictive text, as built in to the Apple iPhone, is available to you in OSX? It's fantastic for checking the spelling of words or getting OSX to complete them for you.
WHAT TO DO: This works in all standard OSX programs such as Safari, Text Edit, Mail etc. Open up any standard OSX program and start typing a word, perhaps one that you sometimes struggle to spell correctly. Half way through the word, hit Fn-F5. It invokes autocomplete and a drop down box of suggested words appears! Release Fn-F5 and use the cursor keys to select the word you wanted.
System Preferences shortcuts
OSX gives you very swift access to System Preferences in respect of some of the most commonly used controls such as Sound and Display.
WHAT TO DO: Press Option and any of the Function keys and you'll see that OSX opens the preferences to which that Function key relates. So, Option F10/F11 opens up Sound preferences. Option F1/F2 opens up Display preferences, etc.
Macbook zoom-to
If you use a Macbook there is an ultra-quick way of zooming in on a particular section of the screen in a full-screen format.
WHAT TO DO: Simply hit Ctrl and push two fingers upwards on the mousepad. It'll zoom in, depending on how much you move your fingers, directly to where the mouse cursor is. You can then Ctrl and pull two fingers downwards to zoom out. Practice it and you'll find yourself using it more and more.
Spread the Word
Worth learning
The number of shortcuts and quickly accessible features on OSX, particularly in Leopard or Snow Leopard form, is vast. Apple don't do a very good job of letting you know though, so it's always useful to scour the internet to find little hidden gems that never cease to surprise you.
Some of these, such as the Genie Slow/Expose Slow features have absolutely no real worth whatsoever, but they do look very swish.
However, others such as the Spotlight features are breath-takingly simple and when you start to use them you'll never stop. They make work and life just that little be easier and before long you'll find yourself typing things into Spotlight just for the sake of it. It's amazing what you can learn from experimenting with the dictionary and reference features it offers alone.
So, try these out and go hunting for features too - with a little experimenting with Fn, Ctrl, Option and CMD you'll be amazed how quickly you'll find something that you never knew existed.
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