Tips and Tricks

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There are many tips and tricks spread out through the Wiki on the specific topics. This page is for more general tips.

1 Tips and Tricks
2 Drag and Drop
3 Keyboard secrets and shortcuts
4 Command line tips
5 External Links

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Tips and Tricks

If you're a laptop user, be sure to check the Exposé preference pane and give hot corner toggling a shot. Or, if you're using Sidetrack, you can map trackpad corners to mouse buttons, and consequently to Exposé commands.
Use Insomnia to keep your laptop open when the lid is closed
Panic's CandyBar is great for changing system-wide default icons.
Open Firmware is part of all modern Macs and is quite powerful. See the Open Firmware page for a sequence to reset all its values.
A guide on how to turn your OS X install CDs into an install DVD.
To be able to quickly preview audio/music files, so they don't clutter up iTunes, use this trick: Associate all audio files with the QuickTime Player. It opens fast and is perfect for just checking out a file. Then add it to iTunes only if you really want to.
Try enabling the "Flash the screen when an alert sound occurs" in the Universal Access prefpane, on the "Hearing" tab.

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Drag and Drop

Did you know the icon in a document's title bar is also an alias for that file? Click and hold the tiny icon, and feel free to drag the icon around and drop wherever you wish!
Attach items by dragging to Mail.app.
Drag images from Safari to your desktop to download, to a text field for a direct link, etc.
You can drag any link or picture (even unparsed links or location bar urls) to Safari's download window to download.
Use Spring-loaded folders.
Drag links into the tab bar in Safari and Firefox to open in a new tab.
If you have an open Finder window with the directory you want to save a file to, you can drag that directory into the rightmost pane of any Save dialog to jump directly to it.

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Keyboard secrets and shortcuts

Quick Commands: Even though they're not highlighted, go into System Preferences -> Keyboard and turn on Full Keyboard Access. Now you can press Command + <First letter of button you want to press> on dialog boxes.
Command Comma (⌘,) will quickly access your preferences on any application.
While Command Tabbing, you can use other keyboard shortcuts while over an application icon, eg, typing W will close the window, Q quits the program, H hides it, etc without leaving the Command Tab interface.
Hold Shift while scrolling to scroll horizontally.
Instead of ⌘-I for a Get Info window, try ⌘-Option-I for a dynamic version of the same. With it, you can choose different files and have it automatically update, instead of opening a new Get Info window for each.
You can interact with a program thats in the background without bringing it into focus by ⌘-Clicking in that window.
Boot Commands for booting from optical drive, network, firewire, single user mode, verbose, etc.
You can get to the Force Quit menu by pressing ⌥⌘+ESC.
If you have an application or file highlighted, ⌘-Down will launch it. If it's a folder, ⌘-Down will navigate into it. ⌘-Up takes you to the parent folder of the one you are currently in.
⌘` (that's a tick mark, the one right above ~) will cycle through open windows in most applications.
Quick Dictionary lookup: Select a word and press ⌘ + Control + D.
Auto complete list for a word in OS X native text boxes: As you type, press ESC bring up a suggestions list.
ctrl-option-⌘-8 displays a negative color scheme, great for reading and writing in dark places.

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Command line tips

You can drag folders and files directly onto the Terminal window and it will display the path.
The following will run an applescript command:

osascript -e 'applescript command here'

Use the following command to find your 50 largest files:

find / -ls -xdev | sort -n +6 | head 50

Speed up the sliding out animation of the sheets. Type this in the Terminal, or use "SheetSpeed".

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime .001

To get a directory tree listing, use this terminal command:

find . -type d

To find your system uptime use this terminal command:

 uptime

Convert text to audible speech. If you don't put any text to speak, it will be interactive and speak whatever you type after you hit return. Press Control-D to exit this.