To rename files in the Finder many people still select the file, then click on the file name, then wait a second, then type once the name has been selected. But power users know that the quicker way to do it is to select the file and hit the Return key on your keyboard. This instantly selects the name and you can type immediately. By default, only the name before the file extension is selected, but a quick Command+A selects the whole thing. Or, you can hit the right arrow key to jump to the end of the main file name, or the left to jump to the beginning for quick appending or prepending.
There is a view in between day view and week view in Mavericks Calendar. It is similar to week view, but you can choose between 2 and 6 days. To get to this view, use Command+1 which will put you in day view. Then Command+Option+2 to go to a two-day view. For more than two days, use 3, 4, 5 or 6 instead of 2.
You can change the background of the Notes app with a little hacking. It is just an image file found inside the application. Go to the Notes app in your Applications folder, Control+click it and select Show Package Contents. Then Look in Contents, Resources for the paper.tiff file. I’d save a copy of that file, just in case you want to switch back. Then edit it in an image editing app like Photoshop or Pixelmator. Make sure you save it using the same tiff format.
If you have more than one printer in your office or home, you can create a printer pool to print to whichever is the next available. Go to System Preferences, Printers & Scanners and select two or more printers by holding down the Command key and clicking on them in the list. You’ll then get a button that allows you to create a printer pool and name it. You can now select that printer pool as a printer from any application’s print dialog.
Sometimes when you search for a file in the Finder, it is not just the file you want, but all of the files in that same folder. To quickly get there, you can Control+Click on the file in the search results and choose Show Enclosing Folder. Or, you can use Command+R to do it even faster. Command+R even works if you are searching in an application’s Open dialog box.
Basic dictation in OS X uses a similar system to Siri, with audio sent to a server for processing. With Mavericks you can enable Enhanced Dictation that allows you to use the feature while offline. Go to System Preferences, Dictation & Speech, Dictation and check Use Enhanced Dictation. This requires a hefty download to install the needed speech recognition software. Once that is done, you can also use dictation continuously, instead of 30-second chunks. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5449 for details.
In most places on your Mac where you edit text, you can quickly transpose the two characters around the cursor by pressing Control+T. For instance, if you accidentally typed teh instead of the, you can backspace one character so the cursor is between the e and the h and hit Control+T. Works in TextEdit, Pages, Mail and many other places.
If you want to take several video files and quickly combine them into one, you don’t need to use iMovie or any other video editing tool. Just open the first video in QuickTime Player and then drag and drop the other videos onto it. The new videos will be appended on to the end. Then export as a new video file.
Many people report that you can charge your iPhone faster if it is in Airplane mode. This makes sense since you won’t be using as much power. A good idea in situations where you don’t care about missing phone calls and aren’t using your phone, but have a limited amount of time to charge, like when waiting for a connection at an airport, or stopping home between work and dinner.
The Compass app on the iPhone in iOS 7 includes a level that you can use for hanging pictures or straightening a surface. Just launch the Compass app and swipe left right to left. The level works in two dimensions if you lay your iPhone down on its back, and one dimension if you put it on its side.
Run Activity Monitor, usually found in Applications/Utilities. Now hide it. The icon will remain in the Dock. Control+click on the icon and select one of the options under Dock Icon. The dock icon can be used to show processor, disk or network usage, or a small graph with recent usage. The app must remain running for this information to appear in the icon.
In Mavericks it is quick and easy to insert Emoticons while typing. Just press Command+Control+Space and a little emoticon insertion tool pops up. You can even use the arrow keys and return to select one right from your recents and favorites. This only works in apps that support emoticons, like Mail or Messages.
You can drag a window that is in the background without bringing it to the front. Just hold down the Command key and drag it. It will stay in the background as it moves. You can also use the Command key to grab and drag the edges of a window to resize it while it remains in the background.
With Mavericks, the Power button on your MacBook keyboard gains a new function. Like before, you can hold it down for three seconds to get the option to shut down, sleep or restart. But if you hold it for only one second and then release, it will quickly put your screen to sleep. This way you can save battery if you don’t need to use your MacBook for a few minutes but know you’ll return to it shortly and don’t want to put it fully asleep. You can wake up the screen by tapping the spacebar.
App Nap is a new feature in Mavericks that takes away processor power from apps that are in the background, preserving battery life and giving more power to the apps you are actively using. But sometimes you want apps to do things in the background, like processing data or rendering video. If you ever need to turn off App Nap for an app, just select it from your Applications folder, use Command+I to bring up information about the app, and then check Prevent App Nap. The option only appears if the app can nap.
If you have a file or folder with a number in the name, like “Image 1.jpg” or “Images 1” you can duplicate it in the Finder and the new copy will automatically increment the number. Instead of using Command+D, drag and drop into the same folder with the Option key held down. The copy will be named “Image 2.jpg” or “Images 2” and so on. So if you create a folder named “Accounts 2008” and then drag and drop with the option key five times, you will get folders for the years 2009 through 2013.
The calendar in Mavericks has a feature where you can add travel time to any event. Then when you set an alert you can set it for “When I need to leave” instead of at the time of the event. The alert will activate at the appropriate time before the event taking travel time into account.
In Safari, Preferences, Advanced there is an option in OS X 10.9 or newer to “Stop plug-ins to save power.” This will pause a lot of power-hungry web content like videos and games if you are on a MacBook and not connected to power. You can simply click on the content to start it up.
If you have OS X 10.9 you can see the Library folder by going to your Home folder in a Finder window, and then choosing View, Show View Options and then checking Show Library Folder.
Run Terminal. Then type say followed by anything you want in quotes.
say "Hello World"
Your Mac will speak it. The voice settings are in System Preferences, Dictation & Speech, Text to Speech.
