Need to do a quick currency conversion? Try using the Calculator app that comes with your Mac. Run it and type in a number. Then choose Convert, Currency. Choose the From and To currencies and then hit the Update button to get today’s conversion values before hitting Convert.
Want to quickly switch your sound input or output? Option+click on the volume control in the menubar. Then you can choose from all of your sound devices without having to launch System Preferences.
The QuickTime Player in iTunes allows you to send your videos to services like YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and Facebook. Look for the share button in the playback controls. You can also go to the Share menu in the menu bar.
When you use an app in full screen mode in Lion, you can’t bring up the Dock on the bottom of the screen in a normal way. Going to the bottom of the screen won’t bring it up. But once your cursor is at the bottom already, drag down again and it will appear.
In Lion’s version of Preview there is a built-in magnifying glass. When looking at a document, select Tools, Show Magnifier. You get a rectangle for a PDF and a circle for an image. You can zoom in and out using gestures on a trackpad. Hit Esc to quickly turn it off.
The Delete key will delete one character at a time. But hold down the Option key and press Delete and it will delete the previous word. Hold down the Command key and it will delete the whole line. Using FN+Delete will delete the next character. And FN+Option+Delete works too.
You can determine what happens when you insert a CD or DVD into your Mac by going to the System Preferences, CDs & DVDs pane. You can have your Mac prompt you for instruction, or have it automatically launch an application. You can even have different settings for blank media, music CDs, picture CDs or video DVDs.
In Lion you can use Mission Control to see the most recent documents opened by the current application. With the application at the front, use Control+down arrow to bring up Mission Control in Application Windows mode. You can also Control+click on the Mission Control icon in the Dock and select “Show Application Windows.” In addition to seeing all of the open windows, you will also see a list of documents at the bottom of the screen.
Did you know your Mac has a second clipboard buffer for text? In addition to Command+C/X to copy/cut and Command+V to paste, you can use Control+K to cut and Control+Y to paste (Note: Control, not Command). And this is a separate storage space from Command+C/X. So you can store one piece of text in the Command+C/X buffer and another with Control+K.
Want to email someone a quick screen capture? You don’t need to capture the screen, save to a file, and then attach it to an email. You can do it all from right inside Lion Mail. Just write your email, and then choose Mail, Services, Capture Selection From Screen. Then you can grab whatever it is you want to show them and it automatically becomes an attachment in the message. You can also do this from inside other applications like TextEdit or Pages.
You can turn your Mac into a cool visual jukebox using the Lion screen saver. Just go to System Preferences, Desktop & Screen Saver and select the iTunes Artwork screen saver. Then hit the Test button if you can’t wait to try it. The screen shows all of your album artwork, and unlike other screen savers you can use the cursor without disturbing it. Then click on an album to start playing a track from it. Fun at parties!
If you go into your Trash folder you can Control+Click on some items and select Put Back to move the item back to its original location. This only works with files that have been cleanly moved from the Finder to the Trash by dragging or similar actions. It won’t work with items moves to the Trash by other applications or in special situations, like from system folders and some other locations.
In Lion you can create a new folder and place the currently selected items in it with one command. Just select the items you want to put in the folder, then choose File, New Folder With Selection. You can also use Control+Command+N.
In Lion you can change the size of the icons and text in the left sidebar of Finder windows. Go to System Preferences, General. Then change Sidebar Icon Size to Small, Medium or Large. This setting also affects the size of the sidebar icons and text in Mail.
There is a way to force quit an iOS app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch without ever leaving the app. Hold down the sleep/wake button at the top of your device until the “Slide to power off” screen appears. Then, hold down the Home button for about 7 seconds. The currently running app will quit.
Everyone’s been in this situation: you want to return to a web page you visited a few days ago, but can’t remember what site it was on. You can find it pretty easily by searching your Safari history. Just go to History, Show All History and look for the search field at the upper right. Type in keywords to narrow down the search and find the page you are looking for. Since you’ll only see pages you visited, it will be a lot easier than searching the entire web.
In Lion you can create a custom message that appears with the login prompt. Go to System Preferences, Security & Privacy, General and then turn on “Show a message when the screen is locked.” If you have a portable Mac, why not add a message there with your contact info? A good samaritan who finds a lost laptop may return it.
If you don’t use certain features of iTunes, like Ping, Genius or streaming Radio, you can remove them from the left sidebar. Go to iTunes, Preferences and click on the General tab. Now you can uncheck the items from the left sidebar that you don’t need.
Try the magnifier tool in Preview when looking at images. While viewing an image choose Tools, Show Magnifier. You can change the magnification using pinch gestures on newer MacBooks and the Magic Trackpad. It also works with PDF documents.
If you are using iCloud and often need to get to parts of the iCloud web site, you can create bookmarks to skip the front page of iCloud and go right to various pages. Try: https://www.icloud.com/#mail, https://www.icloud.com/#contacts, https://www.icloud.com/#calendar, https://www.icloud.com/#iwork and https://www.icloud.com/#find.
