March 2008

Fill forms quickly with the Tab key
Mac Tip #331, 26 March 2008

Sometimes you must fill in a form on a web page. Perhaps you carefully click in the first field and type your information, then click in the next one and type the next entry.

Then perhaps you have to click on and scroll a drop-down menu, such as when you must choose New Zealand from a list of countries.

Click, type, click, scroll, click, type. It’s all just endless clicking. But it doesn’t need to be.

Try the Tab key

Try the Tab key at the top left of your keyboard.

Tab normally moves the cursor from one form field to another, while Shift Tab moves it back in reverse order.

By using the Tab key you should be able to click in the first field and type, then press the Tab key, type again, and so on. If you make a mistake and need to go back to a previous field, press Shift Tab.

Experiment

Visit this example form to try out the Tab key.

While the form is live and will send emails to my address they will be filtered straight to the Trash, so you can play with the form all you like. Just don’t try to use the test form to send me any real messages.

Deal with drop-downs

Unlike the other form fields, the Subject in my test form is a drop-down. A drop-down is often used for State or Country in many forms.

You still don’t need to take your hands off the keyboard though. When you press Tab from the Email field in my test form the drop-down will be selected. Now either press a letter key (in this particular form try Q or S) or press the down arrow on the keyboard.

When I need to select New Zealand from a list of countries I press the letter N. That brings me to the first country that starts with N — often Namibia. Then I press the down arrow a few times to work down through other countries that start with N.

Once the correct item in the drop-down list is highlighted, press Return or Enter to confirm your choice.

A trick for fast typists

If you are trying to select a known word or phrase such as New Zealand from a drop-down, try typing not just the first letter, but the first few. But you need to be quick, or else you may end up selecting a word beginning with the last letter you typed.

I can usually manage to reach New Caledonia in a list of countries by typing new, though I have yet to be fast enough to type new z for New Zealand.

Next time you have to fill in a form, try the Tab key for extra speed and ease of use. But if you often fill in forms, such as user names and passwords, then there’s an even better way to make life easier. I’ll explain in a future tip.

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Find the System Preference you need
Mac Tip #330, 19 March 2008

System Preferences offer loads of settings for dozens of features on your Mac. Desktop images, Internet settings, mouse speed, printing, sharing files, date and time — they’re all there. Each has numerous settings and multiple choices.

Finding the one you want has often been tricky, but now Leopard allows you to search the System Preferences window.

Go to the Apple menu and choose System Preferences. The window that appears is full of icons.

To search for a specific feature start typing in the search box at top right of the window. Watch carefully as you type: for each letter you type all possible preferences are highlighted. As you type more letters the number of highlighted icons is reduced, making it easier to spot the one you need.

Also as you type, possible options appear in a drop down list. If the one you want appears, select it from the list and the relevant setting is highlighted and opened for you.

Note: you need to type words correctly, without leaving out any letters. Looking for ‘private’ for example, pri highlights 5 icons, while prv highlights none.

To clear the search field click the small x at the right hand end of the search box. The x is only visible if there is text in the search field.

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Leopard Screen Sharing — the Ghost in the Mac
Mac Tip #329, 12 March 2008

Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) introduced a feature that really helps those of us who have dealings with more than one Mac: Screen Sharing. It allows you to operate one Mac while sitting at another.

The screenshot shows me changing things on my Mac mini while I’m using my MacBook. I’m working entirely on the MacBook and am not physically touching any part of the Mac mini.

On the left of the screenshot is this Tip, as I write it on my MacBook. On the right is part of my MacBook’s current desktop picture.

The window in the middle of the screenshot shows my Mac mini’s plain blue desktop, with the Dock at the bottom, a Finder window open, and some windows belonging to my webcam software. I’m about to click a button to change a setting.

Set up Screen Sharing in Leopard

1. Go to System Preferences on the machine you want to share.
2. Click on the Sharing Preference Pane.
3. Check the box beside Screen Sharing.
4. Close the System Preferences widow if you wish.

There are plenty of ways to refine Screen Sharing, but that gets you started.

To use Screen Sharing

1. On a different Mac using Leopard go to the Finder and create a New Window (Command N). A Finder window appears.
2. Look in the Sidebar for the name of the machine whose screen you want to view. Select that machine. The screenshot shows I’ve selected terra-firma, my Mac mini.
3. Click the Share Screen … button near the top of the Finder window. A Screen Sharing window appears displaying the screen on the machine you wish to control.

Now when you click or scroll around in the Screen Sharing window you will be controlling the shared Mac.

If someone else is sitting at that Mac they will see the cursor move, windows open and close and so on as though a ghost were operating the computer.

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