Customise Leopard Spaces
Mac Tip #318/05-Dec-2007
After the last few Tips you may have Spaces almost completely under control, but there are a few final steps to taking total charge.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Visit System Preferences > Exposé and Spaces > Spaces and look at the Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts section.
Choose from the pop-ups how you’d like to Activate Spaces, Switch between Spaces, and Switch directly to a Space. Notice too that you can hold down any or all of Command, Control, Option and Shift in combination with the keys listed for each choice.
I’ve left my settings at the defaults so, for example, Control right arrow (or left arrow) cycles through each Space in turn moving to the right (or left). Control 1 takes me straight to Space number 1. [My screenshot shows that I was holding down Shift and Command while making my selection (as required by Snapz Pro X, my screenshot software).]
Rows and Columns
Customise how many Spaces you use, and how they are arranged, by clicking the + and - buttons beside Rows and Columns. A friend expressed a wish for 3 Spaces. To make 3 in a row click the + beside Columns, and the - beside Rows.
If you try to remove a Column or Row to which you’ve previously assigned applications an alert appears warning you that assignments will have to be moved.
Collect Spaces
After pressing F8 (or whichever key you’ve assigned) to see an overview of all Spaces, press the C key to collect all windows into one Space. Press C again to put them back.
Note: I found I couldn’t put the windows back into their Spaces with the C key after I’d created a new column between times.
Set an active screen corner
Visit System Preferences > Exposé and Spaces > Exposé > Active Screen Corners and select Spaces from one (or more) of the 4 pop-ups. In future when you move the mouse into that corner the Spaces overview will appear.
Again, note that you can hold down Shift and other keys while making your choice, to require those keys. [My screenshot shows that I was holding down Shift and Command while making my selection (as required by Snapz Pro X, my screenshot software).]
Thanks
With thanks to Andy Piper who pointed out the C key and hot corner in a very useful comment on the first Tip in this series.
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Tune up a new Mac
Mac Tip #313/31-Oct-2007
Bought new Mac or wiped your Mac and installed Leopard? There are a few small things you should tune up straight away to make your computing experience smoother and easier.
The first thing to do (if you can manage to wait before diving in and playing with all the software) is to call up System Preferences from the Apple menu. In Leopard the Apple icon is now in shades of grey.
Timezone and time
First look at the Date and Time System Preference. Confirm that your timezone is correct and that the correct time is set. Date and time are crucial on any computer and can affect many things including files you create, emails and backups, so it makes sense to check these details first.
Language and formats
Next look at International. Confirm that your preferred language is at the top of the list, and confirm or adjust the Formats for displaying Dates, Times and Numbers.
Cursor size
Finally go to Universal Access. If you find it hard to see the cursor, or want any other help with the physical details of your Mac, this System Preference is just for you. In particular consider turning on Zoom under the Seeing tab, and changing the cursor size under the Mouse & Trackpad tab.
Four cautions
There are 4 Preference Panes to be very cautious about, as changing information here without knowing what you’re doing could cause problems:
- Security
- Network
- Sharing
- Startup Disk
Work your way through all the various Preference Panes, checking what’s there and making changes to suit yourself.
After you’re finished with System Preferences switch to the Finder as there two settings to change: File Extensions and the Path Bar.
File Extensions
First choose Preferences… from the Finder menu item. Under the Advanced tab: check the box to Show all file extensions.
The effect is that files will now show the 3 or 4 letter extension, such as picture.jpg or index.html (a web page). This makes your Mac easier to use and also adds a touch more security.
The Path Bar
In Leopard the Finder can also show you where you are, with the new Path Bar. Open a Finder window and choose Show Path Bar from the View menu. A bar appears at the bottom of the window.
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If you select a file, the Path Bar shows the ‘path’ to that file. In my screenshot you can see that mactips.txt is in Pluto (my MacBook’s name) > Users > miraz > Documents. In other words, it’s in my Documents folder. Double click on any item in that path to immediately go to that folder.
The final changes you should make before you get to work are in Safari: to show the Status Bar and to use Tabs.
Safari’s Status Bar
Start up Safari and choose Show Status Bar and then Show Tab Bar from the View menu. The Status and Tab Bars are now displayed.
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The Status Bar appears as grey bar below the main part of the window. Now when you hover over a link the Status Bar shows where that link will take you.
Safari’s Tab Bar
Tabs make browsing easier. Go to Safari Preferences and make sure that under Tabs ‘Command-click opens a link in a new tab’ is checked.
Now when you hold down the Command (Apple) key and click on a link it opens into a new tab, and you can see and select that tab in the Tab Bar, just below the Toolbar.
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