• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

A

Ashhong

Member
Sean said:
A bit surprised this has not been mentioned yet, but use Expose... it's awesome and I couldn't imagine OSX without it.

1) System Preferences > Expose & Spaces
2) Set it up via keyboard shortcuts, hot corners (moving your mouse to a corner of the screen), or map it to a button on your mouse.

Here's a video (from when it was introduced in 2003) showing how it works and what it does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTNcj0fAM4
Click to expand...

nah man, if he got the new macbook, 4 finger swipe down for Expose and swipe up to hide all windows. best shit ever.
 
M

Marty Chinn

Member
Alfarif said:
I'm a little confused by what you mean. My iTunes library is on a network drive. The only Windows computer I own can use it, my Macbook can use it, and when people come over, I point them to the drive and they can use it. None of my music is actually copied into an iTunes folder... it's all separated by Genre, then Artist, then Album title.
Or am I completely misunderstanding what you mean?

iPhoto works somewhat the same way. I once had a bunch of wallpapers that weren't copied into a library, but referenced by iPhoto. They lived completely independently of the library. Go under Advanced in the Preferences and uncheck "Import to iPhoto Library" and when you add something, it shouldn't get imported, but referenced by iPhoto. I never opened the package to see if that was the case, but I don't see why it would be otherwise.

Edit: I see that this has already been addressed. Sorry about that.
Click to expand...

I was mistaken on iTunes but I haven't used it in so long that all I remembered was some vague irritation of it trying to manage my music more than I wanted it to. I now only use it to manage my iPhone and use something else to manage my music. It's been years since I made that switch.

However on iPhoto I'm pretty positive no matter what I did or what setting I changed it was trying to copy all my photos locally to he computer. I'll give it another go but this was a problem I asked about and also googled to which everyone said to use Picassa if I wanted to do what I wanted to do.
 
I

infiniteloop

Member
Marty Chinn said:
Unfortunately, iPhoto won't let you use it without it trying to build its own library of pictures. I store all my photos on a network server and I was really irritated that it wanted to copy everything locally. It made the software unusuable for me.
Click to expand...

Uncheck this...

Advanced-20090614-233956.jpg



EDIT: Wow, well late on that one...
 
S

somnific

Member
aparisi2274 said:
So here is something I have been trying to figure out since I switched over to mac. When I work in windows, I can highlight several files and then just hit the delete key and it will put it in the trash, but when I do it on my mac, nothing happens, and I have to drag the files to the trash myself, or right click and hit move to trash.

Is there anyway to just hit the delete key and send it to the trash??
Click to expand...

cmd + delete
 
B

botkiller

Member
Sean said:
A bit surprised this has not been mentioned yet, but use Expose... it's awesome and I couldn't imagine OSX without it.

1) System Preferences > Expose & Spaces
2) Set it up via keyboard shortcuts, hot corners (moving your mouse to a corner of the screen), or map it to a button on your mouse.

Here's a video (from when it was introduced in 2003) showing how it works and what it does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTNcj0fAM4
Click to expand...

Even better than hot corners or keyboard shortcuts: if you have a newer trackpad, four-finger swipe is amazing. Swipe up, show desktop. Swipe down, expose. It's the one feature that makes moving between OS X and Windows difficult for me (at least on laptops).
 
aparisi2274

aparisi2274

Member
Another tip for you with keyboard shortcuts that I found out on my own. I use the wireless mini keyboard that comes with the new iMAC, and for the longest time I was trying to figure out how I do

Page Down
Page Up
Home
End

Finally I figured it out.

CTRL + UP ARROW = page Up
CTRL + DOWN ARROW = page Down
CTRL + Right ARROW = Home
CTRL + Left ARROW = End
 
T

Tobor

Member
Alfarif said:
http://i42.tinypic.com/5n4zvd.jpg

Here, I uploaded it to tinypic for you.

I've been collecting a ton of wallpapers. I'm up to around 600+ ... they include images of all sizes. I'm very thankful that OSX knows how to "fill in the blanks" with a lot of them instead of making them look like cheese on my desktop. My collection exploded once I made the switch.
Click to expand...

I took it as well. I love a nice clean wallpaper. Thanks!
 
K

koam

Member
botkiller said:
Even better than hot corners or keyboard shortcuts: if you have a newer trackpad, four-finger swipe is amazing. Swipe up, show desktop. Swipe down, expose. It's the one feature that makes moving between OS X and Windows difficult for me (at least on laptops).
Click to expand...

Holy shit, i didn't know about the swipe down, that's so awesome.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
aparisi2274 said:
Another tip for you with keyboard shortcuts that I found out on my own. I use the wireless mini keyboard that comes with the new iMAC, and for the longest time I was trying to figure out how I do
Click to expand...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16308641&postcount=26
Myself said:
Oh yeah, Home and End on a mac keyboard controls the scrollbar, not the text cursor. If you want to move the cursor to the beginning or end of a line use Command+Left or Command+Right. If you want to move the cursor one word at a time use Option+Left or Option+Right.

If you're wondering what the Option key does when it isn't used with Command in a keyboard shortcut, check out this page: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codemac.html
Click to expand...
:p

Also, Control+left/right doesn't work with shift so you can't select/deselect text with it. Command+left/right does.
 
A

Alfarif

This picture? uhh I can explain really!
Ashhong said:
i forgot what i did, but it did take a lil research. one thing i had to do was manually change the IP address that it was using for my mac.

who shares files between Mac and Vista? half the time my Vista computer isnt found by my Mac. i have to manually input the ip address into the "go to server" in finder. sometimes though its jsut there on the sidebar and i dont know why...
Click to expand...

This is one of those things that annoys me. What I find is that it's typically a Windows thing. When I had two Windows machines, neither of them could see each other for awhile when I turned them both on, despite being able to see external hard drives on routers, etc.

Try installing Bonjour on the Windows machine to see if that helps bring it up faster. Sometimes you just have to wait. It took a couple hours before the Windows machine on our network appeared to our Macs yesterday. Oh well.

for mac which is better, Office or iWork?
Click to expand...

I prefer iWork, myself. My qualms are that when you get to about 80k words in a document, saving it can get pretty slow, and Numbers freaks out with really big spreadsheets (300+ columns and 15-20+ rows). However, what it does in terms of usability has shortened the time I spend doing a lot of formatting and data entering by about 75%.

marty chinn said:
I was mistaken on iTunes but I haven't used it in so long that all I remembered was some vague irritation of it trying to manage my music more than I wanted it to. I now only use it to manage my iPhone and use something else to manage my music. It's been years since I made that switch.

However on iPhoto I'm pretty positive no matter what I did or what setting I changed it was trying to copy all my photos locally to he computer. I'll give it another go but this was a problem I asked about and also googled to which everyone said to use Picassa if I wanted to do what I wanted to do.
Click to expand...

It might have been an older version of iPhoto. Apple has this thing about releasing updates that completely change things and not telling you exactly what changed. I **JUST** recently learned that the Ken Burns effect was added to videos in iMovie '09. That's pretty huge for me, since I like the effect on photos and had some videos on a previous project that I wanted to use it on.
 
A

Alfarif

This picture? uhh I can explain really!
Tobor said:
I took it as well. I love a nice clean wallpaper. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Glad to be of service. I'm on the "business" side of my Macbook, where I do all my writing and video editing. I try to keep the distractions (besides GAF) down to a minimum. Good thing I'm exporting something, so I can chit chat on good ol' GAF for a little bit. Haha.
 
S

Sean

Banned
infiniteloop said:
Right, there's a trial installed i think.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think the trial is included in the Applications folder when you buy a new Mac (unless you customized the install or reformatted, which is always the first thing I do). If not you can download a free 30 day iWork trial from Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/

botkiller said:
Even better than hot corners or keyboard shortcuts: if you have a newer trackpad, four-finger swipe is amazing. Swipe up, show desktop. Swipe down, expose. It's the one feature that makes moving between OS X and Windows difficult for me (at least on laptops).
Click to expand...

Forgot about that, I can't wait until my new MBP arrives so that I can finally do those fancy new trackpad gestures. :lol
 
B

botkiller

Member
If you have Firefox 3.5 preview, three finger swipes up and down will move to the top or bottom of the page (equivalent to cmd+down or cmd+up). I just found this out today. Makes it super easy to browse forums.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
botkiller said:
If you have Firefox 3.5 preview, three finger swipes up and down will move to the top or bottom of the page (equivalent to cmd+down or cmd+up). I just found this out today. Makes it super easy to browse forums.
Click to expand...
If all you want to do is scroll the window, just use Home/End.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
botkiller said:
If you have Firefox 3.5 preview, three finger swipes up and down will move to the top or bottom of the page (equivalent to cmd+down or cmd+up). I just found this out today. Makes it super easy to browse forums.
Click to expand...

sounds like a waste of finger swipes. i use multiclutch and programmed 3 finger swipes to browse through tabs. made it so easy
 
aparisi2274

aparisi2274

Member
Alfarif said:
skitch is the end all be all of screenshotting. I'm not on my mac right now, but trust me on this. You will thank me later.

Transmission for torrents. You will thank me.

Cyberduck for FTP. I love it so much.

Pixelmator for graphics. Look online for a discount code. I love it. We use it for a lot of our graphic needs.

I will answer iPhoto and itunes questions later if someone else doesn't.
Click to expand...

Skitch is pretty cool...

20090615-rtuphen7s7njkt5j5k4acq278f.jpg
 
M

mollipen

Member
Juice said:
Step 1, it's "OS X"
Click to expand...

It's also pronounced "Oh Ess Ten", but I, as an Apple user since the days of the Apple //e and as somebody who has never, ever owned any computer other than a Mac, pronounce it "Oh Ess Ex".
 
B

botkiller

Member
Hitokage said:
Try holding down Fn while pressing arrow keys. Fn+Up is PageUp, Fn+Down is PageDown, Fn+Left is Home, and Fn+Right is End.
Click to expand...

Yeah, function+Left/Right is the same as cmd+up/down. It's just slightly easier for me to slap my hand across the trackpad than to use both hands to hit those key combinations.
 
H

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
shidoshi said:
It's also pronounced "Oh Ess Ten", but I, as an Apple user since the days of the Apple //e and as somebody who has never, ever owned any computer other than a Mac, pronounce it "Oh Ess Ex".
Click to expand...
OSX "ecks" is cooler and more unixy.
 
T

Tobor

Member
And now for my favorite little trick for people new to OS X, and something I use literally all the time:

When buying something online or paying a bill, select Print, then hit the PDF drop down and choose "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder". The first time you do it, the folder will be created in your Documents folder. :D

Picture9.png
 
K

koam

Member
Is there a way, in iPhoto to select an event and change it's location? For example, i have an event for paris but it doesn't know that it's in paris, i want to set all pictures in that event to paris.

Also, again in iphoto, how do i easily set the picture i'm on as my "desktop wallpaper".
 
J

Juice

Member
I'll bite:

on the new MacBooks, I always use MultiClutch to customize my trackpad:
http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-i-touch-my-cell/

2rrp3rn.jpg


Basically, I don't use my keyboard when browsing the Internet. Awesome for food + GAF:

• 3-finger Swipe Down = New tab
• 3-finger Swipe Up = close tab (picked this one b/c i rarely accidentally swipe up)
• 3-finger Swipe Left = left tab
• 3-finger Swipe Right = right tab
• Rotate Left = Refresh page
 
J

Juice

Member
Tobor said:
And now for my favorite little trick for people new to OS X, and something I use literally all the time:

When buying something online or paying a bill, select Print, then hit the PDF drop down and choose "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder". The first time you do it, the folder will be created in your Documents folder. :D

Picture9.png
Click to expand...

Hah, when did they add that? I've been keeping my own receipts folder I use with Save->PDF for years and years.
 
T

Tobor

Member
Juice said:
Hah, when did they add that? I've been keeping my own receipts folder I use with Save->PDF for years and years.
Click to expand...

No idea, I bought my Macbook right after Leopard came out and stumbled on it by accident. Apple must have realized it was the number one reason for printing a PDF. It is for me, anyway.
 
I

infiniteloop

Member
koam said:
Is there a way, in iPhoto to select an event and change it's location? For example, i have an event for paris but it doesn't know that it's in paris, i want to set all pictures in that event to paris.

Also, again in iphoto, how do i easily set the picture i'm on as my "desktop wallpaper".
Click to expand...

1. In the events view, hover over the event and a i should appear in the bottom right, click it and add the location.

2. Highlight the photo. From the menu bar, Share > Set Desktop.
 
S

Sean

Banned
Here's a little timesaving tip which I think a lot of people might not know about. Hold down the option key when going through the menu bar and you'll see that sometimes the stuff in the menus are context sensitive. For example in the Finder "Open With" will change to "Always Open With", "Get Info" changes to "Show Inspector" etc.

But the coolest part is that it allows you to skip confirmation prompts in many cases. For example it'll allow you to restart, shut down, or logout immediately without asking you. And in Safari you can enable Private Browsing without the confirmation prompt too.
 
I

infiniteloop

Member
Sean said:
Here's a little timesaving tip which I think a lot of people might not know about. Hold down the option key when going through the menu bar and you'll see that sometimes the stuff in the menus are context sensitive. For example in the Finder "Open With" will change to "Always Open With", "Get Info" changes to "Show Inspector" etc.

But the coolest part is that it allows you to skip confirmation prompts in many cases. For example it'll allow you to restart, shut down, or log immediately without asking you. And in Safari you can enable Private Browsing without the confirmation prompt too.
Click to expand...

In the Finder, Shift+Option+command+delete will empty the trash with no confirmation, I must use that 10 times a day.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
Hitokage said:
MPlayer OSX and MPlayer OSX Extended are not one and the same. Oh, and MPOE does AC3/DTS passthrough and more codecs than Perian provided you're on an Intel Mac.

Take it from the CCCP people: http://www.cccp-project.net/wiki/index.php?title=CCCP_on_Mac_OS_X
Click to expand...
CCCP is all you had to say. I stand corrected.

As for PS3 Media Server, it transcodes your video so you will get decreased quality from it even though it will support absolutely everything.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
What problem do you have with finder that it's worth spending $40 over? That's pretty steep.
Click to expand...

i tried pathfinder....couldnt see myself really benefiting that much from it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

INSIDE APPLE'S MASSIVE PUSH TO TRANSFORM THE MAC INTO A GAMING PARADISE
2 3 4
151
14K
RoboFu replied
Finally got around to setting up GFN on my tv..,,,,
14
860
Jesb replied
Should I buy a gaming PC?
2
67
3K
David B replied
The Xbox November Update Is Coming Soon: Compact Mode, Japanese Language Support for Keyboards, and More
News
4
641
SenkiDala replied
Apple’s XR Headset Will Use Seamless ‘Extended Reality’ to Interact With Your iPhone and Mac with Continuity & Handoff features
11
3K
theHFIC replied
Top Bottom