Category: Average Joe’s Tips

Categories
Average Joe's Tips Uncategorized

Customizing Your Mac’s Trackpad

Tapping the track pad in order to click has become a very popular way for selecting application or texts when using a Macintosh. Its popularity comes from the convinces factor of not having to press down completely on the trackpad every time. However, tap to click tends to be annoying for new users, who may find themselves selecting texts or applications when not desired. Other than tap to click, the trackpad has many other potential capabilities like secondary click, zooming, rotating, and a multitude of gestures. To find these trackpad customizations locate your System Preferences application, then open the Trackpad pane under Hardware. From there you are free to explore. Bellow is a quick overview of my most commonly used trackpad click and hand gestures.

Tap to Click

As described above, tap to click gives the user the connivence of being able to tap their trackpad (instead of pressing down to select) in order to select text or apps.

Secondary Click

This allows the user the ability to secondary click (a.k.a. right click), instead of pressing control + click.

Zoom and Rotate

Found in the Scroll & Zoom section, zoom and rotate is a quick way to zoom into or rotate photos in selected applications like iPhoto.

Swipe Between Apps

In my opinion this is the best gesture ever created. Although it is simple this gesture enables you to four finger swipe between your desktop screens.

Categories
Average Joe's Tips

How To: Place a Web Page Bookmark in the Dock

You may not know this, but you can fill the dock with more than just applications and folders. It can also hold web pages stored as bookmarks in your dock. This allows you to have quick access to your favorite sites. Todo this, first find the webpage you would like to use. Then goto the URL and on the left should be an icon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you have found that, drag the icon to your dock. Now with a single click, you can access your favorite webpages right from your dock. To add more bookmarks to your dock just repeat the step. Each Bookmark will have the name of each site when it is hovered over.

 

 

Stay connected at my new twitter handle to stay updated 24/7 @TRMGaveragejoes and @realmacgenius What do you think? Let us know in the comment section.

Categories
Average Joe's Tips

How To: Save Web Pages/ Reading Lists in Safari

If you are like me then you keep tabs open and use them as a list. But this leads to clutter, confusion, and very slow internet. Thank goodness for Safari, because it allows you to save your web pages very neatly and uncluttered. Saving the web page is very easy, to do this just scroll up to Bookmarks. Then click on Add to Reading List. To view your list go to View and select Show Reading List.Then on the left side of Safari will apear the web pages you have saved. When clicking on one of your Reading List items it will automatically load the web page. Also to delete an item just scroll to the top right of the pane. This has tremendously helped me keep keep my computer uncluttered and I hope it helps you.

Categories
Average Joe's Tips Uncategorized

How To: Input AutoFill Information for Safari

AutoFill enhances a users efficiency and overall saves a lot of time. Whether you are ordering something from amazon, or signing up for a new account, AutoFill will make your life much easier. AutoFill can automatically fill in your name, shipping address, login information, or even credit card information.

How To: Input AutoFill Information for Safari

  1. First make sure that the application Safari is open
  2. Click on “Safari” in the Menu Bar, and select “Preferences”
  3. Then select the AutoFill pane
  4. From here you will be able to edit your personal information
  5. Click the edit button to start the process (Each process to edit will be slightly different

By far the most important AutoFill web form will be “User names and passwords.” Located inside of this section will be every login information you specified to have saved. Unfortunately, you are unable to add user names and passwords from here, but you can remove them. So when you have an account with outdated information, you will be able to remove it from here. As for AutoFilling your name, phone number, and address, the information under your name within your address book will be the info automatically filled in. AutoFill is a great tool for productivity and efficiency, hopefully you will put it to good use!

Stay connected at my twitter handle to stay updated 24/7 @TRMGaveragejoes and @realmacgenius What do you think? Let us know in the comment section.

Categories
Average Joe's Tips News

Keyboard Shortcuts 101

Mac has many keyboard shortcuts that help users save their time to complete various tasks. For example, command+c (Copy) and command+v (Paste), one of the most commonly used pair of shortcuts. However there are many other Shortcuts most users are not aware of. Here’s a few:

Command + Control + Option + 8 (For Pranksters) 

If you’re already aware of this shortcut, you’ve probably used this to prank your Mac user friends. Through this shortcut, you can invert the colors on your Mac screen. This shortcut was created to help those with visual impairments but it also provides a cool effect. Please note that in order for the shortcut to work, you need to have [Invert Colors] option ticked in your System Preferences.

Command + Control + D (For Students) 

There are often times when you feel lazy to look up a word when you are working on a document. By using this shortcut, you can look up a word while you type without searching for the meaning online. Please note that the dictionary provided through this shortcut is from the Mac OS dictionary and may not contain all the words you’re looking for.

Command + Option + Control + Eject (For Busy Workers) 

By using this shortcut, you can save time shutting down your Mac. Please note that as this shortcut instantly shuts down your Mac, make sure you’ve saved all your files. To put your Mac to sleep, press Command + Option + Eject.

Command + Option + M (For Businessmen or Online Shopaholics) 

Often at times, you lose track of the number of Windows you’ve opened due to many reasons. Through this shortcut you will minimize all opened windows in your dock and clean your window.

Command + Shift + 8 (For Mathematicians) 

On a document, if you type out a math operation such as 454+343 and you enter this shortcut, the answer will appear in no time. This shortcut helps you save time from using a calculator to solve your math problems. 

Command + Opt-a (For Youtubers) 

This wonderful shortcut helps you save Youtube videos on your Mac as an .flv file. Please note that this shortcut only works on Safari and the definition of the video may not be HD quality.