- This page attempts to show some of the special features of the Mac. Often, the Windows operating system cannot do these at all, or nearly as well.
- Note some of these work in earlier versions of OSX, but some work only in OS 10.6.
- Page number references may be given to David Pogue's book "Mac OSX Snow Leopard, the missing manual", Nov. 2010 Third Printing for OS 10.6.
- Drag Web Page Images (jpeg, gif) to Desktop.
Windows does this also.
(If a simple drag does not work, you can use special Safari procedure given on Cpamu.com page B4.
- Screen Capture to desktop file:
Shift+Apple+4, appears as something like "Screen shot 2011-05-05 at 11.37.14 PM.png".
(Ref. Pogue Chap 14, pg 576)
more details Cpamu.com page B4 .
- Screen Capture to Clipboard:
Shift+Apple+4 while holding Control key .
Use Edit -> Show Clipboard to view contents
(Ref. Pogue Chap 14, pg 577)
- PDF - Print any file to PDF:
Use Print menu, Select 'PDF' -> 'Save as PDF'.
(Ref. Pogue Chap 14, pg 552 & 562)
- Hide Unused Windows:
Hide all the unused applications and their associated windows - with one command -- Hold down "Apple" + "Option" keys, then click icon in dock for App you want to view; windows for all others will be hidden.
(Ref. Pogue Chap 5, pg 171)
more on Cpamu.com page B4
B. More Operations
- Toolbar at top of finder window is customizable":
'View' -> Customize Toolbar (You can usually also "apple-drag" files to the top toolbar.
(Pogue Chap 4, pg 139)
(also p 137 for customizing toolbar)
- Sidebar at left side of finder window:
Drag file or folder icons into sidebar to have a quick "path" to them.
Drag the icon out of the window to get rid of it when no longer needed; you may need to hold the "Apple" key to remove them.
(Pogue Chap 1, pg 19)
- Expand a folder in list view, and all folders inside it: Select top level folder, then "Option" & "-->" (Pogue Appx A, pg 854)
- Screen Recording Movie: Start Quicktime Player App, then use "File" --> "New Screen Recording". Records screen activity plus audio from built-in microphone.
(Pogue Chap 15, pg 588)
- Recording Movie: Start Quicktime Player App, then use "File" --> "New Video Recording". This records from a laptop's built-in iSight camera.
(Pogue Chap 15, pg 587)
- Reveal Location in Finder"" If you have a file open in Preview or some other app (often happens while reading Mail), you can find it's location in Finder by putting cursor over Filename, the clicking the "right mouse" (or control-click the left mouse button)
- Safari - minimize clutter at top, by hiding toolbars you don't need.
C. Demo Operations
- Minimize (or maximize) a window slow motion:
- hold down Shift key & click yellow button
(Ref. Pogue Chap 1, pg 26)
(Can also double-click title bar of window to minimize)
- Talk:
Highlight in TextEdit, select Edit -> Speech -> Start Speaking.
(Ref. Pogue Chap 15, pg 600)
(can also use in Safari, Mail, and several other apps)
D. Special Cautions
- Unmounting: (different than Windows)
IMPORTANT: All external hard drives, thumb drives, etc; must be "unmounted" by using the 'Eject' arrow in the sidebar (or 'File' -> 'Eject' from the menus); or data or hardware can be damaged.
E. Tutorials
- Video Tutorials:
If you go to www.apple.com/mac -- down at the bottom there are links to apple.com/findouthow/mac -- where there are links to many video tutorials (Anatomy of a Mac", "Windows on a Mac",iMovie, etc).
Note these are for latest OS 10.5, so if you have an earlier version OS, things may be a bit different.
- Switching From Windows:
For those used to Windows, note the area 'apple.com/support/switch101' is written for people used to Windows.
This page updated 5/6/2011 by James R Ingram
