Google Chrome for Mac

Recently, Google Chrome was released for Mac as a beta version. Unfortunately, for now, extensions are disabled in the beta version. However, the developer version of Chrome for Mac allows you to install extensions. You can download the developer version here. Unfortunately, the developer version is less stable than the beta version, but I believe the extensions are worth it. Google Chrome still has room to improve, but I believe it is a good browser and will continue to get better.

Burn Folder

If you like to back up your files to  a disk frequently, it might help you to use Burn Folders.

In Finder, click File>New Burn Folder. This creates a new folder that you can name. It looks exactly like a regular folder except it has a burn icon on it.

You can then add files and folders to this Burn Folder. Everything you put in the Burn Folder will become an alias (shortcut). So, you are not actually copying files to this Burn Folder, you are simply telling the Burn Folder where all of the files and folders are located that you will burn to a disk.

After you have added everything you want to add to the Burn Folder, press the Burn button toward the top-right of the folder. You will then follow the directions to complete the burn process.

The beauty of burning a backup disk this way is that you can keep the Burn Folder exactly like it is, and six months later after you have edited your documents and folders a lot, you can burn another backup disk just by clicking Burn again in that same Burn Folder.

Moving Windows Between Spaces

You may wonder how you can move a window to another space. There are two easy ways to do it.

First, simply drag the window to the edge of your screen and hold it there for a couple seconds. If there is a space on that side, your screen will move to that space and you can position that window in the space.

Another way to move a window to another space is click and hold down your mouse as if you were going to drag the window, but don’t move your mouse. With it selected and held, you can press the keyboard shortcut you have set to go directly to a particular space.

If you don’t know what your Spaces shortcuts are or would like to change your shortcuts, go to Expose & Spaces under System Preferences…

Change Default Program

Do you have a Word Document (.doc) that you would like to always open in Pages, or perhaps you would like all Adobe Acrobat Files (.pdf) to open in Preview.

No matter what document(s) you wish to change default programs on, the solution is simple.

Select the document and choose File>Get Info (Command+I). Find the Open with section, and if it’s not expanded, click the arrow to expand it. You can then click the drop-down menu to select the program you would like to always open the file you have selected.

If that is the only file you wish to change to that default program, then you are finished and you can close that window.

However, if you would like to change all file types like the one you selected (for instance, all .pdfs), click Change All… to make that the default program for all files with that extension.

Customize Your Finder Toolbar

You may be interested to know that you can add or remove buttons in the toolbar at the top of a Finder window.

With any Finder window open, click View>Customize Toolbar… or right-click (control-click) in the toolbar area and click Customize Toolbar…

You can then add and remove buttons and even rearrange buttons as you see fit. You can also show Icon and Text, Icon Only, or Text Only; and you can select Use small size to slightly decrease the size of the toolbar buttons.

And not to worry, if you change your toolbar any, you can simply “drag the default set into the toolbar” to put it back like it was.

Active Screen Corners

Another Expose feature you might be interested in is Active Screen Corners. This allows you to set each corner of your screen to do a particular, such as Put Display to Sleep, whenever you move your mouse into that corner.

By default, your screen corners are not active. To set one or all of your corners, go to Expose & Spaces in System Preferences… Go to the Expose tab and you will see Active Screen Corners at the top.

You can set each corner to one of the following:

All Windows – displays all windows
Application Windows – displays all application windows
Desktop – displays the desktop
Dashboard – displays the Dashboard
Spaces – displays Spaces
Start Screen Saver
Disable Screen Saver
Put Display to Sleep

The bottom three are self-explanatory except for Disable Screen Saver, I haven’t been able to figure out what this does. When I Start Screen Saver, simply moving my mouse stops it, and when I did go to the Disable Screen Saver corner, nothing happened; I was still able to begin the screen saver. If you know what Disable Screen Saver does, please comment and let me know.

Show Desktop

It can sometimes be frustrating when you need to access the many icons folders and documents that are on your desktop. But there is a simple solution to this.

You could simply switch to an empty Space, but it is even easier to just press F11 to Show Desktop. This feature slides all windows to the sides of your screen to display the desktop. Then, press F11 again to move all the windows back where they were, or you can click on the edge of the window you would like to bring to the top.

Note: If you have a keyboard with preset keys that are active, hold down the function key (fn) while pressing F11. You can also change the shortcut of Show Desktop by going to Expose & Spaces in System Preferences…

Create Your Own…Shortcuts?

I haven’t used this as much on my personal computer as I should, but on my work computer, I love creating my own shortcuts. It makes my life a lot easier.

Some program commands either don’t have shortcuts or have shortcuts involving a lot of keys and may be hard to remember. To solve this problem, just create your own shortcuts.

Go to System Preference… > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. In the left-hand column, click Application Shortcuts. Then press the plus sign to Add an application shortcut.

You can create a shortcut for All Applications or select an application from the drop-down menu.

In the Menu Title box, enter the menu command. Note: Don’t type anything else except the actual command even if it is deep within a menu.

Then, in the Keyboard Shortcut box, type the shortcut you would like to use.

Make sure you don’t use a shortcut that is already being used otherwise it will interfere with the other shortcut. However, you can get around this conflict by assigning that particular shortcut a different shortcut.

Save As Shortcut

Here’s another shortcut that might make your life easier. I’m not sure about all programs, but iWork and Adobe programs provide a Save As… shortcut: Shift+Command+S.

This allows you to quickly Save As without going to the File Menu. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office does not have a shortcut for Save As…

All Windows

In the previous post, I mentioned efficiency. Spaces is definitely one way to be more efficient.

The All Windows Expose feature is another way to be more efficient (and reduce the need for minimizing windows).

Go the Expose & Spaces in System Preferences… This time, make sure the Expose tab is selected. Again, I’ll talk more about Expose later, but for now, simply locate All windows and see which key is specified to activate this feature. You can either remember this key or click the drop-down menu and select your own.

After you know what key activates All Windows, just press that button, and you will see all of your windows on your screen, and you can easily select the window you wish to display.

This is yet another way you can easily switch between windows.

Note: If you have a Mac keyboard (such as on the MacBook) with preset function keys that are activated, the specified key in Expose may not work. However, All Windows should be one of the preset function keys. On my keyboard, it’s F3. (If you wish you turn off the preset function keys, go to Keyboard in System Preferences… Select the Keyboard tab. And check the box that says, “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys.” Or if you have preset function keys, you can press and hold the function (fn) key while pressing the function key specified in Expose to activate the Expose feature.)