Five Quick Tips to Speed Up Your Mac
Whether we want it to happen or not, our systems all get a little sluggish from time to time. Sometimes it’s a full hard drive slowing things down. Other times we just simply need more memory for the modern apps than our Mac came installed with. But for all those other times when things just need a quick tweak and tidy? We’ve put together a quick list of five easy steps that should help get your Mac running like it’s factory fresh.
Summarize: A Great Hidden OS X Feature
There have been many times when the PDF document I am reading is just way too long and I have wished that I could just have a “cliffs-notes” version of it. It took me a while to find, but there is actually a wonderful feature hidden inside Mac OS X that allows this to happen by quickly summarizing documents you are reading. The feature is simply called “Summarize“, but it is pretty deeply hidden in the menu bar.
An Extensive Look at the New MacBook Trackpad
One of the coolest things about the new MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air lines is the new multi-touch trackpad. The trackpad is now made of glass and uses the same technology that the iPhone does as far as multi-touch functionality goes. There is no longer a need for a button, as the trackpad itself is a giant button, giving you 39% more room for your fingers on the new trackpad. However, there are some really cool things that you can do with the new trackpad that go way behind just mouse clicks.
Quick Tip: Thread View in Mail.app
Gmail has always had some features that Mail.app does not have. One feature that users of Gmail love is Thread view, which allows you to view and sort messages by thread and not just by title. Well, whether you knew it or not, this feature is also available in Mail.app. To enable it, just go to View > Organize By Thread in Mail.app. From there, if you want to expand all of the threads, just go to View > Expand All Threads. And if you want to contract all of the threads, just go to View > Contract All Threads.
Quick Tip: Using Evernote as a Document Drawer
Obsession, for me, comes in two week streaks. Four weeks ago, I was reading up on my chess strategies and playing games daily over email. Two weeks ago I was into file tagging again, and I wanted to use a tagging system that didn’t rely on a separate application; I ended up using Automator, which has been a solution to a lot of my OS X challenges. This week, I’m into finding a syncing solution for my documents on my iPhone and two desktops. Though it doesn’t serve as a be all end all solution, Evernote has become a great document drawer. Here’s a method of integrating your web browser to drop files into Evernote and save a couple of clicks.
MacApper Tip: Enable Full Keyboard Access
Here’s a nifty tip for those new switchers and veteran Mac users alike. One of the biggest gripes with OS X is the lack of the ability to tab through dialog boxes from the keyboard. As an avid keyboard-shortcut user, I like being able to use the keyboard for as much as possible. Luckily, Apple has made it easy for us Mac users to enable this fairly simple feature.
Back to School Tip: Require Password to Wake from Sleep
For all the Mac-carrying students who are either already back at school or very close to heading back, here’s a nice little tip that can come in handy. For anyone worried about prying eyes or simply worried about people poking around in their machines, there’s an easy and quick way to make that less easy to do.
By heading over to the Security preference pane in the System Preferences app, there’s an option to “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver”. When this is checked, you’ll be prompted to enter your password every time you wake from sleep or try to return to the main screen after the screen saver has been active.
Easily Spice Up Stacks with Stacks In Da Place
A while back, a set of “drawers” icons spread like wildfire across the internet. The icons, which were meant to make stacks in Leopard’s dock more attractive, looked pretty nifty, but getting them to work properly involved Terminal use and some other tinkering. However, with “Stacks in Da Place” from MacXeagle, getting your stacks looking nice and organized is even easier.
Upon opening, Stacks In Da Place automatically detects your currently set up stacks and shows you the default icon. Adding an icon (such as one of the various “Drawer” icons) is as simple as dragging and dropping. (You can find the “Drawers” here)
MacApper Tip: Clean Out Your Menubar Items
With the plethora of apps that offer you instant access to notifications and functions directly from the menubar, things can get pretty crowded pretty fast. However, it’s super easy to get rid of most of the items in your menubar, and it’s only a click and drag away.
On most Apple apps, simply command clicking will allow you to take the icon right off the menubar so that you have some more screen real estate available. You’ll see the familiar “poof” effect once it’s gone.
Keep iCal and GCal in Sync For Free
The blogs have been buzzing as of late about Google’s introduction of the CalDAV protocol into its Google Calendar service. For those of who who live on the planet Jupiter, Google Calendar is the excellent free online calendar service that resides in the cloud. One of the major trends in technology is maintaining a connection between apps in the cloud, and apps on your physical machine. With the introduction of CalDAV to Google Calendar, it’s never been easier to keep iCal and Google Calendar in sync, let alone for free.
