[andreas_g4]

Well, I am using iTunes now since, well, when did it come out? Since then. And I just discovered that I can double click on a playlist and have it opened in a convenient new window. I just wanted express how embarrassed I am over myself. Anyone can ease my embarrassement?

[rickey939]

You can also shut down from the Apple Menu instead of holding down the power button for 5-10 seconds.

[andreas_g4]

It serves me right...

[m a d r a]

i only realised the other week [through hitting it by accident] that the "delete" key acts as a "previous page" button in safari [and "shift delete" as a "next page" button].

[chris v]

I made a keyboard shortcut to zip archive selection about 2 weeks ago.

[allblue]

About 6 months ago, again by accident, I discovered command-option-w which closes all open Finder windows. Sure beats command-w (repeat). D'oh!

[budster101]

Option + Command + Delete does something... I can't remember... cleek!!!

[allblue]

Option + Command + Delete does something... I can't remember... cleek!!!
__________________

...sends the highlighted file to the trash: Option + shift + backward delete empties the trash (non-securely)

[budster101]

Oh wait, I meant to say:

Option / Command / Esc.... (Force quit application menu)

Command Delete sends a highlighted file to the trash.

[allblue]

I have never understood why it is that if you buy a car, a vcr, even an electric toaster you get instructions how to work the thing, but with computers you don't. Why don't Apple include a small booklet containing details of how you, the consumer, can get to make maximum use of all the clever but hidden bits thay have put in to the OS? Does anyone know of a helpful site out there which lists all the default keyboard shortcuts, particularly in Finder? The 'keyboard shortcuts' in sys prefs is not much use here...

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by allblue

I have never understood why it is that if you buy a car, a vcr, even an electric toaster you get instructions how to work the thing, but with computers you don't. Why don't Apple include a small booklet containing details of how you, the consumer, can get to make maximum use of all the clever but hidden bits thay have put in to the OS? Does anyone know of a helpful site out there which lists all the default keyboard shortcuts, particularly in Finder? The 'keyboard shortcuts' in sys prefs is not much use here...

Noticed the "Help" menu in the Finder menu bar?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by allblue

About 6 months ago, again by accident, I discovered command-option-w which closes all open Finder windows. Sure beats command-w (repeat). D'oh!

Actually, it closes all open windows in *every* application made since about 1985.

(Except, of course, Safari, where when you're using tabs, it closes all currently open tabs of a window EXCEPT the one you're currently browsing in. UNLESS your frontmost window only has a single tab, in which case Cmd-Opt-W reverts to closing all open windows. Go figure. )

[allblue]

Er, calm down budster! Free classes - great! Where can I access them? I don't have .mac so cannot access the Learning Center. What more do I want? Well, how about a small four page pamphlet that comes with the computer listing all he keyboard shortcuts? What exactly is wrong with that idea? It would take them five minutes to do, would cost practically nothing, and would be a big help to its 'non-pro' customers. I would have thought it was in their interest to provide something like that. I don't know anything about Dell, but I confess I have been to Norway, although just the once.

[budster101]

I think you are in the wrong thread.... Free classes are at the Apple Store. Get an Apple Pro-Care Card. This is if you have an Apple Store near you. Do you?

[allblue]

Tetenal - thanks, there is a helpful list under Finder Shortcuts in mac help. However, It does not contain my original post - option + command + w - seems a bit strange to me...

[allblue]

I think you are in the wrong thread.... Free classes are at the Apple Store. Get an Apple Pro-Care Card. This is if you have an Apple Store near you. Do you?

There isn't one in the country where I live I'm afraid! I don't particularly want classes as such - I've been using a mac for 8 years, I feel I know my way around 10.3.9 pretty well, but these little things can be so helpful and it is irritating to discover them just by stumbling acrosss them. It was only about a year ago I came across (in a magazine) command + tab to move between open applications - a big time saver for me. So this is the right thread for me, I'm hoping to pick up a few tips here to enhance my future mac experience.

[budster101]

Maybe they should produce an educational DVD that comes with each particular model. Something to enhance the initial ownership of the computer. Call it post / purchase support.

I apologize if you took my post the wrong way. I thought you were asking something related in another thread and posted in here. Could be my bad. In any case:

What country do you live in?

Real quick: It's Mac, not mac.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by analogika

Actually, it closes all open windows in *every* application made since about 1985.

(Except, of course, Safari, where when you're using tabs, it closes all currently open tabs of a window EXCEPT the one you're currently browsing in. UNLESS your frontmost window only has a single tab, in which case Cmd-Opt-W reverts to closing all open windows. Go figure. )

Yeah...adding tabs and then breaking a 20 year old key combination was a huge blunder on Apple's part...but whatever...I'm confident they'll fix this problem one day.

[allblue]

No problem bud! Portugal, a true Mac desert, only four official resellers and they are asleep half the time! Fortunately, in the five years I've been here both iMacs just switch on and work every day...

[budster101]

Portugal. I'm going to have to write to Apple and have them open a store for you. Don't think I won't do it either, and don't believe for a second that it won't happen. They can open one in China.

I've got a few suggestions for them and I'm going to suggest the DVD (Owners manual / intro) as well.

[ghporter]

The problem with a manual for a computer, like the one you get with a VCR, is that the computer's manual would be the size of a large city's phone book and just about as user friendly. Mac help is wonderful, but you have to know what to ask for first. It's simple with keyboard shortcuts; just ask for "keyboard shortcuts." But what if you don't know the right term? What if you want to know how to "delete" text the way the Windows "delete" key works-moving left to right (I still miss that!)? This is when you need to search online and hope you strike gold. Or ask in one of the many forums (like this one!) for "How do I..." I've done that many times, usually successfully. (But I still don't know how to delete characters from left to right...)

[allblue]

Apologies for drifting so off topic... Its financially difficult for Apple to establish in a country with a population of not much more than 10 million, a 'niche' of that not being commercially viable, so I'm not bitter or anything, but they do have a reputation amongst the few users here as being particularly disinterested in customer support for Potugal. One such has set up http://the.taoofmac.com/space/ which wins my prize as the best domain name on the web!

[m a d r a]

Originally Posted by ghporter

...What if you want to know how to "delete" text the way the Windows "delete" key works-moving left to right (I still miss that!)? ...

why do windoze [and ex-windoze] users always make such a thing about this.
it seems much more likely that i'd want to delete what i've just written, as opposed to what i'm just about to write.

[jam8]

I've found websites that detail a lot of shortcuts using google.

http://www.2ndchancepc.co.uk/mac-key-commands.html

http://www.ss64.com/osx/

[Timo]

Originally Posted by chris v

I made a keyboard shortcut to zip archive selection about 2 weeks ago.

We must be on the same wavelength (a pretty short one, eh?) since I just figured this out as well. Now windows/AOL users don't have any problems opening my .pdfs, since the unzipping on their end seems to always work.

[Detrius]

Originally Posted by ghporter

...What if you want to know how to "delete" text the way the Windows "delete" key works-moving left to right (I still miss that!)? ...

What keyboard do you have that doesn't have the 'del' key on it? If it's a laptop, try pressing fn-delete.

[Chuckit]

It seems like the del key is the Mac's best-hidden secret. I was helping this woman at work use Now Contact the other day, and she tries to use the del key in one of the text fields but it doesn't work because Now are a bunch of idiots. So she goes, "Oh yeah, you can't do that on a Mac." I was like, "Do you think all our writers and editors would use Macs if they didn't have a freaking delete key?"

[mAxximo]

I still haven't discovered the shortcut for switching tabs in Safari....too lazy to look it up....

[Weyland-Yutani]

Originally Posted by mAxximo

I still haven't discovered the shortcut for switching tabs in Safari....too lazy to look it up....

That would be:

Command+(left arrow) or (right arrow)

cheers

W-Y

[chris v]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!

Yeah...adding tabs and then breaking a 20 year old key combination was a huge blunder on Apple's part...but whatever...I'm confident they'll fix this problem one day.

shift+command+w will close a window with multiple tabs, instead of just one tab.

Shift+option+command+w will close all windows, including those with multiple tabs.

[chris v]

Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani

That would be:

Command+(left arrow) or (right arrow)

cheers

W-Y

They changed it in 2.0 to shift+command+close-bracket/openbracket. I read the reasoning behind this somewhere, but forgot what it was.

[MartiNZ]

Wasn't it cmd-shift-left/right arrow before 2.0? This actually still works as well, but somehow not entirely consistently ... at least for me. I still can't get used to cmd-shift-left/right bracket.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by m a d r a

why do windoze [and ex-windoze] users always make such a thing about this.
it seems much more likely that i'd want to delete what i've just written, as opposed to what i'm just about to write.

I occasionally ADD text WITHIN what I've already written, so it's useful to be able to put the cursor where I want to start and dump the unneeded text to the right of the cursor. And simply changing Word to "overtype" mode doesn't help, because it's a pain to change it back...

It's all about how I learned to type, and unfortunately it wasn't on a Mac.

[TETENAL]

My Mac has a forward delete key (labeled like this: ⌦), so I don't know what you are talking about.

[andreas_g4]

I believe some of those old iMac keyboards didn't have a ⌦ key, and those did not have an fn key, which was awful.

[Detrius]

Originally Posted by andreas_g4

I believe some of those old iMac keyboards didn't have a ⌦ key, and those did not have an fn key, which was awful.

So, if you want the new key, get a new keyboard.

[Randman]

Originally Posted by allblue

Does anyone know of a helpful site out there which lists all the default keyboard shortcuts, particularly in Finder? The 'keyboard shortcuts' in sys prefs is not much use here...

Apple.com. Check out the support section and the Mac/101 series. Good stuff if not as detailed as the dotmac offering.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by TETENAL

My Mac has a forward delete key (labeled like this: ⌦), so I don't know what you are talking about.

Are you saying that the question mark key is a forward delete key? On our iBook, it's a pretty normal key with a '?' a '/' and a '+' on it. Or is there another key somewhere else?

[m a d r a]

c'mon folks - it's not so complicated...

delete = delete backwards.
shift+delete = delete forwards.

[m a d r a]

Originally Posted by ghporter

I occasionally ADD text WITHIN what I've already written, so it's useful to be able to put the cursor where I want to start and dump the unneeded text to the right of the cursor. And simply changing Word to "overtype" mode doesn't help, because it's a pain to change it back...

It's all about how I learned to type, and unfortunately it wasn't on a Mac.

if i need to do that, i just select the text i want to "dump" [to use your expression] and type - then whatever i type replaces what was there before. i dunno, you may be right about it depending on how a person learned to type, but forward deleting just seems *weird* to me - even in the scenario you outlined above

[budster101]

Forward deleting. I just did it. Or did I? It must be a Microsoft thing, because they are most likely deleting features in Vista that aren't even in existence yet. The magic of vaporware.

[andreas_g4]

Originally Posted by Detrius

So, if you want the new key, get a new keyboard.

I also hear the new keyboards are snappier™.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by ghporter

Are you saying that the question mark key is a forward delete key? On our iBook, it's a pretty normal key with a '?' a '/' and a '+' on it. Or is there another key somewhere else?

No, I'm saying the ⌦ key is the forward delete key (use a Mac to view my post – a Windows machine might not be able to display the symbol correctly). You can see this key in this picture of a Mac compatible keyboard (Apple's keyboard has the same layout, but I couldn't find a picture of it). The forward delete key is the bottom left key in the block with help, home, end and page up/down.

If you are on a notebook, this block and the number block are not in the keyboard for space reasons. On an Apple notebook you need to press the keys fn and backwards delete at the same time for forward delete. The fn key is in the bottom left of the keyboard.

[Weyland-Yutani]

Originally Posted by chris v

They changed it in 2.0 to shift+command+close-bracket/openbracket. I read the reasoning behind this somewhere, but forgot what it was.

Odd, I'm using Safari 2.0 and the shortcut is Command+lefr or right arrow

cheers

W-Y

[Chuckit]

You must have changed it, because that normally takes you forward and back in your history.

[mAxximo]

Command+arrow works for history in mine too...I'll change it so it works for tabs instead since it makes so much more sense to me...

[Weyland-Yutani]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

You must have changed it, because that normally takes you forward and back in your history.

Nope, I changed nothing. I installed Tiger on a clean formatted HD and have changed nothing. I don't install hacks or add-ons nor fiddle fith the prefs. This is factory settings.

cheers

W-Y

[TETENAL]

It's command-shift left or command-shift right arrow to switch tabs. You are pressing the shift key (unconciously as it seems).

[Weyland-Yutani]

That does it.

I am fully aware of what I am doing, I am also fully aware of how my Mac is set up. It is, by default, on my Mac (OS X 10.4 with Safari 2.0) Command+left or right arrow.

I am not pressing any other keys (shift keys or otherwise). This is default factory settings, for the system I am using it on is a clean install without ANY modifications. I am the only user of this system and I am no amateur when it comes to the Mac or OS X.

If you'd read the thread TETENAL you'd see that even YOUR short cuts are NOT as the ones experienced by mAxximo or other Americans. Whatever the reason is our factory defaults seem to be DIFFERENT. This isn't rocket science.

So to put it another way: since the three of us have different key combinations to do the same thing and the three of us have the same version of Safari and the three of us have the same version of OS X and the three of us are using factory settings then WHAT could be causing this difference?

My patience is wearing thin concerning the lame suggestions offered here. Take my word for it, I'm good for it: over here Command+left/right arrow is the default factory setting for Safari 2.0 to switch between tabs.

End of story.

W-Y

[Todd Madson]

Command tab gave me an long thin oval with the icons of all my applications running and
let me select (with arrow keys) the application I wanted to be primarily on my screen at
the time.

Never ran into that before except last week by accident. A cool feature, ala windex.