Mac Tip: Cycle Through Open Application Windows

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Ammon

If you’re like me then you love keyboard shortcuts. If you’ve come to OS X from a Windows background then most of the shortcuts are very similar in function.

In a PC world when you use the familiar Alt-Tab keystroke it cycles through all open windows. The OS X equivalent, Command-Tab, switches from one app to another, however—not all windows in all apps.

This can be frustrating if you’re trying to navigate between multiple open Finder windows for example …

… or if you’re using an app with a multi-window user interface like MarsEdit.

To quickly switch from one window to another in the same application use the keyboard combo Command and ` (the key just above Tab on the left side of your Mac’s keyboard).

This little shortcut should save you some frustration. I wish I’d known about it much earlier.

What are your favorite OS X shortcuts? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

Switching from PC to Mac? Top 10 Things You Should Know (rackspace.com)
Use Two Obscure Keyboard Shortcuts for Big Results [OS X Tips] (cultofmac.com)
Five keyboard shortcuts you should set up now (macworld.com)

Eliminate Duplicate Address Book Contacts

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Ammon

Is your Mac’s Address Book teaming with duplicate contacts? Do you have multiple cards for the same people—one with the home number, one with the work number, and one with the mobile number?

Have no fear! OS X has a built in shortcut to help you tame your Address Book contacts in no time.

Simply select two or more duplicate contacts and hold the shortcut combo key Shift, Command, and I.

If you can’t remember the shortcut, go to the Card menu and select Merge Selected Cards (or you can search for it using the Help Menu).

The only downside of this approach is that you’ll have to go through your contacts, one-by-one. However, the granular level of control you have over your contacts more than outweighs this.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

Retro Skills: Clean Out Your Mouse

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Ammon

Image via Wikipedia

Over the years I’ve acquired quite a few valuable technical skills. Many of them are as useful today as they were back when i learned them.

The art of de-gunking a computer mouse is not one of those skills, sadly, and has not held its value.

For my kids’ sake (in the event that they should ever find themselves trapped in the past and the only way to get back to the future is to perform an intricate series of mouse clicks and the darn thing just isn’t responding), below are detailed instructions courtesy of an old 1990s Macintosh Classic factory manual I found several months back.

It’s amazing that so much care went into describing such a mundane and now obsolete process. That’s part of what made Apple’s culture the way it is today.

What’s the most irrelevant technical skill you mastered? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

10 Awesome Accessories Featuring the Vintage Apple Logo [RAINBOWS] (mashable.com)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Wonder (slightlyinsightful.com)
Retro Mouse Merges New Technology with Old-Timey Wrist Pain (techland.time.com)

Apple Quietly Fixes iTunes Search Aggravation

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Ammon

A recent update to iTunes finally fixed a long-standing annoyance. For years if you wanted to search in the iTunes Music and AppStore (or your iTunes library itself) you had to hold the shortcut key combo of Option, Command, and F.

This is a total break in UI consistency in how most apps on the Mac platform implement search. When Apple released the Mac AppStore earlier this year they got search right by using the same shortcut every other Mac app uses.

And now, finally, I can use the same shortcut to search iTunes that I use to search the Mac AppStore, a Web page in Chrome, a spreadsheet in Numbers, or even the draft of a blog post in MarsEdit. Simply hold the Command and F keys to go to the search field.

One of the first things I noticed after upgrading to the iCloud compatible iTunes was this fix in functionality. Although it may have appeared earlier, I’ve just noticed it with the recent upgrade to iTunes 10.5.

This works whether you’re searching the iTunes Music Store …

… the iTunes AppStore …

… and in your iTunes Music Library, Videos, Apps, Books, etc.

Fixing the iTunes search shortcut may seem like a small change, but it’s so much more convenient to have a uniform shortcut across all apps on the OS.

Have you noticed any other recent changes for the better (or worse) in Lion, the latest version of the Mac OS X operating system? Sound off in the comments below.

All images are from my flickr, unless otherwise noted.

How to Trick a Girl into Watching a Superhero Movie

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Ammon

Image via my flickr

Superhero movie season is upon us once again. Thor, X-Men First Class, Captain America, and Green Lantern (sadly no Wonder Twins movie though) will all grace the big screen this summer.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve already begun thinking about how you can possibly ~~trick~~ convince the girl (or guy) in your life to see ~~one~~ all of these with you.

My wife is a trooper and I’ve already been able to talk her into seeing one of these with me, but I want to see them all! How can I get her to go with me?

The following exchange between my five year-old son and his older sister provides the answer. (They were in the process of negotiating which DVD they were going to watch when I overheard this…)

Bongo: How about this one?
Lulabelle: No, I don’t want to see it.
Bongo: You’ll like it. It has romance!
Lulabelle: I am not watching Spider-Man!

OK, so maybe it didn’t work out quite the way that he had hoped, but guess what? 90% of the time it does. Plus, you’ve got to give the kid credit for playing the romance card—did I mention he’s only five?!? He’s smooth that one, real smooth.

It turns out that most superhero shows are so good these days that all you don’t need to resort to trickery to get non-fans to watch them with you.

Because Bongo asks her, he has gotten Lulabelle to watch everything from Justice League Unlimited and Batman Beyond to Iron Man and yes, even Spider-Man with him!

All you really need to do is ask.

What tactics will you use to get your gal (or dude) to watch this years superhero flicks? Got anything better than flat out asking? Sound off in the comments below.