My 20 Favorite Shortcuts and Utilities for Mac
After a recent discussion about why I would never use Linux, I decided to take the advice of one of the commenters and “just switch to Leopard” (Crock). That’s right. I bought my very first Mac. After owning it for nearly a week I’ve come across some tips, tweaks, and plugins that have made my first Mac experience very pleasurable.
Note: all of the following were tested on an Intel Mackbook running Mac OS X 10.5.4 (Leopard)
Built-in Shortcuts and Time-Savers
One thing that makes Macs great are the built-in time-saving shortcuts. These shortcuts can save you a lot of mouse clicks and a lot of time. Here are a few of my favorite:
Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts
| command-h: | hides the current window from view |
|---|---|
| command-w: | closes the current window (not the program) including Finder windows. Also closes tabs in some web browsers. |
| command-delete: | deletes currently selected file |
| fn-delete: | deletes text located to the right of the cursor |
| option-delete: | deletes text an entire word at a time |
| command-tab: | switch between open programs, similiar to the Windows “alt+tab” |
| control-click: | secondary click (aka “right click” for Windows users) |
| command-shift-3: | Saves current screen as an image (PrintScreen, anyone?) |
| command-shift-4: | Selectable screen shot grab (turns mouse into crosshairs for selecting screen area to capture). After pressing this combination, press spacebar to take a picture of an entire window. |
| command-e | Ejects the currently selected drive |
| command-space | Opens Spotlight search bar |
Further reading: Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
Utilities and Plugins
You can find quite a few “best-of” or “essential” lists of Mac software out there. This section isn’t intended to be either of those. This next section is a collection of utilities or plugins that I found especially useful or just darn entertaining.
Letterbox
URL: http://harnly.net/software/letterbox/
Letterbox is a simple, great plugin for Mail, Apple’s built in email manager. It converts the top-bottom mail preview into a three column display. This takes advatange of the widescreen monitor and gives you much more room when reading your emails. Oh, it’s free.
Magical 8bit Plug
URL: http://www.ymck.net/english/download/index.html
Magical 8bit plug is a fun Garage Band plugin that adds electronic sounds that mimic old video game consoles to your instrument list. Now you can compose an authentic sounding Mario or Zelda theme song right on your computer. It comes with a number of options and sounds that you can modify to your liking.
NuFile
URL: http://www.growlichat.com/NuFile.php
Having been a long time Windows user I’m used to my right click. One feature of the right click that I used extensively on Windows was the “Create New File” command that would create a blank file with a simple mouse click. So imagine my frustration when I was unable to do this on my new Mac. Well, problem solved. NuFile creates a new context menu when you on your secondary-click which let’s you easily create a new, empty file. Ah, that’s better.
AppZapper
AppZapper, self-titled the “uninstaller Apple forgot”, is a useful tool that removes all traces of a program you are trying to uninstall. Even though all you usually do is drag and drop a program to your Applications folder, many install temporary folders, cache, set preferences, etc. Drag and drop your program to AppZapper and it finds all the extra folders and files and deletes them for you. It’s only $12.95. If your looking for a free alternative I’ve heard that AppCleaner and AppTrap are okay, though I’ve read a few reports claiming they’re not as thorough.
InstantShot!
URL: http://projects.digitalwaters.net/index.php?q=instantshot
Although Leopard has screen shot capabilities built in, sometimes you just need more options. InstantShot! is a free screen-capture program that comes with a plethora of options. Here’s some of my favorites: time-delayed capture (great for taking an image of a menu), multiple capture, hide the wallpaper (screenshots are much more professional when my dog isn’t in every one of them), custom shortcuts, and others.
Transmission
URL: http://www.transmissionbt.com/
Transmission is a free BitTorrent client that is extremely lightweight and easy to use. I don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, just something that does the job.
ZipLight
URL: http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/ziplight/
Ziplight is a free Spotlight plugin which allows Spotlight to search within zip files. It’s a very useful feature if you store documents or downloads in zipped files like I do!
MacPilot
URL: http://www.koingosw.com/products/macpilot.php
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the slightest idea how to use Terminal. Well, with MacPilot you can tweak hundreds of advanced operating system settings without having to worry about it. A license costs $19.95.
iDMG
URL: http://web.mac.com/patrickjamelo/idmg.html
iDMG is a free application that creates DMG (Macintosh disk image) files. It has an intuitive drag and drop feature. You can customize the appearance of the mounted DMG be setting background images, icon sizes and images, and sounds. It also supports encryption, compression, and a host of other options. For a premium alternative I’ve heard DMG Architect is easy to use and has a lot of great features. It costs $29.99
That’s It
So there you have it, a quick list of shortucts and utilities I’ve found that have improved my first experience on a Mac! What would you recommend? Leave your suggestions in the comments. Remember this this isn’t a list of “best applications”, but a “useful utilities and shortcuts” list.
There are so many other tweaks and shortcuts that are out there. My advice is learn how to use the terminal correctly and you will really start to enjoy using Leopard.
I completely agree with Crock. Great list of apps though, and congrats on purchasing the Mac!