Helpful Hints & Hacks Part 3
How to Create Keyboard Shortcuts and Other Helpful Mac OS Tips
Do you know how to take screen shots or send and receive text messages on your Mac? These are just a couple the new tips and tricks we’ve got for you this month in our ongoing series on how to get the most from your Mac and Apple devices. For help with all of your Apple and Mac products, contact CranstonIT at 888-813-5558 or email us at support@cranstonIT.com.
Quickly Switch Between Open Windows
Pull out this little trick at the next office party and everyone is sure to dub you the local Mac genius. To quickly switch between your current application and the application you had open last simply press ⌘+Tab. If you have more than two applications you want to switch between, hold ⌘ and hit Tab multiple times to cycle through your programs. ⌘+~ (the tilde key above Tab) will switch between windows in your current application.
Capturing what’s on your screen is surprisingly useful. It comes in handy if you have an IT issue to share with your support company (CranstonIT, for instance), when you’re collaborating on a project and want to share a work in progress, and even when you’re shopping online and find the perfect gift for your mother-in-law but need a second opinion. Simply capture a screenshot and send it on its way. To do this, you have two different options on your Mac. ⌘+Shift+3 will take a picture of your entire screen and save it to your desktop. ⌘+Shift+4 allows you to select a specific area of your screen to capture by clicking and dragging a box around the area you want to capture.
Create a Keyboard Shortcut for Common Tasks
Why bother to search, double click, look through drop down menus, or mouse around when you can hit a couple of keys and get what you need? To create a keyboard shortcut, go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts and click the + button. You can choose which app you want to apply it to from the drop-down list, but you must know the exact name of the menu command to type into the next box, including the correct case and any special characters. Next, choose a unique key combination to invoke the command and then click Add.
Send and Receive Texts on your Mac
If you’re on a roll, working away on your Mac, and a text message comes in, typing out a quick response from your keyboard can be easier than switching devices. The process to send and receive texts on your Mac is a simple change in settings, but your iPhone must be running iOS 8.1 for this function to work. Sign into your iMessage account that also has your phone number linked to it both on your iPhone and on your Mac or other iOS devices, then turn on the Text Message Forwarding option under Settings > Messages on your iPhone.