The Mac computing efficiency tips mega-thread

[zigzag]

I thought this was a Music & Audio Production forum... Shouldn't this be elaborated elsewhere?

[timothyallan]

I like to set my buffer low and make music. Until which point it starts to get all crackly, then I raise my buffer.

Also, I love using ctrl-opt-cmd-eject.

[H20nly]

if you press the space bar 11 times while holding down ctrl + shift + S + T + F + U it might make it stop

[Machinesworking]

IMO anyway this isn't that big of a deal. Funken may be self promoting here a bit, but if half the computer users get some tips out of it so what?

This is a new one to me, I haven't tested it yet, but it could answer a lot of spike issues in OSX!

http://prorecordingworkshop.lefora.com/ ... mF1fRbOvdl

I haven't tried it mainly because I would rather write an Automator script to turn this on and off first as I find Spotlight useful.

[Machinesworking]

Don't see how it would? Spotlight is an indexing system not a part of the process of saving files?

Mostly people have had spiking problems with various DAWs on OSX and this seems like it might be a solution. Not going to be able to play around with it until tomorrow night at the earliest myself though.

[Tone Deft]

what's the most efficient way to shut down a Mac?

[H20nly]

what's the most efficient way to shut down a Mac?

don't pay your electric bill.

0 mouse clicks.

[Tone Deft]

[muthafunka]

Cmd-d not ie 'don't' not working for you?

Ok I'll start with closing the Text Edit window after you've used it but don't want to save anything, but you can use this for all sorts of apps. Using ?W or ?Q gets you to a box asking you if you want to save it.


Two boxes are highlighted. The name box has a blue line around it and 'Save' is coloured blue. Note that you have two highlighted boxes, a source of potential confusion obviously. But you don't want either of them in this scenario.

So what's the quickest and easiest way to close this window and the Text Edit window itself without saving (i.e. preferably without needing the mouse or trackpad)?

Answer: press the tab key four times and then press the space-bar. If you press the Enter key it will think you want to save it. 'Enter' works for the coloured box, spacebar works on the one with the coloured line around it.

[fishmonkey]

the fastest way to exit out of most dialog boxes is to simply press Escape.

and holding down the power button to shut down your Mac is only something you should do if the Mac has hung and you need to hard reboot it. the full Control+Option+Command+Eject shutdown shortcut is the one you should use, as it basically initiates a normal shutdown.

[Machinesworking]

Holding the power button down basically forces OSX to shut down, seems to me the Control, Option, Command, Escape method also skips OSX shut down procedures? Hitting the power button once quickly initiates the shutdown dialog and is my preferred method.

[fishmonkey]

nope, the Control+Option+Command+Eject sequence does the same thing as selecting shutdown from the dialog.

[fishmonkey]

the fastest way to exit out of most dialog boxes is to simply press Escape.

This does not help you close a window such as Text Edit's. Escape only gets rid of the Save dialogue window, you're still left with the Text Edit window.

ah, wasn't paying attention. the fastest way to ditch an unwanted TextEdit document is to hit Command + Delete in the save dialog.

also, to get the Tab key to scoot between all the controls in a dialog box you need to turn that preference on in the Keyboard section of the System Preferences.

[Machinesworking]

nope, the Control+Option+Command+Eject sequence does the same thing as selecting shutdown from the dialog.

When I did it, it simply shut the computer down as if I held the Power button down for a few seconds, with no dialogue box.

Hitting the power button once quickly initiates the shutdown dialog and is my preferred method.

Not on my iMac, hitting the power button sends it to sleep.

On the Mac Pro hitting the power button comes in three flavors, once quickly asks you if you want to shut down your computer, for a second puts it to sleep and for a few seconds shuts it down. The laptops behave differently. Might because the Mac Pro makes such distinct noises related to these functions that it was possible to assign different things to them? dunno?

[fishmonkey]

nope, the Control+Option+Command+Eject sequence does the same thing as selecting shutdown from the dialog.

When I did it, it simply shut the computer down as if I held the Power button down for a few seconds, with no dialogue box.

the shortcut bypasses the dialog box, and does a normal shutdown.