the os x tips thread

[oblique strategies]

I use a dark skin on Live, which is turned blinding beige by the negative effect. Agh!

Yep, you have to switch the Live skin to Frost to use either the control+option+command+8 option or Nocturne without Live getting too bright.

[stringtapper]

Getting eye strain during a long session?

control+option+command+8

Dig this an an alternative to the tip mentioned above:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24898/nocturne

Nocturne:
A simple app for switching a computer to night vision mode. It does, however, add a few things:

Proper color correction in monochrome modes - you don't lose all your blues or reds when you tint the screen.

Window shadow toggling - if glowing windows aren’t your thing.

Background removal - hide the desktop picture so you don’t see a inverted version.

Thanks, that's pretty sweet.

[oblique strategies]

Getting eye strain during a long session?

control+option+command+8

Dig this an an alternative to the tip mentioned above:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24898/nocturne

Nocturne:
A simple app for switching a computer to night vision mode. It does, however, add a few things:

Proper color correction in monochrome modes - you don't lose all your blues or reds when you tint the screen.

Window shadow toggling - if glowing windows aren’t your thing.

Background removal - hide the desktop picture so you don’t see a inverted version.

Thanks, that's pretty sweet.

You're welcome. I like how you can make it any colour you like. Really fun to play with.

[fishmonkey]

along similar lines is dark adapted:

http://www.aquiladigital.us/darkadapted/

[john doe by choice]

control browser font size/zoom: control + alt + scroll

zoom on screen overall (good for screen capture tutorial vids): control + scroll

scroll backward/forward through browser history: option + command + scroll

shut down computer (without using power button): control + command + eject

My favorite, command + tab to shift through open applications (if you have multiple applications open, hold tab and shift to the one you want to close, and without letting off of the command button, hit "Q", quits the application)

here's a pretty good list:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

[leonard]

you cna press enter once to have the name show up for editing, then press enter again. use arrow keys to scroll.

[hangar17]

im not sure if this one's widely used by i use command+tab alot to switch in between apps

[oblique strategies]

im not sure if this one's widely used by i use command+tab alot to switch in between apps

Yes mon, plus you can use command+shift+tab to reverse direction!

[SubFunk]

ctrl+alt+command+8

to reverse the screen colours, very handy in heavy sunlight or glare on stages.

[Tarekith]

CMD+, (as in the comma key) always opens an apps preferences.

Click on your desktop, then CMD+N to open finder, I use this a lot.

[Pitch Black]

command + ~ (i.e. the key above the TAB key) cycles thru the currently open windows of an app.

Often I leave Live's prefs window open in the background and use this to hop back and forth.

[Pitch Black]

Sorry, gonna bend the rules of the thread title here... an awesome non osx audio tip.

SoundSource lets you switch audio hardware from your menu bar and provides quick shortcuts to Audio and MIDI prefs.



http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/

[SubFunk]

Sorry, gonna bend the rules of the thread title here... an awesome non osx audio tip.

SoundSource lets you switch audio hardware from your menu bar and provides quick shortcuts to Audio and MIDI prefs.



http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/

sweet!!! tanks for that one...

and as we bend the rules, very handy is LabTick, it let's you adjust the keylights even if the sensor 'says' no. handy on stages where the flashing lights sometimes screw the sensor and can lead to a flicker on / off keylight.

http://labtick.proculo.de/

[Machinesworking]

You can make any menu item in any application a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences.
System Preferences/keyboard and Mouse/Keyboard Shortcuts

Also, it's probably just me, but I often forget that on a macbook you can use two fingers to scroll a window horizontally as well as vertically!

[SubFunk]

another cool feature is that you can drag any folder or apps into the top row of the finder window top bar, if you slected the 'browser view'

that way you can easy and quickly acsess those folders or apps from any window opened...

i dragged my ableton and my ableton library folder into it and have it handy / direct access, no matter which window is open.

like that:




another great trick is, if you have a lot of apps you use frequently but still not as often as others and your dock is going to be overfilled, then create a folder (anywhere you like) and drag shortcuts of all apps you need into it and drag this folder into the dock, if you now right click onto the folder in the dock... this lovely menu pops up...




oh, how much i love, i not even speak about the stability and performance, OSX... i get sick and often need to puke at work where we have windows machines, they are headache givers. i hate them. nothing is logic about the structure of windows.