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I feel like a 1 legged man in an arse kicking competition

S

StueyB

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 1, 2005
7
0
Hi peeps,

I've now had my pb 12" for a few months and im finding it very very hard to maintain control of the desktop. By this I mean on windows I had Windows key +e to open explorer, windows +m to minimise all. I cant find anything similar on the mac. TBH its very frustrating, I am an ultra power user on windows, but now its taking me 5 to 10 times as long to do things on OS X than it is in Windows. And as for what happens to apps at certain things ie minimise and hide have different default behaviours.

Any suggestions because im kinda beggining to regret getting a mac, although there is some good features in OS X.

Cheers

Stu
 
Apple+alt+H will hide ever other application window except the one you're focused on.

Get used to using Exposé as well - hit F11 to reveal the desktop, F10 to see windows in currently selected app and F9 to quickly see all windows at once.
 
Expose is a great suggestion and tool. And every Windows feature has a Mac equivalent. Be patient and the users here will supply your answers. Just be specific about what you want, and they will give you the solution.

And don't give up... once you get used to the environment, you will not want to go back.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
ga_helmet.gif
 
Apple + H = hide app
Apple + M = Minimise window
Option + Apple + D = Hide/show Dock
Shift + Apple + Q = logout
Option + Apple + escape = force quit

Aw hell... Go to system prefs -> mouse & KB ->shortcuts.... TONS of them :D
 
Hi, as a recent 'switcher' myself I know what you mean. On the first day I was very confused by the fact that the green button doesn't maximise in the same way as in windows. Also took me a while to figure out what some of the keys even were as they are labelled with strange symbols rather than words on a UK keyboard!!

Anyway, here is a list of keyboard shortcuts:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

You might also find it useful to read through these:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/

hope this helps a little :)
 
I miss Explorer so much...I mean, when it crashed, you couldn't even use your system any more.




Which happened ALLLL the time.
 
ClarkeB said:
I miss Explorer so much...I mean, when it crashed, you couldn't even use your system any more.




Which happened ALLLL the time.
Click to expand...

Actually, explorer is easier to relaunch than Finder, I find. When explorer crashes, or when you have to restart it, just Ctrl-Alt-Delete, New Task, type in 'explorer' and hit enter. Finder never relaunches for me through Force Quit. It just freezes up and I have to hard restart. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

By the way, Stuey, I'm surprised you're still not used to Mac OS X. I've only been using it a few days and I'm already more used to it than Windows. I went on my Windows PC for a bit and found myself working much slower than I used to. I tried using Command-Q and Command-W a lot, and I realized I was actually hitting the Alt button and those shortcuts didn't exist for Windows. I found myself going to the top left corner of the window instead of the top right, and I found myself looking for a dock when all I could find was a taskbar.

Three months? You should have fully switched by now. :)
 
Apple + Tab switches apps, like alt+tab on windows.

And use expose...try setting different corner setting so you dont need to press keys, just bring the arrow all the way over to one corner.

and quicksilver is the best app ever...
 
Thanks for those tips peeps. Some of those make my life easier, especially hiding the dock so i am able to resize windows without faffing about.

Cheers

Stu
 
I wish we could compile a list of all key combinations/shortcuts/hidden features. Apple doesn't publish a list, and neither does anyone else AFAIK. Perhaps this thread is a good place to start.
 
Try out hot corners in the display menu. I set top-right to activate expose, bottom-right for widgets and bottom-left for screen saver...
 
The option(alt) key!

You can also do tricks with the option (alt) key:

option-minimize to minimize all windows in the current application
same with option close for closing windows. (not the windows os)

llama :)
 
Applespider said:
You may want to investigate Quicksilver to help you launch applications quicker (amongst other things!)

Just hit Ctrl Space and then start typing what you want. Within 2-3 keys, whatever it is will usually pop up and then hitting return will launch it. Magic!
Click to expand...

I second that. Once you get used to Quicksilver, you'll be so damn speedy...
 
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