Mac tip: UN-minimize a window from the App Switcher

Yet another new one to me!  And such a use­ful lit­tle nugget too…  If you already have command-tab hard­wired into your mus­cle mem­ory then you may just love this tip for pulling min­i­mized win­dows out of the Dock.  Directly from the Appli­ca­tion Switcher (cmd + tab heads-up dis­play).  Using only the keyboard.

Snippets make TextExpander amazing

TE_logoIf you re not famil­iar with Tex­tEx­pander, it’s a util­ity which runs in the back­ground on your com­puter all the time and does noth­ing, until you type out a pre­de­fined string of char­ac­ters.  It then leaps into action, replac­ing those char­ac­ters with a pre­set block of […]

Quicktip: Zooming in Microsoft Excel

This tip from Rob Grif­fiths at Mac OS X Hints was news to me, and SUPER-helpful:

If you’ve got a scroll wheel mouse … you can zoom the active work­sheet in Excel by hold­ing Con­trol and Com­mand and then mov­ing your scroll wheel up (increase zoom) or down (decrease zoom).

Works with the two-finger scroll on your […]

[SPAM] Easily mark messages as junk

junk iconNeil asks:

Hey Joel,
Would it be pos­si­ble to set up another key (spam) that we can
click on and the checked items, or the item we are read­ing
and they go into the spam folder, prob­a­bly along the top with
the, Expunge,Read, etc. Might be a lit­tle eas­ier for some
folx ?.…Thanx/Neil

Yeah, def­i­nitely! I […]

Mac tips: Navigate and highlight text using the keyboard

Apple Modifier Keys

We spend a lot of time on the com­puter in text-based appli­ca­tions like Mail and Word. Switch­ing your right hand back and forth between the key­board and mouse to select things or move the cur­sor can really slow you down when you are feel­ing the flow. So for […]

Basics: The Application Switcher is your friend.

app-switcherOften­times, while deep in the throes of work­ing at the com­puter, you may look up at your screen to find you have 12 emails open, 3 Word doc­u­ments, an Excel spread­sheet or two, 4 web browser win­dows, 88 stick­ies all plas­tered willy-nilly and good­ness knows what else! This can make […]