10 tips using a Mac

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:11:55 GMT

I've been using a Mac for the last couple of months. I must say that a programmer is much better suited to a unix-based platform. There just seems to be so much more freedom with a unix platform. I am not sure about "Mac being more user friendly", I think windows users would probably struggle a little with navigating between windows (even with expose). But I've found a right mix of tools to help me gain a better user experience, this is only a subset of tools I use which I find immensely helpful

1. Quick Silver - launches all application within 2 key strokes, it can be trained (ctrl-space to activate)
2. Skitch - take screenshots and share it with your friend easily. i use this a lot, this is by far the coolest app
3. Stickies - built-in mac sticky, much more useful than a text-editor for quickly jotting down notes (QuickSilver - st), auto saves
4. Parallel - great VM to run Windows (QuickSilver - pa) for things that mac can't do
5. Safari's built-in tool: History -> Reopens all windows from last Session - I don't use browser bookmarks any more
6. Mozy - backs up important files onto the internet, all files are encrypted and its silent (install, config and forget)
7. EyeTV - i watch SBS and ABC on this, also records show if i don't have time to watch
8. Last.fm - great music for free, like a internet radio station but you get to choose what you want to hear, try "Slow" and hit play
9. Miro - for all my video consumptions, e.g. Ted, Hubblecast
10. Expose - a nifty little navigation interface built-in to the mac operating system, very visual way of navigating around

Here's some great utilities
* Monolingual - to remove unnecessary localisation files http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
* SmartSleep - to change sleep/hibernate settings http://www.jinx.de/SmartSleep.html
* iSync - synchronising contacts, calendars etc with my Phone using blue tooth (QuickSilver - sy)

Even with this impressive list of tools and my initial excitement with expose. I still found the mac somewhat cumbersome to use because I still had to think about what to do when navigating between different application windows. I loved expose initially because I was able to get to the windows I want within 1 click, but once I have 20+ windows opened at once, it starts to become a little cumbersome, finding the right window becomes a trial-n-error exercise.

Clearly, expose is not sufficient to solve my problem, here's how I've got around the problem
1. QuickSilver - a consistent way to switch between applications within 2 strokes
2. Safari - for web apps that I use every day, e.g. gmail
3. Firefox - is my default browser, any links sent by friends over IM or twitter will be opened using Firefox, for reading
4. expose - i only use this within a particular app, e.g. safari or firefox. I set this to activate by moving my mouse to the top-right hand corner of the screen. expose for all windows is unusable for me, but can sometimes be useful.

Here's a fantastic list of software for Mac (I use most of them).
Here's another list of really good sharewares.
Learn how to use short cut keys and some other tips and tricks here
Here's another list of keyboard shortcuts

Let me know how you go, JZ :)

James Zhuo 卓宇翔: Help

10 tips using a Mac