Welcome Guest!
Teachers are welcome to read and post on Teachers.Net.
Login to access to these free features:
• Relaxed spam filters
• Post pics, links & comments
• Get notified of responses |
• Join teacher groups
• Apply to teacher jobs
• Post a resume |
Welcome Guest!
You must login to comment on posts.
Login to access to these free features:
• Relaxed spam filters
• Post links & upload pics
• Get notified of responses |
• Join teacher groups
• Apply to teacher jobs
• Post a resume |
Welcome Guest!
Your account must login to post.
Login to access to these free features:
• Relaxed spam filters
• Post, comment, & upload pics
• Get notified of responses |
• Join teacher groups
• Apply to teacher jobs
• Post a resume |
100 Tips and Tricks to Speed Up OS X A ton of useful ways to optimize the way you use your Mac OS X is a brilliant and fast operating system, but like all computers, Macs can slow down the more you bung them up with data. That’s why we’ve put together this huge collection of tips to help keep your Mac lean and fast. Not only that, we’ve also ...See More100 Tips and Tricks to Speed Up OS X A ton of useful ways to optimize the way you use your Mac OS X is a brilliant and fast operating system, but like all computers, Macs can slow down the more you bung them up with data. That’s why we’ve put together this huge collection of tips to help keep your Mac lean and fast. Not only that, we’ve also endeavored to show how you can improve how you use the operating system and the included apps such as the iLife suite. OS X has bundles of hidden features — so why not get the most out of them?
Optimize Your System
1. Boost memory The simplest way to a faster Mac is by installing extra RAM. Before you buy, check the maximum RAM capacity of your Mac. You can download a free program called MacTracker ([link removed].
2. Install RAM in pairs Many Macs will give you a speed boost if you install matching RAM modules in pairs. G5 and Mac Pro towers actually require the installation of pairs of modules, though most other Macs will allow the use of an odd number, with the proviso that you won’t get the fastest possible performance from them. Crucial’s website ([link removed].
3. Faster drive Installing a faster hard drive as the boot drive on a tower Mac will yield performance gains, especially if you go up to a 10,000-speed drive. On a laptop, installing a 7,200rpm drive (to replace a 5,400 rpm model) will also make things faster, though older Mac portables don’t have user replaceable hard drives
4. Is faster memory worth it? When buying RAM you’ll often have the option to buy faster memory, which of course comes at a higher price. Although it may technically be faster on paper, in reality you may not notice a huge speed bump in real world, everyday use. Spending the extra money on faster hard drives would be a better idea for most users.
5. Graphics cards On towers like G4s and G5s you may see a benefit to installing a faster graphics card, though only really if you use graphics-heavy software like compositing or video, or if you play a lot of games.
6. Firewire not USB Although theoretically faster, USB 2.0 isn’t favored as much by professionals as FireWire due to the speed at which it requests data. So although a USB 2.0 drive will be cheaper, a FireWire drive offers superior performance.
7. Know your hardware To understand the areas in which your Mac could be expanded or powered up, you need to know what its current hardware configuration is like. Go to the Apple menu and choose “About This Mac,” which shows you simple CPU and RAM details. Then click on the “More Info” button to open System Profiler.
8. Tweak the CPU Some G4- and G5-based Macs have a feature called “processor bus slewing,” whereby you can manually increase or reduce the power of the CPU. This is found in System Preferences > Energy Saver.
9. Working with media files If you’re working with iMovie, GarageBand, iDVD, Final Cut, Logic, or another program that uses large media files, storing and working with them off another drive will greatly reduce the strain on your boot drive as it tries to run the system and the main application.
10. Get a faster keyboard Logitech’s Cordless Desktop S 530 Laser for Mac ([ [link removed].
11. Recycle old Macs Rather than throwing away an older Mac, use it to take the strain off your main Mac by using it as a server, Internet and email machine, or even for hosting wireless, shared iTunes libraries.
12. Make fewer connections Reducing the number of devices connected to your Mac over USB or FireWire will help it run a little faster. So if you’re not going to print anything, for example, disconnect the printer.
13. Stick with an older OS X? If your Mac is elderly, it’s worth sticking with an older version of OS X as the upgrade may bring crippling load for the sake of some features you could live without.
14. Trim the fat Fancy extras like using an animated screensaver as a desktop background are a huge drain, especially on the CPUs of older Macs. Similarly, having extra users logged in the background and even using Dock magnification can slow down struggling older machines. If you forego these luxuries, your old Mac screen may look a little dull but it will perform to its best abilities.
15. Install less If you’re installing or reinstalling a system from an OS X DVD, choose Custom Install and then deselect the additional printers and languages, and also the X11 and Developer Tools options. If your Mac came preinstalled, have a look in Macintosh HD > Library > Printers and sort the list of folders by size to see if one is huge, filled with PPD files. The idea in including them is that OS X will be able to recognize many printers. In truth, you only need the one driver for the printer you are running. You can delete these and reinstall the driver from manufacturer’s website.
16. Fewer languages A free program called Monolingual ([link removed]).
17. Delete apps In terms of applications you can safely delete more or less anything, since the apps themselves don’t contribute to the running of the system, with a few minor exceptions like System Preferences. You should leave the Utilities folder alone as well, since it contains assistants and the AirPort Utility to help you.
18. Reduce slowdowns Set your backup schedule for times you know you’ll be away from your Mac, so it doesn’t slow things down while you’re working.
19. Minimize on music Deleting duplicate or unwanted tracks from iTunes is also a great space saver, while clearing out obsolete photos from iPhoto will help. The Find function in OS X can be helpful here, as it lets you search using multiple criteria. So, for example, you could search for all items over 50MB in size that were last opened over one year ago, or something similar
20. Save energy Don’t leave programs open after you’ve finished using them as they will continue to consume system resources.
Shortcuts and Timesavers
21. Select multiple files Select multiple files and folders by holding down the Command or Shift key as you click with the mouse. This also lets you select non-continuous items, so you can skip those that you don’t need. You can then drag them all to another location as one, or duplicate or copy them all in one go.
22. Open multiple files Open multiple files and folders as one by hitting Command/O. Folders will show their contents, and any files selected will open in their respective applications.
23. Transfer multiple files If you need to email or transfer a group of files, say via iChat or FTP, multiple-select the items or group them into a folder. Then right-click on the folder or items and choose “Create Archive” or “Compress” (depending on your version of OS X). Finder will then create a zip file containing all the items. The overall file size will now be smaller, so sending the email will also be quicker.
24. Make apps appear instantly If you have programs that you always want to run as soon as you log in — say, iChat, Mail or an RSS newsreader — go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items and add them to your login items. (Remember, however, that adding lots of login items will make starting up slower.)
25. Automate tasks OS X has a dedicated application for speeding up repetitive tasks called Automator. It contains all sorts of building blocks for creating automated workflows, called actions, which can be saved as plug-ins or standalone applications. So, for example, you could create an action to import a folder of images into iPhoto and then sort and export them for the web, or copy music from a folder through iTunes to an iPod then eject it. The possibilities are endless and there are many excellent free actions available on the Apple website ([ [link removed]).
26. Open applications faster Rather than navigating to the Applications folder, use the Spotlight search bar and type in the first few letters of the program’s name. It will appear almost at once, and you can click on its name to launch it.
27. Quick connection To connect to a server, simply hit Command/K and you can enter the address of any external server. To see local servers in Leopard, look under the Shared tab in the sidebar of any server window.
28. Save time when deleting unwanted applications Be sure that you delete an application plus all its support files cleanly, efficiently, and as quickly as possible with the very handy AppZapper ([ [link removed]).
29. Reduce Desktop clutter We all tend to drop files and folders on the Desktop for convenience and this can quickly become cluttered, slowing down your work flow. If you go to View > Show View Options, you can alter the way Finder displays items. Controls include changing icon sizes, label positions and whether text information is displayed as part of a folder.
30. Shortcut keys By going to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard, you can add your own unique key commands to open specific applications by pressing the Modifier Key… radio button.
31. Send multiples to Trash quickly To send multiple items to Trash in one fell swoop, select the items and press Command/Delete.
32. Duplicate items For a quick way to duplicate multiple items, select items then click “Option” and drag the items.
33. Speedy save To save your current document, press Command/S.
34. Quick quit To quit the current application, press Command/Q.
35. Minimize your app To minimize a currently open window to the Dock, press Command/M.
36. Open Preferences quickly To open Preferences, press Command/comma (,).
37. Hide all open apps To hide all applications at once, press Command/Option and click on the desktop.
38. Switch between apps To switch between open applications, press Command/Tab.
39. Find location To reveal a file’s location, press Command/click on a window’s name in the title bar.
40. Open Spotlight To invoke the Spotlight search bar, press Control/spacebar.
Find Stuff Faster
41. Use Spotlight for metadata Spotlight uses metadata stored by the system to search within files, not just their filenames. So, for example, it can identify text stored on a layer within a Photoshop document. This makes things quicker to find, even if you can’t remember where they’re stored.
42. Trim Spotlight searches If you have a folder into which you drop lots of temporary items, consider excluding it from Spotlight’s search in System Preferences > Spotlight. Otherwise the system may slow down as OS X tries to index all the contents, only for you to delete the files shortly afterwards.
43. Create aliases
Aliases are as old as the hills in computing terms, but still a great way to link to files and folders. Just select an item, press Command/L or right-click and choose “Make Alias,” then drag the alias wherever you want it to go. Double- clicking on an alias will open the file or folder without you having to navigate to it; this is particularly useful when something is buried deep in a subfolder or on another drive.
44. Right-click items Many functions to do with items in the Finder can be found by right-clicking (or Control/clicking) on them to bring up the contextual menu. Common operations like “Move To Trash,” “Duplicate” and “Compress” can be found here for quick access. Some applications also install contextual menu items, most notably antivirus software (for quick scanning) and compression software like StuffIt (for quick archiving).
45. Quick Look New in OS X 10.5 Leopard, Quick Look is a fantastic timesaver. Simply select any item in the Finder and press the spacebar. If it’s a folder, a window appears, giving you info about its properties. If it’s any other kind of document, you get a live preview of its contents without having to open the document or its associated application. So, Quick Look a movie and you’ll get a playing, scrollable preview with sound.
46. Even quicker look The Quick Look window in OS X 10.5. is contextual, so, if you have it open, you can use the arrow keys to Quick Look other items without having to close and open it again.
47. Spring-loaded folders By default, spring-loaded folders are activated in Finder. If you pick up one or more items and drag them onto a folder without releasing the mouse, after a short break that folder will spring open and you can see its contents. Hold onto one of its subfolders and the same happens, until eventually you reach the bottom of the folder structure. You can drop your items into any level as you go, which saves loads of double-clicking.
48. Speedier springs You can alter the delay before files spring open, or even disable this feature entirely, in Finder’s Preferences > General tab.
49. Spaces If you’re tired of juggling lots of windows, try Spaces — another of Leopard’s new features. In the System Preferences you can assign as many rows and columns as you want, up to a total of 4×4, and assign applications to spaces. Then, set up your keyboard shortcuts, such as the Command and arrow keys, to move between spaces and you can have a different set of windows in each space.
50. Quick print If you have a document that you want to print, you don’t always have to open it first. Simply open your printer from System Preferences > Print and Fax, and drag the items into the window to add them to the print queue.
51. Multiple select If you need to collect several items together for emailing, transfer via iChat or just backup purposes, multiple-select them by dragging around them, or by holding Shift/Command as you click on them, then right-click and choose “Create Archive.”
52. Icon viewing To show items in Icons view, press Command/1.
53. List view To show items in List view, press Command/2.
54. Columns view To show items in Columns view, press Command/3.
55. Get multiple info If you press Command/I you can bring up the “Get Info” panel on multiple items, or hold Command/Option/I to get a single info window on the collective properties of all the items.
56. File Sharing Turn on Personal File Sharing for your networked Macs and they will appear in the Shared section of the sidebar in OS X 10.5. from any other Mac.
57. Quick drop You can drop any item from Finder onto a folder in the Dock and it will be copied to that folder regardless of the folder’s location.
58. Cover Flow In 10.5 Leopard, if you switch to Cover Flow view in Finder, you can use the arrow keys to move through live previews of documents, and up and down through the folder hierarchy.
59. Color labels You can add a colored label to more than one file or folder at a time by multiple selecting items, right-clicking and assigning your chosen color.
60. Hide the Finder window toolbar To hide/show the selected Finder window’s toolbar, press Command/Option/T.
Go Faster Online
61. Trust in tabs In Safari’s Preferences you can turn on tabbed browsing, which is much easier and quicker than juggling multiple open browser windows. Particularly useful is the option to Command/click on a link; it will open in a new tab behind the current one. A practical application for this is to open several links from a page in tabs, but not view the pages until you have finished with the first page. This saves you going back and forth, reloading the first page.
62. Web Clip Widgets Safari in Leopard features the new “Web Clip Widget” tool which appears as a small button by the address bar. If you select it, you can draw around an area of a website, any size that you like, and then click “Add.” OS X will then create a widget that will appear in Dashboard, and draw a live version of whatever part of the web page you selected. This is very handy for sites that update frequently. For example, you could draw around the headline feed on the BBC News website and have it visible as a widget, even without Safari open. Or, if you wanted to keep track of an eBay auction or a chat on a message board, a widget could display it, updating in real time, without you having to see the whole page.
63. Bookmarks are best By clicking on the bookmarks icon, you can organize and manage all your bookmarks for speedy access. It makes sense to create folders to store in the Bookmarks Bar, grouped by type. So, for example, name one Entertainment and store non-work related sites there, another Holiday stuff with all the links to do with a holiday, and so on. Folders appear with an arrow next to them in the Bookmarks Bar.
64. Open multiple pages in Safari With multiple pages stored in a folder within the Bookmarks Bar, if you hold the Command key and click on the folder’s name, Safari will open all those pages in separate tabs for you.
65. Jump to boxes When viewing a web page in Safari, pressing the “Tab” key will cycle the cursor quickly between all available fields on the page, so you don’t have to click in them with the mouse. This is activated in the “Advanced” section of Preferences. You can hold Option/Tab to only cycle between text fields and drop-down menus.
66. Navigate drop-downs If you “Tab” to a drop-down menu, hitting the up and down arrow keys will open it and move between its options. Pressing “Enter” will choose an option. In this way, you can easily select and access menus and fields without having to move a mouse to them and click.
67. Zoom in Safari If you’re having trouble reading text in Safari, press “Command” and the plus key to quickly increase the font size. Repeat with the minus key to return it to normal.
68. Refresh the page For a quick way to refresh a page in Safari, press Command/R.
69. Block Flash If you have an old Mac and/or slow connection, it may be worth using a Flash blocker add-on for Safari, or even Firefox or Camino. Flash content in websites tends to reduce old Macs to a crawl.
70. Get news fast Use NetNewsWire ([link removed].
71. Quickly track all online auctions Instead of logging in and out of eBay, use a dedicated tracking client such as GarageBuy or GarageSale to manage everything in one window — much faster than trying to juggle multiple heavy web pages.
72. Quick download In Safari, you can quickly download the target of any link to the Desktop by holding down the “O” key and clicking on it. This bypasses the dialog asking you to choose a destination, and involves no menus. If you perform this action on a link that leads to a page, the page will be downloaded. If you hold down the “Command” key while clicking on a link, it will open in a tab behind the current one (but only if this is enabled in Safari’s Preferences).
73. Prevent clutter In Safari’s Preferences > General tab, you can choose a location to save downloaded files. In Tiger, the default is the Desktop; in Leopard, it’s the Downloads folder. It makes sense to divert downloads to a specific folder, like in Leopard, as it keeps the Desktop free of clutter and you can manage all downloaded items in a single location. Also, if you’re running antivirus software such as the free ClamXav ([link removed].
74. Quick Look Mail In Mail 3.1. in Leopard, if you receive a message with attachments, you have the option to activate Quick Look from within the message. Click on the “Quick Look” button by the attachments and you can preview them without having to open their associated application. Pictures, movies, sounds, PDFs and text documents can all be previewed from within Mail as easily as from the Finder. The Quick Look window lets you scroll between attachments, view full screen, or view an index sheet of all attachments, then zoom in on any one.
75. Auto-check mail In Mail’s Preferences > General section, you can set Mail to automatically check for new messages at specific intervals, from every hour down to every minute.
76. Mail this page In Safari, you can go to the File menu and choose to mail a link to the page. This opens your default email program, inserts the URL of the page, and uses the HTML title of the page as the message subject. All you have to do is enter the recipient name. Another option lets you mail the contents of the page to someone. This is a great feature, as it places a copy of the page, fully working with all links, straight into a new Mail message. Bear in mind that this latter shortcut only works with Mail, and isn’t supported by other email clients.
77. Sending photos Mail in Leopard supports direct access to your iPhoto and Photo Booth libraries, so it’s quick and easy to drop pictures straight into a message. Once you’re there, some pictures can be very large, so you can right-click on one and choose “View As Icon” to show it in the body of the message as a small icon, which can be much neater. Alternatively, to view it at full size again, right-click and choose “View In Place.”
78. Automatic Gmail notifications Download the Google Notifier software ([link removed].
79. Build websites faster In iWeb, choose View > Media Browser and you can access all the music, pictures and movies in your iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie libraries. These can be dragged and dropped into projects and iWeb will automatically create the right kinds of plug-ins to enable the content to display.
80. iWeb inspector To show or hide the Inspector quickly in iWeb, press Option/Command/I.
Speed Up iLife
81. Multiple libraries Large libraries can mean iTunes and iPhoto are slow to start up, so you can speed up by your workflow by creating several smaller libraries. To create one, hold down the “Option” key when you start up the app, select “Create” and choose a location.
82. Multiple edit in iTunes In iTunes, you can select multiple tracks in a playlist or in the library and press Command/I or choose File > Get Info. This opens the Multiple Item Information window where you can perform batch operations on files. For example, enter text in any of the fields, like Album Title, Comments, or Year, and when you hit “OK,” iTunes will insert information into the tags of all selected files.
83. Batch Change In iPhoto, if you multiple-select a number of pictures and right-click on them, you can choose “Batch Change.” This calls up a window where you can set new titles, dates or descriptions for all selected pictures at once. It’s handy for quickly tagging lots of photos with a view to searching or creating a smart album.
84. Multiple send With multiple pictures selected in iPhoto, choose File > Export and you can quickly send multiple images to a slideshow, web page or folder with format conversion and compression.
85. Quick iTunes import If you go to iTunes’ Preferences > Advanced > Importing tab, you can set it so that when you insert a CD, iTunes will import its tracks based on the encoder settings and eject the disc when it’s finished.
86. iPhoto events In iPhoto ’08’s Events view, if you roll the mouse over an event, you get a mini-slideshow of all the pictures contained in it, helping you to quickly identify whether the image you want is there. If you find it, then right-click and choose “Make Key Photo;” that image will become the one that displays by default in the Events window.
87. iPhoto full screen To view in full screen mode in iPhoto, press Command/R.
88. Create playlists from the library A quick way to sort an iTunes library into separate playlists is to click the “Artist” or “Album” columns to sort the list, grouping tracks according to those criteria. Then, multiple-select all the tracks from an album or by an artist and choose File > New Playlist from Selection, or press Command/Shift/N. iTunes will create a playlist from the tracks and name it based on the tags. You can multiple-select different tracks from many artists or albums and do this to create a compilation.
89. iTunes Visualizer To turn on the iTunes Visualizer, press Command/T
90. Share your media In iMovie, if you choose to share a project to the Media Browser from the Share menu, it’s placed in a central pool of media and will be available to other iLife apps. Choose to share at full quality if you want to burn the movie to DVD.
91. Movie preferences iMovie renders most of its transitions and titles in real time, but iDVD doesn’t, so you can go into iDVD’s Preferences and activate background rendering, which will save time when it comes to finalizing and burning the DVD.
92. iDVD slideshow To add a slideshow to your project in iDVD, press Command/L.
93. Quick copy To duplicate files in iTunes or iPhoto, you can simply drag one or more pictures or music tracks out of the application and on to any hard drive, or the Desktop. In iPhoto, dragging an event out of the program will duplicate all pictures or movies stored within that event.
94. Back up solution By default, iTunes stores everything in Username > Music > iTunes, and iPhoto in Username > Pictures > iPhoto Library. Dragging these items to an external or secondary hard drive will perform a quick and simple backup of the entire library.
95. Get iTunes artwork iTunes is able to search the web for any artwork which may be missing from your music tracks if you have an iTunes Store account. It does this by using the artist and album information. In Preferences > General, you can tell iTunes to search and download artwork automatically.
96. Make a quick web page In iPhoto, if you select one or more images, you can use the iWeb shortcut at the bottom-right of the window to quickly create an HTML page and open iWeb. iPhoto will handle the compression of the images and the formatting, which you can then change if you wish and upload.
97. Make a video message In all recent versions of iMovie, you can record directly from a built-in iSight if your Mac has one. Just click the camera icon and then choose “iSight.” When you’re done, you can share the file either to a QuickTime movie, or using the “Share” menu, straight to iWeb or Mail. This is a great way of making a video diary or video blog without a video camera.
98. iMovie toggling To toggle between clip and timeline view in iMovie HD, press Command/E.
99. Share music round your home You can keep all your music on one machine and access it from any Mac. In iTunes’ Preferences, activate Share My Music. On other Macs, activate Look For Shared Music. This works best on a wireless network, and you can password protect the shared library.
100. Back up in iTunes In iTunes, you can choose to only back up items added or changed since the last backup, which saves you having to remember what you’ve already backed up (File > Back Up To Disc > Back Up iTunes Store Purchases). iTunes also has a special playlist called Purchased to help you find your purchased tracks.
What recommendations do you have for cleaning/ sanitizing keyboards/mice in a mac lab? We don't have keyboard covers on the keyboards. Thanks for any suggestions.
by Just wodnering
May 10, 2009
A friend of mine is thinking about this deal with Apple laptops that are from 2000. This guy in the apartments next door is selling APPLE laptops that have been refurbished. He has up- graded them he says and has included wi fi (sp). He is offering them to people who can't afford to get a computer and pay for an internet connection. He expects you ...See MoreA friend of mine is thinking about this deal with Apple laptops that are from 2000. This guy in the apartments next door is selling APPLE laptops that have been refurbished. He has up- graded them he says and has included wi fi (sp). He is offering them to people who can't afford to get a computer and pay for an internet connection. He expects you to go use the wi fi at Starbucks or the soda place downtown (which he owns) to get on the internet. In other words, he doesn't want you to do it at home.
Now, if my "poor" friend could afford a computer she would just go out and buy one and choose her own home internet connection. The deal is that you pay him 20 dollars a month for a whole year whether the computer gives out or not. No guarantee of it working for a whole year. No guarantee that it will work at home without you replacing the battery.
This guy is a minister of a church that meets in his soda store. . . they don't like the mainline churches. He admits that they bought the Apple computers off the internet -- ebay -- for 50 d0llars and upgraded and installed wi fi on them. Opinion please. . .
When I first heard about it, I thought it was a great deal because it is Apple laptops he is using. Now, I am not so sure. Sure would appreciate your advice so I can advise this other friend. Appreciate it. At first, I thought I would get one also BUT I ahve decided not to now. I don't need a laptop that badly.
I will be teaching 8th grade computer classes next fall, and I would like to know if anyone is using a textbook? I know many teachers are gathering what they need, but I’d like to find a book that covers basics like input, output, systems, history, etc. I don’t want one that is specific to any software programs. I’m not looking for specific a...See MoreI will be teaching 8th grade computer classes next fall, and I would like to know if anyone is using a textbook? I know many teachers are gathering what they need, but I’d like to find a book that covers basics like input, output, systems, history, etc. I don’t want one that is specific to any software programs. I’m not looking for specific application books.
Does anyone use something like this?
Thanks for all your help!
I want academy of eading Adrian
I can't believe it but I forgot how to make this symbol. Please refresh my "old" mind. Thanks!
Paulie
When I use Safari to view Tnet posts I often get strange symbols instead of the intended symbols. When viewing a recipe on the recipe board I see an omega symbol instead of the amount of the ingredient. On other posts I get strange symbols instead of quotation marks, etc. Is there a way to fix this and still use Safari?
by MacBook dummy
Jun 15, 2009
When I click the little triangle at the end of the address bar a list of about 15 addresses drop down. I want to delete them and can't find a way to do it. It hasn't saved all the addresses I've gone to of course, but these won't go away. I have gone to "tools" and "clear private data."
next page »
« prev page
Teacher Chatboards
But another point is to have a Purell dispenser in the room and make all users clean their hands BEFORE they touch anything. That certainly helps a lot.