40 tips in 40 minutes show notes
David and Merlin haven’t even seen this site yet, I don’t think, so it will be a bit before I get links from their presentations up. I’m posting some of my own notes in the meantime. Watch for news about more tips soon!
Force Quit apps from the Dock
If you right click or click-and-hold a running application in the Dock, pressing option will change the “Quit” menu item to “Force Quit.” This is especially handy for apps which have frozen but which the system hasn’t recognized as unresponsive yet. Video tag not supported. Download the video here.
Spotlight from the command line with mdfind
The mdfind command allows you to run Spotlight queries and predicate searches from the command line. See the man page for more details. Video tag not supported. Download the video here.
Use the system clipboard from the command line
You can access the system clipboard from the command line (Terminal) with the pbcopy and pbpaste commands. These are great for piping input and output to. Video tag not supported. Download the video here.
Quit applications from the Application Switcher
You can quit applications from the Cmd-Tab Application Switcher by pressing “Q” on a highlighted application as you tab through them. Video tag not supported. Download the video here.
Keybindings
For advanced users, there’s a ton of fun to be had with the DefaultKeyBindings.dict file. Any combination of text actions you can complete with the keyboard can be assigned to hotkeys. See this blog entry to get started. Video tag not supported. Download the video here.
Faster folder navigation with Command-Shift-G
In Finder (and in any Save/Open dialog), you can navigate quickly to any folder by pressing Command-Shift-G to bring up the Go To Folder dialog, then typing the UNIX path to the folder. This is often faster than navigating folders by mouse, assuming you know the path. Tab completion works (fairly well), so typing the ...
iTerm2
iTerm2 is a replacement for the default OS X Terminal application. It provides split panes, tabs and a plethora of extra features. It includes a “visor” mode which allows your main terminal window to slide down from the top of the screen with a hotkey, disappearing when you don’t need it. Recommended for any command ...
Locate Spotlight results in Finder with Command-Return
You can quickly open a file located by Spotlight in Finder by highlighting it and pressing Command-Return. Video tag not supported. Download the video here.