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March 11, 2005
Take Full Advantage of your Mac
Here are a few tips to help you increase productivity using Mac OS X.
Grab the developer's tools to get:
- Shark - performance analysis
- Xcode - coding and documentation tool
- FileMerge - file diff / comparison tool
- gcc - compiler/debugger
Take note of these Macintosh OS X innovations:
- Track Performance: Turn your Seconds in your menubar: System Prefs > Date & Time
- Have a cheap, clean workspace - Enable Fast User Switching: System Prefs > Accounts > Login Options
- Apple + D gets you to Desktop in any modal dialog
- Middle-Click for Exposé: System Prefs > Exposé
- Yes, there is Right-Click - you can use Control + Click on a machine with only one mouse button
- Import preferences and files from another machine during install: Target Disk Mode - Hold down T during startup
This is the way to install on a machine with no DVD drive:- Restart target machine to Target Disk Mode.
- Mount target machine and Install DVD.
- Start install process, DVD will ask you to choose partition on target machine.
- Restart when done, disconnecting target machine after chime.
- Apple + K to connect to server from Finder
- Samba (smb://) is faster, but Apple File Protocol (afp://) always works
Here are several excellent Macintosh applications that will streamline your testing and general productivity:
- Adium - multi-client chat application, free beta
- Quicksilver - essential - allows realtime searching and launching via keyboard shortcut, free beta that mimics "Spotlight" in Tiger
- iPulse - essential - allows realtime status on processes, memory usage, disk usage and other stats in one small view, free trial
- xScope - useful - provides zoom, guides, and other pixel-related tools for UI Inspection of entire screen, free trial
- SnapsProX - screenshot app that works just like SnagIt
Watch this space for more Mac tips and tricks.
Posted by at March 11, 2005 03:23 PM