Episode 5: Automator

Using automator is simple: Just drag commands into the workspace to create a workflow. Experiment! Don’t be shy!

If you’ve found a great way to streamline your workflows with automator, tell us in the comments!

Episode 4: Dragging and Dropping

When dragging and dropping, you can re-arrange and remove tabs and bookmarks in Safari, icons in the dock, you can import and export music in iTunes, and you can drag files into upload dialogues in Safari.

Got other cool uses for dragging and dropping? Leave a comment below!

Episode 2: Keyboard Tricks

Dock:
The following keys will temporarily switch magnification on (if it is off, and vice versa).
control + shift

Slow:
Holding down shift whilst minimizing, maximizing, using spaces, exposé and dashboard will slow down the animation effects.

Special Characters:
Key – alt – alt+Shift
~ creates ` (after pressing alt+~ press a vowel to create a character like è)
1 – ¡ – ⁄
2 – ™ – €
3 – £ – ‹
4 – ¢ – ›
5 – ∞ – fi
6 – § – fl
7 – ¶ – ‡
8 – • – °
9 – ª – ·
0 – º – ‚
‘-’ – ‘–’ – ‘—’
= – ≠ – ±
Q – œ – Œ
W – ∑ – „
E creates ´ (after pressing alt+~ press a vowel to create a character like é) – ´
R – ® – ‰
T – † – ˇ
Y – ¥ – Á
U creates ¨ (after pressing alt+~ press a vowel to create a character like ü) – ¨
I creates ˆ (after pressing alt+~ press a vowel to create a character like î) – ˆ
O – ø – Ø
P – π – ∏
[ - “ - ”
] – ‘ – ’
\ – « – »
A – å – Å
S – ß – Í
D – ∂ – Î
F – ƒ – Ï
G – © – ˝
H – ˙ – Ó
J – ∆ – Ô
K – ˚ – 
L – ¬ – Ò
; – … – Ú
‘ – æ – Æ
Z – Ω – ¸
X – ≈ – X
C – ç – Ç
V – √ – ◊
B – ∫ – ı
N creates ˜ (after pressing alt+~ press a vowel to create a character like ñ) – ˜
M – µ – Â
< – ≤ – ˘
> – ≥ – ˘
? – ÷ – ¿

Remember, If you have any comments or questions, just leave a comment below, or send me an email at coolthings@me.com.

Episode 2: Battery Indicator Lights

On the older macbooks, indicator lights are independant from the computer, but the unibody macboocs do not have this feature (to my knowledge anyway.)

If you are trying to find the lights, here are a few diagrams:

The indicator light on the older macbooks can be found on the battery, located on the underside of the computer.

The new Unibody macs have the indicator lights located on the side for conveniece.

So, If you have any other questions or anything else, just leave a comment or drop me a line at coolthings@me.com.

Episode 1: Speech Recognition

With speech recognition, your mac might have difficulty recognising what you say if you have a heavy accent other than a north american accent. If you have difficulty, try putting on an american accent.

If you want to know what commands you can use at any time, including application specific commands, refer to the Speech commands window:

Remember also that you need to be clearly heard by the computer. Music, loud fans, other talking and other background noise can make it difficult for your computer to hear what you are saying.

It is important to check that the settings for the speech recognition function are correct before you try to use the tool.

Make sure the microphone is set correctly, and that you choose the right activation key.

So, I hope this has helped. If there is anything you are still unsure of, leave a comment, or drop me an email at coolthings@me.com

All videos to be remade

Hey guys! And welcome to thew new blog for the “Cool Things You Can Do With Your Mac” Youtube series.

As some of you may have noticed, some of the videos have been muted for copyright reasons, so I have decided that remaking each and every one of my videos will be the best option.

Unfortunately I did not retain the originals of the videos, so I will try to do them all from scratch.

Let’s hope they’re just as good!