Copying with the Option key

Try this:

Click on a file and start dragging it.

Before you release your mouse click, hold down the Option key. Notice
the green circle with the plus sign appear?

Now release your mouse click to drop the item. A duplicate has been
made and placed where you dropped it, the original file remains in
it's original position.

This technique can also be applied to text: Highlight some text, click
to drag it, then hold down the Option key and release the duplicated
text at the new location.

Command & Conquer with Command Tab

If you have a few programs open at once and you want to move from one program to the other, a really useful way of doing this is with the 'Command Tab' keyboard shortcut.

Lets say you have open three programs: Mail, Safari, and Skype. You are typing an email but you want to check a web page for information. You can simply hold down the Command key, and then tap the Tab key,while still holding down the Command key. Each tap of the Tab key will move the highlighter to the next program.

So in this case you are in your mail, you hit Command and Tab and then Skype is selected, you tap Tab again and then Safari is selected then as soon as you let go of the Command key the program that is highlighted is brought to the front for you to access.

Don't forget the 'Command H' keyboard shortcut to hide any programs to get them out of the way.

Have a play around with it and you'll soon get the hang of it.

Command and Tab is really powerful when used in conjunction with 'Command H' and 'Command Q'.

Hiding a Program

Why would you want to hide a program?

Sometimes hiding a program is more useful than closing the program. If you are like me your desktop is used for dumping files temporarily that you have to deal with at some point in the near future. I am always going back to the desk top to grab something, and so it is useful to be able to quickly hide the program I am currently using to reveal the desktop. Here is the keyboard shortcut:

Command and H

Example: Say you are writing an email and you wanted to check a document on your desktop for some information. You can 'Command H' to hide the email (in fact, the whole mail program gets hidden) and
then access the doc on your desktop. Then you can click on the mail icon in the dock at the bottom of your screen to bring back the mail program.

Or you can use the Command and Tab keyboard shortcut, but perhaps that something for the next tip.

Icons on the Dock

Keeping with the theme of icons this post is about the icons on the
dock. The Dock is that horizontal bar at the bottom of your screen
that contains icons for some of the more commonly used programs
(programs are also referred to as "applications"). These are simply
shortcuts to the applications that live in your Applications folder.
Any of the icons can be removed from the Dock. All you have to do is
click and drag them up to a space on the desktop. As you do so,
you'll notice that the icon changes and you can now see a puff of
smoke attached to the icon you are dragging. This is to indicate that
you are deleting the shortcut.
If, instead, you want to add an icon to the dock then simply open your
Applications folder and drag one of the icons from the list and down
onto your dock and let go. This action will not remove the icon form
the Applications folder, but will create a shortcut and place it where
you released your mouse button on the dock.

Changing a Mac Icon

How do you change icons on the Mac?

Sometimes you might want something more interesting than those blue folders to look at. Or you might want to change the icon of an Application. You can change the icons fairly easily, but first you need to find an icon you like. Icon packages can be downloaded for free from places such as Icon Finder or Icon Factory.

Once you have found an icon that you like, right-click and choose "Get Info" (or click on the icon and then use the keyboard shortcut: Command-i).

(note the icon becomes highlighted when selected)

The 'Get Info' pane comes up you can then select the icon that appears in the top left of that pane by clicking on it and then right-click, copy (or use the keyboard shortcut: Command-c).

Now go to the folder you want to change the icon of and select it by clicking on it, right-click and choose "Get Info" (or Command-i), and then right-click and paste (or Command-v) to replace the current icon.

Now you have a new icon for that boring folder, or Application.

Closing a Program

In Windows when you close a program by clicking on the x at the top
right corner of the screen it shuts down that program. This is not
the case on the Mac. When you click on the dot on the top left corner
of an open program it seems to have closed the program...but it
hasn't. Instead it has closed that window but the program is still
running. Look down on your dock, see the little glowing dot under the
program's icon? That shows us that it is still running.
This means that if you want to open it again it opens fast. But what
if you really want to close the program to free up some memory for
other tasks? Here are some ways to close it:
1. Right-click on the icon, chose "quit".
2. If the program is the one that is currently being used, press the
Command & Q keys.
3. Command & Tab to bring up the list of programs that are currently
running. While holding down Command, keep hitting Tab until the
program you want to close is selected. Then, still with the Command
key held down, hit the Q key.

Increase Your Vocabulary

Sometimes looking up the definition of those words you sometimes come
across that you don;t know the meaning of can be a distraction from
what you are reading. Often you probably settle for a grasp of the
word from the context in which it is written instead of looking it up.
Did you know that if you hover your cursor over a word and then press
Command, Control & D the dictionary definition of that word will be
displayed.
If you move the cursor around onto other words while you are holding
down those keys the definition of those words will pop up too.
This will work in any Apple native application such as Safari.