But what if you want to do that? We show you two easy ways…

Contextual menu

As you see a link to a file, that would normally open inside Safari, control-click it and pick Download Linked File. This will download the file directly to your Downloads folder.

Alt/Option key

There is an even faster method: hold down the alt/option key as you click a link to a file. This will download the file directly to your Downloads folder. No need for a contextual menu.

Please read this post, if you’re not sure which keys control and alt/option are.

With today’s quick tip there is no need to pause the video or miss a single second of it, just because you activate a different application and thus obscuring the video.

Background scrolling
Mac OS X has good support for scrolling of inactive window, which means you don’t need to bring a window to the foreground and make it the topmost window in order to simply scroll down.

Just move the mouse cursor over it and start to scroll - the window will stay in the background (i.e. under the other windows) but still scroll down.

Very handy to view fast changing information on the web, while doing something different.

Background moving
It turns out, you can not only scroll a window in the background, but also control and move it. To do so, hold down the command key before you start to click and drag the window in question. Doing so will keep the current window active and on top of all other windows, while you can view information in the background window and interact with it.

Moreover, you can even click on items in the background window while still holding down the command key. So you can watch videos while reading your emails.

Not a huge tip, but sometimes really useful. Once you’re used to it, you will miss it when it’s not there. It just one of those features.

A very short while ago, we also looked at how to create a todo system, based on color labels in Finder.

Today we will use these concepts and expand them using Butler, so we will create a file dispatcher for Finder, looking something like this:

The list of actions is not limited to these shown here, you can create as many as you want. Almost everything you can image doing to your files in person you can make your Mac do.

• Move / copy files
• Trash files
• Assign a color label
• Assign a Spotlight comment
• Connect to a server
• and much more

But let’s take a step at a time.

1 Create Automator Actions - Move to Pending

Every action we’ll be able to perform on our files will be an application of its own. No worries - we don’t need to write a single line of program code. Automator is our friend.

Start Automator from the applications directory or via Butler’s abbreviation window.

1) In Automator the Starting Point window automatically opens up.
Select Files & Folders.

2) In the lower area of the window you see the area Get content from.
Make sure it’s set to my Mac but change to Use files and folders selected in the Finder when workflow runs.

3) Now we create the action we want to have. Let’s create the first “Move to Pending”, where “Pending” is a directory inside our Documents folder.

Let’s add the appropriate action. Either pick Files & Folders from the Actions category list or use the search field directly. The action we’re after is called Move Finder Items.

Once you found it, drag it to the right side of the Automator window, below the existing action Get Selected Finder Items.

4) The action is added to the workflow. As you see, its default target directory is the Desktop. Click it, pick Other.

Select the directory “Pending” in your Documents folder.

5) This is it for the workflow. Let’s save this workflow as an application. From the File menu, choose Save As…

It’s vital for the dispatcher to work that you change the file format to Application.

It also a good idea to separate our File Dispatcher applications from the other applications (in the Applications directory). Let’s save them inside a folder in our Documents directory, called File Dispatcher Applications.

Note: You might have to expand the Save dialog, by clicking the arrow to the right of the Save As window.

2 Create Automator Actions - Move to Archive

For our second action, “Move to Archive” nothing changes except for the directory the current selection of Finder items will be moved to.

We can reuse the workflow we have currently open, we’ll just save it under a different name. All we need to do is change the target directory from Pending to Archive (which is located in our Documents directory as well).

Again, from the File menu pick Save As … and give it a different name, say “Move to Archive”.

3 Create Automator Actions - Set Color label to Red

Although we could use the existing action again, let’s create a new one to mix things up a little. In Automator, from the File menu pick New.

1) As before, select Files & Folders as starting point and choose to use - as before - the files and folder selected in the Finder when the workflow runs as source for the content.

2) The action we’re after is called Label Finder Items. As before, find and drag it to the workflow area.

3) Click the red label so it gets framed.

4) Done. Save this workflow as application, as described before. Name appropriately, say, Set Color Label to Red.

4 Create Automator Actions - Clear Color label

1) For this action we can reuse the existing one, simply click the small gray cross to the very left of the color selection to clear the color label of a file.

2) The frame around any other color is cleared.

3) Done. As with all the others, save this workflow as application. Name it Clear Color Label.

5 Create Automator Actions - Move to Trash

1) As before, start a new workflow using Files and Folders as starting point and the selection of the Finder as the workflow runs.
2) Add the action Move Finder Items to Trash.
3) Save the workflow as application in the same way as we did before. Name it Move to Trash.

So, after creating these 5 actions in Automator and saving them as applications, the directory named “File Dispatcher Applications” should look like this:

6 Bring Butler On - Create Container

To have all this applications present in Butler we will use Butler’s container feature.

1) Open Butler’s preferences.

To open up Butler’s preferences window, click the computer icon in the menu bar, select Butler > Preferences.

Alternatively, you can bring up Butler’s abbreviation window, by pressing control-space. Once the window is visible, press command - , (comma) to bring up the preferences (as you bring up the preferences in any other application).

2) Go to the Configuration tab

3) Click the plus icon in the lower left corner and add a container. Name it “File Dispatcher”.

4) Let’s assign command - . (dot) as keyboard shortcut. Doing so, will evoke a warning by Butler, saying that this is a common key combination used in many programs.

No worries, we will use Butler’s exclusion feature to make this keyboard shortcut only work in Finder (in other applications our file actions wouldn’t make sense anyway).

5) So, let’s tell Butler that this keyboard shortcut is ONLY valid in Finder, so it will only work if Finder is the active application.

6) Finally, change the launch mode to Opens a menu new the mouse.

7 Bring Butler On - Add Applications

Now, let’s add our Automator applications to this container, so they will be presented as the list of actions we ultimately want.

1) To do so, click the File Dispatcher container, created before so it’s highlighted.

2) Click the plus icon in the lower left corner and pick File.

3) Navigate to Documents > File Dispatcher Applications where our apps are stored.

4) Select all by pressing command-A.

5) Click Open to add all selected apps to the container.

6) Now the applications show up in Butler, inside the container.

8 Butler Fine Tuning

Rename items, so they start with a number
In the initial screenshot we saw that the actions had numbers in front of the name. We use them to be able to select an action quicker (since pressing the corresponding number will highlight the action).

To do so, click a single action in the container and change its name in the Inspector window on the right.

Rearranging the order or actions
To rearrange the items (so the go together with the numbering) simply drag them around inside the container.

Adding title and separators
1) To add a title, as in the initial screenshot, click the plus icon in the lower left corner and pick Comment.
2) Rename it, say “File Dispatcher” and drag it to the top of the list of actions.

3) Add separators via the plus icon and drag them around as you please.

Final look
So, after everything we have done, the container in Butler should look like this:

File Dispatcher in Real Life

As you browse your files in Finder, press the assigned shortcut command-. (dot) to get the list of actions we created. All the actions work with multiple selected files and folders as well.

After you picked files and folders to act on, the Automator status message appears in the menu bar, indicating what it is currently doing.

So here you have an expandable file dispatcher at your finger tips, making your files going the right way and helping you to organize your files, minus the boring and repetitive tasks of moving, labeling, etc.

Enjoy.

We like to hear from you which actions you use to organize your files. Bring it on in the comments or drop us an email.

One question that gets asked a lot by new users is, how to change the default application for certain file types, so all files of that type are opened in a certain application.

Mac OS X does not only let you customize the default application on a file type basis but you can also tell it that you want specific files to open in a certain application.

The solution lies within the file information window, which we introduced in full detail in this post. Bring up the file information window by selecting Get Info from the contextual menu of a file.

In the section Open With you can set the application you want this file to open with.

Note: This selection is only valid for this particular file and does not affect other files of the same type.

If you want all files of that type to open with the chosen application, click the Change All… button.

One more thing…
As with a lot of stuff, there is another shortcut. To quickly set the application, a certain file should open with, control-click the file and hold down the alt/option key (introduction to the Mac keyboard in this post).

You will see that the menu item Open With will change to Always Open With. Exactly what we want.

Pick the application that suits your needs for this particular file.

Done. To each his own. Nice and simple.

Today we will take this concept one step further and create a file and folder based To Do structure using color labels together with Smart Folders.

Ultimately you will get a list of files and folders you still need to work on, grouped by due date in nice, fresh colors.

Assigning a color label
Assigning a color label to a file is easy and straight forward. Control-click it and pick a color.

After you assigned a color label, files shows up in Finder with a colored background, allowing you to easily identify them.

Adjust the text connected to a label
As you assign color labels via the contextual menu, you see that there is text, connected to each color label. By default this text is the name of the color, but it’s easy to change it.

1) From the Finder menu, select Preferences

2) Go to the Labels tab and update the text associated with each label.

3) You can leave fields empty in case you don’t need all of them.

True power with Smart Folders
As said, color labels let you quickly identify files of a certain kind. The true power comes to light, when used in conjunction with the Smart Folders feature of Mac OS X.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the above labels (especially red and orange) to set up a ToDo list in Finder, highlighting all the files we need to work on within a certain time.

So, we have this starting position, three files - one is due today (red label) and two by the end of the week (orange label). All these files are in a directory in our home directory.

Now, let’s create a Smart Folder only showing those due by Friday. Doing so, we get a quick overview of what’s still left to do.
Create a Smart Folder based on color labels

1) In Finder, from the File menu, select New Smart Folder.

2) Since we know that our files are in our home folder, there is no need to search your entire Mac. So we limit the search to the home directory, by clicking the name of our home folder (next to “This Mac”).

Doing so will make the search much faster.

3) Now click the plus button to add new search criteria.

4) Instead of “Kind” pick Other to open up a list of other possibilities.

5) From this list select File Label.

Note: Click the checkbox for In Menu to add it to the drop down list and you don’t have to pick Other every time.

6) Click the orange label to show all files with an orange color label. With the search limited to your home folder, the results should show up almost instantly.

7) Save these search results as a Smart Folder by clicking Save in the upper right corner.
Give it a descriptive name, say “Due by Friday” and check Add to Sidebar, so you have the files you need to work on, always at hand.

8) - Repeat from step 1 with the red color label to get files you need to work on today.

Usage in real life
After you finished working on a file or folder, control-click it and select a different color or remove the color label. The content of the Smart Folder will be updated immediately, showing only those files you still need to work on.

This is why Smart Folders are called Smart Folders: because their content updates on-the-fly depending on the search criteria you defined before.

This is a method of adding extra information to your files, which can really improve the speed of finding stuff on your Mac. Less time navigating your directory structures means more time to get things done.

Normally, while in Exposé you have to move the mouse cursor over a window (or navigate using the arrow keys) to see it’s title.

As you have all windows displayed, press the alt/option key to show the title of each window simultaneously.

This is good if you have a lot of files open - especially when they look very similar and you need some extra help distinguishing them.

Today let’s explore how we can control Exposé only by using the keyboard.

You invoke Exposé using the default keys F9 or F10 (to show either all or the application’s open windows).

* Press the tab key (please read this post to help you identify it) to go through all windows of every application, application after application.

* Use the arrow keys to select a different window.

* When you have reached the desired application or window, press the enter/return key or the space bar to activate it.

So the usefulness (and certainly eye candy) of Exposé is at your finger tips, without having to lift them from the keyboard.

You can use this preview and drag it anywhere (other folders, onto application icons in the Dock, etc.). You can also double click anywhere inside the preview area to open it.

It’s exactly the same as you would click the file itself. Probably just faster, because there is a bigger click area, so its easier to hit the target. This works with every file - even if no preview is available and only the file’s icon is shown.

If you haven’t used Mail, the built-in eMail application, take a look at this Apple document to get you started on it. All in this tutorial is about, is based on it. Be sure to check out our posts on Address Book and iCal before we go on, if you haven’t yet done so.

Create / Update a contact from an email

The simplest way to add a person to your Address Book or updated it, is to add the name and the email address. In Mail, select an email and hover the mouse cursor over the “From” field.

This will put the sender’s name and email address into a blue bubble. Click the little arrow on the right to bring up a list of possible actions.

This menu contains a bunch of actions. Pick Add to Address Book.

For this action to work, Address Book does not need to be open. It happens all in the background.

After you added the email address to the Address Book, the email address disappears from the “From” field and only the name is displayed, indicating that this person is in your Address Book.

Note that hovering over the name and clicking the arrow will give change the menu item from before, Add to Address Book into Open in Address Book.

If you open Address Book, you will see that the contact has been updated properly. Nice touch: If you have a picture for that contact in Address Book, it will show up in Mail as well.

Data Detectors - for contact information

With Mac OS X Leopard, Apple introduced a cool new feature. Data detectors. They scan your emails in Mail and allow you to automatically update your contacts or create appointments - right from Mail, without having to open Address Book or Mail.

Note: All the scanning is done only on your computer and no information is submitted to Apple.

Usage is really simple. Move your mouse over some data, for example a mail address.

This will frame the data and present you a arrow to open up a drop down menu, allowing you to update an existing contact or create a new one.

As you decide to update or add a contact, data detectors will go through the entire email and search for additional information, such as phone numbers, addresses, and so on.

You will be presented with an overview of the existing data, already in Address Book, and the new one acquired via data detectors (written in green).

Click the labels (work, home, mobile, …) to change the label for the associated data.

Again, you don’t need to have Address Book open for this to work. Everything happens in the background.

Data Detectors - for appointments

Data detectors not only work with personal information. They can also recognize dates and times and let you schedule appointments in iCal - directly from Mail.

It works the same way. Hover the mouse cursor over a date - so the data gets framed. Click the triangle and select Create New iCal Event…

A window will pop up with data from the email already filled in. Adjust it to your needs (ie pick a different calendar, set an ending time, etc.)

Adjust the appointments as you wish and click Add to iCal. Again, as with Address Book, iCal does not need to be open.

So, how do you like data detectors? We think they are great and can save you a lot of copy/paste work and minimize the time you spent getting things organized.

Be sure to check out this post on the built-in synchronization software iSync to get your contacts and appointments onto your mobile.

Mac OS X indicates, if an open file has changed since the last time you saved it. Look at the red bubble in the title bar (that is used for closing a window).

A black dot inside the bubble indicates that changes have been made to this file, which haven not yet been saved.

Save it and the black dot will disappear.

The usual way would be, to locate it in Finder and drag it onto the composing window or use the Attach button in Mail (even slower).

Away with that - proxy icons come to rescue you.

You have seen it already but probably paid little attention to it. The proxy icon. This is the icon in the title bar of an application.

Here are the news: This is not just a dumb icon, it’s the proxy icon which will allow you to drag the file to other applications, in exactly the same way as you would do it from Finder.

So, probably the quickest way to bring a file (that’s already open) into the another application is to drag and drop the proxy icon.

1) Move the mouse cursor exactly over the icon in the title bar of an open file.

2) Click, hold down the mouse button and start to drag the icon.

3) Drag it anywhere you like (for example on a email composing window). Let go the mouse button when the icon has reached its destination.

Note: You can also drag a file onto any application icon in the Dock that can open this kind of file.

There is more to it …

That’s the first useful function of the proxy icon. Here comes the second one. Showing the entire path to the file, so you can see where any open file is stored.

To see it, hold down the command key and click the proxy icon. A list will pop up, indicating the exact location of the file. Note that it starts at the bottom.

Clicking any of the folders will open it up in Finder. If you click the folder, containing the currently open file (”Tutorial”) in this case, it will open the folder and highlight the file.

Using the proxy icon works in every application, that has an icon in its title bar. Using this method makes you a bit more effective and faster. After all, there is no need to dig around in Finder for a file that you have already open.

To quickly open a file, that you’re previewing, double click anywhere on it’s Quick Look window and the file will open in its application. Just as you would double click it in Finder.

This will close the Quick Look window and open the file in its assigned application.

This makes up a nice workflow…

Extra workflow tip
This is especially useful, when combined with the capability of Quick Look to display multiple items in a grid - no need to find it in the selection in Finder.
1. Select a bunch of items in Finder and press the space bar.
2. Click the index sheet button to display thumbnails of all items.

3. Choose an item, so it’s displayed in Quick Look.
4. Double click its preview and the file is opened.

You don’t even need to move the mouse, once you selected the item you’d like to open. Handy!

Don’t get me wrong, Wikipedia is great but there is a real dictionary that is at your hand, right there on your Mac. What about a quick look at a word? What about a quick substitution for that word, in order not to use it again in two straight sentences?

Meet Dictionary - Mac OS X’s dictionary application. It includes a thesaurus, a special Apple-related dictionary and it can even look up stuff on wikipedia (directly from the application itself - without the website).

Basic searching
To launch Dictionary, locate it in your Applications directory or use Butler’s abbreviation window.

It opens up and waits for you to type a word. Results will be displayed as you type.

Use the up- and down-arrow keys or the mouse to navigate the search results. Press the return/enter key or double-click any result to open its explanation.

Search in specific locations
Above the search results you see all available “books” to search in - Dictionary, Thesaurus, Apple and Wikipedia.

Click the one you want to search in. If you click Wikipedia you must be connected to the internet, since it performs a live search on Wikipedia’s website and returns the results to the dictionary application.

Browsing
As you move your mouse cursor over any word in the description, you see that the word gets underlined and the mouse cursor changes into a hand (exactly the same as you move over a link on an web page).

A word you click gets looked up (just as you would enter the word).

Use the back/forward button at the top, to navigate back and forth multiple search results (as on a web page).

Increasing font size
Use the button with the smaller A and bigger A (right to the back/forward buttons) to increase or decrease the font size. Click it several times to increase / decrease step-by-step.

Preferences
You can set up dictionary to fit your needs. To access the preferences, go to the application menu and select Preferences or press the shortcut command-, (comma).

In the preferences you can disable/enable certain dictionaries as well as fine tune them. You might want to change the pronunciation or enable multiple languages of the Wikipedia entries, so the articles of Wikipedia show up in your native language.

Contextual Menu
Dictionary is not a standalone application by any means. It’s tightly integrated into Mac OS X and you can access it from almost everywhere where you see (Safari, TextEdit, Mail, …)

Using the dictionary application inside an application is easy:

1. Highlight a word (best way is to double click it)
2. Control-click it to bring up the contextual menu
3. Select Look up in Dictionary

Back to the preferences: You can decide if that command either pops open the Dictionary application or displays dictionary panel only, looking like this:

In this panel, click the More… button open this word in the dictionary application. Click the arrow in the lower left corner (next to the word Dictionary) to pick a different source to find the word in.

More on integration in Mac OS X
In a previous post on the Services menu, we covered this very briefly.

Dictionary provides also a service so it can be used from every application, not featuring the “Look up in Dictionary” contextual menu item.

To access the Service to look up a word in Dictionary do this:

1. Highlight a word (best way is to double click it)
2. Click the application menu
3. Pick Services > Look up in Dictionary

One more thing…
In Dictionary, open the Go menu and pick Front/Back Matter.

It contains a lot of useful things for reference (Language Guide to English, History, Clichés, Chemical Elements, conversion tables, etc.).

Explore it by yourself and be happy with your new Dictionary.

Go menu

What’s there?
The Go menu allows you to jump to a couple of the major directories, such as your home folder, the applications directory or the Desktop.

You see the shortcuts for each item listed next to it. So pressing these, will let you jump to the respective directory.

What you see are the symbols for they shift key: and the command key: plus a letter you have to press on your keyboard. Read this post on everything related to the modifier keys (such as shift or command) on your Mac keyboard.

Open/Save dialogs

Here is what’s really handy: These shortcuts work in any open/save dialog, too. So, for example, whenever you quickly want to save a file to the Desktop for later reference, press shift-command-D right in the save file dialog to jump to the Desktop.

View menu / toolbar icons

What’s there?
Each Finder view (Icons, List, Columns, Cover Flow) shows different information and has its special purpose.

Access them via the View menu in Finder or use the icons in Finder’s toolbar.

A quick overview on what the different view are good for:

• Icon view is good to quickly identify an item by looking at their preview.
• List view comes in handy if you want to see additional file attributes (such as file size or creation date) at a glance.
• Column view is a way to see a lot of files and folders at once and quickly navigate folders hierarchies up and down (by pressing the left and right arrow keys)
• Cover Flow view is a nice addition to view your files, but it’s only useful if you need a graphic representation of your files in order to be able to distinguish them, such as in a visual web history.

How to use them?
As you change from one view to another, your selection stays the same. So a workflow to copy some pictures from one location to another one, could look like this:

1. Go to icon view / Cover Flow mode to decide which pictures to use (by looking at their icon thumbnail).
2. Go to list view mode to see additional information on each picture and maybe deselect some.
3. Copy the pictures (command-C).
4. Go to column view mode to quickly navigate to another directory so you can paste the pictures there (command-V).

You see, changing the views on the fly might be an important part of a workflow. Read this post on how to select items in Mac OS X.

Customize each view
Each view has different options to customize it. To see what’s available for each view, from the View menu choose Show View Options.

As you choose a different view, the content of the window, showing the options will change. Good news: This window stays on top of all Finder windows, so you can change the view in the background - the content of the View Options window is updated automatically according to the selected view.

Additionally, in the View options window, you can decide that one particular folder should always open in a specific view (say, you always want to open your home folder in Icon view).

Shortcuts
The shortcuts for each view are displayed just next to each item in the menu:

command-1 for icon view,
command-2 for list view,
command-3 for column view and
command-4 for Cover Flow view.

Open/Save dialogs
In open/save dialog, these shortcuts work as well (except for Cover Flow). Using keyboard shortcuts might work faster for you as clicking the icons in the open/save dialog to change how things are displayed.

One last thing

Don’t forget about Quick Look, which works in every Finder view. Simply press the space bar on your keyboard to display a preview of the file without having to open it in an application.

Also keep in mind, that the QuickLook window is a representation of what’s currently selected in Finder, so use the arrow keys or the mouse to select a different item in Finder to update the QuickLook window as you go through your files.

Today we will find out how we can use a feature of Butler to imitate us, pressing keys on the keyboard. Doing so, will allow us to open menu items that you can’t create a shortcut for, using the built-in methods of creating keyboard shortcuts, described in this post.

Most applications have container menu items (containing sub items). One that is present in almost every application that can open files (TextEdit, QuickTime Player, Office, …) is called Open Recent, which presents a list of recently opened files. We will use it for this tutorial.

Since these container items are not commands by themselves, going into the System Preferences > Keyboard preferences and assigning a shortcut to it is a no-go.

Previously we learned that pressing control-F2 put the focus in the menu bar, allowing us to navigate the menu bar, only by keyboard.

Another thing we need to know: If you have a menu open, you can start to type the name of the command and it will get highlighted.
For example, say you have the File menu open; start to type Open File and the selection will jump to Open File.

Let’s summarize:

• Control-F2 puts the focus in the menu bar
• Using the arrow keys to navigate the menu bar
  (two times to the right to select File)
• Pressing the enter/return key will open an item
• Writing the name of a menu item highlights it

This list of commands is exactly what we will make Butler do for us, using its Keystrokes feature.

Let’s dive into it.

1) Open up Butler’s preferences.

To open up Butler’s preferences window, click the computer icon in the menu bar, select Butler > Preferences.

Alternatively, you can bring up Butler’s abbreviation window, by pressing control-space. Once the window is visible, press command - , (comma) to bring up the preferences (as you bring up the preferences in any other application).

2) Go to the Configuration tab and click the plus sign in the lower left corner to add a new Smart Item.

3) Pick Smart Item > Keystrokes

4) A new Keystrokes item is created and its details are displayed in the right pane of the Butler window.

5) Give it a name, e.g. “Open Recent menu item” and assign a shortcut to it. Since the control key is a relatively unused modifier key we suggest using it, so the chance of interfering with other shortcuts gets minimized. A tutorial on all modifier keys on your Mac keyboard is here.

Let’s use control-R to display the Open Recent menu item. Click into the hot key field and press control-R to assign the keyboard shortcut to this function of Butler.

6) Now switch over to the Keys tab. There you’re presented with a blank field. Click inside it, so the blinking input cursor shows up in the top left corner (this input field seems a bit faulty, so you might have to click multiple times into the field until it accepts inputs).

7) Now press the keys (and combinations) we want Butler to “press” for us. These are:

• control-F2
• right arrow (2 times)
• press enter/return to open the File menu
• write “Open Recent” (without the quotes)
• press enter/return again to display the sub item

Note, that every single key that’s pressed is displayed, so the outcome might look a bit confusing. If you do everything right, you end up with this:

In case you pressed the wrong keys, delete them one-by-one by clicking the delete button (pressing the delete key won’t help, since Butler is recording every key we press).

8) Done.

Try it out by opening the text editor TextEdit and press the assigned shortcut, control-R. The Open Recent menu will pop up for you, waiting for you to choose a file you opened previously.

Obviously you can use this tutorial for any container menu item, as long as you know how to get there, using only the keyboard.

An idea: You could also assign a shortcut to the Services menu, for quick access of a lot of handy functions. If you wonder what the Services menu is, please read this post.

Creating shortcut combinations like this makes using your Mac faster, which means you spend less time navigating the menus and more time getting work done.

Just what we like!

As you might have found out, if you have multiple items (files and/or folders) selected, Get Info will open up a separate information window for every item selected. Look at this post on selecting items in Mac OS X.

While it might be handy to have an information window for every item (for side-by-side comparison) it can be a pain in the neck if you want to find out congregated information such as total file size of all items.

Get Summary Info

To see a summary on all selected files, select them and bring up the contextual menu by control-clicking anywhere inside the selection.

As the contextual menu is displayed, press the control key. The menu item that was Get Info before will turn into Get Summary Info. Bingo.

Show Inspector

Beside those functions of displaying information on your files there is a third option available. The windows displayed by Get Info or Summary Info stay open and present information on the file you had selected when you clicked Get Info or Summary Info. Thus their content is not altered if you select a different file or folder in Finder.

This is exactly where Show Inspector comes in. It’s the same as the information windows (Get Info and Get Summary Info), only that it represents the current Finder selection. So it’s dynamically updated as you select a different item in Finder.

To open the Inspector window, control-click any file or folder to bring up the contextual menu. Press the alt/option key and see how Get Info changes into Show Inspector.

The best thing about the Inspector is that you are not locked into your selection as you bring up the information on your files. Add more files to your selection or select something completely different and the Inspector window updates in an instant.

File information center

Among the great new features of Leopard is Quick Look, which allows you to preview a file without having to open it. Click any file and press the space bar to display the preview.

One thing important to know: this preview window is only a representation of the current selection of Finder. You can use the arrow keys (or click on any item) to select different files in Finder and the QuickLook preview will update automatically. Just as the Inspector window always displays information on the current file.

In the background you see the Finder window. To the left the Inspector window and to the right the QuickLook preview. Note that the Finder window will remain the active application, processing a press of an arrow key or a click on any file.

So, with these two tools at hand you can quickly go through your files, getting all the information, plus a preview without having to open the file at all. Nice and fast.

Well… no more thanks to a new feature of Leopard.

Open up the Help menu in any application, for example Finder, by clicking the Help menu item.

Now, just start typing away. For example “Arrange”. As you move your cursor over one of the results, an arrow shows up pointing at the menu item.

Pressing the enter/return key launches the menu item, just as you would click on it.

As you see the search displays all menu item, also those nested deep in submenus. This is one of the small, but great features that make Leopard such a nice operating system.

This is a feature that is built-in into the operating system, so it’s automatically available in every program. No work needed by a software developer.

One more thing for heavy keyboard users

There is a system-wide shortcut to activate the help menu. However, it’s shift-command-/. Not exactly fast nor easy to press this combo of keys.

Let’s customize that.

1) Open System Preferences > Keyboar & Mouse

2) Switch to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab

3) Among the items at the top of the list, is an item Show Help menu. That’s exactly what we’re looking for.

4) Double click on the existing shortcut (shift-command-/) so a new input is accepted.

5) Press you desired keyboard shortcut. We recommend control-H since the control key is not used that much for keyboard shortcuts and thus the danger of interfering with other shortcuts is lower.
Do NOT use command-H since this is the default shortcut for hiding an application and you will loose this ability in case you select command-H.

So, control-H it is:

Now that is a shotcut we like. Use it to access the help menu and start typing away to find a menu item. No more mouse usage necessary.

Get Information on a single file

To display information for a single file or folder, control-click it and pick Get Info.

This will bring up a window containing all kinds of information on the file, such as creating date, file size, and much more. Depending on the file type additional information is presented.

This is a lot of information at once, so let’s look at it in detail. We will go through each section. You can contract and expand each section by clicking the triangle in front of the section name.

Spotlight Comments

Spotlight - the fast Desktop search for Mac OS X (which you can launch through the magnification glass in the top right corner) does not only search file by file name, but can also look at custom comments you assign to certain files in the Spotlight Comments window.

For example, let’s put “client1″ into Spotlight Comments of a file, named “Bluehound.gif”

As we perform a Spotlight search, this file will be found because of the matching Spotlight comment.

This is very handy to find files, which are spread across a directory structure.

General
This section contains all kind of general information on the selected file, such as kind, file size, storage location, etc.

Label allows you to assign a color label to a file. You can use this to categorize files to certain areas (for example, you could assign the green color label to all documents relating to your personal finances).

In Finder, these files will show up with the color you chose as background color, making it easier to identify them.

Hint: You can also assign a color by control-clicking a file and picking a color from the contextual menu.

More info
This sections shows you additional information, depending on the file type. As displayed in the following screen shot, dimension and color space for a picture file (.gif)

For other file types (such as music files or documents) this section will look different. Check it out by yourself.

Name and Extension
Extensions are a thing very important to switchers, since other platforms use the extension (the three letters after the dot in the file name) to indicate the type of file you’re dealing with.

Mac OS X handles things a bit different and doesn’t necessarily need file name extensions (this information is stored along with the file).
Moreover, Mac OS X - by default - hides common extensions, such as those for images.

Check the box Hide extension in the File Info window to display/hide the file extension on an individual file basis.

And here is how to display the file extension for all files:
1) Open Finder Preferences (via the Finder menu > Preferences)
2) Switch to the Advanced Tab
3) Check Show all file extensions

Hint: Mac OS X does not need file extensions to be able to handle files correctly, but other platforms do. So, if you exchange files with people working on other platforms, always make sure the files have the correct extension.

Open With
This is an important one. You can define a certain file to open with a specific application, while all other files (of the same type) continue to open with the standard application (e.g. Preview for all images and .pdf files)

Click Change All… to change the standard application this type of file (e.g. all “.gif” files) is opened with.
Preview
If possible, this sections shows a small preview of the file. This is the same as you see if you view your files in Finder as Icons (In Finder: View menu > As Icons)

Sharing and Permissions
Mac OS X does a good job of protecting your personal files. If you happen to share your Mac with other users, this can be really important as you don’t want others to see and be able to edit your personal files.

As Sharing and Permissions is such a big topic, we will not go into full detail and only cover basic usage right now.
Click the lock icon to be able to make changes. You can assign certain users and user groups the right to read and/or write your files and folders. If you don’t have the Permission to see the content of a folder, it will look like this:

Folders that you can only write to, but not display the content is called a drop box. Once it’s in you can’t retrieve it again (since you can write to the folder, but are not allow to display the content - like a balloting box). A Drop Box folders look like this:

The Public folder in every user’s home directory is a folder, every other user can access. So that’s a good way to exchange files between users, but maintain your privacy.

This concludes the File Info roundup. Be sure to check out Mac OS X special features such as Spotlight comments and color labels. They can be extremely useful to organize your files in more ways as only with folders.

While in Finder, press either command-down arrow or command-O. Both keyboard shortcuts work equally well, use the one that is more comfortable to you.

Command-down arrow will also open folders, so you can drill down a folder structure, using this keyboard shortcut. Command-up arrow will let you go to the parent directory of the current file or folder.

Take a look at this post, to review the special keys on your Mac keyboard.

This will shut down your Mac as you click on the menu item. Note, that the three dots after disappear as you press alt/option, indicating that it’s a direct command (i.e. no dialog is following when picking this menu item).