Mac Kindergarten

So there are a bunch of applications you use whenever you have your Mac on. Adium for Instant messaging, Safari for web browsing and so on.

Instead of opening them one by one every time you turn your Mac on, control-click their icon in the Dock and select Open at Login.

To remove the automatic start at Login again, just click the icon again. You see there is a little check mark next to Open at Login, click the menu item again to remove the check mark and thus disabling the automatic start.

If the desired application has no icon in the Dock, please read this post on how to get it there.

Previously we looked the Dashboard and how we can use it.  With this big number of widgets available, the Dashboard can get quite busy. Time to get rid of those you don’t need (or want).

To quickly remove a widget from your Dashboard, hold down the option key and move your mouse over the widget in question.

This will display the x-symbol to remove a widget in the upper left corner.

Click it and the widget is gone.

Stacks, as introduced here, also react to your keyboard input. So, if you have your Stack open, just type the beginning letters of an item of this Stack and it will get highlighted.

1) Click on a Stack.

2) Type the first letters of the item you wish to select.

3) Press return to open the selected item.

You can also use the arrow keys to highlight an item of a Stack.

Note: This works in every display mode of a Stack - no matter if you view it in Fan, Grid or List mode.

You can quickly resize the Dock without having to enter the System Preferences pane. Just move your mouse cursor over the “highway strip” of the Dock and the cursor will change into a 2-arrowed pointer.

Now click and drag up or down, to resize the Dock.

If you are using iSync a lot (or any other program) and are annoyed by always having to navigate to your Applications directory, look for the application and start it, you can keep it in your Dock (even when it’s not running).

(more…)

A really quick way to change the time of a meeting in iCal is to create it and then move the mouse close to the upper or lower edge of the event, so the mouse cursor turns into a double arrow.

Then just click and hold down the mouse button and move it up- or downwards to adjust the time.In order to rearrange a meeting, just drag it around on your schedule. No need to adjust the details, just move your mouse over an event, click and hold and drag the event around. Release when it has reached the right position.So, 2 quick and easy tips - exactly what we like.