Microsoft Word keyboard shortcut to close the sidebar
Microsoft Word 2011 does not, as far as I can tell, offer a means of assigning a keyboard shortcut to close the sidebar. The AppleScript described here provides that functionality, and sets a keyboard shortcut that will trigger it. Name the following Applescript "MicrosoftWordCloseSidebar\mosH.scpt" (notice the reversed slash) and save it in ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Word Script Menu Items: do shell script "osascript -e ' tell application \"System Events\" to tell process \"Microsoft Word\" set {frontmost, itemFound} to {true, false} repeat with w in windows tell w to repeat with g in groups tell g to repeat with c in checkboxes tell c to if value of its attribute \"AXHelp\" = \"Close the Sidebar\" then set ...
published on Wednesday, the 27. February 2013, macosxhints
Briefly: KeyCover for iPad, iSkin iPad mini folios
Kensington has released a new case for the iPad that integrates a Bluetooth keyboard. The KeyCover Hard Shell Keyboard for iPad features a full QWERTY keyboard, as well as a row of dedicated iPad action keys. This includes media playback control, as well as shortcuts for accessing Spotlight and locking the device. An integrated stand also allows the case to hold the iPad in both landscape and portrait orientations while typing. Pre-orders for the KeyCover are currently being accepted through Kensington's website for $80....
published on Tuesday, the 12. February 2013, macintosh-news-network
Reopen accidentally closed tab(s) in Google Chrome
If you close a tab in Google Chrome by accident, there's a keyboard shortcut to reopen it. Just press Command-Shift-T. This works for multiple tabs, though I didn't test to say how many Chrome remembers.
published on Thursday, the 24. January 2013, macosxhints
Workaround to use Emoji fonts in Pages
You can use Emoji fonts in Mail and TextEdit, but the Apple color Emoji font has never worked in Pages. For some reason Apple has not yet updated the app so that Pages can use these characters. Until Apple fixes this problem in a future Pages update, here's a workaround for using Emoji fonts in Pages. First make sure your toolbar shows the keyboard icon on the right side of your toolbar. If not, go to System Preferences and then click on Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts; and check “Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar.” Open your Character Viewer and select the Emoji font. Then select the Emoji image you want to use. An enlarged version will appear in the Emoji icon box. Press Command-Control-Shift-4, and your cursor will now be a crosshair. Click and drag the crosshair around the large Emoji icon into a box frame and release your mouse or trackpad. You have now captured the Emoji icon as a screen shot on your clipboard. Click in your ...
published on Monday, the 14. January 2013, macosxhints
iTunes 11: Keyboard shortcut to clear currently playing track
Even though iTunes is my bailiwick over at Macworld, I've found the new Up Next feature to be quite confusing. It's taken me a while to suss out all its details and I've figured it out, but I find it quite confusing. In updating my Take Control of iTunes: The FAQ ebook, my editor, Michael Cohen, noted a useful keyboard shortcut for working with Up Next. If you press Command-. (that's a period), this stops playback and clears the currently playing track from the iTunes LCD. I haven't yet found a way to clear the Up Next queue from the keyboard, however. If anyone's spotted a shortcut for that, feel free to post it in the comments or submit it as a hint. (As a reminder, you can display the Up Next queue by pressing Command-Option-U.)
published on Wednesday, the 26. December 2012, macosxhints
iTunes 11: Use Up Next to play one song then stop playback
The AppleScript I provided previously for this doesn't work in iTunes 11, but Up Next can be used instead. I previously submitted this AppleScript to provide a way to play one song then stop playback in iTunes. The script doesn't work in iTunes 11, but Up Next can be used instead. Also, using this method, it can be accomplished entirely from the keyboard. (It's important to note that "All controls" must be checked at the bottom of the Keyboard Shortcuts tax tab in the Keyboard pane of System Preferences.) The objective is to be able to select a single song in a playlist, make it start playing, then prevent playback from continuing after the song has been played in its entirety. This can be done in iTunes 11 by selecting a song to play using alternating key presses of Tab, Shift-Tab, Up Arrow and Down Arrow. The next step is most important: open the Up Next list with Command-Option-U, and ...
published on Tuesday, the 11. December 2012, macosxhints
iTunes 11: Keyboard shortcut to add songs to Up Next queue
We posted two ways to quickly add songs to the Up Next queue in iTunes 11, but there's also a keyboard shortcut you can use. Select one or more songs, then press Option-Return. This adds the songs to be played next.
published on Tuesday, the 4. December 2012, macosxhints
A service to log Dictionary lookups
This Service adds any unique words you look up in the OS X Dictionary app to a TextEdit document that is- saved on your desktop, so that you can review, or repeat them later. Then you can use the same service to look up those words that you have logged already; they won't be added to your log file. The service is seamlessly integrated with the Dictionary service on your Mac. It is even installed on the same keyboard shortcut: Command-Control-D. The only limitation is that it only works with selected text, so if you are looking up a word by hovering the cursor over it, in, say, Preview or Safari, then you'll have to choose More in the lower right corner of the Dictionary sheet that pops up to view the full Dictionary window. Then you'll have to press Command-Control-D once more, to "log" the word into the text file (the search word turns up selected in the Dictionary window.) Avoid the above limitation by selecting the word before Command-Control-D. If y ...
published on Thursday, the 8. November 2012, macosxhints
Use keyboard shortcuts to go to favorite mailboxes
Mail in OS X has a Favorites Bar (View > Show Favorites Bar) where you can drag the mailboxes you use often. If you do this, you can use keyboard shortcuts to go to these mailboxes. Command-1 is the first one on the left, Command-2 the second one, and so on. Interestingly, even if you don't have the Favorites Bar displayed, you can use these shortcuts to switch to their mailboxes. So if you want to apply keyboard shortcuts for your favorite mailboxes, and don't want to see the Favorites Bar, display it, add the mailboxes in the order you want, then hid the Favorites Bar. You can see the shortcuts in the Mailbox > Go to Favorite Mailbox menu in case you forget which shortcut to use. This was mentioned in passing in this hint about moving messages to favorite mailboxes, but deserves a mention on its own.
published on Wednesday, the 7. November 2012, macosxhints
Easily enter different e-mail addresses in Safari on iOS
I've recently needed to fill in an e-mail address in Safari on my iPad for a number of sites. I have multiple e-mail addresses and they're not trivial to type. I kept thinking "why doesn't Safari let me pick one of my addresses to fill in here?" While I couldn't find a way to make that happen, I realized I could do this by creating shortcuts for my commonly used email addresses and get a very similar result. To do this, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Tap on Add New Shortcut, enter a "phrase" - this can be a single word, an e-mail address or a longer text - then enter a shortcut. For example, to enter myname@example.com, enter a shortcut such as "myn." [kirkmc adds: I've been using shortcuts for some user names that aren't e-mail addresses, since I generally use the same address on most websites, but this is a good way of easily entering any kind of text. If you don't know about them, you should. One interesting thing to point ...
published on Tuesday, the 30. October 2012, macosxhints