Top 6 Built In Mac Features to Increase Productivity

Most Mac users are aware of the “hot corners” feature however most users I know hardly ever use it.  Hot corners refers to setting the computer to do a specific action when the mouse cursor is moved to a corner of the screen.  For example, if you want to start your screen saver or put your computer to sleep you can just move your cursor to the designated corner.  You can set these hot corners to do a number of actions.  For example, I have my hot corners set up as follows:

Much like hot corners and expose, Spaces gets used a lot on my computer.  Being a full time grad student, working full time and being Founder and Editor in Chief of Geekulous requires me to use multiple applications simultaneously.  I’m also a bit of a neat freak, so you can imagine when I have multiple application windows open at once, I don’t like them cluttering up my desktop. Spaces allows me to feed my insatiable need for neatness, essentially it allows me to have multiple desktops.  In the system preferences pane you can designate as many spaces as you like.  Consider each ‘space’ as a new desktop.  Typically I like to have specific apps open on each space.  For example, I have a blogging space that has all of my blogging software and websites open.  On another space I may have all of my media applications open.  To jump between spaces all I have to do is hit a few keys (I have mine set to Command + the space #).  Another nice feature of Spaces is that you can designate specific apps to open in specific spaces, for example if I have one of my spaces designated as a media space I may set all of my media applications (iTunes, VLC, Quicktime, FinalCut, etc.) to open within that space.  Once set up, if I open Tunes I’ll be taken to my media space and iTunes will open.  Spaces, it’s a beautiful thing, check it out.

I am an internet addict, I love getting lost on the web, jumping from site to site, and discovering new content.  As you all know (since you’ve found this site through web browsing) getting on the internet can make time fly, you get on the computer at 1:00pm and 3 hours later you’re still on the computer looking at sites.  My computer is the last thing I see when I go to sleep and the first thing I see when I wake up.  My usual morning ritual includes waking up to my iPhone, waking up my computer, checking email and reading the lates
t headlines in my feed aggregator (Feedly).  Naturally, curled up in my warm bed, just waking up and surfing the net is more appealing than getting ready for work and oftentimes I find myself spending entirely too much time on the computer in the morning.  Enter – the timed sleep function.  Mac’s have this nifty little feature hidden in the power settings in system preferences.  You can set you computer to go to sleep at a specific time.  A perfect way for me to force myself out off the computer and out of bed.  I have my computer is set to go to sleep 20 minutes after I wake up (for example, I usually wake up at 6:00, my computer is set to go to sleep at 6:20) and voila! I have mastered morning procrastination!

Have you ever found yourself forgetting where you saved that important document, searching through all of your folders?  What about trying to look for a document with a forgotten file name?  Well then Spotlight is the feature for you.  There’s a little magnifying glass in the upper right corner of all macs that can help you find what you’re looking for.  Click on that magnifying glass (or press Command+Space) and enter the file name or portion of the document you’re looking for.  Spotlight will search your entire computer for files, webpages or applications with similar names or content.  Not only does Spotlight help you find lost files, it will also define a word for you (enter the word in spotlight and you’ll receive a definition from the built in dictionary), and help you find and open an application quickly.  For example, I use spotlight frequently to open my Keychain app.  I just press command+space, and enter ‘ke’, press enter and my keychain comes up.  Simple as pie!

Along the same lines as Spotlight, quicklook allows you to preview a file before opening it.  Quicklook can come in handy when you’re searching for a file but don’t want to waste your time opening multiple windows.  Have multiple versions of a paper you’re working on?  No problem, all you have to do is highlight the file and press space, the Quicklook window will pop up, you can scroll through the entire document and even make it full screen.  It gets better, Quicklook isn’t just for documents, it’s for all file types, meaning if you want to preview that picture before you launch iPhoto, watch that movie before you launch iTunes go ahead, just highlight the file name in your finder and press the space bar and voila! You’re getting a quick look at the file.  This feature can really cut your work time down if you know how to use it, and now you do so go ahead, try it!