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Mountain Lion Tips
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Since Mountain Lion was released I've been working on digging in and learning all the ins and out. While I try and figure out what's new and worth while I thought it would be good to share some of the early tips and tricks I've discovered
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iCloud Open Dialog
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Works if you have enabled your iCloud account on your Mac. System Preferences > iCloud and Sign-in
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In apps that have enable support for saving to iCloud. TextEdit is a good one to start with.
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You get the Document Library window with options to open files from iCloud or On My Mac (local)
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You can view files by Date or Name, but the tabs are hidden. Scroll down in the window to reveal the sort tabs which are hidden under the titlebar.
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You can create a document in the iCloud folder by choosing 'New Document'
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If you have several documents in the iCloud folder you can drag one on top of the other, like in iOS, to create a subfolder.
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Select a file and use the Share button at the bottom, so share with Messages, Email, or AirDrop
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Drag a file from the Finder into this window to add it to iCloud. Drag it out to move it back to the Finder. If you hold the option key while dragging it will copy the file rather than move it.
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You can also drag documents between two Applications Document Libraries.
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Once you finish editing a document and close it, you can get the iCloud panel back by choosing File > Open…
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To move an iCloud file from the cloud to your Mac, open it. Click on the name of the file in the titlebar and select Move To… Under the 'Where' drop down you can choose from several areas on your Mac or choose 'Other…' to select a location.
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Dictation
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To enable, open up System Preferences and choose 'Dictation & Speech'
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Turn the Dictation radio button to 'On'
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The default activation key is pressing the 'Fn' key twice but you can also change it from the drop-down menu here.
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Then from any application where you can type text all you have to do is double tap the 'Fn' key and then start talking. When you're done just click the 'Done' button or tap the 'Fn' once to finish.
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The audio is converted to speech from a server, so an internet connection is required.
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I was very impressed with this feature as it worked remarkably well and was incredibly accurate.
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Jump up in Mail list
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In Mail you can use a trick to quickly get back up to the top of the email list
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This one seems to have been borrowed from iOS
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When viewing Mail at the top of the list of email messages is a light grey bar with the sort options (i.e. 'Sort By Date'). Clicking this will auto scroll the list back up to the top.
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Mail VIPs
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Easily separate and view mail from specific contacts regardless of which inbox their messages come in on.
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In Mail there is a new special VIP Mailbox (well, really just filtered view of emails that come from contacts you specify as VIP)
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VIP mail will still be in the inbox for the email account it was sent to, but will also appear in the VIP section, noted with a star icon
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To make someone a VIP
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When reading a message from the click the "star" icon to the left of the email address in the message header
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You can also click on their address in the header and choose Add to VIPs
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Do the opposite to remove VIPs
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Exposé Tabs in Safari
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I believe this trick will work in Safari 6 under OS X Lion as well.
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When you have multiple tabs open you can see a new icon on the right of the bookmark bar. It looks like a little "cover flow" icon.
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Click that to get a "tab" view
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If you have a track pad you can also access it with a pinch gesture
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Now you can see and scroll through the tabs. Swipe left and right on a trackpad.
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Click to activate that tab.
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This is an old trick, but still a good one. If you drag the tab down and let go it will open into it's own window.
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You can also drag tabs between windows.
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To combine all open Safari windows into one window with tabs, choose the Window > Merge All Windows option
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iCloud tabs are also amazing
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Click the cloud icon in the toolbar and it will show all the tabs that are open on any Mac or device that is enabled and registered to the same iCloud account.
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Hold option key down while selecting the item to have it open in a new tab in the background. Option+Shift select and it will open in a new tab in the foreground
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Rename without leaving your App
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When working in a document you can now rename the file without having to go to the Finder.
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Click the filename in the titlebar and choose 'Rename…'
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The filename will become editable right in the titlebar.
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Three Finger Tap
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In the Finder using a trackpad this will now enable Quicklook for the item you 3-finger tap on.
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If you 3-finger tap on a word in Safari or other application with text it will give you the definition. This was a 3-finger double tap in OS X Lion.
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You might need to enable this one.
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System Preferences > Trackpad > Point & Click. Enable 'Look up' option.
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Launch from Launchpad
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I've always been partial to using Spotlight as my App launcher
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Press Command + Space
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Type the first few letters of the Applications name
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When it shows up as 'Top hit' press 'Return' to launch the App.
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In Lion Apple added the iOS style Launchpad, but it required scrolling though App icons to get to the App you need.
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In Mountain Lion tough the've added search.
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Activate Launchpad. 3-finger + Thumb pinch in gesture, hit the function hotkey on the keyboard, or click the icon if it's in your Dock.
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Start typing, just like with Spotlight. The Apps will filter to just the matching ones.
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If there are multiple results you can use the arrow keys to highlight the correct one.
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Hit 'Return' and it will launch
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Bring Back Finder Zoom
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In OS X Lion we lost the ability to zoom in on icons in the icon view from the window
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If you wanted icons bigger you could adjust them from the View > Show View Options panel, but no longer from in the window itself.
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Now it's back if you know where to look.
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First, you need to be in iCon view. A pictures folder is a good place to use this view. Open the window and click the 'Show items as icons' button in the tool bar.
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Now make sure you've enabled the Status Bar. View 'Show Status Bar'
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In the Status Bar on the right you should se the size slider. You can now zoom the icon size up and down until you get it just the way you want it.
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Notification Center
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Clicking on the 3-line icon at the top right of the menubar will reveal notifications
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You can also two finger swipe in from the far right edge of the trackpad.
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System Preferences > Notifications allows you to control settings and which Apps you want to notify you and how.
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Some Apps have additional notification options in their own preferences
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Mail has, Mail > Preferences > General
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New message notifications: Options for 'Inbox Only', 'VIPs', 'Contacts', or 'All Mailboxes'
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You can temporarily disable seeing notifications for up to 24 hours.
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Activate Notification center
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Scroll down in the panel to reveal the 'Show Alerts and Banners' toggle
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Switch it to 'Off' and you won't see alerts or banners for 24 hours or until it's turned on again.
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Alerts will still be received in the background and show up in the notification center you just won't be alerted to their arrival.
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You can also hold option while clicking the icon in the menubar to toggle notification alerts on and off
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Some web apps can also send alerts to notification center (though I haven't had any ask yet)
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Safari > Preferences > Notifications
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Will show a list of sites that have requested access
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Allow you to remove access to specific ones or all of them
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You can also tweet directly from the Notification center
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Need to have Twitter enabled from System Preferences > Mail, Contacts, & Calendars
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Then in System Preferences > Notifications > Twitter. Make sure 'Show in Notification Center' is checked.
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Then there will be a 'Click to Tweet' button
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Clicking will slide down a Tweet Sheet
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Incidentally, Facebook sharing will also be integrated into Mountain Lion with similar options and functionality to Twitter, but it will be an update that arrives in the Fall.
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Save As is Back
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Yes, it's back. Well at least if you know where to look.
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I guess enough of us complained about this one.
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If you hold down the option key while accessing the File menu, you'll get the lost Save As… command.
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The keyboard shortcut is Command+Option+Shift+S
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Auto-locking of files has been removed.
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This was a Lion feature of auto-save that would lock a file after a specified time after it was created and not modified.
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The default was I think 2-weeks
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You can still lock files manually by clicking their title in the document window and choosing 'Lock'
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Accessibility Quick Access
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Press Command+Option+F5
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Brings up a panel to enable Accessibility features
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Enable things like, Zoom using scroll gestures. Once on holding Control+2-finger swipe up or down on trackpad will zoom.
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Also quickly enable or disable VoiceOver.
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Airplay System Audio
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A lot of attention is being given Airplay mirroring as it should, but you can also now send system level audio to an AppleTV or Airplay speakers
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You have also been able to send audio from specific applications like iTunes or QuickTime over Airplay, but not you can divert all system audio.
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If you option+click the Audio icon in the menubar you will see available Airplay devices under the Output Device options
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You can also select these from System Preferences > Sound by clicking on the output tab
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Under the 'Type' column you'll see Airplay devices as out put options.
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