The best thing of having the 30-inch Cinema Display is all the space you have for working — but what about those of us who aren’t so lucky to have one? There are ways to greatly take advantage of every pixel available in your screen. Keep on reading for a few tips.
More than 1024×768? Don’t bother with full-screen apps. Yes, people have been sighted using all the screen space in their 17-inch MacBook Pro just for browsing — or worse… just for Word. There’s no way these apps require that kind of screen space. Most websites are now designed to take advantage of the 1024×768 resolution — so keep your browser sized that way. As for Word, most people are comfortable using it within the 100%-125% zoom levels — try to keep the window sized that way. You can complement the rest of the screen with your IM app, downloads, plain desktop windows, or whatever else you can fit in.
Use Exposé. What’s so good of having a three-button mouse if you’re not using it efficiently? The best setup I’ve tried with a plain three-button mouse was having the middle button bring up all the windows using Exposé. That way, you’re a single click away from reaching your desired window. To program your mouse that way, go to System Preferences, choose Dashboard and Exposé, and choose the middle mouse button for bringing up all windows.
Also, get to know the F11 key on your keyboard, since it’s the default to hide all open windows and give you instant access to the desktop. But if you have a 3+ button mouse, lucky you — you’re set up for smooth sailing all the way.
Use Dashboard. Some apps now come with specialized widgets that do a great job, even when running in Dashboard’s background. Other widgets are so good on their own that you cannot believe they are plain widgets, like iClip lite 2. So… keep in handy some widgets that can help you work faster. To access Dashboard, the default key is F12 — but you can program it any way you like, just like Exposé.
Use Quicksilver. You’d be surprised how much time you can save on a daily basis once you get used to Quicksilver. It’s the best multi-purpose launcher to date — and plugins boost its efficiency in a considerable manner.
Use more than one desktop… By using a dual-screen setup, you’re practically guaranteed to become much more productive than by getting a brand-new computer. It’s amazing how much an extra display can increase productivity… especially for notebook setups.
…or use virtual desktops. If you don’t have the means for getting a second display at the moment, you could use virtual ones. Just like Apple’s forthcoming Spaces feature in Leopard, VirtueDesktops creates up to four desktops which are a breeze to switch into. One for work, one for the web, one for media, and one whatever comes up — this is a typical setup for most users. But you can get creative and use them to your own comfort.
So, there you have it — a few tips. Now it’s your turn: share a couple of tips that work for you.
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[tags]Apple,Mac,Hardware,Software[/tags]
S. Meylan on November 5th, 2006 at 9:42 am says:
Certain apps are atrocious users of space, most notably iChat with its enormous buddy list and separate conversation boxes. Use Adium or at least Chax to remedy this problem; adium can reduce the size of the buddy list to something less intrusive and can organize conversations into tabs; Chax can only do the latter but you get to keep all your multimedia functions.
sosudaniel on November 5th, 2006 at 9:44 am says:
well virtuedesktops support way more then 4 desktops. I use it with 9 desktops right now and thats not even the limit.
sammy on November 5th, 2006 at 10:02 am says:
Doesn’t Mac have a SplitView like utility that divides the screen into smaller parts, so you can get the benefit of dual-monitors, without buying one?
SUSEMonkeyBoy on November 5th, 2006 at 10:08 am says:
I use Desktop Manager rather than Virtue, I don’t like how Virtue freezes my main screen’s wallpaper, apparently it has to restore that wallpaper every time I start up.
I too use 2 screens, the 15″ MBP and a 21″ sidecar screen that usually has 5-10 apps and widgets in standalone mode there for reference and email etc.
sudodaniel on November 5th, 2006 at 10:13 am says:
It would be nice (not only in the Mac world) if OSs provided an option to maximize to 4:3. Of course this would also demand new preferences like maximize-to-4:3-snap-to-left/right…
Unfortunately this probably won’t come around too soon.
–sudox
Ed on November 5th, 2006 at 10:55 am says:
I always have several programs running at the same time, i never use the full screen option. Having several small screen programs is much better because you can be much more productive.
dan on November 5th, 2006 at 10:58 am says:
Gosh, imagine letting people use their screen space as they wish! What a novel, non-mac fanboy idea.
I prefer having apps fill the screen; multi-tasking just means less attention being paid to each app, not more to all apps.
apeguero on November 5th, 2006 at 11:35 am says:
Is there a way to hide the Mac Menu up top? To make it auto-hide like in Windows?
paranoid.android on November 5th, 2006 at 12:04 pm says:
Wow. I thought part of the fun of using a Mac was the flexibility of configuring the interface in a way that works best for yourself. Apparently I’ve been wrong the whole time I’ve been using my computer!
subcorpus on November 5th, 2006 at 12:05 pm says:
i use exposé …
but i like working full screen most of the time …
especially when surfing the web …
personal preference i guess …
but thanks for the tips …
Peter Morgan on November 5th, 2006 at 12:10 pm says:
With widescreen becoming more common, many apps make no sense at all when viewed full screen, such as a word processor. Certain applications such as iTunes and Excel which both have many vertical columns of information can benefit, but viewing full screen is also a hindrance to drag and drop operation.
MacMasore on November 5th, 2006 at 1:33 pm says:
Is there a way to hide the Mac Menu up top? To make it auto-hide like in Windows?
Yes try the app MenuShade
max andrews on November 5th, 2006 at 1:46 pm says:
menushade is at http://www.unsanity.com
They make some great software. I use shapeshifter to change OSX to a more professional look, getting rid of the traffic light window buttons applying a nice dark grey theme.
Dude on November 5th, 2006 at 1:47 pm says:
I’m using a Logitech MX1000 with my iMac (8 buttons!). I use the 3 side buttons for expose, it works amazingly.
Jim Peterson on November 5th, 2006 at 4:07 pm says:
Try hiding the Dock (Command + Alt + D). This saves a lot of vertical space, which is scarce on widescreen Macs such as my MacBook.
df0 on November 6th, 2006 at 5:50 am says:
Maximizing apps is terrible for multitasking, you can’t check things in other applications or move things between them fast enough when they are maximized.
Problem with windows is that everyone uses the computer like a small child with only 1 app filling the screen thus its hell trying to use windows like a mac because you click on your text editor to give it focus and the caret moves so you just lost your place where you were editing. Horrible tedious rubbish!
chris on November 6th, 2006 at 9:28 am says:
I’ve used QuicKeys on every computer I use (Mac or PC) for many years. You can assign hot keys to move between apps in a split second. Thus, Photoshop (for example) can be full screen and one can pop into Eudora (with multiple windows filling the screen) or
Steve on December 13th, 2006 at 10:23 am says:
I just recently picked up a pair of dell 20″ lcd’s. Definitely a big change from my single 21″ sony. My primary reason was so I could have photoshop on one screen and flash in another.
Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks so far is that, unlike a PC, the application menu stays locked to the menu bar in the upper right. This hasn’t been an issue with me until now. So, if I’m working on the second screen, I have to go all the way over to the left monitor to choose something from say, the Filter menu.
I’ve been looking into these Virtual Desktop apps.. but I’m not sure if this will solve my problem. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks!
fcodc on December 22nd, 2006 at 5:14 pm says:
Steve -
I’ve finally found a couple of options for you via UneasySilence:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/stepmenus/
http://homepage.mac.com/khsu/DejaMenu/DejaMenu.html
frank on July 29th, 2008 at 12:07 pm says:
I’ve used QuicKeys on every computer I use me too