Silvermac

You already know how to use the QuickView in OS X, select the document or image and either click the QuickView icon in Finder or press the space bar.

However, once the file is displayed you can either view it in the default size (fit to window) or in full screen view.

There is another way to zoom the view, though. Once the file is displayed hold the Option key on your keyboard to display magnifier pointer and click somewhere on the displayed file. The file will zoom-in to where you just clicked.

You can click 10 times to zoom in 10% increments to a maximum 200% magnification. At any stage you can let go off the Option key and move the image around within the window.

To zoom out simply hold Option+Shift and click on the file, again in 10 steps.

One of the very frustrating things in Mac OS X is that you cannot click a button and show Desktop. Well, you can … sort of. You have three options:

• Press F11, this will engage expose and move all windows to the edge of your screen,
• Click anywhere on your desktop while holding Cmnd-Option on your keyboard – this will hide all programs, except Finder if open, or
• You can use ShowDesktop, a free application by Everyday Software that sits in your dock or your menu bar and shows desktop by simply clicking on it.

One of the new functions of iPhoto 09 are Faces. When you select the Faces in the menu bar on the left you will see a cork board with the thumbnails of faces that iPhoto has identified in your library. The default thumbnail photo, or the key photo, is not always the best choice, so you’d like to change it.

There are two ways of doing this. Firstly, you can click on a little “i” icon in the bottom right corner of the photo, then skim through the photos until you find the one you like. Click on it and your new key photo will be set.

The other and easier way of doing this is simply to skim through the images (slide your mouse pointer over the thumbnail) while on the cork board, and once you see the photo you’d like to set as a key, just hit space bar. The new key photo is set. The same applies for the Events view thumbnails.

An extra tip – if you are skimming through the Faces, hold down the Option button, this will show you the entire photo, not only the face.

You can change your display contrast by using a simple keyboard shortcut:
Ctrl + Option + Cmnd + period (or >) to increase the contrast, or
Ctrl + Option + Cmnd + comma (or <) to decrease it.

Dock Spaces is an application that allows you to have up to 10 different docks and swap anytime you want from the menu bar. It will radically improve your productivity, and completely reinvent your user interface experience.

Spaces integration will offer you a different Dock depending on your Space. A native Cocoa application, FREE of charge and Leopard only.

Here is a very handy tip for all of you who like to have a messy and crowded desktop, with hundreds many windows open at the same time.

You are writing an article and referencing at the same time from another source, say the web browser. Now you need to move that browser window in the background, but it really annoys you that every time you do that, you lose the focus of your main window, or even a group of windows. Photoshop, anyone?

Don’t worry, doesn’t need to happen. Simply hold the Command key down, then click on the window in the background and move it.

The window will move in the background, without affecting the harmony of your desktop mess. You can even move it ‘through’ the foreground window, it will just keep going like there’s nothing in its way.