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Keyboard Shortcuts 101

Mac has many keyboard shortcuts that help users save their time to complete various tasks. For example, command+c (Copy) and command+v (Paste), one of the most commonly used pair of shortcuts. However there are many other Shortcuts most users are not aware of. Here’s a few:

Command + Control + Option + 8 (For Pranksters) 

If you’re already aware of this shortcut, you’ve probably used this to prank your Mac user friends. Through this shortcut, you can invert the colors on your Mac screen. This shortcut was created to help those with visual impairments but it also provides a cool effect. Please note that in order for the shortcut to work, you need to have [Invert Colors] option ticked in your System Preferences.

Command + Control + D (For Students) 

There are often times when you feel lazy to look up a word when you are working on a document. By using this shortcut, you can look up a word while you type without searching for the meaning online. Please note that the dictionary provided through this shortcut is from the Mac OS dictionary and may not contain all the words you’re looking for.

Command + Option + Control + Eject (For Busy Workers) 

By using this shortcut, you can save time shutting down your Mac. Please note that as this shortcut instantly shuts down your Mac, make sure you’ve saved all your files. To put your Mac to sleep, press Command + Option + Eject.

Command + Option + M (For Businessmen or Online Shopaholics) 

Often at times, you lose track of the number of Windows you’ve opened due to many reasons. Through this shortcut you will minimize all opened windows in your dock and clean your window.

Command + Shift + 8 (For Mathematicians) 

On a document, if you type out a math operation such as 454+343 and you enter this shortcut, the answer will appear in no time. This shortcut helps you save time from using a calculator to solve your math problems. 

Command + Opt-a (For Youtubers) 

This wonderful shortcut helps you save Youtube videos on your Mac as an .flv file. Please note that this shortcut only works on Safari and the definition of the video may not be HD quality.

 

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Average Joe's Tips

What is Photostream

Photo stream is a great way to privately share your photos with friends from computer to computer and iPhone to iPhone. The way photo stream works is by wirelessly sending photos to designated devices using iCloud. Before we get started on using photo stream make sure you have all of the requirements: IOS 6.0 or later on all iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches, iPhoto 9.4, and an iCloud account. Now getting started is very simple, go into Settings (System Preferences) > iCloud > select photo steam On. For personal photo syncing, remember to use the same iCloud account for all devices that way everything will sync up (for example when you take a photo with your iPhone it will sync to your computer). To get shared photo streams on your iPhone start by going into Photos > Photo Stream > + > send to a friend’s email > Create. After the shared photo stream is setup, putting pictures in is the next step. Start by clicking on Edit > Add > then select desired photos. One great feature shared photo stream has is being able to like and comment on photos. All in all, photo stream is great because you are able to share photos privately without having to put it on a social networking site.

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Average Joe's Tips

How To: Use Mission Control

Mission Control is a new application that comes with OS X Lion. It gives you the ability to control and organize all of your windows and applications. Mission Control is a very basic and user friendly application. To quickly access Mission Control hit f3 depending on your keyboard. To use Mission Control you can add extra desktop spaces with the + button on the top right. To organize the desktop spaces just drag from side to side in desired order. Next when you open Mission Control it will display all of the windows opened in each of your desktop spaces. This allows you to see which window you want and to select it quickly. To go between desktop spaces swipe three or four fingers depending on what your preferences are. To check or change your preferences, open System Preferences, click on Trackpad, and go to More Gestures. Now that you know the basics of Mission Control, you are now ready to explore it on your own.

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News

YouTube Going Beyond 1080p

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pxRHBw-k8M]

For any avid YouTube watchers, 1080p was what made the difference between a good video and a great one. But now YouTube has integrated video quality beyond measure. After 1080p comes 1440p and finally 2160p, also know as 4k, Ultra HD, and UHD.
The upgrade to 4k seems great, but is it really? Although, the jump from 1080p to 2160p is noticeable, most people will not be able to experience the true clarity of 4k videos unless you have a retina display monitors or a 4k Display Monitors. Mixed in with the slower downloading speeds and older graphics cards not being able to support it. This brings up the question of “what is so great about 4k?” Since the majority of people do not have displays that can take advantage of 4k.

Stay connected at my twitter handle to stay updated 24/7 @TRMGaveragejoes and @realmacgenius What do you think? Let us know in the comment section. 

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Average Joe's Tips

The Basics and More: Stickies

Use:

The application Stickies is the simplest application on the Mac making it great for making reminders or lists. One of the basic use of stickies is changing colors, this is done by going to the top Menu Bar and selecting Color then scroll down and select the color you would like, or another thing Stickies allows you to do is make it transparent by going to Note on the top Menu Bar and then scrolling down to Translucent Window. To change fonts hit the keys Command + T then different fonts and colors will appear. To get a new stickie select Command + N and to delete a stickie select Command + W. One cool feature of Stickies is that it has speech enabled by selecting the desired stickie note and going to Edit in the top Menu Bar scrolling down to Speech and then selecting Start Speech. Clearly, Stickies is an application meant for simple everyday lists and reminders with special color-coding that you can use to organize as well as nice add-ons like Speech.

Stay connected at my new twitter handle to stay updated 24/7 @TRMGaveragejoes and @realmacgenius What do you think? Let us know in the comment section.