Category: Average Joe’s Tips

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Average Joe's Tips

How to: Change Your Modifier Keys

 

Changing your modifier keys to your own preference is very easy and helpful, especially for PC users that have recently switched over to a Mac. To change the Alt, Command, and Control button so that it mimics a PCs is very simple. First, open System Preferences, then select Keyboards, and press on Modifier Keys. A smaller screen will come down and from there you can select the pull down menu on Caps Lock, Control, Option, and Command to change what keys do what. Note that you can change each one of the previously listed keys and so that it acts like one of the other modifier keys. For example, if you wanted to change the Caps Lock action to another key you can make it so that when you select the Command key it acts like the Caps Lock key instead. To do this you select the pull down screen next to Caps Lock Key and select the key that you want to perform the Caps Lock action on, but for this to work properly you will also need to make sure that none of the Actions have the same key or it will not work. Another great thing to do is disable the Caps Lock key by selecting No Action in the pull down screen. The Modifier Keys are great for people who switched from PCs to Macs or for people who just don’t want there Caps Lock on.

 

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Average Joe's Tips

How To: Customize with Mac OS X Lion

Want to learn how to customize Launchpad and your desktop backgrounds in Mac OS X Lion? Well there are many different ways to customize your Launchpad’s background and the different desktops space’s backgrounds in Mac OS X.

First, if you want to change Launchpad’s background open up Launchpad then select Command + B which will take you through each background as shown above. There are four different backgrounds: clear with color, clear in black and white, blurry with color, blurry with black and white.

Next, if you want to change each individual background for each desktop space you have to right click on your desktop and select change background, then repeat on all of your other backgrounds.

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Average Joe's Tips

How to: Facetime

FaceTime is a video chatting application that you can use from iPhone to iPhone or computer to iPhone. To even start your FaceTiming journey you need to make sure that you have an Apple account ready, which can be the same one that you use for iTunes or the App Store. After that you will have to verify your account and to do this they will send you an email and then you will need to select the link they give you and log in. Then once you are logged in all of your contacts from Adress Book will show up on the right side. FaceTime will automatically know what phones can and cannot video chat. It will do this when you call someone on FaceTime and if the call ends quickly then they are not FaceTime compatible, but if it keeps calling then they are FaceTime compatible. It is clear that FaceTime was made to further expand social networking to allow people without FaceTime enabled phones to talk to people with FaceTime enabled phones.

 

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Average Joe's Tips

The Basics and More: Photo Booth

 

Basic Use:

Photo booth is an easy and fun app to use if you are having a party or hanging out with friends. To take a photo or movie all that you have to do is select the red button in the middle of the screen and a count down timer will apear. If you want to switch from photos to movies just go to the very left where you can choose from these options and another one where you can take four pictures in a row. If you want effects select the Effects button on the right hand side and scroll through the many affects they give you. Photos and movie shots taken will apear on the bottom.

Other:

If you have OSX Lion then you already know that you can make your applications full screen including Photo Booth by going to the top right hand corner of the window and clicking on the expand button. In doing this it takes you to a new screen and Photo Booth will be enlarged. Also, if you are looking for more Photo Booth Effects then you can look around on Google for sites that have what you want.

Conclusion:

Photo Booth is a great way to have fun with friends because it is quick and easy. There is not very much to Photo Booth, but it’s simplicity keeps it user friendly to everyone.

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Average Joe's Tips

The Basics and More: System Preferences

 

Basics:

System Preferences is great because it allows you to control almost every setting on your Mac all in one spot. To start I am going to show you how to use System Preferences interface. To navigate around just click on the icons of what you want or you can search it in the top right hand corner. To track back just click the backward or forward buttons on the top left and to go to the main menu select Show All.

 

Advanced

The two panes that I use the most are Desktop and Screen Saver, and Mission Control. To use Desktop and Screen Saver’s settings you can navigate through it by going to the left where all the photos and screen savers on your computer will be. To select a background or screen saver just choose the desired photo or screen saver on the side. Sometimes it will bring you to a folder so you can sort from there.  Personally, I just put photos on a slideshow and choose a default screen saver because it is the easiest thing to do.

Mission control is very simple, yet effective because it allows you to use many different shortcuts. For Keyboard Shortcuts you can change how to access the shortcut by scrolling down the menu next to it. Another thing that is very useful is the Hot Corners section where it allows you to scroll to any given corner and it will do what you had designated it to do.

 

Conclusion

System Preferences is a great way to control settings on your Mac all in one place. It can be a very simple or complicated application depending on how you use it with many ways to customize and secure your Mac.

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.