zeller@ethz.UUCP (Lukas Zeller) (04/06/89)
I am using my Mac almost every day for a year now, but there are still
some (many?) features hidden in the machine. I think primarily of tricks one
can do with the modifier keys, tiny indicators on the screen or things like
the check monitor sounds (see "...Mac that sings" articles). Most probably
many of them are mentioned *somewhere* in the technical documentation, but the
information is scattered over many thousand pages. Maybe there are even
undocumented tricks that could be useful in some situations.
That's why I'm posting this article to the net: There is no single feature,
I'm sure, that is unknown to all of you out there! I'd like to collect your
knowledge on that topic and make it available to all Mac users on the net.
Please email me if you know a trick that you think is *not* common knowledge
of the average Mac user. I'll compile your contributions and create a summary,
so don't post your answers.
To prevent me drowning in mails and the summary getting 1000 pages long,
please check your contribution against the following rules before sending it:
- I'm looking for general features only that apply to any Mac equipped as it
comes from Apple. So please *don't* send information related to specific
programs, INITs etc.
- The tricks should be simple. Of course, there are a lot of interesting
things one can do twiddling resources, but these are *not* subject of this
inquiry.
- Please check if the information you send is valid. I might not be able to
test all your contributions on my Mac. If you have heard from a colleague
whose friend used a Mac two years ago that it might be possible to do
this-and-that :-), please test first if it's really true.
- Details about a feature such as ROM/system/machine versions it works with
or where a description can be found in the documentation are greatly
appreciated.
The following four examples might show you what kind of information I'm
looking for more accurately:
- Command-Option-Doubleclicking a file causes the file to be launched
like an application. It depends on the file this trick is applied to (some
crash, some return an error) but you can e.g. start MultiFinder from the
normal Finder this way without restarting the system.
- In all Finder windows there is an indicator that shows if the window belongs
to a HFS or MFS volume: The leftmost pixel between the two lines below the
header (# of items and disk space info) is black for HFS and white for MFS.
- If Command-Shift-Option-Delete is held down at startup, SCSI harddisks will
not be mounted automatically. I wish I had known that when the driver on
my HD got damaged once: I had to disconnect the harddisk drive and reconnect
it while the Mac was running to prevent the bad driver to be loaded...
- It is said that there is a way to create a file containing the PostScript
commands that would normally be sent to the LaserWriter by pressing some
keys in the print dialog box. But which keys?
If you have suggestions about how you'd like to see the results of this
inquiry, please let me know. At the moment I think of a summary in "quick
reference card" style. I'll post it as plain text but if there is enough
interest I might send a MS-Word or MacWrite document to comp.binaries.mac
as well. But now it's up to *you* to send me information to summarize...
Thanks a lot in advance!
========================== +---------------------------+ *****************
Lukas Zeller |\ E-Mail: /| * Never trust a *
ETH Zurich, Switzerland | \_______________________/ | * computer *
(SFIT, Swiss Federal | / zeller@ethz.UUCP \ | * bigger than *
Institute of Technology) | / ..cernvax!ethz!zeller \ | * you can lift *
========================== +---------------------------+ *****************jlc@atux01.UUCP (J. Collymore) (04/07/89)
In article <812@ethz.UUCP>, zeller@ethz.UUCP (Lukas Zeller) writes: > I am using my Mac almost every day for a year now, but there are still > some (many?) features hidden in the machine. I think primarily of tricks one > can do with the modifier keys, tiny indicators on the screen or things like > the check monitor sounds (see "...Mac that sings" articles). Most probably > many of them are mentioned *somewhere* in the technical documentation, but the > information is scattered over many thousand pages. Maybe there are even > undocumented tricks that could be useful in some situations. > > The following four examples might show you what kind of information I'm > looking for more accurately: > > - Command-Option-Doubleclicking a file causes the file to be launched > like an application. It depends on the file this trick is applied to (some > crash, some return an error) but you can e.g. start MultiFinder from the > normal Finder this way without restarting the system. For those of you who don't know, there IS a book out on the market (at least it is here in the U.S.) called: "The MacIntosh Bible" that contains a lot of the above little tricks. Some of the tricks are Mac general, others are program specific. The book is about $25. I will try to post tomorrow the publisher and authors. > If you have suggestions about how you'd like to see the results of this > inquiry, please let me know. At the moment I think of a summary in "quick > reference card" style. I'll post it as plain text but if there is enough > interest I might send a MS-Word or MacWrite document to comp.binaries.mac > as well. But now it's up to *you* to send me information to summarize... The above NET compilation of such Mac tricks could be useful for those of us who may not have access to the above book, BUT if you can't download stuff from the net (like I seem to be unable to do) you may want to call your local bookstore and see if THEY have the "MacIntosh Bible" (if not, maybe they can special order it for you). Please understand, I do not mean to squash this discussion, but I did want to inform those of you interested in, or in need of, this type of Mac info, that a source DOES exist. Jim Collymore FYI means: For Your Information (a commonly used business term)