New Gestures in Lion and Mountain Lion

A reader emailed me this question:

My screen jumps to the left and reveals a few apps on a black background ( temp, calculator etc). This always comes as a surprise… I have no idea how it happens but I would love to know. And other times, I see miniatures of what’s open..what’s that?

The Mac lets you use fast hand Gestures to activate different actions and windows. If you aren’t aware of these settings, you don’t realize that your movements are actually giving these commands.

The black background screen is the Dashboard, a collection of web based apps that you can open without first opening Safari and then navigating to the site. Your screen jumps to the Dashboard when you accidentally swipe the mouse or trackpad sideways.

The window with a mini view of all open applications is called Mission Control. With so many windows open, this feature makes it easy to quickly click on the one you want to work with next.

You can turn off these gestures: in System Preferences, under either Mouse or Trackpad, click More Gestures. Roll your cursor over the individual choices to see a short video that demonstrates what each gesture does. To turn off any gesture, just remove the check mark.

BONUS TIP: If you like to access Dashboard and Mission Control, but don’t like doing it with Gestures, you can set a keyboard combination to access them.

In System Preferences, click on Mission Control, choose a keystroke combination for each feature you want to use.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Settings for Visually and Hearing Impaired

Macs have always catered to users with visual and hearing disabilities, so it is no surprise that the iPhone and iPad also have settings to make using these devices easier for folks with limitations.

Tap Settings

Tap General

Tap Accessibility

Here you can turn on VoiceOver, to have the device read to you

You can Zoom text, make text much larger, even change the text to be white text on a black background.

This is also where you can set your device to work with an adaptive accessory if you have difficulty touching the screen.

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Clear Safari’s Cache in Lion and Mountain Lion

Safari’s Cache makes pages that you’ve previously loaded open faster. Often because it’s opening the older version of that page. Sometimes refreshing or reloading a page will bring up the newer version, but sometimes it’s best to Empty the Cache.

In previous versions of Safari, it was easy and clear how to Empty the Cache. The newest versions of Safari have changed where you go to empty out the Cache.

Now, under the Safari menu choose Reset Safari.

Remove the checkmarks next to things you do NOT want to reset.

Click Reset and everything else, including the cache, will be cleared.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Check out these free travel-related apps

Gas Buddy: Find gas stations near you and compare prices.

Hotel Tonight: Get last minute deals on hotels.

KidzOut: Find kid-friendly restaurants, parks and play places, even diaper changing stations.

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New VIP Feature of Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion, Apple’s newest operating system, is packed with new features and capabilities.

One feature in Mail is great for keeping track of emails from your most important people, your VIPs.

You can designate someone as a VIP by clicking the star icon to the left of the person’s name in any incoming or sent message. Every message to or from that person will now displays a star in message lists, making it easier to find those messages.

In addition, when you designate a person as a VIP, a new mailbox in the VIP Mailbox is created so that when you can click on a VIP’s name,you get a list of all messages, across all mailboxes (including Sent and Trash), to or from that person.

To remove the VIP designation, click on an email from that person, then click the arrow on the right side of their name and choose Remove from VIPS.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Undo and Redo

Did you know there is an UNDO and REDO button on the iPad?

If you accidentally delete some text, you can undo your last action in Mail or Notes.

To UNDO, tap to access the number keyboard, then tap the Undo key.

To REDO, tap to access the Symbol keyboard, then tap the Redo key.

As an alternative, you can also shake your device to undo and redo, like this:

After deleting some text, hold your iPad firmly with your both hands and give it a quick shake, and the Undo button slides in for you to undo.

To redo, shake it again.

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Keyboard Shortcuts in Safari

Instead of using your mouse’s scroll wheel or dragging the blue scroll bar, you can move down the page by pressing the Space Bar.

Move up the page by holding down the Shift key and pressing the Space Bar.

To go Back to the previous page, instead of clicking the Back Arrow, press the Delete key.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Copy and Paste

1. Yes, of course you can copy and paste text on your iPad and iPhone.

Press and hold your finger at the beginning of the text you want to select. A menu appears, and the text is highlighted in light blue and there are blue circles on either end of the selection

2. Drag the blue circles to highlight all of the text you want to work with or choose Select All

3. Choose Copy

4. Press and hold your finger where you want to put the text you copied

5. Choose Paste

Edit Text

Use this same technique of pressing and holding your finger to reposition your cursor to Edit text

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