You know the green ball with little diagonal arrows inside that you see in the upper left corner of your windows? This is one of the few Mac things that I don't recommend using. Instead, I would recommend that you take advantage of Cinch. Reminder of that follows…

Cinch

This feature will make you more productive as you navigate through the many documents you work on during the day you become more productive by making screens full screen to maximize your laptop's screen (as described in steps 1 and 2 below). You also can be productive between two documents and/or applications by tiling two windows (as described in steps 3 and 4 below.)

1. Grab any window and drag it directly UP. Once your mouse/arrow has gotten to the top of the screen you’ll see little hash marks around the entire computer screen.

2. Release the trackpad and your window will immediately go full screen.

3. Do the same thing, but to the right edge of your screen and your window will tile to half screen on the right.

4. Do the same thing, but to the left edge of your screen and your window will tile to half screen on the left.

If, for some reason the above doesn’t work for you, you simply need to install Cinch via Self Service. For step-by-step installation directions click here.

Browser Home Page:

You can make the 'Info" page (or ANY page) to be your home page by doing the following – depending on which browser you are using:

• Chrome/Preferences/Settings – check the box that says "show home button", then click "Change" to set the home page.

• Safari/View/Customize Toolbar – drag the home button UP to your tools (up by the back button, or wherever you want it, it will open up to give you room to drop it). Click Done. Then go to Safari/Preferences/General – set your home page. Also, here you may want to have "NEW WINDOWS" AND "NEW TABS" open with that home page if you like.

How do I make my signature in Apple's Mail application?

1. Go to the “Mail” menu and choose “Preferences”

2. When in the Preferences, choose “Signatures”

3. In the left box, choose your school email account

4. In the middle box, click the "+" sign

5. In the right box, type your signature as you wish it to appear on all of your emails

6. In the "Choose Signature" drop down menu, choose that signature so it always shows up in all of your emails.

7. Click the red ball to close that window

The "Microsoft Word margins are so big..."

When you make a new Microsoft Word document, the default margins are 1” on top and bottom and 1.25” on the left and right. Every time you make a new document you have to change it to smaller margins, or you are . Want to change the default so that YOUR choices are the defaults? Here’s how…

1. Open a new Microsoft Word document

2. Go to the “Format” menu and choose “Document”

3. Change the margins to what you like on a regular basis (I do .75 all the way around as my default)

4. THEN – in why lower left corner, click the “Default” button.

5. It will ask you “Do you want to change the default settings … … NORMAL Template”

6. Choose YES

7. Now, every time you make a new document, your margins will be as you set them.

8. You can always change if you need to – I sometimes need more room, so I’ll go in and change my margins to .5 all the way around so I can get more on a page.

9. You can also do this for the font and font size. Instead of going to the “Format” menu and “Document, go to the “Format” menu and choose “Font”

10. I’ve changed my default font to “Times New Roman”, 12 pt font.

SPOTLIGHT – SPOTLIGHT - SPOTLIGHT - Remember Command-Space?

We learned this in training, but I thought I’d remind you in case you haven’t been using it. By using “Command-Space”, or Spotlight, you can find ANYTHING easily on your computer. Just start typing a word (whether it is the name of an application, name of a document, or the CONTENTS of anything – inside a Word document, PDF file, or even an email in Outlook) and then pick the item from the list. The “top pick” is usually correct, but just simply click anything in the list to open it.

1. On your keyboard, type “Command-Space”

2. Look in the upper right corner and the blue search box will appear

3. Just start typing a word (whether it is the name of an application, name of a document, or the CONTENTS of anything – inside a Word document, PDF file, or even an email in Outlook)

4. It will find the “top pick”, which is usually correct, but just simply click anything in the list to open it.

5. Remember, if something is highlighted in blue, you don’t have to click it, just hit return to activate that choice.

Screen Shots

Sometimes you want to put a snapshot of something on your screen into a Word document or Powerpoint presentation. Or maybe you need to email a snapshot of an error message to the help desk. Or maybe you want to share what you have on your screen with a colleague via email. This can be done by taking a “SCREENSHOT”. Here’s the steps:

1. On your keyboard, type "Command-Shift-4"

2. Let up on those keys and your cursor turns to a crosshairs with a circle

3. Draw a rectangle around the region you want to capture

4. If your volume is up, you’ll hear a sound like taking a photo

5. The document named “Screen Shot” followed by the timestamp will go to your desktop.

6. Attach that to an email, put it in Word, or whatever you want to do with it. It is just an image for you to use however you need.

There's two parts to your dock

1. Look at your dock and find a little vertical line towards the right (left of the trash can).

2. You can drag Applications that you use often to the LEFT of that line (which we did in the training)

3. HOWEVER, if there’s a folder, ore even a single document, that you use very often, drag THAT item from a finder window (remember the "smiley guy” icon in the dock) to the RIGHT of that line in the dock. It wills serve as a very nice shortcut to that folder or document.

Hot Corners

Don’t forget about your hot corners. Setting one as your Screen Saver is a great way to secure your screen when you need to walk away from your desk. Here’s the reminder of how to make hot corners:

1. Open System Preferences

2. Choose Mission Control

3. Choose Hot Corners (in the lower left corner of dialog box)

4. Make each corner do what you want.

5. When you move your pointer to that corner, the action will be performed.

6. If you go there by mistake, just go there again to get back to where you were (I do this by mistake all the time)

7. Here’s my choices:

• Upper Left – Mission Control

• Upper Right – Desktop

• Lower Left – Application Windows

• Lower Right – Start Screen Saver (great when you need to walk away from your computer and secure it. Requires your password to disable. I love this.)

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