Technology & Information Services
Educational Technology
Jonathan Green – jgreen@monterey.k12.ca.us - (831) 755-0394
Mac OSX Tips and Tricks
1. Introduction to terminology and Mac OS X workflow
2. The Menu Bar
a. What it tells you
b. What stays the same
3. Resizing Windows
a. Hold Option for Both sides
b. Hold Command to hold a non-active window
4. The Dock
a. Adding and removing items
b. Resizing, hiding, and moving
5. The Finder
a. How to access (Click on Finder in Dock or Command+Tab to Finder)
b. Explaining the file structure
c. Adjusting the Finder display options
i. Quick look
d. Creating folders
e. The Home folder
f. Creating compressed (.zip) files (Select files  Compress these X files)
g. Making aliases (shortcuts) (Right click a file/folder and select make
alias)
h. Copying, deleting, recovering and moving files
i. Searching for files
j. Using Spotlight (Shortcut = Command+Spacebar)
i. Doing quick math
ii. Hold Command for Open Location
k. Opening new finder menus
6. Keyboard Shortcuts
7. Applications
a. Installing (drag app into applications folder)
b. Uninstalling (drag app into trashcan from the applications folder)
8. System Preferences
a. Customizing your experience
b. Unlocking certain options
9. Multitouch Gestures on the trackpad
a. Two fingers horizontally or vertically – Scrolling
b. Double tap with two fingers – Smart zoom
c. Pinch in and out with two fingers – Zooming
d. Two fingers left or right – Navigate forward or backward
e. Using Spaces
i. Three/four fingers up - Mission Control
ii. Three finger horizontal swipe – Swipe between full screen
apps
f. Thumb and three finger pinch – View Launchpad
Technology & Information Services
Educational Technology
Jonathan Green – jgreen@monterey.k12.ca.us - (831) 755-0394
g. Three/four fingers down – App Exposé
h. Thumb and three fingers pinch out – show desktop
i. Three finger tap – Lookup
j. Two finger swipe left from right edge of pad – Notification Center
10. Using preview to annotate and add signatures (Tools  Annotate 
Signature)
11. Using AirDrop to easily share files with one another (Open a Finder window
and find “AirDrop” under Favorites – if it does not appear go to Finder 
Preferences  Sidebar and then check “AirDrop” in the box that appears).
Useful Mac OS X Shortcuts
Action
Shortcut
Select All
Command+A
Cut
Command+X
Copy
Command+C
Paste
Command+V
Undo
Command+Z
Redo
Command+Y
Save
Command+S
Close
Command+W
Quit
Command+Q
Switch applications
Command+Tab
Quick Look
While Selected: Spacebar or Command+Y
Hide all but active window
Command+Option+H
Hide window
Command+H
Switch instance of an
application
Screenshot a selected area
and copy
Screenshot the entire
screen and copy
Command+Control+Shift+4
Minimize window
Command+M
Command+ `
Command+Control+Shift+3
Technology & Information Services
Educational Technology
Jonathan Green – jgreen@monterey.k12.ca.us - (831) 755-0394
Open a finder window
Option+Command+Spacebar
Opens folder in a new tab
Command+Click
Force Quit
Option+Command+Escape
Select Multiple Items
Hold command while selecting
Multitouch Gestures
Action
Shortcut
Scroll In Any Direction
Two finger drag
Right Click
Control click OR 2-finger click
Zoom (if enabled)
Hold Control + 2 finger drag up/down
Mission Control
Three/four finger swipe up (open) and down (close)
Switch Between Spaces
4 Finger swipe to left or right (Also control + number of
space)
Show Desktop
Four finger expand (pinch to bring apps back)
Launchpad
Four finger pinch (expand to return)
Notification Center
Two finger swipe left from right of trackpad
App Exposé (see all
instances of app)
Navigate
forward/backward
Switch applications
Three or four finger swipe down (up to exit)
Two finger swipe right or left in a browser
Command+Tab