Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Quick Mac OS X Lion Tips & Tricks

As it seems is the case with most Apple products the latest version of OS X, Lion, has some early adopter difficulties.  Here are a couple helpful tips I have picked up to overcome some issues.


iPhoto Full Screen Issues 
I am really starting to get used to the Full Screen mode for apps.  However, I have found the occasional bug in apps when toggling in and out of full screen mode.  For example, iPhoto has been stuck in some sort of full screen limbo a couple times now.  Basically, the main app view thinks it is in full screen mode, but the app and OS don't seem to think so.  You know you are in this state if the app doesn't have its own Space/Desktop, the menu bar always stays on top and the view menu shows "Enter Full Screen" mode as an option. If you get in this state it is hard to navigate because all the navigation is covered by the menu bar and you can't import photos because for some reason you have to leave full screen mode to import photos.  Restarting the app doesn't help because in Lion the state of the app is stored in memory


UPDATED: Solution
1. Close iPhoto using Command+Option+Q. This will cause it not to "Resume"
2. Open iPhoto (it should be fixed)




Safari Address Bar Bug
It seems that I seem to be using Safari more in Lion.  I think it started when we were having some stability issues with Chrome.  However, I am now starting to really appreciate the auto-complete functionality and also the native multi-touch gestures for forward and back.  One problem I keep running into is with the address bar.  I try to use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible and always use Command+L to go to the address bar.  However, if the URL that is in the address bar is really long typing over the selection only removes part of the URL. So you end up with a bunch of extra crap at the end of what you just typed.


Solution err... Workaround
1. Hit Command+L to get into the address bar
2. Hit Command+Shift+Right Arrow to select the entire line


That's all for now.