Marrathon.com - Dave Marra's Web Site!

Marrathon.com - Dave Marra's Web Site!

Marrathon.com - Dave Marra's Web Site!

Marrathon.com - Dave Marra's Web Site!

Change to a different calculator mode in Calculator

In Calculator, click the green zoom button in the upper left corner to toggle between Basic, Scientific and Programmer calculator modes.

Select a vertical block of text in TextEdit

In TextEdit, to select a vertical block of text (such as a column of words or numbers), press and hold the Option key then select the text.

Increase the size of your cursor

To make your mouse pointer larger, open System Preferences> Universal Access> Mouse (or Mouse & Trackpad) and adjust the Cursor Size slider.

Print a catalog of all fonts installed on your Mac

To print a catalog of all fonts installed on your Mac, open Font Book, then do Edit > Select All and then do File > Print.

Easily navigate back through a web site's URL in Safari

In Safari, Command-click on a window's title bar to pop up the hierarchical pathway back through the entire URL address for that page.

Select an entire clip in the Event Library in iMovie

In iMovie '09, Option-click on a clip in your Event Library to select the entire clip all at once, instead of just selecting a part of it.

Find out what iPhoto event a photo belongs to

To show what event a photo in your iPhoto Library is associated with, Control-click the photo and choose "Show Event", to open its event.

Quickly edit notes in the musical score in GarageBand

In the musical score in GarageBand, click a note in the staff then press the up or down arrow keys on your Mac's keyboard to raise or lower it by one semitone.

Adjust start times for iCal events using the keyboard

When viewing your calendar by day in iCal, click an event then press Control and the up or down arrow to move the event's start time up or down by 15 minutes.

Show the hard drive location of an item in iTunes

In iTunes, Control-click on an item in your library and do "Show in Finder" to go to the exact location on your hard drive where the item is located.

Temporarily turn Dock magnification on or off

To temporarily turn Dock magnification on (or off), press and hold the Shift and Control keys while hovering over the Dock with your mouse or trackpad.

Send an email to a buddy in your iChat buddy list

In iChat, Control-click a name in your buddy list and do "Send Email...", to open Mail and create a new message addressed to them.

Scroll up a screen in Safari

In Safari, press Shift-Space bar to scroll up a screen.

Quickly show (or hide) slide numbers on all slides in Keynote

In Keynote '09, do Slide> Show Slide Numbers on All Slides to show (or hide) slide numbers on every slide in your presentation.

Go to an item's location from the Spotlight menu

Hold down the Command key while clicking on a found item in the Spotlight menu to go directly to the item in the Finder, instead of opening it.

Increase the size of the software keyboard in GarageBand

When using the software keyboard in GarageBand (via the Window> Keyboard menu), click and drag the keyboard's lower right corner to increase its size.

Assign a keyboard shortcut for a style in Pages

To assign keyboard shortcuts for styles in Pages, show the Styles Drawer, select a style, then choose "Hot Key" from the pop-down menu next to its name.

Magnify a specific area of an image or PDF in Preview

To magnify into specific area of an image or PDF file opened in Preview, lasso the area with the Select tool, then do View> Zoom to Selection.

Create a Smart Album for a person's face in iPhoto '09

In iPhoto '09, drag and drop any face from the Faces corkboard onto your album list to create an automatically-updating Smart Album for that person.

Easily add attachments to new Mail messages from the Finder

To automatically add a file or folder in the Finder as an attachment to a new, outgoing Mail message, simply drag and drop it onto the Mail icon in your Dock.

Set a song or album to never be played when shuffling in iTunes

In iTunes 9, to set a song or album to never be played when shuffling, select it, then do File> Get Info> Options> Skip When Shuffling> Yes.

Show detailed info about a clip in iMovie

In iMovie '09, to show detailed info about a clip as you pass the playhead over it, do View>Playhead Info, or simply hit Command-Y on your keyboard.

Import images from Safari directly into iPhoto

To import an image on a web page in Safari directly into iPhoto, Control-click the image and choose "Add Image to iPhoto Library" from the pop-up.

Exclude silent portions of QuickTime movies when trimming

When trimming a movie using QuickTime Player in Snow Leopard, do Edit>Select All Excluding Silence to exclude beginning or end portions containing no sound.

Select all occurrences of a word found in TextEdit

In TextEdit, to select every occurrence of a word found in a document, do a Find (Command-F), type the word, press the Control key and click "Select All".

Reduce the file size of a PDF document in Preview

To save a PDF document as a smaller sized file, open it in Preview then do a Save As and select the "Reduce File Size" option from the Quartz Filter pop-up menu.

Open "Learn to Play" lessons in GarageBand as projects

When taking a Learn to Play lesson in GarageBand '09, click the "Open in GarageBand" button to open the lesson as a new, fully-editable GarageBand project.

Do a Spotlight search for a buddy's name from iChat

In iChat on a Mac running Snow Leopard, select a buddy then do Buddies>Search in Spotlight, to do a search with Spotlight for that buddy's name or email address.

Show the number of photos in each iPhoto source

To show the number of photos in each item in the source list in iPhoto, do iPhoto> Preferences> General> Sources and enable "Show item counts".

Copy the link to an item in the iTunes Store

In iTunes 9, Control-click on any item in the iTunes Store and do "Copy Link" from the pop-up menu to copy the direct URL to that item in the store.