News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
ADVERTISEMENT
If you’re like me, you dislike leaving your display(s) on when you leave your machine for an extended length of time. To turn them off, there are a number of options. You can set a short sleep timeout in the Energy Saver System Preferences panel, of course, but that gets annoying if you pause while working. You can also use Keychain Access (via its Preferences) to add a menu bar item that includes a Lock Screen function. Finally, using the Exposé & Spaces System Preferences panel — in 10.4 and 10.5 — you can set one corner of your screen to Sleep Display. Drag the mouse to that corner, wait a second, and your displays will sleep.
In 10.5, though, there’s a hidden method — one that’s easier than all the others, I think, and requires no use of the mouse or menus. Just press Shift-Control-Eject, and all attached displays will instantly go to sleep. Move your mouse or press a key on the keyboard, and the displays will awake. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Note that this is not a secure display sleep mode — if you’ve set your system to require a password on wake from sleep or screen saver, it will not be triggered if you’ve slept your displays in this manner. You can make it secure by first starting the screen saver (probably by using a hot corner defined in the Exposé & Spaces System Preferences panel), then pressing Shift-Control-Eject. The password dialog will appear when you press the hot key combo, but if you then click Cancel, the displays should then go to sleep (they did here in my testing, at any rate).
Again, this will only work in 10.5, and if you’re not using an Apple-provided keyboard, it may or may not work. Also (somewhat logically), if you’re using Caffeine to prevent your Mac from sleeping, this trick won’t work — the screens will go black, but then instantly awaken.
wrote on April 18, 2008 8:35 PM
Fantastic ! I am always amazed when some body points out new tricks to do stuff ! I dont understand why there isnt a ready reckoner for all these hidden shortcuts !
wrote on April 18, 2008 11:29 PM
Apple's official list is at: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459 But even that doesn't include this display sleep one. Nice find Rob.
wrote on May 8, 2008 11:40 PM
wrote on May 8, 2008 11:43 PM
Just quietly (get it? Sleep reference) Command-Option-Eject works on my 10.4.11 (apple keyboard) However: does anyone know the 10.5 equivalent to Control-F2? Basically it shortcuts you up to the apple icon in the top right hand corner and lets you keyboard navigate the menu items with the arrows.
wrote on March 19, 2009 9:38 PM
to answer darkmelody: make sure you have the 'F' keys working without the need for 'fn' key to use them. Or press the 'fn' key along with Control+F2. Well that worked for me at least. =)
The Dictionary application received a number of improvements with the release of OS X 10.5. First of all, there’s a new technical jargon dictionary from Apple, and direct access to Wikipedia entries as well. There’s also a huge resource known as “front and back matter,” which you can reach by selecting Go > Front/Back Matter > New Oxford American Dictionary from Dictionary’s menu. In the front/back matter, you’ll find things such as a list of all US presidents, a chemical elements chart, standard weights and measures, countries of the world, and much more. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s quite impressive in its breadth (but disappointingly non-Australian in its content -- why aren't the Macquarie people onto this?).
Rob Griffiths | Jan 25, 2008
The first thing a Mac user is presented with each time they start up their Mac is the Finder, Apple's venerable file browser and application launcher which has seen several revamps since its earliest days. A Finder window basically shows you the files and folders within -- for example, folders, disks, search results, servers, or anything else which can contain files and folders. We're going to have a look at some features of Finder windows which can make them more productive, and one or two which make them more fun.
Sean McNamara | Feb 27, 2008
This month, I'm looking at Leopard's Quick Look function, which is sort of "preview on steroids" yet super-simple to use. Quick Look is worth reviewing because of how much it can do "out of the box" and how flexible it is. At its simplest, Quick Look provides you with a high-resolution preview of the contents of a file without you having to open an application. Have a .jpg file you'd like to quickly check before e-mailing? Click on the file, press the space bar and a black window opens showing the file's contents (press the space bar or small x to close the preview).
Sean McNamara | Apr 24, 2008
When it comes to customising your desktop, OS X seemingly provides anything you could want — there are a number of Apple-provided images, there are connections to your user’s Pictures folder and iPhoto library, or you can use any of ten supplied solid colours for your desktop background. But if you’re a fan of solid colours, you may not agree with the ten that Apple has provided. Or, you may have a corporate "identity" colour that you want to deploy throughout your office. Thankfully, there are two relatively easy ways to get additional colour choices.
Rob Griffiths | May 9, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
