Get BetterTouchTool

Click here for the home of BetterTouchTool (Direct Download).

BetterTouchTool

Is necessary if you want to make Mac OS X work with the keyboard like Windows 7 and many Linux window managers.

By default after installing BetterTouchTool it will start at login so it should be always available unless you quit it.  I need BetterTouchTool to provide Windows 7 like (actually better than) window snapping. So that when you pull a window to the edge of the screen it automatically makes that window take up a known section of the screen. I generally use Left and Right side (50%) of the screen so that I can work on two things at once.

To enable Window Snapping, first you must enable the Advanced view in BetterTouchTool (BetterTouchTool options are opened via the Control+Alt+Super+O keyboard shortcut). When Advanced in enabled you wil have Gestres, General Settings, and Action Settings. Select the Action Settings tab and check the box for "Window Snapping Enabled" if I remember correctly all of the while dragging options are enabled by default when you enable Window Snapping.

Many Mac OS X users will be happy with this as they may tend to like using a mouse. For me, however, I must be able to do a lot of this without removing my hand from the keyboard.  To add "Gestures" to BetterTouchTool do the following

1. Select the input device you wish to use for the Gesture
2. On the bottom right select the action you wish to accomplish (Maximize Window Left)
3. Click in the Shortcut area, use the input device to record the geture which will affect the action. (Control +Super+Left)

Example from top line of my keyboard shortcuts below.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Shortcut Action / Shortcut
⌘⌃←	Maximize Window Left
⌥⌃←	Move Window to Next Monitor
⌥⌃→	Move Window to Next Monitor
⌘⌃↓	Restore old window size
⌘⌃↑	Maximize Window
⌘⌥⌃O	Show BTT Preferences
⌘⌃→	Maximize Window Right

Normal Mouse Buttons: Global

Modifiers Gesture Action / Shortcut Notes
(null)	Button 3	⌘[	Back
(null)	Button 4	⌘]	Forward

Happy BetterTouchTool tweaking.

Home/End

In every OS I have worked with Home/End takes me to the Begging/End of a LINE. In Mac OS X to be different they made it be the Beginning and End of the page.

Control+A/Control+E like in the Terminal can sometimes work instead, however it is not fool-proof and can create a very frustrating environment where you either have to hold the Arrow for an eternity or use your mouse. And like most Linux users I have grown to ignore the mouse for most work.


Update: Linux/Windows Home/End functionality with full support in all text applications is Super+Left/Super+Right. Also, Mac OS X Home/End can be reproduced with Super+Up/Super+Down.

Just learned this today and thought I would share it.

Enable SSH Access to your Mac

The Apple Mac OS X operating system has SSH installed by default but the SSH daemon is not enabled. This means you can’t login remotely or do remote copies until you enable it.

To enable SSH Access on your mac do the following:
1. Open the 'System Preferences' Tool
2. Open the 'Sharing' preferences tool which can be seen under the‘Internet & Networking’ header
3. Select the checkbox next to 'Remote Login'In the list that appears, check the ‘Remote Login’ option.

This starts the SSH daemon immediately and you can remotely login using your username. The ‘Sharing’ window shows, at the bottom, the name and IP address to user.  From the Shell you can determine your username using 'whoami' and you can confirm your IP Address with the 'ifconfig' tool.

Got Caffeine?

Caffeine is an invaluable tool for doing presentations with a Mac OS X based system Caffeine. Installable via the App Store.

Use Caffeine to disable the Mac from going to sleep or from displaying the screensaver, as needed. Don't keep running back to your Mac to hit a key or unlock from the screensaver.

"Natural Scrolling"

By Default Mac OS X 10.7 uses "Natural Scrolling. E.g. pulling down on your trackpad (touchpad) pulls the page down (scrolls Up) and pushing up pushes the page up (Scrolls Down). Much like your fingers are manipulating an object on the screen.

For me, this works on iOS devices (iPad/iPhone/iPod) because there is no disconnect between my fingers and the display. However, on a Macbook my fingers are disconnected from the page I am viewing, so when I scroll down I expect the page to Scroll down as well.

To change this behavior
1. Open your System Preferences Panel
2. Select the Trackpad option
3. Select the Scroll & Zoom Tab
4. Uncheck the top box, "Scroll direction: natural"
This change makes the scroll work like all other laptop/desktop OSes.

Cut/Copy/Paste

Another example of Apple being different just for the sake of it is in the Super key overload of the Cut, Copy, and Paste operations.

In every other OS we Cut/Copy/Paste in the same way.
Control+X, Control+C, and Control+V

Apple certainly couldn't follow this standard, so instead when we switch between a Mac OS system and Windows/Linux we need to use Super+X, Super+C, Super+V (Super is also known as the Command key on Mac OS (the strange flower) and the Windows Key on most other keyboards).

This difference can be rather distracting and increases the time taken for many users to be able to efficiently use the Mac. Context switching is an expensive operation for users and so is the different contortions your fingers need to make to use this differences.

Finder:
While we are talking about Cut/Copy/Paste, let's talk about the Finder App. Like Windows Explorer or Nautilus in Gnome, this is your file system management Application. Copy/Paste work as normal, however the ability to Cut is disabled. Why is this? Am I not able to move a file in the Apple File System? No on the contrary I can, however, I must use my Mouse to drag the file to a new folder. So again Mac is too focused on using the mouse and that is an expensive operation for me to take my hands off of the keyboard just to move a file.

Alternatively, use the Terminal and the *nix 'mv' command. Should be more efficient for power users. But why Apple, why must you force the use of a mouse on us? The mouse was a great innovation, however, being able to accomplish most things via the keyboard is still more efficient.



---More Apple Rants comming over the the next week or so.

New Mac OS X 10.7 Laptop

Hello Readers,

I recently refreshed my work laptop from a Lenovo W500 running Ubuntu to a Macbook Pro running Mac OS X 10.7. As I make my transition expect useful tips and rants regarding how Mac OS X doesn't work the same way as any other OS I have dealt with previously.

Tip #1: Opening Files
In all OSes I have worked with previously, Windows, Linux, Unix...hitting Enter after selecting a file opens it with the default application.
Apple decided that conforming to decades of common practice (Enter opens a file) they have modified this behavior to overload the Super key even further than they already have.
To open a File/Application in OS X highlight it and then hit the keyboard combination Super + Down Arrow. Or you can Double Click like on all other OSes, except that many of us Linux users prefer to keep our hands on the keyboard and ignore the Mouse for most tasks.

More to come.