[macvoiceover] A Key to Leopard

A Key to Leopard

by Cara Quinn

Hello All, as the latest editor to Lioncourt.com, I’d like to just take a second to talk about my personal style of using computers, before we get into the subject of this article. As you know, this piece is titled ‘A key to Leopard’ and is about using the keyboard to assist in very quick navigation of the latest Macintosh OS.

As some of you may already know, from knowing me just a bit from the email lists and such; I’m a huge fan of GUI’s rather than keyboard shortcuts for things. I absolutely LOVE the Graphical User Interface and think it’s one of the best things to happen to computers, well, since computers happened!
I absolutely abhor having to remember lists of keystrokes / commands to get things done, and simply adore menus / big friendly buttons with legends on them telling me what they do, quickly and simply. I think it’s a wonderful way to be able to use a computer!

Okay, so why on earth then would someone like me be submitting to you, an article on using the keyboard in an OS that’s famous for it’s amazing user-friendly GUI? The answers are three-fold and elegant. They are; simplicity, intuitiveness and speed.

Part of the reason that keyboard commands turn me off so much is that they’re just not that intuitive, a labor to type out at times, and can be a hassle to look up if you forget one that you need. Why go through that? Well now you don’t have to.

Essentially this article will be concerned with searching. However, as you’ll soon see, the line between mere searching and keyboard commands, on the Mac, is beautifully blurred.
As you know, the Mac’s ability to make the OS as a whole, available to the user at the click of a mouse, or press of a single key is a very powerful feature and one which many users may not even realize the full potential of. This is what I’d like to talk with you about today.

Let’s start with search fields. Sure, you’ve all seen them before, and know very well how to use them. Something you may not know however, is that you can pretty much find a search field for just about anything you might be looking for at any given time, wherever you are in Leopard. Many tool bars of applications have them, almost every help menu has one to quickly find help topics. Every Finder window has one, and last but most definitely not least, Spotlight is itself one of the most amazing dedicated multipurpose search utilities I’ve ever seen.

Okay, so how does this apply to keyboard commands? Say you’d like to locate all of the mp3 files on your HD? Simply open a Finder window and go to the search field in the toolbar. type in .mp3 and check the appropriate location and options for where and how you’d like to search for the material. You’ll be presented with a table with a list of all of your mp3 files on your hard drive. Still haven’t found what you want? Once in the list, you can type the first letter of the file name you’d like, and you’ll be moved to it. You could very easily list all of a particular file type in a given folder if you’d like, and then organize them appropriately from there. It’s a very fast and useful feature.

This is only the beginning. You can do a similar search in Mail for email messages, and it’s just as fast. Search in ITunes if you’d like, which has a search field that you can tab to in it’s main window. Furthermore, when in your songs list you can type the first few letters of an artist’s name, and you’ll be brought directly to their material if it’s in that list.

Let’s touch on Spotlight for a bit now. As we’ve said, Spotlight is itself, a dedicated search utility of sorts. It however, has much, much more to it than that. Aside from it’s ability to quickly search your entire computer, did you know that you can run applications from it as well?

Simply type in the name of the application you’d like to open, and do one of two things.

•1 immediately press return to end the search. Spotlight will automatically open the first item it brings up with the name you searched for. So if it’s an application, it will automagically open for you. If it’s a document, the application that can read it will open for you, and your document will be automatically displayed. So this takes us to the next option…

•2 rather than pressing return to end your search, use VO navigation to find a list of search results below the search field, that Spotlight has located for you. when you see your application you were looking for, press VO space bar on it or press return on it and it will open for you. If you’d rather simply know where the application is, then press command (the Apple key) and return on it. It’s containing folder will open for you in Finder and you’ll see your application file.

So this is great, but what else can Spotlight do? Well here are a couple of things you might not have expected.

•1 Have a quick math problem that you don’t want to have to open the calculator for? Simply open Spotlight and type it in the search field. I.E. If you type 2+2 or even (60*3.1415926535)/180 and then navigate down to the search results, you’ll see your answer sitting right there for you.

•2 Want to look up a word but not in the dictionary? Just use Spotlight instead. Type your word in the search field and then as before, navigate down to the search results and you’ll see your definition there if it exists on your Mac.

So you can see, that when we talk about search fields on the Macintosh we’re not just talking about stuffy old boring search fields, we’re talking hip with attitude! -Well, okay, in a computer geeky sort of way! lol!

So now, let’s take a break from search fields, and move on to other ways that the keyboard can be used in Leopard. In many, many areas of Leopard, you may find that you can type the first few letters of something you’d like to locate -hey wait a minute, didn’t we say we were moving on from search fields? What’s the deal? Well we are, and as a matter of fact, you don’t need to be anywhere near a search field in Leopard to use the keyboard to locate what you want. Okay, so how in the world does this happen? this isn’t the way a computer usually works with a keyboard? Well it is now!

For example, let’s start with something you all have pretty much seen before and probably use on a daily basis, and go from there; the desktop…

As many of you know, you can, when on the desktop, use the keyboard to type the first few letters of an item (be it document, application, shortcut etc) and you’ll be immediately brought to that item. However, what you may not be familiar with, is that this kind of keyboard functionality is available just about anywhere you can think of in Leopard as well! Move to the Dock, and again, typing the first few letters of your goal will locate it for you and move you to it. Now, try this, open a favorite app, like TextEdit perhaps. Move to the menu bar and type the first few letters of a menu title. Voila you’re moved there immediately and in short order!

Okay, Okay, still not enough? Let’s open an app like Mail. Use VO navigation and locate your Mailboxes list. Don’t interact with it, but just stay settled on it. Now type the first few letters of a mailbox; you guessed it! When you move to your messages list, you’ll find that that mailbox is the one which is now open, waiting for you.

So let’s move now to that messages list, and interact with it. Let’s look mainly at the sender and the subject columns of the list. Would you like to find that message from that hot guy / girl you met the other night? Simply move to the sender column and type the first few letters of their name, and there you go! Okay, so was it a really crazy night and you don’t remember their name? -Let’s go for the subject column this time and give it a go. Type the first few letters or even words of the subject and boom! the message should be right there for you!…

this is probably the best quick email search feature I’ve seen so far in a mail client. It’s very, very fast; is not flaky, and really helps out when you are in such a rush that you don’t even want to go to the search field! How amazing is that!…

You’ll also find this sort of keyboard behavior as I’d alluded to before, in the sources and songs list in ITunes. It’s a very quick way to switch sources and playlists when you’ve got a few of them listed.

The Finder exhibits this kind of keyboard functionality as well. We’d touched on the search fields for Finder, but if you simply want to move to a folder and type the first few letters of a familiar file name, you can do that. Just as a quick note, when using a space character in the file name, do remember to add the command key as in:

my(command space)file when searching for something like my file.rtf

Try using the keyboard in the sidebar in the Finder. It works there too.

Remember, at times, you won’t even need to interact with the list you’re searching within, however, there are times when interacting makes a difference, so don’t be shy; interact and find out what happens!…

Okay, so we’ve covered quite a bit so far in this article,from somewhat basic search fields and their behaviors to some fairly sophisticated uses of the keyboard. What’s next? the item chooser is next!

I’d say, considering all of the ways one can use a keyboard in Leopard, with or without VO, the Item Chooser has got to be the most intriguing and intuitive. It’s functionality is so simple to use, yet so powerful in what it can allow you to do, -where would any self-respecting keyboard article be without a visit here?

For those of you who may only be acquainted with the Item Chooser on the web, as a super-cool search utility of sorts, it isn’t just for breakfast anymore! In addition to all of the other features we’ve discussed above, you can use the item Chooser to aid and assist you in virtually any situation, to make your time on the computer yet even easier!…

Let’s take a quick step back; for those who might not be familiar with the IC at all. Anywhere in Leopard, using VO, one can simply type VO keys I and the IC will come up. You’ll be presented with a list of all of the items in the particular window or application that VO can see and interact with in some way. What does this mean?

this means that not only will you see titles and text labels and such, for various bits of an application per se, but you’ll also see controls themselves. So how do you access something now, that you see it in your list? It’s simple, and the answer is the topic of this article! You use the keyboard!

You can, of course, use your arrow keys to navigate the list, however, As we’ve done quite a bit now, you simply need only type the first few letters of what you’re after and the list automagically narrows itself down in real-time as you type, until you’re placed on or near what it is you’re looking for. That could be text, that could be a link on a web page, that could be a button or just about anything else that VO knows is there. Once you find what you want, then simply either press return on it, or press VO space, and you’ll be taken immediately to its location. From there, you can use VO to activate it, read it or do any other action you normally would with it. You’re literally asking VO to direct you to exactly the info you want, whether it be on the screen or off. Once you’ve narrowed down the list with your keyboard input, and moved to the item with VO space or return, the focus is now moved to where you’d like, and you’re back out of the IC and in which ever application or situation you were, before.

If you need to revise your search again, or need to find another control or such, simply press VO keys I again and the IC will come up again with the complete list for you to choose from.

So we’ve covered quite a bit in this article, and I think you can see, that even for me, someone who really likes good intuitive GUI’s, using the keyboard in Leopard can be a complete joy! Gone are the days of needing to think over, or look up a keystroke or command. Simply go where you think an item might be, and type what you remember about it. That’s all there is to it! The Mac will take care of the rest!

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this piece and that it helps you on your way to better understanding Leopard / the Macintosh, and that it helps make your use of the Mac an even more pleasant experience than it already is sure to be. Please do feel free to leave comments through Lioncourt.com on the above piece, and critique it. What did you like? What didn’t you? What would you like to see touched on further?

thanks once again for coming along for the ride, and I wish you all a lovely day / evening, wherever you may be!…