Option-click to Hide Apps Quickly
This trick has been available in the Mac OS for years, but many people still don't know it. If you have too many windows cluttering up your screen, you can hide specific ones easily as you work. When you're in any application, hold down the Option key and click on another app's window, on the Dock, or in the Finder to switch to that other app and simultaneously hide all the windows in the previously current app.
Written by
Adam C. Engst
Recent TidBITS Talk Discussions
- Alternatives to MobileMe for syncing calendars between iPad/Mac (1 message)
- Free anti-virus for the Mac (20 messages)
- iTunes 10 syncing iPod Touch 4.1 (2 messages)
- Thoughts about Ping (16 messages)
Published in TidBITS 1005.
Subscribe to our weekly email edition.
- Snow Leopard's Creator-Code Snubbing Now Official
- Vote in the 2009 TidBITS Gift Guide Survey
- iPhoto 8.1.1 Fixes Face Recognition Bug
- Twitter Stops Asking What You're Doing
- See TidBITS Article Summaries as Pop-up Balloons
- TomTom Car Kit Now Supports Original iPhone and iPod touch
- How to Fix Snow Leopard's Finder-Copying Bug
- 7 Essential iPhone/iPod touch Tips
- TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 30 November 2009
- ExtraBITS for 30 November 2009
- Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk for 30 November 2009
New Ebook Explains Syncing and Solves Syncing Problems
Syncing data from your Mac to various different devices is easy in theory, but often troublesome in practice, and truly annoying when something goes wrong. Whether you'd like to figure out how to sync contacts to your non-Apple smartphone, get your head around how your Apple TV syncs, help your father sync his Palm after upgrading to Snow Leopard, sync a particular set of podcast episodes to your iPod, or make it so you can update your calendar on any of six devices and have changes reflected on all of them, the $10 "Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard" has the answers you need.
Written by Michael E. Cohen, the 162-page "Take Control of Syncing Data in Snow Leopard" explains how to sync managed data from a Mac to another device or service. "Managed data" is data that you can't usually see as separate files in the Finder, including things like iCal events, Address Book contacts, Safari bookmarks, and anything you store in iTunes or iPhoto. This ebook looks at how you sync data on a Mac running Snow Leopard with various devices and services including:
- Another Mac
- Microsoft Exchange
- The cloud (i.e. MobileMe or Google Calendar)
- An iPhone or iPod
- A non-Apple mobile phone
- A PDA like a Palm or Blackberry (specifics are brief)
- An Apple TV
Michael details how Sync Services and the all-important truth database work under the hood (fascinating stuff!), helps you get set up properly, and offers advice for what to do if you run into syncing conflicts or other problems. You'll especially like this ebook if:
- You're just getting started with syncing
- You've always wondered how syncing works behind the scenes
- You're already syncing, but want to add complexity or solve problems
- You need to be able to answer a wide variety of syncing questions from clients or curious family members
If you own a previous edition of this ebook, you should have already received an email message with an upgrade discount; if not, open your PDF and - on page 1 - click the Check for Updates button.
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>
Special thanks this week to John & Nichola Collins, Chris Williams,
John K. Lilley, and Honeymoons By Sunset for their generous support!