Turns out that Macs are like minds – we use less than 10 percent of them. Let Justin Duncan, service manager at Connecting Point, tell you how to get more out of yours.
What’s the most common issue people come to you with?
Most of the time, it’s not an issue necessarily. People are coming to me because they want some training – they want to come in and learn more about the machine. They say that an end user utilizes only about 5 percent of the Mac’s capability. A technician only uses about 15 percent, so there’s a lot that even I’m not using as a technician. Most of my spare time is spent learning more about the capacity of the computer to do my job, and my own creative work, better.
What’s an end user?
The customer using the computer.
I have a Mac, but I doubt I’m using even 3 percent. Guide me, Master Yoda. Or am I mixing nerd references? Or should I call you “Genius”?
It would be, but I’m not a “Genius.” Those are the guys wearing matching T-shirts at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store.
Well, help me. Give me some tips on how to bump my game to at least 4 percent.
Have you ever watched a movie where a person using a computer is going really fast and never touches the mouse? A lot of stuff you can do with just the keyboard. The main tips I show people are keyboard shortcuts – how to open things with just the keyboard, skipping the mouse altogether. It’s so much slower to scroll and move the mouse than it is to just know how to use the keys.
CMMD-Z, CMMD-X, CMMD-P, even ALT-J. Maybe I’m doing better than I thought.
Maybe. What about COMMAND-SPACE? That opens up the Spotlight search where you can search on the Internet and the computer. You type a search, and within three letters, the Mac recognizes what you’re looking for and – BAM – you’re good. That’s a lot quicker than going to APPLICATIONS and then finding the application in the list and so on. I also use COMMAND-OPTION-ESCAPE. That opens Force Quit on the applications, which is a quick way to close applications quicker rather than going FILE-QUIT, then going to the next one.
How about some fun ones? Teach me something cool.
Here’s one that’ll make your hand cramp. If your Mac’s acting up, turn it off and hold P-R-COMMAND and OPTION. So, you have to hold four keys and then hit the power button. Then you’ve got to hold those keys for 45 seconds, so your hand can really burn. I’ve gotten it so that I can hold all four with one hand, but most people have to use two and then get someone else to press the power button.
That’s not fun, that’s useful.
True. That’s a “Power Reset,” which resets a chip on the motherboard that regulates power. I use that if your computer is acting up: your volume won’t go up or down, it powers down on its own, things like that. It’s a quick fix that usually gets you on your way.
How about some shortcuts for searching the ol’ web?
Most of the shortcuts in Safari are based in the trackpad. If you take two fingers and swipe them left or right, it’ll go back or forward a page, which is pretty convenient. You can do two-finger pinching to zoom in.
What are your tips to people looking to get more out of their devices?
Dive in. Get your hands dirty, so to speak. Short of throwing it out the window, there’s nothing you can do to your Mac that will break it – or that I can’t undo. Try new apps, explore new areas of your computer that you’ve never tried before. Go through everything. Check it out. It’s fun!
Got any good tech jokes?
The other day, my assistant was laughing at a motherboard that came in, and I asked him what he was laughing about. He said, “Somebody ran the power line right through the block for the battery!”
I don’t get it.
Oh. Uh, it’s a joke about incompetence.
Cyle Talley just pretends to know what he’s doing on his Mac. If there’s anything you’d like to Get Smart about, email him at: [email protected]
