Some Basic Mac OS X Tips and Tricks

Forcefully Eject a CD/DVD

You will need to use this trick when you accidentally inserted a blank disc or ejected while the disc was being used and the disc icon disappeared from desktop.

Just Go to Applications → Utilities → Disk Utilities, select your CD/DVD and click Eject or restart your Mac and while it reboots, hold down the mouse or mousepad button.

Setup a Proxy for your Network

Open System Preferences and look for Network under Internet & Network. Then select your network device from the menu (AirPort for WiFi, Ethernet for LAN) and click Advanced button.

In the menu that splashes in, select the Proxies tab, define your settings and hit OK.

Completely Quit an Application

In a Mac, applications don’t completely shut down by clicking the [x] button like they do in Windows. They just move out of focus but keep running in the background.

To completely shut down or quit an application, select it and use the combination: Command + Q. If the application is stuck or is not responding, make use of the Applications → Utilities → Activity Monitor.

Install an Application

Download the Apple Disk Image (.dmg) of the application to be installed and extract to your desktop (this will make a virtual drive). Open the virtual drive and copy the application file and paste into the Applications folder.

To cleanup, simply move the virtual drive and the downloaded .dmg file to the trash bin.

Take an Instant Screenshot

The easiest and fastest way is to use a combination of the keys: Command + Shift + 3.

There is also a utility called Grab which can be found in Applications → Utilities → Grab. It even allows you to set a timer or take screenshot of a select portion of your screen.

View all Open Applications and Folders

Suppose you opened a dozen applications and folders and do not know how to switch to a particular one instantly, don’t worry!

Just press F3 command key on the keyboard and it will show you a grid view of all open applications and folders, then you can switch to any application or folder by clicking on it.