things to know about OSX, part II

Hey, hope you all enjoyed teenagefanboy's OSX tips. Here are some of my own:

1) Don't turn on Filevault unless you absolutely have to. It's a hassle and a slowdown It's found in the Security preference pane. It's most annoying feature is that whenever you delete something, it has to do a secure delete from your encrypted user space whenever you shut down or restart, which can take quite a long time (5 minutes?) when all you wanted to do was restart because you installed a new program or something. Annoying.

2) Where do you put your Dock? Mine is on the right. I find it's easier to zip the cursor over to the right than to the bottom.

3) If you have a Macbook (Pro), you can two finger scroll on the trackpad. Put two fingers on the trackpad and drag up and down. Voila, you have scrolling!

4) If you want to convert an audio file from one format to another, say WAV to mp3, you can use iTunes. First set the import format to what you want to convert to (a little counterintuitive) and then select "Advanced -> Convert selection to"

5) Command-Option-Esc. This is the "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" of the Mac world. It will bring up the Force Quit window, in case you're experiencing the "spinning beachball of death". I like it better than Ctrl-Alt-Delete because you can do it with one hand instead of two. Use your thumb on the Command-Option keys, and hit Esc with whatever finger reaches up there and feels most natural. Maybe it's because of piano lessons, but it feels totally right to press two keys with the thumb.

let me know your favourite OSX tips, or questions you might have. I'm here to help. :)