Hidden Mac Features: Getting the most from your computer

How to Find the Best Hidden Mac Features

Last week I explored some of the cool, less-well-known things your Windows PC can do and this week it’s Mac’s turn. If you’re ready to unleash your Mountain Lion, here are some under-utilized tools built into Mac OS X.

Dictation and Text to Speech:

Imagine how quickly you could reply to Aunt Edna’s email if you could talk instead of type. Click the Apple menu in the top left corner and select System Preferences. Choose the Dictation & Speech icon. Use the Dictation tab to turn it on and set a shortcut to launch (such as “Press Left Command Key Twice”). You can speak continuously for up to 30 seconds – that’s a lot of text!
Those who multi-task should explore the Text to Speech tab. Activate “Speak selected text when the key is pressed” and choose a key to launch (default is Option + Esc). Now you can have that accounting report or lengthy email from your college roommate read to you while you prune your bonsai tree. You can choose the system voice you prefer, have alerts or application notifications announced, and even have the clock broadcast the time to break you from your Facebook stupor and remind you to get back to work.

Add secret services to your default services list:

Launch an application such as Safari or Pages and click on the application name in the upper left Finder bar. Choose Services, then Services Preferences to see a list of options you can activate to appear in your default Services menu.

Capture Full Screen lets you easily obtain an image of whatever’s on your screen, or activate Capture Screen using Timer to get images of what’s on your screen at certain times or intervals.

Check the box next to Summarize and the next time you want to speed read a lengthy document select the text, click on the name of the application you’re using to view the material (such as Safari), choose services and then summarize. You’ll be presented with an abbreviated version that you can pare down further using the Summary Size scroll to increase or decrease the length of summarized text.

Customize text “hotkeys”:

If you find yourself typing the same things repetitively (such as your email address or a closing salutation in correspondence), create a hot key to cause the text to automatically appear when you type associated text or symbols. From the System Preferences menu choose the Language & Text icon and select the Text tab. The list of default symbol and text substitutions is shown so you can choose which you’d like to activate, or click the + in the lower left corner of the pane to add your own.

Note: this works in Apple default apps like Pages and can be activated in Safari by clicking Edit – Substitutions and enabling Text Replacement. Third party applications like Microsoft Word may not support your custom hotkeys.

Encrypt a flash or external hard drive:

Encrypting data you’ve transferred to a flash drive or external hard drive is a good way to keep it from falling into the wrong hands should your portable device be lost or stolen. Connect the device you wish to encrypt, find the icon created for it on your desktop and right-click on the icon. A dialog box appears with an option for Encrypt “.” Once selected, a dialog box will appear prompting you to select a password and password hint.

Encryption is time consuming - expect 5 GB to take 30 minutes or more, depending on your system’s capabilities. This feature also requires the device have a GUID Partition Table, so you may have to format the drive before you transfer data and encrypt.