A little while ago, I challenged my readers to ‘try the option key’, and today’s post is all about my own research. Coming originally from a corporate background, I had it drummed in to me way back that I should never leave my computer screen without locking it. Obviously there are serious security concerns over the misuse of your account (which I believe is your responsibility), but working in your typical IT Support Department, I was more concerned about the pranks people would play on me if I left my computer open for them to make changes.

To this day, I still recommend that you do this. If not for the security, it makes sense from a power saving point of view to set your Mac up for the screen to sleep (and require your password to wake up) whenever you walk away. The normal method people use for this is a timed sleep in the Energy Saver settings in System Preferences. However, I’ve always preferred to do it using Hot Corners.

If you’re not sure what Hot Corners do, let me briefly explain. You can configure your Mac to carry out one of a few things (Start or Disable your screen Saver, Launch Mission Control, show you your Application Windows, Desktop , Dashboard, Notification Centre, start Launchpad……….or, the one we’re looking for, Put your display to sleep). This allows you to set up one or more corners where you can drag your mouse to before walking away, and it will lock you system.

To make this work, the first thing you need to do is make sure your system is configured to require your password whenever display sleep or screensavers begin. You’ll find this in Systems Preferences / […]

You might be aware of the option key (or alt as it’s also known), but do you know what it’s for? I’ve recently seen more uses for it, so today I thought I’d just draw your attention to this key on your Mac and give you a few examples of what it does.
What is the Option key?
The option key is a ‘modifier’ to allow other keys to have multiple uses (in the same way that a Shift key gives other characters). By holding down the option key you can get your Mac to act in ‘alternate’ ways. Many of these alternate behaviours hark back to older versions of the Operating System, some are shortcuts and others give more detailed options.
Some examples
WiFi information
If you click on the wireless symbol in your menu bar whilst holding down the option key, you’ll get extended information about your wireless network and connection, along with the available networks that you’d see without the option key.
Restart & Shutdown
When going to the Apple menu and shutting down or restarting, you’ll normally get an “Are you sure?” message. Hold down the option key and the context of the menu changes subtly (e.g. from ‘Restart…’ to ‘Restart’). The desired action is done without a secondary prompt (unless other programs need one, such as saving files etc.)
Getting to System Preferences quickly
If you want to get staright to the displays panel in System Preferences, hit Option and brightness up/down. This also works for the the Mission Control panel (Option & Mission Control), the Keyboard panel (Option & keyboard brightness up/down) and the Sound panel (Option & volume up/down)
More finite control of brightness or volume
By combining the alt & shift key with brightness or volume controls you’ll […]

Today I have a quick video for you which shows you a couple of features from OS Yosemite; in particular a feature of Finder where you can now rename multiple files really quickly and easily.

In the video you’ll also get a quick view of the new “Dark Mode” that’s been added to OS X and a demo of the new functions of the buttons at the top left of each window. Without further ado, here’s the video:

Hope that helps you; if you can ‘like’ it I’d  appreciate it massively, and if you can share my information with anyone that might find my information useful that would also be very kind.

Have a great day!