If you press down the Option key while clicking on a menu, many different apps (including the Finder) will reveal hidden features, or shortcuts to existing ones.

For example, if you click on the Apple menu, the first option is About this Mac, which shows a window with some info on your computer, and also a More Info… button that opens the System Information app. However if you hold down the Option key, instead of About this Mac, you get System Information… directly. Cool!

Similarly at the bottom of the Apple menu, the Log Out username… option becomes simply Log Out username —what’s the difference? Without the … in there, that means it’ll just log you out, no questions asked. This can save a few clicks along the way.

What other shortcuts can you find?

Ever had your system come to it’s knees but not have a clue why? I installed the app FreeMemory a while ago which displays how much free RAM your system has at any given time. I noticed that whenever things got super slow, my memory was down near zero! This helped me to sleuth out what was causing the occasional slowdowns, but also encouraged me to upgrade my RAM. I went from 8GB to 16GB on my 2-year old iMac for about $100, and it’s made a huge difference.

If you’re holding your iPad in the vertical (portrait) orientation and reading Mail, you don’t have to tap the Inboxes icon to open the Inbox. Just swipe to the right, anywhere on the screen, and the tray will slide out. And when you’re done, swipe left to close it. Cool!

Did you know that you can create your own auto-expand shortcut text strings on your iDevice? So for example, you could type “brb” and have it auto-expand to “be right back”, or type “myadd” and have it expand to your actual address. Maybe you type your website URL a lot; make a shortcut for that. Or you can even do entire paragraphs! Say you respond to customers often with something like “Thanks for getting in touch. I’d love to talk to you more about this. Can I call you?”. Set up your phone so when you type “tfg” it is replaced with that paragraph. The options are endless!

to set it up, on your iPhone (iPad, iPod) open Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Tap the (+) button to add one, and type in the Phrase you want typed out, and the Shortcut you want to type.

Then whenever you type those letters, just like an auto-correct, you’ll see the complete text pop up and to accept it, all you have to do is tap the space bar or return. If you tap the X, then it’ll cancel out and leave you with the text you typed.

I know I’m not the only one who’s been wondering when iChat would become more like Messages on the iPhone, and now we have our answer in the form of a beta preview of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion. 

If you’re iChatting with someone at your desk and have to walk away, you could already start iMessaging them. But that meant the other person had to start talking on their phone, too… lame. Now you can be on whatever device you like for any part of the conversation. 

Download the Messages beta here.

How many times you done this process? Print your pdf, Sign it, Scan it and Send it back. I think you done it multiple times. Now no doubts, after this post you will be able do add your signature without print the sheets.

• Bring close to you a sheet and a black pen. (Don’t worry, this is the only analog part of this process, from now on no more paper) 
• Now sign the sheet.
• Open on your Mac the Preview software included inside Mac Os X
• Click on Preview menu, open Preferences and on the top you can see the button Signatures
• In the window you’ll see Create Signature, click it

We are at halfway.

• Your iSight or webcam will turn on, put in front of the sheet and automatically the software will recognize your signature.

Now just add it pressing the button: Accept.

Compliments now we have only to put the signature on your document.
Remember: it’s possible add more signatures following the same steps.

On the button bar click the pen symbol to open the Annotation Toolbar

You will see the S symbol that let you insert inside documents your signature.

Ps. Preview let you only insert a graphic image. Only Adobe’s Acrobat can add a graphic and a digital signature. Obviously the digital signature is the only way to digitally “armour” your documents.

Thanks and follow me on Twitter @albertmarini

Do you remember the “old style” dock of Mac Os? It wasn’t in 3D.

Today we are going to recreate it on Mac Os Lion. It’s so simple but you need to know how to use the Terminal.

The Terminal is a terminal emulator included inside the Mac Os X. More info on Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/88pn2qw

Now we can focus on all steps, so let’s do it: 

1.Open the Terminal:

There are 2 ways:

1.1 Click on Applications folder and find Utilities folder. Inside you’ll find the Terminal application.

1.2 Just press cmd+spacebar and search Terminal inside Spotlight, press Enter and you’ll open the application.

2. Now type this string: 

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

press Return

3. And type: 

killall Dock

press Return again

And…you’ll see the Dock in 2D (“Old style”).

Thanks and follow me on Twitter @albertmarini

Ps. The Terminal can ruin your operating system so be careful when you do it. Be careful.

Do you always zoom inside a pdf or image opened with Preview? Now, there is the magnify glass that helps you.

Simply point your mouse on the document and press: alt+\ [EDITORS NOTE: On my Mac, the keyboard shortcut is the ` key. Find the command “Show/Hide Magnifier” under the Tools menu] and the magnifier will appear. To zoom in or zoom out just click + or - and it’s done. When you ended to check your document click again alt+\ or esc.

Thanks a lot and keep following me on Twitter @albertmarini

If you have a pile of windows open in any app or in the Finder, you can close them all at once with the keyboard shortcut Option-Command-W. Or you can Option-click on the red close dot on any window to close all open windows, too.

A lot of people don’t know how to take a picture to send to friends or others. It’s pretty simple, in fact it’s a combination of keys:

To take a photo to entire screen press: cmd+shift+3

To take a photo to a selected part of the screen press; cmd+shift+4
With your mouse you’ll select the area and at the end press the button.

Thanks and follow me on twitter @albertmarini 

Stay tuned!