How to find out where is your file or folder.

Command+Click on folder title

Command-click

Command and click the window title to reveal the folder or the file path, i.e. where the open folder or document is on the computer.

Remember that it works with both folders and files (documents.)

This trick is handy when you have a busy computer with lots of files and project folders.  It's best to organise your work as you go. Still, what if you have to find something you worked on last month, last year, or even a few years ago? 

Spotlight is brilliant in that it helps you find files by the keyword that you remember. When you hover the cursor over the name of the file in the Spotlight window it shows its path — where it is on the computer, folder after folder. But when you open the folder or the file you may not remember where it is on the machine. That's when checking the 'path' is helpful. It's like backtracking or zooming out — going from your current immediate location to a larger picture.

You can customise the toolbar of a folder window to have the path icon in it. In the Finder, click View > Customize toolbar and drag the Path icon to the toolbar. Click Done. When you click on the icon in an open folder, it shows the chain or path of all the folders where the one you're in at the moment is placed.

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mac OSX Cookbook' (2012), follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages, like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook and add me to your circles on Google+

Open All Files in a Folder: Command+O

This shortcut is particularly useful when you have a folderful of screenshots or downloaded images that are nor clearly named. To flick through them, open the folder, type Command+A to select all, then type Command+O to open all. Preview will open all images in one window. Click on a thumbnail to see the image you want, or click on arrows to go through the images one by one.

Command+A

Command+O

Drag and Drop Images Direct from Cover Flow View.

In recent Mac OS versions folders have Cover Flow viewing option: you can see previews of all files in the folder as an enlarged icon or slide.

You can quickly insert images from Cover Flow view to your iWork documents.

- Find the image you want to add to your iWork/Pages project by flicking through the slides;

- Click on it and drag to the open iWork document;

- When the cursor turns into a green button with white cross, let go. The image will plop into your document where you hover the arrow-cursor.

This drag-and-drop shortcut saves a lot of time when you want to find and select an image in a folder. Remember to name folders with key words that allow you to find folders themselves via Spotlight!

Undo-Redo Shortcut: Zap To And Fro

Redo shortcut

A while ago I blogged about the Undo function - and shortcut - as the most important operation when working on any project, text or design, and more generally, in anything you do in life. It only makes good sense always to check if there is a good escape clause, a solid back-up system or the red stop-button.

Undo shortcut

The undo option is available across all Mac applications under Edit menu and the keyboard shortcut is Command+Z. It is easy to master it. I mostly use the left thumb to press Command and the middle finger to type Z, in the bottom left of the QWERTY keyboard. Of course it depends on one's typing skill and habits. Occasionally I glide down the keyboard with my right ring-finger and it naturally stops on the right-hand Command key, then glide down one row on the keyboard with the left ring-finger and it stops on the Z key.

But of course, the reverse option, Redo, is also very useful. Zapping to and fro between the current and previous versions of your project you can quickly evaluate the work in progress, self approve, or get approval from the supervisor (or client) looking over your shoulder - or discard changes. On the keyboard you just add Shift (⇧) to the combination: Command+Shift+Z. I got used to doing it this way: left-thumb Command, then let my little finger find Shift, after which the middle finger naturally places itself on the Z*.

After some practice these two keyboard operations become as easy as tying one's shoelaces**.

Important Update: Current versions of iWork/Pages allow Undo past the last save, while not a long time ago it was only possible to repeatedly undo your changes until the point when the document was saved. Unfortunately, it made redundant my second argument against building Auto-Save option into Pages.
 

Where to find buttons, Command and Shift icons on your Mac:

Red Button (⨀) - in Character Palette>Symbols>Mathematical Symbols. This switch-off button is also there: ⌽

Command symbol (⌘) - Character Palette>Symbols>Technical symbols

Shift (⇧) - Character Palette>Symbols>Arrows

They are not images, but text-like symbols. Drag and drop into your document. Enlarge and make a screenshot to turn them into clipart.

If you don't have Character Palette in the main screen menu, activate it in System Preferences>International>Input Menu.

And listen to Stephen Fry's programme on the QWERTY keyboard layout. (Letter I was placed near numbers 7 and 8 to make it easy to type 1871 - the year it was developed!)

*  This works when you type with all ten fingers, thumbs mainly for hitting the space bar,  four left fingers on ASDF and four right fingers on JKL;  There are courses for touch typing (blind typing), but anyone can teach themselves how to do it. See, for example this BBC page.

**   Is this comparison out of date? I see many young people walking around with shoelaces just tucked inside their shoes. A few cautious enquiries led me to believe that quite often they don't know how to tie laces.


A reader's testimonial on the 'Undo' post: THANKS, IT WORKED!!!!!! all my words are back!!!

Keyboard shortcuts on this blog

Do many of us remember - or want to remember - the time before mouse? We used to do everything with just the keyboard, didn't we? There was an ad that had stuck in my memory from the seventies when the mouse first appeared: 'If you can point a finger, you can type'. Well, we've come the full round and re-learn the importance of keyboard.

Here is the list of my blogposts about various shortcuts I find particularly useful in Pages. A long list of shortcuts sits under Pages Help menu. And another comprehensive list of shortcuts is in System Preferences>International>Input Menu.



The usefulness of most shortcuts is self-evident, for example Command+S - Save. With many others it is not clear why you might need them and where they could be useful. That's why I scribbled notes about the ones I particularly liked while working in Pages.


Click on the label (tag) iWork Pages keyboard shortcuts or useful shortcuts to see all articles on this topic.

My top Pages shortcut: the undo
Health and Efficiency: three serious reasons to work with both hands
Look after your hands: useful shortcuts
Undo-Redo Shortcut: Zap To And Fro
How to design folders (about send backwards/bring forwards shortcuts)
Keyboard shortcuts: Hide and show invisibles and layout
Screenshots in Mac OS
What to do when picture wrapping pushes caption out of the text box - about Bring to Front shortcut
How to empty Trash (wastebasket) with locked files
Rose cover: simple tricks with photos
Mac-mouse equivalent of the 'right-click'
Colour Palette shortcut
'Up folder' shortcut on Macs
Valentine's clipart and graphics - uses for Command+D, Send to back and Screenshot key-shorts.
Use Preview to update repeated formats - how to use define as media placeholder short, select all, open file and open a selection of files.
Skip to my Lou: how to select random files

Say No to Autosave

Read more in my new book 'iWork for Mas OSX Cookbook' (2012)

Follow me on Twitter at iworkinpages  

Like my page I Work in Pages on Facebook 

and add me to your circles on Google+ 

Apple blossom photos by ©A.Anichkin/Rendezvous Media

Colour palette shortcut

Colour palette shortcut is Command+Shift+C



When you work with colours in Pages the colour palette opens automatically. For instance, to change the colour of text you click on the colour bar in Text Inspector.


The shortcut is useful when you want to skip making several movements and clicks with the mouse. For example, when I want to check CMYK count of text (pure black comes out crisp in print, while Licorice is a bit fuzzy) I click in the text, open colour palette with the shortcut and get the information I need.

Colour palette works and opens with the same shortcut not just in Pages, but in many other Mac applications where you mainly work with text, including Mail and TextEdit.

Lists of keyboard shortcuts are under Help menu in Pages and in System Preferences>Keyboard&Mouse. Here you can customise or create your own shortcuts and also reassign a particular shortcut to a different operation. For example, my Mac came with Command+Space assigned to opening Spotlight. I reassigned it to switching between different languages as I use it more frequently.


Please read the article on why it is important to use shortcuts and not just mouse:

Health and Efficiency: three serious reasons to use shortcuts

The article contains a list of other posts about keyboard shortcuts.

Drag and drop direct from Mail

Instead of saving graphic or photo attachments to Desktop or iPhoto you can drag'n'drop them right into your Pages document.

This simple trick saves several steps and helps when a deadline is close and you need to work fast on your project. While it seems an obvious thing to do, many Macusers don't realise they can until someone shows it to them.

You can either click and drag the icon of the attached file or click on the image itself, if your Mail is set to show them within the message body, and drag it.

Up folder shortcut on Macs

I've been working on Macs since 1991 - almost without breaks, but in several jobs I had to switch to Windows, just because that was what was in the office.

Switching from Mac to Windows and back was surprisingly uncomplicated. Although I think working on a Mac is easier - and  more enjoyable - I found the 'up folder' option in the Windows toolbar very useful. It looks like this:



and allows you to jump from the folder you are currently in straight to the bigger one - in which the first one sits. This makes it easier to navigate through a large project where files are sorted in many different folders.

It took me some time to discover that Macs have the same option, except that it's a keyboard shortcut, not a toolbar or menu option. Press Command and hit the up arrow:


It's also useful to open quickly your Home folder from the Desktop. Many Macusers don't realise that Desktop in OSX is just another folder on your machine. When you switch on your Mac and all the folders are closed, you can, instead of going through the Finder menu, just press Command and hit the up arrow.

Please read this earlier article on why it is important to use keyboard shortcuts.

Skip to my Lou: how to select random files

How to skip files when selecting a batch to move from one folder to another? Every macuser knows how to select a group of files or objects - just drag to highlight them. Or press Shift and click on the files you want to select.

But, if you want to select random, not adjacent, files in an open folder, pressing Shift won't help - all the files in between will be selected too.

I've long been frustrated by this. Until I discovered that

pressing Command while selecting the files does the trick.

It helps, for example, when you work on a periodic or regularly updated project, a magazine or a catalogue, and want to resave current documents as templates for the next edition.

Select all (Command+A) and duplicate (Command+D). Now you have a new set of all the pages with 'copy' added in the name of the file. Copies are below the originals. To select just the copies, press Command and click on the copies. Then move them to a new folder or to the Desktop to start working on the new issue of your publication.

The same works in iPhoto. If you select several photos while pressing Shift, all the images in between will be selected too. If you press Command - only the ones you want.

I am preparing a linked list of articles about keyboard shortcuts on this blog and general Mac tricks and tips. Meanwhile please read this previous article:
Look after your hands: useful shortcuts

And, if you are a fan of folk music, watch Pete Seeger explaining how to play Skip to my Lou on banjo here.

Health & Efficiency: three serious reasons to work with both hands

Combine mouse operations with keyboard shortcuts, because it is:

- MORE EFFICIENT
Generally, it is quicker to do most operations with keyboard shortcuts rather than with the mouse.

- HEALTHIER
Using both hands reduces the stress put on the mouse-hand. In extreme cases, if you work long hours dragging and clicking, repetitive strain syndrome may develop. It is painful and takes a long time to treat.
It is also healthier, because when you use both hands, you don't have a spare limb to pick up cigarettes, snacks or drinks.

- SAFER
Avoid tea and coffee spills - a major cause of computer damage.

Everybody has their own favourite shortcuts. So, try this and that to see what suits you better. Some may seem awkward at first, but once you've developed a habit you stop thinking, how do I do this, but hit shortcuts in the same unthinking way as you tie your shoelaces.

Keyboard shortcuts, if available, are shown next to menu items. Many others are in System Preferences>Keyboard and Mouse.




David Pogue's 'Mac OS X: The Missing Manual' has a rich commented appendix with loads of general Mac shortcuts, many of them little known, but very useful.

Please send me your own favourite shortcuts to publish here.

Links to articles about shortcuts on this blog:

My top Pages shortcut
Look after your hands useful shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts: hide and show invisibles and layout
Screenshots in Mac OS
Macmouse equivalent of right click
Deleting to right on Mac laptops
Colour Palette shortcut

How to design 'folders'

Tabbed folder shapes are popular with designers. Not only because they are a means of grouping text in bite-size attention grabbing chunks, but also, I think, because there is a subconscious link to what every computer user sees on their screen - a multiplicity of folder icons.

Another explanation, especially applicable to design of magazine covers with large photos going up to the edges (bleeds), is that tabbed folder shapes make it easy to avoid text clashing with the photograph - various images and colours in the photo make it difficult to see the text clearly (read this article on how to make text stand out). Or, the other way round, because it is difficult to find a good photograph over which straplines stand out.

While there is no ready folder shape available in Pages it is very easy to design one.

- Insert two rounded rectangles in a Pages document (either from Insert>Shape submenu or from Shapes menu in the toolbar).
- Make one shape much smaller than the other and position behind the larger one.
- Adjust the curving of the rounded corners in the way you like (click on the little circle next to the top right handle of the shape - and drag.)

Now you have a simple two dimensional folder shape. But can something similar to the familiar small 3D Mac-folder (image below) be designed in Pages?






I spent a little time working on this and here is what I got (top right image).

The tab and the back cover of the folder are the same two rounded rectangle shapes, the darker front cover is a third.

The tilted effect is achieved through making the shapes editable (Format>Shape>Make shape editable.)

After making the shape editable you will see little red circles at the corners. Click on them one by one to drag or move with keyboard arrows. I dragged the top left corner of the large light-grey rectangle to the left to get the look of an opening folder. The top and bottom right corners of both the front and the back covers are dragged up.

If you later decide you are not entirely happy with your artwork, edit the shape by clicking twice - not double-clicking. Click, pause, click again - and the little red circles in the corners appear.

This gives a 3-dimensional effect which is further enhanced by adding Gradient Colour fill to the front cover. Do it in Object Inspector. Rotate the angle wheel to make the colour flow from light grey in the top left corner to dark grey in the bottom right corner.

Now, how do I put the draft small ad inside the folder? Tilt the ad with the Rotate wheel (Metrics Inspector), move it over the folder and

use Send Backward (under Arrange menu or with the keyboard shortcut - press ⌥⌘⇧ and type B) to move the object 'inside' the folder (i.e. behind the dark-grey rectangle).

Next, if you'd like to make the folder semi-transparent, reduce opacity in the Object Inspector. Here opacity of the folder 'cover' is set at 85%.

The label is another rounded rectangle with white colour fill.

Read more about designing original shapes in these previous articles on I Work in Pages:
Creating clipart and original shapes in Pages
Maps in Pages
Creating your own clipart with Instant Alpha

and about using Send Backward/Bring Forward keyboard shortcuts here.

When picture wrapping pushes caption out of the text box

It often happens that a high setting for wrapping of a photo squashes or entirely pushes out caption placed in a text box underneath.

Reducing the wrapping count of the photo will bring text back inside the box. But you may want to keep it high for design purposes, for example to set the main body of an article flow farther away from the picture.

One easy way to solve the problem is to

bring the Text Box to front

Select the text box and bring it to front under Arrange menu. Or use the keyboard shortcut:

Read about my favourite shortcut here and why your left (non-mouse) hand should be used for keyboard shortcuts and not to hold a cigarette or a coffee cup here

Keyboard shortcuts: Hide and show invisibles and layout

As you work on your project you often need to see what it will look like in print, i.e. without the layout grid and without the blue invisibles.

You can hide and show the invisibles and the layout grid by clicking on View in the main Pages menu at the top of the screen or by clicking on the View icon at the top left of the page.

However a quicker and less stressful for your hands way is to use keyboard shortcuts for both.

Hide and show invisibles:

Hide and show layout grid:



Of course, these are simple and well known shortcuts. I decided to publish it here only to remind iWork/Pages users that, in order to protect yourself from repetitive strain syndrome, it is very important to use keyboard shortcuts rather than do everything with the mouse. Looking at my own work, I think I use these two most frequently of all available shortcuts.

Read about my favourite shortcut here and about other useful Pages shortcuts here.

Rose cover: simple tricks with photos

I had a beautiful close-up photo of a frosted rose which I decided to put on the cover of a February issue with the Valentine's theme.

There was a problem with the photo - it had squared proportions. So, when I fitted it into the A4 page format the top of the page stayed empty. I couldn't increase the dimensions, because the sides of the rose would be cut, couldn't drag to the top, because the bottom of the cover would have been empty.

So here is a way to make the cover with a photo that doesn't fit.

- import the same picture onto the cover again,
- send the second photo to back (Arrange menu),
- slightly increase the dimensions to align the white, slightly blurred, contours of frosted leaves in the photo at the back with the white frosted lines in the main photo. The seam between the two photos is just below the magazine strapline which makes it almost invisible, unless you look specially.

The job would have been done by this stage, but a small bit of the red rose petal slipped inside the top of the page.

- cover unwanted bits of the photo with patches, here it was a triangular object. Send backward (under arrange menu, or shortcut: Option+Command+Shift and hit B continuosly until the patch is between the main photo and the photo at the back.) Fill object with gradient colour (Object Inspector) and match the gradient colours with the colours in the photo (use magnifying glass in the Colour well). That makes the patch practically invisible.

This trick is simple to master and gives good design results with just the tools available in iWork/Pages.

See also this earlier article:
Last minute corrections - use patchwork

Original rose photo: Richard Allen

Screenshots in Mac OS

The keyboard shortcut for screenshots on Macs is:

Command+Shift+4

Cursor turns into crosshairs. Drag it over an area on screen and let go. After a camera shutter sounds a PNG picture file appears on the Desktop.

This a very useful feature. Light PNG pictures can be used on web-sites and sent via email.

Screenshots of menus, windows or any particular problems you need help with are absolutely invaluable when working in a team.

Other screenshot shortcuts:

Command+Shift+3 - screenshot of the whole computer screen.

To avoid the hassle of selecting a window (any window, including an open document) or a menu when you need the picture of a particular item:

Command+Shift+4 - and hit the Space bar instead of dragging the crosshairs. The window highlights with a little camera at the top. Click on the highlighted window to get the screenshot.

Please check this previous article describing the various ways in which Pages could be shared, sent out and worked on in a team:
Sharing and teamwork in iWork/Pages

My Top Pages Shortcut

My favourite shortcut in Pages is this:

Undo - Command+Z

On Macs it allows you to backtrack your changes - all the way to the last Save. In Pages it is particularly useful, because as you work on a layout you may sometimes follow a blind path - make change after change after change and end up hating what you've done. So, to go back where you had veered off, but not right down to the point where you opened a project in progress, you press Command+Z continuously - and start again. Or, in a simpler situation, you mess up something and quickly undo the mess-up.

To me this shortcut also has a deep philosophical meaning. It is somewhere between the magic time machine and the red stop button with which, in my opinion, all automatic devices, experimental projects and human brains absolutely must be equipped.

Whatever you do in life or on your computer - check first if there is an Undo (Command+Z) option or/and a red stop button. You will never regret you'd checked.

Important Update: Current versions of iWork/Pages allow Undo past the last save, not just upt to the point when the document was last saved. Unfortunately, it made redundant my second argument against building Auto-Save option into Pages. 

Check this previous article:
Look after your hands: useful shortcuts

Double-Docking: How To Keep Your Desktop Tidy

Some of my friends complain they find it difficult to keep the desktop free from clutter. When you work on a project or do extensive research on the internet Desktop often becomes littered with dozens of files - notes, stickies, downloads, screenshots, etc.

I must admit that I have a cluttered desktop too. However I found that a simple trick I call double-docking helps to limit if not to avoid desktop clutter. Double docking is putting your work files into the Dock or into the sidebar of your Finder windows.

DOCK I

If you look at the Dock, the strip with application icons at the bottom of your screen (you can put it on the right or on the left of your screen, or make it invisible when not needed), you can see a vertical line slightly to the right of centre.

For a long time I couldn't understand what it was for. By trial and error I found out that applications go to the left and collapsed files to the right.

You can drag your favourite applications to the Dock, left of the vertical stroke, but not to the right of it. And you can also drag files to the Dock, the section on the right of the vertical stroke, but not on the left. Collapsed files stay in the Dock only as long as they are open, but the ones you put in the Dock stay there for as long as you need them at hand. They become aliases of the real files. Switch off your Mac for the night, but your current work files will still be there in the Dock when you switch on again in the morning. So, put your current files in the Dock and move them away from the Desktop to a dedicated folder, Documents for example, to sort later.

When you want to open a file you click on it in the Dock and it opens in the same way as applications launch. When you are finished with that file drag its icon (alias) off the Dock - and it disappears in a puff of smoke, but the file itself stays where you put it.

DOCK II

This not the Dock itself, really, but the sidebar you can open or close in any finder window by clicking on the oval button in the top right corner of window. By default there are Documents, Applications, Desktop and a few other folders.

If you keep your current work files in a particular folder, say Current Project, you can drag that folder into the sidebar to allow yourself direct access to that folder. So if your Current Project folder is inside Documents>My files>Work>Clients>Current Project you can avoid going through numerous folders to reach the one you need by clicking once on it (its alias) in the sidebar.

The same can be done with files: a document you work on for several days or a template of a business letter, a flyer or an email - everybody has a set of documents which basically only need slight changes to be reused again and again. So these can go in the sidebar. When you don't need them anymore, just drag them off the sidebar - and they disappear in a puff of smoke, same as when you drag icons off the Dock. Again, it is only the alias that disappears, the file itself stays where you put it.

If your office has several Macs on a local network, you can put aliases of folders located on other computers in the sidebar. When you click on it your Mac connects to that other computer and opens the folder you need.

Changing items which appear in the sidebar can also be done by choosing Finder>Preferences in the Finder toolbar.

Do I hear people complaining that their Docks and sidebars are cluttered now?

Look after your hands: Useful shortcuts

Training yourself to use your left hand (if you are a right-hander) to operate through keyboard shortcuts instead of doing the same with the mouse relieves a lot of strain off your right wrist. If you have to work long hours to meet a deadline it is a serious consideration. Ignoring strain may lead to painful and long-healing injury.

Command+X Cut
Command+C Copy
Command+V Paste

The three basic text and object operations can all be done with the left hand while the right continues work with the mouse. It seems obvious, but you'd be surprised to know how many people ignore this. You need to make a conscious effort to train yourself to work with both hands.

Most operations have keyboard shortcuts. However, depending on the specifics of your project, you find some more useful than others and they become your favourite.

Two of my Pages favourites are Send Back and Bring Forward (under Arrange menu)

Option+Shift+Command+B
and
Option+Shift+Command+F

Select an object and move it behind or in front of another 'stacking' them to create graphic frames, make photos and other images 'slide' one under another, put lines behind photos etc. Many many uses for these! An example of how to work with Send backward/Bring forward is here.

And another shortcut which I often use to skip converting Pages to e-mailable format is the screenshot shortcut:

Command+Shift+4

Your cursor turns into a cross-hair, drag it over a portion of the screen, let go and after a camera shutter sounds a new PNG file appears on the desktop.

This is also useful for uploading low definition images on web-sites and blogs - like this one.

A list of keyboard shortcuts is under Help menu in Pages. 

Edd, a reader of this blog, has his own KB shortcut resource which you are welcome to visit for more information at:
www.rdturner.co.uk/10_Mac_KB_Shortcuts.pdf

On your Mac, open System Preferences and Keyboard/Mouse preferences. Here you can find a customizable list of keyboard shortcuts.




I also recommend David Pogue's book 'Mac OSX' of 'The Missing Manual' series. One of the Appendixes there contains a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for Macs. This book is absolutely invaluable, especially if you have just switched to Mac from Windows.

Deleting to the right on Mac laptops

Use Backspace key to delete to the left and Delete key to delete to the right. That is if you have a full keyboard layout. On iBooks there isn't a delete key, keyboard is without two additional sections for navigation and for calculating. And it may be annoying.

Press and hold fn, hit Backspace and you delete to the right
Press fn+Option, and Backspace deletes text word by word

This isn't really a Pages question, but a general Apple Mac tip. I'm only publishing this in praise of elbow grease, an age old remedy for almost any problem.

For a long time I've been looking for a way to delete both to the right and to the left on a shortened laptop keyboard where there is only a Backspace key which deletes to the left, but no Delete key as on bigger keyboards, which deletes to the right. I've tried this and that, looked up in manuals and in help sections and couldn't find a solution. Until I decided to sit down and devote a long session to just this - finding out how to delete to the right on my iBook. After trying dozens of combinations I found it: the little 'fn' (funny) key - last on the left in the bottom row of the keyboard. Press and hold, hit Backspace and it works like the Delete key on the big keyboard - deletes to the right.

Used with Option key (alt) Backspace deletes text word by word, with fn+Option Backspace deletes word by word to the right.