« Greg-Loesch.com News Update: Web-Host Switch – RESOLVED | Home | iSlate, iTablet, iPad? iSuspect a Letdown (for me) »
Active Corners Tip – Get that Windows User off your back
By greg | December 10, 2009
Here’s the scenario. You have a Windows friend… we’ll call him Joban. He keeps up with the latest viral vids and hottest StumbleUpon sites because that’s what cool people do. So, Joban shows up at your man cave, and the two of you start tossin’ tech talk back and forth. Before you can say “Do our pineapples match?” Joban has snatched your MacBook out of your lap and is about to show you the latest & greatest site he found on Stumble (that probably consists of an app that creates a sweet kaleidoscope – yeah… spelled that right on my first try 
.)
Before he can get to the site, Joban does what 99.9% of Windows users do when they use a Mac. His overzealous track-pad controlling finger zips the mouse to one of your hot/active corners causing Expose to show the desktop. After all of the Finder windows zip off the screen, Joban gets angry, says a word/words that your mom would not approve of, and then proceeds to tell you that Macs are stupid and confusing.
Have you been there? Well… I’m here to share a tip with you (that I stole from Apple’s podcast tips) that will save your Joban-like friends some frustration and potentially save your computer from getting shattered on the ground. Turns out you can add a simple modifier key for your Active Screen Corners in System Preferences. This way, instead of moving the mouse to the corner to show your Desktop, you can have Expose activate by first pressing the command, option, shift, etc. key and moving your mouse to the corner.
This can be easily done by going into System Preferences –> Expose & Spaces.
From here, select the Expose tab. You should see the Active Screen Corners panel at the top of the window. To set the modifier key, simply click the drop-down of the particular corner you want to modify, press down the modifier key you desire (you’ll see the text reflect your action), and select the feature you want.
Sha-bam. Your computer is now Joban-friendly. If Expose and hot corners are part of your everyday workflow this will take a little adjustment, as you’d probably suspect. If Joban’s not worth it, or if you like watching him suffer, forget you ever read this. I won’t hold it against you.
Until next time…
Related posts:
- Exposé Just Got a Little Cooler & New Thumbnail Previews (Snow Leopard)
- Make your Computer YOUR Computer
- Spice Up Your Mac Desktop with GeekTool
- GimmeSomeTune – Free iTunes companion
- Snow Leopard – First Impressions and SL’s (not) New Looks (Part 1b/2-Two OS Installations in Three Days)
- A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
- The QuickSilver Application – A Keyboard Enthusiast’s Dream
- Advanced iTunes: Smart Playlists & Scripts
Topics: Apple, Mac, Mac tips, Productivity | 2 Comments »
March 4th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Need you say more… I think not.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Need you say more… I think not…