Keir Thomas - Mac Kung Fu: Over 400 Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks for Apple OS X

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Many thanks to those who reviewed Mac Kung Fu, Second Edition prior to publication: Daniel Bretoi, Ed Burnette, Trevor Burnham, Fred Daoud, Ian Dees, Isaac Dudney, Mike Riley, and Loren Sands-Ramshaw. Their comments, corrections, and suggestions made this an infinitely stronger book.

Thanks to Jonathan Wood for the loan of his Apple remote control, and my apologies for not returning it sooner!

Thanks to Jacquelyn Carter for expertly guiding me through my third book with Pragmatic Bookshelf, and, of course, thanks to all those switched-on individuals at Pragmatic who run perhaps the most extraordinary and amazing publishing outfit Ive had the privilege of working with.

Finally, thanks to the Whowf for love and encouragement when I needed it most.

Welcome to the second edition of Mac Kung Fu , a book that is to Mac OS X what the power juicer is to citrus fruit. Mac Kung Fu squeezes from Apples operating system every possible tip, trick, hint, and hack there isand then squeezes some more to reveal a substantial number of hidden and secret tips.

The first edition of Mac Kung Fu was hugely successful, and this second edition has been thoroughly expanded and updated for OS X Mountain Lion.

No other book has the same drive to help you boost productivity, save time, and simply do things the best way possible when using a Macall while having fun.

The 400+ tips in this book fulfill one or more of the following criteria:

• They had to be genuinely useful for Mac newcomers and old hands alike (even Mac experts will find lots to enjoy here).

• They had to substantially improve the way you use your Mac.

• They had to show the amazing things that can be done with a Mac computer and OS X.

Many of the tips are blockbusters, but not all of them. Some point out very subtle tricks. But even these will change the way you work.

In a nutshell, Mac Kung Fu is a big book of tips. As such, I dont recommend any particular way of reading it. You dont need to be sitting in front of your computer to do so. The whole point of Mac Kung Fu is that you can jump in anywhere. Start at the beginning, or start in the middle. You could even start at the end and work your way to the front. Just start reading. If you find a tip you like, then try it!

Some tips are more complex than others, and some involve editing system files. A good rule of thumb is that if youre unsure about what youre doing, then skip that particular tip and perhaps return to it later when you feel more confident.

The tips were written for Mountain Lion and newer releases of OS X. That isnt to say many wont work on previous releases of OS X. However, Ive tested the tips only against Mountain Lion, and some terminology changed in this release. If you do intend to use the book with an older release, some common sense will go a long way.

All this book requires is a Mac computer running OS X. Nothing else. You might own a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro. It doesnt matter, although a handful of tips talk about getting the most from portable Macs.

No tip requires you to buy more software. All the tips enhance, harness, or tweak built-in functionality. A small fraction of the tips discuss downloading some add-in software to add vital functionality thats missing from OS X, but the software mentioned is nearly always free of charge.

If youd like to share some of the tips from this book on your blog, then feel free. Its unlikely my publisher will be too happy if you take liberties, but sharing a couple of tips youve found useful can only be a good thing. If you do, it would be great if you could mention the book and provide a link to the books official web pagesee below.

You can find this books official web page at http://pragprog.com/book/ktmack2/mac-kung-fu. There you can report any errata in the book as well as make suggestions for future editions. You can also get involved in a discussion with other readers in the books official forum and ask me questions. Wed love to see you there!

This book contains more than 400 tips, and you can jump in anywhere. Theyre in no particular order, and you dont have to start at the beginning! If youre looking for tips on a particular topic or function of OS X, use the index at the back of the book.

Mixed in with the tips are sidebars that concisely explain features of OS X you might have overlooked. The goal is to introduce you to key productivity features of OS X.

There are also a handful of supertips scattered throughout the book, which are collections of many smaller tips under a single heading, covering a particular app or technology. The aim is to provide a one-stop destination for learning about secret or hidden features.