Alphabetical Keyboard Characters in OS X

If you, like me, use the weird symbols on your keyboard to help you sort files in the Finder, then you’ll be happy to find that I went through the trouble of not only naming a folder full of folders with top-row keyboard characters so you can see exactly how they sort, and then naming those folders so you know what key commands will produce them, but I also made it downloadable so you can just use it yourself. I put this folder on my Desktop for quick reference.

See here for a web table for every last keyboard character in alphabetical order.

Enjoy.

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Secure Input & Photoshop’s Hand Tool Spacebar Shortcut

If you are a fellow Photoshop user, and have experienced an unexplained loss of accessing the Hand tool using the spacebar keyboard shortcut, this  may have been caused if you are running password manager software 1Password and have used the “Hide” menu option.

I would have never found this had it not been for the warning on TextExpander‘s menubar icon, and the resulting blog post they published regarding TextExpander and Secure Input.

Quitting 1Password and relaunching it fixed the issue for me, so I can only assume it was indeed the culprit.

Invoke Bookmarklets via iOS Keyboard Shortcuts

Interesting alternative method for invoking bookmarklets in Mobile Safari using iOS keyboard shortcuts. In short, you just add the bookmarklet URL as the phrase for a new keyboard shortcut, and then assign a shortcut for it. Tap the URL bar, hit the X to clear the field and type your shortcut.

Assign a Keyboard Shortcut to Move Messages to a Folder in Apple Mail

Here’s a great tip on how to assign a keyboard shortcut to move messages to a folder in Apple Mail. In short, you use the Applications Shortcuts found within System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts to assign a keyboard shortcut to a specific folder in Apple Mail. Similar to my tip on a global keyboard shortcut for creating a new email message in Apple Mail.

ClipMenu: Clipboard History Manager for Mac OS X

ClipMenu is a clipboard history manager for Mac OS X. I’ve tried a lot of others, both paid and free, but for me this one is a keeper.

TextExpander: Best Practices

I had a conversation with a fellow Mac geek the other day about TextExpander, and he said he rarely uses it because he’s always forgetting the shortcuts. I thought I’d share some of my formatting practices that I’ve found help one remember their shortcuts. 

TextExpander: Typing Shortcut Utility

TextExpander has always on the top of my must-have Mac software list. The basic functionality is simple: you type certain characters, and TextExpander replaces those characters with something else. As you can see in the screenshot above, a simple use for this is to fix commonly mistyped words. But that’s barely scratching the surface of what TextExpander offers. 

Invoke PopClip Via Keyboard Using AppleScript, Automator and OS X Services

A tweet from the PopClip developer directed me to the PopClip User Guide to take advantage of a feature I’ve been wanting in the app for some time: the ability to invoke PopClip via the keyboard.

The method uses AppleScript and the code is super simple:

tell application "PopClip" to appear

The documentation suggests using a few third-party “launcher” utility apps, but I’ve discovered a way to do so with just OS X, using Automator and OS X Services. Here’s how I did it.

Global Shortcut For “New Message” For Mail In OS X

Very quick and easy Automator (and AppleScript) tip for creating a way to draft a new email message on your Mac, regardless if Mail is the active application or not.

Create a global shortcut for “New Message” for Mail in OS X Lion – Super User.

OS X: Global Keyboard Shortcut To Open A New Finder Window

I’ve often wanted to be able to open a new Finder window on my Mac using a global keyboard shortcut. Turns out someone else has as well, and the full instructions can be found here: OSX: Setting a global shortcut key to open a new Finder window. The method uses Automator and AppleScript, both of which ship with OS X and the walkthrough requires very little knowledge of either app.

Be sure to read the comments to make sure you set things up correctly, as the instructions on the post are slightly incorrect.

Related:

• Global OS X keyboard shortcut to open a new email message