Turn off your monitor without going to sleep, and other cool short-cuts
Written by Chris Tangora
Setting your Mac to go to sleep when the mouse goes in a corner is great, unless you do it by accident. Then it's just annoying. So here's a hidden shortcut for you to try instead. If you are getting up from your Mac you can hit Control-Shift-Eject and put all of your monitors to sleep, while leaving your Mac running still. Read on to find out how to get better volume control and how to use a hidden clipboard.One of the things that annoy Mac users is the volume control. The keyboard shortcuts move the volume up and down in 1/16th intervals by default (6.25%). By holding down Option + Shift and using the volume control buttons they now go down in 1/64th intervals (~1.5%). Not that you would ever need that much control, but it is nice to know you can do it.
Finally you can do a Kill & Yank. No it's not the next episode of CSI, it's from the old school Emacs text editor. Control-K will Kill the text (Kill = Cut), and Control +Y will Yank it (paste it back in). Kill and Yank essentially gives you a second clipboard to use, so you can "cut and paste" two different things without extra software.
If you liked these, check out a few more hidden shortcuts on usingmac.com
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What I'd really like to know is how to turn off a screen via the command line. Then I could turn off a screen remotely using SSH.
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@ctan: Actually, that depends on the model. On my 24" Intel iMac (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo), the screen does NOT turn off when the brightness is turned all the way down.
However, I think on my 15" MacBook Pro (first-gen 2.0 GHz Core Duo) putting the brightness all the way down *does* turn off the screen. Go figure.
However, I think on my 15" MacBook Pro (first-gen 2.0 GHz Core Duo) putting the brightness all the way down *does* turn off the screen. Go figure.
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You could just turn the brightness all of the way down. Then no matter what you do the monitor isn't showng anything.
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any idea how i change the volume without starting up the screen when it is off?
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one other useful tip is that if you hold down shift while pressing the volume buttons it doesn't make the popping noise, changing the volume silently.
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The only thing to note is that when you turn your displays off to sleep. It does not lock the machine (if you have it set up to lock). Although this is an awesome shortcut.
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I've got kill and yank to work in textmate and textedit, but not firefox or Microsoft Word.
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"If you are getting up from your Mac you can hit Control-Shift-Eject and put all of your monitors to sleep, while leaving your Mac running still."
You just changed my life :)
You just changed my life :)
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As far as I know, these are for Leopard only.
I just tried it in FireFox also and Yank didn't yank.
I just tried it in FireFox also and Yank didn't yank.
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Curious as to why comment editor won't let me type b-a-c-k-s-p-a-c-e
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Josh, I've got the same to say for 10.5.6. The one that I think I'll use the most is Control-Shift-Eject and function-delete for backs**ce.
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Do these tips require Leopard or something? The first two tips didn't work at all (I'm on a first-gen MacBook Pro running Tiger v10.4.11).
As for the third tip, I got mixed results entirely dependent on the app. Kill and Yank don't do anything at all in the Finder (at least in Tiger).
In Safari 3.2.1, Kill and Yank both work, and they act as a second clipboard as described in the article. So far it's the only app in which the commands work exactly as described.
In Firefox, Control-K just deletes text rather than cutting it, and Control-Y produces an error sound effect.
In TextWrangler, Kill and Yank worked *almost* as described in this article, except that they share the same clipboard as Cut and Paste.
As for the third tip, I got mixed results entirely dependent on the app. Kill and Yank don't do anything at all in the Finder (at least in Tiger).
In Safari 3.2.1, Kill and Yank both work, and they act as a second clipboard as described in the article. So far it's the only app in which the commands work exactly as described.
In Firefox, Control-K just deletes text rather than cutting it, and Control-Y produces an error sound effect.
In TextWrangler, Kill and Yank worked *almost* as described in this article, except that they share the same clipboard as Cut and Paste.
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It does on the LED backlit displays ;)