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Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

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Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#31

Post by tta »

felxh wrote: post #18
roelbondoc wrote: post #12

I'm a ruby/php developer who works on a Macbook Pro 9 hours a day and I've learned to work w/o a mouse. Took a while to get used to, but now I keep my mouse in my desk drawer and only pull it out if someone borrows my computer. First it starts with the setup. At work I have an external monitor and keyboard. I keep my MBP to the right so I can use the touch pad here and there when I can't use the keyboard for certain…

7) +1 Spotlight or Quicksilver if you prefer. There is also Alfred http://www.alfredapp.com/ If you listen to music while working, I also find Coversutra http://www.sophiestication.com/coversutra/ or Bowtie http://bowtieapp.com/ very useful.

There's also LaunchBar. http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#32

Post by piramida »

hopeless wrote: post #30
zackola wrote: post #7

I'd say try becoming ambidextrous with the mouse, and switch hands every month or so. And under Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts make sure Full Keyboard Access is on 'All Controls' so you can focus/select buttons with tab. Also, make that useless Caps Lock key into Ctrl :) Ctrl+F2 = Access Menu bar Ctrl+F3 = Access Dock I will give someone 1 american dollar if they can tell me how to get menu bar selections to wrap bac…

It's interesting that you mention the magic mouse. I switched to a Mac about 2 months ago and can't believe how uncomfortable the magic mouse is. Apple understand aesthetics but obviously haven't a clue about ergonomics. I've reverted to my 10 year old Logitech trackball although I do miss the fast smooth scrolling of the magic mouse. Any suggestions for a better trackball or did all innovation cease 10 years ago?

Not quite a trackball, but apple released a separate track pad not that long ago. There are two input devices that Apple does way better than most - keyboards and trackpads. Magic mouse was a complete disaster, unfortunately.

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#33

Post by spanktheuser »

I'd add two points to the excellent comments above. My RSI was aggravated by use of the mouse. I found that using a trackpad with tap-to-click enabled helped significantly. But even more important was moving all of my informational surfing, twittering, emailing, etc. to the iPad. That probably accounted for a couple hours of computer use a day. Perhaps I'll come down with "iPad wrist" in the future, but for now the different gesture patterns don't trigger the RSI pain.

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#34

Post by [deleted] »

Timothee wrote: post #14
zackola wrote: post #7

I'd say try becoming ambidextrous with the mouse, and switch hands every month or so. And under Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts make sure Full Keyboard Access is on 'All Controls' so you can focus/select buttons with tab. Also, make that useless Caps Lock key into Ctrl :) Ctrl+F2 = Access Menu bar Ctrl+F3 = Access Dock I will give someone 1 american dollar if they can tell me how to get menu bar selections to wrap bac…

I did the same thing (full keyboard access and Caps Lock=>Ctrl), so I don't have much to add. For your question, I just noticed you can use Page Up/Down to go to the top/bottom of the menu. Is there a way to select which functions keys should work as function keys and which one work as the Apple special keys (Exposé, volume control…)? The reason I ask is that I always found it inconvenient to use shortcuts like Ctrl+…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#35

Post by pepijndevos »

roelbondoc wrote: post #12

I'm a ruby/php developer who works on a Macbook Pro 9 hours a day and I've learned to work w/o a mouse. Took a while to get used to, but now I keep my mouse in my desk drawer and only pull it out if someone borrows my computer. First it starts with the setup. At work I have an external monitor and keyboard. I keep my MBP to the right so I can use the touch pad here and there when I can't use the keyboard for certain…

I'd like to add that you can control the Dock with the keyboard as well. You need to enable it in System Preferences, and by default the keycomby is really stupid, but I mapped it to ctrl+cmd+space. You can even navigate stacks with it. For me works better than Spotlight.

Also, you probably wouldn't use the Dashboard, which _can_ be disabled.

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#37

Post by maximilian »

felxh wrote: post #18
roelbondoc wrote: post #12

I'm a ruby/php developer who works on a Macbook Pro 9 hours a day and I've learned to work w/o a mouse. Took a while to get used to, but now I keep my mouse in my desk drawer and only pull it out if someone borrows my computer. First it starts with the setup. At work I have an external monitor and keyboard. I keep my MBP to the right so I can use the touch pad here and there when I can't use the keyboard for certain…

7) +1 Spotlight or Quicksilver if you prefer. There is also Alfred http://www.alfredapp.com/ If you listen to music while working, I also find Coversutra http://www.sophiestication.com/coversutra/ or Bowtie http://bowtieapp.com/ very useful.

Google has a new launcher that I think is developed by the dude who made quicksilver (who now works at google afaik)

http://code.google.com/p/qsb-mac/

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#38

Post by mccutchen »

This might be old news to you, but it took me a while to discover after I started using OS X:

Cmd-Tab switches between applications (as I'm sure everyone knows), but it's less useful on OS X than Ctrl-Tab is on Windows or Linux because it doesn't switch between individual windows in those applications.

Cmd-Tilde (~) was the missing link for me. It switches between windows in the current application. Those two are probably the most important keyboard shortcuts I know on OS X.

Plus, another endorsement for Quicksilver. That's always the first application I install, and I now find it really frustrating to use any computer that doesn't have it installed.

And maybe you should set your Dock to auto-hide, so you're not so tempted to move the mouse over there to monkey with things.

Re: Ask HN: tips for working with Mac OS X without using the mouse? (RSI)

#40

Post by bingaman »

Visor http://visor.binaryage.com/ hasn't been mentioned but it's how you should be opening and running your terminal.

Turn on and spend a few minutes learning the keyboard shortcuts in GMail if you use it (conveniently, they map nicely to vi). This alone probably has saved me days of mousing, plus it can make ripping through your inbox kind of fun.

I also strongly second vimperator (the only reason I'm still using Firefox) and sizeUp.

Finally, just try unplugging your mouse occasionally to see how you're doing and what is still causing you to reach for it. Then sharpen the saw :)

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