So you expect that every Mac or Apple site in (or on) the entire ‘inter-web’ is going to contain some way to make your overall Apple experience much better through tweaks, how-to’s and tips…right? Well I spit your way Mr. Tolstoi and proclaim “Shove off.” Anywho, there has definitely been a plethora of these ’round the net however, I find it high time to make one for today’s budding entrepreneur, email crack addict, video blogger, or anyone who finds themselves more hip then the rest of the crowd. Because I mean, come on! Why else would you buy a Mac unless you were in strife to rectify your unequal amount of un-hipness? Wait…no? That was definitely not right but keep reading because let’s get your Mac life hacked…right!
Desktop / Dock
Your desktop can be your worst nightmare or your brother’s favorite friend from North Jersey. What really matters is a couple of 
things. For starters, make sure you almost never have any icons on your direct desktop. This is very “MS Windows” thinking and should be abolished with your transformation to OSX. I mean, you have the dock and spotlight to activate your apps at your leisure, never from the desktop. As you can see from the picture on the right (feel free to click on it for a larger size) my desktop is clean and my dock is only filled with the items I use every day. This is another key item to think about when setting up your Mac. What apps do I use every day and make sense to be in my dock? As you might see I have Photoshop (every day easily) along with a couple other apps in there. Some might say keep your dock light, others super heavy, whatever makes you smile in the morning, go for it!
Finder
Finder is your best friend; even more so when a Snow Leopard comes knocking at your door. I strongly recommend setting up your default finder window with folders only and in some kind of order that makes sense to your life or general work load. This may be a very difficult thing, I often see people putting loose files in their Finder and right before I slap them really hard in their ear I give them a plethora of dirty looks.
If you look at the picture to the right you can see that I like to keep my finder window set up very much like it comes from the factory. Two things make my setup different from the factory is: is the dropbox folder which is created when you install the amazing application that is “dropbox,” and the second is the ‘dev’ or developers folder for my applescript/iphone development stuff. Some people like to have an ‘Archive’ in the top section of finder but mine is actually drilled down into downloads which is a much more sensible place in my mind for it. Again, do what feels right for you but keep things clean, ‘folderized’ and in an order that you can quickly and effortlessly navigate on a day to day basis.
Expose / Stacks / Spaces
Get used to these 3 ideas if you want to make your life an absolute breeze and at the same time save time from digging for that certain window you are searching for. Lets first start with Expose and since the name does not really tell the user much this might be long winded. 
The best way to do this is show you a pic (to the right) and tell you that if you are on a newer mac it will be the F3 key or the Fn -> F10 key. It will condense all your open windows (on the specific space) in order for you to have a much better idea what is open. If you hold Fn -> F11 it will remove all open windows and show you your desktop. This is a quick and easy way to get around a plethora of open windows without having to dig too deep into the overall desktop. These functions can be mapped so that you can move your mouse into a corner of the screen and it will either show you your active windows or hide them. This can be messy and it is actually quite easy to accidentally trip expose more often then it is needed. Avoid the hot corner function at all costs…says I; again whatever makes your day shine.
Spaces is another way to organize your open applications. Think of it like having multiple desktops in which you can either send applications to or even tell the OS which space it should move to when it is opened.
If you have a small amount of real estate (13 inch MBP) or simply want to keep some apps on separate spaces for the sake of productivity (ala twitter desktop clients) then this is a great way to do it. The spaces icon on the dock is a great start, right click on it then navigate to ‘spaces preferences.’ Here you can tell how to move from space to space, modify the amount of spaces (maximum is an 8×8 grid), tell what application to appear on what space, and much more. This definitely one of the first stops on my list when I get a new mac and should be for anyone who wants to de-clutter their desktop life.
Stacks are a very basic feature right now in OSX (Snow Leopard will extend them) but basically they are folders of files and other folders that sit on your dock (to the far right, before the trash can). If you click them they show you a quick look of what is within that specific folder. When you get your Mac they think you want the ‘Downloads’ and ‘Documents’ folder as a stack so they set them up for you. Find the folders you dig through the most and place them as stacks if you find the need. If you right click on a stack you can change the way they are displayed, listed, or sorted which can be handy if your stack has a ton of crap in it. As of right now I find these to be great for quick looking through folders however, since you can not navigate through them (when you click on another folder it will open the finder) I use them on a small basis. NOTE: with Snow Leopard, you will be able to navigate through to different folders which should make Stacks much more usable.
Some Simple Rules
Now you know how to correctly swim up stream during Mac mating season, what else do you need to know? Well for starters, there is a plethora of applications that will fit nicely into your life that did not ship with the OS but this will be a soon to be finished future post. I will however, leave you with some 5 simple rules to abide by when dealing with the insane amount of files we deal with every day. Oh yeah, and always abide by the the GTD Gods…now they know how to get stuff done!
- Always have an ‘archive‘ folder somewhere (besides your desktop). The folder structure within can be a jumbled mess or it can mirror your home folder but always remember to push the files from it to your archive (preferably a Drobo but any external HD will work) at certain intervals. The more intervals you have the more secure your information will be and the less cluttered the folder will become. The moment you move the file over to the archive (into it’s correct folder of course) and you have made sure it still functions properly, (copying can get interrupted and sometimes you will not know) immediately delete it from your computer. Get into a habit of this, many files and folders we keep around on our computers are not necessary and add bulk to the OS.
- Remember your keyboard shortcuts! The more you can keep your hands on your keyboard, the quicker shit gets done…trust me. People always think I am ridiculous when I tell them the worst peripheral ever invented for the personal computer was the mouse (the printer is a real close second). However, when they attempt to learn some keyboard shortcuts their minds quickly snap around about the entire issue. You can find a large list of OSX commands here or download the PocketMod Edition and…mod your pockets with it.
- With any browser that you use, always tell it to download files to the ‘Downloads’ folder. Firefox and other browsers will often times download files to the desktop. Click on the name of the application in the upper left and go to preference (usually cmd ,) and change this immediately. With all the downloads you do during the day, you could have a ton of stuff cluttering up your pristine desktop. If you use a BitTorrent, email (attachment downloads), or P2P app then please do the same with these as well
- Spotlight is your friend when it comes to many things. You can look up word definitions in it, do math, use AND / OR / NOT (Boolean), or type kind: if you are looking for images, applications, etc. The ‘kind’ search is a little confusing but say I wanted to search for music under the band name ‘Boolean.’ Now if you simply type Boolean into spotlight then it is going to give me a lot of other choices. Instead you can type “Boolean kind:music’ and it will display only the music files. This works with applications, word documents, bookmarks, and many more. Experiment and see what you come up with.
- Turn off unneeded growl alerts or application counters. This might sound confusing but most twitter apps will do something to notify you that you have new tweets in your stream. Your mind and eyes will automatically become fixed on it when it changes color or adds a number until you actually click on it and divert your attention away from whatever you were doing. Turn these off during work hours or when you are doing work, turn them back on and have fun with the social net when you are bored.
Remember folks, the only way to succeed at this is by making a system and sticking to it. After a while you will never know the difference and you will be on a Mac / computer / life hacking role. FIN!
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