Three User Accelerators- Jonathan
Ploudre
July 6, 2000
In this article I'm going to look at three common types of Mac
users and offer a suggestion for each that should make them faster.
Before getting to that, I want to give some context. In Speed
Reconsidered, I suggested that perceived speed is what matters
more than hardware speed. With the right software customized to how
you work, even an old Mac can be responsive and fun to use. Then I
suggested that users are actually the slowest part of Mac computing
in Bottlenecks: What is your Mac's slowest
component? It is easy to become enamored of technology and the progress of
computers. Ten years ago I would have been jazzed to own a Mac that
has as much power as my Palm Pilot now has -- and I would have easily
paid more than ten times as much for that Mac. But prices decrease
and speeds increase. We have become accustomed to paying half as much
for twice as much. I admit it: I love technology. The past few decades has seen an
explosion of scientific knowledge. Over 90% of the Science Ph.D.s who
have ever lived are living now. Undoubtedly there is more knowledge
being generated now than ever before in the history of humanity. We
know things now that seemed inconceivable just a generation ago. But are we wiser now than a thousand years ago? I doubt it. Sayings that capture conventional wisdom do not seen
to become obsolete the way our knowledge does. People still talk
about the boy who cried, "wolf," even though almost no one shepherds.
On the other hand, when no one uses modems, you will not hear people
continue to refer to modem initialization strings. Are we more intelligent now than a thousand years ago? There is
some evidence that we might be a bit more intelligent because we have
better nutrition and education, but we are not exponentially more
intelligent. I wish my memory could double every year, because it
would make medical school much easier. Or I'd like to be able to make
a backup of my current knowledge in case I accidentally forget
something. But that is not how my mind works. If you want the best Mac experience, you should turn your focus on
yourself. Trust me, technology is not the answer. (That PPC 750cx is
pretty neat, though, and I hope Apple uses it in a laptop.) Instead,
know yourself. That's ancient Greek wisdom. What things are you not
so good at? That's appreciating the limits of your mind. Three User AcceleratorsMy goal here is twofold: 1) to give you a suggestion, and 2) to
remind you of some appropriate suggestions you can give when you
tutor a different type of user. So don't skip ahead if you think that
it doesn't apply to you. The first type of Mac user is usually new to the Mac or uses it
rarely. You can spot one of these users from a distance. He may have
the whole desktop covered with documents. When you look at his Apple
Menu, it looks exactly like it did when he got the Mac. My suggestion to new users is to learn to use the mouse.
Many people do not put their documents in folders because it takes so
long to drag each document. One mouse trick is that you can select
multiple items by holding down the shift key while clicking with the
mouse button. Then you can drag a group of file to a folder. Almost everyone knows that double-clicking opens a file. The first
click selects it, and the second click tells the Mac to open it. When
you use a Save or Open box, you can also use a double-click. The
first click selects an item from the list and the second one tells
the Mac to use the default button (the one that is circled). That's
much faster than selecting the item and then moving the mouse to the
default button and then clicking it. My favorite use of double-clicking is for selecting words. If you
see an extra word in a sentence, how do you delete it? Many people
carefully select one end of the word and drag to the other end. You
can be much faster if you simply double-click the word -- and if you
want to select two or more words, double-click and drag. Now you can
select by word! The next type of Mac user feels comfortable using the Mac and
rarely has questions, since she knows how to do what she wants. My
suggestion for this person is to learn more keyboard commands. One of
the beauties of the Macintosh experience is that many keyboard
shortcuts are standardized. Command-Q almost always quits an
application. Command (or cmd), by the way, is the name of that key
near your spacebar that has an Apple on it or the
Splat/Propeller/Flower. Nearly everyone can learn standard keyboard commands for making a
new document (cmd-N), opening a document (cmd-O), closing a window
(cmd-W), saving (cmd-S), undoing (cmd-Z), copying (cmd-C), pasting
(cmd-V), and printing (cmd-P). Since nearly every program on the Mac
works the same way, learning a keyboard command can make you faster
with all your applications. If you want to learn a new keyboard
command, look to the right of the command in the menu bar to see if
it has a shortcut. What nonstandard commands do you use the most often? Just recently
I realized that I could surf the web much quicker if I used a
keyboard shortcut for going back and used the mouse for selecting new
links. It was slowing me down using the mouse to press the back
button. Perhaps you can use a two-handed approach as well. The final type of user is the power user. (Actually there are
several more types of users, but let's keep this simple.) If you are
a power user, you already know it. When a power user sits down at a
Mac to show someone something, she goes so fast the other person
can't keep up. She seems able to predict what the answer to a dialog
box before she has time to read the error message. My suggestion for
a power user is to learn AppleScript. Most versions of the Mac OS have AppleScript built in. Looking at
the example scripts will give you an idea of some of the things you
can do. If you create a few personal scripts, your Mac experience
will be better. For example, every day I like to check my email and
surf the web. I wrote a script that connects my computer to the
Internet, gets my email, and opens a few of my favorite web sites.
Or, if I'm already on the net, the same script then disconnects me
and quits the applications. You can combine AppleScript with a few
free software options so that when you wake up in the morning, your
Mac has just turned itself on, downloaded your email, and opened up
your planner to show you today's schedule. There are other ways to automate your Mac besides AppleScript. I
use a macro program called OneClick that is much more flexible than
AppleScript, and I find it easier to program. But I suggest
AppleScript for two reasons. First, it's free, which means that if
you come up with a really cool script, you'll be able to share it
with nearly any Mac user. Second, AppleScript is supported from
System 7.1 to Mac OS 9, and it will be supported in MacOS X. Each of these suggestions requires that you invest some of your
time to become a more capable Mac user. Time spent learning your Mac
is time that you could be enjoying a good book or laughing with a
friend. I'm not suggesting that you learn to be faster just because
you can. Knowledge can become obsolete. But if you discern that you
might save time in the long run by spending more time learning now,
why not do some invest the time? Perhaps a parable clarifies my point: A man was walking in the
jungle when he saw another man stumbling along with a blindfold over
his eyes. He asked, "Why don't you take the blindfold off so you can
see where you are going." And the other man said, "I don't have the
time! I am being chased by a tiger!" 
- <this article available in a printer-friendly
format>
The first thing that Jonathan
Ploudre did when he got his own Mac IIsi in 1991 was to make a
custom icon for the computer and give it a name. Ever since then he
has been trying to make Macs as fast and friendly as possible.
Comments, opinions, and ideas about this or other Back & Forth
columns are gladly accepted. Articles by Jonathan PloudreElsewhere on Low End Mac- Born Again: It Works!,
Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 8/23. Yes, you can run Mac OS 8.1
on some 68030-based Macs.
- QuickCam + PowerBook =
Webcam, Manuel Mejia Jr., Mac Daniel, 8/23. How to set up an
older Mac (in this case, a PowerBook 145) with a QuickCam and use
it as a webcam.
- Troubleshooting FileMaker
Pro, Dan Knight, 8/23. How to prevent and recover from data
errors in FileMaker Pro.
- An Old Friend, Somewhere in
Boxes, My First Mac, 8/22. "My first computer was the Quadra
660AV. It was the first computer I had ever owned."
- Quest for a User-friendly
Hub, Joshua McKinney, My Turn, 8/22. If USB is supposed to be
plug and play, why do so many hubs make that difficult?
- When to buy new, Dan Knight,
Mac Musings, 8/21. The publisher of Low End Mac admits that it
sometimes makes more sense to get a new computer then keep
upgrading an old one.
- Making Macs listen and
obey, Evan Kleiman, Mac Daniel, 8/21. A brief introduction to
using Speech Recognition to control your Mac.
- Screens of plastic could be
fantastic, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 8/21.
New technologies could make flat panel displays far less
costly.
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Mac: Receive email information on new articles.
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