Using the keyboard to navigate and perform various tasks can be a great timesaver in Mac OS X. Keyboard shortcuts and commands can be used to a great extent in mobile computing to speed up tasks that would take longer to do with the mouse. After reading this document you’ll hardly ever use your mouse or trackpad again

You’ll learn how to:

• move Items from one Application to another without Drag and Drop
• close Documents without clicking on the close button
• take a Screenshot of your Screen and save the file as an png on the desktop

All this magic behavior is done by pressing one or more special keys – also called Modifier keys – at the same time. To become a real Apple Geek you must learn those Keyboard shortcuts by heart.

The Swiss Keyboard Layout

The Swiss Keyboard is a QWERTZ Keyboard, called after the first six letters at the top left of the keyboard: Q, W, E, R, T and Z. It differs from the QWERTY layout by interchanging the “Z” and “Y” keys. This is more convenient since “Z” is much more used in the German language than “Y” and “T” and “Z” often appear next to each other in many German Words (Katze, Satz, schwitzen).

Special Keys

There are several “special” keys on an Apple keyboard.

Key	Function
	The command keys – also well known as the Apple Keys – are on each side of the space bar and are easily reachable by the thumb fingers. Almost every Mac OS keyboard shortcut is based on the command key. We will use them a lot.
	The Alt key used to change (alternate) the function of other pressed keys. By holding down the Alt key you can also print out almost every special characters.
	As many of you may have noticed, the Shift key is used to type capital letters. There are 2 shift keys on a Mac keyboard which are easily reachable by the little fingers. The shift key also perform some special operations in conjunction with another modifier key.
Tab	In Text processing Applications such as Microsoft Word or TextEdit the Tabulator key is used to advance the cursor to the next tab stop. You will see that it has another purpose in many “switch something” shortcuts.
Ctrl	The control key is less used in Mac OS and almost never performs any function when it is pressed by itself. It will perform a special operation in conjunction with another modifier key.
Fn	We typically find the Fn (Function)Key in compact keyboard layouts like laptops. It combines keys which are normaly kept seperate such as the delete key (FN – Backspace). If you have Fn on your keyboard the F1 – F12 keys are usually occupied with some Multimedia or System Control Functions. You must hold the Fn key to use the underlying (normal) F1-F12 functions.
Esc	The Esc (Escape) key is mostly used to stop, cancel or abort an action or dialog.

Basic Shortcuts

Let’s start with some basic shortcuts. How to type. I’ve listed the most requested shortcuts from Ex-Windows Users:

Task	Windows	Mac
Copy	Ctrl – C	-C
Cut	Ctrl – X	-X
Paste	Ctrl – V	-V
Undo	Ctrl – Z	– Z
Select All	Ctrl – A	- A
Save	Ctrl – S	– S
Open	Ctrl – O (within Application), Enter (in Windows Ex- plorer), Context – O (on the Desktop)	– O
Close (Document, File, Window)	Ctrl – F4	– W
Close all (Documents, Files, Win- dow) within Application	Shift – Alt – F4	– – W
Quit Application	Alt – F4	– Q
New Folder	Context – W – F	– – N
Eject/Disconnect (CD/DVD, USB-Stick, Network)		– E
Delete File/Folder (send to Bin/Trash)	Delete	Delete or – Backspace
Empty Bin/Trash		-  Backspace
Task Manager	Ctrl – Alt – Delete	-  - ESC

Special Characters

Well, you may want to know how to type the @ (at) character on a Swiss Keyboard. As you might have seen it is located near the center of the keyboard, more precise on the “G” key. You can type the “at” by holding down the Alt key. Here are some other special caracters often used in Switzerland. They all make use of the x key.

Shortcut	Caractere
– G	@ (at)
– 3	#
– 5	[
- 6	]
– 7	|
– 8	{
– 9	}
– – 7	\ (Backslash)
– N	~ (Tilde)
– S	ß (Double S)

Additional Shortcuts
Good to know

Shortcut	Function
– -Z	Redo
– – S	Save as
– U	Revert to saved
– P	Print
– – P	Print with Setup
– O	Open a Document / File
– N	New Window / Document
– W	Close the Window / Document
– – W	Close ALL Windows / Documents
– D	Don’t Save (within Close Diaolog)
– M	Minimize Application
– H	Hide Application
– – H	Hide all other Applications
– Space	Spotlight Search
– ,	Preferences (within an Application)
– .	Cancel (within Close Dialog)
Ctrl –	Enter Front Row
– (Ctrl) – – 3	Screenshot (entire screen), the result will be copied into the clipboard (like on Windows…) You can save the screenshot as a png file to the Desktop without holding the Ctrl key
– (Ctrl) – – 4	Screenshot of an arbitrary area (drag a rectangle), the re- sult will be copied into the clipboard (like on Windows…) You can save the screenshot as a png file to the Desktop without holding the Ctrl key
– (Ctrl) - – 4, then press the Space Bar	Take a Screenshot of any window (choose a window), the result will be copied into the clipboard (like on Windows…) You can save the screenshot as a png file to the Desktop without holding the Ctrl key
–	Switch between Applications (to the right)
– –	Switch between Applications (to the left)
– – Esc	Force Quit / End Task Dialog

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This blog entry is dedicated to all OS X Users at the College of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg. It explains in depth how to connect your Mac to your Personal School Disk via VPN.

1. How to find out your Macs’ MAC Address

The Schools Network Admin has to enable your Computers Network Interfaces on the VPN gateway. Be sure that you gave him the right MAC Addresses.

W-LAN MAC

Go to the System Preferences – Network and click on Advanced, a Popup Window will show up:

LAN MAC

You can also run these commands in the Terminal Application:

Ethernet/LAN Mac

ifconfig en0 | grep ether

W-LAN Mac

ifconfig en1 | grep ether

2. VPN via Internet (usual case)

Let’s move on to the VPN Configuration on your Mac. Since the Cisco VPN protocol is implemented by Mac OS X you don’t have to install any 3rd party application (such as on Windows . Go to the System Preferences, then open Network.

VPN Infos (for Advanced Users):

Create a new VPN connection and select Cisco IPSec as your VPN Type

Then enter the server address vpn-gw01-inet.eif.ch and your account name and password (you will be prompted for your password each time you log in)

Then click on Authentication Settings and enter the Group Name EIA-Inet, I cannot post the Shared Secret Password to this blog, please ask the help desk for further information (or write me an e-mail).

Click on ok. Thats all. Try to connect.

3. VPN within school (school public wlan)

Same as above, just for the public wlan network of the school

4. Auto-connect Network Drives at login

You probably know how to connect to the network drives (cmd-k or Finder-Go-Connect to Server)…

But I’m shure that you wonder how you could connect your network drive after logging in… Well the problem is: If you are at home you need VPN access. And the OS X VPN client doesnt provide with an auto-connect mechanism.

I created a little AppleScript Application that handles this problem for you. Open the AppleScript Editor (you might have to install the Developer Tools) and insert this code:

tell application "System Events"
	tell current location of network preferences
		-- name of your VPN connection
		set VPNconnection to service "VPN EIA-Fr via Internet"
		if exists VPNconnection then
			connect VPNconnection
			-- you have 5 seconds to enter your VPN password =)
			delay 5
			tell application "Finder"
				mount volume "smb://hefrfas01/stefan.aebische"
				--you can mount volume "smb://hefrfas01/formation_hefr$"
				-- you can mount volume "smb://hefrfas01/transfert_ata_hefr$"
			end tell
		end if
	end tell
end tell

Save it as an Application (not Script!)

Then go to the System Preferences – Accounts and select your user, then choose the “Login Items” Tab and add your AppleScript Application:

Have fun =)

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Einfach unglaublich was ich in San Francisco und Cupertino alles erlebt habe. Da ich unter dem NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) von Apple stehe, darf ich hier leider nicht viel darüber berichten.

Ein Highlight war aber der Besuch bei Apple im Silicon Valley. Zusammen mit einem Jung-IT-Guy aus Chile durfte ich letzten Montag kurz beim Apple Campus (drinnen natürlich) in Cupertino vorbeischauen und mit einigen Entwicklern und Managern plaudern…

Hier nun einige Impressionen

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Yes it’s true, aebi is going to WWDC09 =D

Ein Traum wird wahr. Obercomputerfreakmacianerprogrammierheini aebi darf 1 Woche nach Kalifornien zu Apple schnuppern gehen, und zwar als Student an der jährlichen Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco.

Zusammen mit unzähligen Apple Ingenieuren darf ich mich durch Sessions rund um den Mac und iPhone quälen Nur das Neuste vom Neusten. iPhone OS 3.0, OS X Snow Leopard, Grand Central Dispatch u.v.m! Und am Schluss der Konferenz bin ich sogar zu einem Vorstellungsgespräch eingeladen…

Ich freu mich riesig! Vor allem um Steve Jobs wieder gesund zu sehen!

Falls ihr irgendwelche Bijous von Apple benötigt, dann meldet euch bei mir!

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