Good Stuff in Mac OS X Lion

Updated December 18th, 2015.

Even though Mac OS X Lion has kept a lot of us busy looking for work-arounds and otherwise solving problems, it also has some nice touches which bear pointing out. Here are a few that I especially like.

1. Finder: New Folder with Selection. Select some files, then choose File/New Folder with Selection (n Items) and it does what it says it says it will do. (The “n” is the number of items selected.)

BETTER: control-click on one of the selected items and choose New Folder with Selection (n Items). There it is, right at the top.

Either way, you get a folder called “New Folder With Items” and it is ready for you to rename (no need to click it, just type the new name).

You’ve probably done something like this in iTunes (New Playlist from Selection). Now you can do it in the Finder.

2. iCal: double-click an event to edit it. Doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but in 10.6.8 you double-click the event, then you click the Edit button. Lion’s iCal eliminates the extra step. Thank you, Lion! You don’t need a picture for this, just try it.

3. Mail: Favorites Bar. Drag your favorite mailboxes (“folders” to you and me) to the Favorites Bar for quick access, then hide the mailbox list so you have more room for mail. Go from this three-column view….
to this two-column view, leaving more room for the stuff you really need (that is, the mail that you are reading).
The important parts are highlighted in red (the Favorites Bar) and yellow (the Show/Hide button, which shows and hides the third pane of the Mail window).

If the Favorites Bar is not showing in Mail, choose Show Favorites Bar from the View menu. Note: you can file a message by dragging it onto an item in the Favorites Bar. Very nice.

I hope to find more stuff I like in Lion. If and when I do, I will let you know.

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