by You might be familiar with the bonuses of Mountain Lion, but there are always tons of tips that are hidden–and you’ll hopefully discover along the way.
Here are seven little known secrets on how to get some more out of Mountain Lion that’ll make your life just that much easier.
You can encrypt Time Machine backups
We already love how simple Time Machine is to use, and it’s a handy essential that we use on a regular basis. However, with Mountain Lion, you can finally encrypt your backups. Before you run your back up, go into the Time Machine, then choose System Preferences. Click on Select Disk, choose the one you use for backups, and pick the box that is beside Encrypt Backups. Sensitive material is safe the next run around.
You can keep a single Note open
Notes has combined with some features of Stickies, with a convenient way to keep it open on the Desktop. When you open your Notes app, you can keep a single Note open by double clicking on any notes in the list, which will open it separately from the others. If you close Notes, the one that you opened will remain as such until you close it.
You can rename files much easier
Yes, we know it’s already pretty simple to rename a file, but this takes it one step further (which is great, especially if you’re in a rush). While you’re working in a document, you can just click on its name at the top of the file and choose Rename from a drop-down list that will appear. This, of course, takes just a second, as opposed to saving the file, closing it, renaming it in Finder, and reopening it.
You can Tweet via your Mac
If you’re an avid Twitter user, you’ll like that Mountain Lion has integrated this in a variety of ways. If you’re signed in via Mail, Contacts, & Calendars via System Preferences, you can share anything on Twitter. Just open up the Notification Center, click on “Click to Tweet” and, well, click to Tweet.
You can sign-in once
Mountain Lion makes it easy for you to sign into everything you need (again, including Twitter). It keeps you signed into your accounts that you access via the Mail, Contacts, & Calendars system via System Preferences, and you don’t have to enter your username and password over and over. Instead, the information is stored properly in the system.
You can take a break from typing
If you’re an avid (or lazy) writer, the Dictation feature will be your new best friend. You can use the built-in mic on your Mac to speak while the computer does the rest and types out what you say. You can customize your options, such as language and shortcuts, in System Preferences under the Dictation & Speech option.
You can use Spotlight to your advantage
Sometimes Spotlight can be a little temperamental, but if the tool is used right, you’ll reap its benefits. When searching, type in what you need in the Spotlight, and stop there. Rather than your two options being Open or Preview, you can actually hunt down where this is stored on your Mac–it just isn’t clear how. To do it, Highlight the item and press Control+Enter. A Finder window will open with the file in question highlighted.
