Tag Archive of “tutorial”
I am a die hard keyboard shortcut user. Strong keyboard shortcuts in an application are a requirement, not a bonus.
Despite this, I believe we are on the verge of a shift in the way machines and people communicate. Increasingly, it is about touch rather than type or movement.
Originally, computers were almost exclusively controlled through text (command line interfaces). This was (and is) highly efficient but not very user-friendly. With the advent of the GUI, pointing became the dominant form of input for most users. Hardcore geeks still use the keyboard as much as possible, but the average user is tied to the mouse.
With the development of multitouch technologies, we are able to get the benefits of both the keyboard and mouse. Multitouch has proven to supremely efficient, in comparison to the keyboard and mouse. Additionally, there is nothing more natural-feeling than multitouch; your touch immediately creates an appropriate response from the computer.
In terms of consumer products, Apple has proven to be a pioneer in multitouch development. Both the Apple laptop lines and iPhone lines now include multitouch support.1
When I bought my first Apple laptop, one of the features which truly stood out to me was the ability to scroll with the trackpad. The gesture is elegant and simple, with none of the cumbersome wheels or pointing of other laptops: to scroll, just swipe two fingers.
Despite this, I always felt that Apple wasn’t truly exploring the potential of multitouch. Enter MultiClutch.
Essentially, MultiClutch allows anyone using one of the newer MacBook or MacBook Pro models to assign gestures for keyboard shortcuts. The power this creates is immense, limited only by your imagination.
Right: My current MultiClutch configuration
I currently have MultiClutch configured to quickly swap through spaces, control my music, and hide applications. These gestures help me to control my environment with minimal interruption.
Though there is a plethora of potential configurations, one of the most useful is the ability to quickly swap though a multitude of windows even on a small laptop screen. Hopefully, this technique will prove useful in your workflow as well.2
To begin, download MultiClutch. Once downloaded and installed, head to the new “MultiClutch” panel of the preferences.
In this panel, you need to add four gestures. To add a gesture, click the small plus sign in the bottom right. Then select the dropdown in your new command and choose an appropriate gesture. Finally, double click the “key command” field and press the appropriate key combination. The mappings I use in my setup are relatively straight-forward:
- Swipe left → command + left arrow
- Swipe right → command + right arrow
- Swipe down → command + down arrow
- Swipe up → command + up arrow
Above: The Spaces preferences panel, as I have it configured
After you have configured MultiClutch, you must configure Spaces. You can do so in the Exposé & Spaces panel of system preferences. Check the box to enable spaces and add an appropriate number of spaces. (I use nine.) Then, at the bottom, chose two keyboard shortcuts to hop between spaces. I recommend using control (^) and arrow keys. With this enabled, you will be able to switch spaces by holding control while pressing the appropriate directional key. Your swipe gestures now will work perfectly.
You can now use nine screens, even on a small laptop. To move from screen to screen, just swipe with three fingers across the trackpad. You will then switch to the space in that direction. This technique has a distinct science fiction feel to it, but is also highly efficient.
Multitouch, combined with Spaces on Leopard, makes a small laptop screen 9 times “bigger.”
What potential do you see in MultiClutch? What gestures do you use? On another note, would you like me to do more or fewer of these techie-type posts?
Of all the amazing social media tools in the world, one of my absolute favorites is drop.io. They provide a dead-simple way to share media, but also realize that there is so much more to that than simply sharing files. Not only is it easy to share files, voice and communication can be shared in the exact same interface. Essentially, drop.io supports a plethora of outputs and inputs without complicating things. Drop.io realizes that the point of technology is to make complicated things (like sending a message across the globe in seconds) easy (with the click of a button). Drop.io provides an excellent service with a minimum of effort and cost.1
Given this unique set of features, drop.io is perfectly suited for use in the educational market. The base service is free, so there is no need to purchase additional hardware or software. Additionally, there is no need to register for an account at all – thus, no emails needed. Finally, drop.io is by nature non-permanent and private – drops are erased after 1 year of disuse and will never be monitored or searchable (unless you ask them to be). For this minimum of effort, a lot is accomplished. You can upload any kind of media, whether through the web interface, email, a Firefox extension, or even your phone.2 This media can then be shared through email, RSS, iTunes (dropcast), SMS, Twitter, Facebook, or the plain old web interface. In short, drop.io provides a plethora of ways to share educational content freely.
Once you have mastered the basics of drop.io, you begin to realize its potential. One of the best applications is giving students a way to easily record a podcast without any additional hardware. Though there are other ways to do this, I believe drop.io does it the best as you will shortly see.
First, you need to create a new drop. This drop shouldn’t include any media, but a unique name will help you to remember it. The name can be changed by clicking it. If you would like to block outside access, just click the “additional settings” dropdown and adjust settings accordingly. Once your settings are confirmed, just “drop it.”
Right: You should definitely set an admin password, as it will let you make changes later.
Once you have a drop ready to go, copy down the voicemail address (it is in the top right corner, under “Contact this Drop”). If you give this number a call, you are prompted to enter the extension of your drop and are then taken to a recording section where you can immediately leave a message. Seconds later it will show up in the web interface as an mp3 file.
Right: Just call the listed email to record a voicemail, like I did with this sample drop.
After your content is recorded, it is easy to syndicate it out through other services – like RSS or Twitter. Since this is a podcast, syndication through iTunes is the best method. To do so, just click share, then RSS/Dropcast, then subscribe to Dropcast. iTunes will open up and you will have a simple podcast which can automatically be updated from your phone.3
As you can see, drop.io offers a great way to podcast with your students – all you need is a phone. As helpful as this is, it is only scratching the surface of what drop.io can do. What else can you think of using a ubiquitious sharing service like drop.io for?4