Ihnatko: Underused and unappreciated

“Wait… I’ve been using Mac OS X for years; how come nobody’s ever told me about that feature before?”

I hear this lament way too frequently. Someone comes to me with a problem that’s been vexing them forever; I explain how they can solve it in five minutes without buying any extra software. Or I’m setting up for a talk and the overhead projector is already running. The audience notices that I seem to be accomplishing some tasks much, much more quickly than they normally do, and also that I’m not cursing at my Mac so aerobically that it sets off the room’s carbon monoxide alarm.

It’s true that many of Mac OS X’s ginchiest features are neglected middle children, overlooked and underappreciated. Herewith I present The Best Mac OS X Features That Most People Don’t Seem To Use.

Everybody makes the same wish after they’ve seen “2001: A Space Odyssey” for the first time: “Someday, I want to own a computer that can interact with me via human speech, and can also ruthlessly and efficiently kill all of my enemies at my slightest whim.”

Well, the Mac is willing to meet you halfway, though unfortunately it’s the first one. Turn your Mac’s Speech Commands feature on via the “Speech” tab in System Preferences. It works best if you’re wearing a headset, but it works great even through your Mac’s built-in microphone.

Apple has baked a big pile of voice commands right in, for navigation, application switching, and more of life’s little necessities. And adding new commands is a snap: Speech will open any file, folder, application or alias in its Speakable Items folder when you speak its name. For example, if you create a generic blank business letter as Microsoft Word stationery document, and save it to the Speakable Items folder with the filename “Take a letter, Miss Moneypenny,” then speaking those five words will result in a new, empty business letter, prepared just the way you like it.

And tossing AppleScripts and Automator workflows into the Speakable Items folder takes Speech Commands to a whole new level. AppleScript and Automator are two distinctly-different features that make it possible to define a long slew of steps and instructions for your Mac to perform on its own.

Yes, Automator and AppleScript have a wonderful plan for your life and you should give yourself over to them willingly. From the three-step Automator workflow that automatically sets my desktop image to NASA’s latest Astronomy Picture Of The Day every morning to the ten pages of AppleScript that turns the contents of any document window into a live posting published on my weblog, I couldn’t get by without either one. Together, they cover all bases for automationalization, giving you the power to embroider Mac OS X with boatloads of new tweaks and commands that tailor Mac OS X specifically to your needs.

Creating a workflow via the Automator app is as simple as snapping together a stack of Lego bricks: “Go to this web page” clicks into “Download a picture from the web page” which clicks to “Set the desktop image to the picture” and glorious victory. But while Automator will obediently follow a list of your instructions, you can’t teach it to make decisions. That’s AppleScript’s turf: AppleScript is more like a full-featured programming language. You can do nearly anything with it, including write real, double-clickable applications with windows, buttons and menus.

AppleScript isn’t anywhere near as newbie-friendly as Automator. But its syntax is designed to be very English-like. If you open the Script Editor app, create a new script file, type tell application “Mail” to check for new mail and click the “Run” button, it’ll do precisely what you think it does. All the same, you’ll become a regular visitor to scripting sites like MacScripter.net while you learn the ropes… though the Jedi-like power that AppleScript imparts to its practitioners makes the struggle worthwhile.

Onward. Do you have any inkling of just how many things on your Mac can be Shared? You’re probably aware of file sharing, through which you can mount folders and whole volumes and access them on whatever Mac happens to be in front of you, be it five feet away from the remote folder’s computer or five thousand miles.

But did you know that any USB printer connected to any Mac on your whole network can be made available to every other Mac? Or that a “Web Sharing” features lets you access your Mac’s files from any device, even a smartphone?

Or that you can share a network connection? The hotel room you’re sharing with two other people charges twenty bucks a night for Internet access. Why should everybody pay, when Mac OS X can take the connection that’s coming in via your Ethernet connector and squirt it out through its AirPort antenna? All of these gems and many extremely geeky additional ones await you under the “Sharing” panel of System Preferences.

And what about Spotlight?

Here, I sense many of you feeling a little less stressed. “Spotlight searches,” you’re nodding. “Hit command-spacebar and search your whole hard drive in moments; I use it all the time,” you gloat, pitying the poor ignorant wretches who’ve never heard of it.

No. I’m talking to you. Why aren’t you using Spotlight’s many Smart Whatsits features, which can be found scattered all over the Mac’s ocean bed like “Titanic” wreckage? I save this column and instantly, Spotlight indexes it and inserts references to the file in a half a dozen Smart Folders that I’ve set up in the Finder. It’s in the “Macworld Columns” folder (folders with “Macworld” in the name), the “Recent Writings” folder (Word documents created within the last week), the “Backup to .Mac” folder (any document over a certain size that’s been modified in the last day)… on and on.

Sweetening the pot, an Automator action runs at the same time every evening, uploading the contents of the “Backup” folder to my .Mac account for safekeeping.

iTunes has Smart Playlists, Mail has Smart Mailboxes, iPhoto has Smart Albums… Smart Whatsits are, collectively, the personal assistant that your boss won’t allow you to hire, automatically organizing everything for you without being asked. Even better, they allow you to be a total bastard of a boss, simply dropping an important document or folder to the floor without a care, counting on The Help to take care of it.

Funny I should mention The Help. The Help menu is possibly Mac OS X’s most under-used resource of ‘em all. When you’re trying to take full advantage of an OS, it helps to have years of experience. The email addresses of dozens of experts are also a big plus, as is a curiosity that drives you to try random things just to see what happens. I have all those things… and still, I find myself hitting the Help menu.

Hitting Command-? is like embarking on a pilgrimage. It’s humbling, but it undoubtedly strengthens the soul.

[This column originally appeared in Macworld UK and is reprinted here with permission of the author and the publishers.]