Under the Magnifying Glass

Time to Realign our Paradigm Parasol

By Steven H. Fyffe

sfyffe@maccompanion.com

“There’s a naked tree, Grandma,” Jared said, while watching the fading leaves swirling around the park. Later, he saw a skeleton at the library left over from Halloween. “Look, Papa, a ‘keleton” ... take my body off and that’s what I look like”.

In “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” Sherlock Holmes said, “We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations.” (1)

Jared’s view of his world, much as Sherlock Holmes advocates, is from a unique perspective. Having not formed deep-seated theories, opinions, or prejudices, he often “calls it as he sees it” or as Art Linkletter said,“kids say the darnedest things.” Last Christmas, we gave Jared his first camera. When the photographer is only 41 inches tall, his pictures of his 4 foot 11 inch grandma take on an interesting perspective.

We may not be 41 inches tall, but it is important to remember that we all view our world from a certain perspective, even through tinted glasses. As we take each step forward down the cobble stone path of today’s journey, we formulate our own paradigm or way of thinking. Some call it their comfort zone. Having an “absolutely blank mind,” as the fictional detective advocated, may not be possible or even prudent for that matter. However, it is very important to understand that our personal paradigm may cloud or even blind us from the truth, if not taken into account. Thus, our way of thinking may slow or stop our progress.

A beach parasol is designed to give protection from the direct rays of the sun. However, if the parasol is not aligned correctly, we will burn. Therefore, the parasol must be realigned occasionally. Likewise, our Paradigm Parasol must be examined from time to time to make sure it is aligned correctly and to see where we stand in relationship to it.

It is time to step out of your comfort zone, to explore for the pure joy of exploration, and to discard the “if it is not broken, why fix it” attitude. Hop on board, because the train is moving on.

On Leopard

Apple has long been in the “Think Different” business. They are always challenging consumers to undergo a paradigm shift. On October 26th, they threw down the gauntlet. Leopard has arrived on the scene and it is time for a paradigm shift again. Time to realign our parasol. Join me as we discover the new cat. I’ll start with my favorite …

SPACES

It is so simple and intuitive to use. One of my dear friends in our MUG pointed out that Spaces is similar to minimizing a window to the Dock. She is right. Minimizing hides our active windows, but we know right where to retrieve them when needed.

However, Spaces is so much more elegant than minimizing. Spaces hides windows on full screen virtual desktops, until ready to be used.

All you have to do to see what is hidden is press the Control Qualifier key and then the arrow keys become your thrusters. You zoom at warp speed through all the Spaces.

Alternatively, you can open All Spaces, to get a bird’s eye view of your whole virtual universe.

There are several ways to have access to All Spaces:

Drag the Spaces icon from Applications folder to the dock.
Press a keyboard short cut (use default F8 or you can reset it).
If you have a Mighty Mouse, you can assign a button to Spaces.
Set an Active Corner to Spaces.

With All Spaces, you can instantly see all the quadrants of your universe & where everything is waiting for you to beam down to the appropriate Space.

Start thinking of Spaces as rooms where you can work and play. Just as you think of the kitchen when you want to eat, you can assign a specific Space to a specific application. I assigned Space #1 to Safari which will automatically open there. When I beam down to another quadrant of my universe, to perform another task, all I need to do is press Control key followed by number 1 key to instantly beam back to Space #1 to go surfing again.

Spaces really shine if you have multiple displays. A single Space now represents two displays. For example, I connect my MacBook Pro to my 32-inch HDTV and assign Space 8 to Photoshop. All the editing palettes will reside on the internal display and the photo is on the HDTV at full screen. While in the middle of my photo editing, all I need to do is press Control-1 to go to Safari for Internet surfing and then beam back to Photoshop by pressing Control-8.

TALK ABOUT A PARADIGM SHIFT .... I NEVER HAVE TO RESIZE or MINIMIZE or MOVE WINDOWS AROUND AGAIN

One caveat, you do need to do some preplanning of your Leopard trek.

Using System Preferences, I appointed applications which I may want to open in the same Space, like Address Book and Mail.

For applications which I want to use full screen, but don’t expect to open at the same time, I can also assign to the same Space. For example, I assigned my video applications, iMovie HD, iMovie '08, and Final Cut Express, to Space #12.

For applications that I want to tag along, no matter where I beam to, I assigned to Every Space, such as iChat.

One of my friends, also assigned Finder to open in Every Space so his Finder windows stick with him throughout his virtual universe. For me, I wanted Finder windows to remain in the Space where I open them. I can always show All Spaces to see what "planet" they reside on and can easily drag to a different "sector," as I please. Spaces can be customized according to each individual’s choice and needs.

In the same way I assigned Safari to Space #1 in the example above, you can treat Spaces like Rapid Dial on your cell phone. You can beam directly there by pressing Control and a number key. For example, you can assign Space 8 exclusively to iTunes.

You can also reserve a Space for an open Desktop, by not assigning any applications to it. I have reserved Space 9 for this purpose, available to play or work as needed.

Try out these discoveries for yourself and come back next month, as we experience more shifts in our personal Paradigms. Happy Leoparding.

Don’t jump up and leave just yet. Did you try the guided discovery exercises from last month’s column? (2) Here are the answers and comments …

Pressing the Shift key, in the Finder dropdown menu changes “Add to Sidebar” to “Add to Favorites”.
By pressing a Qualifier key when setting up Exposé hot corners, you prevent accidental activation, but still have fast access without using keyboard shortcuts.
Shift-Command-C key opens a Finder window to show all attached volumes; Shift-Command-A opens the Application folder; and Shift-Command-U opens the Utility folder.
Of course the oldest Qualifier key still performs it’s same function The Shift key while typing text, gives the old faithful Capital letters.

AppleMark

Take care. Happy exploring.