You can easily navigate menus of most applications using your mouse, never having to have your hands leave the keyboard.

To jump to the  menu, press the Control + F2 keyboard combination (if this doesn’t work, you may have to hold down the fn key on your keyboard). Once the  is highlighted, press the Tab key to move to the right, from one menu item to the next. Use Shift + Tab to move to the left. You can also use the left or right arrow keys to move to the next or previous menu.

Move move up and down the list of a menu, press the down arrow (↓) or up arrow (↑) keys. Once you highlight the command you wish to launch, press Return or Enter.

If you don’t choose a command from the menu, you can close a menu by pressing the Esc key on your keyboard.

You know that to log out of your Mac, you click   ➪ Log Out [User Name]. You can also log out using a keyboard shortcut. There are actually two different keyboard shortcuts you can use:

Log out of your Mac with confirmation: Shift+⌘+Q

Log out of your Mac without confirmation: Shift+Option+⌘+Q

If you wish to bring up the dialog box for the Restart, Shut Down or Sleep commands, using the Control and Eject (⏏) keystroke combination.

While we’re on the topic of the  menu, you can also change the About This Mac command to System Information by holding down the Option key as you click on the .

Just a quick tip today. We have already looked at how to Force Quit an app by choosing  > Force Quit from the menu or by pressing the ⌥ + ⌘ + Esc keyboard combination.

You can also Option+Click on any open application’s icon on the Dock and choose Force Quit from the contextual menu.

There’s a quick way to set the Save folder in a Save dialog box without having to drill down.

If you already have the folder displayed in an open Finder window, you can drag the folder from the Finder window to the Where (or Save) drop-down list. This automatically sets the Save folder to match the Finder folder.

Tags allow you to selectively color code files and folders so you can quickly identify specific or related items in the Finder. They are similar to the previous system of Labels except that you can apply more than one tag to an icon.

Tags provides an additional way of finding and sorting files. You can have an endless number of tags although you are limited to seven colors.

There are several excellent reasons to get in the habit of tagging your files. You can display all files with a certain tag in the same place, regardless of their location. You can also sort and group the contents of folder by their tags. Tags can also come in handy for temporarily bring files to you your attention. For instance, I have an in-progress tag that I use for files on which I’m currently working. When I’m finished with a file, I remove the tag.

When an icon is color coded, a colored dot appears next to the item’s name. There are several ways to apply a color tag to an item:

• Select the item and click File on the Finder menu. Select the desired color under Tags. Click the word Tags to create a new tag and then type in its name.
• Ctrl-Click (or Right-Click) the item and then select the desired color under Tags. To create a new tag, right-click and then click the word Tags. Then, type the name for the new tag.
• Select the item, click the Edit Tags button on the Finder toolbar and then type in the name if it’s a new tag or select an existing tag from the list.
• Drag the file or folder onto the names of Tags in the Sidebar.
• You can add tags when saving a file from the Save dialog box.
• You can tags from the Tags window on top of the Get Info box.

OS X provides you several tags to start out with, named Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, etc. but you can easily rename them from the Finder Preferences dialog box. Choose Finder > Preferences from the menu and then click Tabs on top of the screen. Right-click or double-click any tag and then type in the new name.

To change the color of a tag, right-click it and then choose the desired color from the list. From this window you can also choose which tags to display in the Sidebar. Click the checkbox next to any tag that you want displayed.

To remove a tag from an item, right-click the item, choose Tags and delete the tag(s) in the tags box.

Quick Guide: To Add & Use Finder Tags

1. Select the item you wish to tag in the Finder window.
2. Select File from the menu and then select the desired color under the Tags area. Click the word Tags to create a new tag.
   Or
   Right + Click the item and then select the desired color under the Tags area. Click the word Tags to create a new tag.
   Or
   Select the item, click the Edit Tags button on the Finder toolbar and then select the desired color from the list.
   Or
   Select the item, display the Get Info window (⌘ + I) and then type in the tag in the Tags window.
3. To change the color of a tag, choose Finder > Preferences from the menu, click Tags on top of the window, right-click the tag whose color you wish to change and then select the new color from the list.
4. To rename a tag, choose Finder > Preferences from the menu, click Tags on top of the window and then double-click the tag that you want to rename. Type in the new name and press Return.
5. To choose what tags appear in the Finder Sidebar, choose Finder > Preferences from the menu, click Tags on top of the window and then click the box next to any tag you want displayed in the Sidebar.
6. To display a list of all files with a particular tag, click the desired tag color in the Finder Sidebar.

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In the previous post, we looked at 6 different ways to minimize an application window. Today we continue with the theme of minimizing windows with another tip – this time, we look at how to hide all your open windows except for one. I’ve heard this method referred to as Hero mode or Front-and-Center mode mode.

To hide all application windows except for one, press the Option + Command (⌥ + ⌘) keyboard combination and then click the Dock icon for the application you want to keep open. All other windows are then hidden and the icon that you clicked is brought to the foreground.

Another way to hide all open windows is to click the application’s name on the menu that you wish to keep open and then choose Hide Others. All other open windows are hidden and minimized in the Dock.

In order to keep your screen uncluttered, you might want to consider hiding applications that you want to remain open but don’t necessarily want to have them cluttering up your screen while you’re working on something else. When an application is hidden, its menus, toolbars, windows and palettes all disappear from the screen.

6 Ways to Hide a Mac Application

1. With the application in front, press the ⌘ + H keyboard combination.
2. Option + Click (⌥ + Click) the application’s icon on the Dock.
3. Click the application’s name on the menu and then click Hide [Application]. For instance, if I wanted to hide Byword, I would click Byword on the menu and then click *Hide Byword
4. Right-click the application’s icon on the Dock and then choose Hide.
5. While working in the application, Option + Click on any visible part of the Desktop or in the window of another open application.
6. Press ⌘ + Tab to browse through open applications and when you come to the one you want to hide, press the H key.

To unhide an application, click its icon on the Dock.