Here’s a quick and handy Tuesday tip for those of you who use OS X’s bundled Calculator program. As you may know, the calculator has three modes—Basic, Scientific, and Programmer, available under the View menu. You can switch between modes with the menu, or the listed keyboard shortcuts (Command-1, Command-2, and Command-3). But here’s another way to toggle modes: just click the green “maximize” button at the top left of the Calculator’s screen.
Each time you click, the calculator will cycle to a different view mode. Not a huge timesaver, but for those who like to keep their hands on the mouse, now you can control the Calculator in a keyboard-free manner.
Bonus hint: Another strangely-behaving maximize button can be found in the iTunes Equalizer (Window -> Equalizer). Just as with the main iTunes window, clicking the green maximize button on the Equalizer window will give you a “super small” window. Instead of seeing the adjustable sliders for each audio band, you’ll only see the on/off toggle, and a pop-up menu from which you can choose a pre-defined equalizer setting.
Once you have your equalizers set up, you can use this mini mode to easily switch between them without wasting a lot of screen real estate.