HI, I'M WILSON TANG WITH CNET.COM. THE MAC OPERATING SYSTEM HAS HAD A LITTLE KNOWN FEATURE CALLED SERVICES THAT CAN SIGNIFICANTLY SPEED UP SOME COMMON TASKS. IN MOST APPLICATIONS ON THE MAC, IT APPEARS UNDER THE APPLICATION NAME IN THE MENU BAR. NOW, SOME APPS AREN'T CODED TO PROPERLY USE SERVICES, BUT THE MAJORITY OF APPLE'S APPLICATIONS DO. SO WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH SERVICES? WELL, PLENTY. FOR STARTERS, EVER RUN ACROSS AN EMAIL ADDRESS THAT HASN'T BEEN LINKED AND WANT TO EMAIL THAT PERSON? WELL, JUST HIGHLIGHT THE EMAIL ADDRESS, GO THE APPLICATION NAME, THEN SERVICES AND THEN SELECT SEND TO. SERVICES WILL AUTOMATICALLY OPEN UP MAIL AND PUT THE EMAIL ADDRESS IN THE FROM FIELD WITHOUT YOU HAVING TO COPY AND PASTE. WANT TO HEAR TEXT SPOKEN BY THE MAC'S BUILT-IN VOICE SYNTHESIZER? INSTEAD OF LAUNCHING UNIVERSAL ACCESS OPTIONS, JUST HIGHLIGHT THE TEXT, GO TO SERVICES, AND SELECT SPEECH AND THEN START SPEAKING TEXT. NEED TO GRAB A SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR DESKTOP, SELECT SERVICES, THEN GRAB, THEN ,SCREEN. IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY INSERT THE SCREEN SHOT INTO YOUR DOCUMENT.
THERE ARE EVEN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR LAUNCHING SOME UNIVERSAL SERVICES. WANT TO OPEN UP A STICKY NOTE? HIT COMMAND-SHIT-Y. WANT TO SEARCH SOME TEXT IN GOOLE? HIT COMMAND-SHIFT-L. NEED TO FIND A PIECE OF TEXT IN A DOCUMENT ON YOUR COMPUTER USING SPOTLIGHT? HIT COMMAND-SHIFT-F.
THERE ARE DOZENS AND DOZENS OF BUILT-IN SERVICE OPTIONS IN THE MAC O-S, BUT SERVICES IS ACTUALLY EXTENDABLE. SOME APPLICATION YOU INSTALL WILL AUTOMATICALLY ADD THEIR SERVICES TO THIS MENU LIKE SKYPE. IF THERE IS A COMMON TASK THAT YOU PERFORM, THERE JUST MIGHT BE A SERVICE FOR YOU OUT THERE ON THE WEB. I'M WILSON TANG FOR CNET.COM
