Mac OS X Lion online learning and courseware is now available from CustomGuide. For a look at the table of contents and a preview of lessons, view our Mac OS X Lion title page.

Lion, the seventh version of Mac OS X, was released last July and has arguably become Apple’s most successful operating system.  By November of 2011, some sources estimated that roughly 30 percent of all Mac users were already using Lion.

Lion introduces several new features to Mac OS X, such as:

• Launchpad: Launchpad lets you access and manage all of your Mac’s applications, as you would on an iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone.  Simply click the Launchpad icon on the Dock to access Launchpad.
• Mission Control: Mission Control is the new hub of your Mac, which combines earlier versions of Mac OS X’s Dashboard, Exposé, and Spaces features. With just a single click or swipe on the trackpad, you can conveniently view everything on your Desktop.
• Full-Screen Applications: You can now view your applications in full-screen view, so that they take up the entire screen.

We also bid farewell to our existing web based training format with this new release. We feel that we saved the best for last in releasing Mac OS X Lion as the final title of our existing web based training format, as the title delivers the most interactive and detailed web based training ever produced for Mac OS X. Thanks to  all of our clients who have helped make our online training such a success.

As a salute to the web based training we’ve produced over the past decade, we’ve included a special Easter egg in the lesson, “What’s New in Mac OS X Lion.” Need a hint? Explore the end of the lesson to reveal the Easter egg.

Project 2010 courseware is now available for download from CustomGuide. For a look at the table of contents, and a preview of some courseware lessons, view our Project 2010 title page.

Waiting for online learning? Work on Project 2010 online learning is currently in progress; look for the complete online learning course this spring.

Today marks the beginning of a new era at CustomGuide. We are officially implementing our upgraded development process, and we’re excited about the possibilities these improvements will bring.

Why change something that’s worked well for so long, you might ask? Client demand. While our clients are very happy with our product, they’d also like more titles to choose from. Our attention to detail and interactivity are hallmarks that have made us an industry leader for the past 10 years. But this has come at the expense of our library. We have great stuff, but the titles we offer are not as diverse or numerous as we, or our clients, would like. When people think about CustomGuide online learning, they think, “Microsoft Office,” and “Love it.” Our goal is for people to think, “Amazing selection,” and “Love it.”

Over the past few months, we have been testing, researching, and testing again to find ways to improve our development process and make it more streamlined, without sacrificing the look and feel our clients are used to. Compatibility with mobile devices has also been a big focus; our current process uses Flash, which isn’t supported by all mobile devices. We think we’ve found a solution, melding some of our old tools with new ones that make some use of video and are mobile-compatible.

Now we’re beginning to take all that testing and researching into the real world. We’re tackling our first title in the new format, Project 2010, right now. Look for it this spring. And for anyone looking to say adieu to our old format, get ready to sink your teeth into Mac OS X Lion, to be released in March.

One of the things that impressed me most when I first picked up an iPad was how simple and intuitive the whole experience was. The basics of tapping and dragging my finger across the display felt absolutely natural, as was Apple’s primary goal with the interface. This is one of the reasons that the iPad is the most popular tablet on the market, and such a hit with users of all ages.

The longer I use one, though, the more I realize that there are more layers to the experience than the basics of tapping, dragging, and pinching. I found little tricks here and there that weren’t obvious at first, but have become natural and quite useful.

Some tricks come about by experimenting. Lots of iPad users know these common on-screen keyboard tricks:
• Double-tap the keyboard to insert a period followed by a space.
• Double-tap the Shift button to enable caps lock.
• Tap and hold the <.?123> button to display the numbers keyboard, drag to the appropriate number, and then release to return right to the main keyboard.

Many also know you can tap and hold certain letters to display accented versions of that letter. For example, tap and hold A, then select ä from the popup to insert it. Once I noticed this, I found myself tapping and holding every key on the on-screen keyboard to see what other special symbols were available. Some were more useful than others, like ? being used to insert a ¿, while some were a little more obscure–if I ever need to denote sections while typing on my iPad, I can tap and hold & to insert a §. There are too many of these symbols to list here, but it’s worthwhile to experiment and look for yourself.

While experimentation may reveal some tricks, others are less likely to just be stumbled upon. For example, if you wanted to delete an email from your inbox, you’d usually tap ‘Edit’ in the inbox, tap the delete button that appears next to the email, then tap ‘Done’ once you’ve finished. If you wanted to save a few taps and gestures, though, there’s a shortcut. Swipe your finger across the email you no longer want and a delete button will appear on the right side of the email. Tap delete and the email is deleted. Even though there’s no on-screen indication that this would work, it’s a common shortcut in many apps where there’s a list of things that could be deleted. Try managing your bookmarks in Safari, notes in Notes, or books and PDFs in iBook’s list view this way.

Other tricks are obvious in retrospect, but are things that many people just don’t think to try out. For example, most iPad users will at some point create app folders, and most will customize the apps that reside on the dock at the bottom of the Home Screen, but few think to put a folder of commonly-used apps on the dock at the bottom of the Home Screen.

With the pending release of iOS 5 this fall, there are plenty of big, showcase improvements such as:

• New notifications center
• iCloud integration
• New iMessage and Reminders apps

There will also be lots of small but very useful improvements that could go unnoticed by many. We at CustomGuide are working to make sure you are in the know with our iPad training. Look for it this fall, after the release of iOS 5.

Brian is a developer at CustomGuide, and is currently working on training courses for the iPad.