OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide (25 page)

So you’ve forgotten the password to some rarely visited
yet essential server or some network you join only every six months.
Turns out Mountain Lion probably remembered the password
for
you because chances are good that when you
first entered the password, Mountain Lion asked if you wanted it to save
the password, you chose Yes. (The three options are Yes, Never, and Not
Now; since Yes is the default, that’s the option most people choose.) To
recover the password, open Keychain Access (Applications
→
Utilities
→
Keychain Access) and then type the name of the
site or application, or something else relevant into the program’s
search box. Keychain Access will find entries that match your search
criteria and present you with a list like the one in
Figure 7-1
.

Figure 7-1. Recovering a Twitter password

When whatever you’re looking for appears in the list in the middle
of the Keychain Access window, double-click that item and a window will
pop up that includes a “Show password” checkbox. Check the box, enter
your keychain password (usually, but not necessarily, the same as your
OS X password), and you’ll see the password.

For an added level of security, you can configure OS X to
lock your keychain after a period of inactivity. Open Keychain Access,
click “login” in the Keychains list on the left side of the window, and
then select Edit
→
“Change Settings for
Keychain ‘login.’” You’ll then be able to lock the keychain after a
period of inactivity or when the computer sleeps. Once a keychain is
locked, Mountain Lion won’t let your Mac give out passwords until you
unlock the keychain by typing in your password.

The following passwords are not acceptable:
letmein
,
password
,
123
, and
qwerty
. Using one of
those for anything you care about is like leaving the door to your house
wide open—but removing the welcome mat. Sure, a miscreant
might
pause momentarily when he notices the mat is
missing, but that won’t stop him from coming into your house. You need a
better password.

Mountain Lion can help you in your quest. You can find out
whether your chosen password is strong with Password Assistant, which
tests password strength. For whatever reason, you can’t access Password
Assistant directly—you have to use Keychain Access to get to it.
(Actually, any prompt that displays the little key icon will give you
access to Password Assistant, but Keychain Access is one of the easiest
ways to get there.) Open Keychain Access (Applications
→
Utilities
→
Keychain Access), and then select Edit
→
“Change Password for Keychain ‘[keychain
name].’”

In the dialog box that pops up, type a prospective password in the
New Password field. As you type, you’ll see a colored bar appear that
indicates how good your password is (red for weak, yellow for fair, and
green for good or excellent). Under that is a Password Strength rating
(Weak, Fair, Good, or Excellent). When you’re done typing, click the key
icon and the Password Assistant window appears (
Figure 7-2
).

Figure 7-2. Know your password’s strength

If your password isn’t the digital equivalent of Fort Knox, try
out some new passwords in the Password Assistant window to see how they
rate. If you can’t come up with a good one on your own, Mountain Lion is
happy to pitch in and help. The Password Assistant window’s Tips field
gives you pointers on how to build a better password, and the Type
drop-down menu lets you choose the kinds of passwords Mountain Lion
suggests: “memorable” ones, ones with letters and numbers, purely
numeric ones, random ones, or FIPS 181–compliant ones (the kind used by
government agencies).

Once you’ve found a good, strong password, close the Password
Assistant window and then click Cancel in the “Enter a new password
for...” window (unless you actually want to change the password for that
keychain). Now you can type that password into whatever program or
website needs it and know that your info should be pretty
secure.

Keychain is great at storing passwords, but you can also
use it to store notes. To write a note that no one else can see (well,
except for people who know your OS X username and password), open
Keychain Access, click “login” in the Keychains list, select Secure
Notes in the Category section, and then click the + button at the bottom
of the window. Give your secret note a name, and then start typing away
(
Figure 7-3
). When you’re done, click Add
and your note will be safely stored in that Keychain.

Figure 7-3. They must never know

With all the goodness Keychain Access offers, you might
want easy access to it. You can add it to your Dock, but that might be
getting a little crowded, and the Keychain icon isn’t the best-looking
one Apple has churned out. Luckily, you can add a menu extra for
Keychain Access (see
Menu extras
for a refresher). To
do that, the next time you’re using Keychain Access, go to Preferences
(⌘-,) and, on the General tab, check the box next to “Show keychain
status in menu bar.”

Carefully choosing passwords is a great start when it
comes to security, but it’s not a perfect solution. If someone has
physical access to your Mac, there are things she can do to get at your
data. If this prospect seems particularly loathsome to you, consider
making the extra effort to enable FileVault, a feature of Mountain Lion
that makes your data impossible to access unless you want it accessed.
For information on setting up FileVault, see
FileVault tab
.

⌘-S

Save. This saves the document you’re working on. The
more often you use this command, the happier you’ll be (at least
until OS X’s Auto Save feature is part of every program). Nothing is
more frustrating than having all your hard work disappear when the
power flickers or an application crashes.

Note

If you’re using a keyboard designed for Windows
systems, you won’t see the ⌘ key. Instead, use the Windows key,
which is usually in the same spot you’d find the ⌘ key. Some
keyboards use a different symbol, however; for example, the Happy
Hacking Keyboard uses the “lozenge” symbol (◊).

⌘-C

Copy. This command copies the current selection for
later pasting.

⌘-X

Cut. This command deletes the current selection but
copies it to your Mac’s memory. After you’ve cut something, you can
paste it elsewhere (until you copy or cut something else, that
is).

⌘-V

Paste. Once you’ve copied or cut something, you’ll
want to paste it.

⌘-,

Opens the preferences for the active
application.

⌘-] and ⌘-[

Moves forward (]) or backward ([) in the Finder,
Safari, and some other applications. For example, when navigating to
various directories in the Finder, you can use these keys instead of
clicking the arrows in the upper-right corner of the window.

⌘-Shift-?

Opens the current application’s Help dialog box so you
can get quick answers to your vexing questions.

⌘-Q

Quits the current application.

Note

You can’t easily quit the Finder, so this command doesn’t
work when you’re using it. To find out how to quit the Finder (or
more accurately, relaunch it), see
The Finder stops responding
.

⌘-Tab

Brings up the Application Switcher, which lets you
cycle through running applications by pressing Tab repeatedly as you
hold down ⌘. When you get to the application you’re after, let go of
both keys. If your hands are on the keyboard, this is a
much
faster way to switch applications than the
Dock.

Option-⌘-Esc

Force quits the current program.

Unfortunately, some of these commands don’t work the same
way in all programs. For example, in the Finder and many other
applications, ⌘-I displays the Get Info window for the currently
selected file or object, but in most word-processing applications, ⌘-I
italicizes the selected text.

Also, on some keyboards, you may need to hold down the key labeled
Fn to use keyboard shortcuts that require a function key (F1, F2,
etc.).

Table 8-1. Common keyboard shortcuts

If you don’t like the key commands built into OS X, you
don’t have to put up with them. You can change them or add your own by
taking a trip to the Keyboard preference pane. For details, see
Keyboard
.

Table 8-2. Diacritical accent mark shortcuts

Table 8-3. Special character shortcuts for U.S. English keyboards