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Mac 101: fine tune your Mac's volume


More Mac 101, tips for Mac beginners. Sure, you can use the volume key on your MacBook or Apple keyboard to do quick volume changes, but that doesn't adjust the volume that precisely. If you want to fine tune your volume, you have to either open System Preferences or click on the volume icon in the menu bar. However, you can also tweak the volume by holding down the option + shift keys and tapping the volume up/down keys on your keyboard. Note that this is a Leopard-only trick, as pointed out by our commenters.

As an additional note, you can also hold down the shift button while pressing the volume keys to mute the "pop" that you hear when pressing the volume key. If you want to permanently silence the volume-adjust beeping, uncheck "Play feedback when volume is changed" in the Sound Effects preference pane and it won't bother you again (helpful for podcasting or other situations when you might need to adjust your volume on the fly).

[via Tekzilla]

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Mac 101

More Mac 101, tips for Mac beginners. Sure, you can use the volume key on your MacBook or Apple keyboard to do quick volume changes, but...
 

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Scott

I figured it out by accident, but not the pop muting part.

May 21 2008 at 8:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Goran

How spooky is that?...

Great tip, thank you poster!

April 15 2008 at 6:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve Thomas

Wow - Just when you think you know a lot about the mac os

In the words of Tim & Eric - Great Job!

April 14 2008 at 11:40 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Caitlin

That picture kind of trips me out.

I keep thinking my volume is controlling itself, off-center.

April 14 2008 at 10:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
utterer

The volume tip is also in this months Macworld.

April 14 2008 at 9:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kirk

Actually shift-volume doesn't stop the "pop" you hear, it toggles the setting... so if you have unchecked the play feedback button and forget, holding shift and pressing the volume keys makes the pop sound

April 14 2008 at 8:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mikenet

option+shift + vol up/down key does not work with logitech S530 keyboard + mouse. I have tried the keys with my mbp keyboard and work fine. Does anyone know why the keys don't work on S530?

option+shift (on S530 keyboard) + vol up/down key on mbp don't work together also.

April 14 2008 at 5:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Mikenet's comment
Skippy

I have a feeling that this doesn't work on any third-party keyboards, as my Microsoft Digital Media Pro keyboard exhibits the same behaviour on my Leopard iMac.

April 14 2008 at 10:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stafford

Didn't Patric Norton cover this last week in a TEKZILLA daily tip? (9April 2008 - video here: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.m4v/bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/revision3/web/tekzilla/tzdaily/0073/tekzilla--tzdaily--0073--2008-04-09control--small.m4v)

April 14 2008 at 4:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Don Holmberg

I noticed that even though it doesn't work under 10.4, that keystroke *does* stop that annoying noise! Yes, I know I can disable or change that noise, but sometimes it comes in handy...so this is a nice work-around. Thanks!

April 14 2008 at 4:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
chris

i can't stress how useful this is. i've actually dreamed of a feature exactly like this. it is especially useful if you have amplified speakers connected to your mac.

April 14 2008 at 1:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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