Mac 101: Don't forget about Hot Corners

More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users.

After reading fellow TUAW blogger Dave Caolo's post on Mac OS Lion and Mission Control, and then TUAW blogger Chris Rawson's Additional Tips for OS X Lion's Mission Control, I thought it pertinent to mention a few further words on Hot Corners.

With the advent of advanced multi-touch gestures in new Macs, it's easier than ever to get around Mac OS X, and even more so in OS X Lion with Mission Control. But since I don't have a newer Mac with advanced multi-touch gestures, I find Hot Corners invaluable in Lion, as I did in Snow Leopard and previous versions of Mac OS X before it. Even if I did have access to advanced multi-touch gestures, I'm certain I'd still make full use of Hot Corners.

Hot Corners are the assignment of certain features to the four corners of your desktop. A Hot Corner is activated by shoving your mouse pointer in the respective corner of your desktop screen. A Hot Corner can be assigned to turn your screen saver on, put your display to sleep, display all open windows or, as Dave mentioned in his post, open Mission Control -- which is useful if you're like me and don't have a newer multi-touch trackpad like me.

Personally, I've assigned my bottom right Hot Corner to open Launch Pad, it's a quick and easy way to access all my applications. I find using a Hot Corner much quicker than opening Launch Pad from the dock and then opening an application. My bottom left Hot Corner is assigned to show my desktop. Activating this Hot Corner shoves every open window on my desktop to the left, leaving me free to peruse files and documents on my desktop, and then by activating the Hot Corner again, all my open windows return to exactly the way they were before. My top right Hot Corner opens Mission Control and my top left Hot Corner puts my display to sleep. It couldn't be simpler!

To assign a Hot Corner in OS X Lion, go to System Preferences and click on Mission Control. You'll find the Hot Corners button at the bottom left of that window. For previous versions of OS X, go to System Preferences and click on Dashboard and Expose.