Mason Sklut

In TextEdit, Stickies, Mail, and other (Cocoa-based) apps included with Mac OS X, you may have noticed they include a Colors window and a Font window. The Colors window is basically an easy way to view all kinds of colors that you’re going to use. The Font window, of course is a way to see all of the fonts that you can use. There are quite a bit of features in both the Colors and Font window which I am going to explain how to use.

Using The Colors Window

1. Open up TextEdit from the Applications folder in Finder.
2. To access the Colors window in TextEdit, go to Format > Font > Show Colors.
3. Then the Colors window opens up with a color wheel showing.
4. If you can’t find the color you want using the suggested colors in the Colors window, use the magnifying glass.
5. Click on the magnifying glass to activate it, then use your mouse pointer to move it around.
6. At the top of the Colors window, you should notice a few icons:
   1. The first one is a color wheel which is the classical way of choosing colors.
   2. The second one is color “sliders” which allow you to customize the amount of color you get.
   3. The third one shows basic colors which makes it easy to narrow down your choices.
   4. The fourth one shows a spectrum which gives you the ability to find the perfect color.
   5. The last one shows many colors of crayons which is useful if you need to get creative colors.

screenshots: 1 2 3 4 6_1 6_2 6_3 6_4 6_5

Using The Font Window

1. Open up TextEdit from the Applications folder in Finder.
2. To access the Font window in TextEdit, go to Format > Font > Show Fonts.
3. Choose a font that you like from the list and adjust the size using the size column on the right side.
4. You can also make your text interesting with underlining, shadows, and strikethroughs.
5. At the top of the Font window, there are several icons:
   1. The first icon is an underlined ” T “. This is for underlining text.
   2. The icon beside that should show a ” T ” with a strike through it. This is if you want to put a strike through any of your selected text.
   3. The third icon should look like a green square with a ” T “. This icon is for selecting the color of text you wish to use.
   4. The fourth icon looks like a “dog-eared” piece of paper with a white square next to it. This icon lets you choose the color of the document.
   5. The last icon is a ” T ” with a shadow behind it. This allows you to add shadows to your text.
   6. The following three levelers and the little sphere (with a 315° on it) are for customizing the shadows on the text.

screenshots: 1 2 3 5_1 5_2 5_3 5_4 5_5 5_6