Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual

Calculator

The Calculator is much more than a simple four-function memory calculator. It can also act as a scientific calculator for students and scientists, a conversion calculator for metric and U.S. measures, and even a currency calculator for world travelers.

The little Calculator widget in the Dashboard is quicker to open, but the standalone Calculator program is far more powerful. For example:

• Calculator has three modes: Basic, Advanced, and Programmer (Figure 10-1). Switch among them by choosing from the View menu (or pressing ⌘-1 for Basic, ⌘-2 for Advanced, or ⌘-3 for Programmer).

• You can operate Calculator by clicking the onscreen buttons, but it’s much easier to press the corresponding number and symbol keys on your keyboard.

• As you go, you can make Calculator speak each key you press. The Mac’s voice ensures that you don’t mistype as you keep your eyes on the receipts in front of you, typing by touch.

  Just choose Speech→Speak Button Pressed to turn this feature on or off. (You choose which voice does the talking in the Speech panel of System Preferences.)

  Tip

  If you have a pre-2008 laptop, you probably have an embedded numeric keypad, superimposed on the right side of the keyboard and labeled on the keys in a different-color ink. When you press the Fn key in the lower-left corner of the keyboard, typing these keys produces the numbers instead of the letters. (You can also press the NumLock key to stay in number mode, so you don’t have to keep pressing Fn.)

• Press the C key to ...