Many of the following tips involve keyboard shortcuts. You should know the major keys on the standard keyboard: 1 command (cmd, also known as apple), 2 option (opt, also known as alt), 3 control (ctl), 4 shift, 5 volume. For example, if a shortcut refers to control and down-arrow you should hold down the control key, then press down-arrow, then release control.
Assuming you now know about the layout of the standard Mac keyboard you can use this with some tips for controlling functions of your Mac, such as sound.
Sound
By pressing the volume up or down key you can adjust the master volume of the computer. If you want to hear a beep sound with each press (so you know what the volume level is), you can hold down the shift key while pressing the volume key. Note that this is the opposite behaviour of earlier systems. The volume down button reduces the volume and the mute button sets it to zero.
You can play MP3 music files, Quicktime movies, etc in column view by just hovering over the large preview/icon in the preview column then clicking the play button which appears at the center of the preview. Note: If you don't have a preview panel on the right of Finder windows, in the Finder go to the View menu and choose Show Preview.
If you need finer control of the sound level use option and shift and volume-up or option and shift and volume-down. This adjusts volume in finer steps. To quickly open the Sound Preferences (or Settings), press option and volume-up. This actually works with any of the volume keys. You can also hold down the option key and click the speaker icon on the menu bar to quickly change the audio input or output.
Sleep, Shutdown, Restart
Modern Mac laptops have a power button at the top-right of the keyboard. Here's how to use it:
Press the power button to turn on the Mac or wake from sleep. Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds without lifting to force your Mac to turn off. Press shift and control and power to quickly turn off the screen, and put Mac to sleep.
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