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Mac OS X TipsMac OS X TipsTips and Tricks for Mac OS X Tiger. Mainly simple hints for new users, but even the lifetime mac user will find something new. Tips for iLife, Finder, Mail, Safari and much much more! Articles
Tips for Safari 3
2007-10-16 20:20:00 The Safari 3 public beta has been out for a while now, and will be included with leopard when it comes out. If you haven't tried it out yet, you can download it for free from the Apple site. The following tips include things that will be useful to the average user as well as some more interesting tricks for more experienced users.Merge WindowsSafari 3 now allows you to drag and drop tabs. You can drag a tab off the bar to create a new window or drag it onto an existing window to add it. You can also use this to rearrange the order of your tabs. If you have lots of open windows each with different numbers of tabs, there is an easier way to get them all into one instead of dragging and dropping. In the Window menu you will find the "Merge All Windows" command. This will instantly combine all your open windows into one tabbed window.Enable Web InspectorThe Web Inspector allows you to easily see how the source code creates the web page. You can inspect various elements of the web page ... More About: Tips
5 Login Window Tips
2007-09-28 19:02:00 For all of these tips you will need know the password to an administrator account. You can check whether an account is an administrator in the Accounts section of System Preferences.1. Add a message to the login windowYou can add a string of text above the list of users in the login window. To do this, start by opening up Terminal. This is located in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder. Once it has loaded, paste in the following line and press return:sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindo w Logi nwindowText "Hello There"Replace "Hello There" with your text. To remove the text, type the following line:sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindo w LoginwindowText ""2. Hide accountsIf you find yourself with an overly long list of users in the login window or you just want to get rid of that annoying scroll bar down the side, you can stop accounts appearing in the login window.Start by go to the Accounts pane in System Preferences, ... More About: Tips , Window
Change the Image in the Tile Game Widget
2007-09-25 16:09:00 Amongst the widgets that come with Mac OS X is the Tile Game . You shift around the tiles to reveal an picture of a tiger. If you play the Tile Game often, you might find the tiger image a bit boring.Luckily, changing the image is easy. Start by finding an image in iPhoto or the Finder to replace it. To avoid stretching, go for an image that is roughly square. Now click on the image and hold. While holding down the mouse button, press F12 to load up Dashboard. Now simply drag and drop your image onto the Tile Game.Annoyingly, the image will change back to the tiger if you close the widget. Permanently changing the image is a bit more complicated. It essentially involves replacing an image file hidden within the widget file. If you are familiar with delving into package files, this is quite straightforward. The image you want to replace is called game.png. However, if you aren't used to doing things like this, the easiest way is using an AppleScript.The great thing about AppleScript ... More About: Widget , Change , Image , Chang
5 Tricks for the Activity and Downloads Windows in Safari
2007-09-12 18:44:00 Both the Downloads and Activity windows are accessible from the Window menu in Safari . Most people are familiar with the Downloads window as it pops up whenever you click a link to download a file. On the other hand, the Activity window is not as well known even though it is just as useful. Both can be easily accessed using keyboard shortcuts: Command-Option-L for downloads and Command-Option-A for activity.When you first open the Activity window, it will show a list containing the titles of every Safari window you have open. Clicking the disclosure triangle next to one of the names will expand it to list every item on the page. As well as the HTML files and scripts, this includes media such as images and movies that are on the page.1. Investigate problemsOne of the best uses of the Activity window is to check the cause of a problem. If you are browsing a page and it fails to load, or it is taking ages to open, try taking a look in the Activity window. Down the right hand side you w... More About: Windows , Tricks
Remove Quotes in Email Messages
2007-08-20 18:38:00 When an email message is forwarded and replied to, email clients add quotes to make it easier to see exactly who wrote what. While this is normally quite useful, multiple quote levels can often make a message quite cluttered.In many email clients (such as Gmail), quotes are shown as a symbol at the start of each line. If the text has been quoted twice, the symbol is repeated.Now obviously you could click on each line and press delete, but this would take ages if there are multiple quote levels in a long message. The trick to getting rid of this type of quotes is to use the box selection method. To do this, hold Option (Alt) and drag a selection around the quote marks. This makes it so only the quote marks are selected, not the entire line. Annoyingly, this method doesn't work in some applications (such as Firefox). If you find it isn't working, try pasting your message into TextEdit before removing the quotes and then pasting it back into the email.In the Mac OS X Mail program thi... More About: Email , Quotes , Messages , Mess , Ages
Access hidden Preview features through Automator
2007-08-15 15:23:00 Most people see Preview as a fairly limited application, and only use it for quickly viewing images. However, it is capable of much more than that, and a couple of months ago I outlined some of Preview's lesser known features on this site.One topic that came up in the comments of that tip was Preview's inability to scale and resize images. I explained a trick involving zooming and using the Mac OS X Screen shot tools, but this is far from ideal.Interestingly, it turns out Preview can resize images, but you can only access this through Automator . In fact, there is a whole load of features that are only accessible this way.If you have Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you will find Automator in your Applications folder. It is an application designed to do repetitive and time consuming tasks for you. You simply create a workflow by dragging and dropping "action" blocks, and then you can set it going whenever you want to perform that action. It's great for doing batch tasks like renaming a long l... More About: Features , Access , Hidden
Reset a Lost OS X Account Password
2007-08-11 17:18:00 Over the past few weeks, lots of people have been contacting Mac OS X Tips asking how to reset a forgotten Mac OS X user account password. Depending on the circumstances, this task could take 5 minutes or could even be completely impossible. Here is a run through of the different ways you can reset an account password depending on the type of account, whether FileVault is enabled and whether you have the Mac OS X Install Disc.If you still know the Administrator Password If you still know the password to an administrator account, it is very simple to reset any standard or managed user's password. While logged in as the administrator, open up System Preferences and click on the Account s section. All the accounts on the computer should be listed down the left hand side. Under each account name it should say Admin, Standard or Managed. If the lock at the bottom of the window appears locked, click on it to allow changes to the preferences.The next step is to select the user whose passwor... More About: Lost , Reset
More Hidden Settings for Google Notifier
2007-08-08 19:06:00 Apologies for the break being slightly longer than expected. Everything is back to normal now, so you can expect a few tips per week from now on.Google Notifier is a menu bar item that alerts you when new mail arrives in your Gmail inbox. Back in February I wrote a tip on Google Notifier's hidden features that showed you how to access two hidden settings. Recently, someone at Mac OS X Hints found a third hidden setting in addition to the ones I mentioned in my tip.All of these settings can be accessed through Google Notifier. Bring down the notifier menu and hold Command and Option while clicking on Preferences. This brings up a hidden settings editor where you can easily edit the notifier preferences file. The three settings are as follows:1. Change the number of unread messages displayed.By default, the menu shows the last four unread messages received (or the last three received and an additional "View More" submenu). To change this, enter "MaxMessagesOnMainMenu" in the key fiel... More About: Hidden , Settings
No tips for 2 weeks
2007-07-10 14:01:00 I'm away for the next 2 weeks so no tips. If you can't wait, here's a few sites to check out that have some good tips:MacTips iUseApple.comMac OS X HintsMurphy MacSee you on the 29th of July! More About: Weeks
Quickly Jump to Address Bar in Safari
2007-07-06 17:11:00 Zachary writes:Hey... Is there anyway to keep the URL address highlighted when I start Safari ? It would be so much easier rather than having to always keep clicking the address bar when I want to switch sites as soon as I run Safari... Thank you so much!When you start Safari or open a new Safari window, normally the address bar is highlighted. This means that you can start typing an address straight away. However, if you have Safari set to automatically display your home page when opening a new window, the address bar is not highlighted.For example, if you have Google as your home page, when you load up Safari or open a new window the Google home page will load and the search box will be highlighted instead of the address bar. If you type an address and press enter, it will Google search the address rather than just going to it.So how do you solve this? Well the obvious answer is to stop Safari loading up your home page in new windows. You can do this from the Preferences located in... More About: Jump , Address
Set half star ratings in iTunes
2007-03-08 20:25:02 digg_url = 'http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/ set-half-star-ratings-in-itunes.html';dig g_bgcolor = '#F7F6F7';One feature that I missed back when iTunes 6 came out is the ability to set a song rating to a half star. This can be used if you often find yourself thinking a song is not quite a four star, but definitely more than a three star, then you can carry out this simple tip to make it 3½ stars.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";The way it works is that ratings are stored as a number between 1 and 100 as increments of 20. For example, 1 star is 20, 2 stars is 40 and so on. Using a little bit of trickery you can set the rating at 10, 30, 50, 70 or 90 giving a half star rating betw... More About: Itunes , Itune , Star , Ratings
Calculator Modes
2007-03-07 02:23:01 Here's one for the mathematicians. There are a number of ways to cycle through the 3 calculator modes - Basic, Scientific and Programmer. You can find all three in the View menu, or you can cycle through them by pressing Command-1, Command-2 or Command-3. If the mouse just happens to be closer, you can more easily change mode by clicking the green zoom button next to the close and minimise buttons in the top left.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8"; More About: Calculator , Calc , Odes
DigitalColor Meter Tips
2007-03-07 02:23:01 digg_url = 'http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/ digital-color-meter-tips.html';digg_bgcol or = '#F7F6F7';One application that is extremely useful when doing any kind of design work is the Digi tal Color Meter . It allows you to get the exact RGB values for any pixel on the screen, which is great for finding out which colours are used in web pages or photos. This is just about the only thing that it does, but it does it well. You will find the DigitalColor meter in Applications/Utilities.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";You can get the color details in many different ways, the most common being RGB values. In web design it is useful to have the RGB as an 8-bit Hex value, and in the Mac OS X c... More About: Tips
Secret advanced editing mode in iPhoto
2007-03-06 14:22:02 digg_url = 'http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/ secret-advanced-editing-mode-in-iphoto.ht ml';digg_bgcolor = '#F7F6F7';The built-in red eye and retouch editing tools in iPhoto are amazingly easy to use, but pretty basic in what they can do. Luckily, in iPhoto 6 there is a secret advanced editing mode that allows you to make these tools even more useful. When this mode is activated you can control the size and strength of both the retouch and red eye tools.First off, you need to check your settings are right. Load up iPhoto and go to the Preferences located in the iPhoto menu. You can only access the advanced editing mode if you have iPhoto set for image editing. Also, if you have iPhoto set to edit in a separate window, the advanced editing mode will be reset every time you enter edit mode. Choosing "Edit in Main Window" will make the advanced editing mode stay active until you quit iPhoto.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;... More About: Mode , Secret , Editing
Printing To Do lists in iCal
2007-03-05 14:21:08 digg_url = 'http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/ printing-to-do-lists-in-ical.html';digg_b gcolor = '#F7F6F7';iCal offers a special customised print dialog, allowing you to print calendars and to do lists in a number of different ways. While iPhoto offers a nicer way to publish complete calendars, the print options in iCal give a great way to print to do lists.Start by going to File --> Print or hitting Command-P. A large preview window appears, with many options down the right hand side. The default settings will print a normal calendar in month view. To change this to a simple to do list, change the first popup menu from Month to List . Choose your date range using the settings below, and uncheck all the boxes in the Options sections apart from "To Dos".Your page will show all to dos dated in the range you specified, as well as any undated to dos. If you don't want any of the undated to dos to show up you can delete them, or move them to another seperate calendar that isn't... More About: Lists , Inti , Printing
Cool Looking Stuff Interview
2007-03-02 14:20:06 I recently did an interview over at cool-looking-stuff.com about myself and the Mac OS X Tips blog. Check it out if you are interested. More About: Inter , Cool , Interview , Stuff , View
Tips for Deleting Stubborn Files
2007-03-02 14:20:06 digg_url = 'http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/ tips-for-deleting-stubborn-files.html';di gg_bgcolor = '#F7F6F7';At some point, everyone encounters a file that just won't delete. The most common situation is a file that sits in the trash and refuses to be deleted, however many times you restart your mac. Here are 4 different methods for removing stubborn files, at least one of which is guaranteed to work.Method 1 - Secure Empty TrashProbably the most simple solution, and almost always works. Go to the Finder Menu in the top left corner of the screen and choose "Secure Empty Trash" located right below the usual Empty Trash. Secure Empty Trash is normally used to make sure deleted items stay deleted by writing over them multiple times with random data. Luckily this option seems to be more effective with stubborn files than the regular Empty Trash.Method 2 - Third Party ApplicationsThere are many applications available that allow you to force the trash to empty. One that is com... More About: Tips , Files , Irritating
Mail URLs in Brackets
2007-02-17 02:10:01 This tip is really a general Mail tip that isn't specific to the Mac, but I'm sure many mac users have had the experience of their mail client chopping off the end of long URLs. When this happens, the person who received the message containing the URL can't click on it to go to the web page.An easy way to avoid this is to put your URL in when sending it. When the person you are sending it to receives the email, the URL will still be nice and click-able. More About: Rack
Customising the Terminal
2007-02-17 02:10:01 This tip is quite a geeky one, but nothing in it is too tricky at all. It has no real serious purpose, but it will make your Term inal windows look pretty and help you get familiar with Terminal's settings if you aren't already.Many Terminal users will already know how to change the colour and transparency of Terminal windows. The most basic method is to choose the Terminal menu, select Window Settings (or press Command-I). This brings up the Terminal Inspector. Choose color from the drop down menu, and you will be presented with all the customisation options.There are some predefined colour schemes, such as the popular green on black, or you can make your own. It is also possible to set an image as the background, and choose the transparency of the window.It is also possible to create colour schemes using different methods, such as the one outlined in this Macworld Article.To set a colour scheme as the default, click the button at the bottom of the Terminal Inspector.google_ad_cli... More About: Sing , Custom , Mina
Mail URLs in Brackets
2007-02-14 02:08:02 This tip is really a general Mail tip that isn't specific to the Mac, but I'm sure many mac users have had the experience of their mail client chopping off the end of long URLs. When this happens, the person who received the message containing the URL can't click on it to go to the web page.An easy way to avoid this is to put your URL in when sending it. When the person you are sending it to receives the email, the URL will still be nice and click-able. More About: Rack
Automate your Mac
2007-02-07 02:04:01 We all have to admit that we are pretty lazy at times, and would love to make our computers do stuff automatically. And because we are lazy, we can't be bothered with stuff like Applescripts that are far too much effort to create. Here are a few tips to automate your Mac and make your life that little bit easier without going over the top with scripting.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";The first thing to do is to make your Mac turn on by itself. You can set it to do this in the Energy Saver preference pane in System Preferences. Just load it up and click "schedule" and choose a time to start up (and/or shutdown) and on which days you want this. This will also wake up your Mac if it is asleep, b... More About: Auto , Your , Mate , Tomate
Open at Login Shortcut
2007-02-05 14:02:01 Here's a quick tip. Normally to make an application load at login, you have to open up System Preferences, go to Accounts and add a new login item. To quickly skip this stage out, right click on an application in your dock and choose "Open at Logi n". To undo this, just repeat the process. More About: Short , Shortcut
Google Notifier's Hidden Features
2007-02-03 19:59:02 If you are using Gmail and choose not to receive your email in mail.app using POP, chances are you are using the free Googl e Notifier (formerly Gmail Notifier). This is a menu bar item that alerts you when new mail arrives and in its latest version, adds Google Calendar functionality.One of the greatest benefits of this piece of software is its simplicity - just put in your Google ID and password and everything works. At times this makes the notifier look somewhat limited, however this couldn't be further from the truth.The first hidden feature is to customise the number of messages shown in the notifier menu. By default, the menu shows the last four unread messages received (or the last three received and an additional "View More" submenu). To change this, pull down the notifier menu and hold Command and Option while clicking on preferences. This brings up a hidden settings editor where you can easily edit the notifier preferences file.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";go... More About: Features , Feature , Hidden
Get useful system stats in the Mac OS X login window
2007-01-30 19:56:03 When you start up your mac and the login window pops up, you have a big shiny apple logo and the words Mac OS X. Below these words you usually see the name of your mac, whatever that may be. For most people that isn't very useful, as you have to have a lot of the same models knocking around to get confused between computers, and luckily since Mac OS X 10.4.3, this line has been made much more informative.Since this version, you can click on the name of your mac to show different statistics about your machine. Each time you click, it will cycle through different bits of information that are particularly useful when troubleshooting problems.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";The order of the stati... More About: System , Wind , Stats , Indo
Use Email Aliases to Avoid Spam
2006-12-18 07:24:01 For quite a while now the .Mac service has allowed you to create aliases for your email account. This means that you can create up to five alternative email addresses that all forward the mail they receive to your main .Mac email address inbox.The greatest benefit of these aliases is their ability to protect your main address from spam. For example, you can use an alias to sign up to websites, forums and newsletters. If the alias becomes flooded with junk mail, it is easy to just delete it and create a new one.Mail 2.0 (bundled with Mac OS X) provides a simple way to manage your email aliases. In Mail, click on the Mail menu and chooses preferences (Command-,). In the Accounts tab select your .Mac account and click on "Edit Email Alias es." This will open up the .Mac Webmail preferences (You may be prompted for your .Mac password). Scroll down to the bottom where you can add email aliases and change their colours.After you save the settings here, messages sent to the aliases will be ... More About: Spam , Avoid
Run a widget without installing it
2006-12-02 19:10:01 Normally when you download a widget (see some of mine here) and double-click it, you are presented with a dialog to install the widget. You can either cancel, and exit the installer, or click install, and the widget is moved to you widgets folder (Library/widgets).google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";However, in some situations you don't want to move the widget. For instance if you are trying out a widget and don't know if you want to keep it, or you are developing a widget and are just testing it out. To stop the widget being installed, hold down Command and Option while double-clicking it. Instead of an install button, you are presented with Run, which, funnily enough, allows you to run the widg... More About: Widget , With , Alli , Tall
Finder Column View
2006-12-02 19:10:01 Ah, the Find er's column view, inherited from Nextstep with the coming of Mac OS X. Love it or hate it, everyone admits it is a fairly useful way of browsing and moving files through your folders. Here are a few tips concerning the column view and one of its few shortcomings - thin column widths.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";By default, columns are relatively thin, and quite often file names get truncated and aren't always easy to read. This is solved by holding your mouse over each name and waiting for a yellow box to come up showing the full name. Instead of holding your mouse there for a long time, simply hold down the option key to get the yellow box to appear instantly. You can even le... More About: Finder , Column , View
Taking Screenshots
2006-12-02 19:10:01 Here's a tip provided by Jeremy, the owner of the Life in a circuit board blog. This is one of the first tricks I learnt when I was new to the Mac OS, way back in the days of the classic OS.To take a screen shot, hold down the following keyboard shortcuts.shift + command (the Apple key) + 3 for a shot of the entire screen.shift + command + 4 for a way of clicking and dragging around the area you want a shot of.shift + command + 4 then press space to be able to click on a window or other interface element (menubar, dock, icons etc.) to take a screen shot of that.Easy enough. Each of these saves a file to your desktop named "Picture 1.jpg" (or a higher number if the file already exists).If you want to take a screenshot using the Terminal (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) here is how. Just type the commands in (except the quotes)."screencapture ~/Desktop/screen.jpg" Takes a full screen shot and save it to screen.jpg on your Desktop."screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg" Same thi... More About: Screen , Screenshot , Shots , Shot , King
Word Completion in Cocoa
2006-12-02 19:10:01 Here's a nifty tip that should work in all Coco a apps (Mail, TextEdit, Safari etc.) If you can't remember how to spell a word, type the beginning and hit Escape for some word suggestions.There are a number of different ways of doing this however. In certain places it isn't possible to press escape, because it does something else (like clearing the Google search box in Safari). In these cases you can use Option-Escape, or just press F5. These two alternatives may take a little longer, but seem to work everywhere.So now if you can't spell something, you don't have to attempt the whole word, just put in the first few letters and let the system spelling dictionary do the rest.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color... More About: Word , Comp , Cocoa
Kill Accidentally Opened Applications
More articles from this author:2006-12-02 19:10:01 Do you ever accidentally click the wrong icon when choosing an application from the dock? Normally this wastes valuable seconds waiting for the application to launch and then choose quit. However there is a nice shortcut.google_ad_client = "pub-0039062403589372";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;google_ad_format = "336x280_as";google_ad_type = "text_image";google_ad_channel = "0667952178";google_color_border = "F7F6F7";google_color_bg = "F7F6F7";google_color_link = "1870D8";google_color_text = "333333";google_color_url = "1870D8";Do you ever accidentally click the wrong icon when choosing an application from the dock? Normally this wastes valuable seconds waiting for the application to launch and then choose quit. However there is a nice shortcut.As soon as you have clicked the wrong icon, right click on it, and select force quit. This will allow you to kill it before it slows down your system.If you aren't quite as quick, and the application has started loading, sometim... More About: Applications , Cat , Dental , Open , Accident 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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