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Make the Dock appear when it refuses to show
2008-10-15 17:04:00
If you have you Dock set to automatically show and hide, you make have noticed that occasionally it refuses to appear when you are dragging an icon onto it. This drives me crazy when I am trying to eject disk images. I drag the icon down to the bottom of the screen, but the Dock simply doesn't appear. Normally my solution is to give up, right-click on the icon and choose eject, which takes far too long. While looking for a better way, I found a brilliant tip on the MacTipper blog.Simply use the keyboard shortcut Command-Option-D, which turns on/off Dock hiding. You don't even have to stop dragging your icon to do this, and it works whatever application you are in.Next time the Dock fails to appear, while still dragging your icon, simply hit Command-Option-D and the Dock should spring up. Drop your icon onto the trash (or eject icon, or whatever you want), and then just hit Command-Option-D again to make the Dock disappear again.
More About: Show , Make

Change the default text for pretty much anything in OS X
2008-09-04 16:42:00
By tweaking one file within the System folder, it is possible to change almost any string of text that appears in Mac OS X. Amongst the endless possibilities are things like the default new folder name and the suffix added to duplicates and aliases. You can customize things like the categories in the iTunes and Finder sidebars or the System Preferences categories, or, for a bit of fun, you can change the the message you get when an application crashes.Change the default new folder nameWhen you create a new folder in the Finder, it is automatically named "untitled folder". This annoyingly buries deep within a list when sorted alphabetically, rather than at the top or the bottom where it is easy to find. Luckily, it is surprisingly simple to change it.First, navigate to Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices. In here, locate the Finder application. Right-click (Control-click) on it, and choose "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu. In the window that appears, navigate thr...
More About: Text , Pretty

Volume Change Shortcuts
2008-07-12 15:13:00
All Apple keyboards now come with volume keys, so you can easily increase, decrease and mute the volume. But did you know there is more functionality to these keys.Holding down the Option key while pressing one of the volume change keys will bring up the Sound System Preference pane. Here you can change the alert sound, alert volume, and when different sound effects are played. You can also change the sound input and output, incase you have an external microphone or speakers.Holding down the Shift key when pressing the volume keys will disable the sound that is normally played when you change the volume. You can disable this permanently from within the Sound Preference Pane by un-checking the box "Play feedback when volume is changed". Now, when you hold shift it does the opposite, temporarily enabling the volume change sound. Unfortunately, this one is Leopard only. If you hold down both Option and Shift while pressing the volume keys, you can change the volume more accurately. The...
More About: Change , Shortcuts , Volume

The Ultimate Mac Screenshot Guide
2008-07-09 16:27:00
I've noticed a lot of recent articles around the web about taking screenshots on a Mac. There's just the odd tip here and there, so I thought I'd do a complete guide. If you are familiar with taking screenshots, you might want to scroll down to the bottom, where there are some more advanced tips.Keyboard ShortcutsThe quickest way to take a screenshot is to use a keyboard shortcut. Annoyingly, these aren't particularly intuitive. There are two main ones:Command-Shift-3 - Take a screenshot of the entire screen.Command-Shift-4 - Allows you to click and drag around the area you want a shot of.Each of these will save a file to the desktop named Picture 1.png, or a higher number if that file already exists.Now there are a few extra things you can do. If you press Space after pressing Command-Shift-4, you will notice that the cursor changes to a picture of a camera. You can now just click on a window, icon, widget or almost any other interface element to take a screenshot of it. You ca...
More About: Screenshot , Guide , Ultimate

12 Hidden Firefox Settings
2008-06-18 16:58:00
With the Firefox Download Day almost over, there is likely to be a whole load of new Firefox users as of today.Even if you are a regular Firefox user, you still may not know about the advanced configuration options. To get these options, type about:config into the Firefox address bar. Once you hit return, you get a warning because modifying these preferences can (in rare circumstances) cause strange behaviour.Clicking "I'll be careful, I promise!" brings up a huge list of preferences, most of which aren't accessible from the normal Preferences dialog. As the list is so long, the best way to find things in it is to start typing the name of the preference into the "Filter" box at the top. Once you have found the one you want, double-clicking it allows you to change it. Here's a list of my top 12 hidden Firefox preferences. All of them work in Firefox 3, but only some work in Firefox 2.1. browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAllThe default behaviour, true, means that when you click the addres...
More About: Hidden , Settings

Add content to every page in Pages
2008-06-16 18:31:00
This tip was submitted by Tom from OS X Gear.Often on Mac forums users ask how to put watermarks in their Page s documents without having to copy and paste them on every page. Doing this for headers and footers doesn't present a problem, as Pages provides you with a neat little box to place content for every page. Here's how to do it for any media, anywhere on the page:1. Arrange the media you want as a watermark (or text box, shape or image) as you want it on one of the pages. The only limitation to this method is that they cannot be inline objects. To ensure they are floating, select the objects and go to the "Wrap" tab in the inspector and use the radio buttons to correct this setting to "Floating".2. With the watermark object selected, open the Format menu, go down to Advanced, and select "Move Object to Section Master". This deselects the items and displays them on every page in your document.You will notice that you now cannot select these objects. If you need to move them ar...
More About: Content

5 Commonly Overlooked System Preferences
2008-05-21 21:47:00
MacTips.org recently published an article on 5 Commonly Overlooked System Preferences. I am quite familiar with the System Preferences panel and wasn't expecting to see anything new, so I was quite surprised to see something I had completely overlooked until now.Number 5 on the list, smooth scrolling, is something I have never noticed before. You can find it in the Appearance section of System Preferences. When enabled, it means that pushing page up/down or hitting space bar makes the page glide instead of jumping straight to the next position. This small feature is fantastic when reading long web pages or news feeds, as you can just tap space to scroll down a page while keeping a good idea of where you are on the page.The other 4 overlooked preferences are a bit more well known, but are probably still pretty useful for newer users. Head over to mactips.org for the full article.

Drag and drop onto "Choose File" buttons in Safari
2008-05-20 17:03:00
When a website prompts you to upload a file to the internet, it will probably use a "choose file" or "browse" button. For example when choosing an attachment in Gmail, or when uploading a photo to Facebook. In Safari , you can speed things up by simply dragging and dropping files onto this button, instead of first clicking on it and then looking around your hard drive for the file you want.Simply drag your file from the Finder, hold it over the button and then let go.
More About: File , Drag , Choose , Drop

Reset a lost OS X account password in single user mode
2008-05-14 16:50:00
Last August I wrote a detailed article about the different ways to reset a user's password, however the instructions I gave for changing the password in single user mode don't always seem to work, especially in Leopard. Here is a new way to do it that should be more reliable.Remember, only use this if you have lost the Mac OS X install DVD. Also, don't do this if you have FileVault enabled in your account, and note that this will not change your keychain password.First, we need to restart in Single User mode. To do this hold down Command-S while the computer is starting up. A command line prompt should appear on the screen instead of the login window or your normal desktop.At the prompt, type mount -uw / then return. Next, type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.D irectoryServices.plist then return. You will need to type these exactly the same, so write them down beforehand.The next step requires you to know the short username of the account. If you don't know...
More About: Lost , Mode , Password

Let Stacks keep your Dock tidy
2008-03-26 15:06:00
This tip was submitted by David.Just as desktops get cluttered because they're handy, and an easy place to put and find things, the Mac OS X Dock gets easily cluttered with every application that you might want to launch at the click of a button. A cluttered dock means it may take so long to find the (tiny) icon you're looking for that you may as well have opened your application folder and searched through. But come to mention it, the Applications folder gets rather cluttered too. You can move things around, but so many programs assume that Safari and other standard applications will be sitting right there in the Applications folder. Is there a better way to group applications sensibly, without using any special software?With Leopard's new Stacks feature, I believe there is.1. Keep only 2 or 3 icons in the dock for applications like iCal, Safari and Mail that you access most frequently.2. Then create theme-based folders for every other application you want close at hand. A stack...

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 ...
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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...
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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.
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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.
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