This page copyrighted by Chip Griffin. For problems or comments send email to: traug@chipg.com
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Here is a FAST and EASY way to hide all windows and get to the Finder NOW.
Just hold down the Option and Command (Apple) keys and click on the desktop.
This is the keyboard short cut to activate the Finder and hide all windows of running applications FAST !!
Want to print a document QUICK & NOW ??
Just control-click (right-click if you have a multi-button mouse) on the file you want to print and select the "Open With" contectual menu, now select the "Print Center"
How cool is that ??
This is very simple just by dragging a folder or disk to the dock provides a hierarchical pop-up menu.
The pop-up menu in the dock offers you the same type of hierarchical structure that was available in the Apple menu of Mac OS 9. To create a pop-up menu in the dock, simply drag a disk or folder icon into the Dock, between the dividing line and the trash. ALL disks and folders in the Dock must be placed to the right of or below the divider.
When you put a disk or folder in the Dock it acts in two different ways:
Now with a disk or folder in the Dock, you can use submenus to navigate through folders to a file just like the Apple menu was in Mac OS 9.
Today we are going to talk about Menu Commands Keyboard Shortcuts.
Here you go ...
Shift-Command-Q - Apple Menu - Log out
Shift-Option-Command-Q - Apple Menu - Log out immediately
Command-H - Finder Menu - Hide Finder
Option-Command-H - Finder Menu - Hide Others
Option-Shift-Command-Delete - Finder Menu - Empty Trash without dialog
Shift-Command-Delete - Finder Menu - Empty Trash
Command-A - Edit Menu - Select All
Command-C - Edit Menu - Copy
Command-V - Edit Menu - Paste
Command-X - Edit Menu - Cut
Command-Z - Edit Menu - Undo
Command-D - File Menu - Duplicate
Command-E - File Menu - Eject
Command-F - File Menu - Find
Command-I - File Menu - Get Info
Command-L - File Menu - Make Alias
Command-N - File Menu - New Finder window
Command-O - File Menu - Open
Command-P - File Menu - Print
Command-R - File Menu - Show original
Command-T - File Menu - Add to Favorites
Command-S - File Menu - Save
Command-W - File Menu - Close Window
Command-Delete - File Menu - Move to Trash
Shift-Command-S - File Menu - Save as
Shift-Command-N - File Menu - New Folder
Option-Command-I - File Menu - Show Attributes Inspector
Option-Command-W - File Menu - Close all Windows
Command-1 - View Menu - View as Icons
Command-2 - View Menu - View as List
Command-3 - View Menu - View as Columns
Command-B - View Menu - Hide Toolbar
Command-J - View Menu - Show View Options
Command-K - Go Menu - Connect to Server
Command - [ - Go Menu - Back
Command - ] - Go Menu - Forward
Shift-Command-A - Go Menu - Applications
Shift-Command-C - Go Menu - Computer
Shift-Command-F - Go Menu - Favorites
Shift-Command-G - Go Menu - Goto Folder
Shift-Command-H - Go Menu - Home
Shift-Command-I - Go Menu - iDisk
Command-M - Window Menu - Minimize Window
Option-Command-M - Window Menu - Minimize All Windows
Command-? - Help Menu - Open Mac Help
Mac OS X will periodically run a background tasks that removes system files that are no longer needed for its use. This process will include purging information from log files and deleting temporary items. This will not happen if your Mac is turned off or taking a nap.
If you do not make sure that these cleaning tasks are not done the files will become VERY, VERY LARGE. And you know that you don't want that, do you ??
These automatic tasks are set up to run between 03:00 to 06:00 am based off the time set on your Mac.
But you say .... There is no way I am going to wake up and run some dumb utility to clean up my Mac. Well I have a fix for you J
You can open up your terminal and run this yourself.
Ok lets do it NOW :-)
Now re-do these steps for the other 2 and you will ALL CLEAN.
Spell Better When You iChat.
Here is how to do spell checking wile using iChat.
When you type words in iChat, to check their spelling before you press Return and send them off into the web, just Control-Click the word (that's right-click for those of you who have mice that support such).
Before you bat an eyelid... Mac OS X's global spell checking service kicks in via contextual menu, offering the correct spelling for your chatting buddies. (assuming the word was spelled wrong, of course... if it's not, it won't do anything...)
Now you'll never have to look or feel stupid when you chat...
Switch between open iChat windows.
This little tip doesn't appear to be documented anywhere in the program or help file, but by using command ` (below the ESC key) will switch between multiple open iChat windows.
Drag and drop an image to set the iChat's background.
If you drag an image from the desktop of finder into the background of an iChat message window, it will set that image as the background for that window!
To undo what you've just done you have to use View --> Clear Chat Background menu.
How to Include Pictures in Your iChat Messages.
You can send a picture to your chatting buddy's in your iChat window. The picture that you send is displayed right alongside your text and doesn't have to be accepted to the person that you are sending it to then viewed separately. Drag image and photo files to the text input area where you type your message. A small icon will appear indicating that the image or photo will be sent when you press enter. You can add a message before and after the image if you like.
For the best results when sending images, use the JPEG or GIF format to ensure that your buddies can see the images if they are using something other than iChat.
ENJOY !!
IChat - Jaguar's built in instant messaging application makes chatting with your online friends easy and powerful.
In this weeks installment of the Tip-of-the-Day we take a look at some cool iChat tips, tricks and software to enhance your iChat experience.
iChat auto run in Jaguar?
Have you ever noticed that whenever you connected to the net and do not have iChat running you still hear the sounds that iChat uses when it connects? We have even had people IM us when we do not have iChat running. In that case it will start itself up and even asks if we want to see this persons message sent to us.
Does this ever happen to you? Here's how to shut it off.
Go to the iChat preferences, and look in the "Accounts" panel. Down at the bottom, there's a checkbox that says, "When I quick iChat, set my status to Offline". Basically, unless this is checked, you can quit iChat, but you're still online. The default is to leave one online even after iChat is quit.
You will notice, however, that the icon for iChat pops up in the menu bar when you are connected to the internet, showing that you are available. So it really is running, without running of course.
How to add a buddy's photo or graphic to iChat.
First thing open iChat. In your Buddy list window, click once on the person for which you want to add a picture. The line containing their screen name should now be highlighted. Click the little i in a circle at the bottom of your Buddy Window. This will open up a new window, Info for whomever you clicked. It should default to Address Card, but if it hasn't done so, then just click the popup menu and select Address Card.
At the top of the window, you will see a box labeled "Picture", which if you haven't yet put a graphic in and it will be empty.
Now, go to the Finder and find the actual file containing the graphic. Now grab that file by clicking once on it and keeping the mouse button down. Drag the file to the empty box in the Info Window for your buddy. If it is already perfectly sized, then it will automatically appear in the window, but if it is too large a cool little edit window appears which allows you to crop and resize the graphic. This really easy to do. Once you've done it once it will be second nature.
ENJOY !!
Today we are looking at some Mac OS X troubleshooting techniques.
I want to cover Safe Boot and Safe Mode.
Safe Boot is a way of starting your Mac for troubleshooting issues that you are having during startup.
Safe Mode is the where you are after you started your Mac in Safe Boot.
Starting up your Mac into Safe Mode does many things to simplify the startup and operation of your Mac:
|
NOTE:
Safe Booting into Mac OS X takes longer than a normal startup. It can be quite a long time. This will depend based on how long it takes to check and repair the directory of your hard drive. |
Safe Boot mode forces a directory check of your Mac’s hard drive. This is identical to using Disk Utility's Repair Disk or the fsck –fy command in the terminal.
It loads only the required kernel extensions (some of the items are located in /System/Library/Extensions).
The cache of kernel extensions used to speed startup during normal use is ignored. (The cache file is located in /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache)
Safe Boot only runs the Apple installed startup items (these items are in the /Library/Startup Items and /System/Library/Startup items - and these are DIFFERENT than the login items).
Safe Boot can work around issues caused by your software or directory damage on the startup volume.
This is how you Start Up in Safe Mode:
In this tip I will show you how to install a new printer driver package in Jaguar. Lots of people did not install printer drivers or installed just the one they needed when they installed or upgraded to Jaguar.
So lets say you installed the Epson drivers in Jaguar and you ran across a GREAT deal on a used printer or your office has a different brand that you have at home. You have been taking your PowerBook or iBook to work but you cant print because the IT person (PC ONLY :-) won't help you or does not have the drivers that you need. What will you do?
You have everything that you need right on the install CD’s that came with Jaguar.
Since you have already installed Mac OS X 10.2.X (Jaguar) you can install the additional printer drivers by doing the following:
Now the selected software drivers will install. At LAST that free printer you got or the one at work NOW WORKS !! :-)
I was halfway through the motion of dragging a rather large file onto a folder when I realized I didn't want to do that. Meanwhile, the spring-loaded folder I was dragging to had sprung and I was afraid to release the mouse button and start a large file copy I'd just have to transfer. While I was sitting there with mouse button pressed, I started thinking about what might abort a drag and drop before dropping... Here's what I found:
The Esc key and Command-Period both cancel a drag and drop immediately. There's even a cool zooming shut effect if you've sprung open any folders during the drag phase.
Today's tip is fresh from Mac OS X Product Manager Ken Bereskin's Weblog (http://radio.weblogs.com/0100676/). It's so cool, and I didn't know it until today.
You know how OS X has three (or four) different Fonts folders? Well, Jaguar adds a new twist - fonts in any of the Font folders can be placed in subfolders and still be recognized. So in any of your Fonts folders you can now organize your fonts any way you like... Create folders for Serif fonts, Sans Serif fonts, fun fonts, display fonts, handwriting-like fonts, typewriter-looking fonts, or whatever you want.
If you use your Home/Library/Fonts folder for this, you can enable and disable groups of fonts -- kind of like Suitcase or Font Reserve might do -- by dragging these subfolders from Home/Library/Fonts to anyplace else. I have a folder called Fonts Disabled in Home/Library that serves me well... it's right below the Fonts folder which makes it easy to move subfolders to and from it.
Commercial font managers are almost essential if you're a pro and have a large font collection. But for many users, it's a lot of money for something they only need occasionally. This Jaguar technique might be thoguht of as the poor person's Suitcase (or Font Reserve, or Font Agent X, or whatever font manager you prefer...)
While I seldom use the Keychain Access application, the Jaguar version has a couple of interesting twists. I told you about one last week - the lock icon in the menu bar that lets you lock the screen without having to turn on the password feature in Screen Effects.
But while I was mucking around with that one, I came upon another cool new Keychain Access feature. Namely, Secure Notes. If you have any text you'd like to protect from prying eyes, you're going to love it. Just launch Keychain Access and click on the Note icon in the toolbar. Type a name for your note, then type the note's contents and click the Add button. Now click the note's name and click the Access Control tab in the bottom part of the window. Check the checkbox to ask for Keychain Password before allowing access to the note. That's it.
It's great for three reasons I can think of:
First, most people wouldn't think of looking for your sensitive text information in the Keychain Access app.
Second, unless you give out your keychain password freely (and I know most of you aren't that dumb), the note is protected by strong encryption, and thus it's unlikely to be breached by casual (or even formal) users.
Third, you already paid for everything - it's part of Jaguar.
I received a cool tip from a guy I know from out tenure at the Rosenfelt School of Business and Marketing Weaselry. Or maybe it was from Power Computing. Nevermind...
I loved his tip. He showed me how to put a "lock" menu in my menu bar, which lets me lock my screen at any time, even though I don't use a password for Screen Effects (formerly known as Screen Savers).
Best of all, it's not a hack, requires no new skills, doesn't use Terminal commands, and requires no additional software. In other words, it was there all the time (I just didn't know it).
Here's how to have one of your very own: First, launch your Keychain Access application (which should be in /Applications/Utilities). Now, choose "Show Status in Menu Bar" from the View menu.
You're done. You should now have a lock in the menu bar. From its menu you can:
Lock the screen (activates Screen Effects until you type your password).
Lock or unlock your Keychain.
Open the Keychain Access application.
So isn't that cool?
This tip is Jaguar-only (I think). And while it works in many applications that offer toolbars, it doesn't work in the Finder. :-(
To make toolbar icons small, Control (or Right) click the toolbar and select "Use Small Icons" from the contextual menu.
You can also Command-click the hide/show toolbar widget/gumdrop (the gray one at the right end of the window's title bar) will cycle through the available toolbar views.
This tip [command-click of widget] even works in some applications (such as System Preferences) that won't otherwise let you edit the toolbar view at all.
Here's one you may not have noticed if you were an OS 9 user. If you want to move an icon from one disk to another in OS 9, you drag the icon from one place to the other to make a copy, then delete the original.
In OS X (and not just Jaguar, either), you can save a step by holding the Command key down when you drag. This causes a "move" rather than a "copy," so the file or folder on the original disk is automatically deleted for you.
I use this trick all the time and it's a real timesaver. I download items to the desktop but I store applications and documents on a different hard disk. I hold down Command when I drag from the desktop, and as long as the target location is on a different disk, the item moves from the desktop to its new location, leaving no trace of itself on the desktop. (Without the Command key it would be copied, leaving itself on the desktop as well as in the new location.)
It's fast and easy to set a document's Always Open With application with today's tip. I used it today and realized it's kind of hidden and worth mentioning. It's in the Finder's contextual menu and here's how to do it:
Control or right click on a document icon. When the contextual menu appears, press the Option key. Voíla: "Open With" changes into "Always Open With...."
Of course, as I said last week, the Finder's File menu does the same thing when you apply the Option key to it. But the contextual way is ever so much cooler. No muss, no fuss, no Get Info/Show Inspector/Get Inspector Gadget/or whatever! Just click and it's changed forever.
Unfortunately, I don't think you can change ALL documents like this one so they all open with another program this way. That requires a trip through the Get Info/Show Inspector window.
Many of you know this already but it's worth repeating--open any menu then press and hold the Option key.
Do it in the Finder's File menu and you'll see the Open With command transform into the immensely useful Always Open With command. The Close Window (Command-W) command turns magically into the equally useful Close All (Command-Option-W) command. Last but not least, the Get Info (Command-I) command transmogrifies into the oh-so-10.1-ish Show Inspector (Command-Option-I).
Notice that most of these have keyboard shortcuts for the Option item. The shortcut is always the usual keyboard shortcut plus Option. If you find one you use often you don't even have to pull down a menu. I use Command-Option-W to close all windows more than I use Command-W to close the active one. And as often as not I want the Inspector (one window that displays information for whatever is selected in the Finder) rather than a separate Get Info window for each item, so I use both Command-Option-I and Command-I frequently.
OK, now here's one that's a bit more subtle. Pull down the Apple menu and press and hold the Option key. Didja see it? It's subtle. If you didn't see it, look again. The last command on the menu -- Log Out -- displays the Option key symbol, the sideways "Y" looking thing, but there's more. Notice that the last three commands on the menu lose their ellipses when you press Option. (Ellipses? Those three little dots at the end of the name -- they indicate that this menu item doesn't cause anything to happen immediately when you select it. Items with an ellipsis open a window or dialog box first, where you can make a choice or choices.).
Why do those guys have ellipsis's? (Elipses?) Because when you choose them a Restart/ShutDown/Logout dialog box appears asking if you're sure you want to Restart, Shut Down, or Log Out.
What do you think the Option key does? I mean besides making the elipses disappear... Right! Hold down Option and you Restart, Shut Down, or Log Out without seeing that little box asking if you're sure.
Isn't that cool?
Remember how much I like Spring-loaded folders? Well guess what... if you place any folder or disk icon in the Finder's window toolbar, those icons become spring-loaded, too. Just drag a file or folder onto the toolbar icon and the window magically springs open right beneath your cursor. And when you're done, all the intermediary windows spring shut.
I've got both hard disks, Home, Work Docs, and Desktop up there and I rarely have to open a folder the old fashioned way anymore. Try it--you'll like it!
Welcome to another Freely Distributed Software Friday. This week I'm featuring textSOAP, the fabulous and indispensable text cleaning utility from Mark Munz/Unmarked Software.
The program's tag line is: Powerful text cleaning made simple...
Which just about says it all. If you have ever found yourself search-and-replacing or hand-tuning text, removing carriage returns, straightening smart quotes, removing angle brackets, or whatever, you must check this program out.
Wait. It's more than a mere program... It's also an OS X Service (though only a few programs let you use it that way), a plug-in for BBEdit and Eudora, and a full set of text-cleaning scripts for Microsoft Entourage, all in one reasonably priced package.
I use it all the time. I've tried a gazillion of these text-manglers and this is the one I keep coming back to and using time and time again. It works great and the developer is always improving it further. (Mark's updated the thing at least half a dozen times this year, and most of them added new features or improved existing ones.)
If you clean text often, you gotta have it.
Rather than try to describe what the different cleaners do, let me allow Mark to tell you himself. So here's that information, direct from the textSOAP user's manual:
-- Cleaner Descriptions --
SCRUB
This is the option most often used. It will clean 90% of your text. With it, you select your text, SCRUB, and most of the time the results are exactly what you want. It is actually a multi-cleaner. Like a multivitamin, it gives you more than one cleaner in a single shot. It will strip spaces, forwarding characters, %Hex, =Hex (MIME encoding), Line feeds, and paragraphs in one shot. Order is important and SCRUB calls the cleaners in the proper order to get you what you want.
Spaces
This cleaner takes multiple spaces and replaces it with a single space. Leading spaces at the beginning of a line are also removed. This is great for dealing with some browsers' clipboard copying (where it "formats" the text with spaces).
Forwarding
This cleaner removes the forwarding characters on a line. If you've ever had email forwarded to you, you've seen the forwarding characters (most often the '>' character). And if it's been forwarded enough - you can get three, four, or more sets of forwarding. The rule is simple, it starts at the beginning of a line, and strips all the spaces and '>' characters until it runs into a character that isn't one of those two.
MIME Encoding
This cleaner will convert either %Hex or =Hex characters to their appropriate ASCII character. For example, if you have a %20 or a =20, that would be converted to a space (hex 0x20 is a space character).
Line feeds
This cleaner removes Line feed characters. Line feed characters (0x10) are often used in the DOS world (combined with a carriage return).
Paragraphs
This cleaner will convert multi-line paragraph (with hard carriage returns <CR>) into a single paragraph. A couple of rules. The cleaner will add a space to the text if the CR is building two lines. It will make a paragraph if there is a CR followed by another CR.
Remove Tabs
This cleaner deletes all tabs from the selected text.
Control Chars
This cleaner deletes all control characters (characters with an ASCII value less than 32) from the selected text (except for carriage returns).
Multiple CRs
This cleaner converted multiple successive carriage returns into a single carriage return. It allows for two carriage returns in a row, any additional carriage returns are removed.
Uppercase
This cleaner will convert text to “UPPERCASE”.
Lowercase
This cleaner will convert text to “lowercase”.
Capitalize Sentences
This cleaner will convert text to lowercase, capitalizing the first character of each sentence.
Capitalize Words
This cleaner will capitalize each Word.
Bullets
This cleaner will convert bullets (option-8) to standard dashes.
Straighten Quotes
This cleaner will convert single and double smart quotes to dumb-quotes.
Smarten Quotes
This cleaner will convert single and double straight (“dumb”) quotes to curly (“smart”) quotes.
Expand Tabs
This cleaner will convert tabs (hex 0x09) into four (4) spaces.
HTML Text
This cleaner will clean up HTML text. It strips out anything between '<' and '>'. This can be useful if you have the HTML source, but just want the contents (without starting up your browser). It also handles Ampersand escape codes ( or Œ). It will remove tab characters and remove multiple carriage returns.
Rewrap Text
This cleaner will first fix any paragraphs and then rewrap the text at 70 characters per line.
Quote Text
This cleaner will rewrap the text and re-insert forwarding marks (i.e.. '>') at the front of each line. It also puts hard returns at the end of each line to ensure proper wrapping.
The following cleaners are built-in and provide easy pre-made access to custom cleaner options. Most of the names are self-explanatory.
1 CR to 2 CR’s
1 CR to Space
LF to CR
LF+CR to CR
Ellipsis to Three periods
Em Dash to 2 Hyphens
En Dash to Space-Space
Three periods to Ellipsis
2 Hyphens to Em Dash
Space-Space to En Dash
Strip >1 CR
Strip >1 Space
Strip >1 Tabs
Strip >2 CR’s
Strip >2 Spaces
Strip >2 Tabs
Strip >3 CR’s
Strip >3 Spaces
Strip >3 Tabs
SCRUB2
SCRUB2 is a special version of SCRUB which will remove all embedded forwarding marks (>) in text as well as performing a SCRUB.
Strip NULL
The Strip options allow you to remove 1,2,3 or more consecutive CR, Spaces or Tabs. You can create your own variations by choosing the "occurrence" popup in the custom cleaner assistant.
Quote Text L1
Quote Text L2
Quote Text L3
Quote Text L4
Quote Text options provide 4 levels of “quoting” which will rewrap text and place forward marks (one “>” for each level) in front of the text.
A single user license is just $19.95; updates to textSOAP 3 for OS X are free to registered textSOAP 3 users.
OK. I'm in a killing mood so today we'll review some of the ways to force a recalcitrant program or process to quit.
Of course you know the old keyboard shortcut -- Command-Option-Escape... but did you know that in Jaguar it has a little something extra? In Jaguar, the little dialog box that appears displays hung apps and processes in RED. Cool, eh?
A side note: If you remember yesterday's tip, where the Escape key dismissed that annoying "are you sure you want to change the extension from TIF to TIFF???" dialog box, that very same Escape key will get rid of the Force Quit dialog box, too. Give it a try.
Here's another from the "did you notice this one yet..." In earlier OS X incarnations you could hold down the Option key and click a dock icon to turn the Quit menu item into Force Quit. You still can. But if the application is already wedged, holding down Control will also swap the usual Quit command for the Force Quit command.
The Process Viewer application Apple provides can kill recalcitrant programs and processes, as can several freeware and shareware applications including my two favorite (free) ones: PTHCPU Monitor 2.0 and System Manager. System Manager is the only one that lets you kill "root" processes without having to do "sudo" magic; it asks for authentication and lets you kill anything you like (use this particular feature with caution - killing some processes will kill your session and log you out or even reboot the computer).
http://homepage.mac.com/jeffparsons/System Manager/index.html
http://www.pth.com/PTHCPUMonitor/
And last but not least, you can kill anything from the command line in the Terminal. But since I find that particular technique the least handy, and don't have the exact syntax in front of me, I'll leave it to you to figure out how exactly to kill a process in Terminal (hint: You first need the process's PID number).
Here's one I learned from my buddy and frequent collaborator Dennis Cohen. (He already has a copy of my book, so this tip costs me nothing. <g>)
Anyway, one of the things we both hated was the way the Finder grouses if you try to change the file extension on a file. For example, Snapz Pro saves TIFF files using the .TIFF extension; Photoshop saves TIFF files with the .TIF (one "F") extension. They're both TIFF files; in fact, as far as I can tell the only way they're different is that one has "FF" and the other has only "F."
Much to our annoyance, if you try to change the extension from one to the other, the Finder insists on throwing up a dialog box that askes if I'm sure I want to change the extension. Unfortunately, the default button never seems ot be the one I want.
The solution (thanks to Dennis) is to press the Escape key to dismiss the dialog box. The extension stays changed and the dialog box goes away.
It's not a big thing, but if you have to see that dialog box a dozen or more times a day, it's nice to know.
Today's tip is one I thought up all by my lonesome. It's a three-for-one JWOTOTD, with two of the three parts about Jaguar's joyous Spring-loaded folders and windows. If you haven't discovered them yet, are you ever in for a treat.
It occurred to me that some users may have never used them before. So my first tip is to try them out. To use Spring-loaded folders, drag any icon onto any disk or folder icon and stop right there without releasing the mouse button. In a second or two the disk or folder will open automagically under your cursor. If you now drag onto any subfolder (of the original disk or folder you dragged onto) without releasing the mouse button, that folder will automagically pop open under your cursor. It's a wonderful way to move files and folders around without all that blasted double-clicking. Best of all, when you release the mouse button and the dragged file is moved or copied to the active folder, all the other folders which have automagically popped open along the way will close themselves automagically.
But wait - there's more. If you open Finder Preferences (they're not in System Preferences - they're under the Finder menu - go figure) you'll find a slider that sets the delay before spring-loaded folders pop open. That alone is worth the price of admission but with that power comes a small problem... If you set the delay too short, windows spring open when you don't want them to. If you set it too long, you'll grow old waiting for the spring to load. So here's the solution (which is right there in the System Preferences window): "Press the Space bar to open (a spring-loaded folder) immediately." So you can set the delay to somewhere between short and medium (or medium and long if you're older and slower), but slap that space bar and the window springs open immediately. Hoo ya!
The more used to it I get the more I like having it.
OK. Final tip. Nothing to do with spring-loaded folders except that it's an easy alternative that we long-time users are likely to forget. That is: You can copy and paste files and folders now. This isn't even Jag-Wire-Only. OS X has always had it. But many users, not having had such a thing for so many years, forget that it's there. So part three of today's tip is that you can copy and paste a file or folder now by merely selecting the icon and choosing Edit-Copy or using Command-C. Make sure you don't accidentally select the icon's name... if you do, that's what you'll copy. Press Return/Enter once to deselect the icon name and reselect the icon itself.
And that retires the side...
There is one last thing.... I forgot to mention something important and good-to-know in Monday's tip about the Get Info command. That is - the old way - with a single Info window that changes as you change your selection - is still available. Just press Command - Option - I or press Option when you pull down the File menu and you'll notice that Get Info changes into Show Inspector when you do.
OK. [This] JWOT (Jag-Wire-Only-Tip) comes by way of one of my (other) favorite OS X sites, none other than Mac OS X Hints. It's not exactly useful but it's quite cool... to run your screen saver modules right on the desktop. That's right... with just one command you can have StonerView, Bumps, or my personal favorite, Marine Aquarium, running behind your windows when your Mac is awake... It's strange but true.
All it takes is typing this command at the prompt (in Terminal, natch):
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &
Be sure to remove any line breaks or spaces that may have crept in due to email or web formatting when you copy and paste the command.
As soon as you press Return/Enter, whatever screensaver is selected in the Screen Effects (its new name) System Preference pane now appears as the desktop picture/pattern, behind your windows and icons! But it's ALIVE!
To end it all, just type Control-C (in Terminal) - (Or kill the PID). [Kill the PID by typing kill 1234 where "1234" the PID of the program you desire to kill. You can find the PID by using the top command. PID=program ID]
Even on my dual gigahertz box it wasn't what you'd call blazing fast, but it's interesting and certainly useable (if you must) with at least some screen saver modules. Give it a try... it's kind of cool.
When I was young we used to call tips like this one Stupid Mac Tricks!
The original tip appeared at MacOSXHints at:
http://www.macosxhints.com/index.php?orderby=date&howsort=DESC&page=2&topic=
Here's the third JWOT® (Jag-Wire-Only-Tip™) and this time it's BIG...REALLY BIG. Today' I'm going to show you how to blow up your screen. And, as usual, it won't cost you an extra penny - it's absolutely free (with every copy of Jaguar).
Have you ever used a computer with a video card that had a "virtual pan" mode? It would let you enlarge the screen to huge proportions; the display would scroll as you moved the cursor. It wasn't much use most of the time but every so often "hardware zoom" can be a great thing. And now, it's built right in.
To blow up your screen, first turn on the blow-up-your-screen mode by pressing Command Option 8. (OK, it's actually called the "Zoom mode" by Apple...)
Now, press Command Option + (Plus) or Command Option - (Minus) [no shift necessary]
to zoom in and out.
Best of all, due to the lovely Quartz rendering, you can read and use the monitor even at extremely high zoom levels.
For those of you wondering about this marvel, you'll find it in the Universal Access System Preference pane (along with the "flash screen instead of beeping" command and many others you may find useful).
Since one of my recent tip of the day tips was a litany of ways to eject recalcitrant optical disks and open recalcitrant optical drive doors, I'm happy to say that our second JWOT (Jag-Wire-Only-Tip) deals with that very issue. And it's absolutely free (with every copy of Jaguar).
Speaking of copies of Jaguar, Macboy did a cartoon I found hysterical:
http://www.macboy.com/cartoons/ztpr/
But I digress. About this gem of a tip: I found it a few weeks ago when I was poking around Jaguar's innards and getting ready to begin work on "Mac OS X For Dummies: Version 10.2 Jaguar Edition." But being under NDA, I couldn't tell you then. Anyway, the tip is:
Jaguar comes with a Menu Extra that ejects optical disks from the menu bar. YEA! It even recognizes multiple optical drives and lets you open or eject them individually. Double YEA!
Where is it? Conveniently located at:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Eject.menu
Drag Eject.menu to your menu bar.
Now, you have a menu item for each of your optical drives. It might even work on other removable media like Zip or Jaz, but I don't have any here to try. It's way cool.
Jaguar has many nice touches like these; we'll look at more in the coming days and weeks.
Yea! The cat is finally out of the bag and I'm free to speak of Jaguar in the present tense! So here's the first of what will no doubt be many "Jaguar-only" tips and hints.
Get Info (Command-I) is a zillion times better in Jaguar.
First, you can once again open as many individual Get Info windows as you like. OS 9 had multiple Get Info windows and now, so does OS X.
Not impressed? How about this: Every folder and disk has a new option so you can index its content or delete its index with a click.
Still not jumpin' for joy? OK... here's the biggie -- one you're certain to appreciate: Administrators can change Ownership and Permissions right in the Get Info window! Now, if you're using a Mac and it tells you that a folder belongs to someone else (like "System"), you can fix it right in the Get Info window. Yippee...
But wait, there's more: If you screw things up, just open Disk Utility and click the First Aid tab, where you'll see two new buttons:
Verify Disk Permissions
Repair Disk Permissions
They diagnose permissions problems, or if you prefer, just fix them for you.
Can you say, "YIPPIE CAY AYE!"
Both features are available only in Jaguar...$129 (or less) everywhere.
In the old days when you dragged a window, you dragged a "ghost" outline of the window, not the actual window itself. Why? Because that used less processor and RAM. But these days, with our faster Macs, caches, chips, processors, buses, and drives, real-time updating of windows as you resize them is the latest rage.
I'm working on the Second Edition of the Little iTunes Book and have spent plenty of time watching this phenomenon - it turns out iTunes is one of the biggest offenders with its big, honking brushed plastic look. On slow machines it can take the window a second or two to catch up with the cursor.
But I accidentally found a work-around for it. So here's today's tip:
Before you resize the main window in iTunes 3, press and hold the Command key. What do you know -- it goes back to its OS 9 behavior and rather than resizing and refreshing the window in real time (or in slower than real time), the old ghost outline comes back. And it is MUCH faster on my old iBook!
I haven't found other programs that this works with but I've been trying it on any program with slow windows... But so far, no soap.
Anyway, if you're using iTunes 3 on an older, slower Mac, try this trick. I think you'll like it!
Confused about how to go about creating such an AirPort network? End the confusion by downloading these AirPort configurationguides from Apple:
Making an alias in OS X is NOT Command-M as it used to be, but Command-L now. Creating a new folder used to be Command-N and is now Command-Shift-N. Command-M will minimize the current active Finder window and Command-N will open a new Finder window.
Learn and use the shortcuts for your Applications folder, Home folder, and Computer window. Learning these will make life easier on you as you navigate your way around OS X. Command-Option C will open a window at the top level (Computer window), Command-Option A will open the Applications folder, Command-Option I will open your iDisk, and Command-Option H will open a Home folder window. All these can be found under the Go menu in the Finder and I think you will find these shortcuts very valuable.
Click on the battery icon in your PowerBook or iBook's menu bar and choose "Show" "Time". This will show you how long your battery has left or how long it will be until a full charge. [The default setting is "Show" "Percent". --Chip]
For those of you who use AirPort Base Stations, use this tip to create a Base Station settings file that can be imported if you ever reset your base station or wish to transfer current settings to another base station. To do this use your Base Station Utility application and view your current settings. Then head to the File menu and choose Save asÖ This will save these settings and allow you to import them later. A good example of this might be if you have DSL or cable Internet access through your Base Station. You might want a dial-up connection setting just in case DSL or cable goes down and you MUST have access. This way, you can import you DSL or cable settings right back in after using your dial-up settings.
Try this to sort out files, folders, applications, and servers. Place the folders you want access to in the dock. This way you can click and hold and see a hierarchal listing of the folder's contents. Place your applications on the other side of the dock. Place your often accessed servers in your favorites folder and your recent documents under the Apple menu. Divide and conquer.
Mouse Down at startup will eject removable media items
Command-Option-Shift-Delete at startup will bypass the internal drive at boot time
R at startup will force PowerBooks to reset their screen
D at startup will make the Mac use the internal hard drive to be the boot device
Command-Option-O-F at startup will boot into Open Firmware -- Scary!!
T at startup will boot newer Macs into FireWire Target disk mode. All Macs that have FireWire will work EXCEPT blue and white G3s, first generation G4s, and third party FireWire cards.
Option after the extensions load will not open any Finder windows
Command-Option-Down Arrow opens selected folder while closing current folder (sometimes called "tunnelling")
Command-Delete will send items to trash
Command-Option-Delete will empty the trash
Command-Right arrow will open the selected folder in list view
Want to know even more?
Head to DavesPicks.com and get almost all of them!
Click here to visit.
http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html
One of the cool things about OS X is it's UNIX underpinnings. To that end, there is a cool little utility called System Optimizer that helps optimize your OS X Mac. It updates what are called "prebindings" to "executable libraries" run by "Men In Black" who "Control your TV" and "add preservatives to beer". It will however improve system responsiveness and speed. If you like it, and you will, pay Morgan the US $12 bucks and keep him in business developing even more cool OS X utilities.
Get System Optimizer X by clicking here.
If you view windows in icon view, you can add a background to the window. Open any window and the press Command-J to bring up the view options. At the bottom of this little window is the option to change the background from White to any other color or to place a picture in the background. Once you find an image you like then look near the top of this little window and decide if you want this view for just this window or for all windows (Global option). Items like this will make your Mac all that more personal to you.
If you haven't used column view, you should start. Open a new Finder window and choose Column view from the View menu or choose the far right option from the View buttons on the toolbar. If you're running a later version of OS X, you'll see small buttons at the bottom of every column. Clicking and dragging right or left on these buttons resizes every column relative to the other. Hold the Option key down resizes only that particular column.
Hide an application instead of minimizing it to the dock. Once an application is open, press Command-H to hide it. The dock still shows a small black triangle to indicate the application is still running and one click on that item in the dock will bring it back. Keep learning the shortcuts and it will save you time in the long run.
If you need to connect to other Macs, the shortcut is Command-K. You can also customize your toolbar. Open a Finder window and head to the view menu and choose Customize Toolbar. Drag the Connect button to your toolbar and click Done. Now you can click on the Connect button from any window and you're ready to go!
[WARNING - use this tip with caution]
SSH stands for Secure Shell and is used in OS X to allow a remote user to login to your Mac. This is not done via Connect to Server but done via the command line. Most people won't need this turned on and it can be a potential security risk if turned on over a network such as a cable modem or DSL due to the number of potential attacks. If you wish to turn it on, open the Sharing Preference Pane and click on the Application tab and place a check mark in Remote Login. Users can now access your Mac via the Terminal.
One test you can run yourself if your OS X Mac is acting funny is the UNIX file system check. Start your Mac and hold down the Command and S keys. This will boot you into single user mode. When the command prompt comes up, type fsck -y and hit return. This will check your hard drive aka Disk First Aid style. It is best to run Disk First Aid from your OS X CD but if you can't, this will do.
[WARNING - use this tip with caution]
Sometimes stubborn files cannot be deleted. Usually this is caused by erroneous permissions but whatever the reason, you can delete these little buggers. Download and use FileXaminer and head to the Special Menu and choose Super Delete. Then select your files or folders or whatever you wish to delete and bingo, they're gone!
Download FileXaminer by clicking here.
http://www.gideonsoftworks.com/filexaminer.html
To move any windows in the background, hold the Command key before you click on the window title bar. Then you can move background windows without first selecting them. [This works in OS 9 as well.]
Use a tiny little application called Net Monitor to keep an eye on traffic coming in to your Mac. You have a choice, under the preferences, of having this little app run in your dock, as a floating window, or in the menu bar. You can also choose how the graph is displayed. I ask most of the people I consult for to have this running all the time. When they experience network issues, they simply look at the graph in their menu bar and see if they have any traffic at all.
You can download Net Monitor by clicking here.
http://homepage.mac.com/rominar/net.html
AppleScript is the premiere tool for creating useful, powerful, automated processes. You can add an AppleScript menu icon to your OS X menu bar. Once enabled, you open your scripts folder and any scripts dropped into your scripts folder show up in the drop down menu from this icon.
Click here to head to Apple.com for AppleScript.
http://www.apple.com/applescript/macosx/script_menu/
One cool trick when you're in column view is to hold the option key down and click to resize that particular column. Too bad it doesn't hold when you reopen a window.
Grep is a UNIX tool for searching files using keywords. If you don't know UNIX all that well, then pick up a shareware product called Aqua Grep. This handy little product is a GUI for the command line tool. Run it and you can search to all you like using this very powerful search tool. Aqua Grep is shareware so please pay for it if you like it.
Click here for Aqua Grep.
http://www.publicspace.net/AquaGrep
[WARNING - use this tip with caution]
Using the terminal, you can type in the word 'top' and see all of your running processes. Note the process ID of each running process. Opening a second terminal window and typing 'kill PID (where PID is the process ID number)' will stop any processes that you own. If it's a process that needs to be running, Apple may restart that process, such as the Finder or dock.
OS X Users can create their own peer to peer network with their AirPort cards without a Base Station. With your AirPort card active, head to the AirPort icon on your menu bar and choose Create Network. Place the name of the network in the first box and a password if you want to restrict it. Choose a channel and click OK. Now tell others in your immediate area to go to their AirPort icons (OS 9 users will go to their control strip) and choose the network name you specified. Now you can turn on File Sharing and share the files to your friends.
Maybe you don't want a user to change their desktop background. Here's a little tip to remove system preference panes and allow only the administrator to see them. First, login in as the admin user and locate your library folder inside your home folder. You want to create a new folder inside your library folder called PreferencePanes exactly like that with NO space between (note to my editor-please DON'T place a space in there). Then log in as Root and open your System/Library/PreferencePanes/ folder and drag any Panes you don't want them to see into your personal panes folder. Log out as Root and back in as admin and now only you will see those panes. Try it as a normal user. What can they see?
If you are an administrator at home or work, there are certain applications that you should move to keep regular users from fiddling with them. Now they can't do any harm without an administrator password, but if they've never seen OS X before then hiding these apps means they'll never miss them. You might wish to place them in your Documents folder. They are, NetInfo Manager, Directory Setup, Terminal, ProcessViewer, Console, AirPort Admin Utility, Disk Utility, and maybe Network Utility. Now these are not 'must move' apps but they can reduce clutter and you, the admin, can still get to them when you log in.
Process Wizard is a cool little application allowing users to tweak the priority of any process. It should normally be used by advanced users, but I gave it to a few novice users and asked them to move the slider bars to increase the priority of applications they use all the time. After about one month, no one reported any problems. To use Process Wizard, download it and double-click both the Process Wizard Daemon and the Process Wizard menu. A small icon appears in your menu bar and clicking on it allows you to view all processes, sorted by type in a drop down menu. Sliding bars increases or decreases their priority, possibly allowing them to run faster. As the program says, try at your own risk, but it may be worth the try.
Click here to pick up Process Wizard.
Some people are never satisfied. First Apple introduces the Dock. People say, 'We want to move it!' Apple releases 10.1 which now allows the dock to be positioned on the right or left as well as the bottom and people say, 'We want to anchor it in a corner!' So I say, download TinkerTool and use one of the many tricks in TinkerTool to anchor your Dock.
Click here to get TinkerTool.
There is a small issue with OS X when naming files. From most applications you cannot place a forward slash '/' or a colon ':' in the name of a file. For example, in OS 9 and earlier, you could name a file 'Letter to Susan 5/4/02' and it would take. However, if you click on the file you can place slashes in the name. IF you look at the file from the command line, stranger things appear. Bottom line, do NOT rename files and place slashes in them.
Web sharing in OS X works great! The machine has a default Web page that you can edit located in /Library/WebServer/Documents. But each user has her own Web page as well that's located in /Users/username/sites. Opening the Sharing preference pane, you can turn on Web sharing for the entire machine. From another machine, open a browser, type in the IP address of your Web sharing Mac and hit return. This is your machine's Web page. After the IP address, place a forward slash and then a tilde (/~) and then the name of the user, then another forward slash (/), then index.html and hit return. This is your user Web page. Every user has one and changing the user name will reveal his or her page.
The application Directory Setup should only be used by an administrator. The administrator will use this app when asking an OS X Mac if it wants to get its authentication data via another source, such as an LDAP server, or from NetInfo parent. If you just read the above lines and went, "Huh?" then all is well. Leave it alone.
OS X allows you to set privileges on volumes, such as a partitioned hard drive, or a removable device such as a Zip disk or FireWire drive. There is one little check mark you may want to make sure never gets checked. If you have a partition and you own the stuff on that partition, then you may want to Show Info (Command-I) on that partition and then select privileges from the drop-down menu. The check box is at the bottom. Check it if you want all users to have access to this volume. Leave it unchecked if you have created all the files for that volume and you had previously restricted access.
Holding the Option key while clicking on an item in the dock will give you assorted options for each dock icon. Try it out and get used to using it.
Make sure you know how to reset your default printer, especially if you print to more than one printer. Open the Print Center application, click once on the printer you want to make default, and press Command-D or head to the Printers menu and choose Make Default.
The December 2001 Developer CD provides a couple of new applescript commands. The most useful one is do shell script [shell commands as string]. This sends commands to the unix-layer without opening a Terminal window. It will also return the result. So, if you want to get a list of files in your Documents folder in long format into a variable, do the following:
set my_doc_list to {do shell script "ls -al ~/Documents"}
The other new command is POSIX path of [mac path]. Sadly, this only does half the job. It does change the ":" delimiters to "/" and adds the "/Volumes/" directory for mounted volumes, but it does not add the escapes for special characters.
If you'd like an AppleScript soubroutine that finishes the job, read the rest of the article. Note: this still can't handle high-bit characters in the path (option-f for instance).
The following [AppleScript] subroutine will add the escapes required for special characters in the path:
on unix_path(mac_path)
set unixpath to (POSIX path of mac_path)
set chars to every character of unixpath
repeat with i from 1 to length of chars
if "!$&\"'*(){[|;<>?~` \\" contains (item i of chars as text) then
set item i of chars to "\\" & (item i of chars as text)
end if
end repeat
return every item of chars as string
end unix_path
In this Intelligent sleep/energy saver? thread on the forum site, Novajo offers up a script that can be used to put your Mac to sleep based on CPU load. The script is quite short:
set theLoad to do shell script "uptime | sed 's/.* //g'"
if (theLoad as number < 0.8)
tell application "Finder"
sleep
end tell
end if
Save the script, make it executable, and then use 'cron' to schedule it to run at regular intervals, and your Mac will put itself to sleep when the CPU load has been below your threshhold.
The forum thread has more info on the cron task if you'd like to see how that step is done...
You can set the type of image created by typing the following in Terminal:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleScreenShotFormat [imageFormat]
where [imageFormat] can be JPEG, TIFF, PNG, or PICT (TIFF is the default). It's likely you'll have to logout/login to get the changes to take effect.
Like all other Toolbars found in OS X, the Toolbar in System Preferences allows you to choose how the Icons are displayed.
Choose from Text Only, Icon Only, or Text and Icon by holding the Command/Apple key while clicking the Toolbar widget (the oblong button at the top right of the window). This allows more than the usual 8 or 9 items.
This should also work for any Cocoa Application using Toolbars.
Shift-click on a finder window widget (the one in the upper-right-hand corner) and it'll pop open the Customize Toolbar... sheet.
Just for your knowledge, if you run OS X and turn on AppleTalk, that protocol is active. AppleTalk (unless you specify otherwise) will automatically obtain an "Address" by talking to other Macs on your network. If you start the Classic environment, Classic will obtain yet another AppleTalk address. So your Mac actually has two separate AppleTalk addresses. This can lead to some problems with printers. Not much can be done about it, but it is good to know.
OS X allows users to switch connection types on the fly. If you have an iBook or PowerBook, this works great when going from office to home. Open your Network Preference Pane and choose Active Network Ports from the Show option. Drag your connection type up or down. For example, if you have an AirPort card and base station at home, drag the AirPort card to the top and then Ethernet below that. Uncheck any others and then choose Ethernet (or Built-in Ethernet) from the Show option and set this up with your static address or DHCP settings for your work. Then choose AirPort from the Show option and choose your options for your Base Station at home. Now when you start your Mac at work, it will look for a Base Station and when it doesn't find one, it will automatically look at the Ethernet cable plugged into your Mac and get you going on your work network without any other fuss or muss from you. Very clean and very cool.
<http://www.apple.com/retail/theater/workshop/>
Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Wouldn’t you like to know?
You should be concerned about security. See there, I saw your IP address naked. Saw it again! Cover it up, please! Ugh. All goofing aside, it is good to know who is looking at you. One of the best firewalls for OS X is actually already there. It’s called IPFW. But unless you have command line experience, you may want something a bit friendlier. Brickhouse is a front end to the existing firewall on OS X. Check it out and see if you like it.
<http://www.versiontracker.com>
Because OS X is UNIX or UNIX lite, or a derivative thereof, you have some invisible files you should know about. You really shouldn’t mess with them unless you know what you’re doing but it is OK to look around a bit. Head to the Go menu and select Go To Folder. When the window pops up, type in /private and press OK. You’ll see several subdirectories with names like etc, var, tmp, Aunt Thelma, and more. These folders contain some of the techie files your Mac needs. One place of interest are the log files that are located in the var directory. Take a look around and DON’T MOVE OR EDIT ANYTHING. (Ed. Or use TinkerTool to turn these files & folders visible.)
To locate an item on the dock, hold the Command key down and click on the dock item. A new window opens showing the location of the dock item.
With Mac OS X 10.1, owners of Macs with SuperDrives may be happy to learn that they can burn data DVDs right from the Finder. Pop in a DVD and OS X may allow you to burn it as a data DVD!!! Very cool and useful. (But do comply with copyright laws.)
Users of OS X will like this little utility that allows them to see how much that processor sweats for you. Locate the application called CPU Monitor in your utilities folder. Open the CPU monitor and head to the Processes menu. Choose “Toggle Floating Window” until you see a small green strip in the lower left of your screen. Close all other windows. Leaving this on will show you how your processor hits its peaks and valleys while you work. Owners of dual processor Macs will love the little dual strip treat, too.
Mac users accustomed to checking their RAM use in in pre X systems may not know where to look now. In the good old days, one could head to the Apple menu after starting the Mac and choose “About this Macintosh” and then, “About this Computer.” The window would then display how much RAM was installed and also how much RAM the system and any currently running applications were using.
In X, the Apple yields the version of X, the processor, and the amount of installed RAM. To see how much RAM is being used, open your Terminal application and type in the word “top” (no quotation marks) and hit return. You’ll get a display of all kinds of cool things like the amount of RAM being used, the number of total processes, the process ID, and great techie stuff that we’ll discuss in later tips. Here’s yet another cool thing: Look at the number of pageins and pageouts. More real RAM will yield fewer pageouts. Anyway, the amount of RAM used by an application is in the column called RSIZE. Virtual memory is in the following column called VSIZE. Now you know.
In the UNIX world, logs rule supreme. A log is a file that keeps track of a particular process, application, task, and so on. OS X keeps several logs that you may want to peruse. An easy way to check the logs is to use an application called Console. Use Sherlock to search for Console and open it. Then go to the file menu and choose Open Log. Locate any of the logs you see (System log is particularly fun) and open them. Once open, scroll through the log and see if you can locate when you did something, like log onto a server or connect to the Internet. While this may look scary, it’s not. It is designed to keep track of every little thing in case something goes awry. Logs are now a part of life with OS X, so take a glance at yours every now & then.
This is a VERY cool part of X. Most Carbonized applications can create a PDF file on the fly — easily! To try this, we’ll start with a couple of applications every X user has. You can try WorldText or SimpleText for this. Locate these applications and type something in an empty file. Then go to the Print option under File. When the Print dialog box appears, choose the Preview tab. A PDF will be created. You can now save this PDF by going to the File menu and choosing Save as PDF!
In OS X, you cannot easily add items to your Apple menu. Enter Snard. Snard is a dockling that can be configured to allow shortcuts to files, links, and folders. You can add sets of items and have shortcuts to the System Preferences and Sherlock, too. Snard is cool and available for you. Head to VersionTracker.com, hit the OS X tab and search for yes, that’s right, Snard. Click here to link to VersionTracker! <http://www.versiontracker.com>
If you’d prefer that the modem on your Mac running OS X not automatically dial your ISP when an Internet-based action is initiated, here’s how to disable the auto-dial feature:
Open System Preferences, click the Network preference, select your modem from the Configure pop-up menu, click the PPP tab, and then PPP Options. Deselect the “Connect automatically when starting TCP/IP applications” option. Click OK and save.
If you’ve mounted a PC-formatted Zip disk on your Mac running OS X, you cannot save directly to that disk from an open Classic application. In other words, you can’t use the Save dialog box within a Classic application to save that file to Zip disks formatted in this way. Instead, you must save the file to your hard disk and then copy the file to the Zip by drag-and-drop. Likewise, you can’t use a Classic application’s Open dialog box to open files on PCformatted Zip disks. Again, you must first copy these files to your hard drive before opening them.
With OS X, you can set your Mac to connect to the Internet. But OS X allows you to set an order on how to connect. For example, you can have OS X look for an AirPort network first. If it doesn’t find one, then you can have it dial your modem. If it cannot find a dial tone, it may look on your network for a DHCP address. All this can be done by opening the System Preferences under the Apple menu and choosing the Network preference, and then choosing Advanced under the Configure tab. Drag up and down to set your preferences and you’re all set.
When you open a window in X, you’ll see three small buttons in the upperleft-hand corner of that window. The middle (yellow) button will minimize that window in the dock. If you hold down the shift key before clicking the button, it will minimize in slow motion. Doing this with static windows is cool, but try it with a QuickTime movie running. Your friends will be impressed.
Under the Classic Mac OS, you can trash locked files in the Trash by holding down the Option key and selecting Empty Trash from the Special menu. This trick won’t work under OS X. To trash locked files under this new Mac OS, you must open the Trash, click the item you’d like to trash, press Command-I (Get Info), and uncheck the Locked option. Once you’ve done so you can discard the file.
Today’s conventional wisdom states that screensavers are no longer necessary because screen burn-in is no longer a real danger. Today’s monitors are not nearly so susceptible to the burned-in ghost images that plagued monitors of old.
However, a couple of new factors may change the way people feel about screensavers. Factor one is that OS X includes a very cool set of screensavers — cool enough that you may be tempted to leave your monitor on all the time simply to display the screensaver.
Factor two is that Apple is now producing only LCD monitors — the oldfashioned cathode-ray tube is out — and leaving an LCD monitor’s backlight on all the time can shorten its life. [Be aware that most screensavers don't turn off the backlights. Use the Energy Saver pane to ensure the backlight turns off when not in use. --Chip]
If you have X installed on an iBook or PowerBook, you’ll likely run into a little bug concerning the battery level indicator. Booting straight into 9.1 will show a small battery icon next to the time in the upper-right corner of the screen.
When you boot into X and then start Classic, it may not show up. And the next time you boot into 9.1, the battery icon will not be there. Simply open the Date and Time Control Panel and click on the button Clock Options at the bottom of the window. Place a check mark in “Show The Battery Level” to get it back.
If OS X’s Dock displays generic folder icons when it should be showing application icons, try this:
Drag the LSApplications, LSClaimedTypes, and LSSchemes files to the trash. These files can be found inside the Preferences folder inside the Library folder inside the affected user’s folder (if Johnny is signed on, for example, and the icons are generic, these files will be inside Johnny’s user folder) inside the Users folder at the root level of the OS X disk.
Now log out of OS X and log back in as the affected user.
This page copyrighted by Chip Griffin. For problems or comments send email to: traug@chipg.com
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