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Finder Column View
Ah, the Finder's column view, inherited from
Nextstep with the coming of Mac OS X. Love it or
hate it, everyone admits it is a fairly useful way
of browsing and moving files through your folders.
Here are a few tips concerning the column view and
one of its few shortcomings - thin column widths.
By default, columns are relatively thin, and quite often file names get truncated and aren't always easy to read. This is solved by holding your mouse over each name and waiting for a yellow box to come up showing the full name. Instead of holding your mouse there for a long time, simply hold down the option key to get the yellow box to appear instantly. You can even let go of the option key while you move the mouse up and down a list of shortened filenames.
The best place to use this is in open/save dialog boxes, as that is where I find columns get squished the most.
Another option to use is to double-click the "handle" at the bottom of the column, which is usually dragged to resize it. This will automatically resize your column to fit the longest name in the folder, resulting in no shortened names. Moreover you can option drag the column handle to change the default column width, which the finder will remember next time you open a window.
By default, columns are relatively thin, and quite often file names get truncated and aren't always easy to read. This is solved by holding your mouse over each name and waiting for a yellow box to come up showing the full name. Instead of holding your mouse there for a long time, simply hold down the option key to get the yellow box to appear instantly. You can even let go of the option key while you move the mouse up and down a list of shortened filenames.
The best place to use this is in open/save dialog boxes, as that is where I find columns get squished the most.
Another option to use is to double-click the "handle" at the bottom of the column, which is usually dragged to resize it. This will automatically resize your column to fit the longest name in the folder, resulting in no shortened names. Moreover you can option drag the column handle to change the default column width, which the finder will remember next time you open a window.
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Undo Preventing Safari Autofill
Sometimes I find that I accidentally click "Never
for this Website" when Safari offers to remember a
username and password. More commonly, friends and
family use my mac and go on the same websites i do,
then click it without thinking about my saved
passwords.
Once it has been clicked, Safari refuses to remember any passwords for that website, which can get to be a lot of hassle, especially if you visit the site daily. Luckily there is an easy fix for this, which lies in Keychain Access.
Firstly, open up Keychain Access (Applications/Utilities) and look for the site address in the "login" keychain. In the list you will see an entry that looks something like this:
Just delete that item from the login keychain, and then restart Safari. The next time you enter your unsername and password on that site, Safari will prompt you to save it.
Once it has been clicked, Safari refuses to remember any passwords for that website, which can get to be a lot of hassle, especially if you visit the site daily. Luckily there is an easy fix for this, which lies in Keychain Access.
Firstly, open up Keychain Access (Applications/Utilities) and look for the site address in the "login" keychain. In the list you will see an entry that looks something like this:
www.examplesite.com (Passwords not saved)
Just delete that item from the login keychain, and then restart Safari. The next time you enter your unsername and password on that site, Safari will prompt you to save it.
Zero-Out Free Space
When files are normally deleted they are just
removed from the filesystem. The file itself is
still on the hard drive though, which is how some
programs are able to "recover" deleted files. For
security reasons you may want to zero out your free
space, which will get rid of all chances of
recovering deleted files.
First open Disk Utility in /Applications->Utilities. Then select the hard drive partition on the left of the screen, select the erase tab, then click "Erase Free Space". Choose which option you want (the first option is usually enough) and click the "Erase Free Space" button. The process can take anywhere from an hour to quite a few hours depending on your hard drive size, and the amount of free space.
During the process a "You are running low on disk space" warning may pop up, just click OK on this and ignore it. That message is suppose to pop up. Disk Utility zeros out the free disk space by simply making a giant file that is nothing but zeros.
Warning: If you become impatient or worried and cancel the process when it is being done, you may have to restart and empty your trash in order to recover disk space. This will delete the giant file Disk Utility creates in order to zero the disk space. Despite what numerous forums claim, this process is very safe, and will not harm your data under normal circumstances.
Provided by Jeremy, the owner of the Life in a circuit board blog.
First open Disk Utility in /Applications->Utilities. Then select the hard drive partition on the left of the screen, select the erase tab, then click "Erase Free Space". Choose which option you want (the first option is usually enough) and click the "Erase Free Space" button. The process can take anywhere from an hour to quite a few hours depending on your hard drive size, and the amount of free space.
During the process a "You are running low on disk space" warning may pop up, just click OK on this and ignore it. That message is suppose to pop up. Disk Utility zeros out the free disk space by simply making a giant file that is nothing but zeros.
Warning: If you become impatient or worried and cancel the process when it is being done, you may have to restart and empty your trash in order to recover disk space. This will delete the giant file Disk Utility creates in order to zero the disk space. Despite what numerous forums claim, this process is very safe, and will not harm your data under normal circumstances.
Provided by Jeremy, the owner of the Life in a circuit board blog.
Hidden Unix Games
These hidden files are accessable from any unix
based operating system, including linux and Mac OS
X. To see a list of what there is to offer type -
into a terminal window (terminal is located in Applications/Utilities)
To play the games, open a new terminal window and type “emacs” and hit return. Once in emacs, press Esc then x to get to the prompt. Now you can type any of the files in the list to play them.
My favourites are:
Have fun!
ls /usr/share/emacs/21.2/lisp/play
into a terminal window (terminal is located in Applications/Utilities)
To play the games, open a new terminal window and type “emacs” and hit return. Once in emacs, press Esc then x to get to the prompt. Now you can type any of the files in the list to play them.
My favourites are:
snake, tetris and pong, the old
classics.
doctor, a shrink in your mac (he/she
isnt that helpful, unless you threaten to commit
suicide)
life, one of the first screen savers.
dunnet, an old text based game where
you can explore
zone, makes the text on your screen go
crazy
Have fun!
Create Zip Archives On The Fly
A super quick tip -
To create a zip archive for a folder, file, or a selection of folders or files, select them, right-click (or Control-Click) on one, and choose "Create Archive".
This will automatically archive your selection into a zip file, ideal for storing away, sending via email or to save space.
Provided by Jeremy, the owner of the Life in a circuit board blog.
To create a zip archive for a folder, file, or a selection of folders or files, select them, right-click (or Control-Click) on one, and choose "Create Archive".
This will automatically archive your selection into a zip file, ideal for storing away, sending via email or to save space.
Provided by Jeremy, the owner of the Life in a circuit board blog.
Taking Screenshots
Here's a tip provided by Jeremy, the owner of the
Life in a circuit board blog.
This is one of the first tricks I learnt when
I was new to the Mac OS, way back in the days
of the classic OS.
To take a screen shot, hold down the following keyboard shortcuts.
Easy enough. Each of these saves a file to your desktop named "Picture 1.jpg" (or a higher number if the file already exists).
If you want to take a screenshot using the Terminal (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) here is how. Just type the commands in (except the quotes).
Grab (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) can also be used to take screenshots. It provides an easy user interface, as well as a way of doing timed screen shots and changing the mouse pointer style (option located in the preferences).
To take a screen shot, hold down the following keyboard shortcuts.
- shift + command (the Apple key) + 3 for a shot of the entire screen.
- shift + command + 4 for a way of clicking and dragging around the area you want a shot of.
- shift + command + 4 then press space to be able to click on a window or other interface element (menubar, dock, icons etc.) to take a screen shot of that.
Easy enough. Each of these saves a file to your desktop named "Picture 1.jpg" (or a higher number if the file already exists).
If you want to take a screenshot using the Terminal (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) here is how. Just type the commands in (except the quotes).
- "screencapture ~/Desktop/screen.jpg" Takes a full screen shot and save it to screen.jpg on your Desktop.
- "screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg" Same thing as #3 above, just click a window to take a screenshot. If you push space it will go into mouse selection mode (same thing as #2 above).
Grab (Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities) can also be used to take screenshots. It provides an easy user interface, as well as a way of doing timed screen shots and changing the mouse pointer style (option located in the preferences).
Word Completion in Cocoa
Here's a nifty tip that should work in all Cocoa
apps (Mail, TextEdit, Safari etc.) If you can't
remember how to spell a word, type the beginning
and hit Escape for some word suggestions.
There are a number of different ways of doing this however. In certain places it isn't possible to press escape, because it does something else (like clearing the Google search box in Safari). In these cases you can use Option-Escape, or just press F5. These two alternatives may take a little longer, but seem to work everywhere.
So now if you can't spell something, you don't have to attempt the whole word, just put in the first few letters and let the system spelling dictionary do the rest.
There are a number of different ways of doing this however. In certain places it isn't possible to press escape, because it does something else (like clearing the Google search box in Safari). In these cases you can use Option-Escape, or just press F5. These two alternatives may take a little longer, but seem to work everywhere.
So now if you can't spell something, you don't have to attempt the whole word, just put in the first few letters and let the system spelling dictionary do the rest.
Kill Accidentally Opened Applications
Do you ever accidentally click the wrong icon when
choosing an application from the dock? Normally
this wastes valuable seconds waiting for the
application to launch and then choose quit. However
there is a nice shortcut.
Do you ever accidentally click the wrong icon when choosing an application from the dock? Normally this wastes valuable seconds waiting for the application to launch and then choose quit. However there is a nice shortcut.
As soon as you have clicked the wrong icon, right click on it, and select force quit. This will allow you to kill it before it slows down your system.
If you aren't quite as quick, and the application has started loading, sometimes the contextual menu will say quit instead of force quit. To get around this, hold the option key, and quit will change back to force quit.
Do you ever accidentally click the wrong icon when choosing an application from the dock? Normally this wastes valuable seconds waiting for the application to launch and then choose quit. However there is a nice shortcut.
As soon as you have clicked the wrong icon, right click on it, and select force quit. This will allow you to kill it before it slows down your system.
If you aren't quite as quick, and the application has started loading, sometimes the contextual menu will say quit instead of force quit. To get around this, hold the option key, and quit will change back to force quit.
Speed up iPhoto
There is a simple way to speed up iPhoto
considerably, especially if you are running it on
an old machine.
Open up iPhoto and go to the Preferences. Choose Appearance. If you uncheck Outline and Drop shadow, then slide the background all the way to white, you should notice that iPhoto starts up a lot quicker. This mainly helps with iPhoto 5's performance, as iPhoto 6 is already much snappier.
If you still find iPhoto to be slow, try holding down the command and option keys while its starting up. A diolog box should load up, asking if you want to rebuild your photo library. This has the greatest effect if you have a very large photo libary.
One final tip is to press 0, 1 or 2 while in your library. This sets your photos to one of the 3 default sizes, which load a lot quicker than the custom sizes you get when dragging the slider.
Now your iPhoto library should scroll like butter!
Open up iPhoto and go to the Preferences. Choose Appearance. If you uncheck Outline and Drop shadow, then slide the background all the way to white, you should notice that iPhoto starts up a lot quicker. This mainly helps with iPhoto 5's performance, as iPhoto 6 is already much snappier.
If you still find iPhoto to be slow, try holding down the command and option keys while its starting up. A diolog box should load up, asking if you want to rebuild your photo library. This has the greatest effect if you have a very large photo libary.
One final tip is to press 0, 1 or 2 while in your library. This sets your photos to one of the 3 default sizes, which load a lot quicker than the custom sizes you get when dragging the slider.
Now your iPhoto library should scroll like butter!
Scheduled Startup and Shutdown
In the Energy Saver system preferences you will
find a button labelled "Schedule." This allows you
to schedule your mac to startup and shutdown at
certain times, on certain days.
This is just about the only way to schedule things without buying other software or using iCal. Basically you can set your computer to come on in the morning on weekdays and go off in the evening for example.
I combine this with a locked screen saver. In the evening I start my "Big Clock" screensaver, then put my mac to sleep. In the morning it wakes up at a specified time, and loads the password dialog box. Then, when no password is typed in, it goes to the screen saver after 30 seconds. This means when I wake up in the morning I can look over and see the time in big bright letter next to me, without them on all night to wake me up.
You can also combine this with an applescript or automator actions to play music or load web pages every morning. After writing the script to do this, set a daily alarm in iCal that loads it every morning, but make sure to make it a minute later than the time your mac wakes up from sleep.
This is just about the only way to schedule things without buying other software or using iCal. Basically you can set your computer to come on in the morning on weekdays and go off in the evening for example.
I combine this with a locked screen saver. In the evening I start my "Big Clock" screensaver, then put my mac to sleep. In the morning it wakes up at a specified time, and loads the password dialog box. Then, when no password is typed in, it goes to the screen saver after 30 seconds. This means when I wake up in the morning I can look over and see the time in big bright letter next to me, without them on all night to wake me up.
You can also combine this with an applescript or automator actions to play music or load web pages every morning. After writing the script to do this, set a daily alarm in iCal that loads it every morning, but make sure to make it a minute later than the time your mac wakes up from sleep.
