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| Mac OS X Tips |
| www.macosxtips.co.uk - Tips and Tricks for Mac OS X Tiger. Mainly simple hints for new users, but even the lifetime mac user will find something new. Tips for iLife, Finder, Mail, Safari and much much more! |
| Language: English |
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| Total Unique Visitors: 56818 |
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| Thanks to our sponsors! |
| 2012-05-06 07:45:36 |
I’d like to take a moment to say a big thank you to all our sponsors who help keep Mac OS X Tips running. We have such a great group of sponsors at the moment, so it’s definitely worth checking them out:
Fantastical - One of my favourite new Mac apps that provides a fantastic new way to access your calendar from the menu bar.
MacKeeper - A great app that combines a number of utilities to keep your Mac clean, fast and reliable.
DropKey - A super simple app for securely sending files with state-of-the-art encryption and no need for passwords.
justcloud.com - A free service for storing your files in the cloud, so you can access them anywhere, at any time, from any device.
Breffo - Innovative stands and podiums for your iPad and iPhone.
Full Control - Remote control your computer from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Focusupply - Parts and accessories for iPad and iPhone including colour conversion kits.
If you are interested in sponsoring Mac OS X Tips, please see our adv...
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| A 1Password Power Tip |
| 2012-04-30 12:00:29 |
1Password is my favourite tool for managing my passwords. It help keep all my accounts secure by letting me use randomly generated passwords for every service so if one is compromised, all the others are still safe.
I’ve always thought that I’ve been using 1Password in the quickest and most efficient way possible. When I get to a login screen on a web site, I simply press Command-\ (or click the 1Password button in the Safari toolbar), type in my master password if needed, and voilà, I’m logged in.
However, Brett Kelly recently shared a “Super sweet 1Password trick” that allows you to skip out the login page altogether by adding a bookmark to your bookmarks bar that performs the entire login process for you.
Start by opening the 1Password app, and find one of your commonly used logins from the list. Then just drag the login into your bookmarks bar in Safari (or whichever browser you prefer to use).
What have we just done? Try clicking on the ...
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| 8 Tips for iCal in Lion |
| 2012-04-07 07:36:26 |
iCal has been completely overhauled in OS X Lion - here are 8 tips to help you take advantage of all the new features.
Create a quick event
iCal now has a a great new way to add events that means you no longer have to spend ages filling out dates and times with fiddly controls. Instead, just click the + button in the toolbar or press Command-N to bring up the Quick Event popover. This allows you to type in the event details in a human-readable form — for example, “Movie at 7pm on Friday” or “Meeting at 3pm until 6pm” — and iCal will interpret what you mean and create an event.
Specify times in the event name
When creating events by double-clicking a day in month view, the new default behaviour is to create all-day events. If you want to create a normal event, just specify the time when typing in the event name. iCal seems to be quite flexible at interpreting what you mean - things like “Gym at 6” and “4pm Meeting” will ...
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| Customize System Preferences |
| 2012-03-04 08:36:40 |
It’s always been possible to install and remove your own custom preference panes in System Preferences, but until Lion, the default Apple-provided preference panes were there to stay, whether you used them or not.
Now, in Lion, it’s possible to hide any icon in System Preferences, including the Apple ones. To do this, just go to the View menu and choose Customize. A checkbox will appear next to each of your System Preferences icons, allowing you to turn off the ones you don’t regularly use.
As well as giving you the ability to remove the default preference panes, this also has the benefit of allowing you to hide your own custom preference panes without completely uninstalling them. If you do occasionally need to access one of the hidden preference panes, they are still all accessible from the View menu or by right-clicking on the System Preferences icon in the Dock.
Another new customisation available in Lion is the ability to sort the icons alphabetically, inst...
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| Customize the login screen in Lion |
| 2012-02-04 13:54:23 |
A lot of people have complained that the login screen is too bland and boring in Lion - it now sports Apple’s new favourite grey linen texture. Fortunately, it’s not to tricky to make some customisations. It is possible to change the background, add a custom welcome message and display system stats. Find out how below.
Changing the background
In Lion, the background used for the login screen is located at
/System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/Resources/
The easiest way to get to this folder is to choose Go to Folder in the Go menu while in the Finder. Then just copy and paste in the above line and click Go. The image that is used for the background is NSTexturedFullScreenBackgroundColor.png. You can replace this with any other image, and as long as you give it exactly the same name, it will be used for the login screen background. Before you make any changes, make sure you make a copy of the original file somewhere safe so you can go back to it if y...
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| Set a poster frame in iTunes |
| 2010-04-09 12:11:30 |
When you add new movies and TV shows to iTunes, it automatically creates an image to display as that video's icon. To create this image it just takes one of the first few frames of the movie, hence why it's called the poster frame. Unfortunately, this normally just gives you an image of some movie studio logo, which isn’t very descriptive.This isn't a problem if you add a custom poster (check out GetVideoArtwork), but occasionally a proper poster isn't readily available.A simple solution to this problem is to choose another frame of the movie to use as the poster frame. To do this, just start the video playing in iTunes, go to the frame you want to use and then pause it. Then just right-click on the video and choose "Set Poster Frame." A good frame to use is when the title of the movie or TV show is displayed.
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| Use Facebook Chat in iChat |
| 2010-04-09 11:29:41 |
It is now possible to connect to Facebook Chat through a desktop client using the Jabber protocol. This means that you can chat with your Facebook friends without having to log into Facebook. The instructions here are for iChat, but it works with loads of other messaging applications too, such as Adium and Pidgin.Start by opening up iChat, then go to the iChat menu and select "Preferences." In the Accounts tab, click the plus button (+) and enter the following settings:Account Type: JabberAccount Name: [username]@chat.facebook.comPassword: Your Facebook passwordServer: chat.facebook.comPort: 5222Uncheck "Use SSL" if it is checked.Your Facebook username is the name that appears in the address bar when you go to your Facebook profile page. If you can't figure it out, go to this page on the Facebook site to find it.Finally, click Done, and a new buddy list should appear with all your Facebook friends. It should also sort them into the correct groups if you have set them up in Facebook.
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| Welcome to our new Sponsor: TheMacSale |
| 2010-03-08 12:34:55 |
Just a quick welcome to our latest sponsor, TheMacSale. They’ve got a bundle of 10 Mac apps that they are selling for $49.99. If you bought the apps individually it would cost you over $500, so this is a great value bundle even if you only want a few of the apps.The apps that jump out at me at first glance are PathFinder, a Finder replacement with more features, ShoveBox, an app that collects all your scraps of information and racing game called MiniOne Racing. There are seven others so head over TheMacSale to check them out.The offer ends on the 15th March.
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| A place to share your GeekTool setups |
| 2009-11-19 12:33:19 |
I've mentioned GeekTool a couple of times before, and it has recently been updated to version 3. The best thing about the update is how much simpler the interface is. Before the interface was a bit intimidating, but now it is much easier to use.For those who don’t know, GeekTool is a preference pane that allows you to display different kinds of information on your desktop. These bits of information are called Geeklets, and they can be text, images, files, and the output of shell commands. Some of the most common things to use it for are displaying to do lists, today’s iCal events, the date, the current iTunes song and unread mail.The latest version now allows you to save your Geeklets and share them with each other, so I’ve created a site just for that. It allows you to submit your Geeklets and vote on others to see which are most popular. If you are new to this, it also has a page for getting started with GeekTool.Here are a few tips for using GeekTool.1. Set stacki...
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| Delete large files from a Time Machine Backup |
| 2009-10-27 14:39:19 |
If you are looking to reduce the size of your Time Machine backup, it's quite easy to go through you backups and remove files.Just enter Time Machine, locate the file you want to delete, right-click on it and choose "Delete All Backups..." But which files do you delete?You want to get rid of large files, but not those that are important. The best way to do this is to use an application called GrandPerspective. Pierce Wetter has created a modified version of this application specifically for Time Machine backups.It searches through your backups, and finds large files that have only been backed up once. These will be the files that either constantly change by small amounts or were only on your Mac for a very short time.It then produces a nice "map" of your backup, so you can easily see which files are taking up the most space. Hold you mouse over one of large boxes, and make a note of the backup date and location, shown at the bottom. Then just enter Time Machine, go to the date, and re...
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