Cool Mac Gear

Back in the days before the Internet was available in this neck of the woods, my principal sources of Mac information were Macworld Magazine and a personal reference library of Mac books, among which the most frequently referred to included at a couple of editions of MacWorld Mac Secrets By David Pogue and Joseph Schorr. These thickish volumes were jammy-packed with solidly-useful and entertainingly-presented information on how to get the most from your Mac.

Rob Griffiths’ new “Mac OS X Hints Jaguar Edition: The 500 Most Amazing Power Tips,” which just happens to be edited and co-published by David Pogue, carries on the tradition of the “Mac Secrets” tomes, delivering more than it advertises (there are actually 560 tips included) in a book that will help the neophyte OS X user become more proficient, and help turn proficient users into power users.

Even if you’re a Mac veteran, the transition to OS X has rendered years of accumulated experience in tweaking the Classic Mac OS X largely irrelevant. Many of the former keyboard shortcuts, undocumented features, and secret time savers vanished with the appearance of an entirely new Mac OS. However, Mac OS X harbors just as many secrets, if not more, than the system that preceded it, provided you know where to find them and how to make them work. That’s what this book is about.

Mac OS X Hints also shares the format and structure of the popular “Missing Manuals” series of books from Pogue Press/O’Reilly. The Introduction says that the book is intended to be like your OS X “pit crew, helping you find it easier, faster, and better ways of using the Finder, the Dock, the assortment of programs that come with Mac OS X, and a bunch of programs that don’t. And if you want to become your own master mechanic, this book also includes two massive COLLECTIONS of assorted tips on Unix, the engine under Mac OS X’s hood.”

The hints are based on tips published on the Mac OS X Hints website, Griffith’s explains, “but it’s not just a rehash of what is there. Every hint has been rewritten, expanded, organized, indexed, tested for compatibility with the latest version of Mac OS X 10.2, and in many cases, illustrated, making the book an even better resource then the website.” Indeed, there are 440 illustrations in Mac OS X Hints.

If you’re a complete OS X newbie, you should probably avail yourself of a copy of “ Mac OS X: The Missing Manual” or another good book that covers the Mac OS X basics, but if you have passed the very basics learning stage, this book is for you.

Most of the hints are “self-contained,” in that they describe a single problem and its solution or particular topic without reference to other content in the book. That makes Mac OS X Hints a quick and concise reference four particular issues. “You can open the book from any point for any length of time,” says Griffiths. “Think of the book as a vast table of appetizers for your brain.” You can check the Table of Contents in the Appendix below for the menu.

Mac OS X Hints is structured in 16 chapters plus an Introduction and a 14 page index. Chapter topics are as follows:

Introduction
Chapter 1: Designing Your World.
Chapter 2: The Finder and Desktop
Chapter 3: The Dock
Chapter 4: Programs.
Chapter 5: System Preferences
Chapter 6: Networking
Chapter 7: Mail
Chapter 8: iTunes
Chapter 9: iPhoto 2
Chapter 10: The Other iApps
Chapter 11: Other Apple Goodies
Chapter 12: Web Browsers
Chapter 13: Other Applications
Chapter 14: Add-Ons Worth Adding
Chapter 15: Useful Unix Hints
Chapter 16: Intermediate Unix Hints

As with other books in the “Missing Manuals” series, the main text is augmented with the sidebars that expand on issues of importance that didn’t quite fit into the main body content.

Topics that I found particularly interesting for starters were chapters 1 and 2 with their hints on window navigation and Finder tweaking; Chapter 12, which is chock full of tips for getting the most out of Mac OS X Web browsers, including specific sections on Safari, the Gecko-based browsers (Netscape, Mozilla, Camino, Firebird),; OmniWeb; and Internet Explorer. Sadly, iCab in an Opera are left out.

If you’re a shareware fan, you’ll find chapters 13 and 14 worth checking out, and there are also dedicated chapters addressing the care and feeding of the various Apple iApps.

The last two chapters of Mac OS X Hints are dedicated to Unix secrets, tips, and tricks, and between them take up 105 pages or about one-quarter of the book. If you’re looking for concise information on how to implement some process using the OS X Terminal, this is the place to look.

Among the tips and secrets covered in Mac OS X Hints, you will find:

¥Desktop and Finder: how to shut down using only the keyboard; use an animated screen saver as a desktop picture; and jump to System Preferences with a keystroke.

iApps: how to burn six hours of iTunes music onto a single CD; merge calendars iCal; and prevent iMovie 3 from applying the Ken Burns effect.

Mac OS X programs: how to unlock 32,000 secret UniCode samples in each font; rename the System Preferences panels; add an “email this page “ button to Safari; and make Mail announce, in a cute British accent: “mail has arrived, O all-wise master. “

Mastering the system: how to share Web bookmarks between Mac OS X and classic; connect to your Mac from the road; and make your iDisk work 10 times faster.

Terminal: how to save Terminal commands as Finder icons; put background programs to sleep; wake a sleeping Mac via the Internet; unearth the secret emacs adventure game; and set up a message board on your Apache-based Web site.

A great Mac OS X reference book with the usual excellent presentation from Pogue Press/O’Reilly. You’re sure to find enough useful info in Mac OS X Hints to justify it’s modest $24.95 price.

Mac OS X Hints: Jaguar Edition
The 500 Most Amazing Power Tips
ByÊ RobÊGriffiths
April 2003Ê
0-596-00451-6, Order Number: 4516
478 pages,
$24.95 US, $38.95 CA, £17.50 UK

For more information, visit:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/macxhints/

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................. 1
How This Book Works ................................... 1
Some Experience Required .......................... 2
About°˜These°˜Arrows ............................... 2
Gaffes and Goofs ............................................ 2
Some Groundwork......................................... 3

Chapter 1:
Designing Your World................. 9
Startup and Shutdown .................................. 9
1-1 Keyboard Login ................................................ 9
1-2 Automatic Login .............................................. 10
1-3 The Listless Login Screen ............................. 10
1-4 The Silence of the Startup Items ................. 12
1-5 The Login Screen “Billboard” ...................... 13
1-6 Quick Restart, Shut Down, and Log Out ... 14
1-7 Restart, Shut Down, or Sleep Keystrokes .. 14
1-8 Restart/Sleep/Shut Down Dialog Box ........ 15
Display and Sound ....................................... 15
1-9 Opening Sound and Displays Panels ........ 15
1-10 Changing the Alert Volume .......................... 16
1-11 The Volume-Changing Click ........................ 16
1-12 Resolutions You Never Knew You Had ...... 17
Window Tricks .............................................. 17
1-13 Maximizing Windows .................................... 18
1-14 Insta-Closing Multiple Windows ................. 18
1-15 Moving Background Windows .................... 18
1-16 Bringing Program Windows Forward ........ 18
1-17 Three Scroll Bar Stunts .................................. 19
1-18 Double Arrows on Both Ends ...................... 19
Menulets ........................................................20
1-19 Menulet Basics ................................................ 20
1-20 The Secret Eject Icon ..................................... 21
1-21 Changing the Time and Date Menulet ...... 21
Setting Up ...................................................... 23
1-22 Saving Memory ............................................... 23
1-23 Printer Sharing ................................................ 23
1-24 System Maintenance ..................................... 24
1-25 Apple Help ....................................................... 24

Chapter 2:
The Finder and Desktop ........... 27
Finder Basics ................................................. 27
2-1 The Status Bar ................................................. 27
2-2 The Status Bar in Narrow Windows ........... 28
2-3 Insta-Sort .......................................................... 28
2-4 Search Results ................................................. 29
2-5 Erasing Disks .................................................... 30
2-6 Window Size and Location ........................... 30
2-7 List View............................................................ 30
2-8 Column View ................................................... 31
2-9 Resizing the Columns .................................... 32
2-10 Viewing Full File Names ................................ 33
2-11 More Icons in a Column ............................... 33
2-12 A Second Line of File Info ............................ 34
2-13 Window Backgrounds ................................... 35
2-14 Making Column View Speedier ................... 36
2-15 Previewing Multimedia Files ........................ 37
2-16 Get Info vs. the Inspector ............................. 37
2-17 Temporarily Overriding “Snap to grid” ...... 38
2-18 Custom Icons .................................................. 38
2-19 Nixing Zoom Effects ....................................... 39
2-20 A Quit Menu in the Finder .......................... 40
2-21 Showing Hidden Files .................................... 41
2-22 Printing Finder Windows I ............................ 41
2-23 Printing Finder Windows II ........................... 42
2-24 Printing Finder Windows III ......................... 42
2-25 Undo ................................................................. 42
2-26 Open Files from the Trash ............................ 42
Navigating the Finder .................................. 43
2-27 Keyboard Shortcuts ....................................... 43
2-28 The Multibutton Mouse ................................ 43
2-29 Secrets of the Scrolling Mouse .................... 44
2-30 Scrolling Diagonally ....................................... 44
2-31 Canceling a Drag-and-Drop ......................... 44
2-32 Opening the Home Folder ........................... 45
2-33 Jumping Directly to Folders ......................... 45
Aliases ............................................................45
2-34 Aliases by Dragging ....................................... 46
2-35 Finding the Original ....................................... 46
2-36 An Alias of Your Home Folder ..................... 46
The Finder Toolbar ....................................... 47
2-37 Removing or Shrinking the Toolbar ........... 47
2-38 Customizing the Toolbar ............................... 48
vi table of contents
2-39 Folders on the Toolbar .................................. 49
2-40 Heavily Used Toolbar Icons ......................... 50
2-41 The Permanence of Server Icons ............... 50
Working with Files and Folders ................. 51
2-42 Copying by Dragging ..................................... 51
2-43 Copying by Pasting ........................................ 52
2-44 Copying System Folders ............................... 52
2-45 Spring-Loaded Folders .................................. 52
2-46 Return of the Pop-up Windows ................. 54
2-47 A System-wide,
Spring-Loaded Toolbar Icon ......................... 55
2-48 Renaming Files Without Delay ................... 56
2-49 Weird Sorts ...................................................... 57
2-50 Editing Multiple File Names ......................... 57
2-51 Folder Action Scripts ...................................... 57
2-52 Renaming System Folders ........................... 59
2-53 The Return of Labels ..................................... 61
2-54 Unused Languages: Your Free Megabytes 62
Desktop Interior Design .............................. 63
2-55 Changing the Screen Behind the
Login Window ................................................. 63
2-56 Screen Saver as a Desktop Background .... 63
2-57 Extra-Large Desktop Icons ............................ 65
2-58 Screen Saver as the Finder Background ... 67

Chapter 3:
The Dock .................................... 69
The Dock Makeover ..................................... 69
3-1 Adding Icons .................................................... 70
3-2 Removing Icons .............................................. 71
3-3 Resizing the Dock ........................................... 71
3-4 Hiding the Dock .............................................. 72
3-5 Moving the Dock to the Side ....................... 72
3-6 The Top-Mounted Dock ................................ 72
3-7 Changing the Minimize Animation ............ 73
3-8 Pinning the Dock to a Corner ...................... 74
3-9 Differentiating Hidden Programs ................ 75
3-10 Adding Quit to the Dock’s Finder Icon ...... 75
3-11 Hide Commands on the Dock .................... 76
Working with the Dock ................................ 78
3-12 Keyboard Combos ......................................... 78
3-13 Switching Applications while
Dragging Icons ................................................ 81
3-14 Single-Window Minimization ....................... 81
3-15 Minimizing All Windows ............................... 81
3-16 The System-Navigation Folder .................... 81
3-17 Activating the Screen Saver .......................... 82
3-18 Recovering from a MicroDock ..................... 83
3-19 An AppleScript to Restart the Dock ........... 84
Random Acts of Coolness ........................... 84
3-20 The Colored Poof ......................................... 84
3-21 The Customized Trash Can ......................... 86
3-22 Supersizing Magnified Dock Icons ............ 86
3-23 Minimizing and Maximizing in
Slow Motion ................................................... 88
3-24 Killing the Dock .............................................. 88

Chapter 4:
Programs.................................... 89
Managing Programs .................................... 89
4-1: Hide Others I .................................................. 89
4-2: Hide Others II ................................................. 90
4-3: Leave Your Programs Open ........................ 90
4-4: Switching Programs ....................................... 91
4-5: Bouncing between Two Programs .............. 91
General Productivity .................................... 91
4-6: Open and Save Dialog Boxes ...................... 91
4-7: Shortcuts in Open and Save Dialog Boxes 92
4-8: Keystrokes for Save Sheets .......................... 93
4-9: Is That Document Saved? ............................ 94
4-10: Creating PDF Files ......................................... 94
4-11: Creating a Software Library .......................... 95
4-12: Dragging and Dropping Text ...................... 96
4-13: The Script Menu ............................................ 96
4-14: Capturing Screenshots ................................ 100
4-15: Reassigning Documents to New Parents 103
4-16: Text-Box Selection Tricks ............................. 105
Printing, Fonts, and Text ............................ 105
4-17: Custom Print Settings .................................. 105
4-18: Previewing Fonts .......................................... 106
4-19: Install Windows Fonts Without
Conversion ..................................................... 107
4-20: Unicode Characters ...................................... 107
4-21: The Character Palette .................................. 108
4-22: New Spelling Words .................................... 109
4-23: Changing the Spell Check Language ....... 110
Classic .......................................................... 110
4-24: Printing on Unsupported
Mac OS X Printers ......................................... 110
4-25: Opening Mac OS 9’s a Menu and
Control Panels ............................................... 110
4-26: Web Sites That Work Better in Classic ..... 111
4-27: Sharing Settings between Classic and
Mac OS X Programs ..................................... 111
4-28: Speeding the Opening of Classic .............. 114
4-29: Speeding Your System with Two
Mac OS 9 Folders ......................................... 116
4-30: Running Classic from a Disk Image ......... 118
Troubleshooting ......................................... 122
4-31: Memory Leaks ............................................... 122
4-32: Trashing Preferences .................................... 123
4-33: A Separate Account for
Troubleshooting ............................................ 123
4-34: The System Build and Serial Numbers .... 124

Chapter 5:
System Preferences ................. 125
System Preferences .................................... 125
5-1 Alphabetizing Preference Panels ............... 126
5-2 System Preferences from the Dock I ....... 127
5-3 System Preferences from the Dock II ...... 127
5-4 Customizing the Toolbar ............................. 128
5-5 Resizing Toolbar Icons ................................. 128
5-6 Adding Separators and Spaces to the
Toolbar ............................................................ 129
5-7 Eliminating the Toolbar ............................... 130
5-8 Removing Preference Panels ..................... 131
5-9 Renaming Long Preference
Pane Names .................................................. 131
5-10 Renaming the System Preference
Categories ...................................................... 133
Accounts ...................................................... 135
5-11 Limiting Account Privileges ........................ 136
Date & Time ................................................ 138
5-12 Setting the Time ............................................ 138
5-13 Exiting Military Time .................................... 138
5-14 The Menu bar Calendar .............................. 138
Desktop ........................................................ 139
5-15 The Desktop Picture ..................................... 139
5-16 Adding New Picture Folders ...................... 139
Keyboard ..................................................... 142
5-17 Keyboard Navigation of Your Mac ............ 142
5-18 KeyboardPower in Windows and
Dialog Boxes .................................................. 142
Screen Effects .............................................. 143
5-19 The Instant iPhoto Screen Saver ............... 143
5-20 Your Own Screen Saver Folders ................ 143
5-21 From Screen Saver to Desktop Picture .... 144
Software Update ......................................... 144
5-22 Stifling Irrelevant Software Updates ......... 145
5-23 Storing Apple Software Updates ............... 145
5-24 Checking for Software Updates ................. 146
Speech .......................................................... 146
5-25 Minimizing the Speech
Feedback Window ........................................ 146
5-26 Prefix-free Spoken Alerts ............................. 147
Universal Access ......................................... 148
5-27 Zooming in on the Screen ......................... 148
5-28 Tappy-type Sounds ...................................... 149
5-29 Modifier-Key Ghost Reminders ................. 149

Chapter 6:
Networking .............................. 151
Making Connections .................................. 151
6-1 Deleting Orphaned Servers ....................... 151
6-2 Adding New Neighborhoods ..................... 152
6-3 Location Files for Quick Remote
Connections ................................................... 152
The iDisk ...................................................... 154
6-4 Quick Finder iDisk Access .......................... 154
6-5 Quicker iDisk Access ................................... 154
6-6 Connecting to the iDisk from Windows .. 155
6-7 Connecting to the iDisk from Terminal ... 157
Remote Connections ................................. 157
6-8 Long-Distance File Sharing ......................... 157
6-9 Secure Shell for Remote Connections .... 159
6-10 Password-Free Secure Remote
Connections ................................................... 160
File Sharing .................................................. 162
6-11 Monitoring File-Sharing Activity ................ 162
6-12 Sharing Folders with Other Mac Users .... 164
6-13 Unsharing Your Public Folder .................... 165
6-14 Finding Your Ethernet Address .................. 166

Chapter 7:
Mail........................................... 167
The Mail Window ....................................... 167
7-1 Moving the Mailbox Drawer ...................... 168
7-2 Customizing the Columns .......................... 168
7-3 The Drawer’s Contextual Menu ................ 169
7-4 Mousing to the Activity Viewer .................. 169
7-5 Intelligent Searches ...................................... 169
7-6 Apple’s Mail Development Team.............. 170
7-7 Rewriting Mail, the Program ...................... 170
Reading Mail ............................................... 172
7-8 Leaving Messages Marked as Unread ..... 173
7-9 A Little Privacy, Please I ............................... 173
7-10 A Little Privacy, Please II ............................. 173
7-11 Messages in Other Formats ....................... 173
7-12 Pop-Open Folders ........................................ 174
7-13 Mail from Multiple Mailboxes .................... 174
7-14 Preserving Your Junk Mail Brains .............. 176
7-15 “You’ve Got Mail, O Wise One” ................ 176
Sending Mail ............................................... 178
7-16 Quoting Portions of Emails in Replies ..... 178
7-17 Toggling Between Reply and
Reply to All ..................................................... 178
7-18 Resending a Message .................................. 178
7-19 Blind Carbon Copy and
Reply-To Fields .............................................. 179
7-20 Sending Messages Later ............................. 179
7-21 Sending a File from the Finder .................. 179
7-22 Copying Entire Folders ................................ 180
Troubleshooting ......................................... 180
7-23 Preventing Mac.com Mailbox Overflow .. 180
viii table of contents
7-24 Incomplete Message Error ......................... 181
7-25 Diagnosing Opening-Sequence Crashes 181

Chapter 8:
iTunes ....................................... 183
8-1 Mini Modes .................................................... 183
8-2 Quicker Resizing ........................................... 184
8-3 The Column Contextual Menu .................. 185
8-4 Changing the Displayed Play Time .......... 185
8-5 Renaming the Library .................................. 186
8-6 Splitting a Song ............................................. 186
Navigating iTunes ....................................... 186
8-7 Controlling iTunes Through the Dock ...... 186
8-8 Marking or Unmarking All Songs .............. 186
8-9 Keyboard Navigation ................................... 186
8-10 Hover Focus ................................................... 187
8-11 Cranking It Up (or Down) .......................... 187
8-12 Controlling Dialog Boxes with a
Keystroke ........................................................ 187
8-13 Clearing Searches ......................................... 188
8-14 Keyboard Control ......................................... 188
8-15 Extended Help Labels .................................. 188
8-16 One Library for Mac OS X and
Mac OS 9 ........................................................ 189
8-17 One Library for Multiple
Family Members ........................................... 189
8-18 Computer, Play This Song! ......................... 189
The Visualizer .............................................. 191
8-19 Add Your Own Visualizers .......................... 191
8-20 Keyboard Controls for the Visualizer ....... 192
8-21 Capture a Visual ............................................ 192
Songs and Playlists ..................................... 193
8-22 The Song List Contextual Menu ................ 193
8-23 Playing a Song Without Adding It to
the Library ...................................................... 193
8-24 Seeing into the Future ................................. 194
8-25 Reshuffling a Playlist .................................... 194
8-26 Skipping Albums During Random Play ... 194
8-27 Radio Stations ............................................... 195
8-28 Moving Songs to the Top of a Playlist ...... 195
8-29 Burning MP3 CDs ......................................... 196
8-30 The Browser .................................................. 196
8-31 Creating a Playlist from the Browser ........ 197
8-32 Printing a Playlist ........................................... 197
Smart Playlists ............................................. 198
8-33 Playlists That Play All Songs Once ............ 198
8-34 Modifying Random Playlists ....................... 199

Chapter 9:
iPhoto 2 .................................... 201
The Basics .................................................... 201
9-1 Speeding Up iPhoto ..................................... 201
9-2 Rotating Clockwise ...................................... 202
9-3 Zooming In ................................................... 202
9-4 Sideways Zooming ...................................... 202
9-5 Long Comments .......................................... 202
9-6 Commenting Rolls, Albums, or
the Library ..................................................... 203
9-7 Editing Windows I ....................................... 204
9-8 Editing Windows II ...................................... 204
9-9 Before and After Pictures ........................... 204
9-10 Crop Photos with the Keyboard ............... 204
9-11 Backing Up the Preferences File .............. 205
Libraries ...................................................... 205
9-12 The Library Location ................................... 205
9-13 Multiple Libraries ......................................... 206
9-14 Libraries on Removable Hard Drives ...... 206
Film Rolls .................................................... 207
9-15 Faster Scrolling Through Creative
Collapsing ...................................................... 207
9-16 Changing a Film Roll’s Title, Date,
and Comments ............................................ 208
9-17 Selecting a Whole Film Roll ...................... 208
Albums ........................................................ 209
9-18 Drag Photos to Create a
New Album ................................................... 209
9-19 Selecting Multiple Photo
Albums at Once ........................................... 209
9-20 Merged Albums ............................................ 210
Books ............................................................ 210
9-21 Exporting Book Pages as Image Files ...... 210
9-22 Many Book Pages, One Layout Style ....... 210
9-23 Edit the Album as You Go .......................... 210
9-24 Intro Pages Anywhere ................................. 211
9-25 Printing Books as PDF Files ........................ 211
9-26 Switching Between Organize and
Book Modes .................................................. 212
Working with Other Programs ................. 212
9-27 The Email Program ...................................... 212
9-28 Shorter URLs for Exported Slide Shows .. 212

Chapter 10:
The Other iApps ...................... 215
iCal ................................................................ 215
10-1 Multiline Entries ............................................ 215
10-2 Moving Events from One Calendar to
Another ........................................................... 216
10-3 Simulating a “Go to Date” Function ........ 217
10-4 Useful Calendars from Apple .................... 217
10-5 Merging Calendars ....................................... 218
10-6 Opening Public Calendars from any
Browser ........................................................... 218
10-7 Replacing iCal’s Dock Icon ......................... 218
10-8 Setting Identical Window Sizes ................. 219
table of contents ix
iChat ............................................................ 220
10-9 Creating Your Own Image Icon ................. 221
10-10 Spell Checking ............................................... 221
10-11 Chat Rooms for Group Discussions ........ 222
10-12 Changing the Chat Background ............... 223
10-13 Opening Transferred Images .................... 223
10-14 Transferring Large Files .............................. 224
iMovie .......................................................... 224
10-15 Free Add-Ons ............................................... 224
10-16 Importing MP3 Files into iMovie ............. 224
10-17 Stopping Ken Burns I .................................. 225
10-18 Stopping Ken Burns II ................................ 225
10-19 Synchronizing Still Images ......................... 226
10-20 Hiding iMovie while It Renders ................ 227
10-21 iMovie 2 Sound Effects in iMovie 3 ......... 227
10-22 Removing Extraneous iMovie 3
Help Files ....................................................... 228
iDVD............................................................. 228
10-23 Making iDVD Fonts Available in
Other Programs ........................................... 228
10-24 Using Apple’s Theme Movies in
Custom Themes .......................................... 229
10-25 Burning Projects to DVD-RW Discs ......... 230
10-26 Hiding iDVD while Burning a Disc .......... 230

Chapter 11:
Other Apple Goodies .............. 231
Address Book .............................................. 231
11-1 Quick Entries from Mail .............................. 231
11-2 Sharing Palm Contacts with
Address Book ................................................ 231
11-3 Viewing Group Members while
Creating a Group ......................................... 232
11-4 Maps and Other Nifty Tricks ..................... 233
11-5 Phonetic Name Fields ................................ 233
Apple System Profiler ............................... 234
11-6 Quick Access to Apple System Profiler ... 235
11-7 Viewing System Logs .................................. 235
Calculator ................................................... 236
11-8 The Talking Calculator ................................ 236
11-9 Large-Type Calculations ............................. 236
11-10 Unit Conversion, Currency Conversion .. 237
11-11 The Tale of the Tape ................................... 238
Disk Copy ................................................... 238
11-12 Dragging Your Way to Disk Images ......... 239
11-13 Erasing Rewritable Disks ............................ 240
11-14 Speed-Mounting Disk Images .................. 240
11-15 CD-Free Laptop Gaming ........................... 240
11-16 Password-Protect a Folder .......................... 241
11-17 Burning a Multisession CD ........................ 242
Keynote ....................................................... 244
11-18 Borrowing Images from
Apple’s Themes ........................................... 244
Preview ....................................................... 245
11-19 Browsing Multiple Images at Once ......... 245
11-20 Navigating PDF Documents ...................... 246
11-21 The Image Format Factory ........................ 246
11-22 Clipboard Graphics ..................................... 247
11-23 Extracting One Page from a Multipage
PDF Document ............................................ 247
Print Center ................................................ 248
11-24 Dragging Print Jobs Between Printers .... 248
Stickies ........................................................ 249
11-25 Sticky Notes Within Other Programs ...... 249
11-26 Calling All Stickies! ....................................... 250
11-27 The Floating Sticky ...................................... 250
11-28 Collapsing Notes to Conserve
Screen Space ................................................ 250
11-29 Back Up Your Stickies Database ................ 251
11-30 QuickTime Movies in Stickies .................... 251
TextEdit ........................................................ 252
11-31 Editing HTML Documents ......................... 252
11-32 The Secret Zoom Command .................... 253
11-33 Navigation Shortcuts ................................... 254
11-34 The Quickest Kind of Search .................... 254

Chapter 12:
Web Browsers ......................... 255
Hints for all Browsers ............................... 255
12-1 Dragging and Dropping URLs .................. 256
12-2 Dock-Launched Web Pages ...................... 256
12-3 Address Bar as Launcher ........................... 257
12-4 Open Multiple Web Sites at Once ........... 257
12-5 PDF Files in Your Browser ......................... 257
12-6 Keyboard Control of Links ......................... 258
12-7 Favorites on Your Personal Toolbar ......... 259
12-8 Google Searching in Your Browser ......... 259
Internet Explorer Hints ............................. 260
12-9 Refresh Options ........................................... 260
12-10 A Good Scrolling Trick ................................ 260
12-11 A Warning about Web-Page Printouts ..... 261
12-12 Tricks for Opening New Windows ............ 261
12-13 Starting Downloads ..................................... 261
12-14 Downloading Files with Long Names ...... 261
12-15 Icons on the Button Bar ............................. 262
12-16 PNG Files in New Windows ...................... 264
12-17 Page Holder I ................................................ 265
12-18 Page Holder II: Google ............................... 266
Safari Hints ................................................. 266
12-19 The Master Keyboard Shortcut List ......... 267
12-20 Default Window Size and Position .......... 267
x table of contents
12-21 Quick Address Selection I .......................... 267
12-22 Quick Address Selection II ......................... 268
12-23 Browsing Recent History ............................ 268
12-24 Navigating a Site via the Title Bar ............ 268
12-25 Google Search Features I ........................... 269
12-26 Google Search Features II ......................... 269
12-27 Bookmark Folders ....................................... 269
12-28 A Keyboard Shortcut for the
Bookmarks Bar ............................................. 270
12-29 Searching History and Bookmark Folders270
12-30 Bookmarking Folders for Fast Access ..... 270
12-31 Status Bar for Full Link Information ......... 271
12-32 Deleting Entries from Safari’s History ..... 272
12-33 Clearing Favicon.ico Files ........................... 272
12-34 Emailing URLs from Safari I ...................... 273
12-35 Emailing URLs from Safari II ..................... 273
12-36 Minimum Font Size ..................................... 274
12-37 Jump Between Tabs With The Keyboard 275
12-38 The Debugging Menu ................................ 275
12-39 Open All Bookmarks Within A Folder ..... 276
12-40 An End to Brushed Metal .......................... 276
OmniWeb Hints ..........................................277
12-41 Web Pages as PDF Files ............................. 277
12-42 Opening a New Window Containing
the Current Page .......................................... 277
12-43 Scrolling One Page at a Time ................... 277
12-44 Shortcuts ....................................................... 278
12-45 Death to the Pop-Up Ads .......................... 279
12-46 Death to On-Page Advertisements .......... 279
12-47 Just Saying No to Cascading Windows .. 280
12-48 Learning HTML Techniques ....................... 281
Mozilla, Netscape, and Camino .............. 282
Hints for Gecko-Based Browsers ............ 282
12-49 Tabbed Browsing ......................................... 282
12-50 Tab Groups ................................................... 284
12-51 Internet Shortcuts ........................................ 285
12-52 Killing Pop-Ups and Pop-Unders ............. 286
12-53 Tabbing Around a Page .............................. 287
Mozilla and Netscape Hints ..................... 288
12-54 Jumping to Your Home Page .................... 288
12-55 Filling Out Forms ......................................... 288
12-56 Browser Interior Decoration ..................... 289
12-57 Mouse Magic ................................................ 290
12-58 Using an External Mail Program ............... 291
Mozilla Hints .............................................. 292
12-59 Killing On-Page Ads .................................... 292
12-60 Installing a True Aqua Theme ................... 294
12-61 MultiZilla ........................................................ 294
12-62 MultiZilla and Google ................................. 295
A Camino-Only Hint ................................. 296
12-63 Copying Tabs ................................................ 296

Chapter 13:
Other Applications .................. 299
BBEdit .......................................................... 299
13-1 Editing System Files .................................... 299
13-2 Browsing Mac OS X Package Files ............ 301
13-3 Listing Files I .................................................. 301
13-4 Listing Files II ................................................. 301
13-5 Keyboard Scrolling ...................................... 302
13-6 Scroll Bar Acceleration ................................ 302
DragThing ................................................... 303
13-7 Nix the Fades ................................................ 303
13-8 Nix the Zoom Rectangle ............................ 303
13-9 Keeping the Dock Translucent .................. 304
13-10 Active-Program Hack .................................. 304
13-11 Font Sizes for Dock Labels ........................ 305
13-12 The DragThing Easter Egg ......................... 305
Microsoft Office X ...................................... 305
13-13 Long File Names .......................................... 305
13-14 The Treachery of Damaged Fonts ........... 305
13-15 Zooming Word Documents ...................... 306
13-16 Listing Word’s Keyboard Shortcuts ......... 306
13-17 Speeding Up Scrolling ................................ 307
13-18 The Live Word Count Problem ................ 308
13-19 PowerPoint 4.0 Files in PowerPoint X ..... 309
13-20 Importing Entourage 2001
Data into Entourage X ................................ 309
13-21 Entourage Notes to Stickies ....................... 310
13-22 Easy Email Attachments .............................. 310
Photoshop/Photoshop Elements ............. 310
13-23 Zooming with a Scroll-Wheel Mouse ....... 310
13-24 Speeding Up Batch Conversions .............. 310
Snapz Pro X ................................................. 311
13-25 Saving Screenshots to any Location ......... 311
13-26 DVD Screenshots .......................................... 312
13-27 Going Pro ....................................................... 312
13-28 Smoother “Follow Cursor”
Movie Captures ............................................. 312

Chapter 14:
Add-Ons Worth Adding .......... 315
Make Mac OS X Feel Like Mac OS 9 ....... 316
14-1 The Mac OS 9 a Menu ................................ 316
14-2 Folder Labels ................................................. 317
14-3 Sound Sets ..................................................... 317
14-4 Window Shades ............................................ 318
14-5 The Application Menu ................................. 318
14-6 The Print-Window Command ................... 319
14-7 “Share Any Folder” File Sharing ............... 320
14-8 Putting that Old Scanner Back to Work .. 320
14-9 Professional Charts ...................................... 321
14-10 Mighty Morphing ......................................... 322
table of contents xi
Program Launchers and Switchers ........ 323
14-11 Replacing the Dock’s
Program Launcher ....................................... 324
14-12 Keyboard Launchers ................................... 324
14-13 Storing Stuff in Drawers ............................. 325
14-14 LiteSwitch X: The Power of Switching ..... 326
14-15 Keyboard Maestro ....................................... 326
Expanding Your Mac OS X Experience ... 327
14-16 Hidden System Preferences ...................... 327
14-17 Searching Google from the Menu Bar ... 328
14-18 The Silence of the Dock ............................. 328
14-19 Improving Open and Save
Dialog Boxes ................................................. 328
14-20 Power to the File Renaming Process ...... 329
14-21 Customized Pop-Up Menus ...................... 329
14-22 Program Priorities ........................................ 330
14-23 Replacing the Finder ................................... 332
14-24 More Than One Clipboard ........................ 333
Other Programs ......................................... 334
14-25 Creating a Bootable Backup ...................... 335
14-26 DVD Screen Grabs on ATI-Video
Card Macs ..................................................... 335
14-27 Installing Individual Programs from
the Mac OS X Discs ..................................... 337
14-28 Installing a Full-Featured FTP Server ....... 337
14-29 Mouse Gestures ........................................... 338
Explore the Possibilities ............................ 339

Chapter 15:
Useful Unix Hints ..................... 341
Unix Basics ................................................. 342
Terminal Shortcuts .................................... 344
15-1 Specify a Path by Dragging ....................... 345
15-2 When to Use the Mouse ............................ 345
15-3 Tab Completion ........................................... 346
15-4 The History .................................................... 347
15-5 Wildcards ....................................................... 347
15-6 Directory Switching ..................................... 347
15-7 Special Keys .................................................. 347
15-8 Turning off Autocorrection ........................ 348
15-9 File Names That Contain Spaces ............. 349
15-10 Going Back Home ....................................... 349
15-11 Change Directories in a Snap ................... 349
15-12 Mouse-free Copying ................................... 352
15-13 Mouse-free Pasting ..................................... 352
Window Administration ........................... 352
15-14 Changing Window and Font Colors ........ 352
15-15 Insta-Double-Clickable
Terminal Commands .................................. 353
15-16 Opening Saved Terminal Windows in
the Dock ........................................................ 354
15-17 Dragging Text Between
Terminal Windows ...................................... 355
15-18 A Library of Terminal Windows ................ 355
Manipulating Commands ........................ 356
15-19 The Master List of Commands
and Programs ............................................... 356
15-20 Scrolling Through Command
Completions ................................................. 356
15-21 Saving Keystrokes with the History File .. 357
15-22 Finding Old Commands via History ........ 358
15-23 Running the Previous Command
as the Superuser .......................................... 359
15-24 Fixing Errors in the Previous Command 359
15-25 Merging History Files .................................. 359
15-26 New Commands Using Aliases ................ 360
Administering the Mac ............................. 362
15-27 Your Mac’s True Unix Heritage ................. 362
15-28 Log Files in Real Time ................................ 363
15-29 Pausing CPU-Hungry Background
Programs ....................................................... 363
15-30 Maintenance Scripts on Demand ............ 364
15-31 Complete Backups ...................................... 365
15-32 Identifying Generic Files ............................ 366
15-33 What Version of Mac OS X? ...................... 366
15-34 Managing Type and Creator Codes ......... 367
Finder-Terminal: A Joint Venture ............ 367
15-35 Opening the Current Directory in
the Finder ...................................................... 367
15-36 Opening URLs from the
Command Line ............................................ 368
15-37 Opening Onscreen URLs in Terminal ..... 368
15-38 Opening Files from the Command Line 368
15-39 locate I ........................................................... 368
15-40 locate II .......................................................... 369
15-41 grep: Finding a Text String ......................... 369
15-42 Checking for Resource Forks .................... 370
15-43 Screenshots from Terminal ........................ 371
15-44 Downloading Files from Terminal ............ 371
15-45 Software Update in Terminal .................... 372
15-46 Which Files Did Software
Update Modify? ............................................ 373
15-47 System Preferences ...................................... 374
15-48 A Quickie Batch File Renamer .................. 375
Cool Commands ......................................... 376
15-49 Checking Dates ............................................ 376
15-50 The Command Line Calculator ................ 376
15-51 How Long Has Your Machine
Been Running? ............................................. 377
15-52 A Simple Benchmark Test .......................... 377
15-53 top and Other System Speed Indicators 378
Troubleshooting via Terminal ...................379
15-54 Help! I Can’t Empty My Trash! .................. 379
xii table of contents
15-55 Finder or Dock Problems .......................... 380
15-56 Help! ^M Characters in Text Files ........... 380
Terminal Help .............................................. 381
15-57 The Built-in Unix Manual ........................... 382
15-58 The less Pager .............................................. 382
15-59 Printing Unix Manual Pages I .................... 382
15-60 Printing Unix Manual Pages II ................... 383
15-61 Help for Programs Without Man Pages .. 384
15-62 The Developer Tools ................................... 384
15-63 whatis I ........................................................... 385
15-64 whatis II ......................................................... 386
15-65 Compressing man Pages to
Save Drive Space ......................................... 386
Fun Stuff ...................................................... 387
15-66 Customizing Terminal’s
Welcome Message ...................................... 387
15-67 Removing Terminal’s Welcome Message 387
15-68 Terminal as a Reference Resource ........... 387
15-69 Converting from Meters to Feet ............... 388
15-70 A Really Big Banner ..................................... 389
15-71 Renaming the Trash Can ........................... 389
15-72 The Secret emacs Adventure Game ....... 390

Chapter 16:
Intermediate Unix Hints ......... 391
Terminal for Productivity ......................... 392
16-1 The Unix Task Scheduler ............................ 392
16-2 Comparing Two Text Files ......................... 394
16-3 Setting Permissions on Multiple Files ..... 394
File-Sharing Hints ...................................... 395
16-4 File Sharing from the Command Line .... 395
16-5 Sharing Additional Folders with
Windows ........................................................ 396
16-6 Protecting Your Windows’
Shared Folders ............................................. 397
Remote Access Hints ................................ 398
16-7 Wake a Sleeping Mac Remotely ............... 398
16-8 Restarting Services ...................................... 399
FTP Hints ..................................................... 399
16-9 Automating FTP Server Logins ................. 399
16-10 Automated FTP Transfers .......................... 400
Shell Hints ................................................... 402
16-11 Nixing Case Sensitivity in
Autocompletion ........................................... 402
16-12 Finding Files in the Current
Directory Tree ............................................... 402
16-13 Counting the Files in the
Current Directory ......................................... 404
16-14 Authorizing Alternate Shells to
Use FTP Services ......................................... 404
16-15 Shell Scripts in the Finder .......................... 404
16-16 Trace Program Execution in Real Time ... 404
16-17 Multiple Machine-Independent
Terminal Sessions ........................................ 406
16-18 A Graphic Interface for Unix ..................... 407
16-19 A Command Line Dictionary
Using curl ...................................................... 408
16-20 Customizing Your Shell Prompt ................ 410
16-21 Removing Spaces from File Names ......... 414
16-22 Terminal Window Titles .............................. 414
16-23 Terminal Shell Games I ............................... 416
16-24 Terminal Shell Games II .............................. 416
16-25 Fast Switching to Favorite Directories ...... 417
16-26 Automatic Aliases ......................................... 418
16-27 Enhanced Unix File Utilities ........................ 421
16-28 A bin Directory for Personal Scripts ........ 423
Apache and Web Hints ............................. 423
16-29 The Apache Web Server Manual ............. 423
16-30 Port Scans from Terminal .......................... 423
16-31 Installing a Command Line
Web Browser ................................................ 424
16-32 For Web Designers Only:
An Advanced Development Trick ............ 425
16-33 Jazzing Up Your Site: Server-Side
Includes ......................................................... 428
16-34 Parsing Regular HTML Pages for
CGI Scripts ...................................................... 431
16-35 Running Apache and SSH Servers
on Alternate Ports ........................................ 432
16-36 A Windows-Sharing Management Tool:
SWAT .............................................................. 433
16-37 Apache’s Server Statistics ........................... 435
16-38 PHP Scripting on the Apache
Web Server ................................................... 437
16-39 The MySQL Database Server Package .... 439
16-40 A phpBB Forum on Your Web Site ........... 441

Charles W. Moore

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