Monday, November 25, 2013

Update Your Profile Pic

You can change your login account profile picture by opening System Preferences, clicking the Users & Groups icon, and then clicking your existing profile picture when the Password tab is selected.

A pop-out window will let you select from the built-in (default) images or iPhoto images (assuming you have iPhoto installed). You can also select the Camera option to take a new photo using the iSight/FaceTime camera built into your Mac.

But how do you use a picture you’ve downloaded from a website or happen to have on your disk but that hasn’t been imported into iPhoto?

The solution is simple—just find the photo within Finder and then drag and drop it on top of the pop-out window. It will then instantly become your profile picture, and you can resize it using the slider at the bottom of the pop-out window and apply effects.

Share Reminders and Calendars

Within the Reminders app, you can share a reminder list with one or more people, allowing them to create or delete entries in the list or check off tasks. This can be useful if you’re working on group projects or perhaps if you simply want to share a shopping list with a family member.

You can also share a calendar within the Calendar app, which again can be useful if you’re working within a group. You could even create a special calendar for a particular project and then share it with others. Others will be able to view and create/modify/delete entries within the calendar, or you can share it as read-only so people can only view the calendar’s contents.

There are some caveats. The people to whom you want to share the reminder list or calendar must be updated to the latest OS X Mountain Lion release, must have an Apple ID (the login email address of which you’ll need to specify), and also must have iCloud activated within their Apple ID.

Sharing a Reminders List

To share a reminder list, click any reminder list and keep the mouse in position until a new icon appears at the right of the entry within the list—an icon of a transmission signal.Click the icon, and a pop-out dialog box will appear, inviting you to type the email address of the individual(s) you’d like to share the list with. Hit Tab after each email address you type.


Once you click the Done button, the individual(s) will be sent an email link so they can subscribe to your reminder list. Once they subscribe, you’ll be notified by a notification pop-up. Additionally, the reminder entry in the list will always display the sharing icon mentioned earlier. To see who the list is shared with, just click the icon. A tick alongside the email address means they have subscribed. A question mark alongside their email address means they’ve yet to respond to the invitation.

Sharing a Calendar

To share a calendar, open the Calendar app and click the Calendars button at the top left so you can see a list of all your calendars in the left side pane. Right-click the calendar you’d like to share (note: you can always create a new calendar specifically for sharing), and then select the Sharing Settings entry on the menu that appears. Following this, the steps are the same as with sharing a reminder list, although you can check the box to make the calendar read-only, in which case people will be able to view the calendar but not create, remove, or edit entries.

Unlike with sharing a reminder list, there’s no obvious sign the calendar is shared unless you right-click the calendar’s entry in the list and again select Sharing Settings to view the pop-out dialog box.

Sharing via iCloud.com 

By visiting the iCloud website and logging in with your Apple ID, you can share your reminder lists and calendars in a virtually identical way to that described earlier—select either the Reminders or Calendar icon on the iCloud home screen, and then select whichever reminder list or calendar you’d like to share. Finally, click the share icon.

Sharing a calendar is slightly different when using iCloud.com because in the pop-out dialog box that appears you’ll be asked if you want to share the calendar privately—that is, with people whose emails you type into the dialog —or share it as a public calendar, in which case absolutely anybody using Calendar on their Mac can view the calendar in read-only mode if they sub- scribe to it using the URL provided, which you’ll need to manually send to people via email/instant messaging.

Rescinding Sharing

To deactivate sharing for one or more people or to remove the offer of sharing if they’ve yet to respond, follow the previous steps to open the sharing pop- out alongside the entry in the list in either the Reminders or Calendar app (or within iCloud). Then simply select the email address in the list and hit the Delete key, or click the email address and select Remove Person. In the case of public calendars shared via iCloud, uncheck the Public Calendar box.

The changes should take effect immediately—access to the list or calendar for the individuals will be rescinded completely, and they will be notified by email and also via a pop-up notification on their computer.


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Switch Time Machine Disks

Once upon a time, Time Machine worked with just one destination—be that a removable disk drive you attached to your computer or a Time Capsule. However, with Mountain Lion and newer versions of OS X, you can seamlessly back up to multiple destinations. Each will contain a full Time Machine backup, with the most recently attached disk containing the most recent backup. If you have two or more backup devices attached at the same time, Time Machine will back up to each device in sequence (that is, if you have two backup disks attached, Time Machine will hypothetically back up to disk 1 at 1 p.m., disk 2 at 2 p.m., disk 1 at 3 p.m., disk 2 at 4 p.m., and so on, although the hourly time of backup will depend on when the disks are attached).

To set up additional backup destinations, attach the disk (or get within Wi- Fi range of the Time Capsule), open System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences), and select the Time Machine option. Click the Select Disk button,and then select the new hardware from the list in the dialog box that appears. Remember that it can take hours if not days before the first backup has completed on a new backup device.
There are a number of advantages of having more than one backup destination, as follows:

• If you have a portable Mac, you can set up a Time Machine backup device at home and one at work. Your Mac will seamlessly back up to whichever one it’s attached to without any need for you to select it. You could use a removable disk drive at work, for example, and a Time Capsule at home.

• You can “rotate” disks by setting up two or more removable storage devices for use within Time Machine and then attaching each daily (that is, disk 1 on Monday, disk 2 on Tuesday, and so on). This helps avoid wear on any particular disk, reducing the risk of failure, but also lets you store the currently out-of-sequence backup disks in a different physical location to avoid all the backups being destroyed by a disaster such as a fire.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Master Notification Center

In a default installation of OS X, Notification Center can be activated in two ways, as follows:

• Swiping from right to left with two fingers on a trackpad, if your computer has one; start the swipe gesture from the very right edge of the trackpad. This can take some practice to get right!

• Clicking the Notification Center icon at the top right of the screen.

However, you can add two quicker and substantially more intuitive ways to activate Notification Center, as follows.

Using Hot Corners to Activate Notification Center

OS X lets you configure hot corners to activate certain desktop functions, which is to say you can push the mouse cursor into any of the four corners of the screen to activate things like Mission Control or Notification Center. Because the Notification Center icon is at the top right, it makes significant sense to configure the top-right Hot Corner to activate it. 

To do so, open System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences), click the Mission Control icon, and then click the Hot Corners button at the bottom left of the program window. In the drop-down dialog box that appears, click the drop-down list at the top right—the one relating to the top right of the screen preview—and select Notification Center. Then click OK and close System Preferences.

The changes take effect immediately, so give it a try—push the mouse cursor into the top-right corner, and the Notification Center will appear. Click any- where outside of Notification Center to dismiss it.

To turn off the Hot Corner, repeat the previous steps, but in the drop-down list for the choice of what function to activate for the top-right Hot Corner, select the hyphen at the bottom of the list.

Assigning a Keyboard Shortcut to Open Notification Center

You can also (or alternatively) assign a keyboard shortcut to open and close Notification Center. For some reason Apple doesn’t include this in a default install.

To do so, open System Preferences and click the Keyboard icon. Then click the Keyboard Shortcut tab, and in the list on the left select Mission Control. On the right of the window, check Show Notification Center. You’ll immediately be prompted to type the keyboard shortcut you want to use. The choice is up to you, but I find that Option+Commmand+ Tab works well and isn’t already assigned to a function in OS X. I hold down Option+Commmand with my left thumb while tapping Tab with a finger.

To remove the keyboard shortcut, repeat the previous steps, but this time remove the check alongside Show Notification Center in the list.

Share Google Links

Safari in OS X Mountain Lion lets you query Google by typing a search term into the address bar. This works very well but raises an issue: what if you want to send somebody the link to a search you’ve done? You can’t copy and paste the address from the address bar because you never get to see the search address—the search query takes its place.

The solution is simple: click and drag the small magnifying glass symbol at the very left of the address bar to where you want to insert the link within your document or email. This will insert the URL for the search straight into your document.

Duplicate a File with One Click

To quickly create a duplicate of a file within the same folder (or on the desktop), click and drag the file to a new blank spot and hold down Option before releasing the mouse button. This is the equivalent of right-clicking the file and selecting Duplicate from the menu that appears.

Modify Messages’ Look and Feel

By right-clicking the message bubbles within Messages (ensuring you don’t right-click any text) or selecting View→Messages, you can select a different look and feel for conversations. You can select to have “boxy” messages, for example, or “compact” and can also select to show people’s names in addition to (or in place of) their picture. Experiment to see which works best for you!

Fonts and colors can be changed on the Messages tab of the Preferences dialog box (click the application menu→Preferences, or hit Command+ , [comma]).

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Turn Your Mac Into a Surveillance Camera

FaceTime can automatically answer incoming calls from contacts you specify. Another use for this trick is to dial into a Mac at any time, anywhere, from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, thus creating a simple surveillance camera setup. Because FaceTime will automatically start upon receiving a call and then auto-answer the call, you’ll instantly see what’s happening in front of your Mac.

Setting Up a Mac as a Surveillance Camera

Here are the steps required. Some of them are concise because it’s assumed you already know the basic procedures referenced, such as how to create a new user account.

1. Create a new account using the Users & Groups element of System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences). It doesn’t matter what you call the new account, but for safety reasons you might want to make it a Standard account type (i.e., limited). This will stop anybody who might physically access the computer in your absence doing any damage. 

2. Then create a new Apple ID at the following site: https://appleid.apple.com. You’ll need a spare email address to assign the account to, which will be used to confirm it as well.

3. Switch to the new user account on the Mac acting as the surveillance camera. As soon as you access the account, you’ll be prompted to enter your new Apple ID details as part of the setup procedure, so do so.

4. When you get to the desktop, open FaceTime and log in using the new Apple ID you created.

5. Now to enable Auto-answer on FaceTime follow  the steps:

Here are the steps required to enable automatic answering of calls on Face- Time:

a. Start by opening FaceTime if it isn’t already open, and log in. Then look for the contact details of the individual(s) you’d like to enable auto- answering for. This will be listed in your Contacts or Favorites list and will probably be an email address. Write the details down, and then quit FaceTime.

b. Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following line:

defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvites -bool TRUE

c. Then type the following line, and at the end type the FaceBook ID of the individual or device you want to auto-answer when they call. For example, if the contact FaceTime ID is keir@example.com, you’d type the following: 

defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvitesFrom -array-add keir@keirthomas.com

If the FaceTime ID is a cell phone number, you need to type it after the command without any spaces. For example, if the FaceTime ID was the cell phone number +15551231234, you’d type the following: 

defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvitesFrom -array-add +15551231234

Restart FaceTime, and you should find calls from the FaceTime IDs you added are automatically answered!

You can repeat step 3 and add more FaceTime IDs to the list.

Finally, test your new setup by dialing in from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or other Mac and ensuring that the Mac auto-answers and then displays what will essentially be surveillance camera footage of what’s in front of it. Bear in mind you’ll need to alter the power saving settings of your Mac so that it doesn’t enter sleep mode, although it’s OK for the screen to be turned off. Also, remember that FaceTime doesn’t need to be running all the time and will automatically start itself whenever you call into the Apple ID you entered during setup.

Deactivating the Security Camera

To permanently deactivate the security camera, simply delete the account you created for it within the Users & Groups element of System Preferences.


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Jump to the Top of Your Emails

By clicking the gray bar at the top of the list of emails in Mail, you’ll instantly scroll to the top of the list (the bar headed Sort By Date, although be careful not to click that part of it). 

Save Safari Tabs When Quitting

Each time Safari starts, it shows the home page (or whatever option you selected under the General tab within Preferences).

However, there’s another start-up mode, and I find it very useful indeed. It will automatically open the tabs (or web page if no tabs are in use) that were active the last time Safari quit. You can do this manually without changing any settings by clicking HistoryReopen All Windows From Last Session, and Safari automatically does this should it restart after crashing, but changing the following secret setting makes this an automatic choice upon every start-up of Safari.

Enabling Tab Memory Across Sessions

Quit Safari, open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following:

 defaults write com.apple.safari NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool TRU

Restart Safari, then quit it, and then restart it. From this point on, all tabs will be remembered across restarts.

 Deactivating Tab Memory

 To deactivate this feature later, again quit Safari, open a Terminal window, and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.safari NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool FALSE

As earlier, you’ll probably need to start Safari and then quit it before starting it again for the changes to take effect. 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Turn Off “Smooth Scrolling”


You might not have noticed, but when you click the scrollbar to move down or up a page in an application or hit the Page Up/Page Down key on full-sized keyboards, the scroll to the new page is animated. This might seem a little slow, laggy, or not quite as responsive as you’d like—it’s something that reportedly happens on older Macs and first-generation Macs featuring a Retina (high-definition) display.
The technology behind this is called smooth scrolling, and to turn it off, you should open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following:

 defaults write -g NSScrollAnimationEnabled -bool NO

Log out and back in again to see the changes.

You can reactivate Smooth Scrolling using the following command, again issued in Terminal and followed by logging out and back in again:

defaults delete -g NSScrollAnimationEnabled

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Stop Apps from Auto-Quitting

You might have noticed an odd thing while using OS X: if you haven’t used it for a while and it has no open files, an app might seem to quit in the background without asking you. If actual fact, the app enters a quasi-sleep mode: as far as the user is concerned, it appears to have stopped running but is still held in memory.

Sometimes apps quit themselves almost instantly: if I close the Messages window, for example, the program usually quits shortly afterward.

Apple calls this feature automatic termination4 if you find it annoying by issuing a secret command. Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder) and type the following: 

defaults write -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination -bool TRUE
Then log out and back in again for the changes to take effect.

To reactivate automatic pruning of inactive applications later, again open a Terminal window, and type the following, before logging out and 
for the changes to take effect:back in again
defaults delete -g NSDisableAutomaticTermination

Friday, November 8, 2013

Quickly Switch Audio Output (Including AirPlay)

Smaller MacBooks come with a single 3.5mm audio jack, which has the dual purpose of being a line-in audio port and a headphone socket. You can switch between the two modes using the Sound component within System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences)—select whichever entry you want from the drop-down menu alongside Use Audio Port For. However, a quicker way to switch is to hold down the Option key and click the volume control icon at the top right of the screen. Then select either Input or Output from the menu that appears.

Note that you can switch modes only if there’s nothing plugged into the socket at the time, such as a pair of headphones.

This same trick lets you instantly select AirPlay as an audio output, provided your Mac is compatible with AirPlay3 and you’re within Wi-Fi range of an Apple TV device or a recent model AirPort Express wireless hub that’s attached to a speaker system.

Just select the AirPlay device from the list under the Output Device heading in the menu that appears when you hold down Option and click the volume icon at the top right of the screen 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Browse Back via the Keyboard in Safari

Here’s a simple hidden tweak that allows you to hit the Delete key (top right of the keyboard above the Return key; sometimes called Backspace on PC keyboards) to go back to the previous page in Safari—the equivalent of hitting the back button on the main toolbar. Once the tweak is activated, you can also hit Shift+Delete to go forward in your browser history (that is, the equivalent of clicking the forward toolbar button).

For those who like to keep their hands on the keyboard rather than the mouse, this is a very useful tweak and was a default choice in releases of OS X up until Mountain Lion, where it was deactivated because of the risk of accidentally hitting it while filling in web forms.

To activate the feature, simply quit Safari, open Terminal, and type the following line, noting that it’s a single command line:


defaults write com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2BackspaceKeyNavigation Enabled -bool TRUE 

Restart Safari, and you will now find that hitting Delete will do exactly the same thing as hitting the back button on the Safari toolbar (although be aware that pressing and holding Delete will very rapidly move back through your browsing history).

To deactivate this function, again quit Safari, open a Terminal window, and type the following:


defaults delete com.apple.Safari com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2BackspaceKeyNavigation Enabled 

Restart Safari, and Delete will return to its default function of doing nothing within Safari.

Get Photo Stream Pictures via Finder

iPhoto and Aperture allow you to access Photo Stream photos, provided you have the option selected within the iCloud section of System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences). Photo Stream contains pictures taken by your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that are automatically uploaded to iCloud and shared among all your Apple computing devices.

However, starting up iPhoto or Aperture each time to access the photos can be frustrating if you’re in a hurry, especially considering that—on my system at least—iPhoto has a habit of freezing for several seconds at a time.

The solution is to access the pictures using Finder. Here are the steps to create a desktop shortcut that you can double-click to instantly access the Photo Stream images. Note that this won’t work if you don’t have Photo Stream or Aperture installed, but they don’t need to be running for it to work (unlike with earlier releases of OS X, Mountain Lion updates your Photo Stream as a background service, independently of the apps).

Once you know the location of Photo Stream photos, you can also add it to the backup list of any third-party backup solutions you might use. 

1. Open Finder, and hit Shift+Command+ G . In the dialog box that appears, type
~/Library/ApplicationSupport/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/, and hit Return. 

2. In the Search field at the top right of the Finder window, type kind:image. Then click "sub" alongside the Search heading on the thin toolbar above the file listing. You should now see all your Photo Stream images in the Finder window. But we’re not finished yet!

3. Click the Save button at the top of the Finder window. In the dialog box that appears, type Photo Stream in the Save As field, and select Desktop from the Where drop-down list. Then click Save. A new icon should appear on your desktop.

From now on, double-clicking the Photo Stream desktop icon will open a Finder window displaying your Photo Stream images. Note: Only ever look at the images or copy them to a new location. Never edit the images or even open them in an image editor. Use only Preview and Quick Look to view them. Never add any files to the folder either. All these actions could damage your iCloud configuration.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Keyboard shortcuts for Formatting Text in Mac

Here are a handful of handy keyboard shortcuts you can use to adjust the formatting of highlighted text in built-in OS X apps like TextEdit or Stickies. Some of the shortcuts will also work in apps like Notes and in new Mail win- dows. If used without any text being highlighted, the shortcuts will alter the formatting of text typed from that point onward. Note that these will work only if you’re editing a rich-text document in TextEdit—you can switch between plain-text and rich-text modes on the Format menu, or you can hit Shift+Command+ T . (Not included in the list are Command+ B , Command+ U , and Command+ I to activate bold, underline, and italics, which I assume you already know!)

Command+ T

Open the Text palette, where you can choose fonts, sizes, colors, and so on. Click and drag down the
small ball at the top of the palette to open a preview area, showing what the font looks like.

Command + + (plus)

Make text bigger.

Command + - (minus)

Make Text smaller

Option+Command+ [

Tighten text spacing (that is, kerning—the space between letters).  

Option + Command+ ]

Loosen text spacing (kerning). 

Command + {

Align text left. 

Command + | (pipe symbol)

Center text on page. 

Command + }

Align text right.

Option+Command+ T 

Show the special Characters palette, where you can choose from a variety of symbols and foreign char- acters. 

Shift+Command+ C

Show the Colors palette, which allows you to change the text color

Use Half-Star Ratings in iTunes

iTunes lets you rate songs, movies, and TV shows with between zero and five stars. This can be done by right-clicking the file within iTunes and selecting from Rating on the menu that appears or by clicking under the Rating heading to the right of the filename if you have Column view activated.

You can use the star ratings you’ve applied to arrange the order of your song collections by clicking the Rating heading, which will list all your favorite media files first. The information is also used by iTunes to divine your favorite music for playlists.

But if you’re a truly discerning music critic, you might not think five stars is enough. One song might be worth only four-and-a-half stars, for example. Well, using a secret setting, you can activate half-star increments within ratings.

Activating and Using Half-Star Ratings

Quit iTunes, open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE


When you restart iTunes, you can apply half-star settings to your media by switching to List view (hit Option+Command+ 3 ) and then clicking and dragging right and left within under the Ratings heading of a song’s entry within the list. You have to be subtle when dragging, however, because the half-star ratings are only a nudge away from the full-star ratings.

Alternatively, you can select the file, hit Command+ I , and in the dialog box that appears select the Options tab. Then click and drag in the Rating box, as described earlier.

Deactivating Half-Star Ratings

If in the future you’d like to return to full-star ratings only, again quit iTunes and open a Terminal window, before typing the following:


defaults delete com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars


When you restart iTunes, you should find that any items you previously gave half-star ratings to are now rounded down to the nearest full-star rating.






Add Your Choice of Search Engine

In its Preferences dialog box, Safari lets you choose between three different search engines that will be used whenever you type anything into the Address and Search bar: Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft’s Bing. Other popular search engines are available, such as Duck Duck Go (www.duckduckgo.com), but Safari offers no way to utilize them via the Address and Search bar.

It’s possible to force Safari to use a search engine like Duck Duck Go, but it involves a systemwide hack that essentially redirects all traffic for one of the existing search engines, such as Bing, to a replacement you specify. The changes you make will affect all software installed on your system, not just web browsers, and all user accounts too. This usually isn’t problematic, however, and if you’re sure other users of the system will never, ever use the search engine that you intend to replace, then it’s a good change to make.

Adding Your Own Search Engine

Here are the necessary steps. These steps make fundamental changes to a system file, and while this is generally safe to do, you should follow the steps and ensure you type the commands exactly as specified.

1. For the purposes of these steps, we’re going to use Duck Duck Go as the replacement search engine, and we’re going to replace Bing. Start by get- ting the IP address of the search engine you want to use—open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type ping followed by the address of the search engine. 
For example, for Duck Duck 
Go I’d type the following:

ping www.duckduckgo.com

2. Don’t worry about all the results, but simply look at the first line, which will read something like PING duckduckgo.com(46.51.197.88). You’re interested in the numbers—46.51.197.88—so make a note of them. 3. At the Terminal, hit Control+ C to kill the ping command, and type the fol- lowing, which will open the hosts system file in the nano text editor (type your login password when prompted):

sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

4. In the file that you open, add the following line to the very bottom on a line of its own, ensuring you hit a carriage return at the end of the line:

46.51.197.88 www.bing.com

Obviously, you should replace the IP address (the series of four numbers separated by periods) with the one you wrote down earlier, although don’t change anything else in the line

5. Hit Control+ O to save the file, and tap Return to confirm you want to save it. Then hit Control+ X to quit Nano, and then close the Terminal window. 

6. Open Safari, and hit Command+ , (comma) to access its preferences. Select the General tab, and on the Default Search Engine drop-down list, select Bing.

The changes should take effect from the next time you use Safari, but if not, reboot the computer.

Note that Safari might still display “Bing Search” in the Address and Search bar, but in fact, anything you type will be sent to your choice of search engine.

Reversing the Changes

To reverse the procedure and restore the ability to use Bing as a search engine, repeat the previous steps to edit the /private/etc/hosts file and remove the line you added (you can do this by using the cursor keys to position the cursor at the end of the line and then using the Delete key). Then save the file, as explained earlier, and quit Nano. You might need to reboot if, when using Safari, the changes don’t take effect immediately.

Copy Better in Mail

Here’s a simple solution to an irritating problem: if you copy an email address in Mail by right-clicking it and selecting Copy Address, you’ll probably find that not only do you get the email address, but you also copy the person’s name—hit Paste, and you’ll see something like KeirThomas<keir@example.com>.

The solution for pasting just the email address (that is, simply keir@example.com) is to activate a secret setting, as follows, that will cause only the email address to be copied and pasted.

Quit Mail, open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool false

When you open Mail again, you should find that email addresses copy in their more useful, stripped-down format.

To revert to the default settings, again close Mail, open a Terminal window, and type the following:

defaults delete com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard

Instantly Rename Safari Bookmarks

Click and hold a bookmark in Safari’s bookmarks toolbar, and you’ll be able to instantly rename it by overtyping the existing name, in a similar way to renaming a file within Finder. This won’t affect the actual address of the bookmark.

Spruce Up Terminal

Hitting Command+ I while using Terminal will bring up the Inspector window. Ensure that the Info tab is selected within the window, and enter alternative values within the Columns and Rows fields to alter the dimensions of the Terminal window (you can also click and drag the edges of the window, of course, but this method allows a degree more accuracy in your size choices).

Click the Settings tab, and you can also change the Terminal window’s theme (that is, its color scheme and font). Just select an option from the list. This selection lasts only as long as the current Terminal window is open.

To make permanent changes to size and color scheme, hit Command+ , (comma) to open the Terminal window’s preferences. Then click the Settings button at the top of the dialog box that appears, and make the changes beneath. When done, click the Default button beneath the list of themes at the left of the dialog box.

Turn Off Trash Sound Effects

The OS X trash is noisy. Add a file to it, and you’ll hear a “tish” sound, designed to indicate a piece of paper being thrown into the trash can. When- ever you empty the trash, you’ll hear the sound of paper being scrunched up (which is odd because should you empty the trash in real life, that’s not at all what you’d hear!). However, the sounds can be annoying if you’re playing music or in the middle of a voice/FaceTime call. To turn it off, open a Finder window, and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.finder FinderSounds -bool FALSE;killall Finder

To turn the sound on again at a future time, again open a Terminal window, and type the following:

defaults delete com.apple.finder FinderSounds;killall Finder

Avoid Notifications

If your MacBook has a multitouch trackpad or you have a Magic Trackpad, you can dismiss or “snooze” any notification dialog that appears by moving the mouse cursor over it and swiping with two fingers to the right if you have a MacBook or with one finger if you have a Magic Trackpad. If the notification relates to a calendar entry and features a snooze button, this is simply the equivalent of clicking the Snooze button on the dialog. If the notification has no button (it’s telling you about a new email, for example), swiping will simply dismiss the dialog box.

You can also click and drag any notification to the left to temporarily move it out of the way if you need to see something behind it. It will snap back into place when you release the mouse button.

Use Fancy Text in Mail Signatures

If you’ve tried to add a signature in Mail (select Mail→Preferences, and then click the Signatures tab), it might seem as if it’s impossible to add text format- ting to signatures.

In fact, it’s entirely possible to use different fonts or colors. All you need to do while typing your signature is hit Command+ T to open the Fonts palette. Here you can select any fonts, colors, and type styles. Hitting Shift+Command+ C will open the Colors palette to give you an even greater choice of colors.

Bear in mind, however, that Windows or Linux computers that might be used to read your emails probably won’t have the same selection of fonts as your Mac, so it’s perhaps best to stick to “web-safe” fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana, and Courier.

Ensure the checkbox Always Match My Default Message Font is empty.

Install Any App Without Being Blocked

OS X Mountain Lion and newer releases of OS X feature Gatekeeper, a security measure designed to make it impossible for illicit software to be installed on your Mac. It does this by blocking any program you download that isn’t digitally signed with Apple’s permission.

You can disable Gatekeeper in the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences; look under the General tab and the Allow Applications Downloaded From heading), which can be useful if you download a program you know to be safe but that hasn’t been digitally signed (although you should ensure it’s enabled again afterward). However, a much quicker method of installing or running a single unsigned app is to right-click it and select Open from the menu that appears. You’ll still be warned that the app might be a security issue, but you won’t be blocked from running it. OS X will remember this decision too, so you won’t be blocked in the future either.

Timestamp Zip Filenames

This is one of those tips a handful of people will find useful but is worth sharing nonetheless. Those who use OS X on server computers might find it particularly useful.

The following command will cause any new archives (zip files) you create to automatically have the 24-hour time appended to the filename. For example, creating an archive from the folder Pictures at 2:13 p.m. will result in an archive with the filename Pictures 14.13.27.zip (with the last two digits representing the second count).

To activate this feature, open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following: 

defaults write com.apple.finder ArchiveTimestamp -bool TRUE;killall Finder

To deactivate it at a future date, type the following into a Terminal window:

defaults delete com.apple.finder ArchiveTimestamp;killall Finder

Switch Locations in Terminal via Drag and Drop

By clicking and dragging a file or folder onto the Terminal window while holding down Command, you’ll instantly switch to either the folder that you’re dragging or the folder that the file you’re dragging is within. In other words, Terminal will automatically type cd for you and then fill in the path, before hitting Return on your behalf. Give it a try to see what happens, but remember to hold down Command before releasing the mouse button—if you don’t, OS X will simply type within Terminal the entire path to the file or the folder, something that can be useful in itself!

Ultra-Quickly See an App’s Open Files

This is a tip for those with a multitouch trackpad. By hovering the mouse cursor over any Dock icon and using two fingers to double-tap (tap, not click!), you will switch to Application Windows mode of Mission Control. In other words, this will show the currently open program windows of that particular app. You might also see a list of recently opened files along the bottom of the screen, although not all apps are compatible with this. If the app you double- tap isn’t currently running or has no currently open program windows, you’ll just see the list of recently opened apps (or, in the case of an incompatible app, a blank screen!).

If you find this tip doesn’t work, open System Preferences (Apple menu→ System Preferences), and click the Trackpad icon, before selecting the Scroll & Zoom tab. Then check the box Smart Zoom. Note that this will also allow you to zoom into web pages in Safari by double-tapping with two fingers in the same way (double-tap again to zoom out).

See Where You’re Browsing in Terminal

When using Terminal, you might know of the pwd (print working directory) command, which returns the current directory you’re browsing. It’s useful if, like me, you get lost while browsing through folders! Well, under OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, there’s no need to use the command because the name of the directory appears in the title bar—just like in Finder. For example, if you’re browsing the Music directory in your user directory, you’ll see something like Music -- bash -- 80x24 (the last two details being the shell you’re using and the size of the Terminal window in characters).

Right-clicking the directory in the title bar will also display the folder hierarchy up to that point. Clicking any of the folders in the list will open a Finder window displaying the contents of that folder.

Turn a Movie Into a TV Show

If you’ve manually downloaded an episode of a TV show and imported it into iTunes, you might find that iTunes thinks it’s a movie and files it away under the Movies heading.

If you want it to be correctly filed under the TV Shows heading, select it in the Movies listing and hit Command+ I . In the dialog box that appears, click the Options tab and select TV Show from the Media Kind drop-down list. You might optionally want to select the Video tab and fill in details of the show, such as its episode and season number.

Once you click OK in the dialog box, the file will jump into the TV Shows listing, where it’ll show as an unwatched show waiting to be viewed.

Multiple files can be selected at once and their Media Kind altered in this way.

Get Complex Multiple-Display Setups

If you have three or more displays or projectors attached to your Mac, you might want to selectively mirror the content of one display on another yet use the others as independent monitors with their own desktops. Although there’s a Mirrors Displays checkbox in the Displays pane of System Preferences when the Arrangement tab is selected, it’s not designed for a setup this complicated.

Setting Up Mirroring 

The solution is surprisingly simple. Open System Preferences (Apple menu→ System Preferences), switch to the Displays pane, and select the Arrangement tab. Then turn off display mirroring completely, as described earlier, so that each screen has its own desktop. Then hold down Option and drag and drop the first of the screens onto the screen representing the display or projector you’d like to mirror it (note how the border of the screen or projector you want to mirror the display upon will have a red border, making it easy to see what’s what).
You should then find that those two displays are mirrored. This can be repeated for any other displays you’d like to mirror.

Deactivating Mirroring 

To return each display to its own discrete desktop, again hold down Option and drag the displays so they no longer appear to be on top of each other and are lined up separately side-by-side.
Incidentally, to make any particular monitor or projector the default, which is to say the one that shows the Dock and menu bar, click and drag the white strip shown at the top of one of the blue screen previews within the Arrange- ment tab to whichever device you like. This will then become the default display whenever it’s attached.

Quickly Add to Safari’s Reading List

You can instantly add a web page to Safari’s Reading List by Shift+clicking any link. You’ll see the link fly to the Reading List icon on the bookmarks bar, if it’s visible.

Forward Only a Mail’s Attachment

If you receive a mail message with an attachment, you might want to forward only the attachment and not the corresponding mail message. The solution is simple: select click the attachment once within the email so it’s highlighted and then hit the forward icon (or hit Shift+Command+ F ). This will create a new message with just the attachment.
 
Note that this same trick works if you want to forward only part of a message: click and drag to highlight only the text you want to send to the recipient, and then click the forward icon or hit Shift+Command+ F .

Put Notes and Sticky Notes on Top

The Notes application in OS X Mountain Lion is very useful, but did you know that you can double-click a note in the list on the left to have it pop out in a window of its own? Not only that, but if you click Window→Float on Top, then all other program windows will appear beneath it so that it’s always visible. This can be useful if you’re copying and pasting from a number of browser windows into the note, for example. The note will stick around even if you close the main Notes program window (which you can make appear again by clicking Window→Notes or hitting Command+ 0 ).

To switch it back to being a normal note, just close it in the usual way or again click Window→Float on Top.

If you prefer to use OS X’s other note-taking app, Stickies, just select any note and click Note→Floating Window. That particular note will then be “always on top,”

To switch the note back to acting like a standard sticky, which is to say other program windows cover it up, repeat the steps and remove the check from Floating Window on the Note menu.

Don’t Delete Files When Copying

If you try to copy two or more files into a folder where files of that name already exist, you’ll see a dialog box with buttons offering you the chance to keep both of the files mentioned (in which case, when copied, the file will have copy appended to its name), to stop the entire copying procedure, or to replace the existing file with the one you’re copying. However, if you hold down Option, the Keep Both button will change to Skip. If you click it, the file mentioned in the dialog box won’t be copied.

Master Quick Look’s Full-Screen Feature

Quick Look lets you select a file and, by hitting Space, quickly preview its contents without having to open it in any application. Like many apps on your Mac, it has a full-screen mode, which can be useful when examining things like images. There are quite a few methods of switching to full-screen mode, as follows:

• If you haven’t yet activated Quick Look for the file, select it and hit Option+Space instead of just Space, which is the usual Quick Look shortcut key. This will instantly open Quick Look in full-screen mode. A drawback of activating Quick Look in this mode is that hitting Option+Space again won’t close the Quick Look window. Instead, you must hit Esc or click the close button on the Quick Look floating toolbar.

• If already viewing a file in Quick Look and your Mac has a trackpad, you can switch to full-screen mode using the pinch-to-expand gesture (that is, placing your finger and thumb together on the trackpad and moving them apart; contracting them again will revert to a standard window). However, regardless of whether you have a trackpad, you can also switch to full-screen mode in an open QuickTime window by clicking the arrow at the top right of the window.

• There’s also a secret setting that lets you switch to full-screen mode (and back) in Quick Look when you’re viewing a file by rolling up the scroll wheel on a mouse or scrolling up on a trackpad. Scrolling down restores the Quick Look window to normal size.

Although seemingly useful, bear in mind that this tweak will mean you will no longer be able to scroll in any documents you Quick Look, unless you click and drag the scrollbar scroller at the right edge.

To make the change, open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following: 

defaults write com.apple.finder QLPreviewFakeMagnifyWithScrollwheel -bool TRUE;killall Finder

The change will take effect immediately, so give it a try.

To deactivate the feature, open a Terminal window, and type the following:

defaults delete com.apple.finder QLPreviewFakeMagnifyWithScrollwheel;killall Finder

Note that if you’re Quick Looking an image smaller than your monitor’s reso- lution in Quick Look’s full-screen mode, it will be automatically magnified to fill the space. You can temporarily view the image at 100 percent by holding down the Option key.


Quickly Get Documents into (and out of) iCloud

While editing a document in apps that are compatible with iCloud, you can quickly move the file to iCloud—even if it has previously been saved on your hard disk. To do so, click the filename in the title bar, and then select the Move to iCloud entry from the menu that appears. Note that when it movesto iCloud, the file will no longer exist on your hard disk—it will disappear. This avoids the confusion of duplicated files.

To move a file out of iCloud, repeat the procedure to bring up the menu as described earlier, but this time select Move To. Then select a location on your hard disk from the file-browsing drop-down menu that appears (select Other at the bottom of the menu to specify a location that isn’t listed). As discussed earlier, the file will disappear from iCloud as soon as it’s saved to your hard disk in order to avoid confusing duplication.


Restart a Jammed Finder

You can quickly reboot Finder if you see the “beach ball of death” by holding down Option and right-clicking the Finder’s icon in the Dock. Then select Relaunch from the menu that appears.

Note that some people report that temporarily switching off Wi-Fi can also recover a crashed Finder. It’s not quite clear why this works, but it’s probably because Finder has gotten stuck while trying to access a network resource, and turning off the network frees it up. To turn off Wi-Fi, click the Wi-Fi icon at the top right of the screen and select Turn Wi-Fi Off. Then, when Finder has recovered, click the icon again, and this time select Turn Wi-Fi On.

Sleep Your Mac with a Remote

If you have an Apple remote control, you can put your MacBook or iMac into sleep mode from a distance away by pointing the remote at the computer and then pressing and holding the central Play/Pause button for three to four seconds. Watch for a series of comic book-style Zs appear on the screen to indicate snoozing.

The Mac can be woken from sleep in the normal way—usually by hitting a key on the keyboard or moving the mouse/touching the trackpad—although you can also click the Play button again on the remote.

Access (and Back Up) All iCloud Documents

iCloud magically stores your data online whenever you choose to save or modify a file there. However, “hard copies” of any documents within iCloud are actually stored on your Mac’s hard disk within a hidden directory. These files are automatically updated by the iCloud system service running in the background whenever any changes are made, either on your Mac or on other devices that access the files via iCloud.

Browsing the iCloud Store Folder 

To browse to the iCloud store folder, open Finder, and then hit Shift+ Command+ G . Then type the following into the dialog box that appears: 

~/Library/Mobile Documents

Note how the icon at the top of the Finder window changes to show the fact you’re browsing iCloud files.

The folder containing documents for each app will be named along the lines of com~apple~, followed by the name of the app. 

For example, the folder containing TextEdit documents is called com~apple~TextEdit.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to whether you should edit the files. Some people say that double-clicking the files within the hidden iCloud folder, to edit or view them, is just like accessing them via the app in question’s iCloud file browser. However, other people (myself included) advise a more cautious approach because this is, after all, an unauthorized way of accessing the files. I advise treating everything you see as read-only: never delete, edit, or add to the files you see in ~/Library/MobileDocuments because you might seriously corrupt your iCloud account. Bear in mind that even opening a file can sometimes lead to a new version being instantly saved, so it’s best to use Quick Look only if you want to view files (select the file in Finder and hit Space).

Creating an iCloud-Browsing Shortcut

You can easily create a custom search for Finder’s sidebar that, when selected, will automatically list all files stored within iCloud—regardless of which application was used to save them. Here’s how: 

1. Open Finder, hit Shift+Command+ G , and then type ~/Library/Mobile Documents into the dialog box that appears. Then click the Go button.

2. Click in the Search field at the top right of the Finder window, and then hit Space. This will clear the list of files within Finder, but don’t worry— it’ll make sense in a moment. 

3. In the Search bar that appears, select MobileDocuments. Then click the plus icon at the right side of the line.

4. A new search bar will be added. In the left drop-down list within it, ensure that Kind is selected. In the drop-down alongside, ensure Document is selected. You should now see all your iCloud files listed, regardless of the application used to save them.

5. Click the Save button in the search bar. This will show a dialog box where you can type a name for what will be the Finder sidebar link you’ll click in the future. Call it something like iCloud, and click the Save button in the dialog box.

An icon will appear under the Favorites heading on the left of the Finder window. Clicking this will show all iCloud files. To delete it, hold down Command and drag the icon out of the Finder window, before releasing. The icon will disappear in a puff of smoke.

Backing Up iCloud Files Independently

By knowing where the files are stored, you can manually back them up using a third-party cloud backup service like SpiderOak (www.spideroak.com), for example. This provides an extra layer of insurance against a fault arising within the iCloud system. Just include the ~/Library/Mobile Documents folder in the list of those to be backed up.

Note that iCloud files are automatically backed up within Time Machine,

Increase Settings in Micro-Increments

You might be used to using the keyboard shortcuts on MacBooks to alter the sound volume, screen backlighting, or keyboard backlighting (if your MacBook features it). But if you’ve ever thought the jump between each increment in the on-screen bars display was too much, I have some good news for you. By holding down Shift and Option before hitting the keys, you’ll be able to adjust the sound and backlighting in micro-increments, which are much smaller than the usual range. Give it a try!

Turn Off Notifications with a Single Click

Should you need to concentrate without being interrupted by desktop notifications, you can quickly turn them off by holding down Option and clicking the show/hide notification icon at the top right of the screen. The icon will dim to indicate the notifications will no longer display. Notifications will resume the next day, but you can also repeat the previous step to instantly switch them on again should you want.

Quickly Navigate Launchpad

By clicking the little dots representing each page at the bottom of the Launchpad icon listing, you can instantly jump to that particular page, avoiding the need to scroll through each page before it.

If you want to navigate through Launchpad pages using the keyboard, hold down Command, and tap the Left/Right cursor keys.

You can move the highlight from icon to icon using the cursor keys on their own (hit Return to run an app), and hitting Command+Down will expand any folder you have highlighted (although hitting Return will also expand folders but not close them again if repeated afterward).

Clicking the dots at the bottom of the screen works in Safari’s Show All Tabs view too (Shift+Command+ \ or pinch with two fingers on a trackpad)—just click the small dots at the bottom of the pages display to instantly switch to whichever page you want.

Get Back “Save As”

With Lion, many OS X apps lost the ages-old Save As option on the File menu. After a file has been initially saved, the preferred way to save a new copy with a different filename is to use the Duplicate option on the File menu, which, as its name suggests, produces a copy of the original that you can then manually save with a new filename. Time-consuming, to say the least!

The good news is that Mountain Lion goes some way to restoring the Save As option. Alas, there are a couple of caveats, as follows:

• The Save As option on the file menu is hidden. To see it, activate the File menu by clicking it, and then hold down Option. It will appear where the Duplicate option usually is. There’s a keyboard shortcut for Save As that lets you avoid using the File menu, but it’s somewhat convoluted —Shift+Option+Command+ S.

• Mountain Lion’s Save As option doesn’t work quite the same way as you might be used to because of OS X’s autosave and versions feature. When you use Save As to create a copy of an older document you’ve edited, a checkbox headed Keep Changes In Original Document will appear at the bottom of the Save As dialog box. If this is checked, when you click the Save button, the changes you made since opening the original file will be saved to the old file in addition to the new one you’ve created. Therefore, you’ll want to ensure this box is unchecked whenever you use Save As! As described next, you can assign the old keyboard shortcut of Shift+Command+ S to Save As, which has the added advantage of adding the Save As option permanently to the File menu once again. The Duplicate option will still be listed, but it will lose its shortcut key.

Adding a Save As option to the File menu

Here’s what to do: 

1. Open System Preferences (Apple menu→System Preferences), and click the Keyboard icon. In the pane that appears, select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. 

2. You’ll see two separate panes within the window—the left-showing menu headings and the right-showing keyboard shortcuts. In the left pane, select the Application Shortcuts heading. On the right, click the small plus button beneath the pane.

3. In the dialog box that drops down, ensure All Applications is selected in the Application drop-down list, and in the Menu Title field type SaveAs.... It’s important to type the capital letters at the beginning of each word and the three periods (ellipsis) following.

4. Place the cursor in the Keyboard Shortcut field, then hold down Shift plus Command, and finally tap the S key. This will enter the new shortcut. Then click the Add button and close System Preferences.

The changes should take effect within applications immediately. If not, simply restart the application.

Removing Save As from the Default Menu Options

To remove Save As from the File menu and restore the original key binding, follow these steps:

1. Open System Preferences once again, select the Keyboard option, and ensure the Keyboard Shortcuts tab is visible.

2. Make sure Applications Shortcuts is selected in the menu on the left, and then select your Save As... entry in the list on the right.

3. Hit the small minus key beneath the list. This will delete the entry you created. Then quit System Preferences.

Your changes will take effect immediately.


Open a Link Displayed in Terminal

If you see a web or email link within a Terminal window (in a man page, for example), simply hold down Command and then double-click it. The link will instantly open in your usual browser or email client, such as Safari or Mail.

For what it’s worth, this will work even if you simply type an address into a Terminal window, even if it isn’t preceded with http://.

View Safari’s Google History

To see a list of your recent searches in Safari, click in the Address and Search bar, delete what’s there, then either click the magnifying glass icon at the left of the Address and Search bar or simply hit Space. The previous searches will appear in a list beneath, along with some recent history. You can jump between headings in the list using the keyboard by holding down Command and pressing the Up/Down cursor keys.

You can also quickly switch to an alternative search engine by selecting it from the bottom of this drop-down list. Your new search engine choice will remain in place until you again select a different choice—even after you restart Safari.

Right-Click to Share Anything

OS X Mountain Lion features Share Sheets, which are buttons at the top of certain program windows (including Finder) that allow you to instantly share things via Twitter, email, Facebook, and Messages or to AirDrop what you’re viewing or working on (provided accounts for these services are set up within the Mail, Contacts & Calendars component of System Preferences, of course).

However, you can also right-click just about anything to share it in this way —right-click an image file on the desktop, for example, and you can select the Share option on the menu to instantly tweet or post it to your Facebook wall. This works in Finder windows too, where you can share any file via email, AirDrop, and Messages. Highlight some text (and/or images) within TextEdit before right-clicking it, and the same Share option will appear on the menu, allowing you to send just the highlighted text to your Twitter or Facebook accounts (if they Send button is grayed out and you’re attempting to tweet something in this way, it might be because you’ve exceeded the 140- character limit!).

Create Reminders Ultra-Quickly

Imagine the situation: you receive an email from a friend reminding you to pick up a book for him from the bookstore. Being a Mac OS X user, you know exactly how to handle the situation: you can add an entry in the Reminders app, which will then be shared with your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. No more forgetting!

There’s just one problem: starting Reminders and then creating the actual entry on the list is a lot of effort and far from the casual single-click we might expect of Apple technology.

There are two solutions to this terrible problem, as follows.

Dragging and Dropping to the Reminders App

If the mail you’ve received has as its subject line the nature of the reminder (e.g., “Don’t forget to pick up the book!”), you can drag and drop the email from the list within Mail to the Reminders icon on the Dock, or you can drag and drop the email on top of the Reminders program window if it’s open. This will instantly create a new reminder named after the subject of the mail, and you’ll even be provided with a link to the original email within the reminder (click Show in Mail).
If anybody has replied to the original email or if it’s part of a series received from the sender, then this trick needs a little modification—click the email in the list so it’s visible in the preview pane on the right side of the Mail window. Then move the mouse cursor over the left side of the email preview, near the Subject and Reply-To headings. The cursor will change to a hand grabber. You can then click and drag the mail to the Reminders app, as described earlier.

Adding a “Create Reminder” Entry to Right-Click Menus

As easy as drag and drop is, wouldn’t it be handy just to be able to select the text in the email (i.e., “pick up the book from the store”), then right-click, and select a menu option that will instantly create a Reminders entry—even if Reminders isn’t running? This function isn’t built into OS X but can be easily created and will work in almost any app. The following are the necessary steps, although there are actually two methods—the first will simply add a reminder without prompting you for any details, while the second will pop up a dialog box wherein you can select which Reminders list to use, the reminder’s priority, and its due date.

Creating a Simple Reminders Service 

Here’s how to create the first of the options mentioned earlier—a simple right- click option that will instantly create a new reminder in the default list based on the text you select:

1. Open Automator, which can be found in the Applications view of Finder. If the new file dialog doesn’t appear, click File→New. In the Choose a Type For Your Document dialog box, select Service (the cog icon), and then click the Choose button.

2. In the search field above the list of actions within the Automator program window, type New Reminders Item. Click and drag the only item in the list (which will also read New Reminders Item) to the right side of the Automator window, over the text Drag Actions or Files Here to Build Your Workflow.
 
3. Leave everything blank. All you need to do is click File→Save and then type a name for your new service in the Save Service As dialog box. This is what’ll appear in the right-click menu, so something like Create Reminder is fine (there’s no need to choose somewhere to save the service because they’re automatically saved in the correct location). Then you can quit Automator.
You can try your new service straightaway. Just highlight some text, right- click it, and select Create Reminder (or Services→Create Reminder if there’s no Create Reminder option on the menu). If Reminders is running, you’ll see the entry has been added, but even if it isn’t, the entry is still added, as you’ll find when you next start the app.

Creating a Pop-up Dialog Box Service 

Here’s how to create a service similar to the one earlier except when you select Create Reminder from the right-click menu, a dialog box will pop up each time to let you set options such as which reminder list will be used, its prior- ity, and due date.

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 earlier so that the basic New Reminders Item automator service is in place. However, click the Options link at the bottom of the service.

2. Check the box Show This Action When The Workflow Runs; then check Show Only The Selected Items.

3. You will now see a checkbox alongside each item of the service. Check everything, except the Title field. Now repeat the earlier step 4 to save the new action.

Test our new service by highlighting some text, right-clicking it, and selecting Create Reminder (or Services→Create Reminder if there’s no Create Reminder option on the menu). A dialog box should appear letting you set various options, such as which of your Reminders lists to add the new reminder to. Select from them, and click the Continue button. (Note that, on my test Mac, the first time I used this new service, an additional dialog box popped up asking if the app could access my contacts; I assume this is a bug, but agreeing to it will do no harm.)
If Reminders is running, you’ll see the entry has been added—complete with the attributes you set—but even if it isn’t, the entry is still added, as you’ll find when you next start the app.

Removing the Menu Entry

To remove the service, should you want to, open Finder, and then hit Shift+Command+ G . In the dialog box that appears, type ~/Library/Services, and hit Return. Then drag the service you created to the trash. Log out and back in again to complete the removal.



Switch to Black Menus in Full-Screen Mode

Here’s a small secret tweak that will make the menu bar at the top of the screen turn black whenever you enter full-screen mode with any application. It brings no new functionality other than altering the appearance of the menu.
Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following:

defaults write -g NSFullScreenDarkMenu -bool TRUE

Then log out and back in again. Switch any compatible app to full-screen mode (click the arrow at the top right of the window or click View→Enter Full Screen), and then push the mouse against the top of the screen to see the now-blackened menu bar appear.

To switch back to the standard gray tint menu, again open a Terminal window, and type the following:

defaults delete -g NSFullScreenDarkMenu

Log out and back in again for the changes to take effect.

See Bluetooth Signal Strength

If you use any Bluetooth devices with your Mac, such as a keyboard or mouse, there are a variety of ways you can view the strength of the signal between your Mac and the device(s).

Using System Preferences to View Signal Strength 

To get the most information, you can use System Preferences (Apple menu→ System Preferences). Once it’s open, click the Bluetooth icon, and then select the Bluetooth device in the list while holding down Option
 You’ll see a number along with a familiar signal bar display that you might be used to with your cell phone or Wi-Fi signal.
As with similar displays, five bars is the maximal signal strength, while one bar indicates a weak and potentially unstable connection (the solution is to move the Bluetooth device closer to the Mac or to remove any objects that might be obscuring your Mac or the device, especially those that are metal). To get an updated signal reading, repeatedly click the Bluetooth’s entry in the list while holding down Option.
The number corresponds directly with the bar display and shows the power ratio (dBmW) of the signal. A smaller number indicates a stronger signal—in my test -40 equated to a strong five-bar signal, while -70 equated to a poor signal strength of one bar.

Quickly Viewing Signal Strength on the Desktop

Another way to view signal strength that doesn’t use System Preferences is as follows: hold down Option while clicking the Bluetooth icon at the top right of the screen, before moving the mouse down the menu showing all connected devices (you can release Option after clicking the Bluetooth icon). Here you’ll see not only the power ratio figure mentioned earlier but also battery life (in the case of Apple peripherals) and other technical details, such as the MAC address of the Bluetooth device.

Monitoring Signal Strength Over Time

To monitor signal strength over a period of time, which can be useful when diagnosing connection problems, return to the Bluetooth pane of System Preferences, and select the device you want to monitor in the list. Then hold down Option before clicking the cog icon beneath the list of Bluetooth devices, and select Monitor Connection RSSI from the menu that appears. This will open a new window showing a graph of connection strength, updated every few seconds continuously until you click the Close button at the bottom right.


See What Folders You’ve Accessed Recently


Want to see a list of folders or places you’ve recently accessed in Finder? Just click and hold the back button at the top left of the Finder window. In the list that appears, you can click any of the folders to jump straight to that location.
You can also click and hold the forward button to select one of the folders or places later in your history—in other words, that you previously visited after visiting that folder! (Note: This also works in most web browsers, where clicking and holding back or forward will show a list of your most recently accessed websites.)

Create iCloud Folders

Here’s a tip that will be obvious to anybody who owns an iPad or iPhone but possibly a revelation to anybody else.

Apps that let you save files within iCloud, such as TextEdit and Preview, allow you to create folders within iCloud to help organize documents. But there’s no New Folder button. Instead, you can create a new folder by dropping one file on top of another (provided either file isn’t locked). You’ll immediately be prompted to enter a name for the new folder. Simple!

You can add new items to the folder by dragging and dropping them on top, just like in Finder. Note that you can also elastic-band select many files at once.

To delete the folder, you’ll need to empty it of all its contents by either dragging the files out or deleting them. Then the folder will vanish.

Correct Misspellings or Typos Without the Mouse

Although in many OS X apps you can right-click a misspelled or mistyped word to see suggested replacements (that is, words that are underlined in red or blue), you can also simply move the cursor to the end of the word using the cursor keys and then wait a second until a list of suggested replacements appears beneath. Hit the Down cursor key and then the Left/Right cursor keys to select a replacement, before hitting Return to select the one you’re happy with (or hit Esc to quit the replacements menu). If no list appears, it’s probably the case that OS X has no suggestions for that particular misspelling or typo.

Use a Secret, Alternative Cut and Paste


Ever had something important held in the clipboard, like a picture, yet wanted to quickly cut and paste some text within a document? OS X actually contains two clipboards, although the second is much more primitive than the main one and will cut and paste only text. You won’t find it on any menus, either, and it is available only via two keyboard shortcuts. You can use it in the usual way by highlighting some text, using Control+ K to cut the text, and pressing Control+ Y to paste the content in the new position.

(Note that’s Control and not Command; longtime Unix/Linux users will, of course, recognize this secondary clipboard as an implementation of the kill and yank tools found in the likes of Emacs.)

There’s no “copy” option, unfortunately, although you can emulate this by cutting the text with Control+ K and then immediately pasting it back in with Control+ Y , before moving to the new position where you’d like the text to be inserted and again pasting with Control+ Y .

Only plain text is copied—any formatting such as bold or italics is lost. Additionally, although it should work fine within most OS X applications, it probably will not work if you cut text from one app to paste into another app

Store Absolutely Any File in iCloud

The built-in Preview app lets you add images and PDFs to its iCloud store (click File→Open to add files), which are what the app usually displays on most Macs, but that’s not all it’ll accept for upload. It’ll also store (and let you view!) Microsoft Office documents, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Strangely, however, it won’t accept more primitive office document formats such as rich-text files (those with an .rtf extension) or comma-separated value spreadsheets (those with a .csv extension).

It’s worth bearing in mind that, just like with Finder windows, you can hold down Option to copy a file to
iCloud, rather than moving it there, which is the default behavior.

Note that the range of image files Preview will accept for upload to iCloud is very broad—you can save Photoshop (.psd) documents there, for example, and view them within Preview.

TextEdit accepts any kind of file for upload to its iCloud storage area—from MP3 files and movies to images—even though it can’t open them (attempting to open, say, a movie will produce a screen full of seemingly random characters, although you can still watch the movie in Quick Look by selecting it in the iCloud listing and hitting Space).

TextEdit’s egalitarian approach to iCloud makes it an ideal way of transferring files from one Mac to another via iCloud, provided they’re both logged in to the same iCloud ID—just drag and drop the file onto the TextEdit window of the first computer, and then drag and drop it from TextEdit’s iCloud listing to a Finder window on the other Mac.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Mac OS X

Here are some of the useful Shortcuts For Messaging App:

Control+Command+ A/ I /O/W 

Set your status as available (A), invisible (I), away (W), or offline (O ).

Command + 1 

Show buddies list

Control+Tab

Move between conversations listed on the left of the Messages window (if two or more conversations are listed).

Option+ Up/Down

Cycle through things you’ve already typed and sent —useful if you need to repeat something said earlier in the conversation. Hit Return to resend the message.

Option+Command+B

Show the entry within Contacts of the person you’re chatting to; if they have no entry within your address book, you’ll instantly create a new one.

Shift+Command+I

Show profile details of the person you’re chatting to, and set audio alerts/bounce the Messages icon
in the Dock/run an AppleScript when they perform various actions, such as come online or send you a message.

Option+Command+ E

Compose a new email to the individual in Mail, provided an email address is associated with the individual’s IM chat account.

Option+Command+ L

Show a list of recent and ongoing file transfers (to transfer a file, drag and drop it onto the conversation within the Messages window, or hit Option+Command+ F to open a dialog box where you can select a file).

Shift+Command+ K

Add a timestamp to the conversation, similar to that which appears when you initially go online
and start chatting with somebody—useful if you want to record when something was said

Option+Command+ K

Permanently delete conversation—cannot be undone.

Shift+Command+ E

Open video effects window so you can apply special effects to any video conversation (click the camera
icon at the top right of the chat window to start video conversation; note that Messages doesn’t support video calls on all chat protocols).

Logging Out and Back In

Sometimes you’ll have to log out and then back in again to make the changes active. To do this, save all your files, click the Apple menu, and then choose the Log Out option. On the main login screen that subsequently appears, click the icon representing your user account, and enter your password when prompted.

Using Program Windows



1. Tabs: Clicking each tab button takes you to a different sheet with a different page of options. The currently selected tab button is darkened.
2. Check boxes: Clicking puts a check in the box, activating that particular feature.Clicking again removes the check, deactivating that feature. Multiple check boxes can be selected.
3. Radio buttons: Like check boxes, clicking in the circle activates that feature. The difference is that with radio buttons, you can select only one choice within the options offered.
4. Drop-down lists: Clicking a drop-down list shows a menu from which you can select an option.
5. Padlock: When the padlock is locked in a System Preferences window, only trivial options can be edited. Clicking the padlock will prompt you for your login password and only then allow access to all other options.

Make Launchpad Bigger (or Smaller)


Enlarging the Icons

Let’s say you want to change the grid size to four rows by four columns of app icons , which will make for significantly bigger icons. Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and type the following two lines, the first of which refers to the number of icon rows and the second of which refers to the number of icon columns:

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 4 
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 4;killall Dock

Then activate Launchpad to see the changes

Shrinking the Icons

To make the icons smaller, we simply increase the grid size. Increasing the grid size to 10x10 icons will shrink the icons significantly into a compact layout but still leave them usable. It can be done as follows by typing these two lines into a Terminal window:

defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-rows -int 10 
defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-columns -int 10;killall Dock

Experiment with the settings until you find something you like, but be aware that each time you reduce the number of rows and columns, you’re also reducing the number of app icons in each Launchpad folder and possibly creating overflow folders.

Restoring Default Icon Sizes

To restore the default grid size in Launchpad, again open a Terminal window, and type the following two lines:

defaults delete com.apple.dock springboard-rows 
defaults delete com.apple.dock springboard-columns;killall Dock

Once you do this, you might notice that all your icons are spread out across various pages within Launchpad. This is a side effect caused by making icons bigger. You can either drag and drop them back into place or simply issue the following command in a Terminal window, which will reset Launchpad to the default values (although also deleting any Launchpad folders you’ve created):

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool TRUE;killall Dock