MacOSXHints.com

10.5: Switch search locations via keyboard shortcut

Fri, 16 May 2008 07:30:04 -0700

I discovered this tonight. If you initiate a search in the Finder (Command-F) from a folder (other than your user's home folder), the Search criteria shows This Mac and the name of the current directory as search locations. If you press Command-F again, the current directory choice is replaced with your user's Home folder.

One way to print to Serial and AppelTalk printers

Fri, 16 May 2008 07:30:03 -0700

Some of us, including me, still use old but cheap and reliable LaserWriters (I have the LaserWriter 4/600). Others use serial or USB printers. Not all work hassle free under OS X. But there's a simple solution. You need:

An old Mac with a working (serial) printer (StyleWriters, LaserWriter, USB-printer -- no QuickDraw printers).
A network connection (wired or wireless) from your new Mac to your old Mac, which will soon become a print server.
The free software Print66, which is a print server / spooler.

Here's a bit more detail on the problem and solution...from time to time (i.e. from system version to system version), there may be problems (or not) printing via AppleTalk. Leopard 10.5.2 and/or AirPort, for example, do not find any LocalTalk printers at the moment (perhaps Apple will address this issue, but nobody knows). Furthermore, you must now use OS 9 on the elder machine, which allow...

View maximized Cover Flow window via AppleScript

Fri, 16 May 2008 07:30:02 -0700

The following script will take the frontmost finder window and maximize it for a 15" MacBookPro while changing the Finder's view mode to Cover Flow. I have found it helpful if I need to quickly use Cover Flow to find a file. Although it is set for a 15" screen, the parameters can be edited for any screen type. I invoke it using Quicksilver, and have named the script max.

tell application "Finder"
  activate
  select Finder window 1
  set window 1's position to {0, 44}
  set bounds of Finder window 1 to {0, 44, 1440, 900}
  set current view of Finder window 1 to flow view
end tell

I also use an AppleScript to minimize the size of the window once I have found my file. Again I use quicksilver to invoke it, and have named this one min:

tell application "Finder"
  activate
  set bounds of Finder window 1 to {143, 164, 1300, 825}
  set position of Finder window 1 to {143, 164}
  set current view of Finder window 1 to column view
end ...



A simple way to set up a basic workgroup file server
Fri, 16 May 2008 07:30:01 -0700
Over the years, we've run a number of hints detailing solutions to a seemingly simple issue: how to set up a Mac as a shared file server for a workgroup, such that multiple users can create, modify, and delete files and folders on that machine. (There are permissions issues related to users modifying files and folders created by other users.) The solutions I've linked to here all solve the problem in one way or another, and do so with some measure of security remaining in place.



Last weekend, though, while browsing the Macworld forums, I came across a post that contained an amazingly easy alternative solution -- one that inspired one of those "D'oh! Why didn't I think of that?" reactions. On the machine that you want to use as the shared file serv...



Print to an HP all-in-one printer via Time Capsule
Thu, 15 May 2008 07:30:02 -0700
Here's how I managed to get my HP 5510xi all-in-one printer working wirelessly when connected to a Time Capsule. First, you   need download the open-source Linux drivers for HP printers from this page. Make sure you download the hpijs package, but also download the Foomatic-RIP and ESP Ghostscript packages from that same page.



Install the Footmatic and Ghostscript packages, then restart your Mac. You will not be prompted to restart, but it is necessary before you can install the hpijs package. After the restart, install the hpijs package, and restart again. Now go to System Preferences » Print and Fax » Add Printer (click the '+' sign).



In the Add Printer window, select IP at the top of the window, and use the following settings:

PROTOCOL: HP JetDirect-Socket
ADDRESS: Obtain and enter the IP of the Time Capsule: 192.168.1.100, or whatever it actually is. ...



Remove portions of forwarded HTML mail in Mail.app
Thu, 15 May 2008 07:30:01 -0700
I couldn't find this documented anywhere, but I'm not sure what you would call it, so maybe I was just looking for the wrong thing.

In Mail.app (Leopard, not sure of Tiger), when you forward an HTML-encoded email, you can forward only portions of the message. When you click on sections of the message, a border is drawn around each section of the content (based on the HTML block structure of the message) with close/delete widget in the upper left corner (like those to delete Dashboard widgets). Click the close box, and you'll remove that section of the original email.

This seems like it could be occasionally useful when you want to forward only forward some snippet of an email, without graphics, footers, or possibly ads.



Share an iTunes library over an ad-hoc wireless network
Thu, 15 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
Due to the fact that both of my laptops (iBook G4, 15" AlBook) will only recognize my Nokia 6120 Classic's HSDPA modem through one of their two USB ports (note 1), and because of an odd technical issue with the other USB port (note 2), I have to unplug my external USB hard drive whenever I want to browse the internet. Seeing as my iTunes library is stored on the external drive, it means cutting off my music.



But then I remembered: my iBook, which I use for travelling, has a full and complete copy of my entire iTunes library. Why don't I share it? The only wireless system in common between my two Macs is Airport Extreme, so I decided to use that.



In the following list, the provided values are settings I use, provided as an example. Modify to suit your needs.

Create a Computer-to-Computer (Ad-Hoc) WiFi Network between the host and client. If you don't know how to do this, search Apple's Help Viewer for the phrase Communicating with other computers wirele...



10.5: Automatically set iChat status when in A/V chats
Wed, 14 May 2008 07:30:04 -0700
Here is a way to automatically change your status when sending or receiving audio/video invitations. You'll need to create four simple AppleScripts, and save them into your user's Library » Scripts » iChat folder (create the folder if necessary).



Open Script Editor (in Applications » AppleScript), then copy and paste these scripts, one at a time, into the Script Editor window. Click the Compile button, then select File »  Save As and point to the previously-noted iChat folder. Name them as shown with each scripts code, on the second page of the hint...
Script name: iChat invited video.scpt

using terms from application "iChat"
  on received video invitation theText from theBuddy for theChat
    set status to away
    set status message to "In conference"
  end received video invitation
end using terms from

Script name: iChat invited audio.s...



Move and click the mouse via code
Wed, 14 May 2008 07:30:03 -0700
Most OS X apps can have their interface elements accessed by AppleScript, and so anything can be scripted. Unfortunately, not all apps use an Aqua interface, especially games with game-engine-rendered interface elements. This means AppleScript can't find buttons, etc., to click on, and you're out of luck trying to automate actions.



Recently, I was given the unpleasant task of automating actions in such unfriendly apps. I just about went crazy trying to find a way to write a simple script with coordinates for mouse click events.There's nothing available within AppleScript for pushing the mouse around, and I couldn't find any command-line utilities either. Out of necessity, I wrote my own.



This is my first time writing anything that even resembles Cocoa, and my first time writing code that compiles in nearly 10 years. I'm a scripting guy, and I just wanted to be able to write a script. What I wrote is a little command-...



Find the vanishing Photoshop cursor
Wed, 14 May 2008 07:30:02 -0700
This one is pretty simple, but very easy to overlook. When using Photoshop, especially on small laptop screens, the cursor often just seems to "vanish" into thin air -- this is possibly due to LCD screen redraw lag, or just because the 'accurate' form of the various cursor types tend to be very small.



So, when trying to position the cursor accurately, just hold down the Space Bar for a second, and the cursor, wherever it is on the screen, will switch to a relatively large 'hand' icon. That's usually enough of a visual hint to be able to reposition it to where you want it, so you can switch to another tool, crop, marquee, or brush, and get on with your  work.



This sure saves on eyestrain -- and that's a good thing!



Learn more with free Apple seminars and tutorials
Wed, 14 May 2008 07:30:01 -0700
Apple hosts free seminars and tutorials on a variety of topics -- both in-person at Apple Stores (at least in the USA) and online. You can find in-person events using this page, which has a number of search options. If you'd like to just see the online tutorials, try this page. Simply create an account (i.e. provide email and password) to register for the seminar/event -- you'll get an email with a link to the seminar/event.



There are topics covering everything from podcasting to GarageBand to Motion, switching to the Mac from Windows, Windows compatibility, and much more -- check out the lists at the above links.



[robg adds: Not a direct hint per se, but given I'd never seen either of these pages, I thought they might be worth sharing. There are some good tutorials available, at least in the ...



10.5: Improve networked Time Machine performance
Tue, 13 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
After using a 500GB Time Capsule for Time Machine backups for awhile, I noticed increasing duration of the backups. Mainly the prepare and post-processing phases, and transfer of large number of small files, took a lot of time. For the transfer of large files, the slowdown was not so noticeable.

I inspected the sparsebundle disk image on the Time Capsule, and inside the disk image bundle of about 150GB, I found nearly 20,000 band files of 8MB each in a single folder. These 20,000 data pieces contain the data of the backup image. When Time Machine reads, creates or deletes folder structures in the backup image, the operating system must randomly access data distributed over these 20,000 band files. And that causes a remarkable amount of additional administrative accesses to the AppleShare volume of the Time Capsule.

I decided that a better size of the bands of the backup spa...



Possibly fix an intermittent left mouse button problem
Tue, 13 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
Periodically, and for no apparent reason, the left mouse button would quit working on my USB Mighty Mouse. Unplug and plug, still inoperative. So I tried another non-Apple mouse, still inoperative. When this happens, the right mouse button works and could activate menus, but I couldn't click on things (I used a right-click and the arrow keys as a workaround to activate menu items). If I restarted the machine, the left mouse button would work for a while. Eventually, though, the problem began to occur immediately on boot. AppleCare suggested things like resetting the PMU, PRAM, etc., but to no avail. Their next solution, on this relatively new and unadulterated Mac, was to reinstall the system software -- not something I was anxious to do, nor did it make sense on this new Mac!

After some digging, I found the solution. It turns out that the Bluetooth mouse and keyboard were enabled, and a nearby Bluetooth mouse had a near-dead battery - I didn't even know there was a Bluetooth...



Entourage 2008 sync email address labeled incorrectly
Tue, 13 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
The other day I was checking my Contacts list inside Entourage 2008 and saw that a lot of the email addresses were labeled incorrectly. I primarily enter my contact information from within Address Book and I let it sync with my Exchange server.

The problems:If you enter an email address in Address Book and label it as Work email, it will be resolved as "Other" type of email inside Entourage (Exchange).
If you enter the email address from Entourage and label it as Work email, it will be resolved as "Home" type of email inside Address Book.
The solution:

Go into Address Book's Preferences and uncheck the check box next to Synchronize with Exchange. This will make Address Book to not upload the information into Exchange. Next, go into Entourage's Preferences » Sync Services, and check the box for Synchronize contacts with Address Book and .Mac. This will make Entourage do a pull of the data from either Address Book and .Mac.

This solution ...



Solve a problem where Docked items move or vanish
Mon, 12 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
I use SyncTogether to keep my iMac and MacBook (both Leopard) in sync. I usually sync iCal, Address Book, bookmarks, notes and Dock items. Several days ago, however, I started to notice a very annoying issue with my iMac's Dock: some items started to move around on the Dock, or completely disappeared from it. Even if I placed the vanished items back on the Dock and selected Keep in Dock, they vanished after a while.

I can't remember what was I doing when it started, but yesterday, the problem replicated itself to the MacBook. Other accounts were working normally, but not mine. I deleted the com.apple.dock.* files, but nothing changed. After using fsevent for a while, I noted some recent activities in ~/Library » Application Support » SyncServices » Local.

I decided to make a backup of that whole directory, and in a brute force way, I then deleted the content of the clientdata and DataRefer...



10.5: How to 'wrap around' the Command-Tab switcher
Mon, 12 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
I had grown accustomed to using Command-Tab and the Right- or Left-Arrow keys to switch apps in 10.4, but that functionality changed a little in 10.5.

In 10.4, holding the Command key, tapping Tab, then using the Left Arrow twice, one could get the end of a (potentially long) list of running apps -- the first Left Arrow press would select the 'previously used' application (the leftmost icon in the Command-Tab bar), and the next Left Arrow press would jump to the icon at the far right of the Command-Tab bar. Basically, if the leftmost app icon was highlighted, hitting the Left Arrow would highlight the app at the right end of the list, and vice versa. 10.5 doesn't allow this wraparound feature; pressing Left Arrow with the leftmost icon highighted does nothing at all.

The solution? It was hidden in this...



Choose storage destination for iTunes' Convert feature
Mon, 12 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700
You may have known that holding the Option key down before activating the Advanced menu in iTunes yields the 'Convert to [format]...' (where [format] is the audio format you've chosen in iTunes' Preferences) menu item, which is useful for selecting a file on your computer to convert to your preferred audio format and adding it to iTunes.

If in the Open dialog, however, you select your desired file(s) and then again hold Option before clicking the Open button, iTunes will immediately open another file dialog asking for the destination in which to place the converted file, regardless of music folder location preferences.

Note: The converted file is still added to the iTunes library. This hint just gives you control as to where the file will be saved in the Finder.



Ziplight - Search by filename within zip archives
Mon, 12 May 2008 07:03:00 -0700
The macosxhints Rating:

[Score: 8 out of 10]
 Developer: Bartas Technologies/ Product page
 Price: FreeA quick Pick of the Week this week -- Ziplight is a free Spotlight plug-in that adds the ability to search for filenames within zip archives. Download the plug-in and add it to the Library »  Spotlight folder (your user's Library folder if you'd like to make it available just for your use, or in the top-level Library folder for all users to use). Log out and back in, then let Spotlight update its index. Once the update is done, you can use Spotlight to search by filename within zip archives -- if a match is found, Spotlight will return (via Ziplight) the name of the archive containing the file...



New poll on menu bar icons posted
Mon, 12 May 2008 07:02:00 -0700
I just posted a new poll on menu bar icons. More specifically, how many programs do you keep installed on the right side of the main menu, including Spotlight? Count only those things that provide separate functionality, not just a count of visible things. If you show the weekday and the time, for instance, that's one, not two. If you use MenuMeters to put your Quad core machine's CPU usage in the menu bar, those four bars are one function, not four. (But if you also show MenuMeters' disk, network, or memory features, each of those count as separate functions.)

I was quite surprised by the total on my machine -- usually 19, sometimes 20 or 21 depending on what I'm doing. (Due to a 20-question poll limit, all answers above 18 are lumped together.)



10.5: Convert text to iTunes audio book via Services item
Fri, 09 May 2008 07:30:04 -0700
After reading this hint on macosxhints about how to create an audio file from text, I figured the process could probably be streamlined a bit. So, I created a Service (that appears in the Services menu) that operates on selected text. Select the plain text in your source location (text file, web page, email, etc.) and then select Services » Speak to iTunes Audiobook to speak the text into a track that will appear in the Audiobooks section of iTunes. Just remember to set the encoder quality beforehand in iTunes, because it's not configurable through AppleScript (I recommend using 'Spoken podcast').



Package download [40KB]



For those curious few, the AppleScript within the service is as follows:
 ...