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LionTips
Get Mac OS X 10.8 and 10.7 Tips, Tricks, Tutorials, Guides & How To's right in to your Mac OS X Dashboard.
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How to disable Java web plug-in ?
To disable the Java web plug-in in Safari, follow these steps:
Additional Information
- In Safari, choose Safari > Preferences or press Command-comma (⌘-,)
- Click "Security".
- Uncheck (deselect) "Enable Java".
- Close the Safari preferences window.
Additional Information
- Click this link for information about how to disable the Java web plug-in in Chrome.
- Click this link for information about how to disable the Java web plug-in in Firefox.
Bring back the Dashboard "ripple"
In Lion, Dashboard has now been incorporated into Mission Control. The most striking consequence of this is that it is no longer a semi-transparent overlay that fades in over your desktop. Instead, it is now its own Space - the far left one. You can still access it by pressing the Dashboard key on your keyboard or by clicking it in your Dock, but now you can also get to it using the horizontal swipe gesture you use to slide between Spaces.
This means that Dashboard now slides in from the left of the screen when activated, and as there is nothing behind it, it has an opaque patterned background. As a result, Apple has decided to disable the fancy ripple effect that used to be shown when adding new widgets.
If you find that you can’t live without the ripple, don’t worry, you can bring it back by unticking just one checkbox. Open up System Preferences, and go to the Mission Control section.
Then simply untick the first checkbox - Show Dashboard as a Space.
This completely restores Dashboard to the way it was in Snow Leopard, including the fancy ripple effect. This also stops the horizontal swipe to activating Dashboard, but you can bring this back using other tools if you really want it.
This means that Dashboard now slides in from the left of the screen when activated, and as there is nothing behind it, it has an opaque patterned background. As a result, Apple has decided to disable the fancy ripple effect that used to be shown when adding new widgets.
If you find that you can’t live without the ripple, don’t worry, you can bring it back by unticking just one checkbox. Open up System Preferences, and go to the Mission Control section.
Then simply untick the first checkbox - Show Dashboard as a Space.
This completely restores Dashboard to the way it was in Snow Leopard, including the fancy ripple effect. This also stops the horizontal swipe to activating Dashboard, but you can bring this back using other tools if you really want it.
Change Image in the Tile Game Widget
Amongst the widgets that come with Mac OS X is the Tile Game. You shift around the tiles to reveal a picture of a snow leopard (or a leopard or a tiger, depending on your version of Mac OS X). If you play the Tile Game often, you might find the image a bit boring.
Luckily, changing the image is easy. Start by finding an image in iPhoto or the Finder to replace it. To avoid stretching, go for an image that is roughly square. Now click on the image and hold. While holding down the mouse button, press F12, or whatever key you have assigned to load up Dashboard. Now simply drag and drop your image onto the Tile Game.
Annoyingly, the image will change back to the tiger if you close the widget. Permanently changing the image is a bit more complicated. It essentially involves replacing an image file hidden within the widget file. If you are familiar with delving into package files, this is quite straightforward.
To change this image, first we need to find the Tile Game widget. It is located in the Library folder inside Macintosh HD. Make sure you don't accidentally go to the Library inside your user folder. Inside the Library, look for the folder called Widgets. In here you'll find the Tile Game. To get inside the package, right-click (or Control-click) on the file, and choose “Show Package Contents” from the menu that appears.
The file we want to change is called game.png, and is located inside the Images folder. Just replace this image with your new one, making sure you give it exactly the same file nam
Luckily, changing the image is easy. Start by finding an image in iPhoto or the Finder to replace it. To avoid stretching, go for an image that is roughly square. Now click on the image and hold. While holding down the mouse button, press F12, or whatever key you have assigned to load up Dashboard. Now simply drag and drop your image onto the Tile Game.
Annoyingly, the image will change back to the tiger if you close the widget. Permanently changing the image is a bit more complicated. It essentially involves replacing an image file hidden within the widget file. If you are familiar with delving into package files, this is quite straightforward.To change this image, first we need to find the Tile Game widget. It is located in the Library folder inside Macintosh HD. Make sure you don't accidentally go to the Library inside your user folder. Inside the Library, look for the folder called Widgets. In here you'll find the Tile Game. To get inside the package, right-click (or Control-click) on the file, and choose “Show Package Contents” from the menu that appears.
The file we want to change is called game.png, and is located inside the Images folder. Just replace this image with your new one, making sure you give it exactly the same file nam
Run a widget without installing it
Normally when you download a widget and double-click it, you are presented with a dialog to install the widget. You can either cancel, and exit the installer, or click install, and the widget is moved to you widgets folder (Library/widgets).
However, in some situations you don't want to move the widget. For instance if you are trying out a widget and don't know if you want to keep it, or you are developing a widget and are just testing it out. To stop the widget being installed, hold down Command and Option while double-clicking it. Instead of an install button, you are presented with Run, which, funnily enough, allows you to run the widget without installing it.
Clicking this opens the widget up in dashboard, but it isn't moved to the widgets folder, instead running it from wherever you downloaded it to.
As a result the widget won't be in your dashboard bar, so it is a nifty trick if you want to save scrolling through loads of widgets (especially if you are a dashboard addict). This also means that once you have closed the widget, its gone for good, and you can't open it up from within the dashboard. Of course its still sitting in your downloads folder, so a quick Command-Option-Double-Click will have it open and running again.
However, in some situations you don't want to move the widget. For instance if you are trying out a widget and don't know if you want to keep it, or you are developing a widget and are just testing it out. To stop the widget being installed, hold down Command and Option while double-clicking it. Instead of an install button, you are presented with Run, which, funnily enough, allows you to run the widget without installing it.
Clicking this opens the widget up in dashboard, but it isn't moved to the widgets folder, instead running it from wherever you downloaded it to.
As a result the widget won't be in your dashboard bar, so it is a nifty trick if you want to save scrolling through loads of widgets (especially if you are a dashboard addict). This also means that once you have closed the widget, its gone for good, and you can't open it up from within the dashboard. Of course its still sitting in your downloads folder, so a quick Command-Option-Double-Click will have it open and running again.
Scheduled Startup and Shutdown
In the Energy Saver system preferences you will find a button labelled "Schedule." This allows you to schedule your mac to startup and shutdown at certain times, on certain days.
This is just about the only way to schedule things without buying other software or using iCal. Basically you can set your computer to come on in the morning on weekdays and go off in the evening for example.
I combine this with a locked screen saver. In the evening I start my "Big Clock" screensaver, then put my mac to sleep. In the morning it wakes up at a specified time, and loads the password dialog box. Then, when no password is typed in, it goes to the screen saver after 30 seconds. This means when I wake up in the morning I can look over and see the time in big bright letter next to me, without them on all night to wake me up.
You can also combine this with an applescript or automator actions to play music or load web pages every morning. After writing the script to do this, set a daily alarm in iCal that loads it every morning, but make sure to make it a minute later than the time your mac wakes up from sleep.
This is just about the only way to schedule things without buying other software or using iCal. Basically you can set your computer to come on in the morning on weekdays and go off in the evening for example.
I combine this with a locked screen saver. In the evening I start my "Big Clock" screensaver, then put my mac to sleep. In the morning it wakes up at a specified time, and loads the password dialog box. Then, when no password is typed in, it goes to the screen saver after 30 seconds. This means when I wake up in the morning I can look over and see the time in big bright letter next to me, without them on all night to wake me up.
You can also combine this with an applescript or automator actions to play music or load web pages every morning. After writing the script to do this, set a daily alarm in iCal that loads it every morning, but make sure to make it a minute later than the time your mac wakes up from sleep.
Tips for iCal in Lion
Set as Full Screen
iCal is one of only two apps that I regularly use Lion’s full screen mode with (the other being Terminal). This allows me to leave it always running in the background, out of the way. Whenever I need to check my schedule or reminders, a simple four-fingered swipe to the left will slide the desktop across to iCal running full screen in its own space. To set iCal as full screen, just click the full screen button in the top right corner of the window. You can even combine this with the multiple calendar windows tip to allow you to swipe between multiple full screen calendars that show the current day, week and month.
Remove the leather effect
The new look and feel of iCal was one of the most controversial changes when Lion first came out, provoking outrage amongst many UI purists. If the new look isn’t for you, there are a couple of simple tweaks that will change things back to normal. First, if you just want to remove the torn page effect from the bottom of the toolbar, the Big Bucket Development blog shows you how to achieve this by replacing a single image. Alternatively, if you want to get rid of the new look completely, MacNix has a simple method that can bring back the aluminium look in both iCal and Address Book.
It’s worth making a backup of iCal before trying either method, just in case you ever want to revert back to the new leather style.
Create a quick event
iCal now has a a great new way to add events that means you no longer have to spend ages filling out dates and times with fiddly controls. Instead, just click the + button in the toolbar or press Command-N to bring up the Quick Event popover. This allows you to type in the event details in a human-readable form — for example, “Movie at 7pm on Friday” or “Meeting at 3pm until 6pm” — and iCal will interpret what you mean and create an event.
You can also specify the length of all-day events in this way. Just type “Holiday until Saturday” or “Jim away until the 14th”.
Adjust the font size
It’s now possible to change the size of the text in the calendar view. Just choose Make Text Bigger or Make Text Smaller in the View menu or press Command-minus (-) or Command-plus (+).
Year view heat map
The new “year at a glance” view is fancy, if not altogether that useful. It allows you to see a “heat map” of how many events you have throughout the year, with busier days shown in red and quieter days show in yellow. Double-clicking any month will bring up the month view for that month.
Show more (or fewer) than seven days in week view
This is a “top sekret” feature that requires a quick trip to the Terminal before it can be accessed. Start by opening the Terminal app (located in Applications/Utilities) then paste in the following line and press return:
defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu YES
Quit and re-open iCal, and you should see a new Debug menu in the menubar. In this menu, under the Top Sekret [sic] section you’ll find an option to set the number of days in week view to 7, 14, 21 or 28 days. You’ll need a pretty large screen for these options to be that useful.
It isn’t necessary to enable to debug menu to show fewer than seven days in week view. First make sure you aren’t in week view, then just hold down the Command and Option keys and them press and number between 2 and 6.
Open multiple calendar windows
This is another secret feature hidden in the debug menu (see above). Once the debug menu is enabled, it is possible to open up multiple iCal windows by selecting New Calendar Window or by pressing Command-L. This is great if you would live to have two different views open simultaneously — for example separate weeks, or a month view and a day view.
iCal is one of only two apps that I regularly use Lion’s full screen mode with (the other being Terminal). This allows me to leave it always running in the background, out of the way. Whenever I need to check my schedule or reminders, a simple four-fingered swipe to the left will slide the desktop across to iCal running full screen in its own space. To set iCal as full screen, just click the full screen button in the top right corner of the window. You can even combine this with the multiple calendar windows tip to allow you to swipe between multiple full screen calendars that show the current day, week and month.
Remove the leather effect
The new look and feel of iCal was one of the most controversial changes when Lion first came out, provoking outrage amongst many UI purists. If the new look isn’t for you, there are a couple of simple tweaks that will change things back to normal. First, if you just want to remove the torn page effect from the bottom of the toolbar, the Big Bucket Development blog shows you how to achieve this by replacing a single image. Alternatively, if you want to get rid of the new look completely, MacNix has a simple method that can bring back the aluminium look in both iCal and Address Book.
It’s worth making a backup of iCal before trying either method, just in case you ever want to revert back to the new leather style.
Create a quick event
iCal now has a a great new way to add events that means you no longer have to spend ages filling out dates and times with fiddly controls. Instead, just click the + button in the toolbar or press Command-N to bring up the Quick Event popover. This allows you to type in the event details in a human-readable form — for example, “Movie at 7pm on Friday” or “Meeting at 3pm until 6pm” — and iCal will interpret what you mean and create an event.
Specify times in the event name
When creating events by double-clicking a day in month view, the new default behaviour is to create all-day events. If you want to create a normal event, just specify the time when typing in the event name. iCal seems to be quite flexible at interpreting what you mean - things like “Gym at 6” and “4pm Meeting” will both work.You can also specify the length of all-day events in this way. Just type “Holiday until Saturday” or “Jim away until the 14th”.
It’s now possible to change the size of the text in the calendar view. Just choose Make Text Bigger or Make Text Smaller in the View menu or press Command-minus (-) or Command-plus (+).
Year view heat map
The new “year at a glance” view is fancy, if not altogether that useful. It allows you to see a “heat map” of how many events you have throughout the year, with busier days shown in red and quieter days show in yellow. Double-clicking any month will bring up the month view for that month.
Show more (or fewer) than seven days in week view
This is a “top sekret” feature that requires a quick trip to the Terminal before it can be accessed. Start by opening the Terminal app (located in Applications/Utilities) then paste in the following line and press return:
defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu YES
Quit and re-open iCal, and you should see a new Debug menu in the menubar. In this menu, under the Top Sekret [sic] section you’ll find an option to set the number of days in week view to 7, 14, 21 or 28 days. You’ll need a pretty large screen for these options to be that useful.
It isn’t necessary to enable to debug menu to show fewer than seven days in week view. First make sure you aren’t in week view, then just hold down the Command and Option keys and them press and number between 2 and 6.
Open multiple calendar windows
This is another secret feature hidden in the debug menu (see above). Once the debug menu is enabled, it is possible to open up multiple iCal windows by selecting New Calendar Window or by pressing Command-L. This is great if you would live to have two different views open simultaneously — for example separate weeks, or a month view and a day view.
Rename Files and Folders
You can change the name of most files, folders, and disks in the Finder. You can’t rename your home folder (the one with your name on it).
Important: There are some things youshould not rename:
Important: There are some things youshould not rename:
- Application folders and any items that came with your system (such as the Library folder).
- Filename extensions—the period followed by two or three letters you see at the end of some filenames (for example, .jpg). If you change an extension, you may no longer be able to open the file with the application that was used to create it.
- Select the item you want to rename and press Return. Note: The items in the Finder window sidebarare aliases. To change the name of a sidebar item, locate theoriginal and rename it.
- Type a new name for the item. You can use numbers and most symbols. You can’t include a colon (:) or start the name with a period (.). Some applications may not allow you to use a slash (/) in a filename.
- Press Return.
Applications, Files, and Folders
An application is a computer program that gives you the tools to accomplish specific tasks. For example, you're probably using the application Safari right now to read this webpage. Other applications include Mail, iTunes, Pages, TextEdit, and many more.
Accessing an application
To open an application, click the Launchpad icon in Dock or click the application's icon in Dock (if it's there). Depending on the application, it may display an interface window, palettes, tool bar, or other interface components, or it could display nothing at all until you open a file or create a new one.
To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q. Keep in mind that closing a window (by clicking the round, red button) will typically not quit the application.
Getting more applications
You can purchase and install applications for your Mac from App Store, which is included with OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6.6 and later. To start browsing software from App Store, click the App Store icon in the Dock. You can use the search field in the upper-right corner of the App Store window to search for applications.
You can use App Store to find, install, update, and view purchased applications
Accessing files
To access your files on your Mac, you use Finder. Finder allows you to see all files and folders on your Mac and search for them using the search field in the top-right corner of the Finder window. Once you find a file you want to open, simply double-click the file, it will open in the application that supports its file format.
To close a file, just click the round, red button in the upper-left corner of its window. Keep in mind that closing a file will not necessarily quit the application too. To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q.
Folders
Folders on your Mac are used to organize your file and applications.
File appearances may differ a little from each other depending on what type of file they are and what they contain
Your Documents folder (in the Finder sidebar under Favorites) will contain all documents that you create. The Finder sidebar includes several other folders, such as Movies, Music, and Pictures, to help keep all your files organized by type. The Applications folder contains all your applications and the Desktop folder contains all the stuff that's currently on your desktop.
Organizing files and folders
If you want to add more folders to set up an organizational scheme, here's how to create a new folder:
To organize your files and folders, drag any file, folder, or application that you want into your new folder, or drag the folder into any other folder to establish an organized hierarchy.
Accessing an application
To open an application, click the Launchpad icon in Dock or click the application's icon in Dock (if it's there). Depending on the application, it may display an interface window, palettes, tool bar, or other interface components, or it could display nothing at all until you open a file or create a new one.
Your Mac's applications can be accessed from the Launchpad icon in the Dock
To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q. Keep in mind that closing a window (by clicking the round, red button) will typically not quit the application.
Getting more applications
You can purchase and install applications for your Mac from App Store, which is included with OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6.6 and later. To start browsing software from App Store, click the App Store icon in the Dock. You can use the search field in the upper-right corner of the App Store window to search for applications.
You can use App Store to find, install, update, and view purchased applications
- Featured - Click to browse new and noteworthy applications.
- Top Charts - Click to browse the most popular applications.
- Categories - Click to browse applications in specific categories, such as Photography. You can browse applications in a particular category by choosing an item from the All Categories pop-up menu in the Quick Links section. The Quick Links sections is located in the upper-right part of the window displayed when you click Categories.
- Purchases - Click to browse applications you have purchased.
- Updates - Click to browse updates to applications you have installed on your Mac.
- Search Field - Enter a name or type of application your looking for and press Return.
Accessing files
To access your files on your Mac, you use Finder. Finder allows you to see all files and folders on your Mac and search for them using the search field in the top-right corner of the Finder window. Once you find a file you want to open, simply double-click the file, it will open in the application that supports its file format.
To close a file, just click the round, red button in the upper-left corner of its window. Keep in mind that closing a file will not necessarily quit the application too. To quit an application, choose Quit from the application menu or press Command-Q.
Folders
Folders on your Mac are used to organize your file and applications.
File appearances may differ a little from each other depending on what type of file they are and what they contain
Your Documents folder (in the Finder sidebar under Favorites) will contain all documents that you create. The Finder sidebar includes several other folders, such as Movies, Music, and Pictures, to help keep all your files organized by type. The Applications folder contains all your applications and the Desktop folder contains all the stuff that's currently on your desktop.
Organizing files and folders
If you want to add more folders to set up an organizational scheme, here's how to create a new folder:
- Make the Finder active (click the desktop, click inside any Finder window, or click the Finder icon in the Dock).
- From the File menu, choose New Folder; a new "untitled folder" icon appears in the active Finder window.
- Name your folder by simply typing a name in the highlighted text box next to the folder icon.
To organize your files and folders, drag any file, folder, or application that you want into your new folder, or drag the folder into any other folder to establish an organized hierarchy.
Dual Boot OS X 10.7 & OS X 10.8
OS X Mountain Lion is Apple’s latest Mac operating system that is complete with a bunch of new features that iOS users will find familiar. It’s looking like a great addition to the Mac OS family, but for the time being it’s still in Developer Preview, has a fair amount of bugs, and isn’t quite ready for prime time. For those who want to explore and develop for OS X Mountain Lion without losing their primary – and stable – OS X Lion installation, the best thing to do is create a dual boot set up. This lets you have both Mac OS X 10.7 and OS X 10.8 on the same Mac, which you can easily switch between with a reboot.
Before beginning, do the following:
Set Up Dual Boot for OS X Lion & Install OS X Mountain Lion
We’ll walk through partitioning, installing, and booting either version of Mac OS X:
Choosing which OS X version to boot
Hold down Option during reboot to bring up the boot loader. You’ll find four drives; one for OS X 10.7, one for OS X 10.8, and a recovery partition for each OS X version. This is why it was important to name the OS X Mountain Lion partition something obvious.
Select “Mountain Lion” and boot as usual. Boot disk settings can also be adjusted through System Preferences’s Startup Disk panel at any point in either Mac OS X 10.7 or OS X 10.8.
Competing Recovery Partitions
Having two active recovery partitions can cause issues if you attempt to restore from one or the other, and it’s recommended to not use either to restore the OS in the current dual boot setup. If you are going to remove either the OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion partitions, don’t forget to remove the Recovery partition accompanying that version of Mac OS X. If not, you could inadvertently restore the wrong OS, or encounter boot problems if you delete the wrong OS and find the recovery partition to be incompatible with the remaining version of OS X.
Note about partitioning in OS X 10.7
OS X Lion is pickier than past versions of Mac OS X when partitioning the boot drive. If you run into problems partitioning the active boot drive, reboot into Recovery Mode (Command+R at boot) and use Disk Utility from there to create the partition, then reboot again into OS X Lion and continue with installation.
Before beginning, do the following:
- Check system requirements to insure OS X Mountain Lion compatibility
- Download OS X Mountain Lion from the App Store
- Back up the Mac within OS X Lion using Time Machine
Set Up Dual Boot for OS X Lion & Install OS X Mountain Lion
We’ll walk through partitioning, installing, and booting either version of Mac OS X:
- Open Disk Utility, click on hard drive and then click on “partition”
- Click the + icon to add a new partition, make it at least 14GB and name it something obvious like “Mountain Lion”, then click “Apply”
- Confirm the creation of the partition (see note below if you have problems here)
- Launch the OS X Mountain Lion Preview installer (or mount the InstallESD.dmg file) and open the “Install OS X Mountain Lion Preview 1.app” to begin installation
- Click through to install, and select the newly made partition “Mountain Lion”
- Let installation commence, the Mac will reboot and installing OS X Mountain Lion will begin
Choosing which OS X version to boot
Hold down Option during reboot to bring up the boot loader. You’ll find four drives; one for OS X 10.7, one for OS X 10.8, and a recovery partition for each OS X version. This is why it was important to name the OS X Mountain Lion partition something obvious.
Select “Mountain Lion” and boot as usual. Boot disk settings can also be adjusted through System Preferences’s Startup Disk panel at any point in either Mac OS X 10.7 or OS X 10.8.
Competing Recovery Partitions
Having two active recovery partitions can cause issues if you attempt to restore from one or the other, and it’s recommended to not use either to restore the OS in the current dual boot setup. If you are going to remove either the OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion partitions, don’t forget to remove the Recovery partition accompanying that version of Mac OS X. If not, you could inadvertently restore the wrong OS, or encounter boot problems if you delete the wrong OS and find the recovery partition to be incompatible with the remaining version of OS X.
Note about partitioning in OS X 10.7
OS X Lion is pickier than past versions of Mac OS X when partitioning the boot drive. If you run into problems partitioning the active boot drive, reboot into Recovery Mode (Command+R at boot) and use Disk Utility from there to create the partition, then reboot again into OS X Lion and continue with installation.
Clear Versions History & Auto-Save Cache Data
Mac OS X 10.7 and later include the Versions feature and Auto-Save ability, this lets users restore back to previous editions of a file by creating a constant sequence of saved file states while they are being worked on. All around, Versions and auto-save are useful, but they can also leave traces of sensitive documents and files you may not wish to keep around. Other than the privacy implications, this same technique can resolve some erroneous behavior with Versions as well. The simplest solution to these issues is to manually delete the Versions saved states cache directory.
The Versions cache directory is stored within the root of a Mac OS X installation here:
/.DocumentRevisions-V100/
The safest way to remove this folder will be multiple steps, so launch the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/) and type the following:
cd /
To be certain you’re about to remove the proper directory, verify the directory name:
ls -l .DocumentRevisions-V100
Delete the directory and its contents with rm:
sudo rm -rf .DocumentRevisions-V100
Doing this one-time will not disable the feature, it will just remove all existing history of files that have been managed by Versions.
After a file has been processed automatically by Versions again, the directory will be rebuilt. Because this is involves editing system files and using the potentially catastrophic ‘rm -rf’ command, you shouldn’t use this tip unless you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Also, be aware that deleting the directory can cause some temporary issues with existing files that are locked or have saved states, even if file locking is turned off. Typically this will be in the form of an error message when using the file the first time, but it shouldn’t cause any serious issues.
Launchpad for Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard users can now add OS X Lion’s iOS-style Launchpad feature to their desktops with a free third party utility called MacLaunchPad.
MacLaunchPad is pretty similar to the real thing, and some features are closer to the version of Launchpad that appears in OS X Mountain Lion, like the real-time app search function. You can set some customizations that don’t exist in the Lion version too, like giving you the ability to change the amount of visible icons per Launchpad page. As usual with Launchpad, you can set hot keys to activate and deactivate the app, or even arrange and uninstall apps directly from the panels.
Get MacLaunchPad free from SourceForge
MacLaunchpad is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard.
Navigating & Selecting Text in Mac OS X
6 Text Navigation Shortcuts
The first group of keyboard shortcuts allow for quickly moving around text:
- Jump to beginning of a line – Command+Left Arrow
- Jump to end of a line – Command+Right Arrow
- Jump to beginning of current word – Option+Right Arrow
- Jump to end of current word – Option+Right Arrow
- Jump to beginning of all text – Command+Up Arrow
- Jump to end of all text – Command+Down Arrow
6 Text Selection Shortcuts
The next group of keyboard shortcuts allow for quickly highlighting and selecting elements of text:
- Select text to beginning of a line – Shift+Command+Left Arrow
- Select text to end of a line – Shift+Command+Right Arrow
- Select text to beginning of current word – Shift+Option+Right Arrow
- Select text to end of current word – Shift+Option+Right Arrow
- Select text to beginning of all text – Shift+Command+Up Arrow
- Select text to end of all text – Shift+Command+Down Arrow
Find iMessage Users & Contacts
Here’s how to find out who can receive iMessages easily in both iOS and on a Mac with OS X.
Find Other iMessage Users on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
You’ll need iOS 5 or later to do this:
- Launch the Messages app in iOS (set up iMessage if you haven’t yet)
- Tap the Compose button in the upper right corner to start a new message
- Type the contacts name, or just put the first letter of their name and have a list populate
- iMessage users will show a blue iMessage icon alongside their name
Now that Apple has brought iMessage compatibility to the Mac, the same functionality is provided but in a slightly different way.
Find iMessage Contacts with Messages for Mac
- Messages for Mac is available to OS X 10.7 and OS X 10.8 users only:
- Open Messages for Mac (download the beta for free if you haven’t already)
- Hit Command+N or click the “Compose” button in the upper left corner of the iMessage window
- Start typing a name to see the contacts list populate
- Look for the blue iMessage badge next to names of users who can receive iMessages
One thing missing is that you won’t know what device they’re using, so whether or not you’re sending a message to a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or all of the above, you just won’t know. With how iMessages sync between devices, that doesn’t really matter much, but it would be a nice bonus to be able to find out what hardware they are using at the moment.
10 Keyboard Shortcuts for Text Navigation
7 Navigation Shortcuts
Navigate around blocks of texts faster with the following shortcuts:
- Jump to Beginning of Line – Control+A
- Jump to End of Line – Control+E
- Go to Next Line – Control+N
- Go to Previous Line – Control+P
- Delete Previous Word – Control+W
- Delete Line from Cursor to Beginning – Control+U
- Delete Line from Cursor to End – Control+K
- Of course you can also use the arrow keys to navigate within text blocks and to place the cursor for using all commands mentioned.
3 Cutting & Pasting Shortcuts for the Command Line
The command line also has it’s own version of cut and paste, called “kill” and “yank”, and you can reuse two previously mentioned commands for this purpose:
- Cut from Cursor to Beginning of Line – Control+U
- Cut from Cursor to End of Line – Control+K
- Paste Previously Cut Text at Cursor – Control+Y
Disable restored windows when re-opening specific apps
There’s a great tip over on the Macs in Chemistry blog on how to stop Lion from restoring your previous windows when re-opening specific apps. In System Preferences there’s a checkbox for turning this on and off globally, but using a handy little AppleScript you can disable it on a per-app basis.
One of the new features in Lion is the ability of applications to resume activity at the point an application was quit. This means that when you reopen an application it will open and display all the documents you were editing in the state when you quit the application. This is obviously very useful but there are times when you may not want confidential documents automatically opened and displayed when you open an application.
Here’s an example of the script for Safari:
Head over to macinchem.org for a quick explanation of how to add it to your scripts menu to give you an easy place to access it.
One of the new features in Lion is the ability of applications to resume activity at the point an application was quit. This means that when you reopen an application it will open and display all the documents you were editing in the state when you quit the application. This is obviously very useful but there are times when you may not want confidential documents automatically opened and displayed when you open an application.
Here’s an example of the script for Safari:
set statePath to POSIX path of (path to home folder) & "Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Safari.savedState"
set quotedPath to quoted form of statePath
try
do shell script "test -w " & quotedPath
set current to "enabled"
on error
set current to "disabled"
end try
if current is "enabled" then
tell application "Finder" to delete every item of ((POSIX file statePath) as alias)
do shell script "chmod u-w " & quotedPath
display dialog "Disabled window restore for Safari" buttons "OK" default button 1
else
do shell script "chmod u+w " & quotedPath
display dialog "Enabled window restore for Safari" buttons "OK" default button 1
end if
Head over to macinchem.org for a quick explanation of how to add it to your scripts menu to give you an easy place to access it.
Get iTunes track notifications in your Dock
In Lion there is a cool hidden setting to enable “Now playing” notifications that appear from the iTunes icon in the Dock. Every time a new song starts, a small popup containing the artist and the song name appears and then slowly fades out after a few seconds.
To enable this, start by opening Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities), then paste in the following line and press Return.
For the changes to take effect, the Dock has to be restarted. The easiest way to do this is to type killall Dock into the Terminal and press Return. If you change your mind and want to disable the notifications, repeat the above commands, but replace YES with NO.
For those of you who have your Dock set to hide when not in use, you’ll notice that when the Dock is hidden the iTunes icon is added to the notification. If you want the icon to show even when the Dock is not hidden, just use the following command in the same way as above:
As before, remember to restart the Dock with killall Dock for changes to take effect.
It’s not entirely clear why this setting isn’t present in the iTunes preferences. It might still be under development — there is still room for improvement. For example it would be better if it included the album artwork like Bowtie, Growl and DockArt already do. It could also be a sneak peak of future plans Apple has for a notifications framework for all apps in Mac OS X, much like Growl provides at the moment.
To enable this, start by opening Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities), then paste in the following line and press Return.
defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool YES
For the changes to take effect, the Dock has to be restarted. The easiest way to do this is to type killall Dock into the Terminal and press Return. If you change your mind and want to disable the notifications, repeat the above commands, but replace YES with NO.
For those of you who have your Dock set to hide when not in use, you’ll notice that when the Dock is hidden the iTunes icon is added to the notification. If you want the icon to show even when the Dock is not hidden, just use the following command in the same way as above:
defaults write com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image -bool YES
As before, remember to restart the Dock with killall Dock for changes to take effect.
It’s not entirely clear why this setting isn’t present in the iTunes preferences. It might still be under development — there is still room for improvement. For example it would be better if it included the album artwork like Bowtie, Growl and DockArt already do. It could also be a sneak peak of future plans Apple has for a notifications framework for all apps in Mac OS X, much like Growl provides at the moment.
Display a login banner
Apple has a great article over on their support site on how to display an agreement window where users must read and click Accept before logging into the computer. This is really useful for people who manage lots of Macs in a school or company with an “Acceptable Use Policy” that all users must agree to.
To do this, just create a file in TextEdit that contains whatever text you want to display. You can embed images and use whatever text styling you want. Once you are done, save the file with the name PolicyBanner in the Security folder in the Library in Macintosh HD.
To do this, just create a file in TextEdit that contains whatever text you want to display. You can embed images and use whatever text styling you want. Once you are done, save the file with the name PolicyBanner in the Security folder in the Library in Macintosh HD.
Display system stats
In older versions of Mac OS X, simply clicking on your computer name in the login window would cycle through displaying lots of useful system information. Unfortunately this feature has been removed in Lion, but you can bring it back to a certain extent. Open up Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities), paste in the following line and press Return:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfoHostName
Now when on the login screen, clicking on the time in the top right will cause the computer name to appear, followed by the OS version and build number, followed by the IP address.
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfoHostName
Now when on the login screen, clicking on the time in the top right will cause the computer name to appear, followed by the OS version and build number, followed by the IP address.