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TUAW Tip: Rockin' multiple monitors with your Mac
I just recently plunked down some of my sweet, sweet blogging money for a 24 inch Dell monitor (check out my setup) which I am loving. Setting it up with my MacBook running OS X 10.4.8 was very easy (as long as you have one of these). There are a few things that did get me, which I thought I would point out for you readers out there. Above you see the Arrangement section from the Display preference pane in System Preferences (note that each display will popup its own Display pref pane, but only the main display will have the Arrangement option). This is where you can do a few things: Arrange the displays by dragging the boxes that represent them around Move the Dock and the menu bar to whichever monitor you want to use as you main monitor (as you can see I'm using the 24 incher as my main display) Mirror the output on each display This is where you should first go when you have multiple monitors, however, the fun doesn't end there.
TUAW Tip: Disconnect Parallels CD-ROM
Yesterday I wanted to do something simple with my MacBook Pro: burn a CD. Nothing fancy, I just had a 200 meg file that I needed to give someone and there wasn't a USB drive to be found, so a CD it was. I inserted my blank CD into my MacBook Pro and nothing happened.I thought, perhaps, I had a bum CD so I tried a few more (5 to be exact). Each time I got the same result: nothing. I double checked my prefs to make sure I had 'Ask me what to do,' when inserting a blank CD, and I did.What the heck was going on?I was running Parallels, and it was being helpful by taking over the CD burner of my Mac, just in case I wanted to burn a CD from Windows. That's why it wasn't showing up in OS X! Luckily, this is a simple thing to fix. If you go to the lower right hand corner of your Parallels window you'll see a little CD icon. Click on it and the menu pictured at the top of this post comes up. Click 'Disconnect.' Boom, OS X sees your blank CD and asks for instructions.
TUAW Tip: Initiate Bluetooth File Exchange with a keyboard shortcut
TUAW-lover Andrew accidentally discovered that if you select a file in the Finder and press Apple + Shift + B (aka Command+Shift+B), it brings up the Bluetooth File Exchange application and prompts you for which device you want to send the selected file(s) to.I love keyboard shortcuts and I know an awful lot of them but this is one that I either never knew or once knew but quickly forgot. Incredibly handy!Thanks, Andrew!
TUAW Tip: enable the AppleScript menu
As I was working on an AppleScript-related post this morning, I couldn't seem to find any TUAW Tips in our vast archives that explained how to enable that AppleScript menubar item (pictured) that is mentioned so often in Mac software circles. This, of course, called for just such a tip.So: the AppleScript menubar item. It's a very handy tool for accessing all those AppleScripts you hear about that automate this or toggle that. As long as you save those scripts in ~/Library/Scripts (where ~ is your Home folder), they'll appear in this AppleScript menu - once you've enabled it. I personally think this menu item should be included in the default set of every Mac, but I'd wager that Apple sees this as a little too nerdy of a feature to drop on brand new users. Fair enough.To enable this menu (nerd) in Tiger, go to /Applications/Applescript and open the AppleScript Utility. It offers a few options for handling AppleScripts, including turning on this menu and the order in which the menu displays scripts from both the default system level /Library/Scripts (in your main hard drive) and your personal ~/Library/Scripts folder. If you're on 10.3 (Panther), I *think* you have an /Applications/AppleScript folder, but instead of a full-blown AppleScript Utility app, it's an AppleScript called 'Install Menu' or something similar. Back on Tiger in the AppleScript Utility - you don't worry about the GUI Scripting option unless you come across a script that specifically needs it, though I don't think enabling this for simplicity's sake can harm anything either.If this process went according to plan, you should now have your very own AppleScript menubar item like I have in the screenshot here. clicking it will offer a simple menu of all the scripts you have between the two directories you chose to display. As long as you enabled your personal Home script directory, any scripts you save there should appear in this menu immediately after saving, ready to carry out your bidding.With that said, why not check out some of our past AppleScript posts, such as one of my personal favorites: an AppleScript from Fraser Speirs that opens iSync, syncs all your devices (such as a phone or PDA), then quits iSync. If you use an application launcher such as Quicksilver, you can tie handy scripts like these to Triggers (system-wide keyboard shortcuts) for even more convenience.
TUAW Tip: Quickly reveal enclosing folders in Spotlight
I don't know whether it's just me, but the one thing that I've always felt was lacking from Spotlight was the ability to quickly and easily reveal the enclosing folder for search results. It was never a major problem, but on the rare occasion when I do use Spotlight, I often seem to need to see the search result's containing folder. Earlier I was looking up a rogue "mds" process which was hogging 60% of my MacBook's CPU when I came across an article on Macintouch, with this little tidbit at the end from Chong-Yee."Apple's "Spotlight Tips" page is good, but doesn't include the following tip I discovered. If you want to reveal a file in its enclosing folder from the drop down Spotlight results list, hold down the Command key and click the result."This is probably something I should have discovered on my own anyway (holding down Command during any action in OS X usually reveals some kind of useful alternative action), but because the problem wasn't so annoying that I felt the need to research it (hence my accidental discovery) I never thought to try. Usually I'd click "show all", and then right click the item and press "reveal in Finder". That usually took a few seconds -- now the process takes less than a single second.This personal example reminds me of Steve Garfield's entertaining interview with David Pogue (seriously, check out the bit at the end where David sings and plays the piano) where he talks about cool shortcuts that developers put into their work which, for whatever reason, don't make their way in the official documentation.
TUAW Tip: Hit esc for some word suggestions
It appears that while typing a word in many OS X apps, such as iChat and Yojimbo, hitting the Esc key will present a drop-down list of word completion options. I *think* this might be a Cocoa-related service of Mac OS X (sorry, Firefox users), but I'm always hesitant to toss out a guess like that because I am constantly surprised as to which apps are actually Cocoa (Finder, for example, is still Carbon, even in Tiger). I get this popup in Ecto, Stickies and Mail as well, but not in any input areas on websites in Safari, so feel free to experiment with this handy but (as far as I know) undocumented feature.
TUAW Tip: Customize the Finder's toolbar, too
Dave Caolo showed you how to take control of the Finder's sidebar a couple weeks back. Today, I wanted to shed the same light on the Finder's toolbar, as you can customize it and add some tools not found in a default Mac OS X installation.The first thing I like to do is add 'other' kinds of folders (and files) up there, such as my Library, that I don't necessarily want in my sidebar. To do this, you can drag a file or folder up next to the buttons in the Finder, and wait a second - you won't receive instantaneous feedback like you do when adding something to the sidebar. After a second or so, the Finder's search box will move over farther to the right (like when you add something to the Dock), signifying that you can now add that item to the toolbar.You can also add a few more tools to the Finder toolbar by right-clicking on it (just like many other application windows) and choosing "Customize Toolbar." You will be presented with a whole set of handy buttons and actions you can drag and drop to add such as eject, get info, connect to server, burn and more. Even though we covered how to get a file or folder's path by command-clicking on a window's title bar icon, I also like to add the Path button to the Finder's toolbar with this trick for one more level of convenience.Since I'm willing to bet that I haven't covered all the Finder toolbar tricks, feel free to share yours in the comments.
TUAW Tip: Managing Menulets
Menulets are those little menu bar widgets that reside in your menu bar to control such things as monitor resolutions, sound, Airport network selection, and iChat status. While there are ways to enable most of the menulets via System Preferences--for instance, you can enable the Display resolutions menulet from the Displays System Preference pane--there are several that are quite useful that don't have easy ways to get turned on. Two that come to mind immediately are the PPPoE menulet used for connecting/disconnecting to a PPPoE-based DSL service like Verizon, and the Eject menulet which allows you to open the tray or eject CD/DVD from your optical drive without having to use the keyboard's eject button.Launching a menulet to enable it in the menubar is easy once you know where they are located. For both Panther and Tiger, Apple's system menulets are located in: System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras. Double clicking a menulet will enable it in the menu bar.You can remove a menulet from the menu bar by holding down the Command (Apple) key and dragging the selected menulet off the menu bar. It disappears with a satisfying poof. You can also rearrange the Apple menulets using this same keyboard command and dragging them in the order you desire.
TUAW Tip: Speed up iPhoto
This is a simple little tip to speed up iPhoto a bit. Launch iPhoto and go to iPhoto's preferences. Choose 'Appearance' and you'll see something like the above pop open (this screen shot was taken with a copy of iPhoto 6, iPhoto 5 will look slightly different).Uncheck both 'Outline' and 'Drop shadow.' Slide the 'Background' all the way to White, and you should notice that iPhoto will startup a little faster. This tip helps with iPhoto 5's performance mostly, but if you want a real performance gain upgrade to iPhoto 6. That puppy really zips along on my iMac G5.
TUAW Tip: Take control of your sidebar
Today's tip is all about your Finder sidebar. I've altered mine a bit from the default setup to better accommodate the way I work. The first thing I do is to remove the Movies, Music and Pictures folders. They're really only a single click away from my home folder, plus I use iTunes to manage my music and videos, and iPhoto handles my photos. So I rarely need to go poking around those folders manually. To remove a folder or other item from your sidebar, simply click and drag it out of the list, then let go and it's gone.Next, I've brought in my current projects. To add an item to the sidebar, simply click and drag it into place. A thin, blue line appears between existing items. Drop it in and you're all set.The four folders you see below my "Documents" folder contain the files that are currently receiving all of my attention. Now they're only a click away, no matter where I've navigated to in the Finder. The "Trash" is actually a super simple Apple Script that reads:on opentell the application "Finder"move the selection to the trashend tellend openI saved my script as an application, moved it to my "Documents" folder, gave it a sweet icon from The Iconfactory and dragged it into my sidebar. Anything dropped onto it will be moved to the trash. Finally, my Quickdrop folder is where I store all the junk that I accumulate during the day (I like a clean desktop). At the end of the day, I decide what I want to keep from in there, move those items to their proper locations and send the rest to the trash.
TUAW Tip: Quit applications using Application Switcher
One of the key combinations that I use most on my Mac is Command Tab, which brings up the Application Switcher, as seen above (in most versions of OS X that is). This allows me to switch from one application to another just by hitting the Tab key to cycle through the running applications.You're saying, 'We know this already, Scott, what a lame tip!' Well, did you know that you can quit an application without leaving the Application Switcher? It is true. Simply hit Command Tab to bring up the Application Switcher and Tab to the application you want to quit. Once it is highlighted, without lifting your finger off of the Command button, hit the Q. Poof! The application quits (assuming that there are no unsaved documents currently in the application).
TUAW Tip: Copy text formatting
When I'm writing an e-mail or fiddling in TextEdit, I often copy in text from another location (Safari, another e-mail, etc.). Doing that, of course, copies the formatting along with it, screwing up the consistency of the document. (So, say I'm writing a 12-point Arial doc in TextEdit; I copy over some 10-point Verdana bold text from Safari, and all of a sudden I have a single doc with two different kinds of formatting -- and selecting the text and reapplying my previous settings is a time-consuming pain in the butt.)But Apple's aware of this hassle, and cleverly placed in a Copy Formatting feature, very similar to Word's Format Painter. Simply select the text with the formatting you want to copy and hit Command-Option-C. Now highlight the text you want re-formatted and apply the changes by keying Command-Option-V. Presto-chango, any formatting settings (face, bold, size, etc.) should now apply to all the text you selected. Neato.
TUAW Tip: Put your hard disk in your Dock
This is the inaugural post for a new daily segment that we will be doing here at TUAW. The cleverly named 'TUAW Tips' will feature a tip that will help you use your Mac more effectively everyday. This tips will run the gamut from beginner to expert, so you may not be wowed by the tip every day but keep in mind that TUAW has a varied audience and someone out there is bound to learn something.Today's tip is straightforward, and one of the first things I do when I get a new Mac. If you click on your Hard Disk icon (located on the top right of your screen), drag it down to the Dock (between the black line on the Dock and the trash) you will notice that your Hard Disk is now sittin' pretty in the Dock. Why would you want to do this? As you can see in the picture to the right, when you click and hold down on the copy of your hard disk in the Dock a menu pops up that lets you navigate your hard disk's contents right from the Dock, almost like the Apple menu of days of yore.You don't have to stop there, if you want more direct access to your Applications folder, for example, you can drag that into the Dock as well. When you click and hold on the Applications folder in the Dock a similar menu pops up, but it only lists the contents of the Applications folder (or any other folder you wish to have down there, including the Desktop folder).
