System Preferences
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Mac 101: Remove unwanted System Preference panes
Sometimes applications can install extras in the form of System Preference panes. However, when you remove the app from your Mac, you might be left with extraneous System Preference panes. To uninstall System Preference panes, just right-click (or control + click if you have a one button mouse) on the preference pane icon and select "remove x preference pane."When you click "remove," the preference pane will be instantly moved to the OS X Trash can where you can completely remove it from your system by emptying the trash. Please note that this will only work on System Preference panes located in the "Other" section of System Preferences.Want to see more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section today!
Mac 101: System Preferences
This is another entry in our continuing Mac 101 series, aimed at new Mac users. These tips are old hat for veteran Mac users, but will save some people a lot of grief.I know several people who have switched from Windows to the Mac over the past year. While they're happy with their decision, they all tell me the same thing: "I don't know where to find anything." Typically, the topic arises when they're looking for the "control panel" to change a system setting. Since Apple's System Preference panel looks different that the Windows Control Panel, it isn't immediately helpful. Until they ask it what they're looking for.There's a small search box in the upper right-hand corner of the System Preferences window. Typing a keyword or two into that field reveals just where that function lives with a "spotlight" effect. For example, if I want to adjust my alert volume, typing "volume" highlights the Sound panel. This method also provides helpful text. For example, typing "email" produces this list Email faxes Email and chat restrictions (parental controls) Limiting email and instant messages Sending permission emails Each is accompanied by a link in the preference pane. The search results aren't flawless, of course, but they're better than staring at a field of unfamiliar icons, and have brightened the Mac experience for many a switcher.
New screenshots of Snow Leopard appear, show desktop web apps
A German site, Apfeltalk.de has posted screenshots of the forthcoming version of Mac OS X, 10.6 (a.k.a "Snow Leopard"). Most of the screenshots show off the Safari 4 developer preview that will include the "Save as Web Application" option in the File menu. The website also shows off the next version of Address Book.app that will bring Microsoft Exchange support to the Mac platform. We do however have to speculate about the System Preferences.app screenshot that shows two Time Machine icons with one labled "Dock" and another labeled "Time Machine" -- this seems out of place and unlike Apple. You can see all of the screenshots (before Apple's legal team gets a hold of them) on the Apfeltalk.de site. [via Engadget]
Seven tools for switchers
Samuel Dean at Web Worker Daily has compiled a nice list of applications that will make Mac OS X more familiar or recent switchers. Included in the list is Adium (for multi-protocol IM), WhatSize for identifying file sizes and types in a manner similar to Windows Explorer and Firefox, since they were probably using it on their Windows machine, anyway.One tip I always share is the spotlight search feature in System Preference. Many switchers get lost in translation; that is, figuring out what Apple has named a certain system preference, or where it lives. System Preference search lets them enter a keyword, like "trackpad", and see the highlighted result. It's very handy.
TUAW Tip: Use ambient noise reduction for chats and sound recording
I do a decent amount of audio recording and chatting, but I don't ever remember seeing this option in System Preferences until last night. Turning on the "Use ambient noise reduction" feature under the Input tab of the Sound pane can help cut out the TV or dogs barking in the background, though it obviously isn't an end-all solution. A quiet, sound proofed setup is still ideal, but this setting should help for those times when 'ideal' just isn't possible. The setting should work with your Mac's built-in microphone, as well as any external mics you plug in.[Update: From the comments, it sounds like this might only be an option on Apple's Intel-based notebooks. Readers are reporting that PowerBooks, iBooks, G5 iMacs and even Core Duo Mac minis (an Intel non-portable) don't have the feature. This is very interesting, and suggests that it could be due to an actual update to the microphone hardware in the MacBook/Pros since, as far as I know, noise cancellation typically involves a dedicated chip for this kind of functionality. Only certain mobile phones, for example, actually have noise cancellation, and I believe that is also due to the presence of a specific chip.]
Afloat - window floating and transparency at the stroke of a key
Afloat is a killer System Preferences utility that adds a 'float on top' option and customizable transparency settings to virtually any Cocoa app in Mac OS X. Once installed (and you restart any Cocoa apps that were running), new keyboard shortcuts and a couple of options under the Window menu will offer all sorts of handy wndow management and see-through goodness. Great for those times when you have windows layered on top of each other and just need to glance at something underneath, and when you're using a bittorrnet client to download a Quake 4 demo and you're sick of it falling underneath Adium every time you switch to chat - or just for those times when you want to show off with some sexy transparency. Check out Afloat's ReadMe (PDF link) for more details. Afloat is freeware, a Universal Binary, and available from Emanuele Vulcano's site.
.Mac syncing UI silliness
Today's "what were you thinking, Apple?" is brought to you by the .Mac System Preference pane, iSync and that "Sync Services wants to sync more than X% of your items" popup window.In case you can't figure out the silliness that is the image I've included with this post (and I don't blame you), it's a combination of the .Mac System Preference Pane (on left), the .Mac tab of iSync (bottom right), and iSync's preferences that allow me to chose the Data Change Alert percentage threshold (top left).I recently added about 200 notes to Yojimbo on my iMac that I exported out of an old copy of StickyBrain a while ago. On my PowerBook, this obviously triggered the .Mac Sync warning of "you're about to change more than 5% of your data, are you sure you want to do this?" dialog. I then thought to myself: "hmm, since I change a lot of my .Mac stuff on a regular basis, maybe I should increase that percentage so this dialog doesn't bother me again." I haven't done this in a while, but since I came up through Jaguar and Panther I was used to tweaking .Mac stuff in iSync. So I strolled on over to the .Mac tab in iSync to - oh but wait! As you can see in the bottom right of my screenshot, it sounds like iSync is no longer used to manage .Mac information. Woops, my mistake. Maybe I should open up the .Mac System Preference pane to - wait a minute... I don't see any place in that preference pane to tweak the Data Change Alert setting!By now you probably get where I'm going with this, so I'll just leave you with a question: how on earth did this happen, Apple? With Tiger, you said that you unified and improved the .Mac user experience... by sending me to three different locations and preference systems to get this figured out?Here's hoping Leopard brings with it the Mac-daddy (haha) of updates to one of your most-pimped features of OS X.
