This is just a list of random tips I find useful — both as a reference for myself and for public consumption. If you have any other recommendations, leave a comment and I’ll try to add it to the list.
Display as Folder/Stack
Closely related to this previous item is the introduction of displaying the icon of your folder as a “Folder” or a “Stack.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think the second folder icon there is very uninformative. What is that folder? Ah, its my Utilities folder. But, aren’t the other three more informative? Well, as of 10.5.2 you have a choice: right click on the folder and select “Display as” and “Folder” or “Stack.”
Highlighting Stack’s Selection
OS X 10.5 introduced the new “Stacks” feature when clicking on folders in the dock. While in the “fan” mode, it is sometimes difficult to see what you are actually selecting. Well, you can turn on a hidden setting to highlight the moused-over file:
To do this, open your Terminal program and type the following:
% defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean yes % killall Dock
Spotlight Math
What is (4000 + 197 – 200) * 1.7? Hang on, let me open my Calculator program and type all this and… WAIT. If you have 10.5, Spotlight can do it! :)
Birthday Reminders
Ok, if you are like me, you don’t remember birthdays all that well. Now, if you are using the Address Book you can add a person’s birthday to the list. But, wait, that doesn’t remind me! Well, did you check the setting in iCal’s preferences to have a Birthday calendar?
Syncing iCal with Google Calendar
Another nice item is the fact that you can sync iCal with Google Calendar. Why would you do that? Well, if you are like me, you can synchronize your schedule with other people a whole lot easier that way.
Safari Web Inspector
From Safari 3.1 forward, web developers can enable a “Develop” menu in the Preferences under Advanced. This will allow you to right click on items on a given web page and select “Inspect Element”, giving you the HTML, CSS, and all other details for that element:
You also get extra tools in the “Develop” menu, including a quick “Snippet Editor,” watching the network traffic of a given web page, etc. In earlier versions of Safari, there was something similar (but not as snazzy) by opening the Terminal and typing:
% defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1
before restarting Safari.
Recent Comments