(Almost) Hidden Secrets of OS X

[Colonel]

Here's a real OS X one. You can see the developer's of Mail.app

 

1. Go to Applications folder on your Hard Drive

2. Look for Mail

3. ctrl-Click the app and choose "Show package"

4. Look inside for folder Contents - Resources

5. Look for "senders.tiff" and open it with Preview

6. After seconds you can see the other layers to the right of the window. These 8 "people" are the developers of Mail

[hanschien]

One feature I use the most is the scroll wheel on you mouse, enable the "middle mouse button" to "all windows" in Dashboard & Expose in System Preferences.

[bishopdante]

OK newbs, here's some stuff from OS 7.5.

 

To access the folder structure back to the root (Mac HD) command click on the title bar of a finder window.

 

in a finder window start typing the name of a file to select it.

 

or use the arrow keys to select an item in the finder. To open hid Command down. To go back a level hit command up, to do either of these and close the window behind hold the option key. Keeps your fingers on the arrow keys for super fast file navigation.

 

In list view in a finder window, hit command right to reveal folder contents, command left to close. Command option right reveals all folder contents. This works in dialogue boxes too.

(it used to be in System 7.5 Cmd right and left to cycle disks, and Cmd up and down to open/close)

 

Command option W closes all finder windows.

 

Make clippings, rather than copy/paste to the clipboard. Drag a selection onto the desktop and keep it there.

 

Some cool ones that appeared in OS8

 

When you drag something onto a folder/disc, hit space to open the folder's window up. Spring loaded baby. It don't work too good in X these days, too much weird tab bar stuff.

 

Right click! On everything!

 

Some OSX only useful finder tweaks

 

Command Shift A selects applications tab

You can also drag icons to the title bar! Put a regularly used navigation item like Adobe Bridge, Firefox or iPhoto next to the forward/back buttons. Then it's conceptually just another form of window. Object Oriented stuff is amazing isn't it.

 

Say you have a folder open and you want to copy it. Just click and hold on the folder icon on the title bar, it should pull off. You can then put it where you like.

 

To get rid of the weird windows style tab bar stuff on the side of the Finder window, hit Command option Tab. If you don't have a huge display this means you can see more stuff. Also, like an older finder window, it keeps all the windows you've seen open, rather than having a back button. To stop the screen from filling with finder windows, hold down the option key when opening : option doubleclick, cmd optionO, Cmd option down etc.

 

You can stick folders on the dock provided that you put them to the right hand side of the line. Right click to get a menu. It's just like the old apple menu. Except more of them. And upside down. Stick your hard disc in it and browse it in submenus. Or your documents folder.

 

Some Essential Photoshop tweaks that nobody knows but everybody should:

 

Switch off all palettes : TAB

Switch to fullscreen/fullscreen no menus : F

 

This goes for Illustrator too.

 

A little known QuarkXpress feature: hold command option shift delete with an object selected. An alien wanders on screen, and zaps your item with a raygun, and it disappears in a tacky orange gradient effect. I'm serious. It works in 3.3. I dunno if it's still there, i've defected to InDesign.

[John the Geek]

Here's a fun one... (especially if you're running Boot Camp)

 

Use your remote to choose your OS

- At startup hold the

Menu

button on your remote. (This is the same as holding Opt)

 

- You'll see the different OS choices on screen. Now use your remote to select the OS you want.

 

- Press the

Play

button on the remote to boot into that system.

[non sequitur]

i just know ill use the remote sitting a foot away from my keyboard just because i can.

[A Nonny Moose]

Go under the Help Menu and search for "Human Interface Guidelines"

 

You'll get a handy dandy list of system shortcuts and all the keyboard shortcuts you should be using when developing applications.

[BRP]

Lots of people quickly stumble upon the fact that Macs have easy-to-access text-to-speech capabilities. If you were paying attention to the Macintosh debut in 1984, you would almost certainly remember the first thing the public HEARD the Mac do (relive the memory).

 

But the terminal command makes things easier... in Panther and Tiger you can just open up the Terminal and use the "say" command (if you still use an older version, use AppleScript through

osascript -e "Say \"Thing you want to say\""

"man say" if you want help on how to use it. Use SSH or remote login of any sort for much fun to be had while you're away! (Inspired by A Mac OS X Hints "tip" with lots more fun to be had with AppleScript)

[afterall]

i have a question, when im using finder, and if i wanna go back, instead of using the mouse is there any key shortcut? i'm on a powerbook g4. and it's "backscape" with PC

 

thanks guys

[John the Geek]

i have a question, when im using finder, and if i wanna go back, instead of using the mouse is there any key shortcut? i'm on a powerbook g4. and it's "backscape" with PC

 

thanks guys

 

To go back a window in the Finder press Apple [

Similarly you can navigate forward with Apple ]

 

Once you select a file or app you can open it with Apple O

 

 

Now for another hint:

 

If you open your Keyboard Shortcuts preferences and set Full Keyboard Access to All Controls you can tab between buttons that have a blue glow around them and select them with the spacebar, this works in situations where the default button [ press return key ] is in dark blue, but the other clear buttons will have a blue glow around them. Tab that blue glow around and select with the Spacebar.

 

The "About this Mac" dialog window has these sort of buttons you can tab with, if you want a quick test to see if it's working.

 

=)

[afterall]

oh my god i love u. thanks a lot!

[Pantalaimon]

if u want go back in finder use backspace

[Marc Connor]

How do I access the usr/bin directory and stuff?

[John the Geek]

How do I access the usr/bin directory and stuff?

 

Press Apple Shift G to go to a folder. Type /usr/bin

 

Or just use the terminal like normal.

[gwprod12]

I dont know why this doesnt work on the OS X 86, but Liteswitch X is kinda useful. I like the fact that you can set it so when you switch to an application, all other applications hide. You can also get this functionality with ASM. And ASM works with Rosetta. Liteswitch doesnt work on my Hack.

[ernando]

Dear all,

This trick maybe useful for you, when you update to 10.4.7, Dashboard starts 'phoning home' -- it checks for updates on the internet for your widgets on the following two URLs:

 

http://www.apple.com/widgets/widgetadvisory

http://www.apple.com/widgets/parser.info

 

For this, it launches a process called dashboardadvisoryd, and checks every day for new widgets. Quite handy, but you probably would like to prevent this.

 

Here's how to disable it :

Run this in terminal

 

$ sudo nano /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisoryd.plist

 

add the following two lines below the line that reads <dict>:

<key>Disabled</key>

<true/>

 

Save with Ctrl-O then Ctrl-X to quit

Now edit another file :

$ sudo nano

 

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dashboard.advisory.fetch.plist

 

after the line that reads <dict>, also add the lines:

<key>Disabled</key>

<true/>

Save it with Ctrl-O then Ctrl-X to quit

Now restart your computer, and this process won't start automatically

[ernando]

if u want go back in finder use backspace

 

Hi, I tried to use backspace but didn't work, I thought it is Command+[

[John the Geek]

Hi, I tried to use backspace but didn't work, I thought it is Command+[

 

You are correct. Apple+[ will back you up a window in the Finder. Backspace, or Delete, backs you up in Safari.

 

=)

[ernando]

Do you know that you can run a widget without permanently installing it?

 

After downloading and expanding a widget, a double-click launches the widget installer. A dialog then appears with two options: Cancel and Install. Hold Cmd+Option when the dialog is onscreen, the Install button will change to Run, allowing you to only run the widget. Select this, and it opens in the Dashboard layer, but it's not moved to your Widgets folder

[Arez]

"John the Geek:

Here's a fun one... (especially if you're running Boot Camp)

 

Use your remote to choose your OS

 

- At startup hold the Menu button on your remote. (This is the same as holding Opt)

 

- You'll see the different OS choices on screen. Now use your remote to select the OS you want.

 

- Press the Play button on the remote to boot into that system."

 

 

So is there a way to turn on my mac with the remote?

[non sequitur]

i doubt it, there isnt a way to power down or turn on the computer with the remote.

[EPDM]

Holding F12 ejects removable media, just checked

 

Holding F12 ejects 1 drive

Holding ALT - F12 ejects the 2nd drive.

 

In my case I've changed command/Apple-key (?) to the Windows-key

and option-key (?) to the ALT-key. This seems more reasonable to me.

 

Regards

[Mixpower]

Hey,

 

Does anyone knows what the combination is to get the options menu

in a application ? Because When i am in TeamSpeex i want to get the options,

but there is a special combination for this ?

 

Thanks

[martin1976]

Is there a way to refresh a folders' content? Like in XP you press F5. How about on X?

[Guest m41k]

If your mouse is not working for some reason and you need to access the dock, press CTRL+F3 and use the arrow keys to pick your app. To move a icon, press Win+<arrow>.

[John the Geek]

So is there a way to turn on my mac with the remote?

 

Nope, once the computer has powered off it is no longer listening for the remote. Sorry.

 

Does anyone knows what the combination is to get the options menu

in a application ?

 

Usually it's Apple + ,

 

 

To move a icon, press Win+<arrow>.

 

For me it's Opt (Alt Key) and the arrow to move the icons.