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47K views 41 replies 12 participants last post by  Gillette62 
#1 · (Edited)
Here's the story: you switch to use a Mac, get basic help, find the support you need, and then you want to explore the tips and tricks of Apple professionals. All wrapped up in one neat little package.

Switch to Mac 101: Apple - Support - Switch 101

Mac Help 101: Apple - Support - Mac 101

Apple Support: Apple - Support

Mac Pro Tips: Apple - Pro - Pro Tips

What's your favourite switching story, help tip, support solution, or professional time-saving strategy?

My favourite tip is, after a search to see if the answer is already posted, "ask on ehMac first." Chances are you'll get help here faster than elsewhere.

I updated the Pro Tips link above.
 
#2 ·
Two seconds to sleep.

Tip of the Week
Two Seconds to Sleep

Want the fastest way to put your Mac right into a deep, sleepy-bear hibernation-like sleep (no whirling fan, no dialogs, no sound — nuthin’ — just fast, glorious sleep). Just press Command-Option and then hold the Eject button for about 2 seconds and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It doesn’t get much faster than that.
 
#3 ·
That's cool, thanks. I tried it - yup it makes my G5 sleep quickly, but I noticed that it won't wake up if I press any key on the keyboard; even a mouse-click won't do it. The machine will only wake up if I touch the power button on my Cinema Display (ancient clear-frame model, 20"). Is that normal behaviour for this sleepy-bear hibernation-like mode? With normal sleep (whether timed, selected from the Apple menu, or via a touch of the power button), use of the keyboard or a mouse click will awaken the computer. Just wondering.
 
#6 ·
Apple - Pro - Pro Tips

Apple - Pro - Tips - Dropping Text on the Dock for Fast Results

Dropping Text on the Dock for Fast Results

Let’s say you’re reading an article online, and you read a sentence that you want to email to a friend. Don’t do the copy-and-paste thing. Instead, just highlight the text and drag-and-drop it right on the Mail icon in the Dock. It will open Mail and put that sentence into a new mail message. This tip also works in other Cocoa applications like TextEdit, Stickies, and Safari. For example, if you’re reading a story and want to do a Google search on something you’ve read, just highlight the text and drag-and-drop it on the Safari icon in the Dock. It will launch Safari and display the Google Search Results.
 
#7 ·
This whole thread, but particularly HowEver's starting post, should be made a permanent sticky.

Since we're sharing tips, here are two a lot of people -- even longtime users -- don't always know:

1. If you have a lot of windows of the same app open (for example in Safari or Word) you can close all of them instantly and simultaneously by holding the option key down when you close any one of them. Works in every app I've tried.

2. Related to HowEver's tip above, if you want to send a page URL to a friend you can simply "drag" the URL from Safari by grabbing the icon at the beginning of the URL and drag down to the Mail icon. Mail will open a new message with the URL as the first line of the message. (There is also a service to do this if you want to do it that way, but I find the drag technique faster.)
 
#8 ·
New one to me.

Apple - Pro - Tips - Switching Apps Within Exposé

Invoke Exposé to see multiple apps "exposed" across your screen.

Hit the tab button and switch between these apps. Hit the return button or click once you get to the app you want to stay with.

 
#9 ·
Here's a great tip from ehMac:

As far as Safari is concerned, the following javascript bookmarklet will instantly maximise the current window.
Code:
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0);self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);
  • Copy the code to the location slot, thus:
  • Press Enter, and the window pops to full size.
  • Drag the globe flavicon to the Bookmark Bar, and give it a compact "name" - I use a dot - •
:clap:
 
#10 ·
How to put Safari's tabs at the bottom

Here's a tip from elsewhere. I haven't tried it, and it's not for the faint of heart, as they say, but it seems like a cool modification. You need to have Developer Tools installed and know how to use same.

>Open the Browser NIB (inside Safari) in Interface Builder (part of the dev Tools), select the tab bar and move it to bottom. You may need to move the webview up to get room at the bottom.
 
#11 ·
Apple - Pro - Tips - Resizing Photos for Emailing

Tip of the Week
Resizing Photos for Emailing

Have you ever noticed how freaked out relatives get when you email them high-res photos from your six- or eight-meg digital camera? For example, your grandmother in Minnesota may not have Photoshop CS2, and so dealing with that 26MB, 41-inch-wide photo you shot with your eight-meg camera might put a strain on her system. That’s why you might want to reduce the size of those photos you’re about to email. You don’t even have to launch Photoshop — because you can do the resizing right within Mail.

After you attach a photo to your email message (you can just drag-and-drop the image into the New Message window), take a look in the bottom-right corner of your email message window, and you’ll see a pop-up menu where you can choose the Image Size you’d like to send. As soon as you choose a size (other than Actual Size), the image is immediately scaled down right within the email message window so you can see the exact size of the photo you’re sending.

 
#12 ·
"Dropping Text on the Dock for Fast Results

Let’s say you’re reading an article online, and you read a sentence that you want to email to a friend. Don’t do the copy-and-paste thing. Instead, just highlight the text and drag-and-drop it right on the Mail icon in the Dock. It will open Mail and put that sentence into a new mail message. This tip also works in other Cocoa applications like TextEdit, Stickies, and Safari. For example, if you’re reading a story and want to do a Google search on something you’ve read, just highlight the text and drag-and-drop it on the Safari icon in the Dock. It will launch Safari and display the Google Search Results."


An even faster technique: Right-click (or Control-click) on the highlighted text, and from the pop-up window, choose Search in Google. OSX.4.11
 
#13 ·
Instant Maps!

Apple - Pro - Tips - Get Instant Maps

Apple said:
Tip of the Week
Get Instant Maps

In Leopard, your Address Book doesn’t just tell you where to go—it shows you!

To get an instant map to any address, just control-click on the address field of a contact card (or right-click if you have a two-button mouse). Then select Map Of.


Apple said:
This command opens Safari (if it’s not already open) and reveals the address in Google Maps.


Apple said:
This trick isn’t just confined to Address Book: Leopard can detect street addresses within Mail as well. When your cursor hovers over a street address in an email, a dotted rectangle surrounds it and a small gray triangle appears. Click on the triangle and select Show Map... to see the address in Google Maps.
 
#14 ·
Here's a tip similar to the Leopard Exposé bit but works all the way back to Panther. I use it routinely but many are unfamiliar with it.

Command Tab will show all open applications and highlight the active app. Keep the command (Apple) held down and press Tab to switch through the open applications. Way easier than dock diving.

BTW the second step works all the way back to OS7 and maybe even a bit earlier.
 
#15 ·
Thanks to chas_m.

iDVD Tutorial: Apple - iLife - Tutorials - iDVD - Using OneStep DVD

Apple said:
Using OneStep DVD
Sometimes when you might not want to design a DVD from scratch. Maybe you have footage in your camcorder that you want transferred to DVD quickly—like a play rehearsal that you want to share with the cast, or a sports event the coaches need to review, or a movie on tape that you’ve already edited.
With OneStep DVD, you can copy the footage straight from the tape in your camcorder (or from your hard disk) to a DVD that will play your video footage as a single movie.

...
 
#16 ·
Pinch and expand TEXT with Multitouch

I knew that Cmd- and Cmd+ (formerly the Apple key, ⌘, and then minus or plus) decreased and increased the size of text in Safari and other apps.

I didn't know that my (Penryn 2.5) MacBook Pro's multitouch trackpad could also decrease and expand text without needing to use the key combination.

It's the same pinch and expand gesture you use for pictures.

Apple - MacBook Pro - Features

(works with the MacBook Air trackpad also)
 
#18 ·
Using a Penryn MacBook Pro, or presumably a MacBook Air also:

in QuickTime, try the two finger swipe back and forth horizontally to fast play back and forward, and the three finger swipe to toggle start/where you left off. Pinch and expand for window/full screen modes.
 
#20 ·
This isn't so much a feature of OS X, but a program that makes it really easy for Audio professionals to switch between Audio Inputs and Outputs.

SoundSource has been a real time saver. Basically, when you want to switch to lets say a USB headset, normally you would have to go into System Preferences/Sound/Output to change to them.

With SoundSource, it's a menu item. Clever!

 
#21 ·
Creating a shortcut in the dock/shortcuts to Smart Folders to recent/kinds of docs

How do I create a shortcut in the DOCK station?

chas_m said:
1. Locate a folder or file you wish to have an alias of in the dock.

2. Using the mouse, "drag" the file or folder to the dock. Folders go on the right; files on the left. Be careful not to "let go" of the file or folder before you reach the dock area.

3. Once you see the icons "move aside" to make room, drop the item you're dragging there.

4. You'll notice that the original item DID NOT MOVE from its former location; all you've done is create a "shortcut" to it in the dock. Such shortcuts can be rearranged on the dock by dragging horizontally, and removed from the dock by merely pulling them up "off" the dock. They're just aliases, so no harm done.

An excellent example of how useful this can be; instead of trying to load up your dock with a hundred icons of every app you MIGHT use, just load it with the 10-20 apps you use MOST. Then drag the Applications folder down to the left side of the dock to create an alias.

Once that's done (you may need to "click and hold" to tell the dock that you want Apps to display as a folder rather than a stack), a single click on the folder in the dock (or "click and hold" if you're on Tiger still) will display a scrollable list of all your apps making them instantly accessible. It's like having every app you own on the dock, but not taking up so much space.

Another great example: let's say you work with a lot of Word documents, and they're stored in various places (email, Documents, project folders etc). You can create a Smart Folder (which is actually a saved search) called "Recent Word documents" and give it the criteria of "show me all Word documents I've modified in the last 30 days."

Place this "Smart Folder" wherever you like -- right on the desktop if you want, or (as I prefer) someplace in your User folder, then drag the folder down to the dock. Again, a single click (or click-and-hold in earlier versions of OS X) will give you instant access to every Word doc that meets that criteria, no matter where they are actually stored. Very efficient, very cool.
__________________
Cheers
chas_m
 
#23 ·
MacBook Pro backlit keyboard: how to unlock it if you find it locked

I tried to adjust the brightness of my MacBook Pro (Penryn late February 2008 model, 2.5Ghz C2D, 512MB VRAM) and found it locked--that is, I couldn't adjust it up or down, only got the lock symbol.

Apparently, the room is too bright right now!

I moved into a dark room, and the keyboard backlight was unlocked and adjustable.
 
#24 ·
How to find who is using your wireless (here's hoping you already have it locked down via MAC address, WPA2 encryption with username and password and therefore you're just looking for your own computers on your own network).


This method will provide you with the MAC addresses of all connected wireless devices. This works on Airport Utility 5.3.2

  1. In AirPort Utility, select your main Airport router.
  2. Click the Manual Setup button
  3. By default, you should arrive at the Summary pane. Near the bottom, there'll be a Wireless Clients field, indicating the number of connected clients.
  4. Mouse over "Wireless Clients:" You'll notice an arrow will appear beside Wireless Clients. Click it.
  5. You'll see a list of the MAC addresses of all the connected wireless devices and a graph showing their relative signal strength.

(In case you're unfamiliar with the concept, an MAC address is like a unique serial number assigned to any IP-based piece of hardware. It is different from an IP address. You'll need to correlate each wireless device in your house with the corresponding MAC address you see in Airport Utility. Don't forget to include Airport Express devices and any wireless gaming consoles that may connect via Wi-Fi.)
 
#25 ·
basic Mail.app maintenance (from rgray)

Sticking a great reply to a mail problem.

Often this will clear if you quit/restart Mail, or logout/in or restart the machine.

Failing any of those options you might consider some basic Mail.app maintenance. There is a file ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index (EI) which is the heart of Mail. This is a database of all the comings, goings, movements and deletions of all messages. It just grows and grows, and as it gets bigger two things happen. Firstly, Mail slows down as searches for messages etc. take progressively longer. Secondly, the file can become corrupted causing all sorts of anomalous behaviour such as phantom and missing messages, as well as erroneous counts.

There is a good discussion of this problem at Rebuild your database and speed up Mail.app | Hawk Wings.

To remedy the situation, that is to optimise the EI database, do one of the following:

1. For the hardcore Mac-head, fire up Terminal and type in (or copy/paste) this code:
Code:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
2. If the thought of Terminal gives you the twitches, but you are comfortable in Finder:
  • 1. back up user/Library/Mail & quit Mail
  • 2. note the size of the Envelope Index (EI) file - in will be much smaller after you're done (and Mail will be faster! :) )
  • 3. drag EI out of the Mail folder and park it someplace safe like Desktop
  • 4. restart Mail and OK it when it asks if you want to import your Mail
  • 5. this can take a while especially if it has never been done before

3. For the less intrepid Mac-heads there is a utility to do this process for you. VacuumMail (and how to make the process automagic) and a very interesting discussion can be found at Musings from Mars Apple Mail Slowing Down? VacuumMail Can Probably Help

See also macosxhints.com - A possible fix for a slow Mail.app.

I strongly advise reading the linked discussions before doing this and making a quality backup, however it has worked well for me and my clients. As always, YMMV, caveat emptor.
That was the best reply I ever got, rgray. Unfortunately, I was referring to my ehmac.ca PM inbox :( But I'm glad this got posted as I do also have a message in my drafts folder in Mail that I can't delete. Cheers!
 
#26 ·
Quoting a great post with historical information:

" ... I was using OS 9 from 2005 until early this year, can't even remember why I upgraded, but it was a total mistake. I have never had OS 8.6 "bomb" me. Why could this be? ..."

One possible reason would be using the latest version of OS9 ... on a machine that directly boots into OS9 and not OSX.

Use 9.1 for those machines; 9.2.2 is really optimized for Classic on OSX.

Also, OS9 needs about 64MB RAM (128 is a sweet spot), once you are there you can turn Virtual Memory off. All Adobe apps conflict with Apple VM, for example on System7~OS9.

As for the latest hardware that booted into OS9, most MDD and earlier G4 desktops can. Apple sold one machine, mostly for Education markets, after the G4 line was essentially discontinued; that could boot into OS9. That was the PowerMac G4 1.25 GHz MDD (2003) M9145LL/A. It could be custom configured with a dual processor motherboard via the AppleStore. This model sold alongside the first G5 series, and was discontinued when they were, in June 2004.

The so-called "Firewire 800" MDDs cannot boot OS9. That would be the single 1.0 M8839LL/A, dual 1.25 M8840LL/A and dual 1.42 GHz M8841LL/A models.

However, the 1.42 is not as sophisticated a machine as the single/dual 1.25 G4's that hung around alongside the G5 introduction despite lacking the added support for FW800 and Bluetooth (there is the 133 vs 167 Mhz bus, for example). They benchmark very closely in stock form and upgrades are more effective on the 167 Mhz bus machines.

Most eMacs cannot boot OS9. The 1.0 GHz M8950LL/A might be able to, depending on the original configuration; if it was a first version with the combo drive. Again, this was essentially an Education Market version. All others cannot.

As for iMacs, the last versions that boot OS9 are the G4/800's. These cannot run 10.5, by the way (867 Mhz minimum). Of course, Classic does not work in 10.5 either.

The iBook G4's cannot boot OS9. You have to use a G3 model, or Classic mode.

Most (if not all) G4 processor upgrades from 3rd party providers can boot OS9, provided they are installed in a machine that otherwise could with the original Apple CPU.
From here:
http://www.ehmac.ca/anything-mac/75613-okay-dont-laugh.html#post811140
 
#27 ·
A couple of us ehMacers also service those in need at a more PC centric site. We set up a sticky for tutorials and so on some time ago:

OS X Tutorials links! - The Computer Mechanics Family

Some of the links might be dead but there are some great resources there, especially for beginners.
 
#28 ·
A great post on transferring, if necessary, an iTunes library from one account to another on the same computer:

. said:
Could someone tell me how to transfer an itunes library from one account to another on the same computer?

Thanks
chas_m said:
First, it should be noted that you don't have to do this necessarily. If the other account just wants to listen to stuff that's on "your side" without changing the library on "their side," all you have to do is leave your iTunes open on "your side" with the sharing turned on. The other account's iTunes will see the shared library and can play it (they can't copy, move, add or delete anything in it, but this is meant as an "adjunct" to their existing library of music not a replacement).

If for some reason you wish to actually move the entire iTunes Library from one account to another, here's one way to do this:

1. First and foremost, open iTunes and make sure the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" checkbox is checked. If it wasn't checked, check it and then have iTunes "consolidate" your music to that one library. Important.

2. Okay, next you simply move your entire iTunes folder (inside Music) to an external/second drive. You can use your Time Machine drive for this if there's room, it will only be there temporarily. What this step does is remove the "exclusivity" of that folder being only readable by your account.

3. Once that's done, open iTunes holding the Option key down -- it will ask you to choose or create a library -- and you want to choose a library and "point" your iTunes to the iTunes folder on the external HD. Check to make sure everything seems copacetic (there's a word you haven't heard in a while!).

4. Now log out of the first account and into the second account. Copy (not move) the iTunes folder from the external to your Music folder. This will ERASE any previous iTunes folder you had there, so if you don't want that to happen skip this step.

5. Now launch iTunes holding down the option key. Choose the library and point iTunes to the moved iTunes folder. Check to make sure everything's working okay.

6. Once you're sure the transfer was successful, you can delete any extra copies of the iTunes folder you had from the first account and/or the external as the case may be.
 
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