[MacGenius]

Yeah, I know tips and hints are all over the net right now but I though, what the hell, let's share some!

1. Auto complete is any Cocoa application. Start typing a word and press F5.

2. Terminal in Panther is now the bash shell by default instead of tcsh. Alter your prompt colours and such by following these directions: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-tip-prompt/
Mine is set like this: PS1="\[\e[33;1m\]\h:\[\e[31;1m\]\w \[\e[0m\]\u$ "
alias ls='ls -G'
(I edited the /etc/bashrc file directly)

3. You can create Desktop printer icons now by simply dragging the printer from the Printer Setup to the desktop.

4. Have a look at the Filters in the ColorSync utility. You can create your own filters with various options and apply them to ouput when you print on the fly. Look at the Colorsync menu inthe print dialog. There's stuff in there for PDF/X3a!!!!

5. Check out http://macgpg.sourceforge.net/ on how to use GPG to encrypt files and email directly in Panther. Oh, its free too!

6. You may already know this but you can select any number of files and or fodler and create cross-platform .zip files. Create archive in the File menu of the Finder is what you want. Keep in mind, resource forks of files and handled wierdly but for the most part it work fine. BTW, this is the default method that Mail sends attachments now. Its about time.

add your own, I've got more but I'm running out of time.

 

[SINC]

And helpful hints they are MacGenius. Thanks for sharing them with the board.

 

[Script Kiddie]

If there is one alias you should put in your shell its this:

alias pd2='pushd +2'
alias pd='pushd'

I find a lot of people don't know about "pushd"
I'll show its use with an example.

Say you are working in 3 directories in one shell
/usr/local/bin
Library/Preferences
/Volumes/skiddie/blah/blah/blah

With the pushd command (now aliased to the more handy "pd" and "pd2" ) you can flick between the three direcectories in one shell without typing the path over and over again.

 

[elmer]

ps reveals I am still running tcsh. Is it because I did an upgrade install?

 

[capitalK]

Here's a few Fontbook tips I have found useful in the last couple of days:

1. If you double-click a font file that is not in a Fonts directory (such as on your desktop) a dialog box no longer comes up saying there's no program to open it. It will now open Fontbook, preview the font and ask if you want to install it and if you want it installed for only your User, or for all Users. It's about time.

2. Under the Edit menu of most programs there is now a "Special Characters" option, which opens a floating palette to add all your é's, ™'s and ¿'s.

 

[elmer]

There are so many different ways to use Expose and Cmd-Tab switching. I realize some of them are redundant or not the most efficient, but the point is there's a lot of flexibility, so you don't have to act like a computer to use the computer.

For example,
Hit F9
Hold down Cmd-Tab, now let go of Tab
Mouse-over an icon, now let go of Cmd
Click on the desired window of that application now shown

[ October 30, 2003, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: elmer ]

 

[elmer]

The great thing about key combos now is making them yourself!
In System Preferences under Keyboard and Mouse, I added a keyboard shortcut F8 for the "Show All" menu command.
Now if I want to work in single app mode (hiding other apps using Cmd-Option-H), when I want to use Expose, I hit F8 before hitting F9, so I see all windows in Expose.
Note when you add or change a keyboard shortcut it does not show up in any given app until you restart that app.

 

[capitalK]

I love the:

Command+Tab until it highlights an App in the background that you want to quit

Keep holding down the Command button+press the Q button.

Nice.

 

[Chealion]

elmer - Yes, that would be why you are still using tcsh. You can change your default shell, but I can't remember how. It would be on MacOSXHints.com though.

 

[Macaholic]

WOW! Expose just gets deeper and deeper! Doesn't it?

 

[MacDaddy]

I have found a cool trick with Expose as well.
Use the F11 key to reveal your desktop, now grab say a Quicktime file and drag it, continue holding the mouse button down and press F11 again to bring everything back, now drop your QT FIle, say, into Safari

Drag and Drop using Expose!!

 

[elmer]

Thanks for the confirmation, Chealion. On MacNN, geekwagon posted "Applications -> Utilities -> Netinfo Manager. Users, your username, it should be obvious from there."
I changed my default shell to /bin/bash, which I notice is the default shell for another user account which I created after upgrading to Panther. I use bash on Linux all the time at work, so I might as well go with the trend on this platform as well. Would have done this in Jag if I knew how.

I noticed something else in the process. When you create a new user account in Panther, it creates a group with the same name as the user name.

 

[Chealion]

MacOSXHints.com has the same hint.

That new Panther feature with each new user having a new group name will make doing some things much easier. No more having to add people to groups. (I never did figure that out.)

 

[MacGenius]

Here's a few more I found:

1. Panther now has built-in IP over FireWire! Go into System Prefs/Network and click on Network Port Configurations and click new. FireWire is in the list. Wicked FAST too!

2. Panther won't show AppleTalk servers by default. Go into /Applications/Utilites/Directory Access and put a checkmark in the AppleTalk entry.

3. Enable the built-in encruptiong and signing in Mail. Instructions can be found here:
http://joar.com/certificates/

P.S. You can use Safari to go through the motions of requesting the certificate. When you download it hoever it will save the file as deliver.exe. Rename it as thawte.p12 and you can import it properly into the Keychain

[ October 31, 2003, 10:21 AM: Message edited by: MacGenius ]

 

[elmer]

There's a little overview of what you can do with groups here:
The Mac Observer: Hot Cocoa - Unlocking The Power Of Groups In Mac OS X (April 27th, 2001)

[ October 31, 2003, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: elmer ]

 

[elmer]

* TextEdit can open Microsoft Word files (I think this is new). YMMV.

* You can still drag stuff onto the Finder's toolbar - use Cmd-drag and move it around a bit till you see a square appear, then drop. If you put your favorites (yes, that's how it is spelled) folder there, it still behaves like in Jaguar, unlike how it behaves in the sidebar.

 

[SINC]

On a video link posted on ehMac lately about Panther, it showed how a desktop "revolved" so each individual user had their own permanent desktop. I would like to try this, but I don't know where to start. How does one set this up in Panther?

 

[elmer]

In System Preferences, go to Accounts - at the bottom of the list of accounts, there's an item called Login Options - inside there is a checkbox to enable fast user switching. This gives you a menu item that looks like your long user name (I changed my long user name to be shorter because of this). Now I have two users logged in all the time.

 

[SINC]

Thanks elmer, I will give it a try.

Cheers

 

[Chealion]

elmer - For fast user switching without taking so much room in the menu bar, try looking at FUS++ which is an open source alternative that takes much less room.