If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
If you spend a lot of time working in the Finder, you may wish to know about a nifty feature that works similar to the Dock. That is, you can drag any folder or file icon directly to the Finder toolbar, giving it the same functionality as the Dock.
For instance, if there is a folder that you access constantly, you can drag it to the toolbar so that it will be available from every Finder window. Likewise, you can drag application icons or file icons to the toolbar as well for quick access.
This tip is especially handy if you typically keep the Dock hidden while you work.
{
Just a short beginner tip today as I’m a bit down with the flu….
The Finder toolbar is a component that appears at the top of a Finder window and the Sidebar displays on the left side of the screen. If you feel that the Toolbar or the Sidebar takes up too much screen space, you can hide them from view:
- Select View > Hide Toolbar from the Finder menu. This will hide both the Toolbar and the Sidebar. Select View > Show Toolbar to redisplay the Toolbar and Sidebar.
- Select View > Hide Sidebar from the Finder menu. This will hide only the Sidebar; the Toolbar will continue to display. Click View > Show Sidebar to redisplay it.
{
Most people who work with Macs are familiar with Quick Look, a feature introduced in Leopard that allows you to view the contents of your documents and images at nearly full size level without needing to launch the associated application. But did you know that Quick Look has a Slide Show feature? Using Quick Look, you can cycle through and display selected images in full screen view on our screen for about 4 minutes each. The cycle will continue until the slide show is terminated.
To use Quick Look’s slideshow feature
- Highlight all of the items you want included in the Slide Show.
- Press the spacebar
Or
Press the Command + Y keystroke combination
Or
Select File > Quick Look from the Finder menu.
- Click the Full Screen Button
- Move your mouse pointer anywhere over the image to display the Quick Look toolbar.
- On the Quick Look toolbar, click the Play button.
- Click the Pause button to stop the slideshow at any time (Play button turns to Pause button during slide show play).
- Press the Esc key to stop the slideshow
{
A handy little feature in Safari 5 is the Reading List feature. What this does, is allows you to store links to interesting articles that you come across while browsing in a single storage location which you can then tend to at a later time. This feature is especially helpful if you come across an article that you want to read but don’t have the time to do so at the moment.
To save an article to the Reading List, click Bookmarks from the Safari menu and then click Add to Reading List. You can also press the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + D.
By default, the Reading List is hidden. To display (or hide) the Reading List, press the Shift + Command + L keystroke combination or click the Reading List icon on the Safari Bookmarks Bar.
Another way to display the Reading List is to choose View > Show Reading List from the Safari menu. The Reading List will display on the left side of your screen in the Safari window. Click the item you wish to read in the Reading List pane – the article will then load in your browser window.
{
Yesterday, I talked about how to delete those pesky plug-ins from Safari. I received a e-mail after the post asking me if there is a way to see a list of all of the plug-ins that are installed in Safari. The answer is Yes.
To see all of Safari’s installed plug-ins, select Help from the Safari menu and then click Installed Plug-ins. A page will display listing all of the currently installed Plug-ins in Safari.
{
Many folks use plug-ins to add to their browser’s functionality. Plug-ins are small programs that can enhance the capabilities of your browser. At times however, they can end up being problematic. Some plug-ins may be incompatible with other existing plug-ins and render your Web browser unstable or may simply reduce the speed of your browser for whatever reason. If this is case, you may want to remove the offending plug-in from Safari.
Safari typically stores plug-ins in either in the Macintosh HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins folder or in the Plug-ins folder under your Home folder’s Library – [your user name/Library/Internet Plug-ins. As an example, if your user name was Susan, then you would find your Plug-ins folder at: Susan/Library/Internet Plug-ins. Note that in Mac OS X Lion, the Library folder is hidden. To temporarily display it, click Go on the Finder menu and hold down the Option or Alt key. The Library folder will display as along as the key is held down.
Once you find the Plug-in that you want to remove, select the file and move it to the Trash. You will then need to restart Safari in order for the changes to take effect. If you just want to discover whether a particular plug-in is causing problems with Safari (and not necessarily delete the plug-in), you can simply move it to another folder. This way, you can always copy it back later to the Plug-ins folder, if need be.
{
Scrolling through your open windows allows you to quickly jump to another open application in Lion, without having to click any icons on the dock. This comes in especially handy for those folks who prefer using the keyboard whenever possible rather than the mouse.
To scroll through all open windows, press and hold down the Command key and then tap the Tab key. This will display a horizontal list of all of your open windows. To scroll through the list, either press the Tab key (with the Command key still held down) or use your right and left arrow keys to navigate the list. You can also hover your mouse over any window in the list to select it.
Once the window that you want to open is selected, release the Command key. This will bring the window to the front. However, you will be unable to bring a window to the front using this method if the window has been minimized – only the application’s menu bar will display in this instance. If this is the case, press and hold down the Option key before you release the Command key. This will then bring the selected window to front.
Use this method to Quit an application as well. Hold down the Command key and then press the Tab key to move from one item to another. When the item you want to close is selected, press the Q key on your keyboard. I use this method every evening before I shut down my Mac to close all of my open applications in succession.
{
A Burn Folder is a handy type of folder that allows you to burn files to a CD or DVD more than once. Similar to Smart Folders, any files that you add to Burn Folders do not actually reside in the folders but rather are Aliases (shortcuts) of the original files; thus, Burn Folders take up almost no disk space.
An ideal purpose for a Burn Folder is to add files and folders that you back up regularly or perhaps need to copy to a USB drive on the fly. Any changes to a file or any new files added to a folder will automatically be updated in the Burn Folder.
To create a Burn Folder, choose File > New Burn Folder from the Finder menu.
To Use a Burn Folder
- Select File > New Burn Folder from the Finder menu.
- Type in the name for your folder and press Return.
- Drag any files or folders you want to add to your Burn Folder.
- Insert a blank CD or DVD.
- When you are ready to burn the folder’s contents to an external disc, select File > Burn [Burn Folder’s name] to Disc from the Finder menu
Or
Right-click the folder and choose Burn [Burn Folder’s name] to Disc from the contextual menu
Or
Double-click the Burn Folder to open it and click the Burn button on the right side of the window or the Burn icon on the toolbar.
{
As many of you have no doubt noticed, Apple removed the Save As shortcut (Command + Shift + S) from Apple Apps in Lion and replaced it with the new Duplicate command. What this command does, is creates an exact duplicate of the active document. When you save the duplicate, the application prompts you for a new file name.
This new “feature” adds several additional steps to the process of saving the active file with a different name, all needing to be accomplished with the mouse as there is not a keyboard shortcut for the Duplicate command. Being as there is no keyboard shortcut, I created one myself, adding the Command + Shift + S command to my keyboard preferences. Now, every time I press the shortcut, the app creates a duplicate of the file. All I need to do then is to press Command + S to save the file with a new name.
To Create a Duplicate using a Keyboard Shortcut
- Select Apple > System Preferences from the menu.
- Click the Keyboard icon in the Hardware area.
- Click Application Shortcuts in the left pane.
- Click the + (plus) symbol under the windows.
- From the Application drop-down list, choose “All Applications”
- Click in the Menu title box and type Duplicate.
- Click in the Keyboard Shortcut box and press the Command+Shift+S keys (or whatever keyboard shortcut you want to use).
- Click Add.
{
If you want to differentiate certain items from one another or simply make a particular document or folder stand out from the others, you can apply a custom icon – or even an image – to your folder, application or document icons. Custom icons certainly can make your Desktop more interesting to look it.
Lion supports icons sizes up to 128 x 128 pixels so it is best to use an image as close to this size as possible. You can use a graphics editing program such as Photoshop to size your image to the appropriate dimensions.
To apply a custom icon, first copy the image you wish to use. Then, display the Get Info window for the item whose icon you wish to change (select the folder and press the keystroke combination Command + I). Click the current icon on top of the Info window and choose Edit > Paste from the menu.
To remove a custom icon, select the icon you wish to remove in the General area of the Get Info window and press the Delete key. The custom icon is removed and the standard icon for the item is returned.
To Apply a Custom Icon
- Double-click the image file to open it.
- Select Edit > Copy from the menu
Or
Press the Command + C keystroke combination.
- Select the folder, drive, application or document whose icon you wish to change.
- Select File > Get Info from the menu.
Or
Press the Command + I keystroke combination
- Click the icon under the General area.
- Select Edit > Paste from the menu
Or
Press the Command + V keystroke combination.
To Remove a Custom Icon
- Select the folder, drive, application or document whose custom icon you wish to remove.
- Select File > Get Info from the menu
Or
Press the Command + I keystroke combination.
- Click the icon under the General area.
- Press the Delete key.
{
Subscribe by Email
