10.6: Run 32-bit screen savers in the background in 10.6
SaveHollywood is not ready to work on Snow Leopard. Apparently this extends to any software that runs older screen savers in the background -- they'll appear with a system message reading "not compatible." If I open System Preferences' Screen Savers panel as usual, my system tells me that old screen savers are not compatible. But if I open System Preferences in 32-bit mode, they seem to work (in the panel, but not always when playing). So I tried the Terminal command from this older hint, but had the same problem. Finally I searched how to run a screen saver in 32-bit mode from Terminal. For that, you do this: arch -i386 AppToRun So to run an older screen saver in the background, you'd use this co...
published on Tuesday, the 16. February 2010, macosxhints
10.6: Enable some bundled Services in the contextual menu
Unfortunately, a bug in Snow Leopard may mean you're not seeing all the Services you should see in the contextual menu that appears when you right-click on a document or a text selection. You can, however, make those Services appear in the contextual menu: Open the Keyboard System Preferences panel, and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Select Services in left-hand column. Deselect and reselect the Services you wish to appear in the contextual menu. After toggling, the selected Services now appear at the bottom of the contextual menu. Credit isn't mine -- I found the details of this bug in Rob Griffiths' write-up on Snow Leopard's Services. [robg adds: I had totally forgotten I'd written about this bug, and it seems it's...
published on Thursday, the 4. February 2010, macosxhints
10.6: Use Directory Utility in Snow Leopard
In 10.6, Apple moved Directory Utility to the /System » Library » CoreServices folder; you can launch it directly from there, if you wish. However, the "official" way to get to Directory Utility now is through System Preferences » Accounts » Login Options. At the bottom of the panel you'll see Network Account Server; click on the Edit button and there is a listing of directory services. The button in the bottom left-hand corner says Open Directory Utility; click on this to launch.
published on Friday, the 29. January 2010, macosxhints
Use Stickies as a constant 'To Do' reminder on the Desktop
I use my desktop a lot, and there are already too many files to click -- so I don't need another icon to click, but I need to have some simple reminder about my future tasks. I was looking for something simple and small, and always there. Yesterday I came up with the following solution. Open Stickies and create a new note, without any line breaks, listing those tasks you want to get done. For example: [Dentist/Holiday Shopping/Buy new coat/Get groceries/etc.] Grab the bottom right corner of the Sticky note, reduce it to a single line in height, and enlarge it horizontally to fill your screen width. Now minimize the Sticky (double-click on its title bar), and all your notes will show on the Sticky's title bar. Finally, move this reminder Sticky directly below the menu bar, and apply Open at Login. (You can do this by Control-clicking the Dock and selecting (in 10.5) Open at Login from the contextual menu, or via the Accounts System Preferences panel). N...
published on Tuesday, the 22. December 2009, macosxhints
10.6: Set alert sound volume from menu bar icon
When you Shift-click the standard Sound Volume icon in the menu bar, the control that pops up changes the Alert sound volume; you can check this by opening System Preferences » Sound. [robg adds: In prior releases of OS X, the Option key was used for this trick. However, in 10.6, the Option key is used to change the audio inputs and outputs.]
published on Monday, the 12. October 2009, macosxhints
A shortcut to see more info for Bluetooth devices
In the Bluetooth System Preferences panel, if you option-click on a device in the left-hand side of the window, you'll see more detailed information about that device on the right-hand side of the window. This is the same information you'll see if you select the device, click the Action (gear) icon at the bottom of the window, and choose Show More Info from the pop-up menu. Also, if you open the Bluetooth System Preferences pane while holding down the Option key, it will default to the Show More Info display for the last-selected device. [robg adds: Holding down the Option key is much simpler than using the contextual menu. This works in at least 10.5 and 10.6; I'm not sure about 10.4.]
published on Monday, the 21. September 2009, macosxhints
10.6: Upgrade iStat Menus prior to Snow Leopard install
After installing Snow Leopard, all my menu bar icons disappeared. After some digging, I found out that version 1.3 of iStat Menus is not compatible with Snow Leopard (version 2.0, released shortly after Snow Leopard shipped, is compatible). I had a problem, though, because the uninstaller is located within the iStat Menus System Preferences panel. Since the panel would crash every time I tried to open it in Snow Leopard, here's how I solved that problem. First, I downloaded the 1.3 installer from the web site, Control-clicked on the package and chose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu, and found the uninstaller tool in the Contents » Resources folder. As soon as I had this uninstalled, my menulets returned. So make sure you upgrade to version 2.0 (assuming you're running 10.5) prior to upgrading to Snow ...
published on Wednesday, the 9. September 2009, macosxhints
Print via Linksys print server PSUS4 and HP OfficeJet 5500
I finally got my Mac (Mac PowerPC G5 running OS X 10.4) to print via a Linksys print server PSUS4 to my HP OfficeJet 5510. I had to compile a number of different hints in order to do this, but wanted to make it easier for the next person. First, find out the static IP address for your print server -- it's easy to find if you have a PC on your network (which I did; sorry I'm no help on how to figure it out with a Mac). Then do the following: Download the open-source Linux drivers for HP printers. Make sure you download the hpijs, Foomatic-RIP, and ESP Ghostscript packages. Install the Footmatic and Ghostscript packages, then restart. You will not be prompted to restart, but it is necessary before you can install the hpijs package. Install the hpijs package and restart again. Go to the Print & Fax System Preferences pane, and add a p...
published on Wednesday, the 9. September 2009, macosxhints
10.6: Lock the screen via a keyboard shortcut
When I step away from my Mac at work, I want a quick way to lock the screen, and hitting a hot-corner with the mouse is problematic for me. This hint details how to lock the screen from the keyboard by using Automator to build a Service in Snow Leopard. First, check the General tab on the Security System Preferences panel to ensure that the Require password [some period] after sleep or screen saver begins box is checked. Then, open Automator in the Applications folder, and select Service from the screen that appears. At the top of the new Service's actions, in the Service receives drop-down, select no input from the options. Make sure that any application is selected in the second drop-down. Add the Start Screensaver action (in the Utilities group of actions) to the Service by dragging it to the right. Save the Service (Autom...
published on Tuesday, the 8. September 2009, macosxhints
An AppleScript/Java solution to move and resize windows
I have been always extremely annoyed by the fact that one cannot resize the windows on Mac OS X using all four edges of the window. In fact, that is one of the most aggravating things for me about using a Mac. Another issue is that one cannot use the keyboard to move and resize the windows. I was aggravated enough to write a tool to address just those issues: MoveResize (free and open source). The MoveResize tool requires that System Preferences » Universal access » Seeing » Enable Access for Assistive Devices is checked. How it works: The implementation uses AppleScript to get the frontmost window and its bounds. It sends the bounds rectangle to a server implemented in Java over a socket connection. The Java server takes the screen shot of the full Desktop and uses it as the Image label (a JLabel with ImageIcon) as the content pane of an undecorated JFrame which has the same bounds as the Desktop...
published on Thursday, the 23. July 2009, macosxhints