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
Digital Performer 7.1 adds tuner plugin, guitar presets
MOTU has introduced a new version of its music production software, Digital Performer. Version 7.1 features a new tuner plug-in designed to work with a variety of pitched instruments such as a saxaphone or bass guitar. The company has added four new amplifier models including preamp, vintage, classic, and modern guitar tones. Other enhancements include new guitar-tone and channel-strip presets, as well as additional plug-in presets. For added control, keyboard shortcuts have been expanded with new options for zooming or moving MIDI notes up or down....
published on Thursday, the 21. January 2010, macintosh-news-network
Automatically zoom new pages in Safari
Safari has a nice feature to zoom in (or out) on a webpage, which is great for large monitors. Unfortunately, you're not able to set a default zoom level for new pages. CSS hacks exist, but zooming via CSS doesn't seem to work as well as the native zoom function in Safari. The AppleScript in this hint zooms in on any new web page using Safari's own zoom function. The script is quite a hack -- it checks every tenth of a second to see if the currently active tab isn't zoomed in. If it's not zoomed in, the script activates the corresponding keyboard shortcuts to zoom the page. You can edit the script to change how often the zoom-check should be made, and what level of zoom should be made. repeat try -- we have...
published on Wednesday, the 20. January 2010, macosxhints
Quickly archive and/or delete Gmail messages in Mail.app
In the recent Move messages to a target folder via keyboard shortcut hint, I noticed a user describing a script he'd written to allow him to archive messages from four different Gmail accounts. I replied with this simpler suggestion, and I think perhaps it might merit being considered as a hint in its own right. A quick search of the site didn't show that it'd been posted before. When you define your Gmail account in Mail.app, make sure you do the following: Under Mailbox Behaviors for Trash, make sure both options are unchecked. You want Mail to not move deleted messages to the trash, and not to store them on the server. For Junk, check Store junk messages on the server, and set auto-delete to never. In the listing of your GMail account's folders within your Mail.app sidebar, select the Spam folder and choose it as Mail.app's Junk folder. You can do t...
published on Tuesday, the 29. December 2009, macosxhints
ArtRage Studio, Studio Pro get new tools, interface
Ambient Design has launched new illustration programs, ArtRage Studio and ArtRage Studio Pro. The releases expand on the original ArtRage, which features 12 painting tools in an interface set up for beginning artists. Studio adds an improved interface with customizable keyboard shortcuts. New painting tools include text, watercolor, a sticker spray and both gloop and inking pens, with auto-smoothing features. Unlimited layers and layer groups are supported, with blending options. The app also allows for placing pre-made objects called peel-off stickers....
published on Friday, the 18. December 2009, macintosh-news-network
Gboard provides dedicated hardware Gmail shortcuts
Gboard.com has released the Gboard, a shortcut keyboard designed specifically for Gmail users. The device provides 19 different Gmail shortcuts, for tasks such as marking spam or trash, forwarding or replying to e-mails, and adding or removing stars. The unit requires no initial software in order to work, and is color-coded to separate different task categories....
published on Friday, the 4. December 2009, macintosh-news-network
10.6: Move messages to a target folder via keyboard shortcut
This is how to assign a single keyboard shortcut to move a selected message in Mail.app into a designated folder -- e.g., a Gmail-style archive folder. You can do this with Mail Act-On, but that costs money. You should be able to do this simply with OS X's assignable keyboard shortcuts, but that fails: OS X doesn't let you describe a command in a way that distinguishes between moving and copying a message. This method uses a keyboard shortcut plus a Service plus AppleScript. Ugly but it works. This is how to assign a single keyboard shortcut to move a selected message in Mail.app into a designated folder -- e.g., a Gmail-style archive folder. You can do this with Mail Act-On, but that costs money. You should be able t...
published on Monday, the 30. November 2009, macosxhints
NDrive iPhone navigation app arrives on App Store for $30
NDrive Navigation Systems has released its self-titled iPhone app on the US App Store. The GPS utility provides full map coverage for the US, including 3D representations of important buildings or other landmarks. Users can take advantage of a large keyboard for quick entry, while the interface supports multi-touch input for zoom, tilt and shortcuts....
published on Thursday, the 12. November 2009, macintosh-news-network
Client Folder Maker 3.5 adds Snow Leopard support
Geeksuit has launched a major update to its folder creation and management software, releasing Client Folder Maker 3.5. CFM v3.5, which operates as a preference pane via menu items, keyboard shortcuts or contextual menus, creates folder hierarchies based on client names, replicating all the support folders. It supports adding, renaming or deleting individual folders in the hierarchies, with tag variables for customization....
published on Monday, the 9. November 2009, macintosh-news-network
Start a new Mail message from anywhere
My workflow is very email-centric and I've often wished I could start a new email in Mail by pressing a keyboard combo in any program. I use QuickSilver, and the regular way of searching for a contact's email address and then creating a new mail that way seems awkward to me compared to the email address completion Mail.app offers. After many tries, I finally found out how to get Mail.app to open a new message window using AppleScript: tell application "Mail" set t to make new outgoing message set visible of t to true activate end tell Save this as an AppleScript using AppleScript Editor, and then tie a keyboard shortcut to that script using your favorite keyboard shortcut creation tool. Tested with 10.6.1. [robg adds: This also works in 10.5, and probably many releases before that. Spark is one of many program you can use to create the keyboard shortcut. In ...
published on Monday, the 9. November 2009, macosxhints