10.6: Delete selected page(s) from a PDF in Preview

The function to delete the selected page (or pages) from a PDF file disappeared from the Edit menu of Preview in Snow Leopard. Even worse, it was replaced (using the same Command-Delete shortcut) with a command that moves the entire PDF document to the trash. You can, however, still delete selected page(s) through an undocumented keyboard shortcut. Hold down Shift-Command-Delete with one or more pages selected, and only those pages will be deleted from the document. Page numbering, however, does not update to reflect this deletion until you (re)save the file (in 10.5, the numbering updated instantly upon deletion).

published on Friday, the 6. November 2009, macosxhints

Delete email in Mail without showing next message

One of the "features" in Apple's Mail program that has always annoyed me is how it handles messages after doing a delete operation. If you press Delete to throw away the message you're currently looking at, Mail displays the next message (marking it read in the process). While I like the fact that Mail marks displayed messages as read, I have always found it annoying that it displays a message that I have not specifically selected (and then marks it as read). There's a way around this. Instead of pressing Delete, press Option-Delete. With this shortcut (which doesn't show up in the Edit menu), Mail deletes the currently-displayed message and then does nothing at all, and the next message is not displayed. This is exactly what I want -- I now must explicitly tell Mail when I want a message to be displayed. I expect I can make this the default using the Keyboard Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard System Preferences panel, but I have yet to play with that. [rob...

published on Wednesday, the 4. November 2009, macosxhints

Telestream ScreenFlow 2.0 adds new editing capabilities

Telestream has released an update to its ScreenFlow screencasting software for Mac. Version 2 allows users to upload content directly to YouTube, with support for both SD and HD resolutions. The company has also added a variety of new 2D and 3D transitions, along with expanded control over editing, video speed, audio levels, keyboard shortcuts and document packages....

published on Monday, the 26. October 2009, macintosh-news-network

DTP Tools announces Blatner Tools public beta for InDesign

DTP Tools has announced a public beta of the Blatner Tools suite, a set of 12 InDesign plug-ins designed for functions such as automatically applying paragraph styles or locating colors within placed graphics. The plug-ins feature over 100 new features and provide tools for controlling text, comparing paragraph styles, or applying keyboard shortcuts to layers, styles or color swatches. For keeping track of changes, it includes a lite version of the companyís History plug-in which displays a panel listing of all past actions....

published on Thursday, the 22. October 2009, macintosh-news-network

Launch items in Stacks via AppleScript and keyboard

Unfortunately, my two favorite application launchers -- Butler and Quicksilver -- aren't quite up to snuff with Snow Leopard just yet. Spotlight works OK most of the time, but I've started to rely on the Dock's stacks for launching what I need. However, I'm very keyboard-centric, and I don't like going to my mouse any more than I have to, so I wrote an AppleScript that will open the Stack for me, and using 10.6's new Services features, I can trigger that AppleScript with a keyboard shortcut. Here is the script: tell application "System Events" key code 99 using control down -- ctl-F3 to focus on Dock keystroke "Applications" -- should take focus to Applications folder key code 36 -- hit Return to open stack end tell Once the Stack opens, you can type in the first few letters of an application and hit return to launch it. The script itself is fully compatible with 10.5 as well, but assigning it to a keyboard shortcut natively is not. The following bit ...

published on Wednesday, the 14. October 2009, macosxhints

10.6: Move message in Mail via a keyboard shortcut

10.6 now allows you to create keyboard shortcuts to file messages in Mail, much like the functionality of software like Mail Act-On. Of course, this technique doesn't provide the same elegant on-screen notification as those add-ons, but it works effectively and doesn't require a Mail bundle to be installed. In 10.5, users could create shortcuts, but they didn't work. As an example, say you created a mailbox (which looks like a folder in the Mail sidebar) called Newsletters. In System Preferences » Keyboard » Keyboard Shortcuts, create an Application shortcut for Mail, and complete the Menu Title field based on your mailbox name (Newsletters, in this example). As always, menu titles must match exactly (including capitalization) and mnemonic shortcuts are easiest to remember. Due to the increasing number of shortcuts used by Apple, plus my own extensiv...

published on Thursday, the 8. October 2009, macosxhints

TouchPad 2.0 adds multi-touch support, new media remote

Edovia has launched TouchPad 2.0, the latest version of its iPhone app that allows users to remotely control their Mac. New features include a media remote which is said to resemble the Apple remote, along with more keyboard functions such as shortcuts, arrows, or page-up and page-down controls. The latest version also provides bug fixes, multi-touch support and new localizations....

published on Tuesday, the 6. October 2009, macintosh-news-network

10.6: Open a new Search this Mac window

New to Snow Leopard (I think) is the ability to open a new global search window in the Finder via a keyboard shortcut. Just press Command-Option-Space, and you'll get a new Finder search window with scope for searching your Mac globally. [robg adds: You can change this shortcut in the Keyboard System Preferences panel.]

published on Friday, the 25. September 2009, macosxhints

Change the size of Safari's QuickTime controls

In the past, in-browser QuickTime controls were extremely awkward. Loading an MP3 track in Safari, for instance, would yield controls that were incredibly tiny. Things have gotten a little bit better with the latest Safari release.You can now use the zoom feature, via the View » Zoom In (or Out) menu items (and their keyboard shortcuts), or by using "pinch-to-zoom" if you're on a laptop.The controls can now be much larger, although the scrobbling icon is at a fairly poor resolution.[robg adds: As submitted, this hint discussed QuickTime X as the source of zoomable controller, but it seems to be based on Safari's page zoom feature. Although Firefox also has a page zoom feature, it won't zoom the QuickTime controller. This hint should work in both 10.5 and 10.6.]

published on Tuesday, the 22. September 2009, macosxhints

10.6: See Dock contextual menus without application entries

Normally when you Control-click on an item in the Dock, you'll see a contextual menu with that program's Dock commands, along with the OS X system commands (Hide/Show, Quit, and Options). In 10.6, there's now a keyboard shortcut to see just the OS X system commands: hold down Command and Control, then click on an application's Dock icon.This may not be all that helpful, but it does make closing System Preferences somewhat quicker and cleaner looking, as you don't see all the individual panels in the contextual menu.[robg adds: If you add in the Option key while holding Command and Control with the contextual menu visible, Quit will change into Force Quit, just as though you had pressed Control-Option before clicking to get the "full" contextual menu.]

published on Friday, the 18. September 2009, macosxhints