10.5 Allow non-admin users to add and remove printers
pMy techs and I were searching for a way to allow non-admin users to add and remove printers under 10.5. Unfortunately, we could only find a few hints that involved modifying /etc/cups/cupsd.conf -- which did not really meet our needs (those hints did not allow a standard way for a non-admin user to remove printers). So, here's our solution...Please note that we have only tested this a few times, but it seems to work. What we're doing is editing /etc/authorization. More specifically, we're changing the system.preferences dictionary item within the authorization file so that the group string is set to everyone, rather than admin. One way to do this through the GUI is to copy /etc/authorization to your desktop, add .plist to the end of the filename, edit the file with Property List Editor, save, and remove the .plist extension. Then replace the original authorizat...
published on Wednesday, the 8. October 2008, macosxhints
Increase frequency of Mac to MobilMe/iPhone synch
Feeling conned by the promised "push" technology of MobileMe, specifically when making changes on your Mac, only to find out that it will not push, but instead, sync at 15-minute (60 minutes in 10.4.11) intervals? I found the .plist file that controls the "Automatic" sync interval for MobileMe, and changed it from 15 minutes to 1 minute. The file is located in ~/Library » Preferences » ByHost » com.apple.DotMacSync.your_MAC_address.plist. Open this file in Property List Editor, find the AutoSyncInterval key, and then set it to the number of minutes after which you want it to sync with the server. I have it set to 1 right now, and it syncs every minute which is good enough for me at the moment. Hopefully this will be of value to anyone who needs something more immediate than a 15-minute sync, and doesn't want to bother with Manual sync. [robg adds: I was disappointed to read that the 15-minute sync from a Mac to MobileMe/iPhone ...
published on Monday, the 14. July 2008, macosxhints
Customize the inserted date/time in Pages '08
In Pages, I couldn't get both the date and the time inserted in the combination of formats that I wanted. (You can see the available formats by double-clicking on an inserted date/time field.) Here's how I added a customized format. I?m working with Pages 3.0.2 and Mac 10.5.3 on an iMac G5. One has to be comfortable editing a plist file.Quit Pages. Select Pages in the Finder, Control-click on it, and pick Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu. Then, after backing it up somewhere just in case, open the following file:/Contents/Frameworks/SFWordProcessing.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/Defaults.plistYou can do this using TextEdit or the Property List Editor (if you have that installed). In TextEdit, look for the following lines: <string>Custom</string> <integer>0&...
published on Monday, the 23. June 2008, macosxhints
Possibly restore older iPhoto themes in iPhoto '08
Upon trying to create a book in iPhoto '08, I noticed a lot of the old themes were not available. Browsing around, I found the theme folder for iPhoto in the top-level Library folder, in Application Support » iPhoto » Themes. Inside that folder were many themes not available through iPhoto itself, but that were available in older versions. As one example, BabyBoy-Hardcover.IPBookTheme isn't available in the list of book themes pop-up menu, but it is in that folder. I can't guarantee how safe/legal the following process is, but I was able to enable the old themes by editing a parameter in that theme's Contents/Resources folder. I opened Contents » Resources » Implementation.plist in a text editor (or Property List Editor) and changed the Hidden parameter from yes to no. After saving my changes and restarting iPhoto, the old theme was available in iPhoto. [robg adds: I used BBEdit and ran a multi-file search to find the hidden th...
published on Friday, the 20. June 2008, macosxhints
Set a larger font size for the Finder's various views
The Finder's View » Show View Options window only allows for fonts up to 16 points, when in theory you can use any font size you want. For me, changing the size to 18 points makes it that much easier on my eyes, and leads to fewer times when I'll have to use Universal Access. To change the font size, navigate to your user's /Library/Preferences folder. In that folder, find com.apple.Finder.plist. Before you do anything else, make a copy of this file. Now open the original for editing. You can do this in a standard text editor, or but I strongly recommend you use a Property List (plist) editor to do so. Apple provides Property List Editor free of charge with the Developer Tools (it's in /Developer » Applications » Utilities; it's also included if you have the iPhone SDK). If you don't have the Developter Tools, and you don't feel like downloading gigs of developer tools for one app, you can use PrefS...
published on Wednesday, the 9. April 2008, macosxhints
Sync larger To Do notes on Nokia N95
I really like my new Nokia N95, and with Nokia's driver for iSync, things have been working wonderfully. However, I found out that the notes associated to a ToDo task (notes = description in N95) were limited to 500 characters. Since I use some notes bigger than that, I proceeded as follows: Open /Library » PhonePlugins » Nokia-N95.phoneplugin » Contents » Resources » PhoneConduit.plist in your favorite text editor. (I suggest using a text editor rather than Property List Editor.) Change the maxLentgh parameter for the description attribute, in the com.apple.calendars.Task key from 500 to, say, 10000. Save the file and restart iSync. Next time you sync, your notes of up to 10000 characters will be there in you N95. I guess this hint can be extended to others mobile phones and PDAs, but then "caveat emptor."
published on Thursday, the 27. March 2008, macosxhints
Fix an issue with the Firefox download folder location
If you migrate from a previous machine to a new machine using Apple's Migration Assistant, and in the process you create a new user -- this can happen if you create your old user account on the new machine prior to migrating -- you may have issues with Firefox and the Downloads folder. Because of a shortcoming in the migration tool, the OS X Downloads folder for the new account will have the path for the old account, and Firefox will then be unable to save because it does not have the correct permissions. I encountered this issue with 10.5 Leopard (both machines), migrating from an old Mac mini to new Mac pro.The solution is to open ~/Library » Preferences » com.apple.internetconfig.plist with the Property List Editor (Xcode required), navigate to the Download Folder item, and delete the value (not the key; just the value under it), then save the property list file.The next time you save a downloaded file in Firefox, OS X will ask you where you want it. An...
published on Monday, the 10. March 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Set the alarm sound for default iCal alarms
The version of iCal in 10.5 has the ability to automatically add a default alarm to every new event -- enable this feature in the General section of iCal's preferences. However, there's no ability to choose the sound for these default alarms; you get what iCal chooses and have to manually change it each time. But there's a solution to that...To change the default alarm sound in iCal, first quit iCal. Now double-click the com.apple.iCal.plist file in your user's Library » Preferences folder. When Property List Editor opens, click the arrow next to Root and select the Root entry. Click the New Child button in the toolbar. In the entry that was just created, enter the Item as Default alarm sound, leave Class set to String, and then type the name of the sound file you'd like to use in the Value field. Save preferences file and relaunch iCal. Create a new event, and...
published on Monday, the 25. February 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Revert Help Viewer to 10.4-like behavior
For anyone out there who gets frustrated by the Leopard Help application being a background app (no Dock icon), and one that can't be hidden behind other windows, I have a solution for you. In other words, this hint will revert the Help application to the Tiger (and earlier) behavior. This hint requires the Apple Developer Tools (Xcode), and a hex editor such as HexEdit or similar. Read on for a smorgasbord of Interface Builder, Property Lists and hex editing! You will also require root access. Login via the login window, or login via the Terminal and launch your executables with sudo. [robg says: please back up Help Viewer before trying this hint -- see my note below for a quick way to do so!] Part 1: Disable background behaviour Open /System » Library » CoreServices » Help Viewer.app » [...
published on Thursday, the 14. February 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Keep Virtual PC 7's kext out of the Dock
In Leopard, although Virtual PC 7 generally works fine, it puts VirtualPCNetworking1040.kext in the Dock, which should be running in the background. To fix this, open its Info.plist file (probably at /Library » Extensions » VirtualPCNetworking1040.kext » Control-click and pick Show Package Contents » Contents » Info.plist), and add a key of LSUIElement with a string value of 1 just before the final </dict> tag. In a text editor, this would be: <key>LSUIElement</key> <string>1</string> Or you can use the Property List Editor from the Developer Tools to add a new child of the Root with the appropriate key (LSUIElement), class (String), and value (1). ...
published on Friday, the 11. January 2008, macosxhints