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- 10.5: Annotate non-PDF (raster) images in Preview
As is known, one can annotate PDF documents by means of Mac OS X standard Preview application. It turns out that the same functionality is available for raster images also, but for some reason, it's hidden by developers.
Open your picture in Preview, then select View » Customize Toolbar. Drag the Annotate tool to your toolbar. Then just choose the type of annotation you want to make from the newly-created toolbar element, and use the mouse to add it to your picture. You can also use following modifiers:
Press the '+' or '-' keys to increase or decrease line thickness.
Choose Tools » Show Colors and use the color wheel to change the color of the selected object (including notes).
Choose Tools » Show Fonts and use the fonts panel to change the text note font.
This functionality could be useful when commenting screenshots.
[robg ...
- 10.5: Reorder Login Items via drag and drop
Here is a way to re-order the login items in your user's Accounts System Preferences panel. (Whether this is actually useful, as those items now load asynchronously, is another question entirely.)
Click and hold on a login item, and drag the item a little bit down and/or right. Notice that a dark line will appear at the bottom of the list of items in the login panel. Release the mouse button, and that item will be moved to the bottom of the list. Not as convenient as "drop to the location of your choice," of course, but with a modicum of planning, you can re-order your list this way.
[robg adds: As noted, login items now load many-at-a-time, so I'm not sure reordering them makes any difference, other than possibly making them easier to find in the list.]
- 10.5: Avoid syslogd CPU usage when using AppleScript
Since the release of 10.5, I've seen that the execution of AppleScripts triggers heavy activity of syslogd, basically causing it to take over the CPU. I've found that by killing the syslogd process (which will automatically restart) and removing the asl.db file from the /var/log directory, I can at least temporarily solve the problem.
Here's a two-line AppleScript to do just that:
do shell script "sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd" with administrator privilegesdo shell script "sudo rm /var/log/asl.db" with administrator privileges
Run that, and CPU usage by syslogd should drop to normal levels again, at least for a while.
[robg adds: ...
- One fix for built-in iSight and Photo Booth or iMovie HD
If you're having trouble with your built-in iSight in Photo Booth, iMovie HD '06 (or both), here's one possible fix. If there is a picture of a camera in Photo Booth where the video/pictures come up (or the black screen) with a cross over it, just quit Photo Booth and open it back up again.This also goes for iMovie '06, but in that app, there's a blue screen and it says that there is no outside camera attached, or the outside camera is not working properly. The only problem with this message is that there really isn't an outside camera attached to the Mac you are working with! However, quitting and restarting iMovie should fix the problem.
- Reduce battery usage by controlling Flash in Safari
If you use Safari and a laptop, you may be surprised to find that sites that incorporate Flash may be draining your battery. Unless you're one of those people who browse with Activity Monitor open, you're probably not aware that many sites are sucking your battery dry. Many sites incorporate Flash, in particular to display advertisements. These little Flash tidbits may be poorly written, and can make your CPU work really hard. This, in turn, will drain your battery at a fast rate.You can prevent Flash from automatically loading in Safari using Safari Stand. Install it, launch Safari, go to the Stand menu, choose SafariStand Setting, then click on Advanced. Check the Load Plug-in Manually box in the Flash section and restart Safari.Now when your browser encounters Flash, you can click the box where the Flash would have been to load that bit of Flash. You can also add exceptions to the site alteration area -- for exam...
- Make Adobe CS apps run on case-sensitive volumes
For anyone who, like me, has yet to upgrade from Photoshop CS to something newer, and is getting an error dialog on launching Photoshop CS on their case-sentivie volumes, here's a possible solution. The dialog complains that the CS app "Could not complete your request because certain required files were not found in the Adobe Photoshop CS Required folder. Please reinstall Photoshop to restore these files..," and here's the solution.Navigate to Adobe Photoshop CS.app » (Control-Click and choose Show Package Contents » Contents » Resources » asn. In that folder, there should be a single file called PS.SIF. Rename the file to PS.sif, and Photoshop should now launch. The same thing needs to be done to ImageReady to get it to work. Note that I've only tested this with Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS, which are the only two CS apps I have. I can't speak for whether it works on any of the others.It seems like a bit of a shame that Adobe couldn't take ...
- CaliBrate - Make batch iCal changes
The macosxhints Rating:
[Score: 9 out of 10] Developer: Wooden Brain Concepts Price: $8.00 sharewareIf you've ever wanted to modify a number of events in iCal, you'll soon find it's basically not possible. That's where CaliBrate comes in, which I discovered last week when it was written up as a Mac Gem on macworld.com. I'd never heard of the program before, so I downloaded it and gave it a trial run.Over the years, my iCal calendars have become something of a mess. There were near-duplicate calendars (Personal and Home, for instance), as well as calendars that contained events that I'd originally placed on one calendar but really wanted to have on another. CaliBrate m...
- Holiday today - no new hints until Monday
Macworld is closed today in observance of the Fourth of July holiday in the United States. The hints will return as usual on Monday morning. For those in the USA, enjoy the long weekend!
-rob.
- 10.5: Quick Look files in Open and Save dialogs
I was digging through my old email archives the other day, when I stumbled on one that explained how to use Quick Look on documents in Open and Save dialogs. The trick? A free AppleScript Quick Look Droplet, provided by none other than Apple themselves.
There are actually two little apps on that page -- Quick Look Droplet, and Quick Look Viewer. The first is just what you might guess it is -- drag and drop any file or files onto its icon, and you'll get a Quick Look preview of those files. The second is a miniature media player, of sorts. You can store files inside the application bundle, and those files will be shown in Quick Look when the program runs. So you could, in theory, place the desired documents in the application bundle, then distribute that bundle to customers as a demo of your work, without worry...
- Regain lost space hidden in trash on external disks
Think you emptied the trash on your external drive? Even if you did, there may be large amounts of trash still lurking on external or network drives that has not been emptied. As most folks know, the trash is segregated by user ID, and when you empty the trash, it only empties your user's trash -- even on FireWire disks.
If you delete a user's account on your computer, the system won't remove the trash for that user ID on the external or network drive. This can also happen if you have ever shared a disk between two computers. Since the UIDs on one computer may not be the same as the other, trashes can be created by one computer that cannot be emptied by the other. This can even happen if your username is the same on both computers, but your UIDs (e.g. 501 an 502) are different.
Thus periodically one needs to manually remove the trash like this, in Terminal:
$ sudo -s
$ rm -rf /Volumes/"my_external_disk"/.Trashes/*
$ exit
Replac...
- Listen to Bloomberg Radio via Windows Media Player
Here's how I got Bloomberg Radio working on my Mac. First, download and install both Windows Media Player for Mac OSX and Flip4Mac from this page on Microsoft's site. Then create the following file, and name it Bloomberg_Radio.asf:
<ASX VERSION="3">
<title>Live Bloomberg Radio</title>
<entry>
<title>Bloomberg Radio</title>
<author>Bloomberg.com</author>
<copyright>2006 Bloomberg L.P.</copyright>
<moreinfo href="http://www.bloomberg.com"/>
&l...
- Work around an image movement bug in Word 2008
I was chatting with occasional Hints editor Kirk McElhearn this morning, trying to figure out a Word 2008 image placement issue related to using the arrow keys to position the image. If you use the arrow keys alone, the image moves in large increments (10 pixels at a time, maybe?). For fine image movement control, Word 2008's help says this:
To move an object up, down, or sideways in small increments, click the object, hold down OPTION, and then press an arrow key.
However, this didn't seem to work -- holding Option and pressing any arrow key resulted in no movement at all. Yet Kirk had a document he was editing in Word 2008 whose images would move by fine amounts with Option and the arrow keys. When I tried on my local Mac, though, I had no such luck. After some digging on Microsoft's Word Forum, I ...
- .htaccess, Open Directory, and Leopard Server
I was looking to set up .htaccess on Leopard server, and as I was testing the .htpasswd file I set up for the user (myself), I tried the wrong password and it let me in! It turns out I had used my regular password that's set up through Open Directory. So I deleted the .htpasswd file, and I removed all references to it in the .htaccess file to further test. This is the resulting .htaccess file:
AuthName "Server Access"
AuthType Digest
require valid-user
Just by using the above .htaccess file, I am able to login with any user that has an Open Directory account. Nice treat, for me anyway. I'm guessing others will have to add restrictions for users they don't want to have access.
[robg adds: I have no way of testing this one...]
- One possible fix for internet connections that drop out
If you search the Apple Discussion boards you will see a lot of discussions like this one -- they're all about Airport and Ethernet internet connections dropping. I think I have figured out a solution to the problem (I use 10.5.3), as I was having it as well.
With certain routers, OS X will choose to use the address of the router as the DNS server's IP address. Therefore, it will first try and contact the router to get DNS info, and only after a while will it find it's way to the net. I had a new MacBook Pro with this issue, as well as a new iMac. The latter fortunately showed the wrong DNS server IP (grey fonts), but the Macbook didn't.
The solution is to go in the Network System Preferences panel and select 'Manually' instead of 'Using DCHP'. Then fill in the IP address, subnet mask, router address, and DNS server address. Click 'Advanced' and then go to the 'DNS' tab to verify ...
- Prevent creation of the Mail To Do folder on IMAP servers
For a while I've been annoyed at Mail.app's creation of the Apple Mail To Do folder on my IMAP server (I use Dreamhost). No matter what I did, it just wouldn't stay gone. There's this hint, and there are some thoughts in the comments, but no real fixes.
I returned to my problem today, and found that by going into Mail » Preferences » Composing, I was able to solve the problem. In the 'Create Notes & To Do's in:' drop-down menu, select On My Mac. Close the preferences, then delete the Apple Mail To Do folder on the server.
That's it! No more 'Apple Mail To Do' folder on the server; just locally.
- Reduce iWow for iTunes' CPU usage on slower Macs
I've been using iWow for iTunes some time now. It makes my music sound great, but there is a downside to it ... if you have a 'slow' Mac like mine (mini 1.42 GHz), it eats up to 42% of the CPU. During CPU intensive tasks, that can be a real pain.
After adjusting some settings, I've come up with a way to reduce the CPU usage significantly! Adjust the settings to look like the ones in this image, and make sure you save those settings.
After these adjustments, disable iTunes' built-in equalizer. After switching to these settings, my CPU usage with iWow dropped down to around 9%. Good luck!
- Back up key files via rsync and ssh
If you find online backup solutions expensive and heavy on your system, you might be pleased to hear there is a cheap, easy way to create a mirror backup your Mac (or other UNIX variant) to a secure online server using a program named rsync. And as of Mac OS X Leopard, rsync will even transfer metadata associated with your files like tags and comments.
This method does not allow you to roll back to previous dated backups like certain backup solutions do (Time Machine, for example). What it does is create a mirrored backup of your Mac on a remote server, so it's best used in conjunction with a local hard drive-based incremental backup solution. Still, if the house burns down, your files will be safe and once you've done the initial backup, rsync is very efficient at keeping your remote backup mirrored with your disk.
In this example, we're going to backup the currently log...
- 10.5: Enable https on 10.5's Apache2 web server
This short how-to explains how to get HTTPS/SSL working on Leopard, which uses apache2. First, follow the steps in this hint, but instead of following Step 5, do the following:Edit /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf, and uncomment the following line (it's line 473 in my installation):Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-ssl.confEdit /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-ssl.conf, and make sure that:SSLCertificateFile points to newcert.pemSSLCertificateKeyFile points to webserver.nopass.keySSLCACertificateFile points to cacert.pemSSLCARevocationPath points to demoCA/crlBe sure to include the full pathnames for each entry. Optionally...
- Use wireless networking in safe boot mode
My friend has a much-loved 12" PowerBook G4. Unfortunately, it has developed a VRAM error (confirmed by Apple Hardware Test) that makes it impossible to boot in "normal" mode. However, it can boot in Safe Mode, which seems to bypass the VRAM. The graphics are obviously not as good, but the computer is quite usable in Safe Mode. My friend wants to use it as a surfing/email computer for his wife -- but doesn't want to shell out the $300+ for a new logic board installation to fix the VRAM. The only problem is that Safe Mode disables wireless networking! I searched in vain (via Google) for any tips to enable AirPort in Safe Mode. After a bit of thinking, I found a way to get wireless running in Safe Mode (on OS X 10.4, at least).Open Terminal and enter:$ sudo kextload /system/library/extensions/appleairport.kext$ sudo kextload /system/library/extensions/appleairport2.kextThen open the Network pane of System Preferences, and ...
- 10.5: Disable shadow in screen window captures
Leopard has a new unwelcome (to me, at least) feature -- a shadow around whole-window screenshots (ie, Command-Shift-4, Space). Fortunately this can be disabled from Terminal with this command:defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool trueTo make the changes take effect, logout and login, or restart SystemUIServer.[robg adds: This works, and I activated it with killall SystemUIServer in Terminal. To add the shadow effect back in, delete the newly-added pref: defaults delete com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow, then restart SystemUIServer again.]
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