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Disable Mail Animations in Mac OS X

Jul 27, 2011 - 15 Comments
Disable Mail Animation in OS X Lion

If you have used Mail for a long time, you have probably noticed the new Mail animations for replying and sending, where the message seems to slide off the screen. Like all the other new animations, this is a polarizing addition and some people hate it. Turning off the general new window animations in OS … Read More

Disable the New Window Animation in Mac OS X

Jul 25, 2011 - 30 Comments
The New Window Animation in Mac OS X Lion can be disabled if you don't like it

The latest versions of Mac OS X bring a subtle new window animation, it’s so subtle that many people probably won’t even notice it, but it displays any time a new window is created. It’s better seen than described (the attached screenshot only captures so much), but basically the new window grows to full sized … Read More

Disable the Window Shadow on Screen Shots in Mac OS X

May 23, 2011 - 4 Comments
Screen shot without the window shadows in Mac OS X

Have you ever noticed that there’s a shadow on every screen shot of a window you take in Mac OS X? If you don’t want those shadows to appear on your screen shots, you can disable the shadow effect by turning to defaults commands at the Terminal.

Super-Size Dock Icon Magnification in Mac OS X

May 9, 2011 - 2 Comments
Super Size Mac OS X Dock Icon Magnification

For those using larger displays you may wish the Mac OS X Dock icon magnification was greater on the Mac, but it turns out this can be achieved easily with a defaults write command. With a little effort, you can super magnify the size of Dock icons on Mac.

Show Only Currently Active Apps in the Mac OS X Dock

Apr 28, 2011 - 13 Comments
Finder icon on the Mac

You can set the Mac Dock to only show actively running apps, making it perform a bit like a task manager rather than an application launcher. This is a great trick if you prefer a minimalist Mac OS X desktop and Dock. In order to set the Dock to only display currently active apps, you’ll … Read More

Disable the Spaces Animation in Mac OS X

Mar 9, 2011 - 9 Comments

Anytime you flip between Spaces in Mac OS X there’s a fancy animation, this is nice and all but it makes switching Spaces slower than it needs to be. You can disable the animation which speeds up Spaces transition a bit. Disable Spaces Animation Launch Terminal and type: defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-swoosh-animation-off -bool YES Then … Read More

Change the default event length in iCal

Feb 13, 2011 - 5 Comments

iCal automatically assumes that a new event will be an hour long, but you can manually adjust that into shorter minute intervals by using the defaults write command. Here is the syntax to enter into the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.iCal “Default duration in minutes for new event” 15 You can set the 15 at the … Read More

Enable Single Application Mode in Mac OS X

Jun 7, 2010 - 1 Comment
Single Application Mode in Mac OS X

Single Application Mode is an interesting feature of MacOS and Mac OS X that is often misunderstood, we’ll discuss what the feature is, how it works, and how to enable it on your Mac running nearly any version of Mac OS still in use, whether that’s macOS 12, 11, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, or newer.

Require a Password on Waking from Sleep, but Not When Screensaver is Active

Apr 26, 2009 - 9 Comments
Screen saver with no password

Have you ever wanted to have your Mac require a password on waking from system sleep, but not ask for a password when the screensaver is on or the screen was locked? Well, me neither, but someone out there might and it’s kind of a nifty customization tip that has some valid uses in some … Read More

Show Full Directory Path in Mac OS X Finder Window Title Bars

Dec 2, 2007 - 32 Comments
Show the full path in Finder title bars

Have you ever wished you could see the complete file system path in the titlebar of a Finder file system window? Well you can use a secret setting in Mac OS X to display the path in the titlebars of windows. The geekier Mac users amongst us and those familiar with the unix world should … Read More

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