Tips & Tricks

Tips and tricks for all things Apple! Whether you want to learn tips for a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or much more, you will find many tricks, tips, tutorials, and excellent walkthroughs for Apple devices and software here.

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Access a Geek GUI in Mac OS X Open & Save Dialog Boxes

Feb 14, 2007 - 9 Comments
Finder

Do you like geeking around with paths and jumping about the file system with the Go To trick in Mac OS X, but you come from a background in unix? You’re in luck, because OSXDaily reader Shane submitted this great tip relating to an alternate method of accessing Go To Folder in dialog windows you … Read More

How to Resize Photos Directly in Mail App of Mac OS X

Feb 10, 2007 - 7 Comments
resize email in Mac Mail app

Want to email a picture to someone from a Mac, but the photo is too large? Did you know you can quickly resize photos and pictures directly in the Mail app for Mac OS X? That’s right, you can resize attached pictures right in the Mail application without having to leave to resize through another … Read More

Private Browsing is a Little Known Safari Feature in Mac OS X

Feb 9, 2007 - 3 Comments
Turn on Private Browsing in Safari on a Mac

Here’s a very useful feature that is widely overlooked by Mac Safari users, the ability to enable Private Browsing. What does that mean exactly? Basically it allows you to browse the web without a trace; nothing is added to the history, autofill, downloads window, and no information about what you are viewing or reading on … Read More

Basic Command Line Utilities, Tips, & Commands

Feb 7, 2007 - 9 Comments
Terminal in macOS

Many Mac users avoid the command line altogether, a reasonable amount probably don’t even know it exists. For the curious out there, here are some basic and essential commands and functionalities to know if you want to get started using the Mac OS X Terminal. We’ll cover simple file manipulation, maneuvering in the file system, … Read More

Put a Mac to Sleep Remotely via eMail or Text Message

Feb 6, 2007 - 4 Comments
Mail icon

How many times have you left your Mac on, and later while you’re out and about you wish you would have turned the thing off or put it to sleep? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to put it to sleep remotely with a quick email or text message? You can, and it’s easier … Read More

How to Ignore Cache When Refreshing Web Pages in Safari, Firefox, Chrome

Feb 5, 2007 - 1 Comment
Chrome

There are many occasions where you may need to refresh a webpage and that web sites cache, ignoring any locally stored cache files on the Mac so that you can pull a fresh version of a website from the web browser. Being able to ignore existing cached pages when loading a website is very useful … Read More

Vertical Highlighting Using the Modified Selection Tool

Feb 2, 2007 - 2 Comments

Highlighting, cutting, and pasting is a part of virtually every computer users daily routine. We select the desired text by dragging horizontally across the screen, highlighting what we want to copy or edit. But say you want to highlight vertically, in a column of text, rather than choosing an entire line. Easily done thanks to … Read More

How to Launch GUI Applications from the Terminal

Feb 1, 2007 - 31 Comments
Terminal in macOS

We all know how to launch applications from the GUI with a double-click on the icon or clicking on the app in the Dock, and there are numerous ways to do so, and they’re all relatively speedy. If you spend a decent amount of time with the command line though, it’s nice to be able … Read More

Get System Info from the Mac OS X Login Screen

Jan 31, 2007 - 5 Comments

Whenever you log in to your Mac, you’re greeted by the familiar login screen with the Mac OS X logo, the computer name, and a list of users. You can actually get useful system information from this login screen by clicking on the computer name, which cycles through a series of statistics and info on … Read More

Play QuickTime Movies Full Screen Without QuickTime Pro on Older Mac OS X

Jan 30, 2007 - 22 Comments

If there’s one annoying thing about the QuickTime Player on earlier versions of Mac OS X it is the lack of fullscreen movie support by default. Fortunately modern versions solve that problem, but if a Mac is running a prior version of OS X and has an older version of QuickTime Player, what should you … Read More

4 Command Keystroke Tricks to Ease Navigation in Mac OS X

Jan 26, 2007 - 5 Comments

Navigating around Mac OS X is significantly easier than competitive operating systems, and that’s largely thanks to the Dock, Expose (Mission Control), Spotlight, and the improved Finder, which is the OS X file system. Of course there are also third party apps that people swear by, such as Quicksilver, but with so many great features … Read More

Easily Determine Architecture Type of Mac OS X Apps – Universal, Intel, or PowerPC

Jan 24, 2007 - 1 Comment

Regardless of your thoughts on Apple’s switch to the Intel architecture, we are now in a transition period where many apps are either PowerPC, Universal, or Intel only. While most new applications are at least Universal binaries, some are PowerPC, and running these through Rosetta on your Intel Mac can cause a performance decrease. So … Read More

Easily Change the Short Username in Mac OS X

Jan 22, 2007 - 1 Comment

Have you ever wanted to change the short username in Mac OS X? Dig around in the System Preferences and you’ll soon find it’s not as easy as just typing in a new name. Apple has some directions on how to do it, but the instructional document is painful just to look at, let alone … Read More

airport – the Little Known Command Line Wireless Utility for Mac

Jan 18, 2007 - 95 Comments
airport wi-fi network command in Mac OS X

Hidden from the casual Mac user is a spiffy command line utility that allows you to view, configure, and troubleshoot your Mac’s wireless connection, entirely from the Terminal of MacOS and Mac OS X. This command has a help file but is otherwise but not much documentation, and judging by the obscure location of the … Read More

Six Simple Must-know Keystrokes for Safari Users

Jan 18, 2007 - 13 Comments

Safari is my browser of choice in Mac OS X, I like Chrome and FireFox a lot but it doesn’t have the same Apple polish to it, and page rendering seems speedier in Safari (my opinion, no intention on sparking a browser war here). If you’re a Safari user, here are some key strokes that … Read More

10 Must-Know Startup Commands for Older Macs

Jan 12, 2007 - 4 Comments
Finder logo

A variety of keyboard shortcuts and commands can be used during a Mac system startup to access various features, systems administration utilities, and troubleshooting tricks. Some of these startup keys may be slightly different on PPC and Intel Macs, but many of the features remain the same, whether it’s accessing safe-boot mode, hardware tests, single-user … Read More

7 Useful Dock Shortcuts & Key Commands for Mac

Jan 6, 2007 - 2 Comments
The Mac Dock

The Dock is a major part of most Mac OS users daily lives, used for everything from application launching, to storing of minimized windows and apps, where the Trash is located, and more. But the Mac Dock has more tricks up its sleeve than what is readily visible, and with the help of key command … Read More

Twenty Steps to Help Diagnose and Fix System Problems

Dec 20, 2006 - 3 Comments

Mac ownership is largely troublefree, but sooner or later you’ll probably run into some kind of problem with your systems performance. MacOSXHints.com is one of the best sites out there for tips and helpful information for the Mac, and although this article is dated (almost three years now!) it is just as useful as ever. … Read More

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