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Toggle Tab Window Navigation in Mac OS X Instantly with a Keyboard Shortcut

Aug 5, 2014 - 7 Comments

Tab Navigation is a feature of OS X that allows Mac users to navigate around active windows and dialog boxes with the Tab key, rather than the cursor. It functions very similarly to how using the tab key in most web browsers and Windows will skip between onscreen elements, and it’s a handy feature for … Read More

TinkerTool for Mac OS X Lion is a Must Have for Customizing 10.7

Oct 7, 2011 - 6 Comments
TinkerTool for Mac OS X Lion

If you are a fan of Mac tips and tricks and customizing OS X, you absolutely have to get TinkerTool for Lion. TinkerTool is broken into 12 main sections covering Finder, Dock, General, Desktop, Applications, Fonts, Font Smoothing, Login Items, Safari, iTunes, QuickTime X, and Resume (OS X Lion’s Restore feature), each section has a … Read More

Upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Jul 20, 2011 - 45 Comments
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Mac OS X Lion is available now and many of us will be upgrading immediately, while others will be waiting. Regardless of when you decide to upgrade to OS X 10.7, you’ll want to update your existing Mac OS X installation, check app compatibility, and backup your data. Recommended Steps for Upgrading to Mac OS … Read More

Delete Specific Application Saved States from Mac OS X Resume

Jul 17, 2011 - 31 Comments
Delete specific application saved states in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

One of the new features in OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion is the “Resume” ability for all applications to save their last state, meaning when you relaunch the app or reboot your Mac, the application will “resume” and reopen again showing all of the windows and data that was last in use. … Read More

How to Convert a Text File into a Spoken Audio File via Command Line

Jun 28, 2011 - 16 Comments

Using Mac OS X Text to Speech tools, we can convert any .RTF or .TXT file into a spoken audio file which can then be transferred to your iPod or iPhone for later listening. Update: There is an easier way to do a text to audio file conversion using the OS X Services menu, the … Read More

Check Battery Cycle Count on a Mac

Jun 23, 2011 - 17 Comments
Battery Cycle Count

If you have a MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, you can check the battery cycle count. This lets you see how many charge and drain cycles have been used on the battery, and gives you an idea of overall battery health. This functionality exists in all versions of macOS and Mac OS X, and … Read More

Uninstall Mac Applications

Jun 20, 2011 - 58 Comments
Uninstall a Mac App

Uninstalling applications from Mac OS X is probably the easiest method of removing apps from any operating system, and it’s far easier on a Mac than anything you’ll encounter in the Windows world. Deleting apps is so simple that some new Mac users are left wondering what else they’re supposed to do, I have received … Read More

Summon Dictionary & Wikipedia for Words in Mac OS X with Three-Finger Tap

Jun 20, 2011 - 15 Comments
Dictionary in web browser on Mac

Did you know you can instantly access a dictionary, thesaurus, or Wikipedia entry for a word or phrase, from nearly anywhere in Mac OS X? All you need to do is remember a super easy three-finger tap trick.

Set Mac Desktop Background Wallpaper from any Image in Safari

Jun 16, 2011 - 12 Comments
set Mac OS X desktop background wallpaper picture from Safari

You can set any image on the web as your Mac desktop background wallpaper directly from Safari. This means you don’t even need to download the picture to your computer to set it as the desktop background, you can just find a picture on the web and immediately use it as the wallpaper on the … Read More

Get Detailed WiFi Info From the Menu Bar in Mac OS X

Jun 15, 2011 - 13 Comments
Option-click Wi-Fi menu extended details in Mac OS X

You can retrieve extended wireless connectivity data and details from anywhere within Mac OS X by using a nifty trick that toggles the Wi-Fi menu bar item to display additional specifics about any wireless router. To do this, hold down the Option key and then click on the WiFi menu icon found on the Mac.

Monitor Progress, Errors, & Watch All Activity During a Mac OS X Install

Jun 14, 2011 - 4 Comments
Show all logs in the Mac OS X install process

You can watch what’s going on behind the scenes during a Mac OS X system installation by accessing the Logs window after the installer has begun. From Logs, use the pulldown menu to select “Show All Logs” to see a live stream of all activity pertaining to the OS X installation and/or upgrade process. “Show … Read More

How to Create & Burn a Bootable Mac OS X Lion Install DVD

Jun 8, 2011 - 120 Comments
Make your own OS X Lion Bootable Installation DVD

Apple announced that Lion would be released exclusively through the Mac App Store for $30. This is great because the App Store policy allows a single purchase to install on all your Macs, but what if you don’t have broadband access on all your Macs, or what if you just want a bootable installation disc? … Read More

How to Check if your Mac Malware Definitions List is Updated

Jun 2, 2011 - 10 Comments
Check if your Macs Malware Definition List is Updated

The malware protecting Mac OS X Security Update will automatically download and update it’s malware definitions list from Apple, but if you’re like me you probably want to know how to manually check if the malware list is updated or not. We’ll show you where the malware list is located on Mac, and how to … Read More

Get a Black iOS Style Menu Bar in Mac OS X

May 25, 2011 - 17 Comments
Get a Black Menu Bar in Mac OS X

Distracted by your menu bar? If you want a stylish iOS-like black menu bar in Mac OS X but don’t want to go all out with an iOS / Mac desktop, you should grab Nocturne, it’s free and adds some pizazz to your Mac desktop. Nocturne actually serves several other purposes intended to make the … 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.

Setup a User Name Alias as an Alternative to Changing Account Names in Mac OS X

May 22, 2011 - 1 Comment
advanced options for accounts in mac os x

If you don’t want to deal with the lengthy process of changing the short user name in Mac OS X, an alternative is to setup user name aliases. A user name alias functions as a simple way to create a shorthand version of an account name. For example, if a users full account name is … Read More

How to Change the Short Name of a User Account in Mac OS X

May 20, 2011 - 22 Comments
Change user short name in Mac OS X

In Mac OS X, a users short name is what their home folder is named after and it’s also the shorthand name for logging into the Mac either from a lock screen or a network connection with remote access through SSH and SFTP. There’s various reasons that you’d want to change the user short name, … Read More

Pause Downloads from the Mac App Store

May 20, 2011 - 5 Comments
Pause downloads from the Mac App Store

You can pause any active download from the Mac App Store by right-clicking on the apps icon in the Dock and selecting “Pause” from the menu. Resuming the download is just a matter of right-clicking again and selecting Unpause.

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