If you click and hold on any open applications Dock icon, you will launch Expose for just that app and it’s corresponding windows. You can also access this app-specific Expose with the F10 key (Function+F10 on newer Mac models and keyboards), I’ve used this trick for a long time to quickly switch between windows in … Read More
The more apps you install on your Mac, the more bloated your “Open With” menu gets. Some apps that are completely unrelated to the file type may show up in the “Open With” menu and just serve to clutter your choices. This is annoying, so lets restore the menu to what it should have. How … Read More
If you are using metered internet service either through an official Personal Wi-Fi Hotspot service, a jailbroken iPhone WiFi hotspot, or a local cable or telecom monopoly that’s imposing bandwidth caps and limits on your internet access, or any other bandwidth restricted service, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on your bandwidth consumption so … Read More
Want to change what the default app is that launches when you double-click or otherwise open a file from the OS X Finder? It’s easy to do, and you can change any individual files default application by doing the following from the Mac Finder: Select the file (or file type) that you want to adjust … Read More
If you use Twitter to keep an eye on things or to livestream news and events, this feature in the Twitter for Mac desktop app is a must use. It allows the Twitter app to automatically update and scroll to the most recent tweets, giving you a live and constantly updated feed of what’s going … Read More
You can get desktop Growl notifications in Twitter for Mac, here’s how: From Twitter for Mac, go to the Twitter menu and open Preferences Click on the Notifications tab From the drop down menu, select ‘Growl notification’ for either Tweets, Mentions, or Messages Close out Preferences and changes are immediate Now just a word of … Read More
By default, anytime you take a screen capture in Mac OS X, the resulting screenshot file will save to the current users desktop. This makes retrieval very easy and is very appropriate for the average Mac user, but for those who take a lot of screen shots in Mac OS, they may find their desktop … Read More
If you’ve ever accidentally shut down your Mac, you’re not alone. That dreaded feeling when everything starts closing when you didn’t mean to reboot, ahh! But don’t freak out, there’s an incredibly simple way to stop the shut down process in OS X! All you need to do to stop a Mac shutdown is immediately … Read More
Using a Terminal command, you can turn any screensaver into your background wallpaper on the Mac. In the screenshot above I have the iTunes Album Art screensaver running as the Mac OS X desktop, but you can choose any screensaver you want. Here’s how to do this: Launch System Preferences Click on Desktop & Screen … Read More
There are several steps to password protect a Mac, we’ll cover the essentials so that if someone is to turn on your Mac, wake it from a screensaver, or wake from sleep, they will be required to enter a password in order to use the computer.
You can check your entire print history in Mac OS X by accessing the browser based CUPS utility. This is a very helpful tool for managing printing as well as tracking down origins of printed items, and it works on all versions of Mac with all printers.
You can add blank spacers to the Mac OS Dock as a way of customizing the appearance a bit. This is accomplished by issuing a defaults write command in the Terminal. Each spacer is about the same width as an icon would be, except nothing takes the place of the space, it simply separates other … Read More
Any time that you are away from your computer, it’s a good idea to lock the screen. This provides a level of privacy and security to the Mac that is very easy to use and implement and it should be considered a must-use trick, particularly for anyone working in public spaces, offices, schools, or anywhere … Read More
The Apple Remote Control used to be bundled with all new Macs, but unless the remote is paired specifically to your Mac a single remote can control multiple Macs at the same time. This is annoying if you’re trying to control a single Mac with the remote and suddenly FrontRow is activated on all other … Read More
The Twitter for Mac client has a great feature that lets you send tweets from just about anywhere in Mac OS X, including the Finder. I’ve tested this out in the Mac OS X Finder, iTunes, Chrome, Safari, iChat, TextEdit, Terminal, and can confirm that this works all over the place. To access the ‘Tweet’ … Read More
You can turn off the internal MacBook Pro screen and still use the computer as long as it’s hooked up to an external display, and no you don’t have to use it in clamshell mode to achieve this. Here are two ways to keep your Mac laptop with the lid open but the internal display … Read More
Want to update Mac OS software from the Terminal? You can check for available updates, ignore packages, and install any or all Mac OS X Software Updates directly from the command line. To see what updates are available for a Mac, or to install a software update from the Terminal of Mac OS X, amongst … Read More
If you want to quickly access the Mac OS X System Preferences, you can do so with an indirect keyboard shortcut trick by holding down the Option key and then hitting various function keys. This jumps directly to the System Preference panel corresponding to the function key. For example, Option+Brightness pulls up the Display preference … Read More
