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How to Eject a Stuck CD / DVD from a MacBook Pro

Apr 8, 2010 - 89 Comments

Is a DVD or CD stuck in your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Having a disk jammed in your Mac is really frustrating, but you can usually get it out by using a few different tricks. The methods outlined below are for when a disc is truly stuck in the Mac. Eject a stuck CD/DVD from … Read More

How to Boot a Mac in Target Disk Mode

Apr 7, 2010 - 13 Comments
Using trimforce to enable TRIM in Mac OS X

Target Disk Mode is a very handy feature available to use with Mac’s that have Thunderbolt or Firewire ports, and it allows you to use one Mac as an external drive on another host machine. This incredibly useful feature makes troubleshooting, installations, large file transfers, and critical backups extremely easy and very fast. Before beginning, … Read More

Use Command Key to Open Folder in New Window or Tab in Mac OS X

Apr 5, 2010 - 6 Comments

You can open a folder into a new window (or tab) by holding down the Command key when you double-click on the folder to open it within the Finder of Mac OS X.

How to Disable the “Are you sure you want to open this file?” Warning Dialog in Mac OS X

Mar 29, 2010 - 15 Comments

“[Name] is an application downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?” Starting in new-ish versions of Mac OS X, you may have noticed that when you download a file from the web and go to open it, you will get a prompt saying something along these lines, warning that an … Read More

How to Make a Mac Talk: Text to Speech

Mar 28, 2010 - 22 Comments

Want to have a Mac read text in a document or webpage to you? Text To Speech is an excellent feature which allows Mac users to have words on screen spoken aloud. You can make your Mac talk to you in various different ways, at different speeds, and even speaking with different voices, all by … Read More

How to Set the Default Column Size in Mac OS X Finder Windows

Mar 25, 2010 - 21 Comments

The Mac OS X Finder column view is really handy, letting you see multiple folder contents side by side in a hierarchical view. But unless you set the default column width yourself, anytime you launch a new Finder window, the columns size will be reset on a per window basis.

When and How to Reset Mac SMC (System Management Controller)

Mar 24, 2010 - 167 Comments
Retina MacBook Pro

“Ahhhh my Mac isn’t working! I need to reset the SMC!” You have tried rebooting, you’ve reset the PRAM, you’ve done it all, but your Mac is still behaving strangely. What next? In certain circumstances, resetting your Mac System Management Controller (SMC) can be a solution. This is sometimes necessary to restore normal lower level … Read More

Show File & Folder Info Directly in Finder & Folders of Mac OS X

Mar 22, 2010 - 1 Comment

You can set Mac OS X to automatically display file and folder information directly within the Finder windows of the file system, much like the desktop of OS X.

Copy iTunes Library from a Windows PC to a Mac

Mar 21, 2010 - 22 Comments
iTunes

If you’re moving from a Windows PC to a Mac, then you’ll probably want to move your iTunes library with it. This lets you keep all of your music, apps, and downloaded media, and you won’t skip a beat. This article will cover moving an iTunes library from a PC to a Mac OS X … Read More

How to ReName a File or Folder in Mac OS X

Mar 18, 2010 - 39 Comments
Finder of Mac OS X

Renaming a folder in Mac OS X is very easy, and there’s a few different ways you can do it. We’ll focus on the three most common tricks to quickly rename any file or directory folder on the Mac, two of which are done through the familiar graphical interface of the Finder file system, and … Read More

Compare Versions of a Word Document with Microsoft Word

Mar 15, 2010 - 1 Comment
DOCX files

Do you have two Word doc files that you need to see the differences between, and compare the two easily side-by-side to review changes? You can easily compare Word documents against each other with the Microsoft Word app in Mac OS X and Windows, Word of course is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, and … Read More

How to Enable the Firewall in Mac OS X

Mar 12, 2010 - 6 Comments

If you want to beef up the security on your Mac with a simple settings adjustment, you can enable the built-in software firewall. This offers a layer of protection by blocking many ports for common protocols, incoming connections, and other potential attack vectors. Generally, the Mac OS X Firewall is not necessary to use for … Read More

Play Movie Files Directly in Their Icons Using Finder of Mac OS X

Mar 9, 2010 - 5 Comments

Do you have a large directory of movies? Not sure what each video file actually is? If you’re in thumbnail view at a large enough resolution (looks like 68×68 is the threshold for me) or you’re viewing the folder in Cover Flow view, you can play movie files directly within the Finder of Mac OS … Read More

See a Preview of Fonts in Cover Flow & Quick Look of Mac OS X

Mar 8, 2010 - 2 Comments

Want to get a quick glance at a font style or a preview of the appearance of a font face before you install the font on a Mac? There are multiple ways to do this, and we’re going to show you two methods to see previews of fonts using the Finder of OS X. The … Read More

Compare Two Files with FileMerge in Mac OS X

Mar 4, 2010 - 11 Comments

FileMerge lets you select any two files and it will compare the two, pointing out any differences between the files. If you’re a developer you already know why this is wildly useful, as it makes tracking down major and minor code changes remarkably easy. Apparently FileMerge is a survivor from the days of NeXTStep, and … Read More

Minimize App Windows Into Dock Icons with a defaults String in OS X

Mar 2, 2010 - 8 Comments

If you’re tired of having your Mac Dock full of thumbnailed versions of minimized windows, you can change the Dock’s minimize behavior with a simple Terminal command that will minimize windows into the parent applications Dock icon. You can then tell which windows are minimized by looking for the diamond next to the window name … Read More

Use the Tab Key to Switch Between Dialog Buttons in Mac OS X

Feb 26, 2010 - 28 Comments

Would you prefer to use the keyboard to speed up navigation around your Mac? That’s what the Full Keyboard Access setting allows for. Using a Keyboard option, you can have the Tab Key able to switch between dialog buttons, fields, screen items, controls, and anything else in a dialog box within Mac OS X. This … Read More

Time Machine Backup Delayed? Here’s Why & How to Fix on Mac

Feb 25, 2010 - 2 Comments
Time Machine in Mac OS X

If you haven’t backed up with Time Machine in a while, the latest backup status will change to ‘Delayed’ and the menubar icon will have an exclamation mark in it reminding you to backup soon. There can be a variety of reasons the backups become delayed, and if you’re curious why this happens we’ll go … Read More

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