FINISHED: Apple / MacOS Tip a day for a year !

Tuesday 13th January
Tip 61 – MacOS [23] - Showing more information in finder (in the current folder)


With a finder window open (in icon view) and selected click [VIEW] at the top of the screen and select [show view options] OR hold down [CMD] and press [J].

Click [Show item info] and look at the finder window. Picture files will now show their size under them.

Remember this is just for the current folder.

TIP61.png
 
Wednesday 14th January
Tip 62 – MacOS [24] - Changing the columns in finder (in the current folder)


With a finder window open (in list view) and selected click [VIEW] at the top of the screen and select [show view options] OR hold down [CMD] and press [J].

Click on the tick next to the column that you want to display and that column will be added.

If you click on the tick next to [calculate all sizes] then Mac OS will find the size of each folder in the background and include this too.

Remember this is just for the current folder but you can make it the default by clicking on the [use as Defaults] button at the bottom of the screen.

TIP62.png
 
Thursday 15th January

Tip 63 – MacOS [25] - Change the default boot disc.


Use the usual boot drive selection process and boot whilst holding down the [ALT] key. You will now see a selection showing your currently bootable drives including the removable media.

Instead of just clicking on a drive to boot from it hold down the [CTRL] key and click on a drive. This will work just the same BUT it will change the default drive to be the drive you just selected.
 
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Well I am enjoying doing the top tips and I am getting some feedback from people so it appears that there is a general interest in it. I have tips written for the next couple of weeks so will be sat there having a think about what to do next.

What type of tips have people liked? Do people like the hardware ones or just the software ones? Do people like the talk through ones? What about the linked ones like the ones on networking or the scripting ones (I thought that these would be really useful). If people can let me know what they like I can do more like that :)

Anyway thanks for listening......
 
cowasaki,

To put it mildly, all the tips have been useful even if I don't get to use them all. Just to get to know my Mac in more intimate details has been very reassuring.

I've used Windows for eons, and it seems that I can click my way through that OS with my eyes closed; not so with Mac OS .. which I am all too eager to learn more about, but haven't had the time to get myself up to speed with reading.

Your tips have come at just the right time (y)
 
I have read every one of your tips Cowasaki and found them all really informative and useful, even if I haven't actually needed to use them all :) Many thanks for putting the effort in to posting them.

To answer your question, I don't think there is any one type of tip that I have found more useful than the others, they are all relevent when they're needed if that makes sense :thinking:
 
Book recommendations? What books would you recommend to get me up to speed with the ins & outs of Tiger & Leopard, from beginner to advance?
 
I have given daughter at uni a link to this topic and she wants to say thanks for all the tips .. she says they are really good
 
Book recommendations? What books would you recommend to get me up to speed with the ins & outs of Tiger & Leopard, from beginner to advance?

Sorry I don't have any MacOS books, I don't use them.
 
It's ok, I am sure this thread is far better read than any book; not to forget a lot friendlier too :)
 
Friday 16th January
Tip 64 – MacOS [26] - How much time have I got left on my battery.


Click on the battery icon on the top bar and it will display a menu. One of the options is “Show”, click this and you have three options “Icon only”, “Time” and “Percentage”. Select your choice by clicking on it.
 
Saturday 17th January
Tip 65 – MacOS [27] – [DELETE] on a laptop.


Hold down [fn] + [BACKSPACE] for [DELETE]
 
Sunday 18th January
Tip 66 – MacOS [28] – Random Backdrop pictures from your gallery


  1. Go to APPLE:: System Preferences…:: Desktop & Screen Saver
  2. Click on the [Desktop] tab.
  3. Click on the pane to your left and select “Pictures Folder” or whichever folder you like.
  4. Near the bottom you will see 3 tick boxes. The top one states “Change picture:” – click this and you can then change how frequently with the dropdown box to the right.
  5. You can now click the Random order checkbox or just watch them in order.
 
Blimey..... only 299 to go.

Marcel, how did you keep going for a whole year (y)
 
Monday 19th January

Tip 67 – Airport [1] – Setting up an airport network


Your airport extreme or airport express will come with instructions from Apple. Basically plug it in and connect it via an Ethernet cable to your computer.

Run the Airport utilty and click on the Airport device in the left hand plane.

TIP67d.png


Click on the [Base Station] tab and enter a name in the box [Airport Extreme Name], enter a password, click “remember this password in my keychain”, click [set time automatically] and change the time server to “time.euro.apple.com” and the time zone to London and then click on the [Advertise configuration globally using Bonjour].

TIP67b.png


Click on the [Wireless] tab. Change wireless mode to “Create a wireless network” and enter a network name. Select Radio mode as “802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)” as this will work with older machines too OR if you do not have any older machines change it to “802.11n”. Select security as “WPA2 Personal” and type a decent password then click the “Remember this password in my keychain” box.

TIP67b.png


Now click on the icon [internet] at the top of the window and change [connect using] to “Ethernet”; Configure IPv4 to “Manually”; type in an IP address (see networking tips 9-15); subnet mask of “255.255.0.0”; Router Address = YOUR INTERNET ROUTER’S IP ADDRESS; DNS Server = YOUR INTERNET ROUTER’S IP ADDRESS and enter your domain name. Change [Ethernet WAN Port] to “Automatic” and [Connection Sharing] to “Distribute a range of IP addresses”

TIP67a.png


Click on the TAB [DHCP]

Type a DHCP Beginning Address and end address. I am using the normal home rang of 192.168.1.XXX and have chosen my wireless devices to use 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.150. Set the DHCP Lease to 31 days (the longest).

Now click on [UPDATE] and your Airport Extreme should now work.
NOTE: Other setting will work just fine but I am telling you a set of values that are working now for me. If you have any questions just post them.
 
Tuesday 20th January

Tip 68 – Airport [2] – Setting when the kids can use their laptops on the network.


Run Airport utility from the Utilities directory.

Double click on your device in the left hand pane.

Click the tab shown as [ACCESS].

TIP68a.png


At the top of the window should be “MAC Address Access Control:”, we need to change this to “Timed Access”.

In the list underneath will be your list of devices that are attached to the network. The list contains the device’s HARDWARE NETWORK NUMBERS known as MAC CODES or MAC ADDRESSES (nothing to do with MACintosh, just a coincidence). EACH network port on the computer will have its own MAC code so my Mac Pro has 3 including.

Add a device to the list by clicking [+]

TIP68b.png


Well if it is this computer we can click on the [THIS COMPUTER] button. We need to do this anyway so do that now. Then type a description into the box below then click [DONE].

If it is not this computer but another one then check TIP 69 which shows how to find these MAC codes. I would suggest making a note of all of them and keeping them in a safe place. It is often a good idea to have them as it makes setting up things like this easier.

Once you have added the device’s MAC code and description you will see a box underneath where you can enter specific times etc that that computer or device can access the network and therefore the internet.
 
Wednesday 21st January

Tip 69 – Airport [3] – Finding each device’s MAC codes


Every device will have this information on it or the box etc –

Most games consoles have this on the back.

Most phones in the battery compartment.

Most network cards have this on a label running across them.

Apple computers have it on the box OR we can get this by going to:

APPLE::confused:ystem Preferences…::Network

Click on the network port in the left pane and click on the [Advanced] button to your bottom right. Now click on the [Ethernet] tab and at the top of the window it will state “Ethernet ID: 00:11:22:33:44:55” or similar….

Another place to find them is by looking at the “devices list” on your router if you have one. Most routers will list the MAC code against the IP address with the device or computer’s name afterwards
 
Thursday 22nd January

Tip 70 – Airport [4] – Adding a shared printer.


If you have a USB printer you can add it to the Airport device by simply inserting it into the USB port on the back. You can if you like insert a USB hub into this device and run several devices together.

With this you can turn pretty much any cheap USB printer into a wireless network printer. The only problem with this is that if the printer has extra features such as a scanner then they will not be usable unless you use a switch box or similar.

Some printers with memory card readers offer the reader to the host as a hard drive (such as the Epson R300) if this is the case then when you insert a memory card into the printer it will appear on the network as a shared hard disk drive.

Using with Windows PCs

Run the airport utility and select your airport device then [Printers] from the tab.

You will see a list of your printers and a checkbox labeled “Advertise printers globally using Bonjour” click on this tick.

You will now find setting up PCs on your network much simpler as they will be found automatically once you install BONJOUR on your PC.
Problems.

The airport can be a bit funny with printers and on occasion you will find that when you try and print the printer will not be found. This is especially noticeable when people turn them on and off. You can fix this by unplugging the printer. Resetting the airport device and plugging the printer back in.
 
Friday 23rd January

Tip 71 – Airport [5] – Extending a network to more than one airport device using WDS


In the Airport utility select the main device

Under the TAB [Wireless] change the Wireless mode to “Participate in a WDS network” and make sure “Allow this network to be extended” is selected.

Under TAB [WDS] on the main device change the [WDS Mode] to “WDS main” and click “Allow wireless clients” then add the hardware address of your 2nd device/3rd device into the WDS Remotes list by clicking on the [+] button and typing the hardware address

Now in the Airport utility select the 2nd device

Under the TAB [Base Station] set all the information the same as the main device other than the [Airport Express Name]

Under the TAB [Wireless] set all the information the same as the main device.

Under the TAB [WDS] change the [WDS mode] to “WDS remote” and click [Allow wireless clients] then type the hardware address of the main device into [WDS Main].

Your network will now extend to the 2nd device automatically
 
Saturday 24th January

Tip 72 – Airport [6] – Using an airport express to play music away from your computer.


This is a great one, once you have a working Airport Extreme in your house. You can extend the network by adding Airport Expresses as was shown in TIP 71 but you can also use these devices for other purposes such as adding a printer in TIP 68. They also have another port on them (one which the Airport Extreme does not have) and this is a sound output port. You can plug this into a set of amplified speakers and send music to them across your network.

iTunes makes good use of this – Run iTune and on the bottom line of the window you will see a picture of a speaker with the word “Computer” after it:

TIP72a.png


Click the up/down arrows and you will see a box like this with your computer at the top of the list and below it will be each airport express (it might be worth labeling them better!). You can then click on the other speakers and the sound will be sent to that set of speakers instead.

TIP72b.png


You can, by clicking on the “Multiple Speakers” line output the sound to more than one set of speakers.

TIP72c.png


Once this is set up and if you have an iPhone download the iPhone application “REMOTE” with this you can access your iTune library from your phone and send the music to any Airport Express basically turning your phone into a very flash iTunes remote control!

TIP72f.png


You will have to make a few adjustments within iTunes to allow this though:
Go to iTune>>preferences and click the “Sharing” tab

TIP72e.png


Make sure “Share my library on my local network” is checked.
Click the “Devices” tab.

TIP72d.png


Make sure “Look for remote speakers connected with AirTunes” is checked AND “Look for iPhone and iPod Touch Remotes” is also checked.
 
Sunday 25th January

Tip 73 – Airport [7] – Adding a shared hard drive.

If you have a USB external hard drive you can add it to the Airport device by simply inserting it into the USB port on the back. You can if you like insert a USB hub into this device and run several devices together. Also see tip 70.

With this you can share and external drive with the whole network without having to have any particular machine switched on.

CAUTION

The software inside the airport device is only guaranteed to work with a drive that has a single partition. I tried it with a drive that had 2 partitions and it seemed to work until I removed the drive and plugged it back into my computer. The computer could no longer read the drive’s catalogue. Plugging the drive back into the airport restored it to working again but only whilst plugged in there. I took this up with Apple who stated that it did not actually say anywhere that it worked with more than one partition!
 
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Which tips? Errrr. I think the little nuggets are the best ones for me. I don't use the guides as much, as I'm getting quite au-fait with OSX now.

Its the nifty little keystrokes that you wouldn't know about, or the handy shortcuts to do a job, that sort of thing that are my personal favourites :)
 
Monday 26th January

Tip 74 – MacOS [29]- Adding applications to your sidebar


Just as with the dock you can add an application to your sidebar. Click on the application and drag it over to your sidebar. Once here you can launch the application by clicking on it or you can drag a file and drop it onto the icon on the sidebar which will launch the application with that file.
 
Tuesday 27th January

Tip 75 – MacOS [30]- Adding short cuts to your sidebar


Just as with applications it is possible to add shortcuts to your sidebar. In fact the entries for your home folder, applications etc are all shortcuts. Simply locate the directory and click on it then drag it onto the finder sidebar under "Places". You can now access that directory by clicking on the link. You can also do this from within other applications.
 
Wednesday 28th January
Tip 76– MacOS [31] – Instantly print an image.


Click on an image and drag in the drop it on the printer’s icon on the dock. This also allows you to print just an image from a web site. Just click on the picture within the web site and drag it and drop it onto the dock bar printer icon.
 
Extra tip, if you find one of these buy it immediately !

apple1.jpg


Apple 1​
 
Thursday 29th January
Tip 77 - MacOS [32] – Sick of being harassed about what to do when a blank DVD is inserted?


Click APPLE :: CDs & DVDs

TIP77.png


Click on the drop down menu after “When you insert a blank CD” or “DVD” etc and change this. One of the options is “Ignore”
 
Friday 30th January
Tip 78 – MacOS [33] – Calibrate your display


No hardware calibration device? Then use Apple’s built in calibration software.
Click APPLE :: Screens OR Click APPLE :: Color LCD (depending on whether you have a desktop or laptop computer)

Click on the “Color” TAB and on the right hand side click on the button marked [Calibrate…]

This brings up Apple’s calibration routines

Click [continue] and follow the on screen instructions which vary dependant on your specific setup.
 
Saturday 31st January
Tip 79 – MacOS [34] – Sharing a printer over the network


Click APPLE ::confused:haring

On the left hand pane click on the option “Printer Sharing”. Once done your printers will appear in the right hand pane.

TIP79.png


Now click on the tick box next to the printers you wish to share from your computer.
 
Sunday 1st February
Tip 80 - MacOS [35] - Gaining vertical space on your screen


Especially on new wide screen monitors there is plenty of space to your left and right. With this in mind the default location of the Dock is not always ideal and it is possible to move the dock to either location.

Click APPLE :: Dock

TIP80.png


You can now click the “Left”, “Bottom” or “Right” radio buttons and move the dock to an alternative location.

There are a number of other options that can be selected from this window these include “Size” & “Magnification”.
 
Monday 2nd February
Tip 81 – MacOS [36] – More Dock related Tips !


Hold down [CMD] + [ALT] + [D] to hide your dock then again to bring it back
 
Tuesday 3rd February
Tip 82 - MacOS [36] – More Dock related Tips !


You can organise your Dock by adding spaces to separate groups of applications using terminal to create a blank application.
Run Terminal

APPLICATIONS :: Utilities :: Terminal

And type the following into the terminal window:

Code:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

this will create the blank space which you can then drag to the location that you want.

To create a space at the other end of the dock replace “persistent-apps” with “persistent-others”.

ALSO SEE TIP 42
 
Wednesday 4th February
Tip 83 – MacOS [37] – Disable Crash Reporter


Run Terminal

APPLICATIONS :: Utilities :: Terminal

And type the following into the terminal window:

Code:
defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

this will stop the crash reporter from activating in the event of a crash

ALSO SEE Tip 42
 
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Thursday 5th February
Tip 84 – MacOS [38] – Reading current settings for default commands


Several tips require that you open Terminal and type a comment in the following style

Defaults <read/write> <application> <entry> <Value>

So to read the value of the crash reporter “DialogType” entry referred to yesterday we can use the “read” option as such

Code:
Default read com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType

Obviously a value is not required because this command is to read the current value so if we type the above having issued the command yesterday then we should get the result “none”
 
Friday 6th February
Tip 85 – MacOS [39] - Opening Word files without Word


TextEdit will open Microsoft Word files if you don’t have word on your computer.
 
Saturday 7th February
Tip 86 - MacOS [40] - Adding login text.


Run Terminal

APPLICATIONS :: Utilities :: Terminal

And type the following into the terminal window:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText "Cowasakis help tips"

to remove this text just re-type the above with an empty string ""
 
Sunday 8th February
Tip 87 - MacOS [41] - Correcting your spelling.


Whilst typing in most applications if you mis spell a word a red dotted line appears under it. If you right click this you will be given choice of possible correct spellings.
 
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