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

If anybody really cannot manage that last one to search via google.co.uk then PM me and I will email the safari executable to you which you can then drop into the relevant place.
 
Wednesday 4th March
Tip 111 – Safari 4 [7] – Change your search engine!

.
.
.
5) Goto EDIT>>FIND and search for "http://%@.google.com/%@?q=%@&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8"

then REPLACE above string with:

google.co.uk = "http://%@.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%@ " ( note there are 6 spaces after the last '@' )
works for me - BUT there are two instances of the search string and it's the second that needs changing and only the second one. I changed the 1st one and found there was no change in the search engine. I then also changed the 2nd one broke Safari :( Re-installed the recent v4 download and changed just the second instance of the search string. Works a treat.
 
works for me - BUT there are two instances of the search string and it's the second that needs changing and only the second one. I changed the 1st one and found there was no change in the search engine. I then also changed the 2nd one broke Safari :( Re-installed the recent v4 download and changed just the second instance of the search string. Works a treat.

Yes if you look at the offset to the left that is what you are looking for.
 
Yes if you look at the offset to the left that is what you are looking for.

ah, yes, oooops. But being the lazy git that I am I simply did a find & replace. I didn't expect the search engine to get two mentions..... That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :rules: :p ;) Thanks the for tip.
 
Thanks for that Cowasaki, did it with the 6 spaces after the @, every search resulted in a search for "Search" (for which google ranks itself quite low down the page), but was able to fix it with Time Machine, the first time I have had to use it in anger. When I came back to this thread I'd noticed it had changed to 10 spaces, so tried it again and it worked! result!
 
Safari v4 doesn't seem to autofil password fields. Has anyone else noticed this? And yes, preferences are ticked to allow this
 
Thanks for that Cowasaki, did it with the 6 spaces after the @, every search resulted in a search for "Search" (for which google ranks itself quite low down the page), but was able to fix it with Time Machine, the first time I have had to use it in anger. When I came back to this thread I'd noticed it had changed to 10 spaces, so tried it again and it worked! result!

What had happened was that when I originally set it up the string:

http://%@.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%@

was valid THEN google changed things a little so it stopped working and I had to replace it with this:

http://%@.google.co.uk/%@?hl=en&q=%@

The spaces afterwards are to make it fit into the same sized gap as the original string and if you notice the second string is shorter so more spaces :)

Google COULD change it again but if they do I will just keep fixing it. There is no reason why they would do again so hopefully it will just work. When the full one is released I will release another tip
 
Safari v4 doesn't seem to autofil password fields. Has anyone else noticed this? And yes, preferences are ticked to allow this

It works on mine! Have you been messing with the secrecy thing? Otherwise no ideas on that one.
 
Thursday 5th March
Tip 112 – MacOS [57] – Center current text


Hold [CMD] and press [E]
 
Friday 6th March
Tip 113 – MacOS [58] – Left Justify current text


Hold [CMD] and press [L]
 
Saturday 7th March
Tip 114 – MacOS [59] – Right Justify current text


Hold [CMD] and press [R]
 
Sunday 8th March
Tip 115 – MacOS [60] – Underline


Hold [CMD] and press
 
Monday 9th March
Tip 116 – MacOS [61] – Where is the Hash # on my laptop?


Hold [ALT] and press [3]
 
Tuesday 10th March
Tip 117 – MacOS [62] – Where is the DELETE key on my laptop

Hold [Fn] and press [Backspace]
 
Wednesday 11th March
Tip 118 – MacOS [63] – Finder (search for files by criteria)


There are often times when you want to find a file by: name; size; when created; what type of file it is; that it might contain certain text or that its meta data might contain certain things such as album name, bit rate etc etc
This is where the Finder search comes in and this is most easily invoked by holding down the [CMD] key and pressing [F] whilst in a finder window. When you do this you will be shown a new window with a number of options that can be changed.

TIP118.png


In the top left corner you will see:

Search: (THIS MAC) or (your current directory)

“THIS MAC” will be selected and is the default.

In the top right you will see:

(CONTANTS) or (FILE NAME)

“CONTENTS” is the default and is selected.

Under this you will see a query made up using some drop down menus such as:
[KIND] is [ANY]

You can change this to make up thousands of possible queries such as:
[KIND] is [MUSIC] [ALL]

you will notice that if you select MUSIC then another menu appears afterwards showing as [ALL], if you select this then you can enter MP3, AAC or PURCHASED.

Other uses might be to select ALL “.js” files and you could do this by changing it to read:

[NAME] [ENDS WITH] “.js”

immediately as you type the text into the box files will appear in the main window that fit your criteria. This allows you to see the your query is working.
 
Thursday 12th March
Tip 119 – MacOS [64] – Finder, saving standard searches


Refering to TIP 118 you can save any search that you like onto you side bar for quick re-use by clicking on the [SAVE] button in the top right of the window. So for our example of “.js” files we could add a sidebar entry so that we can always search for these files simply by clicking on the entry.

So click [SAVE] and you will see a box as below:

TIP119.png


Change the field “SAVE AS” to be your search title and make sure the tick which is to the bottom left “Add to sidebar” is ticked.
Then click [SAVE]
 
Friday 13th March
Tip 120 – MacOS [65] – Quit currently selected application.

Hold [CMD] and press [Q]
 
Saturday 14th March
Tip 121 - Applications [9] - Preview II (preferences for photographers)


We last looked at preview in tip 18 but it has some quite useful features and we haven't finished with it just yet!

Look in Preview's preferences....

>>> as photographers we will look at IMAGES:

TIP121a.png


this shows the default settings

Open all images in one window:

This forces every image being opened into the SAME preview window (and MY choice!). If you select ten pictures and click preview they open in one window. Then select another 10 and click preview and they will open in the SAME window.

Open groups of images in the same window:

This opens each group/image you open into another window. If you select ten pictures and click preview they open in one window. Then select another 10 and click preview and they will open in another.

Open each image in its own window:

As its name suggests each image will be opened in one window.

Default image size:

This is obvious but basically it default to SCALE which allows you to see the full image on screen. You can select Actual size which shows all the pixels but doing this means that you will loose part of larger images off the size of the screen or have to scroll around them.

Respect image and screen DPI for scale:

This checks the DPI and scales the picture so that a 72dpi 6x4 image is that size but so is a 196dpi 6x4 image.
 
Sunday 15th March
Tip 122 - MacOS [66] - Undo


In most applications and within Finder holding [CMD] and pressing [Z] undoes the previous task
 
Monday 16th March
Tip 123 - MacOS [67] - Redo


In most applications when undo has been used [CMD] plus [Y] redoes that task
 
Tuesday 17th March
Tip 125 - MacOS [68] - Find and replace


In most applications when you hold [CMD] and press [F] it invokes the FIND and/or REPLACE box.

*** tip 124 & 125 are out of order ***
 
Last edited:
Wednesday 18th March
Tip 124 - Automator [1] - Resize images to 800 pixels


Right today we are going to create an automator task that will resize an image, or images, to 800 pixels in width for use in Talk Photography.

Run "Automator" from Applications

TIP125a.png


Now we are going to be working with images so we will click on "Photos & Images"

You will now be asked where you want to get the images from and being photos this will default to your iPhoto Library. Change this to My Mac

Also change the drop down which shows as "Ask for images now" to "Use image files selected in the Finder when workflow runs"

Now click (Choose).

TIP125b.png


Next we want to resize the pictures BUT we would rather create some new pictures of the correct size and leave the original intact.

The relevant "ACTION" is unsurprisingly under Photos so click Photos and the list now shows a list of things you could do with photos. One of them is "Scale Images", double click this.

Automator is intelligent enough to realise that you might want to leave the original intact and so ask the following question.

TIP125c.png


Click "ADD"

TIP125d.png


You can see that Automator has actually added TWO tasks "Copy Finder Items" and "Scale Images"

Copy Finder Items:

This defaults to the desktop and that is where I want them so I am going to leave them there but I would like them to replace files that are in that location so I will click the "REPLACING EXISTING FILES" box.

Scale Images:

This action default to "TO SIZE (PIXELS)" which is again what we want BUT the size of "480" pixels is not right so we can change this to 800

Saving the Task:

The task needs to be saved TWICE once as an editable file so that we can possibly change it again later and to do this select:

FILE >> SAVEAS and save this to your documents folder

Now we need to integrate the new TASK with Finder and we do this by selecting:

FILE >> SAVE AS PLUG IN...

TIP125e.png


Give this a relevant name such as "resize800" and click SAVE.

Using the TASK

To use our new task we simply select a file or files in Finder and right click once we do this we go down the list to find "MORE" then the sub menu to "AUTOMATOR" then in the new sub menu you will find "resize800", select this.

Now as if by magic all the files you selected will suddenly appear on your desktop resized to 800 pixels wide.
 
Last edited:
Tip 124, (y) (y) (y)
 
Thanks for that tip! Have always wondered how to resize pics without having to do them one by one.
 
Have you considered hosting your tips of the day with an index? I would dearly love to have them as a reference but now we are up to 11 pages things are getting a little awkward to find. I think my failing memory has something to do with my age - or eating hamburgers in my youth.

Chris
 
Has setting up home and end keys as go to the beginning and end of a line whilst in Leopard been covered? If not, then please do!
 
I am going to create an index for the tips and stick them on my site "www.upgradeyourmac.co.uk". I have just updated the site with all the new computers and this is my next task.

I am also going to add a number of non-apple projects on there that may be of use and take the USB-Camera board further!

I like tip 124 :) I have some more automator tasks to give you all too such as convert video to iPod/iPhone; upload files to a FTP site and some that I am working on.

Just about to catch up with the tips.....
 
Thursday 19th March
Tip 126 – Hardware [7] – Cleaning Epson print heads 1


This is the Epson approved method.

Items you will require

1 x 20-50ml syringe
1 x thin plastic pipe (that fits the syringe) 10cm in length.
1 x bottle of inkjet cleaning fluid (isopropanol cleaning solvent)
1 x NEW cartridge to replace ones fitted at blocked colours.

TIP125a.jpg


TIP125b.jpg



Fit the rubber/plastic clear tubing to the end of the syringe as shown in the above picture.

Method

First off print a printer head test and make sure that the head is in fact not printing through EVERY hole and try the normal head cleaning procedure three times.

Second try a full on head clean. There are ways to initiate this but the easiest is to tell the printer you are changing a cartridge and don’t actually change it.

If neither of the above help then we can proceed to the main course !
Firstly we need to park the printer head carriage in the cartridge changing location. The procedure for doing this varies from printer to printer but usually holding the ink change button for about 5 seconds forces the printer to do it or alternatively turning the printer on and waiting for the head to fly past the change location. Either way once the head is in that location pull the power lead out. DO NOT leave the lead in as some Epson models will automatically re-locate the head after 45 seconds of non activity and you could break off the nozzle you are working on.

Once the head is in it’s park location remove the cartridge that is not working.

Remove the pipe and fill the syringe with 10ml of solvent and re-attach pipe. Then push the fluid to the end of the pipe by pushing the plunger.

Locate the nozzle that the print cartridge attaches too:

TIP125c.jpg


Attach the other end of the pipe to the nozzle inside the printer (where the cartridge attaches):

TIP125d.jpg


Pull the plunger lightly (which should cause a vacuum and pull any air in the head through the liquid the the plunger) then let go of the plunger. The vacuum should suck the liquid into the head. Do this again till no air comes through then pump the cleaning fluid into the printer head using moderate pressure till no more goes through and leave to do it’s work.

After 12 hours try to pump more through by pushing the plunger. This should have cleared any blockage.

Fit another cartridge and plug the printer back in.

Complete three printer cleaning/nozzle check runs and note any improvement.

You can repeat the above a couple of times but if this does not work the only alternative is to go to the next tip for an alternative method.
 
Last edited:
Friday 20th March
Tip 127 – Hardware [8] – Cleaning Epson print heads 2


If TIP126 has NOT managed to clean your heads then you will need to remove the heads from the printer. This is not the easiest of tasks but if you want to carry this out and have any concerns then let me know as I have a number of exploded diagrams and service manuals.

Park the heads and remove the power cable.

Disassemble and remove the print heads !!!

Right now this method is not endorsed by Epson but basically we need to force cleaning fluid through the head. You can do this by re-attaching the pipe and syringe and forcing the fluid through again.

Wipe the heads with a jay cloth soaked in cleaning fluid.

Leave to soak for 12 hours making sure that the cleaning fluid does not go anywhere near the electrics and repeat the above 2 lines.

Re-fit and perform cleaning cycles.
 
Last edited:
Saturday 21st March
Tip 128 - MacOS [69] - Set a vCard as "MY CARD"


Create a card within Address Book with your details, this will be your "me" card.

Select the card and locate the menu item "CARD" on the top bar, click on this and move down to the menu item "Make this my card"

We will do something with this in tip 129.
 
Sunday 22nd March
Tip 129 - MacOS [70] - Notify people in your address book automatically when your details change.


To do this we need to let Address Book know what our details are and we do this by creating an address book entry specifically for us - see Tip 128.

Now that we have all of our details in one place we can go to address book preferences.

TIP129.PNG


and click on "Notify people when my card changes"
 
Last edited:
Monday 23rd March
Tip 130 - MacOS[71] - Setting up address book to default to your vCard.


It is possible to set up ADDRESS BOOK to use the fields that YOU want rather than the default ones. You can, for example, add BIRTHDAY which you can then see within iCAL (tip to follow).

I also remove ASSISTANT & SPOUSE plus add URL & BIRTHDAY.

Goto PREFERENCES and click TEMPLATE.

TIP130.PNG


To remove a field click the red minus and the add another field of the same type as one already there click the green plus.

You can also add fields that do not already exist by clicking on "ADD FIELD" near the top of the screen and selecting the field from the list.
 
Last edited:
Tuesday 24th March
Tip 131 - MacOS[72] - Setting up address book to use UK phone numbers.


A nice simple one, goto PREFERENCES and click on PHONE.

Click on "Automatically format phone numbers" and click the blue arrow after "Custom" to extend the window (as shown).

Click on the "+" and add entry number 1 to use the format we have in the UK (or your format if you live elsewhere).

So in the UK we use 01111 222222, enter this and then close the window.

TIP131.PNG
 
Wednesday 25th March
Tip 132 - MacOS[73] - Sharing your address book with another 'me.com' member.


With a family pack of 'me.com' accounts you can share your address book with members of your family.

Goto PREFERENCES and click on SHARING.

You can then select other people from your address book to share your address book with. These addresses must be 'me.com' accounts.

You can change the authority of the other user by clicking on the tick under "Allow Editing" in order to let them change your address book or not.

TIP132


I will explain in a forthcoming tip what they then have to do.
 
Thursday 26th March
Tip 133 - MacOS[74] - Zoom within Finder.


Goto Finder's PREFERENCE menu and click on "Zoom using trackpad", now when you are in Finder using the 'Cover Flow' view you can change the picture size using the zoom in and out gesture.
 
New addition, see post #3 for a full list of all the tips to make finding them a little easier.

I am currently rebuilding the tips section of my website and will hopefully be able to categorise them and possibly build in a search too.
 
Friday 27th March
Tip 134 – Tutorial [3] – Transferring your OS to a new drive.


Here's how (using disc utility)

First connect your new drive:

Follow the instructions that came with your drive box to install your new drive then plug it into your computer

or if it came as a package just plug it in.

or if you are using a mac pro install the drive it a spare bay.

Now transfer the OS:

• Stick your install disc in your BOOT drive
• Boot the disc (either go to preferences>>startup disc OR hold down [C] whilst booting)
• Once your Tiger/Leopard disc has booted go to Utilities at the top of the screen and run "Disc Utility"
• You should see on the left hand side of the screen your two drives (plus any other drives you may have)
• Click on the new drive (the drive itself not any partition inside)
• Click on "Partition" which should be the middle tab
• Select 1 partition (or more if you want)
• Accept this so that disc utility creates your partition
• Click on "Restore" which should be the right hand tab
• You will see two input boxes "Source" and "Destination", Click on your newly created partition on the left side of the screen and drag this onto the "destination" box and let go.
• Now click on the corresponding partition from your original drive and drag this to the source drive.
• This will copy the contents of your original drive onto your new drive.

Now what:

I personally would now physically swap the drives around but there is no actual need to do this.

On a Mac pro

Remove the boot drive and replace it with the drive you have just created leaving the other drive out. Make sure everything is running just as expected before you do anything to your original drive. You can now wipe it and use it for time machine or whatever.

On external drives

Remove the drive from its enclosure and install it in the computer. Remove the computers drive and place it into the enclosure but for the moment don't plug it in. Make sure everything is running just as expected before you do anything to your original drive. You can now wipe it and use it for time machine or whatever.
 
Saturday 28th March
Tip 135 - Bootup [4] - Single User Mode


Single user mode is a used primarily for getting at the nuts and bolts of your Apple computer. It is the Unix command prompt much like terminal but as the Root user. As the root user the system will pretty much do whatever you like such as delete the User directory. Use this mode with caution it is powerful when used correctly but a simple slip up can make your Mac OS installation un-usable.

To invoke single user mode you reboot your computer whilst holding down the [COMMAND] key and the key. You will, after a short delay, get the standard unix prompt which will in this case be:

:/ root#

I will not go further into single user mode because this would require more space than the rest of this web site but suffice it to say that there is plenty of information about on using the Unix system. I will show you how to do a number of things using single user mode in other articles.
 
Back
Top