Tips and Tricks

6. Increase the amount of memory allocated to the application in the Preferred Size box by 25 to 50 percent. (Example: change 1000 K to 1500 K)
7. Close the Get Info window.

The next time the application is opened, the system is asked to allocate the amount of memory in the preferred memory size box. If the system does not have the requested free RAM available, it tries to allocate a progressively decreasing amount of RAM until it decreases to the amount in the minimum requirements box in the Get Info window. If the amount of free RAM available falls below the minimum, the system reports there is not enough memory open the application.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=18278

Finding OS Updates

For a list of Mac OS updates available for Mac OS X 10.2 go to http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n75421

Quick Printing In Jaguar

Want to print a document QUICK & NOW ??
Just control-click (right-click if you have a multi-button mouse) on the file you want to print and select the "Open With" contextual menu, now select the "Print Center"

Pop-up menu in Mac OS X's Finder

Q. Is there a way to increase the functionality of the Control-click pop-up menu in Mac OS X's Finder? It would be great if you could build commands of some kind and then add them to your choices when you invoke the Finder's contextual menus. Specifically, I would like to highlight file names in the List view, Control-click, then find "create StuffIt archive" as an option, leaving an archived file in the same folder as an end result.

A. Let's deal with your example first: You need nothing more than Aladdin's US $80 StuffIt Deluxe (http://www.stuffit.com/mac) to do this. Once you install StuffIt Deluxe you'll discover a StuffIt command in the Finder's contextual menus. From this command you can create a variety of compressed files and archives -- .sit, zip, tar, .bin, .hqx, and uu-encoded files, for example. And yes, you can create a single archive from multiple selections.

If you're unwilling to ante up for StuffIt Deluxe, you could duplicate a measure of this functionality by combining the US $50 StuffIt Standard Edition (which includes DropStuff, DropTar, DropZip, and StuffIt Expander) with Artman 21's US $10 OpenMenu (http://www.artman21.net/product/OpenMenu/index_E.html). This nifty utility allows you to invoke applications and AppleScripts as well as launch documents and URLs from the Finder's contextual menus. In the case of your StuffIt example, you'd simply add DropStuff with OpenMenu, select the files you want to add to your archive, Control-click on one of the selected files, and select DropStuff from the resulting contextual menu.

Power Manager and Aluminum PowerBooks

PowerBook veterans understand that on very rare occasions a laptop may lock up, fail to awaken, or refuse to start up and the usual measures -- pressing Control-Command-Power or holding the Power button for a good 10 seconds -- fail to bring it to heel. On these occasions you should attempt to reset your PowerBook's Power Manager.

Many PowerBooks and iBooks carry a button for this very purpose but not so Apple's aluminum PowerBooks. To reset the Power Manager on these babies, switch off the PowerBook's power (unplug the thing and remove its battery, if necessary), press and release Shift-Control-Option-Power. Let the PowerBook rest for five seconds, plug in the juice, and press the Power button to restart the PowerBook.

Note that resetting the Power Manager will reset the clock's date and time. After performing this operation, reset the date and time manually or connect to a network time server and have the PowerBook brought up to date automatically.

Very Useful Utilities

Macfixit has a very useful page on utilities for OS X - well worth a visit.
http://www.macfixit.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20021025143249142

Palm Desktop 4 and OS X Permissions

This is the problem: "I'm having problems using Palm Desktop 4.1 , when I try to install (using the latest installer from Palm), the install appears to go fine, then at the very end it complains ''Installation did not complete successfully. Do you wish to attempt to reinstall the software or to quit?' "

The base cause of the problem, is using Stuffit 8.0 which creates a permissions problem since the Palm installer tries to launch a helper app, and that app does not have the execute permissions set. Updating to Stuffit 8.0.1 will "fix" it.

So the remedy appears to be the following:
1. Remove any trace of the Palm software from your disk, excepting user data, but including any copies of the uncompressed installer and any installer log files.
2. Update Stuffit Expander to version 8.0.1. The updater may not recognize your previous version of Expander correctly, in which case you will need to reinstall 8.0 and then apply the updater.
3. Now unstuff the installer and install.

It seems that the Palm Desktop installer is both not very well put together and particularly sensitive to permissions issues, so fixing permissions before installing is probably a good idea too.

For Occasional Classic use...

I offer the following tip for people upgrading to 10.3 who still use Classic on an occasional basis. You can create a disk image (using Disk Copy) and install OS 9 and all support files there, including Classic apps if you so desire. This way, all your OS 9 material will be contained inside the image when you're not using it, yet fully accessible when the image is mounted. There are more instructions for how to do this on any of these pages:
http://www.osxfaq.com/Tips/thomas/index.ws
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020901083220804
http://www.bombich.com/software/shadowclassic.html

I need only minimal Classic support, so I weeded the system folder down to the bare minimum by hand (why does the Apple Video extension still get installed these days?) For this I only needed a 300MB disk image, although others might choose 500MB just to be safe. I then put the image inside ~/Library/Classic Support (which is a folder I created just for this), but the image can reside anywhere. One neat trick with all this is that the disk image will mount automatically if you ever try to launch a Classic app. Another benefit with keeping the image size down is that you can burn it onto a CD for backup (although you'll need Toast if you want to make it bootable, as I did). And when you upgrade to 10.3, you only need to copy the disk image to your new installation and everything will still work fine...
Don Hurter http://www.macintouch.com

Retrospect and OS X

Wondering if Retrospect 5.1 installed something that broke your filesystem? The answer is YES, it sure did. It installed a plug-in that's intended to let you mount Retrospect disks on the desktop (should you want to look at them in the Finder, which is not required for backup/restore purposes). This plug-in prevents or slows down mounting a variety of CDs like audio, video, and others. All 5.1 users -Jaguar or Panther- should remove it in a hurry:
To remove the file system plugin:
1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities)
2. Type: sudo rm -R /System/Library/Filesystems/retrospectcd.fs
3. You will then be prompted for an administrator password.

Restart the computer immediately following the Plugin's removal (this will rebuild the .kext cache file, which is necessary for a stable OS)

Retrospect (v5.0) is not autolaunching under Panther (Mac OS X 10.3). Panther is a major operating system release with a great deal of low level changes ranging from a new file system, to a new user security model, to application launching changes with Fast User Switching.

Panther breaks Retrospect's ability to launch automatically. The recommended workaround for all Retrospect 5.x users is to leave Retrospect running but require a password for access, Retrospect will then run scripts at the scheduled time.

This (and all other known issues with Panther) are covered in a Dantz Knowledgebase Article linked from the main Mac-version home page: "Known Issues When Using Retrospect With Panther (Mac OS X 10.3)" http://www.dantz.com/index.php3?SCREEN=kbase&ACTION=KBASE&id=28093

File Vault Beware

One of the touted features of Panther (OS X 10.3) is the ability to encrypt your Home directory to keep prying eyes away. Many people have reported problems including file loss when using File Vault.
When you log out of your account with File Vault enabled, you'll be asked if you want to reclaim disk space. Saying yes may result in your preferences being reset to factory defaults. Files lost include Calendar (iCal), dock settings, Mail settings (though saved email is safe), Finder Preferences, etc.
One user reported "login keychain was corrupted, my dock was reset to the default location, and all my quick links in the menu bar were reset to the default setting - off. It also disabled root and reset the root password to blank. Changing all my settings back was a pain, but not a roadblock.

The corrupted Keychain was a slight issue. While the keychain locations are the same (~/Library/Keychains), Panther's keychain naming convention has changed from Jaguar. In Jaguar, the default keychain for each user was named the same as the user's short name and was always unlocked at login. Panther's default keychain is named login.keychain and it seems like only that file can be unlocked automatically at login. Once that file was corrupted, my only option was to trash it. To fix it, I was able to use my old keychain from Jaguar. All I had to do was move it to ~/Library/Keychains, rename it login.keychain, then log out and log back in."
It also apparently corrupts disk images (eg dmg files), making them unmountable.

Note: Download and install Mac OS X 10.3.1(http://download.info.apple.com/Mac_OS_X/061-0899.20031110.dse34/2Z/MacOSXUpdate10.3.1.dmg 1.5MB) or later to avoid this issue. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25635

Panther and passwords

A user reports "My login password is longer than 8 characters. Using only the first 8 characters of my password, I can successfully log in to my account, but my keychain chokes and asks me to re-enter my password. So apparently login uses only the first 8 characters of the password, but the default keychain uses all characters of the password."

Panther does not limit the password length to 8 characters. They can be much longer. The issue is that if you have upgraded from a previous version of Mac OS X to Panther using 'Upgrade' or 'Archive and Install' (keeping your existing user accounts), your existing user accounts will still use the legacy "crypt" passwords, which are limited/truncated to 8 characters.

Any new users will be created with the new password style, which does several things:
* does not restrict password length to 8 characters, and does not truncate at 8 characters
* does not display the crypt password in NetInfo Manager
* uses the functional equivalent of the /etc/shadow framework on other systems, concealing the encrypted password from other users
* changes the password type from ;Basic; to ;ShadowHash; in NetInfo manager, and uses the new authentication scheme

To enable this behaviour for existing users, simply reset the password using the Accounts pane in System Preferences, or the 'passwd' command.

Lost Appletalk Servers under OS X 10.3?

Apple has turned OFF AppleTalk directory access as a default in Panther (it was ON by default in Jaguar). Just go to the Directory Access utility (Applications>Utilities>Directory Access) Services tab, authorize changes, enable the AppleTalk item, and apply changes. Then find AppleTalk shares by going to Network>Local in a Finder window, and logging in to the service you need. This will not mount on the desktop, but will be available in the Finder window.

Speeding Up iPhoto

When you're viewing a library, film roll, or album, iPhoto comes set to display your photos with a subtle drop shadow in the main window. While this effect looks very cool, it slows down scrolling and resizing on all but the fastest machines. Boost your speed by turning off the shadow.

Choose iPhoto->Preferences, and in the Appearance section, select either Border or No Border. (You can also change the background shade, if you want.) Return to Organize mode, and try enlarging the photos using the slider in the lower-right corner, or scroll through a collection. You'll gasp at the speed increase!

Burning a Multisession CD in OS X

Most people think that you need a program like Roxio Toast to record a CD-R disc more than once in Mac OS X. On the contrary, Disk Copy lets you burn a single CD as many times as you like! That's right, regular cheapie CD-R discs, not CD-RW (re-writeable).

What you'll create here is a multisession disc. Each time you burn more material onto it, you create a new disc icon that will appear separately when you insert the CD. Here's how to go about it:

1. Prepare the material you intend to burn the first time. For example, put it all into a folder on your desktop.
2. Open Disk Copy. Choose File->New->Image from Folder or Volume. When prompted, navigate to, and select, the folder you want to burn, and then click Image. You're asked to name the disk image you're creating.
3. Type a name for the image, specify a location (like the desktop), and then click Save. In this example, suppose it's called Typestyles.dmg.
4. When you're ready to burn, open Disk Copy. Choose File->Burn Image. Navigate to the disk image (Typestyles.dmg), and click it once. Then click Burn. The Burn Disc dialog box appears. Expand the box as shown below:

5. Turn on "Allow additional burns," as seen in the screenshot above. Click Burn to record the material onto the CD. Disk Copy does its thing, burning your CD as though it's the first and last time. But boy, do you have a surprise for it.
6. When it comes time to add new material to that disc, repeat steps 1 through 4. This time, in the expanded dialog box, you'll see that "Allow additional burns" is still turned on. Instead of Burn, though, the lower-right button now says Append. That's your clue that Disk Copy understands what it's about to do: add information to an existing CD, resulting in a second disk icon on the desktop containing only the new material.
7. Click Append. You've just created a multisession disc!

You can repeat steps 6 and 7 over and over again, adding more and more material to a disc -- or at least until it's full.

By Rob Griffiths, coauthor of Mac OS X Hints, Jaguar Edition http://www.macdevcenter.com/lpt/a/3898

More Than One Clipboard

If you've spent more than about ten minutes using a Mac, you're probably familiar with the Clipboard shuffle. This dance occurs when you copy and paste more than one piece of information between the same two programs.

For example, suppose you want to copy several different sections of a Web page to your word processor. So you start in the browser, copy a paragraph, switch to the word processor, paste, return to the browser, copy the next section, return to the word processor, paste, and repeat until you've got everything you want. The reason you must go through this dizzying process, of course, is that Mac OS X has only one clipboard for storing copied items.

PTHPasteboard, an excellent freeware program, can put a quick end to the clipboard shuffle. It lets you open an unlimited number of clipboards (it starts with 20). You can even create permanent clipboards for storing bits of information that you use all the time -- your return address, driving directions to your house, your favourite Star Trek quotes, or whatever.

PTHPasteboard makes it very easy to copy any old selection to the clipboard. Instead of flipping back and forth when you need to copy and paste multiple selections, use PTHPasteboard to copy them all, then switch to your destination program and paste them all in one step.
http://www.pth.com/PTHPasteboard

SMS from your Mac

Click the BlueTooth button in the toolbar of AddressBook to connect to your cell phone, then control- (or right-) click on a mobile phone number to access the SMS messaging dialog. You can SMS anybody with a mobile phone right from your Mac.
Also, while you're connected to your BlueTooth phone, any message that comes to your phone appears on your desktop. Miss a call? A message pops up on your screen!

iMovie FAQ

http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/index.shtml

Searching, Searching

In OS X, "Search Everywhere" does not search the Trash. You can include the Trash (as well as all invisible files) in a Command-F search by first clicking the + button at the right of the first criteria line to add another line of criteria, and then selecting "Visibility" and "visible and invisible items" on that line.

Lost PDF icons

Q. Some of the icons for my pdf files in Jaguar 10.2.8 (yes, not all of them), instead of having the "adobe pdf" icon look (which opens Acrobat, when double clicked), acquired the "generic" OS X pdf icon. How can I get them to all open in Acrobat?

A. Use "Get Info" to change the default application for opening specific documents.
Highlight one of the generic .pdf files, go to File>Get Info (or command-I), expand the "Open With" triangle, select the default app to open that file from the drop down menu (a typical dialogue box will open, allowing one to navigate to the Applications folder).

There is a handy "Change All" button here that should *theoretically* force all similar files to open with the chosen application. This does not always work for every file of that type ... however, doing the same process individually on stubborn documents *usually* does the trick.

Opening a File

If a file is selected in a finder window you can hit Command-O to open the file. You can also hit Command-Down Arrow to open the file with the default application for its type. Whereas Command-Up Arrow, opens an item's enclosing folder. If you have a folder selected, Command-Down Arrow opens it.

Pesky pdf

After installing Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional, it automatically places an Acrobat PDF toolbar within Word and Excel. This toolbar is placed on its own, trying to close it, or going to Views -> Toolbars -> Delete only removes it until the program is next started.

There is a fix for this, thankfully. Go to: /Applications -> Microsoft Office X -> Office -> Startup. Within that folder, go into Excel and remove PDFMaker.xla. Back up one level, then go into the Word folder and remove PDFMaker.dot. Problem solved.

Make lists of items in a particular folder

Q.Is there a shareware/freeware program similar to the Windows programs, ListMaker and HTML Directory that allows you to make lists of items in a particular folder or drive?

A. Corie Slate's free File Lister (http://www.corieslate.com/projects/filelister/index.html) is much like these Windows tools, it can list all the contents of volume or folder along with each file's size, type, and path. When creating lists you can exclude aliases, folder, and items. You can also restrict the results by file size and file name.

Once you create a list, you can open a file in that list by double-clicking on it. If you save your list as an HTML file (you can save lists as plain text or HTML) the file listings are preserved as links. Clicking one of these links within your web browser opens the file's host folder and selects the file. Unlike ListMaker, File Lister doesn't include folder hierarchies within the list -- the list won't be broken down by folders and their contents.

Should you care to create a PDF file that contains a list of items in a volume or folder, drag the volume or folder to Apple's Printer Setup Utility (Panther) or Print Center (Jaguar and earlier). In the resulting Print dialog box, click the Save as PDF button. Alternatively, you can click Print and a list of the items in the volume or folder will be printed. Note that only the items at the root level of that volume or folder are saved to the PDF file or printed -- the list won't include items within folders in that volume or folder.

Speeding up Photoshop

If you use Photoshop a lot you can save yourself a little time by speeding up the program with these tips.

First, choose Photoshop > Preferences > General and change the default setting of the History States to 5. Although the feature is nice, it's one of the biggest culprits that causes the program to slow down.

While you're in the General Preference section, also deselect the Export Clipboard check box. That way, you won't be waiting for Photoshop to transfer the data to the Clipboard every time you move to another program.

If you have an external drive, you can save time by assigning it as the scratch disk. Just choose Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks from the Preferences pop-up menu and then select the disk in the First pop-up menu of the Scratch Disk section. In OS 9 you can create a RAM disk in the Memory control panel and use that, it's even faster. The max size for a RAM disk is 256MB so you'd need to have at least 512MB RAM in your Mac to consider this option.

Finally, choose Memory & Image Cache from the Preferences pop-up menu and bump the value in the Memory Usage section labeled Maximum Used By Photoshop to around 75 to 80%. Remember, Photoshop likes a lot of RAM. This RAM will, of course, be made available to other programs when you move between them.

Can't Install an Earlier System

An unfortunate downside of frequent system updates is if you somehow damage or corrupt the system files and attemp a reinstall the system may not let you go back to an earlier versionl. For example you are running OSX 10.3.1 and your system disks are the Upgrade version of 10.3. The Upgrade version of 10.3 can not be used for an install because the system shows as 10.3.1 and the 10.3 disk cannot be used on a 'newer' version of the system..."

The solution is to try moving the "MacOSXUpdate10.3.1.pkg" from /Library/Receipts to the desktop and see if running the 10.3 works now. If not, check "Mac OS X 10.3: How to Reinstall From Mac OS X Panther Upgrade CD" (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25647) and "Mac OS X: How to Reinstall a Prior Version" (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25404).

Select Text in pdf

It's not possible to properly copy text from multicolumned PDF files using Acrobat Reader's Text tool. When you attempt to select more than one line, the tool selects text in all columns.
To select text within a column, choose the Text tool and option-drag over the text you want to copy. This operation selects only the desired column or text and not the full range of columns.

Entourage X Compression problem

Entourage X with MacOS 10.3.x is unable to compress files using Entourage via the New Message composition window. This because Apple is shipping a new compression library with 10.3.x (version 7) and Entourage X doesn't know about it.

Aladdin, the maker of the library, has posted the old library on the Internet. You can go to [http://www.aladdinsys.com/support/techsupport/qanda.php?id=571], download, and install the software, to restore the functionality in Entourage.

iPhoto Export

The easiest way to export pictures from iPhoto is to highlight the pictures you want to export in the iPhoto window, then drag and drop them into a finder folder and that's it!

Save Disk Space, Delete the Other Languages

By default OS X installs heaps of other language files on your hard drive. You can save significant disk space by deleting them.
Although you can find such .lproj files with the Finder's Find command, you can't throw them away because you don't have the proper permissions to do so. Many of these files are owned by the root user and are forbidden to you. Thankfully, a host of free utilities can strip extraneous language files from OS X volumes.

Among them are Mike Bombich's DeLocalizer (http://software.bombich.com)
Joshua Schrier's Monolingual (http:// homepage.mac.com/jschrier/index.html), and Philippe Hupe's Youpi Optimizer (http://perso.club-internet.fr/phupe/english/YOIndex.html).