Tips & Tricks

Multiple dial up accounts in OS X

The Network panel in System Preferences allows for multiple instances of the same network port in one Location. Therefore you can create multiple instances of the "Internal Modem" port to have multiple ISPs.
To add extra instances of a port, choose "Network Port Configurations" from the Show menu, and click New. The new port can then be named after the ISP - it does not have to remain named "Internal Modem". Existing ports can be renamed by just double-clicking them in the Network Port Configurations list.

This technique works for any port, including Bluetooth devices like mobile phones. So on a PowerBook you could have two connections one for GPRS data and one for GSM dial-up. Then choose between them depending on the time of day (and therefore speed versus the availability of free minutes).

Missing Internet Settings

Under MacOSX several internet settings which were available under MacOS 8 and 9 are still present and are still used by most internet applications, but they are no longer accessible by the user. So if these settings get corrupted for some reason there's no Apple interface way to repair these settings. MisFox is an application which makes some of the most important internet settings accessible again.

MisFox will show all the file mappings settings and the protocol helpers. You can inspect these settings, but you can also edit, delete and create new items for these settings.

The File Mappings are used for many tasks. First they will translate the "content-type" and file extensions which are used in the Internet into the file type and creator codes which are used on the Mac. Second they do define what to do with files of a certain file type after they are downloaded from the internet (for example they define that ".sit" files should be processed by Stuffit Expander).

Protocol Helpers are used to find the right application to handle certain internet protocols. So a web browser will use the protocol helper settings to find a news reader when clicking on a "news:" link in order to open this link. Since MacOSX 10.2 there's been no way to define the default news reader in the system settings.
You can do this in MisFox now. http://www.clauss-net.de/misfox/misfox.html

Having Problems with Word?

In Word, problems are far more likely due to corruption in the Normal template file than in preferences files. The Normal template file is opened even when you open an existing document and is also used as the default basis for a new document.

So the (potential) fix for problems is to Shut down Word, find and trash every copy of Normal or Normal.dot [probably in Templates folder in Office folder, possibly in a designated User or Workgroup folder if he had one previously set up], empty trash, and restart Word.

Word 2004 is is also touchy (apparently very, very touchy) about duplicate fonts.

In Panther, duplicate fonts are marked in the Font Book.app with a bullet against their name. It is possible that you have duplicate fonts in the OS X Fonts folder (in either System/Library/Fonts or Users/[username]/Library/Fonts), as well as in the Fonts folder of the Classic System. You could start by turning the duplicates off in Font Book and see if ths solves the problem. Unfortunately they do not stay turned off in Font Book after a re-start, so the final fix is to remove the duplicates from Fonts folder in the Classic System folder so that they can't load on startup (assuming you rarely use or need the fonts from Classic...).

Fixing Eudora Mac to work with Outlook XP

If people you know are complaining that they cannot see your attachments when they get email from you and they are using Office XP for Windows the following should fix the problem.

I struggled to find the solution to this problem for quite a while before I figured it out.

The symptoms of the problem are simply that people who use Outlook in Office XP to view email have trouble seeing that your message has a attachment. I have heard that this problem also affects people who send email from Pine to Outlook XP users.

The problem is that Outlook XP does not show attachments for MIME messages that have a 'Content-ID: ' header. Since Microsoft has not taken the time to fix this problem people who use mailers that place this header in a MIME message must find a way to disable the header.

In Eudora for Mac the only way to disable this header is by changing the x-eudora-setting #9906 which controls the format string for the Content-ID header to contain a %.

Here is how to change this setting:

Open up a blank message and type '<x-eudora-setting:9906>' (without the quotes).
This should change colour and be underlined like a URL for a website.
Double click the link and change the entry in the bottom field from '%r: <%p>%p' (again no quotes) to a single %.
Click 'Set Setting' and the fix is done.

Help with Eudora

If you're looking for help with Eudora there are several important resources.
1. The Eudora Tips archive at: http://mactips.info/tips
2. The Eudora Knowledge base: http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/search.html
3. The official Eudora tutorials: http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/tutorials/
4. The Eudora Help menu
5. Two Eudora-Mac mailing lists:
Eudora-Mac: http://syndicomm.com/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr?func=intro&list=eudora-mac
Eudora-Mac: http://sparky.listmoms.net/lists/
6. Emailman's Eudora page: http://www.emailman.com/eudora/index.html
7. John Delacour's Eudora Pages: http://www.bd8.com/eudora

Use your keyboard to navigate between Expose windows (Mac OS X 10.3)

The Expose utility added with the Panther release of Mac OS X is a great way to locate specific windows amongst various applications. Just press the [F9], [F10], or [F11] keys to quickly move windows so you can either see all open windows of an application, all open windows of every application running, or just the Finder.

But a great undocumented feature is that you can navigate between the windows by using the [tab] or [~] keys or any of the arrow keys. Doing so displays each window individually. To select the window, you can then press the [return] key.

Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

You can calibrate your iBook or PowerBook computer's lithium ion battery for best performance.

The battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months thereafter.

1. Plug the power adapter in and fully charge your computer's battery until the battery indicator lights turn off and the adapter plug ring goes from amber to green, which indicates that the battery is fully charged.

2. Disconnect the power adapter and use your iBook or PowerBook. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen. Continue to use your computer until it goes to sleep. At that point the battery has been sufficiently drained for calibration.

3. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

You have to fully charge and then discharge your battery only once to calibrate it. After that, you can connect and disconnect the power adapter when the battery is at any charge level.

Tip: When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, any open files could be lost. Therefore, it is important that you find an electrical outlet and connect the adapter before the forced shutdown occurs. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

Broken links

Software applications can incorporate Finder aliases or symbolic links. Symbolic links use Unix file paths, while aliases use id numbers. Either moving or renaming an application or its parent folder can invalidate an incorrectly formed symbolic link. In turn, an application may not function properly if it depends on the symbolic link. Software should not use symbolic links with absolute paths as the application may be moved or renamed. In versions of Mac OS X before 10.2, aliases located a file or folder using its unique identity first and its pathname second. Beginning with Mac OS X 10.2, aliases reversed the search order, using the pathname first and unique identity second. If a file is moved and replaced with an identically named file, aliases to the original file now point to the new file. Similarly, if you move a file on the same volume, without replacing it, aliases use the unique identify information to locate the file. This behavior mimics Unix symbolic links. As an example, with an application MyApp, if the following symbolic link is created: MyApp -> /Applications/MyAppFolder/MyApp, the software application can never be moved from its original location. In this situation a relative symbolic link would not work either, i.e. MyApp -> ../MyApp, as if the application is renamed the link is no longer valid.

Symbolic links rely exclusively on path information to locate a file. If you move a file somewhere on the same volume without replacing it, symbolic links to the file break while aliases do not. The only way to fix a symbolic link is to delete it and create a new one. [4] Aliases can also be broken. As an example, if the following alias is created: MyApp - >/Applications/MyFolder/MyApp, and the software is moved or renamed, the alias can break during a cloned hard drive operation. This behavior is caused by the alias using the file inode, which is different on a cloned system.

A simple way to create basic FTP shares and users

If you're trying to share a bunch of large files, it should be super easy, but it's not. I tried several approaches, but the following seemed to be the best. It's not unique, but it took me a while to figure out that it was the best no-software approach, so I thought it would be nice to have a primer for the semi-power user. Follow these directions to set up an FTP server with a single user, who has read-only access to one folder of your choice.
1. Go to System Preferences -> Accounts.
2. Create a new user (+ button).
3. Give them a name and password, then click on the Limitations tab and select Some Limits, then uncheck everything. Just in case.
4. Use NetInfo Manager to change the user's home directory to the folder that you want to share (I wanted to share the same folder I share when file sharing). Look under Users -> Username -> Home.
5. Delete the original home directory.
6. Go to System Preferences -> Sharing.
7. Turn on FTP access. Be sure to forward ports 20-21 if you have an external firewall.
8. To link to your FTP server: ftp://username:password@1.1.1.1 (where you substitute youp IP address for the 1.1.1.1).

If your IP address is dynamic, it will eventually change. If you are going through a router, then use your router's WAN IP, port-forwarded to your computer's LAN IP. Leave out the password (and the :colon) to marginally increase security (make them type the password). http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2004040118235254

Toss some files to fix Finder problems

If you begin noticing erratic behavior in the OS X Finder, such as drag and drop no longer working, menu commands that don't do anything, or worse yet, certain applications crash when you try to launch them, then you may need to take a trip to the Preferences folder. Chances are the Finder Preferences file has become corrupt. To correct the problem, head to Users/~/Library/Preferences (where ~ represents your username) and locate the file named com.apple.finder.plist. Then, just trash the file and reboot your computer. The problems should be gone once the computer is back up and running.

The Dangers of HTML email

You should leave the setting for downloading "attachments" OFF at all times.

If you get 'html'ized mail and the graphic objects appear as broken image icons, you can have Eudora 'fetch' them simply by clicking the broken image icon in the upper right corner of the message. If the server they reside on is functioning, Eudora will fetch them. You can turn automatic fetching on and off by inserting the following text in a new email and Command clicking it.

<x-eudora-setting:255> In the subsequent dialogue when checked, Eudora fetches a message's attachments along with its body.

By leaving this setting OFF, if you don't want attachments fetched, they won't be fetched. Here's a REALLY GOOD REASON(tm) to make 'fetching' a conscious decision on your part on an individual email by email basis:

BE AWARE that URLs pointing to graphics on a remote server (different from attachments that are on your ISP's mail server) can tell a great deal about who you are. First, your IP address is part of the retrieval request for that graphic (how else will it get back to you...), and that can be harvested by the server the graphic is located on. Second, the URL itself could even identify the email address that the email it's inside of was sent to, thus 'verifying' that your email address is a 'live' one if/when you attempt to retrieve the graphic. That's a common trick in the junk mail business to 'purify' a list of email addresses, making the list worth more when sold to other junk mailers.

None of the above applies to graphics that are actually embedded in the email message itself (or that show up in the header "Attachments: ". They're not traceable by the sender, as they accompany the text of the message on its journey across the net, at least as far as your mailserver. If they appear broken, they might be larger than the limit you've set for automatic downloading with an email. Or, they might be a file type that presents a problem to your OS setup. For those, you can take a look in your Attachments Folder and see what filenames you're dealing with. You might just need to update your file type/application associations to show OS X what program it should use to open the file with. This can be done easily with a program like 'Misfox',. http://www.clauss-net.de/misfox/misfox.html.

Skipping auto login

"My Mac (OS X 10.3.4) is set up with multiple users and one is configured to automatically login. Is there a keyboard shortcut to bypass automatic login so I can instead see the list of users on this Mac?" Tory Yaphe

You betcha.

That shortcut is the tiniest bit tricky because of its timing. When you boot your Mac, wait until the gray screen with the Apple logo disappears and then, when you see the progress window (the white box surrounded by blue), press and hold the Shift key. This skirts auto login and takes you to the list of your Mac's users.

While we're discussing the Shift key at startup, I might also mention that this key can perform one of several functions at startup. If you hold down the Shift key as soon as the Mac boots and then let go when the Apple logo appears, your Mac will boot into Safe Mode. This mode disables all but the essential system software necessary to allow your Mac to function as well as runs OS X's built-in repair utility, fsck. You'd invoke this mode if the Mac hangs on startup.

And if you hold down the Shift key when you see the progress window and hang on all the way until the Finder appears, the Mac won't load your personal login items. You'd mash the Shift key in this way when you suspect that a login item is driving your Mac crazy. Christopher Breen

Reset NVRAM

If your Mac won't boot it may be possible to force it to boot by re-setting the NVRAM.
To do this, start up while holding Command-Option-O-F. When you get the Open Firmware command line, type:

>reset-nvram
>reset-all

Press return after each line. After the second line, the machine should reboot and boot off the first bootable volume it can find.

Optimizing Classic

Some research on optimizing Classic for infrequent use on an X-only-booting iMac yielded the following online resources:
• Optimizing Classic in OS X by Miguel Danielson http://osxguide.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=60
• Optimizing the Classic environment http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20010413120058733
• OS X Installation: Optimizing Classic by Mike Bombich (CarbonCopyCloner, et al.) http://www.bombich.com/mactips/optimize.html
• Using the Classic Environment in OS X by Dan Frakes: http://www.informinit.com/exposf2002.html
Download PDF of presentation http://www.informinit.com/exponyc2001.html

(Note: The discussion of "prebinding" and XOptimize, etc., is not relevant to OS 9, and no longer relevant in OS X 10.3.x. In fact all of these date from 10.2 and earlier; perhaps some knowledgeable expert user could post an updated/definitive version of this information somewhere.)

Panther Maintenance Tips

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/11/21/maintenance.html

MACinations August 04