Tips & Tricks

Removing Duplicates in iTunes

I have created an AppleScript to automate Removing duplicate tracks in iTunes. Although it's titled "iTunes Music Alarm Clock" this script includes a number of file track management tools, including gathering duplicate tracks and erasing them (with an option to confirm dupes before they are deleted). I think this would be very useful for many iTunes users, especially those with huge libraries that have become difficult to manage.

The script is available as a donationware download from ScriptBuilders.net. http://www.ScriptBuilders.net/
Romy Opena

Create a zip archive with a keyboard shortcut

Create a zip archive with a keyboard shortcut using Keyboard & Mouse system preference pane!

All you have to do is go to System Preferences, open the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane, and then click over to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Finally, click the plus sign at the bottom and fill in the following information:
• Application: Finder
• Menu Title: Create Archive
• Keyboard Shortcut: Command-Shift-Z (or whatever you like)

Once you either log out and log in, or relaunch the Finder, simply click on a file and press your shortcut combo. A new archive will appear! http://www.macosxhints.com/

Safari Bookmarks

Are you annoyed at how the "Show All Bookmarks" function in Safari takes over the whole browser window?
Here's a tip to help you. All the folders in the Collections pane can be dragged into the Bookmarks Menu. First "Show All Bookmarks (Command-Option-B), click on Bookmarks menu in the Collections pane on the left. Now drag any other bookmarks (or folders of bookmarks) from the Collections pane to the right side of the window. Now close that window and click on the Bookmarks menu and you'll see all your bookmarks displayed.

Now that all these folders are readily available in the menu, there's little need to use Show All Bookmarks at all.

A tip that makes saving PDFs fun!

Create a folder on your desktop called "PDFs to Read" or create one in your Documents folder called "Online Purchases and Receipts." Now make aliases to those folders and put it them in ~/Library -> PDF Services. If the "PDF Services" folder doesn't exist, then create it first. You may also want to rename the aliases to something like "Save as PDF to read later" or "Save to Receipts folder."

Now all you have to do is select Print on a web page (or in any app, for that matter), and select the appropriate choice from the PDF Services pop-up menu, and it will save the PDF immediately to the right folder. This makes it super easy to save PDF copies of long articles to read later ... or to archive receipts of your online purchases. The resulting PDFs in these folders can, of course, be searched by their textual content in the Finder. http://www.macosxhints.com/

Ejecting a Disk

For keyboards without an Eject key, you can long-press F12 instead (though obviously you shouldn't assign F12 to some other function like Exposé if you want to do this).

Alternatively, you can use the Eject Menu, found at:

System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Eject.menu

This item can be installed by dragging it to the menu bar or double-clicking it.

That is also the location for several other menu extras like volume, clock, classic, etc. Many of them can be invoked from a System Preference check box.

Combine several photos together to make collages.

Use PowerPoint:
1. Insert photos onto a blank slide.
2. Resize, crop, and add shadows using the Drawing tools.
3. Export by selecting File: Save As, and change the format from PowerPoint to JPEG.

This will save single slides as JPEG by default. Under the Options tab, you can also change PowerPoint to save all slides as a sequence of JPEGs.

Hands-on introduction to Skype on Mac OS X

O'Reilly's Mac DevCenter ventures into Internet telephony with a hands-on introduction to Skype on Mac OS X, the first of a series by François Joseph de Kermadec. The article covers setup, options, and beginning use and also includes some interesting background on the peer-to-peer structure Skype uses. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/12/28/skype.html

Updating OS X

Many people report problems with OS X Updates. Others report no problems.
The best advice for running Updates is download the stand alone combo installer then
1.) Restart the computer,
2.) Run repair permissions in Disk Utility,
3.) Run the COMBO update
4.) Restart,
5.) Run repair permissions again.

Apple's Backup not comprehensive

"Backup is not designed to back up an entire hard drive, as this is not necessary in Mac OS X. In addition, Backup does not support backing up applications. If you need to reinstall or restore an application, you must use the original application discs. This information can be found in the Backup Help menu. Backup is designed primarily to back up your Home Folder.
Sincerely,
The .Mac Support Team"

Unfortunately, backing up my Home directory was exactly what I was doing at the time. My applications that I built with Realbasic and/or XCode were the ones that disappeared.
If I cannot successfully back up and restore my Home directory in its entirety with Backup, then the application is useless and dangerous. You should make this point explicitly clear about Backup - it won't do what the user expects.
August Hahn