Mail Activity!

The Mail that comes with Leopard has a feature called "Mail Activity". What is displayed in this is mail that is being sent or received. It is very useful to see when a large email with attachments is finally sent. You can also see mail arriving before it is even displayed in your inbox. To see the "Mail Activity" window, just click on the arrow in the lower left corner (2nd button from the left).

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

The way Firefox handles mailto!

By default, mailto links (websites that integrate a link to an email address) are loaded in Mail and it is not very useful if you only use webmail. In the Firefox preferences, you can change that to Gmail (website), Yahoo Mail (website), or another application. It is under "Applications" and the content type is "mailto".

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Color of highlighted text!

It is possible to customize the color of highlighted text. It is in "System Preferences", under "Appearance". The setting is "Highlight Color". The change won't just happen with highlighted text, but also when you select files and you take screenshots.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Shapes in Numbers!

Using the "Shapes" icon in the toolbar to select a shape will automatically add a default shape that you can then resize and adjust. To actually draw the shape instead of modifying a default version, you want to hold down "Option" while clicking on the "Shapes" icon in the toolbar.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

The buffer size in iTunes!

As you might know if you read my Tweets, my internet connection is not always as great as it should be and watching previews on iTunes doesn't really work well, because unlike YouTube when the buffers runs out, iTunes just closes the preview window and returns to the information page. I finally figured out how to fix this problem in the iTunes preferences. It is under "Advanced","Streaming Buffer Size". Switching it to "Large" really improved the way previews play on my internet connection, but if you have a super speedy connection, changing the buffer size to Small can actually make videos start playing faster.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Quit the Finder (not force quit)!

I didn't even know this was possible until I found the feature in OnyX (OS X maintenance & optimization application). You can enable an additional "Quit Finder" menu item in the Finder menu. It is totally different than the "Force Quit Finder" feature that will quit the Finder and relaunch it immediately. This will actually quit the Finder ant it won't relaunch until you load it by clicking on the icon in the Dock. It looks pretty great because the icons on the desktop are not displayed and the Finder doesn't take up any resources. Here is where you can add this feature in OnyX:

1. Go to the "Parameters" tab and click on the "Finder" tab.
2. Check the checkbox next to "Show Quit item" under "Finder Menu:".

You can download OnyX here from MacUpdate.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Remove stationery in Mail!

The Leopard version of Mail added the "Stationery" feature. One thing that isn't obvious about how to use the feature is if you have selected a stationery, how do you remove it to go back to a text only email. Here is how:

1. Once you clicked "Show Stationery", choose the "Stationery" category.
2. Click on "Original". Mail will switch back to the text only template.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Time displayed in iTunes!

The default way iTunes displays the total time of a song or a playlist in the lower bar is approximate. You can toggle between the approximate and exact time by clicking on the time displayed.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Audio tracks in Handbrake!

The latest 0.9.3 update to Handbrake modified the way Audio Tracks are handled. You can now keep up to four audio tracks. I really like this feature because an advantage DVD had over H.264 QuickTime videos was the multiple languages. You can now decide to keep multiple tracks and multiple languagues. The default track is automatically set at 160 kbps, but additional tracks default at 128 kbps. I always switch the additional tracks to 160 kbps, because hard drive space is really cheap nowadays.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Color labels in ForkLift!

ForkLift is one of the best Mac applications for FTP and it just got better with the last update (update 1.6). The 1.6 update added "Color labels" like in the Finder. Of course, "Color labels" are a feature of OS X, so that feature won't be available if you are accessing a Linux or Windows server.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Screenshots in Preview!

I nearly always use the keyboard shortcuts for taking screenshots, but occasionally when I need more features, I use the "Grab" application. I have just discovered, however, that Preview now has most of the features available in Grab. The Grab feature is under the File menu and includes "Selection", "Window" and "Timed Screen".

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

MacUpdate bundle over soon!

There are only a few hours left to get the MacUpdate 11 applications bundle.

You can get the MacUpdate Holiday Bundle here (11 applications worth $467.64 for $49.99): DriveGenius X, RapidWeaver, Default Folder X, VirusBarrier X, MacGourmet Deluxe, LittleSnitch, KeyCue, MacPilot, WhatSize, iVolume and Pangea Arcade.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Upload from Aperture!

A new Aperture plugin was just released by Pixelpipe and it lets you upload photos to many social networking websites, blogs, etc. Once you've downloaded the plugin, you have to create an account with Pixelpipe. It is a really great solution, because there are so many social networking websites now that it just takes too much time to upload photos separately to each website. You can download the new plugin here from MacUpdate.

Supported services include: Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, Facebook, Friendfeed, Blogger, Wordpress, Twitter, Kodak, LiveJournal, Photobucket, SmugMug, Tumblr, Webshots…and many more!

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Pangea Arcade added to the bundle!

MacUpdate just added a bonus app to the bundle that ends in 2 days. It is the game "Pangea Arcade" (value of $19.95). Everyone who already purchased the bundle will get the serial number sent by email (can also be accessed through your web receipt). The bonus app is a limited time offer only available for the first 20 000 bundles sold.

You can get the MacUpdate Holiday Bundle here (11 applications worth $467.64 for $49.99): DriveGenius X, RapidWeaver, Default Folder X, VirusBarrier X, MacGourmet Deluxe, LittleSnitch, KeyCue, MacPilot, WhatSize, iVolume and Pangea Arcade.

Stealth mode for the OS X firewall!

I talked about enabling the OS X firewall yesterday, but here is another feature to enhance security even further. In the firewall advanced preferences, you can enable the feature called "Enable Stealth Mode". This will ensure that traffic that you didn't allow won't receive a response, not even an acknowledgment.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Tab Mix Plus!

I really use Firefox because of the amazing add-ons and one I just discovered is Tab Mix Plus! It really improves the tabs in Firefox, adding a progress bar to each tab and highlighting the title of the tab when it is done loading. You can also use it to "Lock Tab" or "Protect Tab". The "Lock Tab" feature will keep the tab on that website, loading a new tab when you enter another URL. The "Protect Tab" feature will modify the tab so it can't be closed. To access these features once the add-on is installed, you just have to right-click on any tab in the tab bar. Here is a link to the "Tab Mix Plus" add-on.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Send to iWeb from Numbers!

A great feature that is part of Numbers (included with iWork) is "Send to iWeb". It is a great way to publish Numbers documents to the web. The options include "PDF" or "Numbers Document". Of course, if the people you are sharing the document with don't have iWork, PDF is the best option. The "Send to iWeb" feature is located in the File menu.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Add Address Book Contacts to Skype!

At some point, a Skype software update added my Address Book contacts to my Skype contacts and it is useful because I use Skype Out a lot. The latest software update did the opposite and removed my address book contacts from my Skype contact list. Here is why you can enable or disable this feature:

1. Go to "Skype", "Preferences...".

2. Enable or disable "Show Address Book Contacts".

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

View info of multiple files!

A great tip submitted by Dominic P. Tremblay: View info of multiple files! When you select multiple files in the Finder (but not too many) and you press "Command - I", the info will be displayed in a separate window for each file. There is a point when you select a lot of files that the information is combined in a single window. I find the multiple windows incredibly annoying and I have been looking for a way to always display the "Get Info" window in a single window. Here it is: "Option - Command - I" instead of "Command - I". Thanks for the tip Dominic!

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Review of Drive Genius 2!

Drive Genius 2 is part of the MacUpdate 10 applications bundle (you can get more info or buy the bundle here from MacUpdate).

Drive Genius is a very complete disk optimizing application that has a lot more features than Disk Utility that comes with the OS. One of the features of Drive Genius is "Defrag". It is argued that it is not necessary on OS X, because the OS does it on the fly. The truth is that OS X defrags on the fly only for files smaller than 20 MB. I can really see this being useful for me as I work with huge files daily. Another interesting feature is "DriveSlim". It lets you find unwanted files to clear up space (temporary files, cache, PPC part of an app, duplicates, etc). Another feature that is much better in Drive Genius than in Disk Utility is "Partition". In Disk Utility, you actually have to erase the whole data before partitioning. In Drive Genius, you can partition a hard drive with data on it, on the fly.

Drive Genius included with the bundle also comes with a downloadable disk image that you can burn to DVD and then use to boot right into the application without loading OS X. It can be a great option to erase the data on a Mac that has no more working installation of OS X. You can just boot into the application and use the "Shred" feature!

You can get Drive Genius 2 in the MacUpdate bundle here.

Deleting words instead of letters!

To delete more quickly, you can use "Option - Backspace" and instead of deleting a letter at a time, it will delete a word at a time. It is a much quicker and precise way of deleting text. YouTube video:



Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Review of Default Folder X!

Default Folder X is part of the MacUpdate 10 applications bundle (you can get more info or buy the bundle here from MacUpdate).

Default Folder X lets you access recent, favorite and open folders right from the toolbar of Default Folder X that can be accessed through the Open and Save dialog of any application. It also comes with a Dock icon and a menu bar icon. Another feature that I really enjoy about Default Folder X is that it is possible to add Spotlight comments while saving the file, making it more easily searchable. What I instantly didn't like is the Dock icon that also shows up in the "Command - Tab" dialog. You can easily disable that Dock icon in the preferences (in System Preferences, under Default Folder X). Here is how:

1. Click on settings in the Default Folder X preferences.
2. Uncheck the checkbox next to "In the Dock" under the "Menus" tab.

Overall, I think it is an amazing application that runs quietly in the background and that can make the process of opening or saving files much more efficient. Easily adding Spotlight comments will also enhance the quality of Spotlight results.

You can get Default Folder X in the MacUpdate bundle here.

The new YouTube in HD!

Well it looks like the day is here, the most popular video sharing website isn’t the worst in terms of quality of service anymore. Everyone was going to YouTube, because, well, everyone was on YouTube! But now at least it is on par with many competing services.

The introduction of widescreen was long overdue. Widescreen just make videos look more professional even if they were shot on a Flip Mino. The arrival of HD is a nice improvement as well considering everyone can now shoot HD with a simple Flip Mino 720p. There is definitely a trade-off: buffering. Unless you have the best internet connection in the world, you probably won’t be able to watch an HD stream without letting it buffer first. Google solved that by having the low quality version load by default and letting you choose to go for the HD version. Here are the settings I have started using for HD YouTube (you can use the settings with most video editing application, I use QuickTime Pro):

H.264
Quality: High
Multi-Pass
1280×720
AAC 128 kbps
Current FPS

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Firefox zoom!

In Safari, "Command +" makes the text bigger and "Command -" makes it smaller. In Firefox 3 however, it actually resizes the images and the whole page. Of course, images might look pixelated at some point, but it is still a much better way to zoom in than how it is handled by Safari. If you prefer, under the "View", "Zoom" menu, you can change the Firefox zoom to the way Safari works. The option is "Zoom Text Only". You can also quickly go back to the default size with the "Reset" option in that menu or simply through the "Command 0" shortcut.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Semi-transparent Dock icon for hidden apps!

It is possible to enable a hidden feature in OS X that makes the Dock icon of hidden applications semi-transparent. You can use the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES

You then just have to use the Terminal command "killall Dock" to restart the Dock. An easier way of doing the same thing is with OnyX. Once OnyX is installed, the feature is under "Parameters" and "Dock". It is "Use Transparent icons for hidden applications". You can download OnyX here from MacUpdate.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Review of MacPilot!

MacPilot is part of the MacUpdate 10 applications bundle (you can get more info or buy the bundle here from MacUpdate).

I have to admit, I didn't think MacPilot was going to be this great before I tried it. I thought it was going to be similar to OnyX which is free, but it is different in many ways. I haven't had time to go through every feature, because there is so much there. The feature "Mute startup chime" really stands out to me because I had many requests about how to do this and I didn't know how. I'll try the other features and post more about MacPilot in the next few days.

You can get MacPilot in the MacUpdate bundle here.

The Google Calculator!

This is not specifically a Mac tip, it works with every device that can browse google.com, but it is so useful in replacing the built-in calculator widget. The built-in calculator widget is slow and not convenient, especially when the dashboard developer mode is not enabled. It is much simpler to use Google. You just have to enter the equation in the Google search bar and the result will appear instantly.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Review of Rapidweaver!

Rapidweaver is part of the MacUpdate 10 applications bundle (you can get more info or buy the bundle here from MacUpdate).

Well Rapidweaver is a pretty well known application that has often been compared to iWeb, but here are my thoughts. I think it is pretty much what iWeb should be. Rapidweaver fits very well with the Leopard Mac look. It includes a good selection of template (at least as good as iWeb). What makes it a lot better than iWeb is that you can get third-party templates. The advantage of Rapidweaver over iWeb is that it is very open and much more customizable. You can even set a favicon. Rapidweaver can also publish to both a FTP server or a MobileMe account.

You can get Rapidweaver in the MacUpdate bundle here.

More info about Stickies!

There is a standalone Stickies application that comes with OS X and it is useful because it doesn't fill the Dashboard like the Stickies widget. All the stickies are displayed as soon as you load the app, so if you have too many stickies, it will fill your screen. To save space, you can collapse the stickies that you don't use often. To collapse the sticky, you just have to double-click on the top bar of the sticky or press "Command - M".

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Keywords in Aperture!

An easy way to batch apply keywords in Aperture is to use "Lift Metadata". To do so, you just have to set the keywords you want to batch apply to one picture, right-click on the picture, select "Lift Metadata", select the pictures you want to apply the keywords to and click on "Stamp Selected Images" in the "Lift & Stamp" window that just appeared.


Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Convert videos to iPod/Apple TV with Automator!

If you often convert videos to the iPod or Apple TV format, you can use Automator instead of constantly having to load QuickTime Pro and selecting the right format. There is a QuickTime action in Automator for the iPod and Apple TV presets. You can then export the script to the Finder or to the script menu to easily access it.

Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

The edge of an image in Preview!

More and more images have transparency and it is not always obvious where the edge of the image is. When you are checking out an image in Preview, you can hold down "Ctrl" to show the edge of the image.


Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.

Last update for Address Book cards!

A great feature in Address Book is that the date when the card was last updated is displayed in the lower right corner. It is very useful to eliminate duplicate cards as the card most recently updated should be the one with the latest info.



Don't forget to update your bookmarks, download the new widget and check out the new website at http://www.tips4mac.info/ Tips will soon only be posted on the new website.