Learning OS X

Regular readers of this blog might swear I work for the folk at 1Password. Honestly, I don’t! It is just one of my favorite OS X applications.

I’m also gradually loving Google Chrome. It’s fast compared to Firefox and is developing a rich ecosystem around plugins. The only thing keeping it from becoming my primary browser was the lack of support for 1Password.

All this changed about  today when I discovered that Agile Web Solutions created a 1Password Chrome extension. I don’t believe it was very well publicized so I’m hoping this post remedies it.

It’s a little rough around the edges but you can download the 1Password Chrome Plugin here.

Have fun!

Mail.app sometimes is a little too smart, especially when it comes to completing addresses as you type them in the address fields.

When you send an email to someone Mail.app stores it in a list called Previous Recipients. Then, each time you send an email, the software tries to guess who you want to send an email to as you type it in. This generally works well. If, however, you have old email addresses that you know longer use, it will sometimes show up first in the completion field. This adds a few extra keystrokes to finding the right recipient, slowing you down.

It is however possible to clean up this list. This is one of those tips that is super easy but bugged me for sometime until I found it.

• Open Mail.app
• Choose Window -> Previous Recipients.

Inside this window you can do a number of things including:

• Adding a recipient to your address book
• Removing them from the list

I’ve mentioned my favorite password manager 1Password on Learning OS X a few times before. It’s a great tool to help you keep your online identity secure. The downside to using a password manager is all of your passwords are kept in one place. Well, with the help of another great application Dropbox, that is no longer an issue.

Dropbox is a tool that allows you to easily create shared folders across computers and across the internet. The service comes in free and paid varieties. I use it to keep my office and home Macs in sync. With it, I never have to worry about leaving files in the office, it’s always available for me wherever I go.

You might be able to see where I’m going with this. Dropbox will synchronize files between multiple computers. If I store my 1Password keychain there, it will sync between each of my computers. Follow the directions below and you too will be syncing your keychain between multiple computers in no time.

Install Dropbox

It’s quick and easy, go to the Dropbox website, create an account, install the client and you’re off and running

Move your 1 Password Keychain to your Dropbox

Make sure your 1Password keychain is setup as an agile keychain. Start 1Password, click the 1Password > Preferences menu to open the Preferences window. Click the Keychain tab and click the Switch to Agile Keychain Format button, shown here:

Then, move your keychain by clicking 1Password->Preferences->General and selecting the Move button. Browse to a folder inside your Dropbox directory and select “Move to Selected Folder.”

That’s pretty much it. When you click the Move button, Dropbox in the background will move the file out to the Internet. After a few seconds, the file should appear on your second Mac in its Dropbox. Click it and it will open inside 1Password. This will then tell 1Password to start using this file for the keychain.

Pretty simple way to connect two great tools. If you have any other creative uses for Dropbox, please tell us.