by on July 12, 2010 3 Comments

Saving System Screen Shots to a Specific Folder

When you use the keyboard shortcuts to take screen grabs in OS X the default is to save them to the Desktop. If you are like me and you use these keys a lot, your desktop will quickly become crowded. What you need to do is change the default folder for screen shots.

I don’t know why this isn’t a System Preference but it’s pretty simple to change the defaults with a little Terminal-fu.

1. Open an OS X Terminal (Go to Utilities->Terminal)
2. Inside the terminal, issue the following command

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /DESTINATION

where DESTINATION is the directory you wish to save to.

3. Logout and Log back in.

So, for example, if you create a Screenshots folder inside the Pictures directory your command would look like this:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots

That’s all there is to it. If you have any interesting system tweaks, let us know in the comments.

by on June 29, 2010 2 Comments

Lock Dashboard Widgets To Desktop

I like the Dashboard. It enables me to keep at a keypress alot of useful utilties. My favorite Dashboard widget right now is the Tempo time logging widget. There are times that pressing F12 is a bit too inconvenient. I sometimes want to leave a Dashboard widget on the desktop so I can always see it. Oddly, OS X doesn’t give you an easy way to make Dashboard widgets stick to the desktop.

Not to be deterred, I did some poking around and found a neat trick to allow you to do this. Before we begin, you must be comfortable using the Mac Terminal application.

  1. Open Terminal (Application->Utilities->Terminal)
  2. Type defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
  3. Type killall Dock

Your Dock will disappear for a few seconds and then reappear. Once it does, you can move Dashboard widgets onto the Desktop.

  1. Press F12 to display the Dashboard
  2. Pick a widget and hold down the mouse button
  3. Press F12 again

You’ll see the widget now is on the desktop. You can stick it wherever you want. You can put the widget back into the Dashboard by clicking it first, pressing F12, then releasing the mouse.

If you want to go back to the defaults, do this:

  1. Open Terminal (Application->Utilities->Terminal)
  2. Type defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO
  3. Type killall Dock

Pretty handy trick eh? If you have any other interesting OS X hacks, please let us know in the comments.

by on May 4, 2010 Leave a Comment

Mac Randomly Locking Up? It’s OS X 10.6.3

I recently had some severe Windows XP flashbacks. If you’ve switched from a PC to a Mac, you probably were accustomed to random crashes that you could not track down to any one particular component or application. Your only solution was to reformat and reinstall Windows. This, was the experience I faced recently with OS X.

I gradually began noticing random lockups while using the system. Sometimes, while surfing the internet, I would get the spinning  ball and the entire OS would become unresponsive. Sometimes, when switching screen resolutions the screen would go blank. Sometimes, my system wouldn’t come back from sleep.

To troubleshoot this problem, I removed all running services, uninstalled as many applications as I could. Still, the problem persisted.

I then decided to use the hammer. I reformatted and reinstalled OS X. I regularly backup my system so this step wasn’t too painful. I reformatted the disk and reinstalled the OS X 10.6. My machine started up clean, I was able to surf the web, my problems looked like they were solved – until I ran Software Update. I applied the combined 10.6.3 patch, restarted the computer. Within 5 minutes of using the newly patched system, the problem returned.

I Googled, 10.6.3 lockup and came across a number of people on the Apple forums that were experiencing similar problems. I reformatted the system and turned off the Software Updates. I also applied the 10.6.2 patch which is available on the Apple Website directly. I’ve been running for a few weeks now without issue.

If you have an iMac, and are experiencing problems. You’re not alone. If for some reason you haven’t applied 10.6.3 yet, you may want to wait.

by on April 7, 2010 2 Comments

Keep a Secure Keychain Across Macs with Dropbox + 1Password

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:

Keychain Preferences

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.

by on February 5, 2010 1 Comment

Uninstalling Software

Earlier, I explained how to install applications under OS X. It’s a pretty straight forward process. Uninstalling applications is nearly just as easy.

In most cases, uninstalling an applications is as simple as dragging the application from the Applications folder to the Trash. It is this simple because OS X applications bundle the program and all of the supporting files inside the application image. If you want to go a little deeper than read on…

There may be occasions where application programs leave things behind. They could be support files, plug-is, preferences, etc. They are generally harmless but, if you ever reinstall an application it is useful to know that there are there.

Tracking them down and eliminating them is easy, if you know where to look. In general, support files are located in these areas on your system.

  • Home Directory -> Library ->  Preferences
  • Home Directory -> Library -> Application Support
  • Library -> Preferences
  • Library -> Application Support

The first two directories are for application files specific to you, the second two directories are for all the users of your system.

This sample video shows you how to uninstall MailPlane, a GMail front end application.

If you’re nervous about messing around with your Library directories, you can always try an application designed for removing OS X applications. AppZapper, looks nice but I haven’t tried it myself.

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