Finder - page 3

Tear Off A Reminder To Your Desktop For A Quick Look [OS X Tips]

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Reminder Tear Off

Reminders are delightful thing. Apple’s implementation syncs across the Mac to iPhones and iPads, and if you log in to iCloud.com, you can share Reminders with friends, family, co-workers, and the like. They’re super useful.

Sometimes, though, you might want to single out a specific Reminder for special attention. There’s really no starring system or tagging available within Reminders itself, so you’ll have to get creative.

Prettier Than Linen: Change The Login Screen Wallpaper In OS X Mavericks [OS X Tips]

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Login Screen Wallpaper Mavericks

The login screen wallpaper in OS X Mavericks is a pretty boring dark gray linen picture, with the Apple logo in the center. Yawn.

Far better to put in your own image, thereby customizing the login screen for your very own purposes, am I right? It’s not too tricky to do so, though it does require replacing some system files and will get rid of the Apple logo image itself.

If you don’t mind replacing that Apple logo with a much larger image, thereby hiding the linen look but losing the Apple logo, then here’s how to do just that.

Keep Your Hard Drive In Top Shape With The Stellar Drive ToolBox for Mac #BlackFriday [Deals]

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redesign_stellar_mainframe_630x473

Never suffer from a system crash, failed hard drive, or dip in system performance again.
The Stellar Drive ToolBox for Mac is a comprehensive bundle of utilities to keep your system healthy and optimized.

All 14 utilities help optimize hard drive performance, protect your data and provide an easy way to repair your hard drive’s volumes – it’s all you need to optimize, repair, and maintain your Mac. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $49.99 – 49% off the regular price of $99!

Full Monty Finder Windows – Go Big Or Go Home [OS X Tips]

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Finder Full Screen

Sure, we all know that we can embiggen our applications on the Mac, clicking on the little arrows in the upper right corner of any app. That way, we can get fullscreen versions of our apps to utilize all the screen real estate we have.

I like to make my browser and image editing software full screen, placing each one in a separate Desktop Space, switching between them with a keyboard shortcut for easy access.

Did you know, however, that you can do the same with any Finder window? I know I didn’t.

How To Get All Of Your Photos Into Flickr And Forget Everpix Forever [How To]

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Flickr can become the central home for all your photos.
Flickr can become the central home for all your photos.

Intro

After the recent Everpix shutdown, I moved all my photos to Flickr. If you read my roundup of Everpix alternatives, you’ll know that Flickr wasn’t my first choice, but it turns out that neither is it my only choice. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Everpix was great because it just sucked in all your photos, whether you kept them in iPhoto, on your iPhone, in a weird beardo folder structure on your Mac, or even if you took all of your photos using Instagram. It was far from perfect, but it was the best. And then it went away.

How To Turn App Nap Off For Specific Apps On Your Mac [OS X Tips]

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Turn App Nap Off

OS X Mavericks has been designed to optimize your Mac. Whether it’s an older Mac or a new one, a desktop or a laptop: Mavericks just makes everything work better.

One feature that helps in the effort to keep your battery from running out as fast as it could is App Nap, a way for your Macbook to put the apps that aren’t being actively used on a low-energy mode, which consumes less power, and helps your battery stay fuller, longer.

However, you can also turn this feature off for a specific app that you want to run at full power all the time.

Change The Name, Tags, And Location From Any Document Title Bar In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

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New Titlebar Options

We’ve been able to change the name of our Mac documents from the title bar since OS X Mountain Lion, and it’s made for an interesting new workflow.

In fact, there was a nice little drop down menu that would let you duplicate, move, and rename the document resulting from clicking on the triangle to the right of the document name in the title bar.

Now, though, in Mavericks, that’s changed.

Mavericks Makes It Way Easier To Access Your Library Folder [OS X Tips]

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Access Library Folder in Mavericks

Back in OS X Lion and then again in OS X Mountain Lion, Apple hid access to the user Library folder to prevent neophyte OS X users from messing around in the areas of the file system that could cause some damage to their Macs.

That’s fine, of course, but it took a lot of messing around in the Terminal to get that access back, and who remembers Terminal commands from last year? Not us, that’s for sure.

Luckily, Mavericks has a much easier way to turn Library access on.

Tag Files In Mavericks Finder Using The Keyboard

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Easy tagging right there in the Finder.
Easy tagging right there in the Finder.

Mavericks’ new in-Finder tagging is great, letting you treat your files like you treat your Gmails and effectively keeping the same file in multiple “folders” at once. But actually tagging the files is still kind of a pain. Happily, Brett Terpstra is here to help with a rather simple tip.

Force Quit The Current Active App From The Apple Menu [OS X Tips]

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forcequitmenu

When an app gets stuck on my Mac, I typically force quit it by hitting Command-Option-Escape, and then clicking on the app that’s frozen, then hitting the OK button. Then, I hit the “are you sure” dialog button that invariably pops up. It’s a several step process, but I figured that was the price for having multi-tasking that no longer takes down my whole machine.

Turns out, there’s a quicker way to do that right from the Apple Menu. Here’s how.

Compress A Bunch Of Files Into One Zip Archive For Easier Sharing [OS X Tips]

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Compress in Finder

I remember back in the olden, pre-OS X days, when you’d need to use a utility like Stuffit to compress a bunch of files together into one archive, shedding excess data and making it easier to get those files to your recipient due to much smaller bandwidth back then.

That’s not to say it’s not a valuable strategy, even with today’s cloud infrastructure. Getting a bunch of files into one archive makes the logistics of sending someone a ton of files a lot easier, even if there’s less of a need to compress them for bandwidth reasons.

Here’s how to do just that, using the tools already built into your OS X Mac.

Quit Seeing ‘All My Files’ In The Finder – Change The Default New Window View [OS X Tips]

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Finder All My Files

When you open up a new Finder window, at least in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, you’ll see a snapshot of all the files on your Mac. Apple calls this view, “All My Files,” and it’s a good way to just see what you have on your Mac.

It’s also an annoying view if you’re looking for stuff on your Desktop or Documents. If you want to change the default view for any new Finder windows, here’s how.

Use These Shell Scripts To Organize Your Photos Right There In The Finder

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Screen Shot 2013-10-07 at 11.55.47 AM

There’s a lot to be said for organizing your photos into folders in the Finder. In fact, if you’re using an app like Lightroom to organize your photos, then you’re already doing this, albeit with a super-helpful cataloging and editing application laid on top.

But you need some sort of organization, right? And that’s where the amazing Dr. Drang comes in, with a couple of shell scripts do the work for you.

Find The Directory Path Of Documents (Or Rename Them) With Proxy Icons [OS X Tips]

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Proxy Icons

The OS X Finder is an amazing thing, letting you create folder within folder, duplicate files, find your documents, and generally get stuff done. More and more, the Finder features are being integrated across all apps and documents on your Mac.

Case in point is the ability to find the directory path of a document from the document’s title bar, as well as being able to (since Mountain Lion, anyway) rename your documents in the title bar as well. All of this is thanks to the proxy icon, which Apple defines as: “An icon in the title bar of a document window that users can manipulate as if they were manipulating the corresponding file-system object.”

Here’s how to use them on your Mac.

De-Clutter Your Mavericks Beta Sidebar – Delete Tags Off Of Your Mac [OS X Tips]

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Delete Tags

With all the excitement over the recent release of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7, it’s easy to forget that the Cupertino-based company has another OS in the works, OS X Mavericks Beta. Currently at version 8 of the Developer Preview, or beta, OS X Mavericks continues to quietly update in the background, with more refinements over time.

One of these improvements is the ability to delete tags from the sidebar. As you may recall, we showed you how to add and modify tags to the list in the Finder sidebar, as well as how to drag and drop files to tag them.

It turns out, though, that now you can actually delete tags as well, completing the tag circle of life. Here’s how.

How To Merge Two Folders Into One On Your Mountain Lion Mac [OS X Tips]

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Merge Mountain Lion

When you drag a bunch of items into a folder in the Finder on your Mac and some of the items in there have the same name, your Mac will ask you if you want to replace the items in the folder you’re dragging to. This is all well and good when you’re trying to do just that, but what about when you want to merge the files from the first folder to the second?

Well, it’s amazingly simple.

Merge Several Finder Windows Into One Tabbed Window With OS X Mavericks Beta [OS X Tips]

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Merge All Windows

Ever end up with a lot of Finder windows floating around your Mac screen? In previous versions of Mac OS X, the choice was to close them all with a keyboard shortcut, Option-Command-W, which will end all your Finder suffering in one short tap.

In Mavericks beta, that still works. Yet Apple has also added another way to deal with multiple Finder windows: merging them. Here’s how.

Here’s Another, Easier Way To Make A New Folder Full Of Selected Items [OS X Tips]

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New Folder with Selection

I don’t know about you all, but I’ve been getting stuff into a new folder in the Finder the same way as I always have, just like I did way back in OS 7, OS 8, OS 9, and even ten years ago in OS X.

I make a new folder in the Finder using Shift-Command-N, or by selecting New Folder from the Finder menu, then Command- or Shift-click all the files I want to put into that folder, and drag them all over. I’ve heard you can even copy and paste files into a new folder the same way, but I’m kind of old school and don’t mess with that.

Today, though, I read about a totally different way to do this. Color me surprised (and a bit chagrined) to find out that there’s an easier way to put a bunch of items into a new folder in the Finder.

Find Your Stuff – Arrange Applications By Type In The Finder [OS X Tips]

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Application Type Arrange In Finder

The Finder in Mac OS X is specifically designed to help you find stuff. In any Finder Window, you can arrange the icons or lists of files alphabetically by Name, by Kind of file, by the Application that opens that file, by Date Last Opened, Added, Modified, or Created, and also by Size and by Label.

In list view, you can also click on the top column title to sort the list in ascending or descending order. It’s a pretty comprehensive way to find your stuff in the Finder, without even having to search for it.

Did you know, however, that you can also arrange Applications by application type (Productivity, Social Networking, Music, Video, and so on)? I didn’t, so here’s a tip on how to do just that.

How To Change The Default App For Specific Files Or File Types [OS X Tips]

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Change Default App File Type

In OS X, all file types have a default application that opens when you double click on them. If you double click on a PDF file or a PNG file, chances are that your Mac will open it in Preview, Apple’s default PDF and image file app. If you’ve given an app like Adobe Reader, for example, permission to set itself as the default PDF app, then all PDFs will open in Reader.

Over time, you may have set apps as default that you no longer want to open your files. Conversely, you might want all JPG files to open in Preview, except one specific JPG file, which you’d like to open in Photoshop. Here’s how to make both of these situations work for you.

Quit Or Hide An App In OS X With Command-Tab [OS X Tips]

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Command-Tab Hide

Command-Tab is probably seared into your muscle memory to switch between running applications while on your Mac. I know it is permanently stuck in mine.

You probably also know that Command-Tab can also be used to quit apps as well, right? And hide apps? To be honest, I knew the first tip, but not the second one, which (to me) makes it worth a share.

Drag And Drop To Tag Your Files In OS X Mavericks Beta [OS X Tips]

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drag n drop tags Mavericks

One of the cool new features of OS X Mavericks is the ability to tag files in the Finder, making Finder labels a bit more useful. Want to sort a bunch of files for your upcoming vacation into one place? Make a tag for “vacation,” and then add the tag per file with a right-click as we showed you a while back.

Want to track some of those vacation files with the destinations they pertain to? Go ahead and tag them with a second tag. Can’t do that with a label.

While it’s easy to right-click on a file and choose a tag, it’s even easier to add tags with a simple Mac OS standard move. Here’s how.

Toggle The Menu Bar Translucency On Your Mac [OS X Tips]

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Translucent Menu Bar

It looks like this has been possible since, oh, Mac OS X 10.5 or so, but I hadn’t come across it before. I’m guessing that might mean some of you haven’t, either.

If you’re one of those amazing folks who have seen this already, then feel free to check out all our other OS X tips; it’s possible there’s something in the list you didn’t know about already.

For the rest of you, if you want to disable the translucent menu bar on your Mac, it’s relatively simple. Check it out.