OS X tips - page 5

How To Rearrange The Order Of Accounts In Mavericks Mail App [OS X Tips]

By

Mail App Order

When you create a new email message in OS X Maverick’s Mail app, you can choose–assuming you have more than one email account in there–which account you’re sending the email from. For example, you might want to send an email from your work account rather than your personal one if it’s work related, and vice versa if it’s about a party you’ve recently attended.

The problem is, when you choose from the drop-down menu in the mail composition window, the account you want to send from may not be in the top spot. It might be a couple of slots down the list. If you want to rearrange the order of these accounts, you can search in the Mail preferences until the cows come home because the ability to do so just isn’t in there.

It is, however, possible to do.

How To Use Preview To Make Your PDF Documents Smaller [OS X Tips]

By

Export

Ever wonder why that PDF with just text in it is somehow bloated to a massive file size? Why should something that would be under 500 kilobytes if it were a Text Edit file be two or three megabytes when put into PDF form?

Well, the answer can vary, but if you ever get a PDF from someone that’s too darn big, say, to send via email, then you can use Preview to shrink the file size down to, well, size.

Preview is the built-in file viewer for images and PDF documents, so it’s super easy to find and use.

Enable Flash For Specific Websites With Safari [OS X Tips]

By

safari security prefs 2

Ugh, Flash content, right? It slows everything down, and buries content within inaccessible Flash movies, and forces you to install and keep updating the plugin, even if you don’t need it.

Honestly, I hope Flash goes the way of the dodo, and HTML5 takes over. If I had my druthers, I’d disable Flash on my Mac

Until then, however, there are some sites where you actually need to enable Flash to see the content. So, instead of completely dumping Flash in a fit of pique, you can enable it in Safari only for specific sites.

Quickly Save Text From The Web To Your Desktop [OS X Tips]

By

Click to see animation.
Click to see animation.

Ever been surfing the web and find a nice bit of text you want to save? You can highlight the text with your cursor, copy, and paste into an app like Text Edit or Notes, sure, but maybe you just want a quick and easy way to put the bit of text aside to use later.

There’s no need to bother with opening an app and pasting in the text in OS X. Text clipping has been around for quite a while, but it’s a feature that we rarely use, for one reason or another.

New Macbook? Here Are Some Non-Obvious Trackpad Gestures You May Not Know About [OS X Tips]

By

These are just the obvious ones.
These are just the obvious ones.

I’ve let friends borrow my Macbook when they come over to my place from time to time, and I’m still surprised by the way they don’t “get” the trackpad. Some of them look for the button to click, some want to know how to right click, and still others move the mouse cursor way over to the scroll bar area on the web browser, looking to move the page up or down.

So, I figured it might be time for a quick tip with some easy yet non-obvious Trackpad gestures that you can use if you’re new to the Macbook trackpad system, or if you just want to send to friends that continue to be baffled by the trackpad when they borrow your laptop.

Tired Of Clicking? Use The Keyboard To Navigate The Menu Bar [OS X Tips]

By

Look, ma, no mouse!
Look, ma, no mouse!

Back in the day, Apple popularized the point and click interface so well that Microsoft decided it would use the same system, thereby paving the way for decades of mouse pointers and menu systems.

Still, one of the great things about Mac OS X is the way it caters to the power user with keyboard shortcuts, both built in and customizable. Heck, in Mavericks, you can even sync these custom tricks with iCloud.

It comes as an obvious surprise, then, when you realize that you can even navigate that most mouse-centric of innovations, the menu bar.

Show A Single App And Hide All The Rest With One Click In The Dock [OS X Tips]

By

Command-Option-Click

With all the RAM we have these days, it’s easy to get some serious screen clutter going on when you have a ton of apps open.

You can hide the current app with Command-H, and you can hide all the other apps except the current app with Command-Option-H.

But did you know you could go to any app that’s currently running, while simultaneously hiding all the other running apps?

Go Ahead, We Don’t Mind: Put The Dock In The Corner On your Mac [OS X Tips]

By

Dock Upper Left

While no one puts baby in the corner, you can ignore that time-honored advice and actually put the Dock in the corner on the screen of your Mac.

While the traditional tools for moving the Dock around will let you move it to the right, left, or bottom of the screen, this little bit of Terminal magic will have the dock pinned to the far corners of your Mac’s screen, either the right bottom, the top left, or any other corner you can imagine.

How To Use The Three Power Button States In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

power button

You probably know that you can press the power button on your Mac to get it to sleep or even turn off.

As has been true for a while, now, you can use the power button on your Mac to manage your Mac in three different ways. The specifics of what each type of button press has changed recently in Mavericks, as Apple states on its knowledge base article about the new power button features.

Here’s A Much Better Way To Store And Transport Your Macbook Power Cord [OS X Tips]

By

Macbook Power Supply

Ok, sure, this is more of a tip for those with a Macbook Pro or Air, or any other Apple laptop in the last few years with the fantastic tiny power brick design to it.

I know that I’ve struggled for years on the best way to tuck the two pieces of the power cable away. I’ve generally settled on wrapping the thin part of the cord around the included flip-out handles and then wrapping the larger cord around my hand. Sometimes I separate the two cables and do the same thing, so they fit better in a flatter bag or backpack.

This new tip, though, from Twitter user J Cornelius, just plain astonished me when I saw it. Why didn’t I think of that?

One-Click Wonder — Get To Your Mac’s System Info Even Faster [OS X Tips]

By

System Report Faster

To get to my Mac’s System Report, the one with all the info on my RAM, Hard Drive, CPU specs, and the like, I’ve usually gone up to click the Apple menu, clicked on About This Mac, then clicked on the More Info button. Once there, I’ve clicked on the System Report… button. That’s what, four separate clicks?

In the interest of saving time, there’s a much faster way to get to the System Report.

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

By

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.

Rearrange, Pin Or Delete Safari Top Sites Thumbnails With Ease [OS X Tips]

By

Safari Top Sites

When you launch Safari these days, you’ll get the Top Sites page, showing all the sites you visit most frequently in Safari. If you’ve disabled this default view, you can get to it with a quick Option-Command-1 in Safari.

Did you know, however, that you can rearrange these Top Sites more to your liking? You can even delete sites you don’t want appearing there, as well.

Get Live Traffic And Other Road Information In Maps In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

Traffic Info Maps Mavericks

Sure, you can open up Apple’s Maps app on your iPhone (or iPad, but really, who does that?) and enable live traffic information with a tap or two. It’s super helpful while you’re on the road, and helps you avoid the nasty traffic snarls that might be up ahead.

But what if you’re planning a trip from your Mac running Mavericks? Shouldn’t you be able to access that kind of data on your Mac?

Well, you can! Mavericks makes it super easy to enable, too.

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

By

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.

Quit Typing So Much – Use Contacts To Click Through To Addresses In Maps [OS X Tips]

By

Contacts To Maps

Sure, it’s pretty easy to type an address into the Maps built into Mavericks, but wouldn’t it be even better if you could just click your way to Map nirvana?

In the latest version of OS X, you can send your directions or Map locations right to your iPhone or iPad, so why not make things even easier and more streamlined? Just launch Contacts and you’ll see.

Hide The Menu Bar On Your Secondary Monitor With Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

Get Rid Of Secondary Menu Bar

The external monitor support in Mavericks is much improved, as we noted in yesterday’s tip on getting the Dock to show up on your second monitor.

The menu bar itself will dim when you’re not actively on a specific monitor, as well. In other words, if you’re using monitor A, the menu bar will look opaque, as per usual, while it will dim and go see-through on monitor B. When you switch your active focus by using the cursor on monitor B, though, the menu bar will brighten and not let you see through it, while the menubar on monitor A will go semi-transparent and dim.

There is a way, however, to just hide the menu bar altogether on your secondary monitor, if that’s how you want things to work. The preference is in an unintuitive place, though.

Use The Dock On Any External Display With Mavericks [OS X Tips]

By

Dock Shot

Mavericks has revamped Apples support for external displays, making everything a lot easier when using a second or third monitor.

In previous versions of OS X, the dock was only accessible on your main display, however, and it seems the same way in Mavericks.

Until you realize, though, that there is a new, simple way to get the Dock on an external monitor.

Find Forgotten Passwords With Keychain Access [OS X Tips]

By

Keychain Access

If you store your user name and password details via the Keychain in OS X, you know that Keychain makes it a lot easier to do so. You can store login details for all those websites you visit, including banking info, social network details, and the like, right in the Keychain.

At some point, though, you might forget the actual passwords. It’s like how we used to know all our close friends’ phone numbers by heart, but with the advent of the smartphone, I doubt many of us even know too many of our buddies’ actual digits.

If you want to remember the passwords that are stored in Keychain, though, you’re in luck.

How To Export And Print Any Region Or Location From Maps App [OS X Tips]

By

Honolulu PDF

If you’re headed to a location where you’re not sure of the cell reception, sending a Map to your iPhone or iPad from Mavericks is obviously of little use.

If you need to get a PDF of a section of the map so you can print it out, or just send it to your iPhone for offline access, it’s fairly simple. Like any other app on Mac OS X, you can print Maps using the standard dialog, or–with Maps in Mavericks–you can simply export to PDF.

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

By

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.

Save That Battery: Use Activity Monitor To Keep Track Of Your Power [OS X Tips]

By

energy impact OS X Mavericks

It’s important to keep track of your power consumption on a Macbook Air or Pro, since that will determine how long you can use the thing before you have to plug it in again. Mavericks makes it easy to see the top app or two that uses the most energy on your Mac with a quick Option-Click on the battery menubar icon, letting you know which apps are consuming the most energy.

If you want to know about all the apps running on your Mac, though, you’ll need to dig a bit deeper, using Activity Monitor.

How To Send Addresses From Mavericks’ Maps Into Your Contacts [OS X Tips]

By

Contacts from Maps app

It’s great to be able to keep track of addresses for friends and places around town in your Contacts app. Having all the address info in a ready Contact makes it super simple to launch Maps in Mavericks from the Contacts app when you want directions to a party in town somewhere.

And, while you can easily send directions from Maps app to your iPhone, it’s also helpful to just say to Siri, “Directions to Jill’s house,” or “Get me to the movie theater,” and have your iPhone just pull up maps based on that name in the Contacts app.

Mavericks makes it incredibly simple to put addresses for all the places you might want to go right into your Contacts app so you can do just that.