macosxhints.com application tips

10.7: Viewing Email when Organized by Conversation

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

This hint describes how to easily see all the emails in one conversation without having to open them and scroll through.

If you have your emails 'organized by conversation' you will see in the email list in the left column the number of emails in that conversation. You can just click on the email showing in the left-hand column and hit the Right arrow key. This causes all the emails in that conversation be shown in a drop-down list by date, one on each line, below the latest one. To undo the list, press the Left arrow key.

[crarko adds: This is one of those obvious shortcuts that can hide forever if not mentioned.]

A Spotlight Plugin for InDesign

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Every now and then I poke around the web to see if someone has found a way to search InDesign files with Spotlight. For many users of InDesign, this missing capability has been a point of frustration since Spotlight was introduced with Tiger back in April of 2005. Now there's a little something for anyone running InDesign CS5 or CS5.5.

Over in the Adobe forums, John Hawkinson put together a plugin. He recommends installing it, then using Terminal to re-index specific files or folders using:

mdimport /Users/UserName/Path/To/File/Or/Folder

I installed the latest version of his plugin (version 0.1c) into ~/Library/Spotlight then ran the mdimport command on my Documents folder. While he's explicit that this is alpha software, I've seen no issues and it seems to work very well. Thanks, John!

[crarko ad ...

Sticky Widget from Selected Text

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

There's a recent Macworld article for quickly making Stickies. I thought that some folks might want to make Sticky Widgets instead.

This is derived from my hint posted a few years ago.

Depending on your system version (and possibly other factors), you may need to launch Dashboard at least once if you haven't since system startup before trying the Service.

Here are the simple steps:

Open Automator and create an empty Mac OS X Service document. In the document window set the first popup to text and the second pop-up to any application.
Drag a Run AppleScript action into the right side of the Automator document window. Then paste the following line into the Run AppleScript step just beneath the (* Your script goes here *) line: ...

10.7: Unlock screens using any admin password

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Under Lion, the screen saver authentication dialog box does not allow you to enter a username. So even if you've made the changes detailed in this Snow Leopard hint there is no way to put in alternate credentials to unlock a user's screen.

First, edit /etc/pam.d/screensaver as per the original Snow Leopard hint:

Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
Type cd /etc/pam.d
3. sudo cp screensaver screensaver.bak
4. sudo nano screensaver
5. Find the line:
account required pam_group.so no_warn group=admin,wheel fail_safe
and change it to:
account sufficient pam_group.so no_warn group=admin,wheel fail_safe
Press Control+X to save /etc/pam.d/screensaver and exit nano.

Then, still in Terminal, we make a wholly unintuitive change to / ...

True fullscreen in Microsoft Word 2011

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Word 2011's built-in fullscreen mode leaves a lot to be desired. Microsoft says they're updating the program to use Lion's fullscreen mode, but until then, here's a way to hide all the interface elements so you can use the whole screen.

After you put Word into its own Space, the first thing to do is hide the menu bar using this tip here.

First I made a backup copy of Microsoft Word.app. Then I showed package contents on the original and opened the Info.plist that's in the Contents folder. It opened up in Lion's Property List Editor. I hit the 'Add Child' button and typed in LSUIPresentationMode and hit return: it automatically changed to Application UI Presentation Mode. I typed 4 in the Value field, and it automatically changed to All Suppressed. I saved the plist in place. That copy of Word now auto-hides the menu bar (mouse to the top of the screen to show it).
...

VirtualBox: Using snapshots to avoid excessive TimeMachine actitvity

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Are you running another OS with the great and free VirtualBox virtualization application by Oracle? Are you also using TimeMachine? Chances are that you are excessively using Time Machine and filling your Backup disk with slightly different but still huge disk images. Here's a possible solution to this problem:

VirtualBox provides the possibility to create snapshots. This allows you to go back to a virtual machine state when you are not happy with your virtual machine anymore. Possible examples are: you messed up your system or you caught a virus in your virtual machine.

This feature can also be used for circumventing the problem mentioned above, namely the excessive Time Machine usage.

Bring your virtual machine to a state you like
Create a snapshot in VirtualBox
Exclude the snapshot directory from TimeMachine Backup (it is located in /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/VIRTUALBOXNAME/Snapshots, change YOURUSER ...

Search iTunes Radio list by making a new playlist

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

You can search the iTunes list of radio stations if you add them to a playlist that you created.

If you click the built-in Radio list in your iTunes Library, you can see lots of internet audio streaming radio stations, apparently chosen by Apple, organized by genre; but you can't search the list. The iTunes search field in the top right corner is grayed-out.

If you make a new playlist, and drag radio stations into it, you can search in that playlist.

I wanted to search for any radio stations that might play, for example, 'dubstep' or 'Hindi' or 'reggaeton.'

I made a new playlist and dragged radio stations into it. I tried dragging all of them, but iTunes gave up after 999 stations. I also see that iTunes won't retrieve station names now, but that may be because I tried dragging them all (that would be at least 1500 stations). Maybe my network's sysop shut that off. Anyway, I'll try again tomorrow, but the point of the hint is that you can use the ...

Restoring hidden apps to the list in the Mac App Store

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

While viewing my purchased apps in the Mac application of 'App Store' I clicked the (X) next to the iPhoto Installed button. iPhoto immediately disappeared from the list of purchased apps.

There is no Undo for this nor any other obvious or searched solution. Here is how to restore the listing of purchased apps. It is not obvious.

Delete an app if you haven't. Under the App Store menu item Store drag down to View My Account.

Enter your password and a new option is available in the account window listing Hidden Purchases with an option to unhide them.

You do not see this option unless you have deleted at least one list item. This provides a way of filtering out rejected apps you have purchased.

[crarko adds: I tested this (in 10.6.8), and it works as described. At least with the iTunes App Store, there is a warning dialog and some instruction when clicking on the X to hide an app as mentioned ...

iTunes: Quickly convert videos to AAC audio

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

I do have some video podcasts I'd love to be able to listen to in double speed on my iPhone. However, this only works for audio files.

For audio files in your iTunes library, it's possible to quickly convert them to your default audio encoding using the command 'Create AAC Version' in the 'Advanced' menu. With video files, that particular command is greyed out. However, when pressing the Option key, the command turns into 'Convert to AAC�' which lets you select any iTunes-compatible file in the browse dialog and turn into AAC audio. While this approach works, it is clunky and cumbersome.

Recently, I've discovered a much more straightforward solution which takes advantage of functionality that seems to be sort of a bug in iTunes.

Select the desired video in iTunes and then choose the aforementioned 'Convert to AAC�' command using the Option key but let go of the Option key as soon as you selected the menu item. Instead of letting you select a file to conve ...

Numbers: Simulate XIRR annualized rate of return

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

XIRR is a classic and widely used Excel function which is very useful for calculating rates of return on investments given an initial and final value and a series of cash inflows and outflow in irregular amounts at irregular intervals (e.g. Jan. 15, invested $200, Mar 12, withdrew $100, ...). Although iWork '09 Numbers doesn't have this function, it can be simulated, as described below.

XIRR takes as input a series of dates and cash flow amounts, and computes the annualized rate of return over the time period with the correct allowance for the time impact of the transactions (earlier transactions have had more time to make an impact). As a typical application, you might want to calculate your yearly rate of return given an irregular set of investments and withdrawals, and that's the example we'll consider here. The Numbers IRR function calculates a per-interval return rate given an irregular series of inflows/outflows at fixed intervals. Here's ho ...

Transfer iPhoto book to SnapFish

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:51:00 -0800

I was nearly done laying out a photo book in iPhoto when I got a coupon for half off a photo book printed from Snapfish. I wanted to take advantage of the coupon but didn't want to have to redo all the work I had put in laying out the book. With a modest amount of work I was able to transfer my book over. Here's how:

First I exported the photo book from iPhoto to a PDF by right clicking in the background of the photo book layout and choosing 'Save book as PDF". Then I created an Automator workflow to create a JPG image from each page of the PDF that went like this (just search for each command, drag it over, and select the option as indicated below):

Get selected Finder items
Render PDF Pages as images
Move Finder Items (to Desktop)
Rename Finder Items (Make Sequential)

Save the workflow. After running the PDF through this workflow I had a series of sequentially numbered images files, one for each page of the book. I u ...

Another way to recover from application freezes

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

When the rainbow pinwheel spins over a specific application's window, but changes to a pointer or cursor or finger etc. over every other applications' windows, I figure that app has frozen. I'll usually give it a minute or two to see if it'll thaw on its own. If not, traditionally, I would get my Force Quit window open before I start clicking around on any other app's windows for fear that the freeze might spread. But recently I tried something that has also worked for me a few times since, even with entire system freezes.

However, for reasons that will become obvious in the hint, I can only recommend you try this with a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air. Though you may have success with desktops by inducing a similar state; I have not tried.

Simply close the computer. Wait for it to go to sleep, as indicated by the pulsing light on the front of the case. I will usually wait a bit longer (around 5min).. I find that the more desperate i am for it to work, the lo ...

Turning your holiday iTunes library off

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Looking to turn your holiday music off, but don't want to spend an hour clicking and scrolling through your iTunes library?

If you have an extensive collection of holiday songs in your iTunes library like I do (750 and counting) and it's time to turn the cheer off, here's an easy way to do it.

Assuming you have the songs all listed as 'Holiday,' do a search in iTunes for 'holiday.'

That will bring up only those songs. Select all of the songs found, then hold the Command button and click in the check box of any song. This will deselect ALL of them. Clear the search and you have your total library back, with Bing, Nat and the MacKenzie Brothers taking a well-earned rest. No more 'Grandma got run over by a Reindeer' till next Christmas!

[crarko adds: Simple but effective. Judicious use of playlists can accomplish the same feat.]

Opening legacy docs in MS Word

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Word 2011 now opens oldest Word document formats.

I've been using Word for the Mac since v1.0, so I have a lot of older documents created in early versions. At some point I discovered that Word (I forget which version) dropped support for the earliest document formats -- you could retrieve the text, but that was it. I complained to Microsoft and was basically told 'tough patooties.'

So it was a very pleasant surprise when I went to open an early document, resigned to the prospect of extracting the text (the file was so old it had even lost its type and creator codes and looked like a Unix file to the Finder; I had to choose 'Open any file' to select it) and Word opened it with all formatting, styles etc. completely intact!

Okay, so maybe this doesn't qualify as a hint, but it is sure nice to know.

[crarko adds: I don't have any ancient Word documents left to try this out with, but a hint with 'tough patooties' in it seems like the perfect ...

Export of contacts from Address Book to Numbers

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 07:30:00 -0800

Turns out there is a super easy way to export contact info from Address Book to a spreadsheet, if you have Numbers (from iWork).

Use Address Book to select the individual contacts, or select a complete group.
Drag the contacts/group to an open sheet in Numbers, a new table will be created with all your contacts.

By default only a few details are shown (last+first name, phone, e-mail address). All the other info is available as well, but hidden. Feel free to hide/unhide the columns you are interested in.

Original source: posted by user Celticfaere.

[crarko adds: Works just great. This didn't work with Excel 2011, which is not too surprising, as the underlying data model is different.]

A reason that iTunes polls for a password each launch

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:30:00 -0800

If you were one of those (as I was) who followed the hint regarding session-only cookies in Safari, then you are possibly still being prompted for your password in iTunes, at least in Lion.

I discovered, after trying every hint I could find without success, that if the user permissions for ~/Library/Cookies/ is still set to read only for the user, then you will still be prompted for your password the first time you activate iTunes after a login.

The file, ~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies is not being created/updated.

[crarko adds: I haven't tested this one. It seems clear if a user doesn't have write access to a directory in their own Library it could cause problems like this. If somebody who has used the previous hint mentioned and is still on 10.5 or 10.6 can comment on whether they are affected by this, it would be appreciated.]

Forward Mail attachment only

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:30:00 -0800

When an attachment's icon is highlighted in the message section of Mail, choosing Forward creates a message with the attachment as its only content.

When I needed to send someone just the file I got by mail, I used to remove the text body of an email message by hand and add some nice text. Recently, after having opened a file I went back to Mail's main window where the attachment was still selected. I hit Command+Shift+F and the new message contained only the Subject line, a short 'start of new message' text and the attachment.

[crarko adds: It's been generally true in Mail that selected text in a message is all that would be included in a reply/forwarding of that message. This special case of that rule is perhaps worth noting, given its usefulness and the fact that not everyone may be aware of it.]

Preview recent documents in Preview.app

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:30:00 -0800

Just discovered this by accident. While in Preview.app when you when you slide three fingers down on your track pad you can get a preview of the top most recent documents opened in a Cover Flow-like menu along the bottom go the screen.

[crarko adds: This is another of those things I wasn't able to reproduce with the Magic Trackpad, so I don't now if this is the result of some setting or perhaps a third-party utility I don't have. Try and see if you can make this work, and please post your results in the comments if you do.]

Using Get Info's Preview in the Finder to open the item

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:30:00 -0800

Do you have a 'Get Info' window open in the Finder?

Click on the Previewed image, or actually, double-click it, and you'll open/run the item displayed. This also opens a folder.

[crarko adds: This has been around a long time, but some folks may not know the tip.]

10.7: Safari-like navigation in the Finder

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:30:00 -0800

One of the nice navigation features in many web-browsers is that a long click on the Forward and Backward buttons brings down a list of the next and previous sites in sequence so one could jump back two sites, for example.

It turns out that the Finder sports the same ability. A long click on the arrow buttons in the toolbar brings downs a menu with the previous and the next directories visited in that Finder window. This works in Mac OS X 10.7. I think I tried it with 10.6 as well as 10.4 before I upgraded to Lion and it did not work, but I am not sure.

[crarko adds: I did try it in 10.6 and it wasn't there.]