A recent article in TechHive points out that you can now use line breaks in tweets. However, this is nothing new; I've been doing this for a long time, with my Twitter clients. Just press Option-Return to make a line break that does not act as press Return (or sending a tweet). It's worth noting that Option-Return works in just about any text field, including those where Return sends text (such as in Messages). This isn't a new hint; this feature has been around for ages, but it's good to know.
It's worth noting that my Twitter client of choice, Twitterrific, already handles Returns as line breaks; you have to press Command-Return to send a tweet.
You may have seen the news that Google Reader is shutting down as of July 1, 2013. If you use Google Reader, you may want to save your feeds to be able to import them into another RSS reader.
Go to Google Reader, then click on the gear icon at the right of the page and choose Settings. Click in Import/Export. In the Export your information section, click on Download your data through Takeout. Follow the instructions to download your data.
When you download the data, you'll get a ZIP archive. Double-click it, and look in the Reader folder for a subscriptions.xml file. You can use that to import your feeds into other RSS readers.
One problem with iCloud is once you delete a contact, it's gone for good. I wish that iCloud kept a copy of deleted contacts like Dropbox.
But you cane use Dropbox to save copies of your Contacts database. Make a symbolic link from your address book data to Dropbox. IF you accidentally delete that contact, go hunting in Dropbox.
If you ever accidentally delete a contact, you can go to the Dropbox website and find older versions of your Contacts database.
[kirkmc adds: Obviously, this hint is useful only for those who don't use Time Machine. But it also suggests a way to store backups of other key files.
In the AddressBook folder, you'll find the entire Contacts database (AddressBook-v22.abcddb), which you can restore, but, while it may include contacts you've deleted, it might not have new contacts you've added. There's also a Metadata folder, which contains cards for your contacts, which are used when you search with Spotlight. You can browse through these cards and, if you find a contact you've lost, double-click it to add it to Contacts.]
Let's face it: ringtones are boring. And annoying. How many times do you want to hear the refrain from your favorite song when someone calls? And do you realize how annoying it is to others to hear a blasting bit of the latest Lady Gaga song.
On the other hand, using a default iPhone ringtone means that, if you're in a crowded area, lots of people will check their phones, thinking that they're getting a call, since they use the same ringtone.
If you want a change, you can use a voice recording as your ringtone. OS X Daily recently published a tip explaining how to do this. You record a voice memo, sync it to your Mac, change the extension, then sync it back.
This said, think twice about whether you really want to do this. Because a voice recording could be more annoying than music, to others.
You may be familiar with App.net, a service designed to be an alternative to Twitter. Originally a subscription-only service, App.net now has free tiers on an invitation-only basis.
App.net has an open API which allows developers to do interesting things. One of these is Project Amy, by Steve Streza which allows you to use Messages in OS X to send and receive App.net private messages. If you use App.net, you can download Project Amy here.
This hint updates this hint which provides an AppleScript that changes the sound input or sound output device selection.
I use Control Plane to manage various preference differences among the different locations (work, home, travel) where I use my MacBook. Control Plane uses various criteria (e.g., IP address, WiFi network name, etc.) to determine your location. Control Plane offers a lot of built in capability to change settings on your Mac based on arriving or leaving a location, and I recommend it highly if you regularly move your Mac among different working environments.
One capability that is not available in Control Plane is the ability to change Sound preferences when you move your Mac from one place to another. In my case, I have a Thunderbolt Display at work, which has built-in speakers and a built-in microphone. At home, I use my MacBook without a second display. I wanted to be able to change the Sound preferences back and forth using Control Plane.
Control Plane does offer the capability, however, to run any application when it detects that have arrived at or have left a particular location. So, you can run any AppleScript.
Relying on the hint comments here, I have updated the scripts in that hint to address my desire for changing sound preferences. My updated script should work on Lion and Mountain Lion. I cannot say whether it will work on earlier versions of OS X.
tell application "System Preferences" to activate
tell application "System Preferences"
reveal anchor "input" of pane id "com.apple.preference.sound"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
tell table 1 of scroll area 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
select (row 1 where value of text field 1 is "Internal microphone")
end tell
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"
Note that this script hard codes the name of the Sound preferences pane tab to select and the sound input device to select. To set an output device, you would change "input" to "output" in the 3rd line of the script and then change the device name in the 7th line. I created separate scripts for sound input and sound output for each location where I work. I then simply created a Control Plane rule for each location for sound input and sound output separately.
Placing a comma after a phone number in Contacts allows you to add useful information. Without the comma, any information after the number will prevent it from auto-dialing on the iPhone, not recognizing it as a phone number.
Before smart phones I often found it useful to add additional information after a phone number in a contacts database, such as an extension number (x123), person's name or initial (John or J), function (billing), etc. The template in Contacts does not have a field for Extension which would allow for this. In addition, with the iPhone, the number itself will not even assume the proper format (area code in brackets, 3 numbers, dash, 4 numbers) if there is any additional information after the number, and therefore you won't be able to dial the number.
Putting a comma after any phone number (read as a one-second pause, as with modems) allows for any such qualifying information to be added. For me this is much easier than creating hundreds of custom fields for phone numbers.
Microsoft Word 2011 does not, as far as I can tell, offer a means of assigning a keyboard shortcut to close the sidebar. The AppleScript described here provides that functionality, and sets a keyboard shortcut that will trigger it.
Name the following Applescript "MicrosoftWordCloseSidebar\mosH.scpt" (notice the reversed slash) and save it in ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Word Script Menu Items:
do shell script "osascript -e '
tell application \"System Events\" to tell process \"Microsoft Word\"
set {frontmost, itemFound} to {true, false}
repeat with w in windows
tell w to repeat with g in groups
tell g to repeat with c in checkboxes
tell c to if value of its attribute \"AXHelp\" = \"Close the Sidebar\" then
set itemFound to true
click
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
if itemFound then exit repeat
end repeat
if itemFound then exit repeat
end repeat
end tell
' >/dev/null 2>&1 &"
When you press Command-Option-Shift-H, the close button of the sidebar is clicked, and the sidebar closes. The keyboard shortcut comes from the "mosH" part of the Applescript name (m=Command, o=Option, s=Shift, H=the letter H). That shortcut was chosen to complement the existing shortcut to open the Find/Replace Sidebar (Command-Shift-H) and may be altered to suit a particular user's needs. The script is constructed as a background osascript to get around a problem that occurs when trying to GUI-script Microsoft Word from its script menu.
Mail, by default, provides a preview of attachments in can read, such as graphics and PDF files. However, you can run a command in Terminal to turn this off. Run the following:
Quit Mail and relaunch it. When you view a message, all attachments will be shown as icons only. To restore the original functionality, run this command:
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool no
iPhoto 11 added an awful new built-in email service that replaces the previous functionality: when sending an email, it used to open Mail and attach the photos to a new email. Now, it uses a poorly designed, built-in email functionality that ruins everything.
To send photos again using Mail, run the following command in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.iPhoto EmailApp Mail
To return this functionality to iPhoto, run the following command in Terminal:
