I have several FileMaker Pro documents in my Dock for work purposes. All look the same withe their stock 'FileMaker document' icons, so when I try to find Chemistry 1B 2007 or Chemistry 1B 2008, it's not real easy. I could copy and paste a custom icon for each document, of course, but then I'd have to remember which custom icon went with which document.
Instead, I opened up TextEdit, set the font size to 20, and moved the cursor away from the edge. Then I typed:
1B 1B
08 07
Then I held down Shift-Command-Control-4 and took a snapshot of the screen -- just enough to have each four-letter-block surrounded. Then in Finder, I used Command-I on each document to open the Get Info window, and Command-V to paste the clipboard contents.
This doesn't look real flash, but just the time saved in the "which file is which?" department makes it bearable.
Sometimes, when copying/pasting text on a file or folder name field, you get the error message: "The name. [filename] cannot be used. Try using another name". Yet, the name seems fine; there aren't any obvious illegal characters in it. The problem is that the pasted text may contain some invisible characters, in the spaces between words, that are not accepted by Mac OS X. Yet no clue is given as to where such characters may be located in the filename.
The fix is to delete and retype every single space between the words of such a name. A much faster and convenient solution is to use an application like SmartWrap (I am not affiliated with them; their product just works well for this sort of thing).
If you're anything like me, then you probably access files within folders within folders on removable media (i.e. external hard drives, Flash drives). It can become quite a hassle (with a trackpad, anyway) to open the the media device, select the folder, navigate, select another folder, navigate, and then select the desired file or folder.
I tried adding my commonly-accessed (but time consuming to reach) external hard drive folder to the Finder's sidebar, but whenever I took my MacBook somewhere and the folder wasn't present, the sidebar alias disappeared.
So my solution was to make a local alias of the removable folder, put it in my Documents (or any other local) folder, then drag the alias to the sidebar. Now I can eject removable media without losing my sidebar shortcut.
[robg adds: I thought we had run something similar in the past, but I can't find it now -- so if this is a duplicate, please let me know. Also, if you use this hint, you should be aware that the cautions in this hint are still valid in 10.5.4: if you delete (via Command-Delete) or rename the "alias" in the sidebar, you will rename or delete the original folder on the networked volume instead! When you place your local alias in the sidebar, the Finder converts it into a direct pointer to the remote folder, instead of placing the alias in the sidebar, so any changes you make affect the original, not your alias.]
Here's how to make your trash can as accessible and manageable as every other folder in the Sidebar. Show invisible files in the Finder by your preferred method -- I use MainMenu -- and then just drag the invisible ".Trash" folder in your User directory to the Sidebar.
Now turn off the show invisibles feature, and the trash will remain visible, and forever after make life on a Mac so much easier.
[robg adds: An easy way to show/hide hidden files is via this simple Terminal command. (Change YES to NO to hide the hidden files again, and use your favorite method of restarting the Finder to make the changes take effect.). Note that this Sidebar trash will only display those items in the trash from your boot drive; if you have more than one hard drive or partition, those volumes will have their own trashes.]
The following script will take the frontmost finder window and maximize it for a 15" MacBookPro while changing the Finder's view mode to Cover Flow. I have found it helpful if I need to quickly use Cover Flow to find a file. Although it is set for a 15" screen, the parameters can be edited for any screen type. I invoke it using Quicksilver, and have named the script max.
tell application "Finder"
activate
select Finder window 1
set window 1's position to {0, 44}
set bounds of Finder window 1 to {0, 44, 1440, 900}
set current view of Finder window 1 to flow view
end tell
I also use an AppleScript to minimize the size of the window once I have found my file. Again I use quicksilver to invoke it, and have named this one min:
tell application "Finder"
activate
set bounds of Finder window 1 to {143, 164, 1300, 825}
set position of Finder window 1 to {143, 164}
set current view of Finder window 1 to column view
end tell
[robg adds: The lines to edit if you'd like to modify this for your screen size are those that begin set bounds of....]
With family, friends, and coworkers scattered around the country and the world, iChat is one of my most-used applications. Given that a lot of important conversations flow through it, I've archived my iChat logs for years using the "Automatically save chat transcripts" feature in iChat. One annoyance, though, comes courtesy of the VPN we use to reach the Macworld servers. Every time I connect and disconnect from the VPN (many times a day), AOL generates a warning that shows up as a new iChat message:
Your screen name is now signed into AOL(R) Instant Messenger (TM) in 2 locations. To sign off the other location(s), reply to this message with the number 1. Click here for more information.
Of course, each and every one of these messages is logged, though I clearly don't need to save them. To make it simpler to get rid of these extraneous logged files, I created a Smart Folder with the following search criteria, with "Any of the following are true" at the top level:
Name -- begins with -- aolsystemmsg
Name -- begins with -- AOL System Msg
For whatever reason (related to being on or not on the VPN, perhaps?), there are two different names for the sender of the message from AOL, so I search for both names. Once I set up the search, I dropped it in the Search For section of my sidebar. Deleting these saved chats now only takes a couple of mouse clicks and keystrokes. There are other more automated ways to do this -- some sort of find command run as a launchd task or cron job comes to mind, but this method was simple and fast.
This sounds too simple for a hint, but I haven't heard of it before, and couldn't find a reference for it on the web (and I discovered this completely by accident). By Pressing Option-Tab in the Finder (in List or Icon view windows), you can jump alphabetically through the files, regardless of the displayed sort order.
[robg adds: This also works in Cover Flow view in 10.5, though it's pretty strange watching the icons do a seemingly-random dance as you press Option-Tab.]
The new icons in Leopard can be up to 512 pixels wide, but you are still limited to viewing them at small sizes in the Finder. By making a few small edits to some system files, you can make the View » View Options panel's icon size slider go up to 512 pixels, in order to show really big icons.
In your favorite text editor, choose Open... from the File menu. Type Command-Shift-G to enter a path to open, and paste in this path:
Now that you have the file open, use Find to search for com.apple.finder.TIconViewIconSizeItem. This should take you to the part of the document that gives settings for the icon size slider. Above the found text, you'll see a section that looks like this:
The last line is the key. You can change the number next to maximumValue to 512 and save the file. You'll be asked for an administrator password, as this is a system-owned file.
Now, relaunch the Finder and take a really close-up view of your icons.
[robg adds: This worked as described for me ... though you'll need a 30" display to actually use a 512x512 icon display!]
Want to tailor the Finder's Find (Command-F) window? Copy the following into TextEdit, make it plain text, and save it to the Desktop as default_smart.plist:
This version of Finder's search box shows the user's home folder as a place to search, includes all system files, is taller than the original window, and the cursor displays in the search box. Note that the ViewHeight field is the difference between bottom and top. So you can adjust it, and the window's width, to suit your needs.
To change the default Find window, run these commands in Terminal (don't type the $), pressing Return after each:
$ cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources
$ sudo cp default_smart.plist default_smart.plist.bak
The first command changes to the proper directory, and the second one saves the original default search file, so you can restore the current behavior. Enter your admin password at the Password prompt when asked. To activate your modified search box, use this command:
[robg adds: You'll need to kill the Finder for this change to take effect. We've covered this sort of edit before (1, 2), but this one adds the 10.5-specific ability to search system files.]
One advantage of the Path Bar in the Finder is that it supports drag and drop. This is great for moving files up a folder level, or to other folders within the selected file's current path. To move a file to a folder outside of the current path, however, is more tedious -- that's because the Path Bar in regular Finder windows is not "spring loaded," so hovering over it won't pop up a new window pointing to the targeted folder.
The exception to this is Smart Folders. For whatever reason, the Path Bar in a Smart Folder is spring loaded; you can open new Finder windows by drag-hovering over a folder on the Path Bar.
The new icons in Leopard can be up to 512 pixels wide, but you are still limited to viewing them at small sizes in the Finder. By making a few small edits to some system files, you can make the View » View Options panel's icon size slider go up to 512 pixels, in order to show really big icons.
