Thanks to the recent version of Launch Bar (IMHO the finest App Switcher+ I've ever had the pleasure to use), their instructions for hiding the icon in the Dock appears to work for any application:
In order to get rid of the dock icon, you must modify the file named 'Info.plist' inside the Application's package (i.e. Sherlock.app/Contents/Info.plist). Open this file in your favorite text editor and add the following section (if it's already present simply change the 0 to a 1 in the string tag:
[KEY]NSUIElement[/KEY] [STRING]1[/STRING]
NOTE: I substituted the standard square brackets for the purposes of posting here; you must substitute the angle brackets when editing. So far I've hidden my Sherlock and System Preferences icons. With the System Prefs you will have to write-enable the 'Info.plist' file by changing the permissions in a Terminal window:
I just noticed that it is not only possible to move background windows by pressing the Command (Apple) key and move it with the mouse, but you also can partially control them. For instance, it is possible to disconnect your dial-up internet connection without bringing the InternetConnect app to the foreground, by command clicking the disconnect button.
I don't really know the use for this, but thought I share it anyway...I also noticed that it doesn't work in all apps, it seems to work only in Cocoa apps
Most everyone knows that if you option-drag an object in the Finder, you'll make a copy of it. And if you command-option drag an object, you'll create an alias. Both of those actions work the same way in OS 9 as they do in OS X.
However, in OS 9, there's no easy way to move an item from one volume to another. You first copy it, then remove it from the source. In OS X, however, if you hold down the command key while dragging from one drive to the other, you'll actually move the object in question. The progress bar (if it shows up - move something BIG) actually says "Moving" instead of "Copying", even though the window title still says "Copying".
If you command click an item in the dock, it reveals that item. But I noticed that this also works if you are inside a folder's popup menu in the dock and command release on an item. It will reveal that menu item in the Finder.
I always thought the Column view was cool, especially because of the preview pane that comes up when you click on image or movie files. I was bummed that this preview was only available in column view, as I thought it would be useful in list and icon views as well.
Well, it turns out that this feature already exists!
When viewing a folder in icon or list view, click on a file and get info (Cmd-I). This brings up the info window. Select Preview from the popup menu in the info window, and volia! Click on different files to see a preview of each one. Neato.
hmmm, came across this by accident. Probably most of you already know this but if not....
I moved some files to a folder thinking that I had copied them but errrr .... they moved, out of reaction (I was jsut using a text editor) I hit apple-z ... It was like magic, the files zapped back to where they came from.
oh well, if this is old news what can I say, it's new to me :-)
ResExcellence has a VERY cool guide to enabling multiple icon sizes in a single Finder window or on the Desktop - you can set the size on a PER ICON basis! Don't you just love Quartz?
After some experimentation, and confirmation from another X user, I've discovered a bug in the way the Finder displays list views in a couple of situations. This has been replicated on a number of machines, so I tend to think it's a pervasive problem. I have submitted it to Apple's feedback site, but thought you might like to be aware of it as well.
The bug is related to a "name" column that continuously and automatically shrinks when in LIST VIEW mode. You can see the bug in one of these situations:
If you are viewing a folder that's at the root level of a hard drive (view the top level of your OS X disk in list view, for example). If you then click to sort by date, then click on any of the folders in the list (just once), then click to sort by name, the name field will shrink. From now on, any sort of click in the column names or in the finder list will result in the name field shrinking -- to the point where it vanishes! If you simply go one level deeper into your folder structure, this problem does NOT occur. Very odd, and very repeatable on two machines.
Take any folder, and put it on the desktop. You'll see the exact same behavior described above if you view it in list view.
I may not have explained this very well, but we've been able to duplicate the problem on two different machines, with those same two situations on each machine. So if it seems your list views are behaving a bit oddly, they may very well be. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future OS X update!
With OS X, Apple assigned command-N to "Make New Window" instaed of "Make New Folder", which was assigned to shift-command-N. To me, this makes sense, as I tend to open more new windows than I do creating new folders, so the easier key combo is the most used key combo.
However, some people tend to create a lot of folders on a daily basis, and the added keystroke could become quite annoying. For these users, here are two other means of creating new folders that may prove quicker than shift-command-N:
Control-click (or right-click, if you can) in the Finder, and you get "New Folder" as a contextual menu item
Place the "New Folder" widget on your toolbar, and you have one-click access from everywhere. To do this, select View -> Customize Toolbar menu in the Finder while the toolbar is visible (hit Command-B to show the toolbar)
So while one method is lost, at least there are some reasonable alternatives.
