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10.4: Use PDF-X to save shadows in iWork files System 10.4
Tiger only hintTiger allows a save as PDF-X option, which will retain the shadows in a Pages document.

[robg adds: This also works for Keynote presentations, and is a much nicer solution than purchasing the full-blown Acrobat package (and the other alternatives, suggested in this hint). To use PDF-X, you do not use File -> Export. Instead, use File -> Print, click the PDF button, and then choose Save as PDF-X from the pop-up menu. I tested both programs, and shadows do indeed work with both Pages and Keynote when viewing files in Reader.]
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10.4: A temporary fix for an Exposé slowdown System 10.4
Tiger only hintSeemingly everywhere I turn on Mac forums, users are reporting that Exposé on 10.4 seems unnecessarily choppy with more than three windows (whereas Panther handled this task fine). This problem has been plaguing me for some time now, and it wasn't until yesterday that I began trying to figure out a solution. After an unsuccessful fix of zeroing of my hard disk and doing a full 10.4 system reinstall, I began poking around the graphics tools that come with XCode 2.0 -- since it obviously wasn't related to some third-party program.

I found a property called Beam Sync in a Developter Tools program called Quartz Debug that, when disabled, made Exposé work just as it did on Panther for some reason unknown to me. I'm not exactly sure just what Beam Sync is, which is why I am not entirely sure of the consequences of disabling this -- use it at your own risk! So if you have been having problems with Exposé being choppy on 10.4 even with your Dual G5 and 9800 graphics card, try the following steps:
  1. Install XCode 2.0 from your Tiger install DVD (if it isn't already installed)
  2. Go to /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools
  3. Run Quartz Debug
  4. From the Tools menu, select Show Beam Sync Tools
  5. Click Disable Beam Sync
  6. Force Quit the Quartz Debug application (you need to force quit to make the changes "stick;" regular quitting will re-enable Beam Sync upon quitting)
The catch to this is you will have to do this each time you reboot your computer. But I usually leave my PowerBook on for weeks before I need to reboot, and it's a decent workaround for the time being. Hopefully this will get completely ironed out come 10.4.2.

[robg adds: I haven't noticed any slowdowns in Exposé on either my desktop or PowerBook, but I have seen similar complaints in a few forum threads on various sites.]
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10.4: Cascade all windows via a hidden menu option System 10.4
Tiger only hintI've never seen this before, so I'm guessing it's new with 10.4. In any program that has a 'Window' menu, you'll find "Bring All To Front." However, if you hold down the Option key after opening the menu, this becomes "Arrange In Front." Select it, and you get a (nasty IMO) Windows-esque cascading arrangement feature.

Not much of a hint, unless you like that sort of thing!

[robg adds:Yikes; I'll make sure I never hold down the Option key on the Window menu! One of the things that makes this feature so disconcerting is that it also reorders your windows -- regardless of which window was active, it seems to bring the oldest window to the foreground, then cascade the rest behind that one. It's very confusing, especially if you've got a lot of open windows (I tried it with about 15 TextEdit windows open). I'm personally glad this one's hiding behind the Option key modifier!]
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10.4: A set of scripts to replace the boot panel image System 10.4
Tiger only hintThe Boot Panel in Tiger is now embedded within the WaitingForLoginWindow program in /usr/libexec/. Here's a quick AppleScript applet to replace that PDF (not for Server version!). Just change the output path then drop a PDF on it. The PDF has to be exactly 12517 bytes, so quite small. However, the script will pad the PDF with whitespace to increase it to that size if it's smaller.

Also, here's a perl script to test if it worked; just pass the filename to it. And finally, a quick installer that requires sudo/root access.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this hint -- I spent some time trying to make a small-enough PDF, but then gave up! In pre-10.4, releases, there was simply a PDF which could be released (see this much older hint).]
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10.4: See multiple feeds over time in RSS screen saver System 10.4
Tiger only hintI wrote a Perl script to rotate the RSS screen saver feeds every hour, using the plist hack hint as a basis. Currently, there are six feeds, and the script works best when the total number of RSS feeds divides 24 hours nicely. This insures that each feed gets an equal shot in the rotations each day.

An interesting note -- if the RSS screen saver plist file is modified while the screensaver is running, the display won't change to the next feed until the screensaver is reloaded (deactivated, then reactivated).

I set up a cron job to run the script every hour, and it keys off the number of RSS feeds and the hour value to determine which feed to display next. Forget the need to have a different screensaver for each URL!

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one...]
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10.4: Use Google Maps with the Address Book widget System 10.4
Tiger only hintThis is a follow-up to an idea that I posted in the comments to the hint to replace the Phone Book widgets mapping service. I worked it all out, so here's how you do it. The Address Book widget uses compiled code to set the URL, so I replaced the URL string in the binary with a URL string pointing to the Google maps server.

The URL string has a lot of +++ signs at the end of it, because the replacement string has to match the original length exactly. Google ignores these, so it may look a bit weird for short URLs, but it works. Copy and paste this script, and create a script using your editor of choice. I call the script change_abwidget.ksh. AFter it's created, then issue the command:
$ chmod 755 change_abwidget.ksh
You need to be root to run this so:
$ sudo ./change_abwidget.ksh
The first time you run it, the script will back up the origional Address Book widget code (inside the package), make one copy for the Mapquest server, another for the Google server, and change the Address Book widget to use the Google server. On subsequent runs, it will figure out which version you are running, and then change it over to the other version -- that is, toggle between Google and Mapquest.

[robg adds: This is a really useful modification, as Google's maps are so much easier to read than those from Mapquest. Please note that I modified the script as originally submitted -- in the comment thread linked above, user 'pediddle' pointed out that the query had trouble with the country code in the URL, and provided an alternate. When I tested the original script, it wouldn't work at all. I then hex-encoded the replacement, and it worked perfectly. So that's the one that's in the script, but I left the original hex string in place as a comment, in case you want to try that one (for non-US addresses, it may work better).

The other thing I did was made a copy of the Address Book widget in my user's Widgets folder, and then changed the second line of the script (the cd line) to point to my local copy -- this way, my original is unmodified, but Dashboard will use the local copy instead of the stock copy, since the modified version is in my user's folder. This also means I don't need to use sudo to run the script...]
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10.4: Access Spotlight filters in Finder before searching System 10.4
Tiger only hintIf you wish to perform a Spotlight search in the Finder and do the search only using filters or if you wish to select the filters first, here's how.

Just press the Space bar in the Finder's Spotlight field. The space character will automatically erase, and the filtering options will appear. This can be useful, say, if you wanted to create a list of all files that met a certain criteria -- all documents created in the Home folder in the last seven days.
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10.4: Change or remove the Crash Reporter dialog box System 10.4
Tiger only hintNot much of a hint, but if you have the Apple Developer tools installed in Tiger (included on your installation DVD), a new application for 10.4 is CrashReporterPrefs, located in /Developer -> Applications -> Utilities.

When you run this application, it presents you with a dialog box for three different types of crash reporting:
  • Basic -- Basic mode is the default setting for Mac OS X 10.4 Client. The CrashReporter dialog box is displayed whenever an application unexpectedly quits.
  • Developer -- Developer mode provides additional debugging information in the "Unexpectedly Quit" dialog. The dialog is displayed for crashes of system processes and background applications as well as for standard applications.
  • Server -- Server mode is the default setting on Mac OS X 10.4 Server. Enabling this mode on Client allows for unattended operation while the user is logged in. It will disable the CrashReporter dialog box and write to ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter and/or /Library/Logs/CrashReporter. This mode is highly useful for those of us that run many beta softwares that crash frequently or those that rarely submit crash reports.
I enabled the Server mode on 10.4, and I haven't seen a CrashReporter dialog box in days! I verified the logging, though, and all crash-related information is written to these locations as described.
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10.4: Open the CD drive via the F12 Dashboard key System 10.4
Tiger only hintI thought the new Dashboard removed the ability to open the CD drive when it took over the F12 key. It turns out that it didn't! Simply hold down the F12 key for a second or two instead of just hitting it, and the CD drive will open.

[robg adds: This feature has actually worked this way for a long time, but with the advent of Dashboard and its use of F12, I thought it might be worth repeating. It will only work, I believe, on keyboards that lack the eject key.]
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10.4: Change the Stickies widget's colors System 10.4
Tiger only hintI like Dashboard's Stickies widget, and use it all of the time, but I wanted some colors other than pastels. For example: a bright red one that would jump out at me for "to do" items.

I found it pretty easy to do by going to /Library/Widgets/, then control-click on the Stickies.wdgt and select Show Package Contents from the pop-up. Next, open the Images folder, and you'll find the images used for the stickies colors. Open the pink.png (or some other color that you don't use) with Photoshop (or your favorite graphics editor), and save it as a copy on the desktop called red.png. Then use the paint tool and paint it red or whatever color you like; I even added a gradiant effect. Save your changes, and copy it back into the Images folder, typing your password when prompted.

Next you'll need to back up the original pink.png and replace it with the red one using the following commands in the Terminal:
$ cd /Library/Widgets/Stickies.wdget/Images
$ sudo mv pink.png oldpink.png  [enter your password when prompted]
$ sudo mv red.png pink.png
Open a stickie and select the pink color, and you now have a red stickie pad. If you ever want to change it back to pink, just swap the oldpink.png with the pink.png in the Terminal.

[robg adds: Since these are just image files, you can do whatever you like to them. For instance, in the above screenshot from my system (shrunk a bit to fit here), I added the word IMPORTANT in the image.
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