the os x tips thread

[aburgener]

I never noticed until right now, but if you highlight a file just click once on it, then press space bar it does some kind of crazy preview. fucking blew my mind

try it on a video file

[bendybones]

Select a bunch of tracks in iTunes and hit Cmd+Shift+n.
That puts all the selected tracks into a playlist and opens it's name for editing in the sidebar

[hangar17]

Found It:
=Tab

Thanks for the 'Esc' tip

cmd + L does the trick too

[oblique strategies]

I never noticed until right now, but if you highlight a file just click once on it, then press space bar it does some kind of crazy preview. fucking blew my mind

try it on a video file

Once you have that preview window open, all you have to do is click on another file & it will open in the preview window.

The preview window can be re-sized or made full screen as well.

[nuxnamon]

I don't know if this is really a trick or not but I have Ableton automatically open everytime I turn on my computer. sometimes, the hardest thing is clicking on that icon to get some work done and you end up surfing the net.. I have it so it opens the last file being worked on.. if you didn't know already, this is accessed in the prefereces/users/start up items... while your there, it's good to remove any programs you don't need that automatically turn on that are going on in the background..

[steko]

Highlight a word in Safari (or another cocoa app) & hit Control-Command-D -> small window shows you the definition.

Keep Control-Command clicked & move mouse over to other words.


Understanding RSS in Safari:

http://osxhelp.com/understanding-rss-in-safari/

[oblique strategies]

Highlight a word in Safari (or another cocoa app) & hit Control-Command-D -> small window shows you the definition.

Keep Control-Command clicked & move mouse over to other words.

Nice one! That saves me some time: I used to highlight the word & right click to open it in Dictionary.

Thanks

[steko]

Leopard only:

ClickToFlash

ClickToFlash is a WebKit plug-in that prevents automatic loading of Adobe Flash content. If you want to see the content, you can opt-in by clicking on it or adding an entire site to the whitelist.
Try control-clicking (or right-clicking) on an unloaded Flash box to access ClickToFlash's contextual menu which allows you to do advanced things like edit its whitelist, specify settings, and load all Flash on the page.

As it is a WebKit plug it doesn't work with Firefox...

Get rid of stupid flash ads & reduce your cpu-load especially on YouTube (loads the H.264 QuickTime version = big difference)

http://github.com/rentzsch/clicktoflash/tree/master

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30682/clicktoflash

http://www.joeyhagedorn.com/2009/03/11/ ... 64-loading


Background:

http://arstechnica.com/software/news/20 ... yer-10.ars

https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-890

[dontask100]

Has anyone experienced problems with an upgrade from Live 7 to Live 8 -after deleting the Live 7 root folder? If so, what files have you kept in order to run the live 8 upgrade version without Ableton searching for the prior edition?
Assuaging my concerns would be most helpful, thanks.

[steko]

Earlier in this thread I wrote:

For Leopard only:

Quicklook-Plugins:

http://sourceforge.jp/projects/fjnwebarchive/ (watch downloaded Safari webarchives with QuickLook)


http://homepage.mac.com/xdd/ (Flash Video FLV Quicklook Plugin)

...


Drag the QuickLook Plugins in: Library/QuickLook & restart.

If anybody now on Snow Leopard installed one of these, get rid of them! Snow Leopard can handle this stuff itself & there might be interferences.
Generally on Snow look if there are any old ones in "Library/QuickLook" or (if it exists) "User/Library/Quicklook" & look for compatibility. Also: http://www.betalogue.com/2009/11/10/quicklook-plugins/

I only have three in "Library/QuickLook": GBQLGenerator.qlgenerator - iWork.qlgenerator - LogicQLGenerator.qlgenerator, these are by Apple, so leave them alone...

[brephophagist]

The holy grail I've been looking for is a way to move windows between Spaces with a key command, and not have to drag them using the little pop-out GUI thing. i.e. if Ctrl-5 moves you to space 5, Ctrl-Shift-Option-5 moves the current window to space 5.

Since a few people mentioned running out of hard drive space: When I start to run out of hard drive space on my MBP, I usually use symbolic links to offload stuff onto external hard drives. This usually consists of stuff I don't need when I'm not in the studio, where all my external drives live permanently. The GarageBand audio library is a good example.

That way you can keep the content (in case you might need it someday to open an app / sample library you rarely use), but still have it off your machine's drive. And if you're moving something more dear than GarageBand, where some app already has it scanned into a library, and might suffer temporary brain damage if it disappears (*cough*NativeInstruments*cough*), the system will still "see" it in the same place as long as that external drive is plugged in.

There are a few (free, as in beer) Finder plugins out there that enable you to make symlinks from the GUI, if Terminal is too scary. e.g. http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/~seiryu/ ... inker.html

[steko]

http://www.macperformanceguide.com/Mac- ... parateData

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10433

Though IMO only really makes sense with internal drives or externals connected with eSATA.

[steko]

The holy grail I've been looking for is a way to move windows between Spaces with a key command, and not have to drag them using the little pop-out GUI thing. i.e. if Ctrl-5 moves you to space 5, Ctrl-Shift-Option-5 moves the current window to space 5.

This may help: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php? ... 7122153453

[muthafunka]

2 faves:

1. in any open/save dialog, simply drag any file or folder onto the dialog window and that file will be selected or that folder opened ready. Saves a TON of navigating the dialog to find the file/folders you want. Give it a go!

2. look in Mac HD/System/Library/Core Services/Menu Extras. Double clicking any of these will add it to the menu bar. They can be removed by cmd/dragging them off the bar.

[brephophagist]

The holy grail I've been looking for is a way to move windows between Spaces with a key command, and not have to drag them using the little pop-out GUI thing. i.e. if Ctrl-5 moves you to space 5, Ctrl-Shift-Option-5 moves the current window to space 5.

This may help: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php? ... 7122153453

Thx, steko. Didn't know about that one. It'd be sweeter if you didn't have to use the mouse, but that's definitely quicker than waiting for the Spaces GUI to render.

1. in any open/save dialog, simply drag any file or folder onto the dialog window and that file will be selected or that folder opened ready. Saves a TON of navigating the dialog to find the file/folders you want. Give it a go!

Worth noting that this works when editing files in TextEdit or Terminal, too. Drag a file into the place where you need the file's full pathname, and the pathname appears there. Handy for configuration / preferences files.