Saginaw Macintosh Users Group

Get Rid of Duplicate Songs in iTunes
~Mac Hints & Tips
In iTunes, it’s very easy to end up with duplicate songs. There are many ways this happens, but recently many people are ending up with duplicate songs as they upgrade their old iTunes Store purchases for new iTunes Plus tracks. There are several ways to permanently remove duplicate songs from iTunes. This will save hard drive space, and can make it easier to browse your iTunes library.

It’s worth noting that some tracks appearing to be duplicates may actually be different songs; for example, a “live” version versus a “studio” version. Be careful not to delete these. Otherwise, it’s very easy to remove duplicate items in iTunes with built-in management tools. Apple has a knowledge base article about this:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1417.

Some people use third party apps or AppleScripts to weed out duplicate tracks. Take a look at Tidy Up! (http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/TidyUp.html) and Dupin (http://dougscripts. com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php).

Also, here’s a virtually unknown keyboard short cut: in iTunes, hold down the Option key and click “File.” This will change the menu entry to “Show Exact Duplicates.” Show duplicates only displays tracks with identical titles, but selecting “exact” will only display tracks where ALL fields are identical.

iTunes 10 Album Art controller always on top

~MacOSXHints

I love the new feature of iTunes 10 to use album art as a mini-player (if you click on the album art preview in the bottom left, the album art that pops up now has hover controls to change tracks); but what if you want this to always be visible when working in other applications?

In iTunes, go to Preferences » Advanced and check the box ‘Keep movie window on top of all other windows.’ Now the album art controller will always be visible. I like to make it super small and tuck it into a corner. Works great!

Another way to make a new tab in Safari

~MacOSXHints

I accidentally stumbled on this one to- day when I mis-clicked a tab in Safari 5.

Double-clicking the empty space in the Tab Bar just to the right of an open tab in Safari will create and open a new tab. Not sure how new this is, but I can’t believe I have never thought to try this method before!

This is an addition to the other well-known ways of opening new tabs:

Command + T.

Control + Click (or Right Clicking) the empty space to the right of your tab(s) and selecting ‘New Tab.’

Clicking the small ‘+’ sign on the far right of the Tab Bar.

Control + Click (or Right Clicking) a URL, and selecting the ‘Open in New Tab’ option.

Command + Click a URL.

I’m sure there are probably a couple more ways to do this, but my most common are by far the first and last methods.

Keyboard shortcuts for Safari Reader

~MacOSXHints

Safari Reader is a new feature with Safari 5. There are several keyboard shortcuts you can use to bring up, navigate and close Reader.

When you see the Reader icon in the address bar, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Command+Shift+R to enter Reader mode

Arrow keys up and down to navigate page

Spacebar or Page Down to page forward

Shift+Spacebar or Page Up to page back

Home (or Command+Up arrow) to go to the top of the page

End (or Command+Down arrow) to go to the end

Escape to dismiss Reader

Making ZIP Files (Compressed Files) in One Click

~ Scott Kelby’s Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips

One of my favorite Mac OS X features is the ability to create ZIP compressed files from within the OS (basically, this shrinks the file size, ideal for files you’re going to email — smaller file sizes mean faster file transfers).

To create a compressed file, either Control/click on the file and choose “Create Archive” (which is Apple-speak for “make a compressed ZIP file”). Or you can click on a file, then go to the Action menu (the button that looks like a gear up in the Finder window’s toolbar), and choose “Create Archive” from there. Either way, it quickly creates a new file, with the file extension “.zip.” By the way, if someone sends you a ZIP file, don’t sweat it — just double-click it and Tiger will automatically decompress it.

Manage apps from the Application Switcher
~MacOSXHints
Press Command-Tab to bring up OS X’s application switcher. Keep holding down the Command key. Press Tab to cycle forward through open applications, the tilde (~) key (just above Tab) to cycle backward, the arrow keys to move back and forth, or the mouse to point and choose an app. When you release the Command key, whichever application’s icon was selected is made active.

Press Command-Tab to bring up OS X’s application switcher. Keep holding down the Command key. Press Tab to cycle forward through open applications, the tilde (~) key (just above Tab) to cycle backward, the arrow keys to move back and forth, or the mouse to point and choose an app. When you release the Command key, whichever application’s icon was selected is made active.
However, without leaving the application switcher, you can quit or hide/unhide applications. Select the icon of the program you want to quit or hide, and press ‘Q’ to quit and ‘H’ to hide. Select the program you want to go to (for me, usually just the one I started in), and release the command key. This method also works for unhiding apps, just press ‘H’ again.
This is a great way to quit and hide applications without changing focus, and you can do it all with the keyboard. I’ve found it much faster than using the dock or switching, quitting, switching back.
Also, (I believe this has been noted here before) hold down option before dismissing the switcher and the selected application will come to focus and open the most recently minimized window, or, if there are no minimized windows, make a new one.

Add screen grabs to Stickies
~MacOSXHints
This might already be well-known but I’ve never spotted it before. If you right-click a Stickies note, there’s an option for Capture Selection from Screen. This effectively brings-up the screengrab tool and you can click and drag to not only capture part of the screen, but also automatically insert it into the note. If you use Stickies for research and note-making purposes, like I do, this is a superb and fuss-free way to grab a photograph or diagram from a web page, or even a document you’re reading (or a block of text if you can’t be bothered to cut and paste).

A few free fonts from iMovie ‘09
~MacOSXHintsI was changing some preferences in iMovie ‘09 when I noticed there’s a cool font in the last tab – Coolvetica.

I was sure I don’t have it installed on my system, so I dug in the application itself and there it was, together with some other nice fonts, like Duality or Strenuous, which I might use later for some titling in FCP – that’s what those fonts were used for.

Right-or control-click the iMovie icon in Applications folder, and select Show Package Contents. Then go to Contents/Resources/Fonts, and double-click and install those you like.

I searched Hints but only found a story about one font in Aperture. People in the comments there are discussing the legality of extracting fonts from Trial software, but iMovie is on every new Mac.

System Preferences Sorting
~Mac Hints & Tips
By default, the System Preferences are grouped into categories. If you would prefer to see it alphabetically, go to the View menu and choose “Organize Alphabetically.”

Easy quitting of multitasking apps in iOS 4
~MacOSXHints
Apple made it quite easy and intuitive to quit out of apps in iOS 4; however I have not seen this method mentioned anywhere. Double tap the Home button to bring up the multitasking applications view, then tap and hold on an app (as if you were arranging your home screen). A small red circle will appear on each app; tap one to close that app. And, of course, you can still swipe through the list to see more.

Quick Look and images: zoom in and out
~MacOSXHints
If you’re using Quick Look on an image, you’ll appreciate the following trick for zooming.

Once you’ve opened the Quick Look window on a JPEG or other image file, simply press Option and the pointer will change to a magnifying glass with a plus sign in the middle. Click somewhere on the image to zoom in.

Drag the cursor around to move around, or use the scroll wheel (2 fingers on trackpad) to move around. Option-Shift-click to zoom back out.

Sharing
~Mac Hints & Tips
Remember how in Tiger you only had a “Drop Box” to share your files? Unless you fiddled with “sharepoints.” Now in Leopard, you can share any folder and alter the permissions.

Jump into System Preferences > Sharing. Click on “File Sharing.” (You may have to turn File Sharing on first). Add or remove Shared Folders, then specify the Users and their rights! Click on “Options” to specify even more cool features, like sharing with AFP, or FTP, or SMB (Windows)!

Measuring screen elements in pixels
~MacOSXHints
Measuring elements on the screen quickly and easily can be really important for all sorts of tasks. I often use the excellent Free Ruler app for this but don’t always want to waste time opening it up.

Measuring elements on the screen quickly and easily can be really important for all sorts of tasks. I often use the excellent Free Ruler app for this but don’t always want to waste time opening it up.
For super-quick measurements just use the built-in screen capture command (Cmd-Shift-4) to drag and measure the element you’re interested in instead. Click and drag to measure and to avoid taking a screenshot simply press the Escape key before releasing the mouse button.

Refresh a widget in Dashboard
~MacOSXHints
To refresh a widget in the Dashboard, open the Dashboard, select a widget, and press Command-R. There is a slick little animation, and the widget will refresh.

10.6: Snow Leopard update remaps mouse click
~MacOSXHints
The latest Snow Leopard update (10.6.4) remapped the right mouse key to Application Switcher for the Apple USB Mouse when I applied it. If you are surprised at having the large dock style transparent window suddenly popping up in the middle of your screen, simply go into System Preferences » Mouse and remap the right mouse button back to the Secondary Button (which was the default).

This will also restore the mouse’s right-click functionality within your various applications.

Talk To AppleCare Without Waiting on Hold!
~Terry White, MacGroup
When it comes to calling tech support one of the biggest frustrations for most people is waiting on hold! People therefore go out of their way NOT to call support. They look for any other means of getting an answer first and only call support as a last resort. What if you didn’t have to wait on hold? Better yet, what if they called you at a time that was convenient for you?

Last week I had to call AppleCare. It had been so long since I called AppleCare that I had forgotten the number and since I was already on my computer at the time, I just went to support.apple.com to look the number up. I actually found something better than the phone number. I clicked the Speak to an Expert link in the lower left corner of the page. This page walked me through setting up a support call and if it’s during a busy time for AppleCare, you can have them call you back at a time that works best for you! IT WORKS! I set up a time and they guarantee to call you back within a 15 minute window of your time slot. So for example, if you setup 3:30 PM, they will call you back between 3:30 and 3:45 PM. Sure enough, my phone rang pretty much right at the time I scheduled. Also since you enter details about the problem you’re wanting help on when you setup the call, they can just read it right then and there without you have to start from scratch explaining the issue.

I actually didn’t get my issue resolved during that first call, so I had to talk with them again and this time since it was in the evening an option showed up to have them call me immediately. As soon as I entered my phone number and hit submit, the phone started ringing! Whoa! Now that’s service!

So the next time you need to talk with AppleCare, do it when it works best for you with a prompt call when you want the call to happen! Just head over to www.apple.com/support/expert/

Hard Drive Failure: The Warning Signs
~Mac Hints & Tips

If you have not had a hard drive die on you yet, just wait. Eventually, when you least expect it and can least afford the data loss, your computer will turn on you and give you some variation of the Dead Mac. Remember backups! Having a problem with your computer all becomes a lot less important if you take regular backups, either to CDs, DVDs, other hard drives on the machine, networks or external, even Google or Yahoo, email etc. We currently use and suggest Prosoft Engineering Data Backup 3 that, if you don’t use Time Machine, is great for keeping everything on your computer backed up.

The key is to detect the imminent failure of your drives before they give out on you and data is lost. Let’s look at some common warning signs of impending hard drive failure:

• Frequent but irregular crashes, especially while booting up
• Frequent and cryptic error messages while performing typical activities like moving files
• Folder and file names that have been scrambled and changed
• Disappearing files and folders
• Really long wait times to access folders and files
• Hard disk is silent for a long period after you request data by opening a file or folder
• Garbled output from open files or printing
• Hard drive grinds away constantly because of noisy bearings

Sound can be an excellent indicator of disk trouble. Sometimes it is your only indicator. If you previously didn’t hear a peep from your hard drive, but now you do, don’t wait for the drive to die. Check it out. You spend many hours unconsciously listening to your hard drive. You will notice if it suddenly sounds different. If it seems much louder than usual or makes occasional clicks or grinding sounds, check it as soon as possible and be prepared to backup your data and replace the drive.