Saginaw Macintosh Users Group

Send websites and docs to iBooks
~MacOSXHints
With iTunes 9.2 and iOS 4, the iBooks 1.1 app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch can store and view PDF files, together with EPUB files.

If you want to quickly add a document or a web page to your ‘Books’ collection in iTunes, all you need to do is to create an alias of iTunes and drag it to ~/Library/PDF Services. Now, when you’re browsing the web or viewing documents and you decide that you want to read them later on a portable Apple device just hit Print, click the PDF button on the bottom left corner of the window and choose iTunes. iTunes will launch and receive the PDF. Next, sync your device and you’re ready to go.

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. This idea will work with any application that can read a PDF, not just iTunes 9.2.]

Safari 5 Undo re-opens the last closed tab
~MacOSXHints

In Safari 4, Undo (Command-Z) simply undid the last action, such as typing, but not more general functions about the browser.

In Safari 5, Undo will reopen the last closed tab, or Undo the closing of the tab.

Two Ways to Delete Lots of iPhone Photos
~TidBITS
Generally speaking, my recommendation is to delete photos from the camera manually after you’re certain they’ve been imported into iPhoto. That’s easy on every digital camera I’ve used, so the peace of mind is worth the small extra step. However, since most photos I take using my iPhone aren’t that impressive, I’ve always let iPhoto delete the photos automatically after import, with no problems.

However, after importing 162 photos and movies from my iPhone today, I accidentally clicked the Keep Photos button in iPhoto, leaving all the already-imported photos on my iPhone. iPhoto would happily hide them from view when importing new photos, but it wouldn’t delete them. Needless to say, I didn’t want to delete 162 photos one at a time by tapping the trash icon followed by the Delete Photo button – I have better things to do than tap my iPhone 324 times (like write this article!).

I figured out two ways around the problem, one using just the iPhone and another using Image Capture on the Mac.

To delete the photos on the iPhone in a batch, tap Photos > Camera Roll to view all the photos, and then tap the Share button. Next, tap each photo in turn to select it, and once you’ve selected all of them, tap the Delete button. This halves the number of taps necessary, but since you must still tap each photo once in the selection step, it’s not ideal.

To delete all the photos in one fell swoop, connect your iPhone to your Mac, launch Image Capture (usually in the Applications folder), select the iPhone in the sidebar if necessary, choose Edit > Select All (Command-A), and then click the button with the little red circle with a slash through it. Image Capture prompts you to make sure you want to delete all the photos; click Delete.

Once again, it’s a little surprising that there’s a capability of the age-old Image Capture program that Apple hasn’t yet built into iPhoto, but there it is.

The Ultimate Customize Toolbar Shortcut~Mac Hints & Tips
In Finder, if you want to customize the items in your toolbar (and there’s nothing wrong with that), just Command/Option/click the little white pill-shaped button at the top right of your window’s title bar, and the Customize Toolbar dialog will appear, right there in your window. Now you can just drag-and-drop icons onto the toolbar.

See Which Groups They Are In
~Mac Hints & Tips

In Address Book, if you have a contact that appears in more than one Group, you can instantly see which of your Groups this individual appears in by simply clicking on his or her contact and holding the “Option” key. When you do this, every Group that they appear within will become highlighted.

This is handy if you want to clean up your Groups by deleting extra instances of people who appear in multiple Groups.

What If You Don’t Want To Open The File?
~Mac Hints & Tips
The idea behind Spotlight is that it will find the file you want, and then open that file for you so you can start working on it immediately.

But what if you just want to know where the file is and not necessarily open it? (For example, what if you just want to know where it is, so you can burn a backup copy to a CD?)

To do that, once the results appear in the spotlight menu, just hold the Command key and then click on the file. This will close Spotlight and open the Finder window where your file is.

Or if you want Spotlight open, just click on the file and press Command/R, which will open a Finder window with the file selected, leaving the spotlight dialog open.

Selecting just the text if the entire text block is also a link
~MacOSXHints
Sometimes but increasingly often, a text link isn’t just one simple clickable word within a larger text passage but instead an entire block of text inside a table or frame. Although it is convenient that you can click just anywhere in a text area to open the associated link, it is very frustrating that selecting the text to copy it may be very difficult.

Drag Albums out of iTunes
~MacOSXHints
It’s probably a well documented feature of iTunes since 8.1 but in Cover Flow mode, you can drag the image of an album to, say, the Desktop (or whatever folder) and it will copy the tracks in that location. Neat!

[crarko adds: I tested this, and it works as described. You may want to first create a folder on your desktop to drag these into, since this process does not. ]

Trim Music Files in iTunes
~MacOSXHints
If you’re like me, you hate paying for software that does things that you think your computer should be able to do for free.

One day after I got Snow Leopard, I really need to trim a music file for my phone, to create a ringtone. Turns out, this can be accomplished, right in iTunes.

In iTunes, do “Get Info (Command-I)” on the file you want to trim, then on the Options tab set the Start Time and Stop Time to where you want to trim the file. Click “OK” to save the options. Then on the Advanced menu, choose “Create MP3 Version”. A new file is created that is trimmed to what you set in Start Time and Stop Time.

Quick View Presentation Mode
~Mac Hints & Tips
Here’s a cool trick. When in Finder, you can quick view a file without opening it’s associated application. Great for text files, pdf, html, php, doc, xls, and so on.

Did you know you can open the file in full screen (presentation mode) by holding down the Option key before clicking the quick view eye button?

Speed display of installed Apps in iTunes, and see more info
~MacOSXHints
One thing that has always annoyed me about looking at the Apps section of iTunes — where I can see the collection of programs installed on my iPhone (and now iPad) — is that it took forever to load and display the icons for 500+ apps.

Then, while exploring iTunes 9.1 for new features, I noticed that the View menu works when in the Apps category. To solve the speed issue, just select the Apps category, then choose View » As List (or just press Command-Option-3). No more delays, and there’s even a bonus to using this method: you can add additional columns to the display (by Control-clicking on the header area of the display). I added Purchase Date, Kind, and Version. (Kind is very useful, as it’s the only way I know of to find the iPad-only apps in your collection.)

I will admit I have no idea if this is new in 9.1 or not — I just know that I’ve not seen it before, nor had a number of fellow Mac authors and Twitter followers. Hence, it’s now a hint.

Get Instant Maps
~Mac Hints & Tips
In Leopard, your Address Book doesn’t just tell you where to go — it shows you!

To get an instant map to any address, just Control/click on the address field of a contact card (or right-click if you have a two-button mouse). Then select “Map Of.”

This command opens Safari (if it’s not already open) and reveals the address in Google Maps.

This trick isn’t just confined to Address Book: Leopard can detect street addresses within Mail as well. When your cursor hovers over a street address in an email, a dotted rectangle surrounds it and a small gray triangle appears. Click on the triangle and select “Show Map…” to see the address in Google Maps.

Partition a drive without reformatting
~Terry White, MacGroup.org

One of my favorite Snow Leopard features is the ability to partition a hard drive WITHOUT having to reformat it first. As long as you’re not currently booted off that drive, you can plug it in, open Disk Utility and partition it without having to reformat it. I just did this recently on an external portable Firewire drive so that I could create a second boot partition for beta testing. It worked perfectly without losing the contents. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST BEFORE DOING ANY WORK IN DISK UTILITY.

Check links in outgoing Mail.app messages before sending
~MacOSXHints

There’s no way to test hyperlinks in an email you’re composing without carefully selecting the whole URL, copying, switching to a browser, pasting, hitting return — quite a bother if you’re writing a newsletter, for example, with lots of links.

But there’s a simple solution: Save your email as a draft with Command-S, then look at the email in the drafts folder of the Message Viewer window. In that view, all links are highlighted and clickable.

Select entire paragraphs while editing text on the iPhone
~MacOSXHints

I haven’t seen this documented anywhere, but I discovered that you can select an entire paragraph of text by quadruple-tapping on it when entering text in the iPhone. For instance, when replying to an email, you can quadruple-tap on paragraphs in the quoted reply, then cut them.

You have to do it pretty quickly, and take care not to move your finger too much between taps. Try it a few times, though, and you’ll get the hang of it. And yes, I know it might sound weird, but I actually find it quite useful sometimes.

Create a PDF from an Office document using Google Docs
~MacOSXHints

A few days ago, I was using a desktop at home to try to print a .docx document (from Word 2008). Unfortunately, the home machine had a much older version of Office, and it couldn’t open the .docx format.

As a workaround, I uploaded the .docx document into Google Docs, edited it a little bit, and then clicked Print. This converts the document into a PDF, so all you need to do is save that window to create a local PDF. (This also works if you create a document using Google Docs and click Print.)

Share an Internet connection
~Terry White, MacGroup.org

If you are in a situation where you need to share your internet connection with others, you can actually turn your Mac into a mini AirPort base station. For example, let’s say you’re in a hotel or meeting room and you have an internet connection via Ethernet. You can actually share that connection with others or your other devices like an iPod touch or iPad by simply enabling Internet Sharing in the Sharing System Prefs. You can even secure your makeshift WiFi network with a password to prevent  the world from jumping on.

Get your Mac’s Serial Number
~Terry White, MacGroup.org

If you ever need to call Apple Support chances are they are going to ask you for your Mac’s serial number. The placement of this serial number will be in different places depending on your Mac model. In most cases it will not be convenient to get to. Luckily you can do it without crawling around on the floor or turning your Mac upside down. Just choose About this Mac from the Apple menu and then just click the version of the Mac OS you have installed (ie. 10.6.2) and it will cycle through to your OS Build Number and if  you click again it will show you your Mac’s serial number.

Use Smart Albums in iPhoto to erase default photo titles
~MacOSXHints

I use iPhoto almost every day to import pictures from my camera, my iPhone, or my friends’ cameras, but I usually forget to put a good name on the imported images — so they import with those ugly titles such as P102453.jpg, IMG_1453.jpg, etc.

To partially solve this problem, I’ve created a Smart Album with the following conditions:

If [Any] of the following conditions are true:

Title starts with P10
Title starts with IMG…
Title starts with DSCN
Title starts with SANY

Note that different cameras will probably have different prefixes, so adjust as necessary.

Now, after importing my photos, I just open this Smart Album, select all the photos, then use Photos » Batch Change (Shift-Command-B), and set the title to empty text. No more ugly titles!

Change the Desktop Background directly from the Desktop
~Terry White, MacGroup.org
When I want to change the Desktop Background the fastest and easiest way to do it is to just Right Click on it in the Finder and choose Change Desktop Background from the Contextual Menu. This will take you right to the spot you need to be in in System Preferences.

In Address Book, Highlight Groups to which a Contact belongs
~MacGroup.org
In Address Book, select a Contact and hold down Option key.
All the Groups that the Contact is a member of will highlight in yellow.

Merge two Contacts in Address Book
~MacGroup.org
If you end up with two entries for the same person, they can be merged into one card. Select the two > From the Card menu select “Merged Selected Cards”

Want to see more information from your Menu Extras?
~MacGroup.org
Option-Click on them in your menubar at the top of your computer screen. Here are a few of my favorites.

10.6: Copy URLs from downloaded files
~MacOSXHints
If you download a file with Safari or certain other programs, you may be able to copy its download URL from its Get Info window.Select the file in the Downloads folder (or elsewhere) and press command-I. Find the Where From ntry in the More Info section of the Get Info window. Hold down the mouse button and drag across the URL listed there to select it, then choose Copy from the Edit menu (or press Command-C).

[robg adds: This will only work in 10.6; 10.5 won’t let you select the text in that field. I’m not sure which browsers/apps other than Safari record this data; Firefox does not.]

How to Remove Unwanted Software Update Agents
~The Mac Observer
When installing desirable software for good, it’s nice to be kept advised of updates. One way to do that is through a Mac OS X mechanism called launch agents. They activate a request to check for updates.  However, after you’ve deleted experimental software, those update checks can linger and consume system resources. Here’s how to delete them.Sometimes those software update agents are innocuous. But other times, they’ll leave behind remnants of themselves, for example Menu Bar items. Or they’ll constantly pop up in Little Snitch, if you use that, begging for permission. It can get a little annoying. At the very least, it’s messy to leave these persistent messengers around (that phone home) after you’ve deleted experimental software.

The first place to look for remnant agents in in System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items to see if any agents are still being launched at login. If you don’t see anything suspicious there, look in: ~/Library/LaunchAgents(local)/Library/LaunchAgents (global) In the case of Google’s Chrome, it installed a launch agent on my system in my local Library (Google’s Chrome Launch Agent).

If you see something like this, and know you don’t want it around anymore, you can just delete the file. In this case: com.google.keystone.agent.plist. Then, at your convenience, restart to reset the tasks for launchd.

In general, when a new application comes with a .pkg installer, one must be on guard because an installer will often install other files, in addition to the app in /Applications. One tip: it asks for an admin password. If you want to be extra cautious, you can inspect all the files that will be installed by looking at the installer’s File menu -> Show files.

However, some apps, simply dragged to /Applications, when launched, can also sneakily insert files into other locations in your system, for example, Chrome. Vigilance (and a tool like Little Snitch) can smoke out these unwanted tidbits of code in your system after you’ve deleted the primary app.

View an Email Message’s Folder Path in Mail
~MacOSXHints
Locating an email message in your Mail folder hierarchy is now a snap. As of Snow Leopard’s version of Mail, if you open a message in a new window, Command-clicking (or Control-clicking) on the icon in the title bar of the message window will reveal the path to the enclosing folder for the message (just like it does in the Finder).

Select the folder from the drop-down menu, and it will open in a new Mail browser window. This allows you to easily locate the message within the Mail folder hierarchy, which can prove quite handy.

Delete Email in Mail without Showing Next Message
~MacOSXHints
One of the “features” in Apple’s Mail program that has always annoyed me is how it handles messages after doing a delete operation. If you press Delete to throw away the message you’re currently looking at, Mail displays the next message (marking it read in the process). While I like the fact that Mail marks displayed messages as read, I have always found it annoying that it displays a message that I have not specifically selected (and then marks it as read).

There’s a way around this. Instead of pressing Delete, press Option-Delete.

Yes We Can (Right-Click on a Mac)
~Mac Hints & Tips
Many Mac users don’t know that Macs are as right-click savvy as Windows computers. This misunderstanding is partly Apple’s fault. While Macs have been long able to right click, they shipped with a single-button mouse until 2005. Before that, it was necessary to purchase a third-party mouse with two buttons (or use the Control key, described below).

All desktop Macs now ship with Apple’s Mighty Mouse (which is multi-click capable), but by default the Mighty Mouse is configured for single-button clicking. Likewise, the trackpads on the past few generations of Apple notebooks have the ability to right-tap, emulating the right-click of a regular mouse. However, by default this is also not activated.

Here’s how to configure the Mighty Mouse for right-clicking (or “secondary clicking” as Apple calls it):

1. Open System Preferences (by clicking on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then choosing “System Preferences”).

2. Click “Keyboard & Mouse” to open its preference pane.

3 Click the “Mouse” tab.

4 Choose which button you want to assign to use for right clicking (again, called “Secondary Click” here). I suggest using the, uh, right key to right click.

Now you can use your Mighty Mouse to access unique contextual menus for each application.

If you have a recent Apple notebook, you can configure the trackpad to recognize a right click:

1. Open System Preferences (by clicking on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then choosing “System Preferences”).

2. Click “Keyboard & Mouse” to open its preference pane.

3 Click the “Trackpad” tab.

Snow Leopard Lets You Shuffle Your Screen Saver
~Tips & Tricks comes from TidBITS
Want to show pictures from multiple iPhoto albums along with various other screen savers? A new Shuffle option in the Screen Saver portion of the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preference pane lets you select multiple sources for your screen saver.

Rotate Several Photos at Once
~TUAW – the unofficial Apple Weblog
Have a bunch of pictures to rotate? Highlight the desired pics in Finder and double-click on one to open them all in Preview. Click the first thumbnail to the right, select all with Command-A, and use Command-L (left) or Command-R (right) to rotate all at once. Quit Preview and Save All.