Tag Archives: Tip

Encode Videos Or Extract Their Audio Using Mac Finder [Tip]

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The Finder in Mac is generally just a file explorer with no hardcore features that would warrant calling it anything else, but it isn’t really as bare as it seems. As far as videos are concerned, the Finder can do much more. Specifically, you can use the Finder to encode and resize videos, as well as to extract their audio. The feature, built into Mac, requires no codecs to be installed, and works only on files that Mac supports. Hence, Flash files cannot utilize this encoding, but the common MP4s can be used without needing to think twice. Read More

Sort Apps Into Folders & Turn The Mac Dock Into A Launcher [Tip]

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App launchers are a pretty popular genre, and many different types of launchers are developed to cater to unique, individual needs. Both paid and free app launchers are available for those who aren’t happy with the default Launchpad, but if you really want to keep things organized (kill the procrastinator in you), you can clean up your apps, sort them and make a great app launcher all by yourself that is easily accessible from the Dock. To set the record straight, you aren’t going to create an app or anything like that. The concept to this DIY launcher is to have your apps sorted into folders, which will then be named after what the apps in them do. For example, a folder named Music will have apps that help tweak or play audio. Read on to see how you can make your own app launcher. Read More

Shift+Option Volume Precision Controls Return To Mac OS X Lion [Tip]

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Finding the perfect spot, whether you’re just trying to adjust your pillow at night or trying to set the volume on your Mac, is tedious, to say the least. The latter was made all the more difficult when OS X 10.7 took away the ability to increase or decrease the volume by one-fourth of a volume block. The precision was dearly missed particularly by musicphiles and generally by all users. Just as the option disappeared magically, it has returned the same way (it might have something to do with the OS X 10.7.4 update, but magic sounds cooler). You can now increase the volume bit by bit once again. Hold down the Shift+Option key combination when using the volume keys on your keyboard, and the volume will increase or decrease ever so slightly until it is just right. Read More

Digitally Sign A PDF Document Using Mac Preview & Your Webcam [Tip]

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Electronically signing a document is much easier and faster than printing it out, signing it with a pen and then scanning and emailing it. Normally, you would go looking for an app that, in addition to editing a PDF, also supports adding signatures. While you can dish out some bucks and grab such apps from Mac App Store, if you just need a method for adding digital signature, there is already a built-in way to do it in OS X Lion. Preview in Mac is more than just an app for opening files; as covered in earlier tips, it does much more, such as taking screenshots and adding e-signatures to PDFs. All you need is a good webcam - possibly a high quality one - and adding a signature is only a matter of a few clicks. Read More

Remove Mac App Window Drop Shadows Completely Or Just For Screenshots [Tip]

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Application windows in Mac appear to float on your desktop and this effect is created using drop shadows around the edges of the window. While Windows 7 also supports shadows, the effect is nothing like what you see in Mac. In addition to the visual appeal, these shadows also help distinguish one app window’s edge from that of another. Although the shadows contribute to both functionality and visual appeal, they become somewhat useless and even ugly when they show up in a screenshot. In this post, we will guide you through the process of disabling shadow effect from both app windows and screenshots. Read More

Best Ways To Send Text & Share Files From Your Mac To Other Devices

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One of the most common ways people send files or text is over email or instant messengers. Messengers are excellent if you’re sending text to someone other than yourself, but if you need to send it to yourself or to another system that you might be using, a messenger might not be the best option. As far as sending files to yourself is concerned, you almost always email them. In both scenarios, you’re emailing files because you want them on a different system, but you’re achieving that at the expense of cluttering your email inbox. Here are a few methods where you can send files and text from Mac to any device, i.e., Android, iPhone, iPad, another Mac or a Windows PC. Read More

How To Permanently Delete A Single File From Mac Using Terminal [Tip]

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A very basic thing to do, but still not commonly known, is how to delete a single file permanently from your Mac. Moving a file to Trash means it’s still there and can be restored any time, not to mention eating up precious space. The slight problem with Trash is that if you want to remove a particular file from it, i.e., permanently delete it, you have to remove all of them. In the event you have just a single file to remove (wipe permanently off the face of your hard drive and the earth itself), you go to the Terminal and execute the simplest of commands. Read More

Take Time-Delayed Screenshots With Mac Preview & 3 Other Tricks [Tip]

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On the surface of it, Mac’s default image viewer seems lacklustre. Sure, it lets you view your images, and is, in effect, the Mac’s sole native screenshot taking tool, but it doesn’t seem as feature rich as it should be. That's perhaps why you often find a whole host of screenshot tools for Mac, but Preview can actually do more. This little tip not only shows you how to take a time-delayed screenshot of your entire screen via Preview, but also how to resize the selected screenshot area proportionately along either y-axis or x-axis, and how to move the selection area around to a different part of the screen. Read More

Keep Apps Running When You Lock Or Put Your Mac To Sleep [Tip]

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When a Mac goes to sleep of its own accord, or when you put it to sleep manually, although the apps continue to run, the screen doesn’t lock. There are several apps that let you lock your screen using simple shortcuts and/or icons in the Menu Bar, but the problem with most of these apps is that when you lock the screen, apps are suspended, too. This means if you have iTunes running, it will pause when the screen goes blank. To keep apps like this running but still be able to lock your screen, you need to turn to Mac’s screensaver and the built-in Hot Corner functionality. Read More

Add A File To An Existing Archive & Password Protect It On Mac [Tip]

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Compressing files and creating archives in Mac is easily accomplished through the default utility, Archive, which compresses to a whole host of formats. Files can be compressed in command line as well via the Terminal, but having to compress files or folders through the command line is much more complicated and inconvenient, which is why it’s best to use the tool provided. If you aren’t a fan of the native utility for some reason, there are plenty of other apps that you can use instead. and if nothing else works for you, the Terminal really isn’t going anywhere. One advantage that Terminal holds in this regard, is that, in addition to being able to create archives, you can add a file to an existing one through a few simple commands. This can save you a lot of clutter; you can add files to a single archive as per your need, and not have a mess of archives in a folder or on your desktop. Read More

How To Set Default Apps For Files & Actions On Mac OS X [Tip]

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If you’re new to Mac or have just recently discovered that your Mac runs smoother if you use third-party apps as opposed to the default ones, you might be exploring how to set an app as the default one for its relevant file types. Unfortunately, this isn’t very easy to do. Many rightly go to the Open with… options of a file and set defaults there but either that doesn't always work, or the changes are reverted for no apparent reason. What you need is a more permanent way to change default apps. In what follows, we will tell you how you can set an app as the default for one or several formats. Read More

Have Mac Terminal Audibly Announce The Completion Of A Command [Tip]

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Growl notifications are perhaps the best, and arguably the most popular, desktop notification system for OS X Lion. Many app developers integrate support for these notifications in their apps, and OS X Mountain Lion now supports a similar feature. As far as notifications for apps are concerned, Growl handles them well. If, however, you need a notification system for Terminal, one that would tell you when a command has successfully completed, you can add one of your own. Unlike Growl notifications, these are audio alerts that announce when a command has been executed, and make use of the text-to-speech (TTS) utility in Mac. The process requires you to add an additional command and the text that should be announced, at the end of the command you are running. How? Read past the break. Read More

Remove The Mac Dock Delay When Auto-Hide Feature Is Enabled [Tip]

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The Dock in Mac provides an easy way to launch your frequently used apps. The space it offers is limited though, and that is why most users reserve it for apps like a text editor or web browser etc. Mac OS X lets you auto-hide Dock when you aren’t using it and access it by simply hovering the mouse pointer. If you choose to auto-hide the Dock, then you may have noticed that it takes a few milliseconds (very long and annoying milliseconds) to reveal itself when you move your mouse to the edge of the screen. The time delay is obviously there to prevent the Dock from reappearing when you don’t intend to use it, but it can get annoying when you do want it to appear. This tip lets you remove that little time delay and have the Dock popping up on the slightest mouse hover. Read More

Quickly View & Insert Accented Characters When Typing On Mac [Tip]

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If you’ve ever eaten at a French or Mexican restaurant, and afterwards tried to tell a friend over email or text message what you had, it’s likely that you had difficulty in spelling out the name of the dish, since both French and Spanish have special accented characters. Many words in the English language, like cliché and Résumé, that originate from French, make use of accented letters, and when writing emails or using them as part of ordinary everyday writing, you might face difficulty because your keyboard doesn’t have a quick option for printing these characters. For Mac users, these options are actually easily accessible in any app that allows text input. Read More

How To Cut & Paste Files/Folders In Mac OS X Lion Finder via Keyboard [Tip]

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If you’ve used Windows or have had the opportunity to hear a Windows user describe in detail how Microsoft's OS is better than Apple's Mac, you probably know that Windows users take pride in the right-click context menu options provided by the OS, and the fact that they have easy Cut, Copy and Paste for files as well as text. The fact is that all these options are available in Mac as well, one just needs to do a little digging around. When it comes to moving a file or folder from one location to the other in Mac, you have to select and drag it to the new location. This proves that the Cut functionality exists, just not via Command+X. Here’s a little tip to reproduce the same effect with keyboard shortcuts. It is super simple and you need only learn a slightly different hotkey. Read More

View Signal Strength For Any Bluetooth Device Connected To Your Mac [Tip]

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As technology has progressed, bluetooth has become more of a better way for connecting devices, rather than transferring data. When it comes to data transfer, even wirelessly, there are much faster modes available. Bluetooth’s core usefulness lies in the number of devices you can connect over it. The Apple Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and the keyboard are just some examples of devices you can use this way. Further additions can be speakers or a headset, thus avoiding lots of wires and capitalizing on the available ports. If you use a large number of Bluetooth devices, you may have wondered what is the best placement for them. A device’s performance is affected by signal strength, and you can’t really put everything in the same spot, due to interference. If you’ve ever wondered how you could view the signal strength of a Bluetooth device and use that information to create an optimum setup, OS X has a solution available in Bluetooth Preferences. Read More

How To Set Mac OS X Sound Volume To A Level Lower Than The Lowest [Tip]

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Some people are embarrassed by the sounds their computers make; no matter how great the start up chime or tune is, it has the ability to annoy people at large and is one of the main reasons why people mute their system’s sound. Of course, not all situations allow you to keep the sound off and if for your comfort, reassurance or need, you feel there has to be some sound coming out of your system , you can set it at the very minimum. What might surprise you is that the lowest volume level in Mac isn’t actually the lowest it can go. This little tip tells you how you can use the volume and mute keys on your Apple keyboard to enable the lowest volume level there is. Read More

Create Custom Keyboard Shortcuts & Reassign Function Keys On Mac [Tip]

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For avid computer users, keyboard shortcuts make the usage of an app extremely convenient, and when they’re missing, it is annoying, to say the least. For many apps, a function, and a highly useful one at that, may lack a hotkey, but there is a simple workaround for it in OS X. If the apps you’re using lack the shortcuts you need, you can add them yourself from System Preferences. Additionally, if you don’t utilize your function keys for the purpose they are meant for, you can reassign them to work in your favorite apps instead. This little tip describes how you can add a custom shortcut for any app, and disable & reassign your function keys. Read More

Sync Any Folder On Your Mac With Dropbox Using Symbolic Links [Tip]

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Symbolic links in Mac have been around for quite a while, and beyond doubt, they’ve been extremely useful. With the popularity of cloud storage services, particularly ones like Dropbox that sync files and folders from your hard disk directly to your online drive, it only makes sense that the usability scenarios for Symbolic Links will increase. We’ve previously covered apps that allow you to sync data between any two folders of your choosing, and a probable usage of such apps would be to sync an important folder on your drive to Dropbox (instead of manually copying all of its contents to your Dropbox directory). This can be particularly useful for automatically syncing app data or game saves with the cloud. Though, the problem with apps like these is that there is often a constraint to the number of folders you can sync. That is where Symbolic Links can come in handy. Read on for further details. Read More