Latest Posts in Mac OS X Hints

Collect windows in Spaces in Snow Leopard

If you’re a Spaces user, you may have known about the semi-secret “collect all windows in one Space” trick (see our Leopard tips article) in OS X 10.5—just activate Spaces’ overview mode, then press C, and all open windows on all Spaces would instantly jump onto the first space. I didn’t use this trick often, but it sure came in handy for those times when my Spaces were just out of control.

Sadly, this feature has been removed from Snow Leopard, and there’s no direct replacement, at least not that I’ve discovered. Mac OS X Hints reader Joseph Tchen, however, has discovered something of a workaround. When looking at Spaces’ overview mode, you’re probably aware that the arrow keys can be used to select one of your Spaces, and you can then press the space bar to activate that Space. In 10.6, though, the arrow keys gain some new powers when used with modifier keys.

To collect the open windows from the currently-selected Space and move them to another Space, just hold down the Command key prior to pressing an arrow key. If you’ve got the top left Space selected in overview mode, if you press Command-Right Arrow, all open windows from that Space will be moved right one Space. Keep holding Command down, and press the Down Arrow, and your original open windows (from the top-left Space) will be added to the current Space’s windows, and the whole collection will then be moved down one Space. If this seems confusing, just try it—it’s easier to do than to explain!

If you hold down the Option key instead of the Command key, pressing an arrow key will then swap the currently-selected Space with the one in the direction of the chosen arrow key. For example, with the top-left Space selected, pressing Option-Down Arrow will swap open windows between the top-left Space and the one immediately below it.

Finally, while not new in Snow Leopard’s Spaces overview mode, remember that you can move all open windows for any one application from Space to Space by using the Shift key—just hold down the Shift key prior to dragging, and all windows for the chosen program will be moved from one Space to another.

See more fields in Finder Spotlight search results

As detailed in my article on Snow Leopard’s old and new annoyances, my main complaint is that I can’t add the Size column to my Finder Spotlight search results, as I could in OS X 10.4. This feature broke in 10.5, and more than three years later, I’m still waiting for it to be fixed.

Now, thanks to Mac OS X Hints reader vl_tone, my wait is over. Please note that the following is an experimental solution—there may be very good reasons Apple hasn’t enabled this fix in the OS as of yet. If you follow this hint, there’s a chance you may cause yourself some grief in the future—I don’t think your system will stop functioning, but maybe the Finder will start behaving oddly. My persona experience, though, is that I’ve had no issues with this tip under either 10.6 or the just-released 10.6.1 update. That’s not a guarantee, of course, so proceed at your own risk.

Implementing this tip requires that you’ve installed the Xcode Developer Tools, as the hint requires editing a preferences file with Property List Editor. Alternatively, you can use PlistEdit Pro, TextWrangler, or any other text editor that can open binary preference files. These instructions, however, assume you’re using one of the propery list editors, as they make things much simpler.

Before you start editing, though, you need to make certain that the Finder’s preferences file has a certain section. To do that, run a Spotlight search in the Finder for whatever—it doesn’t matter what you search on. When you see the results of your search, switch to list view mode (Command-2), then press Command-J (View -> Show View Options), and then choose any one of the additional available columns—Date Created, for instance. You can then close the View Options dialog.

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How to use text substitution in Snow Leopard

One of the potentially more useful new features in Snow Leopard is the ability to create (nearly) system-wide text replacements. If you open the Text tab of the Language & Text System Preferences, you’ll see a number of predefined replacements, including (c) for ©, (r) for ®, and TM for ™.

Today, I’ll give you a couple tips on getting the most out of substitutions in OS X 10.6, including just getting them working in the first place. For some unknown reason, substitutions are seemingly disabled on a global basis in Snow Leopard—they’ll work in TextEdit, but not in any other application I tested, such as Mail, iChat, or any other Cocoa applications.

As it turns out, you need to enable text substitutions on a per application basis. For most programs, you can do this by selecting Edit -> Substitutions, and then selecting Text Replacements on the sub-menu, if you don’t already see a checkmark next to that entry. (Note that you’ll only see this menu item if the program supports substitutions.) This will enable text substitutions (yes, Apple called the same feature two different names) within that application…most of the time.

There’s at least one exception, though there may be more. In Mail, this menu is grayed out when you’re looking at the main Mail window. To enable substitutions in Mail, you need to first open a new message window; you’ll then find you can select the menu as shown above.

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Use new Exposé features in Snow Leopard

In Mac OS X 10.5, you could combine the use of Exposé’s Application Windows mode and the Command-Tab application switcher by first activating Exposé and then pressing Command-Tab. When you selected another application and released Command-Tab, that application would come to the foreground in Exposé mode, revealing all its windows. Alternatively, you could release just the Command key, and cycle through all your applications (while still in Exposé mode) by just pressing the Tab key.

While this worked well, it required you to activate Exposé before pressing Command-Tab. In Snow Leopard, this process has been greatly improved. While the old method still works as before, you can now activate Exposé’s Application Windows mode after pressing Command-Tab. Don’t try to do this with the Exposé key on your keyboard, though, because that won’t work.

Instead, keep the Command key pressed, release Tab, and then press either the Up or Down arrow. This will switch you into Exposé’s Application Windows mode for the currently-select application in the Command-Tab app switcher. At this point, you can release the Command key, too, leaving no keys pressed.

From here, press Tab (and Shift-Tab) to cycle forwards and backwards between applications (while remaining in Exposé’s Application Windows mode). When you see the window you’d like to activate, press one of the arrow keys to select it—the selected window will gain a blue outline (or you can use the mouse/trackpad, of course). To activate the chosen application with the selected window, just press Return to exit Exposé mode, and the selected window will come to the foreground.

Another nifty Exposé trick in 10.6—and this works both in the above example, and when using Exposé’s normal Application Windows mode—is the ability to Quick Look a window with Exposé active.

Make sure the window is selected (shows a blue highlight) by pressing an arrow key first or hovering over it with your mouse, then press the Space Bar. The selected window will zoom in, just as with Quick Look in Finder, but you’ll remain in Exposé mode.

This combined mode can be very useful if you keep tons of windows open, and/or if many of your apps use smaller windows that really aren’t distinguishable in Exposé mode. (Notice, too, that Exposé now displays the title for every window; in 10.5, you only saw titles when you moved your mouse over one of the windows.)

Thanks to Mac OS X Hints readers Benji Coleman-Levy and chumsdock for the observations on the new abilities of Exposé in Snow Leopard.

Reveal hidden menu bar icon functions in Snow Leopard

In Mac OS X 10.5, the AirPort icon in the menu bar had a trick up its sleeve—hold down Option when clicking the icon, and you’d see more information about the various available AirPort networks. In Snow Leopard, this feature has been expanded, not just for the AirPort menu, but for some others as well.

Here’s what you’ll see when you hold down the Option key and click on various menu bar icons:

AirPort: In addition to the hardware (MAC) address of the wireless station, which channel is in use, the signal strength (RSSI), and finally an indication of the data transmission rate (all available in 10.5), you can also see what mode your connected network is using (802.11n, for instance), security (WPA2 Personal, etc.), and something called the MCS Index, which appears to be related to the 802.11n standard. (If you’re really into this stuff, feel free to look up your MCS Index value on this table; interpreting what you find there, though, well, that’s up to you!).

Sound: If you use more than one sound input and/or output on your Mac, you’ll love this change. Instead of using a third-party app such as SoundSource, or opening System Preferences, just Option-click on the Sound icon. Instead of the usual volume slider, you’ll see a list of available output and input devices; just select one from the list to use that output or input device. This is a great timesaver.

Battery: When you Option-click on the Battery icon, you’ll see one of Normal, Replace Soon, Replace Now, or Service Battery right next to the word Condition. Click this entry, and an Apple Help page will open, explaining what each term means—if they’re not sufficiently self-explanatory already. Apple’s also got a support document that explains more about battery condition. While the cynics may be thinking this is a good way for Apple to sell more batteries, with non-removable batteries becoming the norm, more information about their condition is a good thing.

Sync: Option-click the Sync icon in 10.5, and you won’t see anything different than you would with a normal click. Option click it in 10.6, though, and you’ll see detailed information about exactly when each of the data types you sync was last synchronized—and this list includes any third-party application that use Sync services, such as Transmit and TextExpander. You’ll also see an Open iSync Diagnostics menu item, to help troubleshoot any sync issues you may be having.

Here’s a look at how all four of these expanded-feature menu bar icons look in Snow Leopard; click the image for a larger version.

As best as I can tell, those are the four icons with new Option key features in Snow Leopard. Other icons either have no Option key features, or (as with Bluetooth) have the same features they had in Snow Leopard. Please feel free to correct me if you find additional new functionality, though.

Control audio playback in Keynote presentations

If you place an audio file onto a slide in Keynote, it will appear as a 53x53 pixel version of the OS X menu bar’s Sound icon. Assuming you don’t change the audio settings for the placed audio file, the audio file will start to play when you reach that slide when you give your presentation. But what if you want more control over the audio playback, much like what you get with movie files, which appear with a position slider, playback and volume controls? It turns out you can get those same controls on your audio files as well.

All you need to do is make the placed audio icon larger, then move your mouse into that larger region while in presentation playback mode. (The controller is not visible while editing your presentation.)

As the size of the audio icon increases, you’ll see more and more control options when you hover over the region in presentation mode. Once you reach 400 pixels in size, you’ll see all the same controller features you get with a QuickTime movie:

Note that when you’re in edit mode, you’ll see an increasingly-large version of the Sound icon as you increase its size. As with the standard-sized icon, though, this icon will not appear in presentation mode. To access the audio playback controls while in presentation mode, just move your mouse into the region of the large icon, and the controller will appear.

I’m not sure how often I’ll need this feature, but it’s nice to know it is possible to get audio playback controls with placed audio files in Keynote—thanks to Mac OS X Hints reader s.chrisotph for pointing this one out.

Create smart burn folders

While you may know you can create burn folders (File -> New Burn Folder) to ease burning DVDs and CDs, and you may know you can create smart folders (File -> New Smart Folder) to store often-used searches, did you know you can mix the two to create smart burn folders? Assume you have a set of files you’d like to regularly burn to disc, and that can be identified by a common characteristic—they all reside in one folder, or have a certain extension, or you’ve coded them all with an identical Spotlight Comment.

To make it easier to burn these files regularly, first create a burn folder as usual. Instead of dragging items into it, though, next create a new smart folder. Set the criteria such that your desired files are found in the search results, then click Save. In the new dialog that appears, name your smart folder, and then save it into your newly-created burn folder.

That’s all there is to it—now you have a smart burn folder that will be constantly updated with all relevant files. When it’s time to burn your backup, you’ll automatically get all matching files, without having to do any work on your own. Thanks to Mac OS X Hints reader ‘tedw’ for pointing this one out.

See all of the Weather widget's weather modes

The Weather widget in OS X’s Dashboard (in OS X 10.4 and later) displays a six-day forecast along with the current weather—complete with a large graphic representing the current conditions. As I check the Beaverton, Oregon weather this morning, for example, I see a large glowing sun, and a forecast high of 90F. Different weather conditions offer different graphics, so over time, you’ll see a number of different images appear.

But what if you live somewhere where the weather rarely changes—Phoenix, for instance. Or what if you’re just curious about the various different weather graphics available? Here’s an oldie-but-goodie tip to let you see them all with just a couple of keypresses. Open Dashboard (F12), then open the Weather widget if it’s not already visible (click the Plus sign, then click the Weather widget on the row of available widgets).

Once the widget is open, hold down Command and Option, then click on the graphic displayed at the top of the widget. With each click, the widget will cycle through an additional weather graphic; one example is shown at right.

You’ll also notice that the town turns to Nowhere, and the forecast features round-number temperatures and minimal weather variety. Keep clicking until you’ve cycled through all the available graphics—and keep an eye out for the one animated graphic. (And yes, this trick still works in Snow Leopard.)

When you’re done looking at all the pretty pictures, your Weather widget will still be stuck in Nowhereville, but that’s easily fixed—just press Command-R to reload the Weather widget, and things will return to normal.

See really large results in Calculator

Have you ever thought that the results display in the built-in OS X Calculator app was too small? No, I haven’t either…but perhaps, just perhaps, one day you may want to see the results of a calculation in a much bolder, larger, and easily-read-from-across-the-room form. If so, look no further than your handy Control key and mouse button (or if you’re multi-button-mouse-enabled, the right mouse button).

After performing an operation in Calculator, Control-click (or right-click) on the results section of the display, and select Large Type from the pop-up menu (also notice that you can enable or disable RPN mode via the same pop-up menu).

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Paste tables as graphics in iWork

There are times when you want to insert tables from Numbers into Pages documents as static graphics, rather than as live, editable tables. If you wanted to do something similar in Microsoft Office, you could copy tabular data from Excel, then use Office’s Paste Special command to paste the clipboard contents into Word as a picture. But there is no equivalent to Paste Special in iWork.

But there is a workaround: Copy the table in Numbers, then open Preview and press Command-N to paste the table as a new PDF. Next, copy the table (now a PDF) in Preview and paste it into Pages.

You could also use Shift-Control-Command-4 (which does a screen-grab of a region of the screen) to capture the table in Numbers, then paste it into Pages. While that works, there’s a noticeable difference in quality; using Preview as an intermediary yields a much better image, regardless of image format you use for the screen-grab.

This hint actually reveals something interesting about OS X’s Clipboard: It stores multiple versions of the data you’re copying. In this case, it copies the data in tabular form; you could paste the table from Numbers to Pages, and the data cells would be editable. But the Clipboard also copies that table as a graphic and as text; when you paste what you’ve copied, the application into which you’re pasting it will decide which of those forms it likes best.