Pick of the Week - Oct 22nd [Show all picks]
Wraparound - Drag across screen boundaries
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  Install Aperture 2.0 on unsupported Macs
Apps
I own a 12" PowerBook with a GeForce FX Go5200 graphics card. For whatever reason that I've yet to discover, Apple has declared the GeForce FX Go5200 'bad' as far as Aperture 2.0 is concerned, and attempting to install it results in the message: “Your video card does not meet the minimum requirements to run this software.” By the time I figured this out, a copy of Aperture 2 was already enroute to my house...

Of course, there's always a workaround. The following instructions apply to the retail version, and should let you install Aperture on any type of Mac, not just the 12" PowerBook. I doubt Apple will provide support in this case, though. I'll leave it to you to figure out how to do the same for the downloadable trial.
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  Use a theme with X11 graphical (GTK) programs
UNIX
This hint applies if you have GTK applications installed through MacPorts. It may also work with GTK applications installed through other means, but your mileage may vary. These applications, by default, look really ugly because there's no decent gtk2 theme engine installed. But it's actually very simple to install one. In Terminal, just type:
port search gtk2
Some gtk2 packages will be displayed, but we're interested specifically in the gtk2 theme engines, such as gtk2-aurora and gtk2-clearlooks. To install one (I highly recommend one of those two), simply type:
sudo port install gtk2-aurora
You will need to enter your administrative password for sudo.

As soon as you're finished, you should also install gtk-chtheme by typing sudo port install gtk-chtheme. You may also have to enter your administrative password here. You can now proceed to select the theme you will be using in newly-launched GTK apps by typing gtk-chtheme in your terminal. A graphical application will launch that provides live previews of your selected theme. When you find one you like, just press OK.

With a theme chosen, every GTK2 application launched will look beautiful.
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  Make an external numeric keypad work in OS X
Other Hardware
If you have an external numeric keypad, and it's detected in OS X but doesn't work correctly -- beep sound when used with iCal; closes the tag window in iTunes instead of typing year or track number; etc. -- here's a potential solution.

Press and hold Num Lock key on your numeric keypad first, then connect it. You can then release the key. Press it again if the Num Lock status LED on your numeric keypad isn't on. It should work perfectly at this point.

If this doesn't work, another tip I read on some forum somewhere is to try to press the Num Lock key on your already-connected numeric keypad for more than four seconds.
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  Change the default text for just about everything
System
This is a hint which will allow you to change the default text for just about anything. This is actually quite easy -- all you need to do is edit various *.strings files. The thing is, these .strings files can be found just about everywhere. Here are some good places to look:
  • /System » Library » CoreServices/
  • Control-click on an application, choose Show Package Contents on the pop-ip menu, then navigate into Contents » Resources » [your language].lproj.
A few points:
  • If the string you replace is too long, it will just be truncated and look a bit odd.
  • Some strings don't appear to work anyway. I've no idea why.
  • The strings files have comments in them. For example, search for OD_8 in /System » Library » CoreServices » Finder.app » Contents » Resources » English.lproj » Localizable.strings.
  • Many applications will need to work on a copy, as they cannot authenticate a save.
  • %@ is often an interesting thing to try.
  • To insert a quotation mark, use \\", and to insert a backslash, use \\\.
Read on for an example to get you started...
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  Simulate gestures in the iPhone Simulator
iPhone
You can simulate the 'pinch to zoom' gesture of the iPhone in Apple's Aspen Simulator by holding down the Option key while clicking the mouse in the area you wish to pinch. This brings up a pair of dots that represent your fingertips.
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  Better/continuous scrolling on iPhone/iPod Touch
iPhone
When you are zoomed in to read, for example, a column of text in Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch, it can sometimes be hard to scroll in a straight line without accidently scrolling left and right. I found this quite frustrating until I changed the way I was scrolling.

The important thing is the direction you start dragging in when you scroll. If you move only vertically then the scroll becomes vertically locked and will not scroll on the horizontal axis until you next lift your finger. Conversely, starting a horizontal drag locks scrolling horizontally. The problem is that it's too easy to start off on a diagonal and drag the column you're reading sideways.

If you scroll by running your thumb along the very edges of the screen then you can always be sure you're moving in a straight line and you won't suffer this anymore. This has the added benefit of keeping your view of the screen uninhibited since your thumb can be practically off the display entirely. Additionally, it's possible to scroll a long page like a forum thread continuously by starting a new drag with the opposite thumb even before you reach the top or bottom of the screen.

I created a short video demonstrating this scrolling method, in case you'd like to see it in action.
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  Use Terminal's vi as default text editor
System
I've always been a vi guy, but OS X GUI-based vi versions leave a lot to be desired. So for years I've put up with TextEdit as the default application when I double click a text file in Finder or an attachment in Mail. Until yesterday, that is. Using this old macosxhints forum thread as the base, I updated and modified the script to behave properly.

Double-clicking a text file now opens it in vi in a new tab in Terminal, opening Terminal if it's not already running (which is rare, as I usually have four or five tabs open all the time). Here's the script: Copy it into Script Editor, and save it as an Application called VI. To use your new application to open any text file, control-click on a text file and choose Get Info from the pop-up menu. Under Open With, at the bottom of the pull-down menu, is Other. Select that, and a window will open where you can choose your saved application (check the Always Open With box, too). I also checked the Change All box back in the Get Info window.

Unfortunately, the one thing I haven't figured out is how to get it to open without an input file, so to start a new text file I have to go to the Terminal and type vi filename. Please let me know if this script can be improved to handle that case, or in any other ways.

[robg adds: While I could make this script work for files on a one-at-a-time basis, I could not get the Change All solution to work -- regardless of how I specified the app, or set the file's extension, Change All had no effect. Only the selected file was modified to open with vi; a commenter on the queue review site had the same experience. If you know how to resolve that issue, please comment...]
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  10.5: Quit iTunes to see file info changes in Front Row
System 10.5
If you edit the info of files in iTunes and then launch Front Row while iTunes is still running, you will not see the changes you have just made. To fix this, quit iTunes after editing file info (you can relaunch iTunes straight away if you like; it makes no difference). When Front Row is next launched, the info will have been updated.

I don't know why this happens (I'd like to though), but I believe it is because Front Row is now an Application in 10.5. This is on OS X 10.5.2 with iTunes 7.6.1 (9), with "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" checked.
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  One way to randomize order of an iPhoto slideshow
Apps
There are two ways to have a slideshow in iPhoto. From within an album, you can click the Play button and get a quick slideshow. With this method, you have the option to shuffle the order, and play music -- but you can't "fit" the duration of the slideshow to the music.

The other way is to create a slideshow in the sidebar. Here you have the option of setting the duration of each slide to match that of the music (in my case, I had a 20 minute montage), but there is no way to randomize the order -- you have to drag by hand to set the manual order.

My idea is to title the photos with a random number, then sort by title, thereby randomizing the images. Run this AppleScript in Script Editor to do just that:
tell application "iPhoto"
  --tell album "photos"
  -- Note: change the album name above to reflect the album
  -- whose images you'd like to re-title, then remove the "--"
  -- at the beginning of the line. Note that if you leave it
  -- as "photos," then *every* image in your library will be
  -- re-titled!
    repeat with aPhoto in photos
      set title of aPhoto to ((random number 1000) as string)
    end repeat
  end tell
end tell
Note: This solution assumes that you have created a separate iPhoto (v7) library for the slideshow, as it re-titles all the images in the library. It is easy to change this to only randomize a specific album; just change the album name in the script from photos to the album name.

After running the script, select Choose View » sort by » Title in the menu. Then select all, and create a new slideshow in the sidebar. Its order will be randomized.

[robg adds: I modified the script to add the comments and comment out the tell album line. To use the script, please follow the instructions to provide an album name and remove the tell album... line's comment marker. I did it this way because this script will re-title your images, and I didn't want anyone accidentally overwriting their laboriously-applied image titles in their main library. Creating a separate slideshow-only library is the best solution; iPhoto's help explains how to create a new library if you're not familiar with the process.]
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  Alert remote users that their system is still in use
Network
I use VNC to do remote support (or Screen Sharing under Leopard). If you do a lot of remote support, there are times when you leave computers idle while you deal with other things. You need the owner/user of the computer to leave it alone, so as not to undo what you are doing. For example, when restoring data from a remote backup.

Typically I will put up a Stickies note on the screen warning the user that I am still working. But what do you do if the computer must be logged-out in order to do your work?

The remedy is simple. First, log out on the remote machine. If the login window then displays a user name and blank password field, press Escape to get out of the password prompt (so that you are looking at the list of users). Then hit the down-arrow to highlight the first user, and press Option-Return to get to the Name and Password prompt. However, instead of entering the username, type "Still Working!" (or whatever you prefer), and you're reasonably safe from user intervention (at least from reasonable users).

Of course, if the remote Mac's login window comes up with the user name and password fields, you can just type "Working..." (or whatever you prefer) in the username field.

[robg adds: An older hint here stated that 10.4 users had to use Shift-Option-Retun to flip between the two login window styles; in 10.5, Option-Return appears to again work as it used to.]
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