TUAW reports that the wizards of widgets at iSlayer have come up with yet another really useful tool for the Dashboard. Organized is a free widget with an event calendar, world clock, notes, and to-dos, all of which are synced to iCal and Mail.
I'm not a huge fan of Dashboard Widgets, but I'm always on the lookout for something that can integrate iCal and Mail. This looks well worth a look see, especially since I really like iStat menus.
Font-related support requests always seem to be present in support forums across the Web.
Below are the fonts that ship with OSX Leopard which are the minimum required by the system in order to function properly:
There are two rules that you must remember when dealing with fonts in OSX. First, never, ever, EEEEVVAAARRR disable, move, rename, spit-on or otherwise agitate AppleGothic.dfont or LucidaGrande.dfont. You're hosed if you do. Seriously!
Second, read up on fonts in OSX.
For more information about fonts in OSX and how not to shoot yourself when dealing with them, you can take a look at this fantastic (and lengthy) article by Kurt Lang; Font Management in OSX.
It appears that Kurt keeps this informative article updated with each new OS release, so you should probably bookmark it. It's by far the most in-depth, informative and balanced font article I've ever seen. If you find it useful, throw the guy a bone... his Paypal address is at the very bottom of the article.
IconFactory has released three Indiana Jones themed icon sets, with a fourth on the way. The official icon sets from the Iconfactory that include treasures and items from the Indiana Jones™ movies were crafted with accuracy and detail by Anthony Piraino.
The Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade sets contain nearly 30 beautiful icons. No word on when the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull set will be released, so check back on the download page often.
My good friend Ivan has posted a quick tutorial on how to change the background image on your OSX login screen over at CreativeBits.
The tutorial covers Leopard (OSX 10.5) only, but he also links to a previous tutorial for doing the same thing under Tiger (OSX 10.4)
Most Mac users know that you can force-quit an application by hitting Command + Option + Esc and selecting the app from the list. You did know about that, right? I mean, you weren't actually launching Activity Monitor and selecting from the list and force-quitting that way, were you?
You can force-quit your apps fast by Option + Click and hold for about 1 second on the application icon in the Dock and selecting Force Quit from the pop-up menu.
If you've ever opened the individual printer application that launches when you print a job, you've no doubt noticed there is a Completed Jobs tab which will show you a list of documents you've printed in the past. Unfortunately, there is no quick way to delete all those print jobs directly from the list. Instead, you must use CUPS (Common Unix Printing System).
In your Web browser of choice, go to to http://127.0.0.1:631/printers/ . This will take you to a configuration page which lists all the printers you have set up on your Mac. Now click the "Cancel All Jobs" button that appears under the printer whose current and completed jobs you'd like to remove.
If you would like to prevent all future print jobs from being stored in this completed jobs list, open your Terminal application in the Utilities folder and enter the following, followed by hitting the Enter key:
cupsctl PreserveJobHistory=No
You can change it back by re-entering the code and changing "No" to "Yes" at any time.
In addition to deleting past print jobs, the CUPS configuration page allows you to configure some settings on your printer such as resolution, color and quality settings, paper settings and defaults, etc. Obviously what you can configure depends on what features the printer has.
Some of the easiest and most useful things you can add to OSX are Menubar items; little applications that live in the menubar across the top of your screen. App launchers, notifiers, Web & RSS trackers, shortcuts to system functions and more are just some of the things available to you.
I came across this list of Super Menubar Items the other day and thought it worth linking to. The list is categorized for easy searching and includes the menubar icon, description, link to the site, and cost (most are free). I'm not sure how old the list is, nor have I tried every item on it, so some may work with Leopard, some only with Tiger. But it's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for ways to save time and screen real estate.
Creating fancy logos, title graphics and stylized type generally requires a lot of work. And depending on whether you use Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, you’re probably going to end up with layer upon layer of gradients, strokes and bevels.
Thankfully, Path Styler Pro 1.5 solves all those problems no matter which program you use, producing high-quality graphics with a noticeable ease of use.
Read my full review of Path Styler Pro at Macworld.com's Creative Notes blog.
One of the things that has kept me using Firefox over the last few years is Safari's insistence on opening links in new windows, rather than a new tab in the current window. It drives me nuts. I hate having multiple windows open.
Thankfully, the latest version of Safari (3.1) has a hidden feature that forces all links to open in a new tab, rather than a new window — even the stubborn sites like Google and Gmail finally stay in a single window.
All you have to do is open Terminal from your Applications/Utilities folder and enter the following:
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true
Hit the enter key and you're all set.
If you own a laptop, you probably use the Volume key shortcuts (F4 and F5) to adjust your volume, rather than visiting the System Preferences or Volume menu item.
Every time you press the Volume key, a full block of volume is raised or lowered in the Volume bezel on your screen. If the amount it is raised or lowered is too much or not enough, you can adjust the amount by a quarter of a block at a time.
To fine-tune the Volume adjustment, hold the Shift and Option keys while hitting F4 or F5.
This fine-tuning can be done with the Volume menu item as well, but it's just easier to use the keyboard shortcuts.
Update: This trick, as stated in the first sentence, is for Apple Laptops. While it may work with Apple desktop keyboards (I don't have one hooked up right now, so I can't check), it also may not work with any other branded keyboard. It's also a Leopard-only trick.
While there is no definitive cure-all for making your machine as good (and as fast) as day one, there are some basic things you can do that might help reclaim disk space, remove some clutter and generally speed up your Mac.
Wired Magazine offers some insight and advice on how to speed up your Mac - what works and what doesn't.
If you don't read the article, or you miss it, the one point I wish to drive home is that repairing file permissions and updating the prebindings will NOT speed up your Mac. It's a myth that has lived too long.
As with any program, the speed with which you use OSX’s Finder can increase your productivity quite a bit, and we can all use a few extra minutes a day can’t we?
With that in mind, here’s a few helpful Finder keyboard shortcuts to help you save the extra few minutes.
Finder Views:
Open Items
If you like having a signature sent with all your emails and you use OSX's Mail application, this tutorial is for you.
AllForces has put together a great tutorial on how to create and use CSS in your Mail signatures. All that is required is an image you wish to use, Safari and Mail.
If you thought you couldn't use instant messaging on your iPhone or iPod Touch, think again.
Jive Talk has an iPhone/iPod Touch client app called BeeJive. While I don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch to test it on, it appears to be very cool.
Here are a few specs:
If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, check it out by going directly to the BeeJive page here.
If anyone depends on Linotype FontExplorer X I would suggest you wait with updating to MacOS X 10.5.2. The dock hangs as soon as you try to open a stack while Linotype FontExplorer X is running.
Suitcase is apparently immune to whatever is causing the problem.
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