What random tips do you have for OS X users? I've been using OS X since late 2006 and have learned a lot, but there's always something new here and there. Maybe you know of something or do something a certain way that others may just never have thought of.
I'll start.
Finder
Here's a section of my main finder window:
"Files" is a folder I made within my user directory to store all documents, photos, and any other files. If I want to do a clean install, I simply copy that one folder, which grabs all but my iTunes library which sits in it's default spot.
"Apps" is a folder I made with aliases to the main applications folder, and the most frequently used apps that aren't in the dock. I like to keep the dock somewhat small. If necessary, I can go to the main apps folder to look for a program that is hardly used.
"Maintenance" as you can see is just things to monitor, backup, or edit stuff on the mac. I like having it all in 1 place.
Internet
I use Safari since I don't require anything fancy for my browsing requirements. I couldn't find a home page I liked, so I simply made one myself, which most people probably wouldn't think of. Just a background with links to certain sites.
I have my bookmarks organized a certain way too. Within the "Bookmark Toolbar" are folders rather than book marks. Within the folders, are bookmarks to sites.
One is named "Archive" where I'll save random things here and there,
"Wallpapers" for any site with wallpapers,
"Sites" for places like this,
"Resources" which are mostly tools or information sites like speedtest.net.
Apps
I've recently discovered GeekTool, which is pretty cool. If you haven't tried it, you should give it a shot. It displays info on the desktop in almost any way you want, lots of customization. I currently have the date on one side, and on the other is the Top 5 running processes, system information, CPU usage, uptime, network traffic (in/out), firewall log, and console log.
Desktop lyrics is something to display song title/lyrics from currently playing iTunes tracks. I like it, maybe others will too.
Just Looking Simple Image viewer which I prefer over Preview for viewing pictures. It can scroll through pictures within a folder, and play animated .gifs aswell.
A lot of people seem to run Transmission but have a problem with the port being blocked. If you can't seem to unblock it via port forwarding, then OS X is probably blocking it. In that case, entering the firewall settings in System Preferences> Sharing, and opening the port from there with a new rule may fix it.
Apple Scripts
I don't have much of these since I'm basically programming illiterate. I'm sure if I could program I could come up with a lot more useful ones. The only ones I have that work are usually someone else's that I've found.
Oh well, so far I've got one that is a droplet. When I drop an image on, it sets that image as the desktop background. Another just shows me the newly added item in the main "applications" folder, and the rest are rsync scripts I made to backup to an external HDD.
iTunes artwork
This isn't for everyone, but if you have songs that aren't actually from albums, or just don't have cover art, then there is a way to fill in those empty coverflow spots. What I did was just google search most artists to get a logo or something displaying their name, and added that as the main artwork for every song regardless of the album. If I couldn't find a suitable image, I used an image generator to make something since I suck at photoshop. I just used this generator which has different styles: http://glowtxt.com/
Now everything is filled, and when lyrics are displayed on the iTouch, you can see what artist it is in the background. As I said, it's not for everyone, some people like having the original cover art on their albums.
I'll start.
Finder
Here's a section of my main finder window:
"Files" is a folder I made within my user directory to store all documents, photos, and any other files. If I want to do a clean install, I simply copy that one folder, which grabs all but my iTunes library which sits in it's default spot.
"Apps" is a folder I made with aliases to the main applications folder, and the most frequently used apps that aren't in the dock. I like to keep the dock somewhat small. If necessary, I can go to the main apps folder to look for a program that is hardly used.
"Maintenance" as you can see is just things to monitor, backup, or edit stuff on the mac. I like having it all in 1 place.
Internet
I use Safari since I don't require anything fancy for my browsing requirements. I couldn't find a home page I liked, so I simply made one myself, which most people probably wouldn't think of. Just a background with links to certain sites.
I have my bookmarks organized a certain way too. Within the "Bookmark Toolbar" are folders rather than book marks. Within the folders, are bookmarks to sites.
One is named "Archive" where I'll save random things here and there,
"Wallpapers" for any site with wallpapers,
"Sites" for places like this,
"Resources" which are mostly tools or information sites like speedtest.net.
Apps
I've recently discovered GeekTool, which is pretty cool. If you haven't tried it, you should give it a shot. It displays info on the desktop in almost any way you want, lots of customization. I currently have the date on one side, and on the other is the Top 5 running processes, system information, CPU usage, uptime, network traffic (in/out), firewall log, and console log.
Desktop lyrics is something to display song title/lyrics from currently playing iTunes tracks. I like it, maybe others will too.
Just Looking Simple Image viewer which I prefer over Preview for viewing pictures. It can scroll through pictures within a folder, and play animated .gifs aswell.
A lot of people seem to run Transmission but have a problem with the port being blocked. If you can't seem to unblock it via port forwarding, then OS X is probably blocking it. In that case, entering the firewall settings in System Preferences> Sharing, and opening the port from there with a new rule may fix it.
Apple Scripts
I don't have much of these since I'm basically programming illiterate. I'm sure if I could program I could come up with a lot more useful ones. The only ones I have that work are usually someone else's that I've found.
Oh well, so far I've got one that is a droplet. When I drop an image on, it sets that image as the desktop background. Another just shows me the newly added item in the main "applications" folder, and the rest are rsync scripts I made to backup to an external HDD.
iTunes artwork
This isn't for everyone, but if you have songs that aren't actually from albums, or just don't have cover art, then there is a way to fill in those empty coverflow spots. What I did was just google search most artists to get a logo or something displaying their name, and added that as the main artwork for every song regardless of the album. If I couldn't find a suitable image, I used an image generator to make something since I suck at photoshop. I just used this generator which has different styles: http://glowtxt.com/
Now everything is filled, and when lyrics are displayed on the iTouch, you can see what artist it is in the background. As I said, it's not for everyone, some people like having the original cover art on their albums.
