Snow Leopard - Hints, Tips and little changes

[iMerlin]

Not sure if these have been around or not...

Lets say I hit CTRL+F3 to activate application Expose. Now I see all of my Safari windows in Expose. if you mouse over a window, you can 3 finger swipe back and forward if you want to go to the previous page in that window. I dont know if there is any practical application for this though.

I know the first part here has been mentioned, but not sure about the second part... You can press space bar to enlarge the preview in Expose, then once zoomed in, you can 2 finger swipe to toggle through your open windows.

 

[devburke]

Ctrl-f8 now puts the focus on menu bar items without actually opening the menus.



Previously, the first (non-3rd party) menu on the left would pop open.

 

[Casiotone]

I posted the following tip as a thread and it went unnoticed, then I realized that there was a Sticky for SL tips.

How to get the Size column (and others) in Snow Leopard's Spotlight search results list.

I was very disappointed that you couldn't add the Size column to the list view in search results in Snow Leopard like you could do in Tiger, since Apple gave us the impression that Spotlight would include additional ways to sort results in SL. Only "Date Created" and "Date Modified" were added as options in SL, the others are grayed out.

Fortunately, I found a way to force the Size column to appear, as well as Comments, Version and Label columns.

You'll have to edit the com.apple.finder.plist file found in ~/Library/Preferences/ using the Property List Editor app.

Open the Root node, then ---> SearchViewSettings ---> ListViewSettings ---> columns

Then choose the column you want to activate in the column list (ie. Size), and set the "visible" key to "yes".

Save the .plist and relaunch the Finder (option-right-click on the Finder icon in the Dock).

Note: you must have done at least one search, and selected/deselected one of the available column in the view option for the search result (Date Created for example) or else your .plist file may not contain the SearchViewSettings node.

Warning: Apple probably disabled these columns in 10.6.0 for a good reason, as there may be some bugs that could cause problems on your system. I didn't have any problems with the size column, but be warned...

 

[triplefinger]

10.6 SLOWness and font book

Had a VERY slow install of 10.6 on an iMac, deadly slow.

Font book had duplicate fonts. Disabling them fixed it. Now 10.6 is VERY fast.

easy and solid fix.

 

[John585]

If you're playing a movie in quicktime, use the zoom in and out gestures on the trackpad to enter and exit fullscreen

 

[cjmillsnun]

It is possible to force a K64 boot with "consumer grade" Macs that have a 64 bit EFI. It requires a hex editor, see http://www.osxbook.com/blog/ Some proof, this is my MacBook 5,2 BTW I am changing back to K32 as it is quicker on my MB..

 

[bennyboyt]

I suffered from a problem on Leopard that once I had updated the OS, the wireless connection to my BT Homehub wouldn't work. Has anyone else had a problem with their wireless before that was fixed through updating to SL?

 

[wetrix]

Finder no loner hangs when you click an alias to a disconnected network drive. It still pops up the "connection failed" window after the timeout, but you can still click other items in finder. Unfortunately, you still can't drill down through folders during the timeout, so it may as well be hangning.

 

[waffles123]

In stacks, if you click on a stack and don't let go of your mouse, when you go over each icon, a white box will overlay each icon. Video: https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/879409/Stacks Overlay.mp4

 

[Jesse Smith]

You can now rename files so that the filename begins with a dot. I LOVE this, because you can now make files invisible from within the Finder I believe that Leopard used to show a dialog indicating that this wasn't possible; now, you just get a warning, but can proceed as you wish...

Possible false alarm: I had used a terminal command to show all invisible files in the Finder. It was then that I was able to add the dot to the filename. Once I re-hid the invisible files, I was no longer able to add the dot. I'm not sure if this was the case in Leopard also.

I've been able to make files start with a dot for years.

.htaccess any one!

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

In stacks, if you click on a stack and don't let go of your mouse, when you go over each icon, a white box will overlay each icon. Video: https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/879409/Stacks Overlay.mp4

That's a bug, not a feature.

 

[brijazz]

I've been able to make files start with a dot for years.

.htaccess any one!

Odd. When I go into Finder, and try to rename a file so that it starts with a dot, here's what I get:

 

[ThE.MeSsEnGeR]

Odd. When I go into Finder, and try to rename a file so that it starts with a dot, here's what I get:

u beat me to it! i was gonna post the same thing, coz as soon as i read the previous post i went and tried it, and it gave me the same thing!

 

[richard.mac]

you cant make a dot file in Finder. you have to use a text editor like Text Wrangler or in the Terminal.

 

[tkermit]

That's a bug, not a feature.

How is that a bug ?

 

[Eminemdrdre00]

How is that a bug ?

Because I've had it get stuck permanently like that and I had to restart. You're only supposed to get that white box when dragging an item out of a stack.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Because I've had it get stuck permanently like that and I had to restart. You're only supposed to get that white box when dragging an item out of a stack.

That does not make it a bug. In fact, I don't believe it's a bug at all, but the expected behavior.

 

[TheSpaz]

New hint!!!

Some people were complaining that when you cmd-click on a stack folder, it doesn't OPEN the folder in the Finder… it just selects the folder in the Finder.

Try this: Cmd-Option-click the stack icon and it will actually open the folder in the Finder so you can view the contents of the folder! Nice!

Was this in Leopard too?

 

[septicdeath]

10.6 and Areca Raid 10 on 1222 (8 port w/ethernet)

I havent seen much, so I thought I would warn anyone out there. Snow Leopard has issues working with the areca array from the boot disk. i.e., I really messed up my boot volume (on areca 1222 raid 1+0), but I also have a time machine running to a firewire drive, I booted the 10.6 and choose the time machine restore, 10.6 see's the drive, and warns that it is going to erase the drive to continue the restore, it whacks the partition table, but then fails on the erase, forcing a "reboot and you might be able to continue", but you end up with a array that has no partition information, and cant be erased or re-partitioned from leopard w/o reinstalling areca drivers or 10.6 during dvd boot (installer) anymore. I had to install 10.6 to a small usb drive, and was able to then access the array and reformat it. Now to purchase a 1 TB drive to mount in a usb so I can restore my Time Machine to the usb drive, and then use one of the clone tools to move from USB back to array. CCC works as does superduper from this point, straight 10.6 sees the array from a fresh install w/o having to load the areca drivers, why it has issues at the boot dvd I have no idea.

Just thought I would help someone, timemachine full restores to areca 1221 or 1222 raid arrays (pcie 4 and 8 port host bus adapters) DON'T work currently.

Take er easy..

SD

 

[tkermit]

Try this: Cmd-Option-click the stack icon and it will actually open the folder in the Finder so you can view the contents of the folder! Nice!

Thanks! I just wish this would apply to clicking on folders within an opened stack, too. Unfortunately the alt-modifier in that case just prevents the stack from closing in addition to opening the Finder window. Kind of inconsistent if you ask me...

Although, to be honest, I've already gotten accustomed to this sequence: CMD-click folder, press CMD-[Down arrow]

 

[drumber42]

Eject

Now, when you hold down the eject key when there is no disc in the drive, it does not try to eject what isn't there, lol. In Leopard, it would make the sound, and the symbol would come up.

 

[TheSpaz]

Now, when you hold down the eject key when there is no disc in the drive, it does not try to eject what isn't there, lol. In Leopard, it would make the sound, and the symbol would come up.

Note: That is for Macs with slot loading drives only. My Mac Pro has a tray that NEEDS to come out whether there's a disc in it or not... because it needs to come out to put a new disc in.

 

[drumber42]

Note: That is for Macs with slot loading drives only. My Mac Pro has a tray that NEEDS to come out whether there's a disc in it or not... because it needs to come out to put a new disc in.

Yep, sorry I forgot to state I'm on a White, mid 2008 MacBook.

 

[TheSpaz]

Yep, sorry I forgot to state I'm on a White, mid 2008 MacBook.

I believe the Mac Pro is the only Mac with a tray DVD drive. All others are slot loading.

 

[NT1440]

Now, when you hold down the eject key when there is no disc in the drive, it does not try to eject what isn't there, lol. In Leopard, it would make the sound, and the symbol would come up.

I know I'm on SL now, but I had my 13" MBP for about two weeks before I upgraded and the eject button never tried to eject anything when nothing was there, the symbol didn't show up either. I remember it because it was one of those "oh thats neat" moments for me.