Snow Leopard - Hints, Tips and little changes

[Worthy.Of.Ed]

New Audio MIDI Setup window

I'm sure most people won't care much about it, especially seeing as how nobody has mentioned it. For me to find it, it must be something people don't care about! haha

The Audio MIDI setup screen is different in 10.6. Much more organized looking, and much easier to use.

 

[SpaceKitty]

I'm sure someone has already mentioned this. But I just realized yesterday that Front Row new remembers your place if you play something in the movies folder. It did that in Tiger, and didn't do that in Leopard.

But it doesn't remember your place when viewing movies or TV shows that are in iTunes. It also does not update the last played and play counts in iTunes. I won't use Front Row till this is fixed.

I verified this is a SL bug by taking my iMac running Leopard. The play counts and last played update as they should when watching shows in Front Row. Upgrade to Snow Leopard and these quit Working. Also verified this by doing a fresh install of Snow Leopard, same bug.

 

[Jesse Smith]

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

As every webmaster knows, yes you can.

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

I get

Works just fine, and they arn't invisible, just a little lighter!

 

[el3ktro]

For some reason, I can't change the standard icon size in Finder. I want all icons to be 96x96, not 64x64. When I press Cmd+J in Finder, set the new icon size, set sorting order to "by name" and press "use as default", it still saves this setting only for the current folder. But I want this to be for ALL folders, how can I do that?

 

[drumber42]

doesn't work for me

As every webmaster knows, yes you can.



I get

Works just fine, and they arn't invisible, just a little lighter!

Welp, this is what I get...

 

[Eric S.]

Just a guess - maybe the difference between a user with admin privileges and one without?

 

[wallaby]

A couple of small things that I've noticed in Snow Leopard that I don't think have been covered yet:

1. Image Capture has been redone/refined, for the better in my opinion. Also, When I connected my Nikon D60 on Leopard, a disk would appear on the desktop for the memory card; now it seems confined only to Image Capture and iPhoto.

2. It's tougher to change icons. Many system apps have to be unlocked in their permissions first before you can paste a new icon in the Get Info menu.

3. I'm probably the only one who does this... I have my system announce the time every hour and I use one of the old voices. In Leopard, the "o'CLOCK—" would sound clipped-off at the end, Snow Leopard fixes this so it sound normal.

4. And this is big for me: when navigating in Icon view in the Leopard Finder, if I went back a folder, that folder would reset and go back to the top (if it had a scroll bar). Now in Snow Leopard, Finder remembers where my scroll bar was at when I navigate backwards. Sweet!

 

[Bram010]

Coverflow stand alone software doesn't run?

Hello

I have an version of coverflow (stand alone) in which i collect all my mostly self scanned album covers. This version is before it was implicated in iTunes. It doesnt work now anymore in OS snow leopard...i get an error says: can not load your i tunes libarary, but that what i dont want, because i tunes loads most covers poorly. Is there an solution for this problem, i would really appriaciate it. I put a lot of efford in scanning all my album covers and so on...i hope not for nothing, after installing Snow Leopard, they just dont load anymore, but the old covers they still load okay....?

Thanks so much for replying...

Abraham Borsje, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
E-mail: bram010@xs4all.nl

 

[tkermit]

I have an version of coverflow (stand alone) in which i collect all my mostly self scanned album covers. This version is before it was implicated in iTunes. It doesnt work now anymore in OS snow leopard...i get an error says: can not load your i tunes libarary, but that what i dont want, because i tunes loads most covers poorly. Is there an solution for this problem, i would really appriaciate it. I put a lot of efford in scanning all my album covers and so on...i hope not for nothing, after installing Snow Leopard, they just dont load anymore, but the old covers they still load okay....?

If you're talking about this CoverFlow, then I can report that I had that working fine on Snow Leopard (except for the fullscreen view where it would crash upon exit). The error you're getting seems to be due to changes made by iTunes 9 - or so I would guess.

 

[drumber42]

Just a guess - maybe the difference between a user with admin privileges and one without?

The only account on my MacBook is admin

 

[Eric S.]

Could it be this? From http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20623?viewlocale=en_US:

The New Folder feature of Save and Save As dialogs allows you to create a folder name beginning with dot. This results in the folder being invisible in the Finder or on the desktop. ...

Normally, an alert box with this message appears when you attempt to create a folder or file whose filename begins with a dot:

"You cannot use a name that begins with a dot ".", because these names are reserved for the system. Please choose another name."

However, the New Folder button is an exception to this rule. If you create a folder in this manner, its contents remain where you saved them, but you will not be able to see the folder in the Finder.

 

[Steve-M]

HP DESKJET 940C Gutenprint v5.2.3 supports setting print quality to draft on a networked printer, a feature that was missing in Leopard.

 

[drumber42]

Could it be this? From http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20623?viewlocale=en_US:

Yes, that's what I tried, creating a new folder, and naming it ".folder" but it still gives me the same dialogue.

 

[Eric S.]

Yes, that's what I tried, creating a new folder, and naming it ".folder" but it still gives me the same dialogue.

But how did you create it? If I create a new folder from the Finder "File" menu, I can't rename it to a "." file. But if I create it from an application using "Save As" then I can.

The same for regular files - clicking on the name and trying to rename to a "." file won't work, but "Save As" to a "." file does.

 

[zeeklancer]

But how did you create it? If I create a new folder from the Finder "File" menu, I can't rename it to a "." file. But if I create it from an application using "Save As" then I can.

The same for regular files - clicking on the name and trying to rename to a "." file won't work, but "Save As" to a "." file does.

You guys have your systems setup differently.

By default finder doe snot allow you to make folders or files starting with a dot in front of the name. Note, the guy that is able to said that he could see them, they were just transparent, indicating he has made a modification to how finder behaves by default.

If you want to be able to make files with dots in front of them you will need to first tell finder to show all files, eg invisible files. Then you can make dot files.

In terminal do

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

After that you should be able to make dot files all day long

-Zeek

 

[tflournoy95]

A list of my findings:

- Preview.app: CMD-Delete sends the current image to the Finder TRASH.
- Clicking the pill button in Finder windows has an animation now.
- After dragging a selection box in the Finder, it fades out when you let go.
- All animations are much smoother now
- No horizontal tearing in Spaces anymore
- No horizontal tearing in Safari scrolling
- Lots of little subtle Finder animations
- Preferences icon shows list of Preference Panes when right clicked.
- When expanding a folder down in List View in the Finder, the icon changes to an opened icon.
- Spotlight: Window settings stick and you can add and remove columns (such as Date Modified, Last Opened, Kind) by hitting cmd-J
- Waking up a sleeping display no longer flickers when it awakes.
- Right-clicking a Dock menu and right-clicking again closes the menu (as it should.) In Leopard, the menu would keep popping up if you right clicked while it was already open.
- Apple changed the Stacks an animation to a zooming animation instead of the scattering icons animation. It's much smoother and more pleasing to look at.
- Apple FINALLY keeps the shadows on the Finder windows during a minimize. It used to bug me that the shadow would disappear and then the window would minimize. It looks much better now
- Shadows under windows are also retained when using Exposé. Again, looks better and doesn't show that flicker that Leopard had
- Ever since Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), when an app crashed while it was launching, every window from that point on would stutter when minimizing it. The only way to get it to be smooth again was to quit the Dock. Snow Leopard no longer does that. I'm very surprised by this.
- Scrolling in the Finder is smoother
- Finder preferences now includes an option to choose the default location for Finder searches (such as "Search the Current Folder" or "Search This Mac") I'm glad they finally put this back because when I wanna search the entire drive, I use the Spotlight menu, but when I'm in a folder, I want it to search just that folder.
- Finder prefs has an option to show or hide the warning when changing file extensions. I'm glad they finally added this. That dialog got annoying over time.
- Finder now has a "Path Bar": Very useful
- You can now hide the Finder sidebar without losing the unified window.

That's all I have for now. Tune in for more as I find them. I think I noticed more things last night but I can't remember them all right now.

i am not reading all of that. LOL

 

[elektrizitat]

Right, this might be something that I've never known of before, but how aware are people that you can drag applications/folders/etc into the top of finder and have them as shortcuts? I found this out accidentally this afternoon and have never come across it before. Is this new to Snow Leopard?

See, just to the left of the search box.

 

[Tygernoot]

Nope, existed already

Nice... that user has OpenTTD installed (Transport Tycoon Deluxe). Still a great game after many many years

 

[tkermit]

Nope, existed already

Nice... that user has OpenTTD installed (Transport Tycoon Deluxe). Still a great game after many many years

Does OpenTTD work without problems on SL ? On their site it says that it isn't officially supported. That game has really stood the test of time... I remember being addicted to the original DOS version. I wonder if it is played by kids nowadays at all ?

 

[Tygernoot]

Perhaps we're going a bit off-topic with this. We should open a separate thread for OpenTTD or we can be lazy and let an admin split it for us

I tried the version I had installed on SL and it worked fine (0.5.2). I downloaded the latest 0.7.2 and the animations became a bit choppy (like 1 frame out of every 20 was skipped). Then I found out about OSX support, that they actually compile the OSX binaries on linux, and how they want to drop support unless they find a developer.

I'm actually thinking about offering my services to help continue the mac port, but with my recent job change and already another software project that I do in my spare time, I doubt I can commit myself to it completely and dedicated enough time to be of any use.

But like you say, a really addicting game. First played it... about 13 years ago. I guess nowadays it will be less kids playing the game, and more adults (probably people who were kids back then). It's a bit like model trains, most of the people creating model train tracks are adults

 

[drumber42]

reposting

4. And this is big for me: when navigating in Icon view in the Leopard Finder, if I went back a folder, that folder would reset and go back to the top (if it had a scroll bar). Now in Snow Leopard, Finder remembers where my scroll bar was at when I navigate backwards. Sweet!

Right, this might be something that I've never known of before, but how aware are people that you can drag applications/folders/etc into the top of finder and have them as shortcuts? I found this out accidentally this afternoon and have never come across it before. Is this new to Snow Leopard?

See, just to the left of the search box.

C'mon guys, please read through all the pages before you post something, I knew there's a lot, but I believe in you. Both of these have already been posted, the first one by me, and the second one was possible in 10.5

 

[drumber42]

Quick Look & iTunes

In 10.5, when you opened a purchased video in Quick Look, it would play it as a video, but it would be just grey and have no sound. I like the new result better.

 

[TheSpaz]

and the second one was possible in 10.5

It was also possible in Tiger and probably Panther and Jaguar too. I remember being able to drag stuff up there for forever!

 

[soup4you2]

Right, this might be something that I've never known of before, but how aware are people that you can drag applications/folders/etc into the top of finder and have them as shortcuts? I found this out accidentally this afternoon and have never come across it before. Is this new to Snow Leopard?

See, just to the left of the search box.

you have been able to do that since 10.0

 

[devburke]

1) Exposé and Stacks now reverse direction immediately if you deactivate them, rather than fully activating first (only really noticeable if you're playing with them in slow motion though). It can be fun to make them keep reversing direction midway.

2) Stacks are scrollable even as they're opening (again, only really noticeable in slow motion, but kinda fun).