Mac Kindergarten

Previously we looked at how we can find menu items only by their name with the help of the search feature of the Help menu item, available in every application.

Today we will find out how we can use a feature of Butler to imitate us, pressing keys on the keyboard. Doing so, will allow us to open menu items that you can’t create a shortcut for, using the built-in methods of creating keyboard shortcuts, described in this post.

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In programs with a lot of functions in the menus (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) the menus can get pretty big. Even though you know what you’re looking for it can be quite a task to actually find what you’re looking for.

Well… no more thanks to a new feature of Leopard.

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Previously, we looked at how to install custom QuickLook plugins, so we can preview more kinds of file types using this awesome feature of Mac OS X Leopard.

Today we will learn how to automate this process of copying a file into a certain location. So we only need to click the file, select the action and it’s installed.

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The items in the menu bar offer quick access to certain functions (date/time, Time Machine, etc.).

Find out, how to quickly rearrange these icons and/or remove them from the menu bar.

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Previously, we had a first look at the great program Butler. Today we will highlight one feature that is extremely useful - a multi item clipboard.Normally, if you copy something (e.g. text) to the clipboard, its previous content is overwritten.

In case you need it again, you have to go back and copy it again from the original source again, in order to be able to access it. This can be quite a pain in the neck.

No longer with Butler. (more…)

As you might have seen already, in every application menu, there this menu item, called Services.

It’s one of the less prominent features of Mac OS X, but today we will see, how Services can make your life easier and more convenient, all from the application menu.

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Apple has released an update to its current operating system. It’s recommended for every user.

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Here we go. Welcome to Mac OS X Leopard!This is pretty much how Mac OS X Leopard looks like after you finished the inital boot of your Mac.

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You see the two main things the Desktop.

The menu bar at the top. It always stays there - not matter which program you have open. See the apple-icon to the very left in the menu bar. Click on it to access things like information about your Mac, System Preferences and also to shut down or restart your Mac. On the very right side of the menu bar you see different icons, such as the time, a little speaker (for volume control) and a magnifying glas.

This is Spotlight, which is used to search for all kinds of things on your Mac - files, folders, emails, dictionary entries, etc. We will cover Spotlight later. Of course you can play around with it. Just click on the icon to open the search box and enter something; e.g. “Leopard” (without the quotation marks). Just give it a try.

The Dock at the bottom of the screen. It is used to launch programs and to indicate running programs (you see a blue light-spot below the icon). See also the folders on the right hand side (next to the trash bin). If you click on them, they open up in a nice way. Give it a try now. These two items - menubar and dock is what we will refer to in the future.

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