FINISHED: Apple / MacOS Tip a day for a year !

Tip 382 - Safari 5 - Forwards and Back.

The default action for swiping two fingers across the trackpad has now been changed and swiping two fingers to the left takes you back to your previous page. If you have been back you can get forwards again by swiping two fingers to the right.
 
Tip 383 - MacOS X Lion - Swiping 3 fingers.

If you swipe three fingers on the trackpad to the left it goes to the dashboard, swiping them to the right returns to your desktop.
 
Tip 384 - MacOS X Lion - Airdrop not working.

Airdrop only works with unibody MacBooks and newer plus iMacs of a similar vintage plus possibly the latest Mac Minis......

This is a hardware issue and as such there is nothing that can be done about it. If your computer is older that about late 2008ish you will just have to you the alternatives.
 
Tip 385 - MacOS X Lion - Launchpad (creating directories).

Launchpad works like the iPhone's application selector. To create a directory in order to tidy up the display simply drag one item onto another. Once you have done this click on the resultant folder and click on it's name to change it.
 
Tip 386 - MacOS X Lion - Full screen mode 3.

Once you have made an application go into full screen mode it effectively acts as a desktop. You can switch between your application, your normal desktop and dashboard using the 3 finger swipe gesture.
 
Cheers for putting all of this up on here. I've had my Mac a couple of years now and had no idea there was all this stuff you could do! Thanks again. :thumbs:

Gareth
 
Heres 1 i made up :

In Lion OSX there is a ticky box that says "Reopen windows when logging back in" which, no matter how many times you untick it, will always be ticked when you go to shut down.
If you dont want to reopen the windows when you log back in you have to untick it, but heres a tip to shave milliseconds off your shutdown process (and apparently speed up boot times) :

Hit the STANDBY BUTTON, hit SPACE, then hit RETURN in quick succession.
Boom, you shut down and it doesnt try to remember all your open windows without having to use the mouuse pointer to tick it.

:thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
Tip 387 - MacOS X Lion - Change scroll bars.

Goto APPLE :: System Preferences :: General

TIP387a.png


"Click in the scroll bar to" makes the scroll bar act like you would expect.
 
Tip 388 - MacOS X Lion - WI-FI Diagnostics.

There is a useful little program hidden away in your "Core Services" folder which might be interesting to you.

Goto

<Your Computer's Drive> :: System :: Library :: CoreServices

and locate a program called

"WI-FI Diagnostics"

You can either run the program from there or alternatively copy it to you Utilities directory. If you copy it you will need to authenticate using your admin password.

Running the software gives you a number of options:

TIP388a.png


The option of "Monitor performance" produces the graph shown here:


TIP388b.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
A quick way to shut down

Hold ctrl alt cmd and press eject
Ctrl cmd eject to restart
Alt cmd to sleep

Hold cmd r to boot into recovery if you have lion Installed (from boot up)
Hold cmd alt p r to do a pram reset (fixes basic graphics/ram issues)
 
mrbrightside said:
A quick way to shut down

Hold ctrl alt cmd and press eject
Ctrl cmd eject to restart
Alt cmd to sleep

Hold cmd r to boot into recovery if you have lion Installed (from boot up)
Hold cmd alt p r to do a pram reset (fixes basic graphics/ram issues)
Click to expand...

We've covered these already other than the Lion recovery console which I will be covering shortly in a bit more detail :geek:
 
Tip 389 - iCloud - Folder syncing.

Also see tip 391

This is SUPPOSED to be used for iWorks to sync documents but with a few minutes work you can have an automatically synced folder across several macs :)

Once you have followed these commands you will have an icon on your task bar and your side bar which will open a folder in your library. This folder is automatically synced between all your computers so if you place something into the folder it will be available on another machine within a few seconds.

It is a simple enough process as follows:


Unhide system files

Run the utility "Terminal"

Type the following commands exactly as shown

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder


Create "Documents and Data" and task bar icon.

Goto YOUR HOME DIRECTORY :: Library

If you DONT see a folder called "Documents and Data" then fire up an iWorks application and save a file.

Click on the folder "Documents and Data" and drag it onto your task bar in the BOTTOM/RIGHT section near the trash bin

If you want the folder to appear as a normal folder on the task bar then right click on the folder called "Documents and Data" and select "Make Alias". Now drag this to the task bar instead/

Click on the folder "Documents and Data" and drag it onto your SIDE bar underneath favourites. It is now easy to drag stuff to it in Finder.


Enable "Documents and Data" syncing

TIP389a.png




Hide system files

Run the utility "Terminal" or select it if it is still on screen

Type the following command exactly as it is shown

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder
 
Tip 390 - Mail (in Lion) - restoring BOUNCE.


First you need to create the bounce automation

Run Applications :: Automator

TIP390a.png


Click on "Service" and click "Choose"

In the top right, click on "Service receives selected" and change this to "No Input"

Next to the above option change "any application" to "Mail"

TIP390b.png


Click on Mail in the left hand pain

Drag "Get Selected Mail Items" from the middle pain to the right hand pain.

Click on "Utilities" in the left hand pain

Scroll the middle pain down and drag "Run Applescript" from the middle pain to the right hand pain.

Copy the following applescript and REPLACE the text that is currently in the window&#8230;

Code: 
on run {input, parameters}
   tell application "Mail"
      repeat with eachMessage in input
         bounce eachMessage
      end repeat
   end tell
end run
Click on the hammer

TIP390c.png


Click File :: Save and save your Automater as "Bouncer"

You have now created the bounce option

Using it&#8230;..

Send an email from one of your accounts to another

Select this email by clicking on it

Now in MAIL's menu select "Bouncer" from the services list

Your mail will be bounced back to the original account.


Now when you get mail you don't want, bounce it back and it will appear that you do not exist.
 
Tip 391 - Finder - Create automatic service.


Run Applications :: Automator

TIP390a.png


Click on "Service" and click "Choose"

In the top right, click on "Service receives selected" and change this to "files or folders"

Next to the above option change "any application" to "Finder"

Now in the left hand pain click on "Files & Folders" and click on "Copy Finder Items" in the middle pain.

Now drag "Copy Finder Items" to the left hand pain.

Click on the folder in "To:" and change this to the mobile documents folder

Click on File :: Save and save this as "Copy files to mobile docs folder"

TIP391a.png




You can now select files from anywhere and right click then select this action.
 
Tip 392 - Macbook Air - Right Click.

Open the System Preferences by clicking APPLE :: System Preferences

Click on the "Trackpad" pane.

Open the [Point & Click] tab

Under "Secondary click" click the down arrow and select "Click in bottom right corner"

TIP392a.png


Now pressing the bottom left will be select and the bottom right will be menu.
 
Recently got a MacBook pro and this thread is really helping me thanks loads:)
 
Never ever buy an Applemac laptop

My son who is into computers and has a very expensive Applemac laptop £1400 and my wife has one less expensive at around £800 both less than 2 years old with the latest firmware updated.

Now what they don't tell you is the SD slot to put an SD memory card in doesn't work. You can download photos direct from a camera but just try removing an SD card from a camera and placing into the laptop card slot. IT DOESN'T WORK

On discovering this there is no way would I buy an Apple laptop, and searching on the net many others have found the same thing. There is no way would i want to drain my camera battery to download photos onto a computer. There may be downloads so you can use an SD card direct but why buy an expensive computer that is basically unable to do its job photographic wise
 
Last edited:
realspeed said:
Never ever buy an Applemac laptop

My son who is into computers and has a very expensive Applemac laptop £1400 and my wife has one less expensive at around £800 both less than 2 years old with the latest firmware updated.

Now what they don't tell you is the SD slot to put an SD memory card in doesn't work. You can download photos direct from a camera but just try removing an SD card from a camera and placing into the laptop card slot. IT DOESN'T WORK

On discovering this there is no way would I buy an Apple laptop, and searching on the net many others have found the same thing.
Click to expand...

Strange, I've been using the SD slot in two different MacBook Pros with cards from a Panasonic and Sony A7 with no trouble at all. I must have imagined it.
 
I always take my SD cards out and stick them into the card slot and it clearly works. I suggest you take it into an apple shop, there should be no issues at all.
 
Well I even went into the help program on the computers and all it says is connect your camera into the computer to download photos.Which does work and also drains the camera battery.

Absolutely nothing about placing an SD card into the SD slot to download photos, not one but two very expensive Applemac laptops and trying several cards they don't work. Did some research on the net as well and it seems to be a common complaint.
 
Last edited:
What card are you trying to use? How is it formatted?
 
My Imac, which until recently would read SD cards via the inbuilt card reader started to give problems. Cards read fine on MBP and via Lexar card reader. I found that giving the card an extra firm but not hard tap, with my finger, to ensure it had gone in all the way worked. Now I suspect it may be card related as other cards seem to be fine. Need to investigate
 
What a load of tosh.
I've had 3 macbook pros and and the card slots worked fine on all of them.


realspeed said:
Never ever buy an Applemac laptop

My son who is into computers and has a very expensive Applemac laptop £1400 and my wife has one less expensive at around £800 both less than 2 years old with the latest firmware updated.

Now what they don't tell you is the SD slot to put an SD memory card in doesn't work. You can download photos direct from a camera but just try removing an SD card from a camera and placing into the laptop card slot. IT DOESN'T WORK

On discovering this there is no way would I buy an Apple laptop, and searching on the net many others have found the same thing. There is no way would i want to drain my camera battery to download photos onto a computer. There may be downloads so you can use an SD card direct but why buy an expensive computer that is basically unable to do its job photographic wise[/quo
Click to expand...
 
There's a couple of possibilities.
It could be card format - might be worth formatting the card in the computer, or if it's not recognised, format it with a USB-SD card reader. TBH I'd recommend buying a USB-SD card reader anyway - about £3.50 on Amazon, and it will let you read your card on any computer* with USB.

Might be a Mac firmware/NVRAM etc issue. Make sure your computer is fully updated, the reset the NVRAM/PRAM 'just in case'.

Apple hardware isn't always great, and it could be just bad luck that the SD card slots of both machines are defective. *My Unibody macbook has always been 'difficult' about USB ports and USB sticks & cables, with one port being less reliable than the other, refusing to recognise some USB sticks (a Kingston datatraveller in one case - not just cheap unbranded jobs) or connecting very slowly and also many USB cables. If you think this is the case & the machines are in warranty then take them back to an Apple store - wish I'd done that instead of working round it, although they'd already had to replace the Mobo in mine once.

Sometimes OSX simply doesn't work as expected, though Mountain Lion was much better than Snow Leopard. Mavericks (the current version) hasn't always behaved on my older machine, but should be fine on a newer one.

Don't grumble, but also don't put up with it. If it's a known problem on your model - as external graphics output failure was on mine - then take it to an Apple store and get then to fix it. Remember it's just like any other PC.
 
Last edited:
another thumbs up for an external card reader ,i have had one of the older upright sandisk models fail on me though ,and now i use a ultra fast lexar usb 2 card reader and it can upload around 600 raw files from my 1D3 in under ten minutes ,cost a staggering £13 ..

****** theres also a SAFARI UPDATE out today ,security biased towards mavericks users *****
 
Stupid question, has it ever worked or has it just stopped working? If the later that sounds more of an issue than the former and I would guess it maybe the format of the card like the earlier poster pointed out
 
don't no if this has already been said as only just seen this thread an have not looked through, if you don't want to buy a trackpad but you already have an iPhone or iPad, you can download rc tracker app its been brilliant for me it basically turns your iPad/iphone into a trackpad as well as bringing up your iTunes an mission control and launcher and a keyboard etc and its only a few quid.
 
In other news, Jeremy Corbyn is going to give us a Bank Holiday for Saint Steve.
 
Any tips on how to get rid of error 10657 I have backed up my MacBook Pro onto a hard drive and each time I try opening anything it gives this error code thanks
 
Since cowasaki hasn't been on TP since March 2019, I thought I'd post this one here.

What to do if your Photos won't sync from iCloud to your Mac

Open the Photos app. Open Preferences from the Photos menu. Make sure it shows the location of your Photos library at the top; mine says garry/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary.

On the General tab, click on the "Use as System Photo Library" button. On the iCloud tab, turn on iCloud Photos. Then choose whether to download full-sized images even when offline, or to Optimise Mac Storage.

Your photos should start downloading straight away if you're connected to the internet. In any case, you can now go into System Preferences and turn on Photos there.
 
Thanks for all these great tips, they are brilliant, thank you (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top