Can’t remember the name of a file you created or edited the other day, last week, or even in the past month?
The Finder makes searching for files really easy in OS X Leopard. Open a Finder window and look for The SEARCH FOR section of the Side Bar. Click “Past Week” and all the files you have edited in the past week will open chronologically, starting with the latest.
But what if the document you are looking for was created in the past month? The Spotlight in the Finder allows you to make searches using AND, OR, and NOT in OS X 10.5 Leopard. You can use the Finder window to add specifications to the search as well. Furthermore, you can Save Searches and then add them to the Side Bar.
In this short tutorial, I will show you how to set up a Saved Search for the Past Month in the Side Bar. The ideas in this tutorial can be expanded for other search criteria too.
Open the Finder, Select the Mac from the Side Bar, put a period (.) in the Spotlight Search Bar (you will erase this period later) and Hit Return.
Notice how a new Search Bar appears under the Tool Bar. It tells you where you are searching, and even gives the options to search the contents of files or just the file names. But look directly to the right and you will see a plus (+) sign. Click the plus sign. A new search criteria will appear, and it will say “Kind is Any”. Change these variables to say “Created date is within last 31 days”.
The following is not necessary for these steps but good to know when making customizable searches in the Finder.
If you hold down Option at this point the plus sign will become a … button. This will allow you to add further criteria to the search string using Any (OR), All (AND), or None (NOT).
Remove the . (period) from the Search bar you originally used to start the Search.
Click the Save Button. Name the new Search something meaningful like “Past Month”. Make sure Add to Sidebar is checked. Hit Save. A new Search called “Past Month” will now be available in the Search For section of the Sidebar.
For a more technical explanation and even a video, visit MacWorld: Max OS X Hints Article, “Add Conditions to Finder Searches.
Ever wonder how many Applications are phoning home with information about you or your Mac?
While using OS X Leopard for a few days, I noticed OS X 10.5 was phoning home to Apple for seemingly every reason imaginable. The only reason I even noticed was because I was running Little Snitch. This Application is a must have for anyone paranoid about outgoing Internet communications on their Mac.
Little Snitch once was a System Preference but is now available as a Menu Bar item for OS X Leopard. Little Snitch tattles on any outgoing communication from your Mac that you have not authorized to happen.
When you first install Little Snitch, it may take a few days of setting conditions for certain Applications via the Little Snitch pop up windows. I find this is not an annoyance but relieving to know which Applications are trying to connect to the Internet and when. Little Snitch makes it really easy to set conditions for certain communications. For instance, I can allow an Application to communicate online Forever, Once, or Until Quit on All Ports or only certain Addresses.
Download the Trial version of Little Snitch from the Official Objective Development Website. To Buy the Application, it costs $24.95 and is worth every penny.
The easiest method for Google Search in Safari or Firefox is to Press Tab when the Address Bar is Highlighted. This will highlight the Search Tab and you may begin typing your Search Query. Press Return to Search.
Now why doesn’t Apple, Inc. ever include Tab for Buttons? I find it so annoying not to be able to Tab through buttons on a website or in a Message Box. Hear my plea Apple!
It seems a lot of people do not like the 3D Dock in OS X Leopard. There is even a website totally dedicated to modding the Leopard Dock.
Sometimes I find myself surfing to certain websites daily. Usually, there is only one part of that website that interests me. In Safari 3, I can take a snapshot of any website and make it into a Dashboard Widget easily with WebClips. The new Widget will automatically update as the website does, allowing me to just press F12 to Open Dashboard and look at all the websites I usually visit in one shot.
To make any section of a website into a Dashboard widget all I need to do is Open Safari and surf to the website I wish to capture. I visited the Apple Start Page for this example.
Click the WebClip button that is directly left of the Address bar. Safari will now darken the window except for a highlighted region. Anywhere I hover the mouse over will become highlighted.
I can hover above headlines and whole text boxes will become highlighted. If I click a highlighted region, it will become selected and nodes will appear on the corners. I can resize and position the highlighted region now. Sometimes I may want to clip a region of a website, so if I hover over any section of the site where the background is showing a standard sized box will appear.
Click the Add Button to Create a WebClip.
Dashboard will now load the WebClip…
I can change the border style of the WebClip by pressing the i button in the lower right hand corner of the Widget. The Widget will flip over and reveal the border styles. Click Done and the Widget will flip back over.
