Archive for the 'OS X Tips' Category
The original Superdrive in my 2003 PowerMac G5 stopped burning DVDs quite awhile ago. Roxio Toast Titanium always would fail to start a burn, often resulting in a Medium Write Error. OS X is usually good at describing what an error is, unlike Windows. Most people don’t know what a Medium Write Error is. To put it simply, it means something about the burn process is not working with either the Superdrive, the brand or type of CD/DVD, or OS X. There are different types of Medium Write Errors, often proceeded with an Error number. Google this number and you will find out what the particular error means. Once a Medium Write Error occurred frequently on a MacBook Pro, but I figured out it was something in my User Preferences causing the problem, because when I’d log in as another user, burning would work fine. Creating a new user fixed the problem (this won’t always fix a Medium Write Error). Sometimes my G5 would not burn onto a particular brand of DVD, causing a Medium Write Error. The Sony DW-U10A that came with my G5 always was particular.
The Freeware Application Burn, an excellent App for burning I might add, notified me that my faulty Superdrive would not calibrate the laser for burning a DVD-R. But it would burn CDs fine. There are actually two different lasers in a DVD-RW drive, one for reading and writing CD media and another for DVDs. So, off to purchase another Superdrive. But there were so many to choose from…
I Took a gander over at Other World Computing (OWC), an excellent Authorized Apple Reseller. They shipped me the drive 2-Day FedEx from Illinois, for a fantastic price, under $40! The price was so well under what I expected, that I decided to pick up another 1 GB of RAM for my G5 too… Third Party RAM is always something to look out for online. Certain brands are not compatible with a Mac, even if they have the same specifications you need. OWC has a great listing of all the RAM that is compatible with your specific Mac.
I ended up purchasing a Pioneer DVD-115DBK, it can burn DVD-Rs at 16x and CD-Rs at 56x or greater (I burned a 440MB CD-R in a minute and a half!), and even records on Dual Layer DVD-RW. Needless to say, it is a vast improvement over the Superdrive that came with the PowerMac G5 originally, and for the price of $34.95!
I had to carefully pry off the front door of the drive so it could clear the drive bay in the G5, instructions for this were included with the shipment from OWC. I also had a Service Manual for my G5 handy with instructions for replacing the SuperDrive.
Finally, there is the option to turn off the translucent menu bar in Leopard, if you update to OS X 10.5.2 using Software Update.
Just Open System Preferences and Choose the Desktop and Screen Saver Pane. At the bottom you will see the checkbox for Translucent Menu Bar.
Who doesn’t want to know the weather? WeatherUnderground.com has detailed weather reports and awesome Storm Tracking Doppler maps. Today I noticed a little iCal icon in my local Weather Report:
So I said to myself, “why not?”
Visit WeatherUndergound.com and type your zip code into the search box.
After the weather report for your region appears click the iCal icon. Save the .ics file to your Mac.
Open the .ics file. iCal will make the Add Events dialog appear. Select New Calendar from the menu. The Weather will now appear as an All-Day Event.
Over the past two weeks, we installed brand new Mac Pros in the Computer Lab on my college campus. These Mac Pros are running OS X 10.5.1 Leopard. Things went unusually smooth in the transition from PowerMac G5. That is, until we let the Mac Pros loose into the wild.
The purpose of using Parental Controls in a Lab Setting would be to limit Administration of Printers, changing of the User Password, modification of the Dock. Limiting website access doesn’t seem worthwhile in a lab. But to our dismay, even with Parental Controls set to Allow unrestricted access to websites, Firefox and Safari both tripped the censors and blocked certain websites. This is probably a bug in Parental Controls that Apple, Inc. will hopefully address in OS X 10.5.2 Leopard. With Parental Controls going haywire, we were forced to shut it off completely.
But now students have the ability to change the Dock, even modify the password. So I wanted to turn to a few third party applications that do the same job. I found that an Application called Deeper by Titanium Software will Lock the Dock. I hid Deeper, so students won’t mess with it. But I have not found a solution for disallowing the User to change the Password. I suppose if anyone gets to that point, I could easily change the password back using the Leopard Install Disk. But for now the Dock can stay like it is…
Any other Lab Managers experiencing the same problems and have some solutions? Anyone else having problems with Parental Controls in OS X Leopard? Post a comment below.
Want to impress your Mac Addict buddies or surprise the typical Mac user? I stumbled upon an Application called BootXChanger that will let you change the normal Apple boot logo.
There are a few restrictions: you must keep the background color the same grey (#BFBFBF in hexadecimal) and the image can only contain less than 100 colors. Save your image as a GIF or PNG-8 in Photoshop and you’ll be set. Further instructions are at the Official Site for BootXChanger. Did I mention this Application is free?
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.
This post will outline everything someone will need who wants to start designing new Stationery for Mail in OS X Leopard. Hopefully, this will turn into an ongoing series about Stationery in Mail.
First Attempt at Skinning the Air Mail Stationery
What you will need to create new Stationery for Mail:
- OS X 10.5 Leopard
- XCode Installed
- Photoshop (or other Image Editor capable of editing .jpg and transparent .png)
- HTML / XML Editor
- Package Maker (installed w/ XCode)
Do not overwrite existing files. If you wish to the modify existing files, backup the originals before changing anything!
The default Stationery you see in Mail is stored in a folder at the following location:
/System/Library/Application Support/Apple/Mail/Stationary/Apple/Contents/Resources/
If you navigate to this folder, you will notice a file called TableofContents.plist. This file contains the XML necessary for Mail.app to list the Categories of Mail Stationery.
Notice how each Category has it’s own Folder? By default there are Announcements, Birthday, Photos, Sentiments, and Stationery Folders. If you click on one of these folders, you will see it has it’s own directory structure: /Announcements/Contents/Resources. You will find the the actual stationery in the Resources folder for a specific Category.
There are two oddball files among the Stationery, another TableofContents.plist and an English.lproj Folder (I imagine for others running Leopard in other languages this folder may change, can someone confirm?). TableofContents.plist here is another XML document that lists the Category’s Stationery in a format Mail.app can understand. Does anyone know what the Stationery ID parameter in this file might be for? How can I create a new Stationary ID or a new piece of Stationery? The English.lproj folder contains a file called DisplayName.strings. In this file there is a comment that says: “Stationery category name as appears in the stationery selection pane in the New Message window after clicking Show Stationery toolbar item.”
If you go back to the Resources folder and Ctrl+Click on a .mailstationery file, you can select Show Package Contents from the menu. This will open the Stationery’s Directory Structure which is the same: /Stationary/Content/Resources/. Here you will find the files that make up a piece of Stationery in Mail.
There will most likely be the following basic files:
- bg_pattern.jpg : The Background Image
- top.jpg : Header Image
- bottom.jpg : Footer Image
- content.html : The HTML Template
- Description.plist : The XML File Necessary for Interactivity in Mail.app
- English.lproj folder : Contains DisplayName.strings (file that names the Stationery for Mail.app)
- thumbnail.png : The Thumbnail for the Selection Screen in Mail
Photo Stationery may have the following:
- Mask1.png : The Mask for Drop Zones
- placeholder1.jpg : The Placeholder Image for Drop Zones
- banner.jpg : Usually the Background for the Masked Drop Zones
- frames.png : The Template for the Drop Zones
The Workflow:
Do not overwrite existing files. If you wish the modify existing files, backup the originals before changing anything!
- Create New Folder for “Custom” Stationery in the Resources folder, give it the Directory Structure /Content/Resources/
- In this folder, make a file called TableofContents.plist. You will need to enter XML data here for the Individual Stationery inside the “Custom” Category. Project Folders and eventually Packages will go in this folder. An English.lproj folder with DisplayName.strings (for the Category name) must be in this folder as well.
- Make a New Folder for the new Stationery and give it the same directory structure: /Content/Resources/
- This is the folder you will place the HTML template (content.html), XML template (Description.plist), all images, and the English.lproj folder with DisplayName.strings (Name of the individual Stationery)
- Use Package Maker to create a Package for the Stationery (must have .mailstationary as a filename and the correct Directory Structure)
- Backup TableofContents.plist in /System/Library/Application Support/Apple/Mail/Stationary/Apple/Contents/Resources/
- Add new lines in TableofContents.plist for the new Category
Can anyone tell me what that the Stationery ID is for in TableofContents.plist and how to create unique Stationery IDs for new Stationery and is this necessary?
If anyone ends up creating new Stationery because they read this tutorial, I would gladly post custom templates on iUseApple.com.
