Virtualization solution from Parallels (called Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac) allows nice integration between Windows and your Mac. It has the ability to hide the Windows desktop and make it appear as if your Windows applications are running directly on your Mac (called Coherence).

Coherence completely blew the broad between Windows and Mac and allows users to get the best of both worlds at the same time. It works really very nice! With this feature Parallels Desktop now goes even further to deepen OS integration and create a seamless user environment.

Parallels Desktop is also integrated into the Mac OS desktop by means of registering file types with the Parallels guest applications, MS Office applications could be opened by simple clicking on them. You can also get Windows notifications on the Mac desktop - that is very cool.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac is a must have software for all Mac users! Check it out for more info

Well, when you delete files in your USB flash drive using Commad + Delete or drag them to the Trash, the file is actually not being deleted, but instead it is being hidden. Wow, but that’s true. So from now on, if you really want to erase data from the USB flash drive, make sure you empty the Trash as well, or someone can see your hidden files when they plug it in to a PC.

Or for the paranoids (and it is recommended once in a while), go to Disk Utility (Press Command + Spacebar and type disk utility + enter). Select the USB flash drive on the left side of the panel, and click on the Erase tab and choose ‘Erase Free Space…” You can select which method to erase (reclaim) the “empty space”.

Remember that the ‘Erase’ button on your Disk Utility window is a whole different kind of story, so do not press that one, unless you want to reformat and erase the whole data.

And remember that your Volume Format will probably be MS-DOS (FAT) file system which is fine since you might bring this thing into a friend’s PC :). So my suggestion is that don’t use this ‘Erase’ button if you don’t know what you’re doing. (I learned the hard way, I reformatted the USB flash drive to MS-DOS (FAT) using my Mac on the other day, and now the PC won’t recognize it and it needs to be reformatted under PC :()

If you find a bit disturbing by a bounching icon when it’s starting up, go to  menu > Dock > Dock Preferences… In the Dock Preferences uncheck ‘Animate Opening Application’.

Now you have a pulse spot underneath the icon as the application opens.

You can hide the application that is running by clicking Command + h. This is very handy when for example the iTunes application. You can still listen to the music and hide the iTunes out of your desktop.

But what about if you just want to see only 1 application that you’re working on, while you want to hide all others in second? Some application will have the ‘Hide others’ feature. Right click the icon on the dock and press Option, you’ll see the ‘Hide’ menu will change to ‘Hide Others’.

And when you want to go to other application and keep the desktop clean, just press Option + click the icon on the Dock Now you have a very clean desktop.

In Leopard, stack will come in handy for managing files. When you set the stack as a grid or a fan, you can drag the file out of the stack directly.

Just click the icon in Stack and select the file and drag it to any folder, Mail.app, desktop, etc.

As a bonus while you are at stack, click the stack icon and press Command + a to highlight the application beginning with an A, Command + s for file beginning with S, and so on. You can also move around the stack by the arrow keys and press Return/Enter to open it.

When you empty the trash, the trash icon surely looks like it is empty. Is it really gone? Well, not really. By using an application that is specially design to recover the deleted files from a hard drive, it can be restored.

That notion is not accepted by a certain group of people especially the paranoid or the FBI, CIA, etc. But thanks to Mac OS X to include the feature to erase those files out of your machine forever. So when you absolutely, positively 100% sure that you want to erase these files forever, just go to Finder menu > Secure Empty Trash…

Thi process will take a little bit longer than usual, though

Stickies.app in Leopard can become very handy if you know how to activate it within any application. for example, if you’re on Safari.app, just highlight any text and press Shift + Command + Y.

You can drag any image, song, application or even a movie to this Stickies.app. For me it is best to arrange it on top of the Desktop Click Windows > Collapse (or Command + M), and make it run on start up.

Where is the startup feature in leopard? In PC, whatever you put inside the Startup feature, the application will be running when you start the PC. In Mac, you will find this feature inside System Preferences.

How? Go to System Preferences > Account > Login items. Click the ‘+’ sign to add application that should run when you start your Mac, and check the checkbox if you want to run it in the background.

Now, if you need to temporarily disable this feature, meaning you don’t want this applications to run when start up, press the Shift key when you start your Mac, and release it when the Apple logo comes out. This start up wil take longer, though, about 3-4 times longer than usual. This is very handy if you need to trouble shoot your Mac.

When you open an application by double clicking or Comand o from the Finder, you can close the Finder as soon as the application is launched. 

Press Option key when you are opening an application from the Finder. This will open the application and close the Finder automatically.

And just for the fun, while you are it, after you highlight the application name press shift  + option + command + o. This will do the same as above, but in slow motion.

Do you want to arrange icons on the desktop by name, date created, date modified, size, kind or label automatically? What you need to do is just Right click (Control + Click, or tap by two fingers if you have set it up on the System Preference) anywhere on the desktop, when the popup menu comes up, just press Option key. The Arrange By menu will change to Keep Arrange By, and choose whatever suite you.

So, everytime there is a new icon on the desktop, it will be automatically sorted by the one that you have choosen.

To cancel the automatically arrangement, just the the same procedure, and the Keep Arrange By will change to Arrange By.