If you spend a lot of time working in the Finder, you may wish to know about  a nifty feature that works similar to the Dock.  That is, you can drag any folder or file icon directly to the Finder toolbar, giving it the same functionality as the Dock.

For instance, if there is a folder that you access constantly, you can drag it to the toolbar so that it will be available from every Finder window.  Likewise, you can drag application icons or file icons to the toolbar as well for quick access.

This tip is especially handy if you typically keep the Dock hidden while you work.Similar Posts:

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Just a short beginner tip today as I’m a bit down with the flu….

The Finder toolbar is a component that appears at the top of a Finder window and the Sidebar displays on the left side of the screen.  If you feel that the Toolbar or the Sidebar takes up too much screen space, you can hide them from view:

• Select View > Hide Toolbar from the Finder menu.  This will hide both the Toolbar and the Sidebar.  Select View > Show Toolbar to redisplay the Toolbar and Sidebar.
• Select View > Hide Sidebar from the Finder menu.  This will hide only the Sidebar; the Toolbar will continue to display.  Click View > Show Sidebar to redisplay it.

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Most people who work with Macs are familiar with Quick Look, a feature introduced in Leopard that allows you to view the contents of your documents and images at nearly full size level without needing to launch the associated application.  But did you know that Quick Look has a Slide Show feature?  Using Quick Look, you can cycle through and display selected images in full screen view on our screen for about 4 minutes each.  The cycle will continue until the slide show is terminated.

To use Quick Look’s slideshow feature

1. Highlight all of the items you want included in the Slide Show.
2. Press the spacebar
   Or
   Press the Command + Y keystroke combination
   Or
   Select File > Quick Look from the Finder menu.
3. Click the Full Screen Button
   
4. Move your mouse pointer anywhere over the image to display the Quick Look toolbar.
5. On the Quick Look toolbar, click the Play button.
   
6. Click the Pause button to stop the slideshow at any time (Play button turns to Pause button during slide show play).
7. Press the Esc key to stop the slideshow

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A handy little feature in Safari 5 is the Reading List feature.  What this does, is allows you to store links to interesting articles that you come across while browsing in a single storage location which you can then tend to at a later time.  This feature is especially helpful if you come across an article that you want to read but don’t have the time to do so at the moment.

To save an article to the Reading List, click Bookmarks from the Safari menu and then click Add to Reading List.  You can also press the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + D.

By default, the Reading List is hidden.  To display (or hide) the Reading List, press the Shift + Command + L keystroke combination or click the Reading List icon on the Safari Bookmarks Bar.

Another way to display the Reading List is to choose View > Show Reading List from the Safari menu.  The Reading List will display on the left side of your screen in the Safari window.  Click the item you wish to read in the Reading List pane – the article will then load in your browser window.Similar Posts:

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Yesterday, I talked about how to delete those pesky plug-ins from Safari.  I received a e-mail after the post asking me if there is a way to see a list of all of the plug-ins that are installed in Safari.  The answer is Yes.

To see all of Safari’s installed plug-ins, select Help from the Safari menu and then click Installed Plug-ins. A page will display listing all of the currently installed Plug-ins in Safari.

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Many folks use plug-ins to add to their browser’s functionality.  Plug-ins are small programs that can enhance the capabilities of your browser.  At times however, they can end up being problematic.  Some plug-ins may be incompatible with other existing plug-ins and render your Web browser unstable or may simply reduce the speed of your browser for whatever reason.  If this is  case, you may want to remove the offending plug-in from Safari.

Safari typically stores plug-ins in either in the Macintosh HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins folder or in the Plug-ins folder under your Home folder’s Library – [your user name/Library/Internet Plug-ins.  As an example, if your user name was Susan, then you would find your Plug-ins folder at:  Susan/Library/Internet Plug-ins.  Note that in Mac OS X Lion, the Library folder is hidden.  To temporarily display it, click Go on the Finder menu and hold down the Option or Alt key. The Library folder will display as along as the key is held down.

Once you find the Plug-in that you want to remove, select the file and move it to the Trash.  You will then need to restart Safari in order for the changes to take effect.  If you just want to discover whether a particular plug-in is causing problems with Safari (and not necessarily delete the plug-in), you can simply move it to another folder.  This way, you can always copy it back later to the Plug-ins folder, if need be.Similar Posts:

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If you ever need to call Apple for support, you may need to know your Mac’s serial number.  There are a couple of ways to find it.  The first, is to shut down your computer and look for it underneath the battery.

There is an easier way however although it is hidden, and not at all obvious to find.  Click   and then choose About this Mac from the Apple menu.  If you click on the OS X version, you will be able to cycle through three bits of information:  Version, Build Number and finally your computer’s serial number.

It wouldn’t hurt to have this written down somewhere as well in case you ever reach the unfortunate situation where your computer will not boot up.


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When you click on an icon in the Dock, it bounces up and down until the application opens.  Depending on how quickly the application load, the bouncing can continue for quite some time.

Many folks find these bouncing icons annoying. If you are one of those people, you can easily remedy this from the Dock Preferences dialog box.  Choose  > Dock > Dock Preferences from the menu and uncheck the box next to “Animate opening applications.”  From this point forward, your dock icons will no longer bounce.  Instead, the tiny light below the icon will discretely blink a few times until the application has opened.Similar Posts:

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Many people are familiar with Weatherbug for iOS app which allows you to quickly see your current weather conditions as well as the forecast from your iOS device.

But there is also a handy little utility called Weatherbug Alert for the Mac desktop which displays the current temperature in the menubar on top of the screen.  What’s especially nice, is that the icon in the menubar will flash and chirp if severe weather is coming your way.  Don’t worry though – you can turn the sound and/or the flashing off from the settings menu.

By clicking on the Weatherbug icon, you can also quickly see your local forecast, change your location, or get a glimpse of the local radar.

The app is free and is compatible with Lion.  I’ve been using it for a couple of years already and it is one of my favorite utilities.

Check out Weatherbug Alert HERESimilar Posts:

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There’s been talk around the Web the past few days about a new app that can help you reduce junk mail.  It’s put out by a company called Readabl, Inc. and how it works is simple:  You take a picture of any junk mail that would wish to stop receiving – magazines, catalogs, fliers, credit card offers, the Yellow Pages, etc. and they will submit a request to the company on your behalf to stop the unwanted mail.  Readabl, Inc. has supposedly put together a large database of company information which they will they will then match to the photo you submitted.

Cool, hey?

The app is free for the moment although I would be definitely willing to pay for something like this.

You will have to provide your name, address and an e-mail so that they can remove your name and address from company mailing lists.   I have to admit that this did give me pause initial as I couldn’t help but wonder what they planned on doing with my personal information (name, email address, street address).  But according to their privacy policy, they do not share any of our information with third parties:

PaperKarma does not sell, trade, or rent your information to third parties. We only share your information for the purposes of fulfilling your request to unsubscribe with the original sender (who generally has your information already). The shared information includes the uploaded image, your name, and your physical address. Certain companies require a phone number.

Your Email address is not shared unless you explicitly opt-in—on a per-company basis—to our Paper to Digital conversion program. We will never share your information due to a creative interpretation of our privacy policy. You either request that we share, or else we won’t. There is no grey area.

They did post some examples and results to a blog entry that you might want to check out.  The app is available for iOS, Android and Windows phone.  If you experience excessive amounts of unwanted paper mail, this app might be worth checking out.

Download PaperKarma from App Store HERE

Visit the developer’s Web site HERESimilar Posts:

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