Disable Caps Lock
Mac Tip #392, 08 July 2009

Gilbert wrote to me:

I’m a terrible typist and often hit the caps lock key when attempting to hit the “A” key. Since I tend to look at the keyboard I am surprised when I see these sentences in all caps. So far, the only thing that I can do is to erase the full sentence and retype.

I’m a terrible typist too and have also occasionally hit the Caps Lock key while aiming for something else. And on those extremely rare occasions where I actually want a run of Upper Case letters I seldom think to use Caps Lock, preferring to keep my finger on the Shift key instead.

This was an interesting problem, whose answer I discovered in Kill Caps Lock at Mac Geekery.

Disable Caps Lock in System Prefs

In the depths of System Preferences lies an easily overlooked option: to change what happens when you press a modifier key.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Go to the Keyboard and Mouse Preference Pane.
3. Make sure you’re on the Keyboard tab.
4. Click the Modifier Keys… button. A window appears where you can change what happens when you press the various modifier keys.
5. From the drop-down menu beside the Caps Lock key choose No Action.
6. Click OK. The new setting is saved.
7. If you wish, close the System Preferences window.

Now when you type the Caps Lock key nothing happens. It’s just a dead key.

This one’s not for me

I experimented briefly with setting the Caps Lock key to instead act like the Command (⌘) key, but without changing how the Command key worked. This simply seemed to confuse both me and my Mac.

I actually didn’t like setting Caps Lock to be a dead key. I saw enormous potential for forgetting I’d done this and then spending ages troubleshooting if and when I noticed its lack of capability. I set mine back to its old behaviour.

I offer this as an educational Tip though.

Remember to watch the video:

What about you? Do you have this Caps Lock problem? Did you solve it another way? Have you tried this technique of disabling Caps Lock? How did that work out for you?

Add your comments below.

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Type routine text with TextExpander
Mac Tip #391, 01 July 2009

TextExpander Preferences window

Do you ever write anything? I bet you do. Even those who spend their days and nights making photos, music or movies need to write the occasional email or funding proposal.

One of the essential pieces of software on my Macs is TextExpander (US$30, free trial). It types routine, boring bits of text for me ¹ and fixes many of my regular typos.

Set up a new macro

After you download and install TextExpander it puts an icon in the Menu Bar. Choose TextExpander Preferences from the icon. System Preferences opens up and quickly switches to the TextExpander Preferences item.

In the TextExpander window you can actually install various ready-made macros, but I want to show you one way to add one of your own.

1. Click on the Snippets tab to view existing snippets and add your own.
2. Click the + sign at the bottom of the Snippets column and choose New Snippet from the drop-down menu.
3. In the Content area on the right type in the (long) text. This is what should appear after the abbreviation has been expanded.
4. In the Abbreviation area at the bottom type in the abbreviation you want to use. Be careful, and avoid sequences you might regularly type. For example, the abbreviation ple for please respond to this email [blah blah] would have been triggered when I typed the word example earlier. A better trigger might be prtt.

Type standard words and phrases

Every time you type something you probably need to use certain standard words and phrases. Typical examples are the name of your city, street or suburb, your email address, the date, a web page address, captions in your photo album software. Set up TextExpander macros for the ones you use frequently.

I use a lot of macros that create HTML coding for me.

I live in Hataitai, Wellington, a fine suburb, but it has too many ‘t’s, ‘a’s and ‘i’s. So I’ve given up, and let TextExpander handle it. I type htai and it automatically replaces it with Hataitai.

Expand long text

But that’s just one word. Sometimes I need a page or two of ‘dummy’ text. I type lipsum and 450 words of ‘lorem ipsum’ text fill the page. You know it, you’ll have seen it before, it starts like this: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit…

Alternatively I type lipshort for 60 words of dummy text.

I could just as easily type a whole standard letter or email, web page template, or invoice template.

Typing Expander saves typos

Always typing teh instead of the? Add your regular typo as an abbrveiation and let TextExpander correct it.

Type dates and times

TextExpander has some nice ready-made macros — I type the abbreviations ddate and ttime (spot the doubled letters at the start that allow me to still use the words ‘date’ and ‘time’ without problems), and they expand to the current date and time.

Essential software

As far as I’m concerned TextExpander (or other similar text macro software) is an essential application on any computer. It’s saved me time and sanity, and paid for itself hundreds of times over.

Take the free trial for a spin and see if it helps you. And please, leave a comment below with your experiences.

Disclaimer: I have no pecuniary interest in TextExpander. It’s a product I use that I think may be useful to my readers.

¹ TextExpander on my Macs reports I’ve saved at least 17 hours of work time by using it. It’s expanded 16,630 snippets, and saved me 309,650 characters of typing. That’s more than 2 days work. Impressive!

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Merge and split windows in Safari 4
Mac Tip #390, 24 June 2009

Have Safari windows multiplied all over? Merge them all into one. Or break Tabs out into separate windows.

Note: this Tip was written using Safari Version Version 4.0.1 (5530.18) on Mac OS 10.5.7. If you’re using older versions of Safari or the Mac OS your experiences may differ.

How links open

Every day as I read Twitter or my RSS feeds I find myself clicking links to interesting things my pals have mentioned. Before long my screen seems to be covered with open Safari windows.

One solution, of course, is to set the Safari preference to open links from applications in a new tab in the current window. But if, like me, you’ve forgotten to do that, there’s a way to deal with all those open windows: merge them.

Screenshot: The General Settings tab of the Safari Preferences window allows you to choose how links open.

Merge All Windows

Safari 4 makes it stunningly simple to combine all those open windows: choose Merge All Windows from the Window menu.

As soon as you let go of the mouse you’ll find all windows except one have been closed. The one that remains now contains all the web pages you previously had open, one per tab.

Screenshot: The Merge All Windows item in Safari.

Rearrange tabs in Safari 4

Don’t like the order of the tabs? Point to the middle of a tab in the Tab Bar and drag it to the left or right into a new sequence.

Break Tabs out into windows

If you’d rather view web pages you have open in tabs as separate windows ‘tear off’ the tab downwards into the window. As you drag downwards a thumbnail image of the web page ‘unfolds’ from the Tab Bar. Drag that image to anywhere on your screen and it opens as a new Safari window.

To change your mind mid-drag press the Esc key and the thumbnail returns to the Tab Bar.

Practical MacTips YouTube movie

I realised these Tips would be most easily demonstrated with a movie. I’ve set up a new YouTube channel called Practical MacTips that I aim to use with future Tips too.

The first (silent) movie shows how to merge windows, move Tabs and break Tabs out into separate windows.

I welcome all feedback and comments. For future movies I may include a voiceover soundtrack.

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Make more space in a Safari form
Mac Tip #389, 17 June 2009

Frustrated with trying to type into a tiny space on a web form? Safari lets you make the text entry field bigger. Here’s how.

Note: this Tip was written using Safari Version 4.0 (5530.17) on Mac OS 10.5.7. If you’re using older versions of Safari or the Mac OS your experiences may differ.

Often the forms on websites don’t give you nearly enough space to type in what you want to say.

The screenshot here shows the Contact form on MacTips. When I set the form up I allowed about 7 lines of 7 or 8 words. That’s not a lot, but actually it’s a lot bigger than some forms provide.

Make more space

Look carefully at a form in a recent version of Safari though, and you should be able to see some small diagonal lines at the bottom right corner of the text field. You may not see them on all fields. For example, on my Contact form the lines don’t appear on the Name, Email or Website fields. They do appear on the Message field though.

Those small lines create a handle. Drag the handle to the right, or down, or both, and the form expands.

There. Now you can see what you’re trying to type. And scroll up and down with ease.

Let the novel-length comments begin.

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5 PowerTips for Deleting Text
Mac Tip #388, 10 June 2009

Delete words or lines of text with a single keystroke, while not even touching the mouse.

Those of us who do a lot of writing also do a lot of deleting. The Delete (Backspace) key normally deletes one character at a time, working from right to left, but you can make it work more effectively for you.

Different keyboards for different folks

First, though, a word about keyboards. I use a MacBook Pro. It has only one Delete key, up in the top right corner, near F12, +, and |.

Those who use desktop Macs tend to use an ‘extended’ keyboard that also includes a Forward Delete key, generally over near the number keypad. The Forward Delete key normally deletes one character at a time, from left to right.

In this Tip I’m writing only about the Delete (Backspace) key and not the Forward Delete key. If you can contribute experiences with the Forward Delete key please add them to the comments on this Tip.

Also, I’m using Mac OS X 10.5.7. While these Tips should still work for other versions of the OS and the software that comes with it, there may be differences.

One character at a time: back or forward

You may think the Delete key can delete only one character at a time, working from right to left, but it can do a lot more, if you add one or more modifier keys.

Suppose after I type the word MacTips the cursor is located just to the right of the letter s. If I press the Delete key once the letter s will be removed, leaving MacTip. That’s the default action for the Delete key — to remove the character to the left of the insertion point.

Now let’s imagine that the cursor is moved to be immediately to the left of the word MacTip. If I hold down the fn key and press the Delete key once the letter M is removed — in other words, the letter to the right of the insertion point. This gives us a Forward Delete, just by holding down the fn key and pressing Delete.

One word at a time: back or forward

Try putting the cursor to the right of a word and holding down Option (⌥) while you press Delete once. This removes the word to the left of the insertion point.

If the insertion point is already inside a word then Option Delete removes the part of the word to the left of the insertion point.

Now reverse it and try Option fn Delete. Adding in the fn key reverses direction and deletes a whole word to the right of the insertion point. Or, if the cursor’s inside a word then it deletes the part of the word to the right of the insertion point.

The screenshot shows the effects of these various deletes. Click the thumbnail for a larger version.

One line at a time: back, but not forward

Hold down Command (⌘) while you press Delete and all the text between the insertion point and the beginning of the line is deleted.

Unfortunately, I can’t find a key combination that will delete forward to remove a whole line.

A summary of deletions

Add these modifier keys to make Delete work harder.

Try it out, and let us know in the Comments what you find. Are there places where it doesn’t work?

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Extract the sound from a video
Mac Tip #387, 03 June 2009

Here’s how to extract the sound from a downloaded YouTube video.

In Save a YouTube video I explained one way to download a YouTube video. Others kindly chimed in with comments explaining alternatives. Once you have a video on your computer though, you may find you’d like to take just the sound and add it to iTunes.

Again, there are various ways to achieve this. Here’s how I did it, using the free VLC Media Player and Audio Hijack Pro (US$32, free trial available).

Open the video in VLC

1. Select the video in the Finder. It may be named something like video.flv.
2. Control click. A contextual menu appears.
3. Select Open With > VLC.app from the contextual menu. VLC opens and starts to play the video.
4. Pause or Stop the video if you don’t want to watch it just yet.

Choose a Source for Audio Hijack Pro

1. Open Audio Hijack Pro. The Audio Hijack Pro window opens.
2. Select Quick Record in the list on the left of the window.
3. On the right, in the main part of the window, choose Application for the Input type.
4. Click on the Select drop-down button at the right hand end of the Application line, and choose VLC from the menu.
5. In the Recording section of the window choose a format for saving the recording. I selected the For archive to disk format.

Start Hijacking and Recording

Audio Hijack Pro can simply hijack sound — in other words ‘capture’ the sound before it goes through your computer’s speakers — or it can both hijack and record.

1. Click the Hijack button in the Audio Hijack Pro window. Everything is now ready to begin actually recording sound from the video.
2. Click the Record button in the Audio Hijack Pro window. The recording begins.
3. Switch to VLC and if necessary press the Rewind (◄◄) button to rewind the video to the start, then press the Play (►) button.

While the video plays Audio Hijack Pro records the sound to a file on your computer. When the video finishes go back to Audio Hijack Pro and press the Record button to stop the recording.

Send the recording to iTunes

1. Open Audio Hijack Pro.
2. Select Recording Bin in the list on the left of the window to see a list of your recordings.
3. On the right, select the recording you wish to send to iTunes.
4. Click on the iTunes button in the Toolbar at the bottom of the window. iTunes opens, imports the sound track according your your iTunes preferences and starts playing the track.

Other software

Many people speak highly of Audacity: free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. I haven’t actually tried it, as I’ve been using Audio Hijack Pro happily for years.

I also like and use Fission and Airfoil from Rogue Amoeba, the makers of Audio Hijack Pro. I’d recommend testing those applications too before you buy, as you may be able to purchase at a ‘bundle’ price.

I use Fission for quickly editing sound, and Airfoil for sending sound to any speakers.

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Save a YouTube video
Mac Tip #386, 27 May 2009

You don’t have to be connected to the Internet to view a YouTube video — if you download it first. Here’s how to download a YouTube video.

How this Tip came about

I became quite caught up with the last few shows on American Idol 2009. I heard Adam Lambert sing Ring of Fire and was hooked. I found him a very versatile and exceptional performer.

In fact, I enjoyed his performances so much I followed the link to buy his songs on iTunes. But there’s a huge problem with that: they aren’t available in the New Zealand iTunes Store.

So, I did the next best thing: I downloaded his performances from the American Idol website so I can listen again when I want to. And if they ever do allow me to pay for them, I will.

I used the same process to download those songs as to download a YouTube video — it’s not as obvious as it seems.

How to save a YouTube video

Here’s how to save a YouTube video if you’re using Safari. If you use other web browsers, the process is the same, but you may have to look around in the menus to find the right items.

1. View the YouTube video you wish to download and save.
2. Open Safari’s Activity window (from the Window menu).
3. In the Activity window click the disclosure triangle beside the correct Safari Tab or Window. A list appears showing all the activity for that Tab. In my screenshot you can see a long list of items that are part of the Queen Rania YouTube page I have open. Beside each item is a size in Kb or Mb.
4. Identify the biggest item — it’s likely to be several megabytes. In my screenshot it’s a 3.4Mb item at the top of the list.
5. Watch that item as the size may be constantly increasing. If it is that means the video is still loading.
6. Wait until the size of the biggest item stops increasing then hold down the Option key (⌥) and double click on that line. The movie file downloads to your Downloads folder. It may be named something like video.flv.

·

Play the video in VLC

You should now be able to play that video file using the free VLC Media Player.

By the way, the video I loaded for my screenshots was by Queen Rania of Jordan. She is an extremely intelligent and beautiful world leader who is using YouTube, Twitter and other channels to bring about change in the world.

Her themes are around education, eradicating poverty, and encouraging understanding.

This particular video is a humorous response to an award she won.

I recommend Queen Rania’s YouTube Channel

Visit Queen Rania’s official YouTube Channel to experiment with the download technique I’ve explained here.

Coming up soon: how to get the sound out of a downloaded video and into iTunes.

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The Hiding Option
Mac Tip #385, 20 May 2009

Open application windows can be distracting visual clutter. Hide them for a quick clean up.

Whether I’m working or playing on my Mac I tend to have a dozen applications running at once. There are windows open all over my screen, maybe in separate Spaces or maybe all in the same Space.

Sometimes this can be distracting. Recently I was writing a long blog post when a Skype video call came in. I wanted to clear away the open work windows and give all my attention to the video call. I had several options:

• expand the Skype video window to fill the screen
• move the Skype window to an empty Space
• hide all the other applications.

I chose to Hide Others, partly because it was quick and easy.

How to Hide Other applications

To make sure the application you want visible is at the front, click on an open window from that application. In my case, I clicked on the Skype window. Then either:

• Press Command Option h (⌘ ⌥ h).
• Go to the Application menu and choose Hide Others.

The application you want to see stays on screen, but all the other applications go into hiding.

That’s it. You’ve gone from clutter to clear in one easy action.

Note: in my experiments I found some applications had not assigned the keystroke to the Hide Others menu item. If ⌘ ⌥ h doesn’t work then try the Application menu.

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The Safari Bookmarks Bar
Mac Tip #384, 13 May 2009

Add your most-visited or most useful websites to the Safari Bookmarks Bar to put them only a keystroke or a single click away.

I’m sure you’ve saved some websites you’ve visited to your list of Bookmarks — it’s handy to get back to them later, as you just choose the site from a list of saved sites.

But do you have some sites that are specially important to you, or that you visit very frequently? Add them to the Bookmarks Bar to make them even easier to reach.

How to add pages to the Bookmarks Bar

1. 
   First make sure the Bookmarks Bar is visible: open Safari and choose Show Bookmarks Bar from the View menu. A grey stripe appears below the Address Bar. It may or may not contain bookmarks already.
2. To add a new Bookmark visit a web page you want to add, such as http://mactips.info.
3. 
   When you are on a page you want to add, drag the favicon down into the Bookmarks Bar. A naming window appears. (Don’t know what a favicon is? I explain below.) Put the most-used bookmarks at the left-hand end for easiest access.
4. Give the Bookmark a name that’s useful to you. If you keep it really short then you can fit more Bookmarks in the visible view. You can still access Bookmarks that don’t fit by clicking the Show more bookmarks arrows at the right-hand end of the Bookmarks Bar.

How to use the bookmarks in the Bookmarks Bar

• Click a Bookmark in the Bookmarks Bar to visit that web page.
• Type Command (⌘) and a number between 1 and 9 to visit a bookmarked page. Command 1 (⌘ 1) takes you to the leftmost bookmark.
• Access bookmarks on the Bookmarks Bar but that don’t fit in the window by clicking the arrows at the right-hand end of the Bookmarks Bar. A dropdown list appears that shows all the ‘overflow’ bookmarks.
• Choose a Bookmark from the Bookmarks > Bookmarks Bar submenu.

Favicons

Many websites use one particular image as their ‘icon’ or representation. Thanks to PerformanceLogo the icon for the MacTips website is the red cross with the smiley face inside.

That icon is usually displayed at the left-hand end inside the Address Bar, and is known as a ‘favicon‘, short for ‘favorites icon’. It is also visible in lists of Bookmarks.

Note: to write this tip I used Safari Version 4 Public Beta (5528.16). Other versions may do things a bit differently.

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Traceroute reveals your Internet tracks
Mac Tip #383, 06 May 2009

Use Traceroute to show how web pages, files or emails actually reach your machine.

Whether you call up a web page, check your email or download a file from the Internet your computer is not connected directly to the web page, email or file server.

Instead your computer sends a signal out, asking for the information. Another piece of equipment, such as your modem or router, catches that signal and sends it to the next device in the ‘chain’ — perhaps your ISP’s computer.

That device sends the signal to another device, which sends it on again, until eventually the signal reaches its destination. The web server receives the request for the web page and send the data back along the chain, until your computer finally displays the web page.

It’s similar to passing a note in a crowded theatre: you write the note, add an address on the outside, such as Seat 16A, and ask the person next to you to pass it along. They see the address and pass it to the person next to them. Each person in the chain does the same thing, and eventually the note reaches its destination.

Sometimes things break down though — the web page doesn’t appear, the email isn’t working, and you’d like to see where in the ‘chain’ things have broken down. Traceroute can help you with that.

Network Utility contains Traceroute

To use Traceroute on your Mac open Applications > Utilities > Network Utility. The Network Utility window opens to display half a dozen tabs. Click on the Traceroute tab to call up the Traceroute interface.

Enter an address and start the Trace

In the text box near the top of the window enter an Internet address, such as google.co.nz or tidbits.com.

Note: Traceroute has been misused in the past for evil purposes, so some systems may effectively disable it.

Click the Trace button.

What the Traceroute results mean

The results area in the lower part of the window now shows you the trace or track for the signal your computer sends to the address you specified.

When you run a trace your machine sends out a tiny packet of data (40 bytes). The next device along the line sends a notification to you that the data reached it. That all takes a little time, measured in milliseconds. 1 millisecond (ms) = 1/1000^th of a second.

I sent a Trace to tidbits.com. The results were:

Traceroute has started ...

traceroute to tidbits.com (216.168.61.78), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1)  1.649 ms  0.846 ms  0.783 ms
 2  * [address removed].cable.telstraclear.net ([address removed])  16.623 ms  11.516 ms
 3  ae0-840.ie4.telstraclear.net (203.167.223.114)  9.515 ms  9.562 ms  9.085 ms
 4  ge-1-2-0-843.ie1.telstraclear.net (218.101.61.105)  19.958 ms  19.191 ms  19.259 ms
 5  ge-0-2-0-1.xcore1.acld.telstraclear.net (203.98.50.251)  20.550 ms  20.413 ms  19.684 ms
 6  203.167.233.10 (203.167.233.10)  20.954 ms  20.180 ms  20.439 ms
 7  i-3-2-0.wil-core02.bx.reach.com (202.84.219.117)  145.304 ms  145.401 ms  144.706 ms
 8  i-3-0-0.paix-core02.bi.reach.com (202.84.140.90)  156.312 ms  159.249 ms  155.333 ms
 9  i-1-2.paix01.bi.reach.com (202.84.251.74)  156.249 ms  155.855 ms  156.687 ms
10  peer-02.palo.twtelecom.net (198.32.175.111)  157.888 ms  157.273 ms  161.457 ms
11  216.64.147.38 (216.64.147.38)  188.444 ms  190.512 ms  188.023 ms
12  216.64.147.38 (216.64.147.38)  186.646 ms  188.405 ms  191.005 ms
13  emperor.tidbits.com (216.168.61.78)  187.616 ms  187.043 ms  196.771 ms

This Trace shows that the route from my computer first goes to my cable modem, then my service provider, TelstraClear, in Wellington, New Zealand. Then it goes up to Auckland, New Zealand. All of that is fairly quick.

Then the data heads off overseas, through the immensely long undersea cable that connects New Zealand to the West Coast of the USA. That cable’s around 13,000 Km, so it takes a while for the signals to get through.

Finally it reaches the tidbits.com server. The whole trip took just under 200 milliseconds — around 0.2 of a second.

Experiment with Traceroute while your Internet connection is working correctly. Try sending traces to different addresses and see what results come back.

Then, if things aren’t working correctly some time, try Traceroute to see if it can give you some clues about where the problem lies.

Check last Week’s Mac Tip too: How to check your Internet connection with Ping for another handy troubleshooting tool.

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