macBlogger – Apple Mac Blog

Safari is the only browser which allows you to open pdf files inline. All other Mac based browsers force you to download the pdf.

This greatly upsets me

How many times have you clicked on a pdf link without realising it? Before you know it Preview or Acrobat is loading up in the background and you’re going to have to switch windows in order to view the desired content.

Being forced to relinquish control over your actions because of your browsers’ shortcomings is simply not on.

There are no Acrobat or Preview add-ons for Firefox, Camino or Opera to come to your rescue. This is where PDF Browser Plugin saves the day. Download and drop the PDF Browser Plugin.app file into your Library > Internet Plug-ins folder and relaunch your browser. Navigate to a PDF file and click on it.

Ahhh! It begins to download again

This is because this plugin doesn’t work on Intel Macs. But there is a solution. You can switch your browser to open under Rosetta to rectify the situation.

Rosetta is basically a translator which allows native PPC based applications to run under Intel Macs.

In order to open your browser using Rosetta, you must click on the ‘Get Info’ option when you right click on your browser.app folder within Applications. Simply tick the box which says Rosetta. And there you have it! You can open PDF documents inline with your browser.

If you use Firefox or Flock you can control PDF files within your browser even further. PDF Download is a very nice plugin which prompts you when you’re about to open a PDF file. It asks you whether you want to download, open in the browser, open using HTML view, or cancel.

All in all I have to say that I’m disappointed with the handling of PDFs on Mac based browsers. Safari being the only browser to interact without any user configuration is a real let down. Mozilla and Opera need to get in gear and improve their handling of PDFs. I’m sure better PDF handling is a feature request they have seen before..

iUseThis works much in the same way as Digg. But instead of digging news stories you are digging OS X applications. The site contains pretty much every application imaginable and provides registered users with the ability to declare that ‘they use this’ application via a voting system.

iUseThis displays similar and related applications on the profile view of each application as well. This is a handy way to find cheap alternatives to expensive applications such as Photoshop. If you take a loot at the profile page for Photoshop you’ll see that iUseThis recommends Goldburg and Gimp as alternatives.

The iUseThis top list of applications features VLC on top followed by Firefox, Adium, Safrai and Quicksilver.

There is a bit of an FAQ on their about page if you want to know more but I covered pretty much all you need to know in this short post. It’s a simple but powerful website and is especially useful for those looking for free alternatives to expensive software or those who are new to Macs.

I setup my own profile this morning and I have already added a good few of the applications which I use on a daily basis.

Do you have a profile? If you do then post a link to it in the comments.
Cheers.

I just got this nice tip in my email and posted it on my personal blog aswell as to macblogger.
As people adjust to Safari 3, I wanted to share a little addition that’s helped me work more quickly: a cursor change depending upon a link’s target. If the link will open as is in a new tab, the cursor doesn’t change. If it will open in a new window, however, the cursor will change to a crosshair.

Open ~/Library » Application Support » Safari » userContent.css and add the following, then save:

/* Change cursor for links that open in new window */

:link[target="_blank"],

:visited[target="_blank"],

:link[target="_new"],

:visited[target="_new"] {cursor: crosshair; }

This works for Safari 2 as well — just create a file named mystyle.css (or whatever you like, ending in .css) somewhere on your hard drive, then visit the Advanced tab in Safari’s Preferences, click the Style Sheet pop-up menu, and point it to the .css file you just created. It should also work for any other browser that supports the cursor property and custom style sheets.

If you are a recent migrant from Windows to Mac you have probably spent some time staring at your keyboard in search of the ‘Print Screen’ button, I know I did.

Screenshot Plus is a free dashboard widget which allows you to effortlessly take screenshots of:

• your entire desktop
• a highlighted window/finder
• it allows you to cut out a selection of the screen aswell

Screenshot plus can export in png, tiff, jpg, jp2, pdf, gif, bmp, or pict file types.Mac OS X does come with built in screenshot capabilities but the system isn’t as intuitive as you would expect. It’s quite ridiculous actually. You have the following keyboard button powered methods available to you when taking a screenshot in Mac OS X:

• Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
• Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard

I copied the above commands from the excellent Mac Rumors website. I’m sure you’ll agree that installing the screenshot plus widget is far easier than running the above commands.

Since i always forget when they’re needed… here’s some of the os x boot keys that do stuff

Command-S Boot into Single User Mode
Command-V Boot using “Verbose” mode (shows all kernel and startup console messages)
X Reset startup disk selection and boot into Mac OS X Server
Shift Boot into “Safe Boot” mode, which runs Disk First Aid. A reboot will be required afterward.
Option Boot into Open Firmware to select a boot device
Command-Option-Shift-Delete Bypass internal harddrive on boot
T Boot into Firewire target disk mode
C Boot from the internal optical drive
N Start from the Network (NetBoot)
Command-Option-P-R Reset Parameter RAM (PRAM) and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM)
(mouse button) Eject (internal) removable media

ALSO: if you use open firmware password… you’ll need this:
Startup Manager -accessed by pressing the Option key during startup
Enter commands after starting up in Open Firmware -press Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482

How to troubleshoot a computer with Open Firmware Password enabled
If you cannot access the Open Firmware Password application and need to troubleshoot your computer by:

Resetting the PRAM
Starting up in Single-user mode
Starting up in Verbose mode
Starting from CD-ROM

Then follow these steps:

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
Press Return.
When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key. It responds OK.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
Press Return.

The computer restarts and you are now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from CD-ROM.

Hi, if you’re reading this post then you are probably new to Apple Macs having migrated from Windows or another rival operating system. Welcome and I hope you enjoy your time at Macblogger

Installing and uninstalling applications on OS X is a very different process from doing so on a Windows system. The first difference is that you can’t install a .exe or a .msi on Mac. Software is installed on Macs using a .dmg file. DMG is an abbreviation for disk image. Macs also use tiny applications called Widgets as well. These guys use the .wdgt file extension. All installations on Mac OS X require the administrative password to be typed into a prompt box before continuing with the installation.

How to Install a Program on your Apple Mac

For the purpose of this post I’m going to install Cabos. an open source file sharing application. I have downloaded the file to my desktop. Simply double click on the cabos.dmg file. A new finder window should pop up, see image below. You might be thinking ‘oh, that was easy and quick’, but the installation is not actually complete. The Cabos MacOSX folder is simply mounted on your hard drive. You should notice a Cabos folder on your desktop. To complete the installation drag and drop the Cabos.app file into the Applications folder. You should hear a soft ‘ding’ noise, this indicates and confirms the completion of the installation. And that is that. Finished.

Not every program installs in the same manner as Cabos has done. Some applications, such as Firefox, pop-up a prompt which is similar to a Finder window. Instructions generally appear which tell you to drag and drop the .app file into the Application folder.

How to set a Program to Automatically Launch at Startup

If you want to have the program load at startup you simply go to

1. System Preference.
2. Accounts.
3. Login Items.
4. From this screen you can add applications by clicking on the ‘+’ symbol.
5. You can set the application to open in full view or to hide it the background.

Cabos might not be the most practical of applications to have started at startup. I have Adium, Skype, Gmail Notifier and Thunderbird all set to startup at this moment.

How to Uninstall a Program on your Apple Mac

This is pretty simple as well. Open up the Applications Folder in Finder and drag and drop the application’s folder or the .app file into the recycle bin located on the Dock. If you accidentally dumped an application then open up the receycle bin and recover the file(s).

Mac OS X doesn’t have the best uninstall procedure in place. It is not certain that files associated with the installed application will be deleted by simply dropping the .app file into the recycle bin. It’s best to use a third party application such as Clean App or App Delete or to remove all the files associated with the installation from your Mac’s hard drive.

The Apple website provides some information on how to calibrate your Macbook’s battery for increased performance. The article on Apple’s site explains that the MacBook’s ‘battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate.’

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
4. Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Here are some more tips which will help preserve your MacBook’s Battery Life

1. Disable Bluetooth if it’s not in use. Simply right click on the Bluetooth icon and select ‘Bluetooth off’
2. Disable your Macbook’s Airport if it isn’t in use either.
3. Turn down the brightness levels.
4. Close unnecessarily opened applications.
5. Alter your Energy Saving settings. I have the display set to timeout after 30 seconds of inactivity and the Macbook to go into sleep mode after 2 minutes of inactivity.

It was only after about a month of steady Mac usage that I first noticed the # symbol missing from the keyboard. I had to do a double and even triple take to confirm that the key doesn’t feature exclusively on any of the numerical keys. It’s a bit odd that it doesn’t feature as it is frequently used in web design to declare colour values.

To display the # symbol press the option/alt key and 3 at the same time.

Magic!