It's Wednesday and that means it's time yet again for Ask TUAW, our weekly Q&A column. This week we'll be tackling questions about the Finder, finding tracks without artwork in iTunes, changing iPhoto file names, and more. As always, readers are most welcome to offer their own thoughts and comments, but especially to submit new questions to be taken up next week. And so without further ado, let's turn to this week's questions.Brandie asks
If I edit a photo, how do I refresh the thumbnail that shows in Finder?
Automatic refresh was supposed to be fixed in Tiger, and although it's better than before, as you've no doubt noticed sometimes the Finder just doesn't quite do it (a refresh command was available in the Classic Mac OS, but it seems like Apple just refuses to add something analogous to Window's F5). Here are a couple of options for you. You could try this very simple AppleScript from a hint over at macosxhints.com or you could try the Nudge contextual menu plugin from Rainer Brockerhoff (donation requested).
Hmbutler asks
I love cover flow on iTunes, however I have a bunch of songs that aren't recognized by the iTunes Store... Is there a program that or trick in itunes to make a playlist of songs w/ or w/out album art only.
This is possible using an AppleScript from Doug's AppleScripts called Tracks without Artwork to Playlist (donation requested). All you have to do is select the tracks you want to filter and this script will find all the tracks without artwork and add them to a new playlist called simply "No Art." You can then go down that playlist and add in the artwork however you like. Check out Doug's Managing Artwork section for more useful scripts along these lines.
ad6am asks
I'd like to know something about the bar at the top (what do you call that, anyways?) The application name, which is in bold, next to the apple button can apparently be changed to the application icon (16 x 16 px). I've seen this in a few screenshots. I don't know if this is a setting or not, but how can I also do this?
It is called the "menubar" and fellow reader Julian notes that this is a feature of FruitMenu from Unsanity Software. Keep in mind that FruitMenu is a haxie and uses Unsanity's somewhat controversial Application Enhancer framework, which allows you to "bend the rules," i.e. it is something of a hack. Some people refuse to run haxies for this reason, but I've been running them for a long time without any obvious problems.
In column view in the finder, is there a way to sort files by type or date etc. as in list view?
Unfortunately, no, from what I can tell from my research online it is not possible to sort by anything but name in the Finder while in column view. If you really want this feature, however, it is available in the Finder alternative, Path Finder, as you can see here. Path Finder is $34.95, but has a bunch of great features and I highly recommend it.
Alex asks
Is there a way (or a third party plugin) to change the actual file names of photos in iPhoto? I see that I can change the photo's title, but I want to be able to change the file name..
Basically, no and you probably don't really want to do this. Keep in mind that iPhoto (like iTunes) manages its own database of your image files. Therefore, if you go in manually (e.g. in the Finder) and start mucking around with file names there is a pretty high chance that you'll break something (i.e. the iPhoto database will no longer correspond to the files in your library). In short, this is a really bad idea if you don't want to break your database.
A much better choice would be to rename any files you need renamed before you import them into iPhoto either manually or with something like A Better Finder Rename or Name those Files!. If you just must rename a file, my suggestion is to export it from iPhoto, rename it in the Finder, and then re-import it.
All of this information is provided for your entertainment. Neither TUAW nor this author can be held responsible for any problems arising from the use of the information provided here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-31-2007 @ 9:42AM
Peter said...
Question: I have a lot (probably over 100) movies taken with my Canon digital camera (saved in the MJPEG format) and I would like to reencode them using Quicktime Pro to save space, since the movies are fairly large. They are all stored in iPhoto. Is there a way to re-encode them without having to export/reimport them (since the timestamps won't be preserved and they won't be put in their previous albums)?
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 9:44AM
Stacey Abshire said...
What I want to know is this: Is there a way to import into iTunes WITHOUT launching iTunes? The reason I ask is that I have some automated scripts to import TV shows I record, and set all of their information, but I would like to be able to do this without my script needing to launch iTunes. I don't care if I have to do some coding in Applescript or objective-c, but I would love to know of a way to do this. Thanks!
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 10:35AM
Dave said...
The itunes artork thing needs a disclaimer... it doesn't work in detecting downloaded artork from the itunes store, it thinks there is no artwork... this script looks for the artwork to be embedded in the audio file, itunes 7.x+ does not embed the artwork and thus, the script thinks it's not there.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 10:36AM
jaykay said...
Is there any way to replace a movie file icon in finder with a thumbnail of a frame?
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 10:45AM
Lobato said...
Is there any way to make the "cover flow" in iTunes work like corverflow to show only albums that have at least, say, 5 songs? I don't want to browse thousand of singles... just those that are really in Albums.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 11:40AM
JARmus said...
I have iTunes 7.0.2 and it all ways swaps my album art on my iPod but not my library. My iPod also freezes when syncing. Is there any way to fix this?
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 12:03PM
walkerjs said...
At #3 I discovered this pretty early on, which is why there is another script called 'Embed Artwork'. Once the tunes are moved to the No Art playlist that have art (but not embedded) you can easily select them and run the quick embeddening. Then The other script will not treat them as artless.
Kind of a pain, but really not that big a deal if you really want artwork.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 1:09PM
Doug Adams said...
Thanks for the mench. I have just now updated Tracks without Artwork to Playlist to account for iTunes Store downloads. The tip about using the embed script is also good ;)
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 2:19PM
Stu said...
Has TUAW thought of creating a forum, linking the comments to it? It might create more a community feel to the site.
It would also allow editing of posts and other advantages a forum has over comments, which seem to lack the conversational feel that a forum provides.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 4:42PM
Goobimama said...
Pardon me if I'm wrong, but if the List view is what I think it is, then just click on the bar on top...uh..how to explain:
Name | Date modified | Size | Type | Etc.
If you click on name, it arranges by name (upwards or downwards). If you click on Size, it gets arranged by Size...
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 7:02PM
Mat Lu said...
@10: Yes, but the question was about column view.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 7:42PM
Switcher said...
Question: is it possible to select dialog boxes buttons with the keyboard. For instance a dialog displays "Do you want to overwrite the file, Yes / No", and "No" is selected. Using the arrow keys or Tab won't let me change the selection. Is there any key combination to do that? Thanks.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 8:12PM
Matt said...
Is there a way to easily switch between windows of the same program? For instance, if I'm working on Keynote and Safari, I can hit Apple-Tab to switch between windows. What if I am working with multiple windows of Keynote open? I know there is the F10 route using Expose but it is kind of a pain to constantly shrink my windows and click the one I want.
Reply
1-31-2007 @ 10:12PM
DJP3221 said...
@ 13: Use CMD (Apple) + ~ to switch between windows within an application. The tilde key is located above tab.
I was wondering if there was an easy way to take the album art downloaded with iTunes 7, and embed it into the respective song files, so that the covers can be used by other applications. Thanks.
Reply
2-01-2007 @ 3:07AM
maybenot said...
with the airport extreme base station now shipping with wireless n technology, is there or will there be a way to upgrade an internal wireless card on CoreDuo MacBook Pros to take advantage of new features such as the AirPort Disk and the Apple TV?
Reply
2-01-2007 @ 1:46PM
Goobimama said...
#14: Doesn't iTunes do that already? At least the windows version does it, so every time I reinstall windows (about once a month), I just add all my music to iTunes and the album art is still there, that is, embedded...
#11: I saw the screenshot of path finder thinking it was finder.... got confused...
Reply
2-02-2007 @ 9:48AM
xerxes said...
Question: is there any applescript to create iCal event reminders via the speech or VoiceOver Utility, WITHOUT launching iCal?
Reply
2-03-2007 @ 9:15PM
Seth & Alex said...
What is the best (and most cost effective) way to extract video from a non-commercial DVD (burned by a standard DVD player/recorder) to an Intel iMac in a format that can be imported into and manipulated in iMovie?
Reply
2-04-2007 @ 4:24PM
missinglink said...
@18
rip the dvd with handbrake as .mp4 (h.264)
http://handbrake.m0k.org/
Reply