Filed under: Features, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Ask TUAW: Open With, AFP, iTunes with cell phone, escaping iPhoto, and more
This week in Ask TUAW we'll be considering questions about the "Open With..." menu option, mounting drives over a local network, using iTunes with a cell phone, getting all your original photos out of iPhoto, and syncing files between a notebook and a desktop Mac. Remember new Mac users and Switchers who are enjoying our Mac 101 series should feel very welcome to post questions for Ask TUAW; we're happy to have them. As always, please submit your questions by commenting to this post or using our tip form.
Jon asks
How can I get more applications listed in the contextual menu item "Open With"? I find that pretty often it doesn't have the application I want to use.
Mike asks
I have no Idea why My Open With Dialogue has so many programs in it. Especially with image Files I dont always want to load them into photoshop to view them quickly, and so Ive gotta use Open With Preview. Except somehow my list of programs keeps expanding to useless stuff. How do I fix that? Also, There never seems to be any consistency for this menu. I've changed the "Always Open With" Preview and applied to "all files of this kind" several times, but it seems to change back and forth. I can have 2 jpgs on the desktop, and both will have different defaults. Also, similarily with ZIP files, Ive changed my default application to be UnArchiver except, it never updates the icons. Anytime I download a new zip file to the desktop, it appears as a blank icon like an unknown filetype would.
Of course, you can do Open With Other as above, but I don't think that's quite what is being asked. Both questions involve editing the "Open With" contextual menu item. It turns out that this menu is automatically generated by the Finder based on the applications you have, and therefore you cannot edit it manually to add or remove programs. However, I did discover that you can prevent applications from appearing on the "Open With" menu by editing a plist inside of each application. Just follow this hint at MacOSXhints.com. I have not done this personally so I cannot confirm it, but this looks like exactly what you want. In principle, I suppose you could also add file types in this way to force applications to appear in the "Open With" menu,
As far as the questions go about getting preferred applications to stick, your best best is probably to try RCDefaultApp (free, donations requested). This is a nice little Preference Pane that allows you to define default applications in a variety of ways.
Gene asks
I have easily set up my iMac to share all of my User Name files across my home network, via the Sharing preferences. What I still can't figure out is how to share my iMac connected external drives. Typically I store all of my Movies, Music and media files there and at times, I want access to those files, from other computers on my network. Searched under those same preferences sharing but those drives, even while mounted, don't show there. Thank you
You need to mount those drives specifically in the Finder. Assuming you have Personal File Sharing on in the Services tab of the Sharing Preference Pane, just use the "Connect to Server..." option (cmd + K) in the Finder. Log onto the computer you want using afp (e.g. afp://192.168.1.3) as a registered user, and it will give you a dialog like the following:
In my case, "Backup" is a FireWire hard drive connected to the remote computer (Theresa). Just select the drive you want and it will be mounted on your local computer.
Tony asks
As an experienced software developer (Windows for 15+ years) now a confirmed "switcher" one thing oft bugs me... Is there any way to get to the "system" menu with a keyboard shortcut (a la Ctrl-Escape on windows)?
There is no built-in way to do this, but this cries out for Quicksilver (free). Just create a Quicksilver trigger to bring up the System Preference and give it whatever keyboard shortcut you like. As you can see below, I've created a trigger that sets the System Preferences to the same Cntl-Esc shortcut you mention. You can of course use other keyboard shortcut programs to do this, but as a switcher I highly suggest that you get to know Quicksilver. It will make your Mac life much easier.
Ricky asks
I am using a P990i on my Mac to listen to podcasts and my music library (replacement for an ipod) but I am trying to find an application that will transfer my playlist m3u lists as well as my actual playlist. I have tried SyncTunes but that seems to be hit and miss and very buggy. Any other suggestions?
I have not used it personally, but iTuneMyWalkman (free) would seem to be exactly what you want. It needs for your phone's storage Memory Stick to be mounted on your Mac as a standard Mass storage device and it will do the rest with some AppleScripts.
Allister asks
I switched to an iMac from PC earlier this year and fell into the trap of using iPhoto for my photos. Now I want out!...My problem is that iPhoto is "managing" my files for me. By which it clearly means it should obfuscate the location of every photo so it takes an age to find....What I want to do now is easily and accurately get all of my original JPEGs out of iPhoto and into a folder somewhere. Is there a robust way of doing this? I know I can in theory export from iPhoto, but it will surely export any edited images in their edited form and at this stage I don't necessarily know which images are the edited ones.
Okay, this shouldn't be too difficult. First of all, I highly recommend making a complete backup of your iPhoto library before you do anything else. Once that's done, just select all of your photos (select one photo and hit: ⌘ + A), next go to the Photos menu and select "Revert to Original." It will warn you that you're going to lose all of your edits, but that's what you want to do, so just confirm it. Now your library will contain only to the original images and you should be able to export them as normally.
James asks
I am considering purchasing a MacBook (Pro?) in the near future and would like for it to exactly replicate my desktop machine in both applications and documents. Is there a program that will allow these machines to sync in case one fails or is lost?
First you should note that there are some potential problems in doing this, especially with the applications. It's possible that the same application on two machines might have different support and preference files. I would probably recommend against doing automated syncing of applications. However, syncing documents is relatively easy and there are a variety of ways to do it, including rolling your own using the powerful rsync command line tool. However, I've noticed that ChronoSync ($30) tends to be the most often recommended way for doing this. They have a Home-to-Home Sync tip that covers exactly this. There are some other applications that do this like Martian Slingshot, but my sense is that ChronoSync is the most mature solution out there.
Okay that's all folks for this week. Keep those questions and comments coming!
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)
Edd Turner said 7:11AM on 5-23-2007
Re: Tony's question - to quickly get up system prefernces.
Another way to achieve this is to hold option and press (almost any) of the 'F' keys - Option + 'F3' for example, will launch system prefs sound setting pane. It's only oone click form there to 'Show All' and the rest of the system prefs goodness.
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Josh said 7:37AM on 5-23-2007
Re: Tony's Question.
Control+Escape simply loads the Start Menu (It's the same as hitting that stupid windows button)
If that functionality is being looked for Control+F2 for the apple menu, or Control+F3 for the dock would be exactly what he's looking for out of the box. No Quicksilver required.
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Michael said 7:51AM on 5-23-2007
Re: James question - Replicate desktop machine to laptop
You could boot the desktop off the laptop. To do this, turn on the laptop with the T key held down and connect a FireWire cable between the desktop and the laptop.
Advantage: Both systems are exactly the same.
Disadvantage: You might run into trouble with different driver versions etc., but this shouldn't be a problem if the laptop is newer than the desktop.
Disadvantage: This only works between two Intel Macs or two PowerPC Macs.
Disadvantage: Nobody can use your desktop if you and your laptop are not at home.
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Ricky said 8:33AM on 5-23-2007
Regarding Gene's question about mounting external HDs, I have been using a donationware program called SharePoints for years. It works great for this. Check it out: http://hornware.com/sharepoints/
Regarding James' question about syncing two computers, I use the free software Foldershare at www.foldershare.com. Just install this software on the computers you would like to sync, then tell the software which folders to "pair up." The great thing about this software is that it will synchronize your computers wherever they are - even over the internet when you are away from home! It also does everything automatically and instantly. As soon as I edit and save a Word file, the changes are synced. I never have to worry about manual syncs or hourly syncs that could still cause me to lose data. Best of all, it's free, and it also works with Windows machines (I'm currently syncing my iMac with my Thinkpad - works flawlessly).
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vsmith1 said 8:58AM on 5-23-2007
I do use iTunes My Walkman. I find it does the job, I create playlists in iTunes and then get them transferred to my S-E w810i. It means that you can use some of the Smart Playlist features to control things - such as file sizes and types.
I do use ChronoSync. Easy - and the Trial Sync button to see what is going to happen is very useful. This works between folders, shares (even Mac and Windows shares).
I'm also not sure what the System Menu equivalent is - I use LaunchBar and can see what apps are running, recent items; I can also as you suggest - see the System Preference panels with a keystroke. I guess the Dock is the nearest equivalent and if you have hid it (as I do) then Control-F3 will show it.
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Juano said 9:52AM on 5-23-2007
Coming from Windows, I've been using amule for filesharing purposes for a while now. I have opened the ports I need and I still get slow transfer rates.
But worse than the speed is that I find that sometimes my wifi connection ramdomly gets disconnected. I also have this problem if I ran emule through parallels.
Am I missing a configuration? and also, can I get my computer to automatically reconnect to my network?
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DarleenMB said 9:52AM on 5-23-2007
I have an external drive on our iMac and when I network my Mini to the iMac it does NOT show the external drive in the list of mountable drives. The drive in question is a LaCie Porsche (I have 2 on my Mini) and I did not reformat it when I initially hooked it up. I just assumed that's why it doesn't show up.
I'm wondering if that's the same problem Gene is having.
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jit82 said 9:54AM on 5-23-2007
My comment is a question for next week, although I'll take any ideas.
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Paulpro said 12:47PM on 5-23-2007
"It will warn you that you're going to loose all of your edits"
You may want to change 'loose' to 'lose'. Proper English and all.
As well, Option-F15 will jump to the Displays Preference Pane, and Option-any volume control button will jump to the Sound Preference Pane in System Preferences.
From there it's a simple Command-L to 'Show All'. You can even type Command-L immediately after the first command and it will send the 'Show All' command as soon as System Preferences loads.
However, as Josh mentioned in comment #2, "Control+F2 for the apple menu, or Control+F3 for the dock" could be helpful as well.
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pixelslut said 1:08PM on 5-23-2007
@7:
By default you wont see anything other than your User homes in the mount dialog unless you are logging in with an admin user. This is because shares for drives and other folders are not created autmatically for you other than for user homes - you need to create them yourself.
You can either:
1.) Read up on the OpenDirectory/NetInfo Manager and learn how to make the proper export entries yourself.
2.) Get Sharepoints (www.hornware.com) which provides a GUI frontend to do all that stuff for you via and application and corresponding System Preferences Pane.
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Rob said 8:07PM on 5-23-2007
Hello,
I have a question for AT (Ask TUAW). I want to autolaunch an application when I install it. Many programs in the Windows world have a simple checkbox that says 'run when install is complete'. Checking that checkbox will start the program after it has installed. I want this feature on my Mac. It is very cumbersome to drag the file into the application folder and then go find it. I know that if I hold the dragged file over the application folder, the folder will 'open up' and I will be able to see the applications in there. Well, I have a lot of apps and I still have to scroll down to my application that I just installed and launch it.
Rob
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Steve Mills said 11:17PM on 5-23-2007
Re: Tony's question
Um, wasn't he asking how to move focus to the menubar? I see the phrase "system menu" in his question, not "system preferences". Like a couple others have said, that's done with control-F2. It's right there in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse system pref. You might first have to hit control-F1 to turn on full keyboard access (or visit Keyboard Shortcuts to turn it on).
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DG said 11:21AM on 5-24-2007
I believe previous comments were correct about the control-escape being the menu, but if someone did want the system preferences as a shortcut, you could add an "All applications" keyboard shortcut for it in the Keyboard Shortcuts part of the Mouse and Keyboard preferences because it's in the system menu.
You'd have to type it exactly as it appears in the menu, including the trailing periods. It doesn't take effect for currently running apps including the finder until they are restarted (so you could log out and back in to get it working properly).
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shannon vice said 10:15PM on 6-02-2007
I just received a verizon motorola slvr lc7. It is preloaded to work only with XP. A cingular version of this same phone does work with iTunes/Mac. Is there any way to switch my XP WinMeia Player phone software to iTunes?
thank you for your help.
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