Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Ask TUAW: Safari, sorting iPhone favorites, finding HD space, battery care and more
In this edition of Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about Safari's autocomplete of URLs, sorting iPhone favorites entries, freeing up HD space, properly caring for a notebook battery, and more.As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!
ianlive asks
I have a question regarding history in Safari. There are times when I type in a web address that I have been to many times and Safari doesn't seem to remember it. Other times, and this is the more important question, I will clear my history and delete my cookies and yet I still get the odd old web address pop up when I start to type. Is there any other area that I need to clear in order to have a clean slate with Safari? Why do some of these persistent websites stick around and where are they hidden in the Finder?
First, I assume you've used the "Reset Safari..." option from the "Safari" menubar item. If so, is it possible that the old websites are in your bookmarks? Keep in mind that you might have some of Safari's default bookmarks around (the ones that Apple includes automatically with each copy of Safari) if you didn't delete them. Have a look in your Bookmarks to see if any of these "persistent" sites appear there.
RogerC asks
On iPhone: Phone > Favorites Is there a way to re-arrange the favorites phone number list? Either by sorting or click n' drag?
Yes; hit the edit button at the top left. Now all your entries will change to a delete icon on the left and three horizontal bars on the right. You can re-arrange them by dragging on the three bars all the way over on the right.
Quenlin asks
Does anyone know of a Mac program that can cut and chop .avi files? I used to use a program called Virtualdub in Windows to do it. All I need to be able to do is open a movie file, be able to select a chunk of the movie, and then save it to a new file, without any kind of file conversion or re-encoding. So far every program i've found wants to re-encode the file.
It's surprisingly difficult to figure out which applications will save without re-encoding. However, I suggest you check out out MPEG Streamclip (free) from Squared 5. It seems to include an option for saving as distinct from exporting (in fact, the download includes a QuickTime component that seems to add this feature to QuickTime Pro as well). Keep in mind, of course, that AVI is a file container (like MOV) and may be used with different codecs. You'll need to make sure you have the correct codec for your particular files.
akfromrhill asks
Regarding freeing hard drive space... I am using a 2.16 Ghz C2D MBP and I have found my 120 GB HD to be filling up quickly these days with photos and music. I would like to free up some space on my hd, but I am concerned with some of the methods talked about on the web. I have read in multiple places online that Monolingual can be very dangerous when using on OS X 10.5 or higher. Is there any other way to free up every so precious hd space?
Do you use GarageBand and iDVD? If not you can easily gain back a couple of gigs by deleting the associated loops and templates (though of course make sure you don't want to use those applications or back them up to an external disk). The loops are at /Library/Audio/ the iDVD themes are at /Library/Application Support/iDVD/. You can also save a gig or so deleting unneeded Printer Drivers at /Library/Printers/. Again, if you do this you won't be able to use any of those printers, so make sure you know what you're deleting before you do so.
Beyond those three easy targets you should get a file size utility like Disk Inventory X (donations requested), WhatSize ($12.99), GrandPerspective (free) or OmniDiskSweeper ($14.95). These applications will scan your HD and show you the largest files. You may discover some surprisingly large files you've forgotten or lost track of. Again, however, don't delete anything if you don't know what is.
Fredrik asks
Can I use Time Machine for redundant backups in different places? I have a Time Capsule in my office, and I'm thinking of getting an other to have at home in order to get automatic redundant backups whenever I bring my mac from one place or the other. Would that work?
I found this person successfully using Time Machine with different external drives. However, he had to manually change the backup target in Time Machine each time he switched drives. I assume the same thing would be true with the multiple Time Capsules, so unfortunately I don't think it would be as easy as simply connecting to the different wifi networks.
Sven asks
I always wondered, what (re)charge habits are the best for the battery of my MBP. What do you recommend and why? Should the power plug always be inserted as soon as available, or should the battery always get drained until the warning pops up?
Apple has just the Battery Guide for you. Basically, they recommend not leaving it plugged in all the time. You don't have to let it run all the way down each time, but they do seem to think that letting a Lithium-based battery completely discharge once per month is a good idea.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jason said 11:28AM on 11-22-2008
Regarding the Time Machine for redundant backups... I think if the drives are named EXACTLY the same... it will work transparently... I had this working once but that was like 10.5.0, not sure with updates if it still works.
Reply
Brian said 11:32AM on 11-22-2008
I have a question for u guys. I have been getting many crashes from leopard so is there a way to format just my OS X partition and not my Boot Camp so i can reinstall from time machine?
Thanks in advance,
Brian
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Rafe H. said 11:51AM on 11-22-2008
Yes. Boot off the Leopard CD, and after you choose your language select Disk Utility from the menu. Format the partition with OS X on it. The Windows partition will be left untouched.
Kristian Freeman said 11:52AM on 11-22-2008
You should be able to just put in your Leopard disc and choose to reinstall Leopard on that partition. Then when the option comes, restore from a Time Machine backup. As long as you don't choose to reinstall Leopard AND erase all partitions, nothing should ever happen to your Boot Camp partition.
David said 11:46AM on 11-22-2008
I was wondering if I can somehow get back the unneeded printer drivers if I need them again in the future. Is this possible?
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Rafe H. said 11:52AM on 11-22-2008
They're on the Leopard DVD. I think they're available if you run "Optional Installs.mpkg".
Frank said 12:32PM on 11-22-2008
Explicit is a Cocoa application for splitting AVI (DivX, xviD etc) video files.
http://www.sveinbjorn.org/explicit
I've used it successfully a few times in the past - it's free!
Reply
M. Webber said 12:37PM on 11-22-2008
MacBook Air 1.6 Ghz/80 Gb (Early 2008)
Mac OS X 10.5.5
I have a question for you. I recently lended my computer to a friend, so I activated the Guest account. It took off 20 gigabytes of Hard Drive space, and, after he returned it, I deactivated the Guest Account. However, the 20 gigabytes still remained missing, and, having a small hard drive, space is an issue. I looked everywhere to see what was using the 20 gigabytes, and nothing was there (even when I enabled hidden files). I really need the file space, and nothing has been working recently.
Thanks in advance,
M. Webber
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kc said 3:20AM on 11-23-2008
i have the same issue. i have an 80 gig HD, with 23 gigs seeming to be unavailable....
Philip P. said 9:49PM on 11-22-2008
This wont directly help your problem, but it will help you find whats taking up that 20gb (as long as it isnt split between a hell of alot of files)
http://www.derlien.com/
It will create a visual representation of your hard drive, so you can see whats taking up the space.
M. Webber said 9:21AM on 11-23-2008
I have already tried a visual representation of the Hard Drive, but, yet, it does not tell me what is taking up the files. I initially thought it would, but it doesnt. I also tried navigating to the /Users folder, but it wasn't there. Then I tried revealing hidden files and tried the /Users folder again, but nothing was there.
Please, help me!
Josh said 12:52PM on 11-22-2008
I have a quistion-is any 1 else not able to delete emails after the new update? I run iTunes on a vista and I use aol as my email and I use a 2g ipod touch please HELP it started immeadiatly after the update
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Rembert said 1:32PM on 11-22-2008
I have weird network problems with my MBP 2.2. Had them with Tiger, still have them with Leopard.
Occasionally I do lose any (wireless) connectivity to certain websites while I can access other websites at the same time without problems. After a while, say 5 minutes, things are back to normal again.
I checked the inaccessible websites themselves using an ubuntu box on my network: those from-the-mbp-inaccessible websites are up and running according to the ubuntu box. Sometimes it does help to restart the airport, sometimes not. I've never been succesful in solving this issue.
Weird part is: this doesn't happen with all websites. And it doesn't happen at all locations so it seems to be ADSL router related. But why does my MBP experience those problems while all non-osx systems don't?
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Sigbhu said 4:31PM on 11-22-2008
Hi
I want to make small windows like Fonts, Colours, etc in apps like Mail or Journaler HUD. How do i do it?
Sigbhu
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KA said 5:06PM on 11-22-2008
Fonts and Colours are programmatically created, I think, which means they cannot be modified without changing executables, which you shouldn't do. Ever. If anything goes wrong, you're completely screwed.
aaron said 3:36PM on 11-22-2008
Is there any way to set up auto-save in the iwork apps (and textedit)? I've had a couple kernel panics that have wiped out a lot of work already.
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Jesse Stafford said 5:27PM on 11-22-2008
I have office 2008, and I deleted some of the programs that I don't use to free up some disk space, now it won't let me install updates. Is there a way to do a restore of office, or what do I need to do?
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iGO said 6:38PM on 11-22-2008
Regarding saving hard drive space......
I SWEAR by Xslimmer. Has never let me down. The huge upside to this app is that it actually knows which apps not to mess with. Also, it shaves off all the Power PC code too if you are in an Intel platform Nothing worse than having gigabytes of code that your Mac will never use.
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RogerC said 1:05AM on 11-23-2008
Our company uses an Excel spreadsheet which is 10 X 3060 cells to track inventory.
Is there any way this spreadsheet can be accessed on the iPhone effectively?
Trying to access a spreadsheet attached to an email, to find a particular item, by scrolling, is just futile.
I have tried to use Google Docs, GridEdit and Zoho, but the lag time on all is a deal breaker.
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Dave said 10:38PM on 11-22-2008
First off using Excel to track inventory is sort of like trying to drive a railroad spike with a tack hammer. Yeah it works but Excell is far from an ideal database manager.
In any event, at this moment in time, you would need to build a custom app for iPhone. I did hear talk of a spreadsheet app for iPhone but know nothing about it. So continue to search app store.
As to that custom app you can do it yourself or you can contract for somebody to do it for you. It isn't trivial but Apple does have everything in place to do such an app!
Dave