Sharing screen grabs and screencasts is a great way to show someone exactly how to do something with their Macs. You've got several choices for screencast software (here's a list of posts in our screencast category), but snapping a simple screen grab is much simpler.
Using Apple's Grab application you have a few options:
Shift + Command + 3 produces a snapshot of the whole screen
Shift + Command + 4 produces a crosshair that you can drag over a specific area of your screen
Shift + Command + 4 followed by the space bar turns the crosshair into a camera
Number three will let you grab a single window. The problem is that it includes that window's shadow, which you might not want. Fortunately, MacOSXHints has described how to exclude the shadow. A single line typed in the Terminal will get the job done.
That's great and all, but for some real fun, take a screenshot of a collegue's desktop, move all his desktop icons onto his hard drive, set your screenshot as the desktop image and feign ignorace while he clicks furiously on his "icons." You're welcome.
As we know, the Finder offers four ways to display your files. Namely icon view, list view, column view, and Cover Flow. Perhaps you prefer one over the others (let's say column view), but your windows open to icon view by default. That can be annoying but here's how to fix it.
First, open a new Finder window. Next, select your preferred display method and then close the window without doing anything else. Don't open a folder, drag an icon, nothing. Now subsequent Finder windows will default to your preferred setting.
You want to open a file on the desktop from within a given application. Let's say Microsoft Word (it could happen). So, you select "Open" from the File menu. However, it selects the directory you last accessed with this method - the Documents folder. Don't reach for that mouse! A simpler solution is to hit Command-D to jump to the Desktop's files. Note that this works in Save dialog windows, too.
"How long does it take for me to move to and from the mouse?" you ask. The answer is just a second or two. But those seconds add up over the course of a day, a week, a year.
Here's a quick and unobtrusive way to grab some information about your machine. As you may know, you can select "About this Mac" from the Apple Menu to produce a small window which lists your version of the Mac OS, your processor type and speed plus the amount of memory installed. You could click "More Info..." to launch System Profiler and gain more information, or try this.
Click the version number field and it changes to the OS X build number. Click it again, and your machine's serial number is displayed.
But the fun doesn't stop there! You can gain even more information from the login window (accessible when you first start your machine or after logging out). Clicking the field under "Mac OS X" there reveals
Your computer's name
The OS version
Build number
Serial number
IP address
Any available network accounts
Date and time
Don't you just love Finder tricks and OS easter eggs?
We tested this under Mac OS 10.5.2, so if your experience is different, let us know what version of the OS you're using as well as what you found.
If you work like I do, then you have a hierarchy of folders contained in a single folder that allows you to manage project files, notes, etc. Well, when it comes time to chunk those old files, normally you have to manually go through and remove them; this task can become daunting if you have multiple project folders. I am going to show you an easier way. In this how-to, we'll cover how to create an AppleScript that will allow you to remove folders that are older than 30 days.
Continue reading to learn how to create this AppleScript.
Here's a tip for those who take a tidy desk to the extreme. When you've got multiple Finder windows open, you can apply an action to all of them at once.
Press Command-Option-W to immediately close all windows. Likewise, if you hold down the Option key while pressing the red, yellow and green buttons in the upper left hand corner of a Finder window, you apply the corresponding action to all open windows
Option + yellow minimizes all windows to the Dock
Option + green maximizes all windows
Option + red closes all windows
Keep your desktop neat and tidy by dismissing all open Finder windows in a snap.
Forklift, the split-pane file manager with support for multiple network protocols, is officially at version 1.5 now. We covered the initial release a while back, and we're excited about the progress it's made. With an interface update (Leopard goodness) and some behind-the-scenes tweaks, it's turning into a sweet piece of work.
Forklift has always been of interest to me, with its support for SFTP and Amazon S3, but my previous experiences with Forklift had shown it to display a tendency toward a little sluggishness and the occasional poorly-timed crash. This latest version has not only been stable for me, but has been snappy. And by that I mean speedy to the extreme, especially when dealing with (S)FTP servers and S3. Ten times faster on remote transfers, actually, according to their own benchmarks.
Quick Look and FXP Copy (server-to-server file transfer) round out a great feature set. If you're looking for a Finder add-on/replacement (or a great FTP client), definitely download the trial. At $29.95, it's quite reasonably priced for what it can do. And for current users the upgrade is free and will fix quite a few shortcomings you may have noticed thus far. Version 1.5 is Leopard-only, but 1.2 is still available for our striped friends.
Here's a nifty idea to add a little organization to your Finder sidebar. Since it does not natively support separators, one fellow decided to hack up a solution by creating some fake applications whose icons are transparent and whose names consist of line characters. You can then drag and drop these on the sidebar to give the desired effect.
It's a small thing, but a nice one for keeping your Finder sidebar visually tidy. The package also contains a nifty little AppleScript application that will launch the Terminal at the location of a folder dropped on it.
Here's a task that most computer users run into on a daily basis: cropping and dealing with small image tweaks. This could be a daunting task if it were not for the Mac and Automator. In this how-to, I will show you how to make a small Finder plug-in that will allow you to manipulate images quickly. Please note, some of the actions required for this how-to are dependent upon Pixelmator being installed.
For this automation, you will need the following Automator actions (in the same order):
Get Selected Finder Items
Transform Images (this action is only available when you install Pixelmator)
Now that you've been introduced to Automator, let's let's get into the "nitty-gritty." In the previous Automator post, we learned how to make a workflow that would take photos from your camera, import them into iPhoto, then allow you to e-mail them. Let's look at the three ways in which you can save this workflow for later reference.
Workflow File You can save the workflow as an actual Automator workflow file by clicking File > Save; choose "workflow" from the format drop-down menu. By saving as an Automator workflow all of your actions are preserved, and when you re-open the file, you will be presented with your workflow just as you left it. This is a great way to save your workflow for editing later on.
The guys over at Cocoatech have released an update to their excellent Finder replacement Path Finder that adds a couple of absolute gem features in Leopard. First, Path Finder now supports the brilliant Quick Look feature. Better yet, Path Finder now integrates with the OS in that it can now intercept the "Show in Finder" calls from other applications and direct them to Path Finder. What this means it that those little magnifying glass icons in, for example, the Safari downloads window (right) will now take you to Path Finder instead of the regular Finder. This even works on Stacks where the "More in Finder" button again goes to Path Finder.
While there were some Input Manager style hacks that had previously allowed similar functionality, this is the first time this has really worked seamlessly with the OS. Thanks, apparently, is due to Apple themselves for making this possible with Leopard.This really opens the door to replacing the Finder wholesale in Leopard with Path Finder.
Path Finder 4.8.2 is available for download in a demo. It's a free update for registered users of PF4, $17.95 for upgrades from earlier versions of PF, and $34.95 for a full version.
Posted Oct 26th 2007 11:00AM by Mat Lu Filed under: OS, Leopard
Feature: The new Finder How it works: People have been complaining about the Finder since OS X was first released. Finally, Leopard brings a variety of long-awaited features. Perhaps most important is the one-two punch Quick Look and Cover Flow, but there are a many other new features as well. The new Finder takes its design cues from iTunes, with the sidebar now looking very much just like the source list. Taking a cue from Cocoatech's Path Finder, Leopard adds a live path bar to the bottom of the Finder windows. There are also new folder view settings and the option to make particular folders sharable.
Who will use it: Everyone, and while it's unlikely all the critics will be fully satisfied, the improvements will likely make third-party Finder replacements seem less necessary.
Leopard may be just around the corner but we're not ignoring you readers who aren't ready to upgrade. Here's a quick tip for those of you who plan on staying in Tiger land. Sometimes you want to view pictures by previewing them directly in Finder. To automatically view the largest possible preview, just double-tap the column resizing handle at the bottom right of the preview image. This automatically maximizes the picture without affecting your other columns.
Scott Stevenson has dropped a pretty handy Finder-like view interface for Cocoa applications called THCanvasView. I don't do a ton of Cocoa programming, but even I can see how handy this is-- Scott's coded almost all the functionality of Finder, including resizing of icons, image previews, Cocoa bindings awareness, and repositioning within the view, and it's available right there as a free download under a BSD license for your own application.
He's also included a short wrapper app called CorkBoard designed just to show off what the viewer does. Very cool indeed. If you're working on a new Cocoa application (at least before Leopard comes out and shows us all how applications should really look in 2008), it could be just what you're looking for in a file interface.
Our love of Quicksilver, the sometimes inscrutable application launcher (and much more) runs deep, but Daniel over at waferbaby has us beat. It would seem Daniel isn't a big fan of the Finder and he is crazy for Quicksilver. Clearly, it took the next obvious step and replaced the Finder with Quicksilver. Read his post for the details, but be warned it isn't for the faint of heart.
Sharing screen grabs and screencasts is a great way to show someone exactly how to do something with their Macs. You've got several choices for screencast software (here's a list of posts in our screencast category), but snapping a simple screen grab is much simpler.
As we know, the Finder offers four ways to display your files. Namely icon view, list view, column view, and Cover Flow. Perhaps you prefer one over the others (let's say column view), but your windows open to icon view by default. That can be annoying but here's how to fix it.
You want to open a file on the desktop from within a given application. Let's say Microsoft Word (it could happen). So, you select "Open" from the File menu. However, it selects the directory you last accessed with this method - the Documents folder. Don't reach for that mouse! A simpler solution is to hit Command-D to jump to the Desktop's files. Note that this works in Save dialog windows, too. 
Here's a quick and unobtrusive way to grab some information about your machine. As you may know, you can select "About this Mac" from the Apple Menu to produce a small window which lists your version of the Mac OS, your processor type and speed plus the amount of memory installed. You could click "More Info..." to launch System Profiler and gain more information, or try this.
Here's a tip for those who take a tidy desk to the extreme. When you've got multiple Finder windows open, you can apply an action to all of them at once.
Here's a nifty idea to add a little organization to your Finder sidebar. Since it does not natively support separators, one fellow decided to 
Here's a task that most computer users run into on a daily basis: cropping and dealing with small image tweaks. This could be a daunting task if it were not for the Mac and Automator. In this how-to, I will show you how to make a small Finder plug-in that will allow you to manipulate images quickly. Please note, some of the actions required for this how-to are dependent upon Pixelmator being installed. 
The guys over at Cocoatech have released an update to their excellent Finder replacement 
Feature: The new 
Our love of 
