While Front Row's integration with iTunes and iPhoto provides a nice, seamless experience, there are times when your needs demand a not-so-integrated approach -- say, for example, if you have an external hard drive full of videos that you'd like to watch on Front Row, but don't necessarily want to import into iTunes or copy into your Movies.

One solution to this is to create an alias that points to said external hard drive or any other folder on your computer or network. For new PC-to-Mac converts, an alias is the equivalent of a "shortcut" on Windows. To create an alias, right-click on the file or folder (in our case, folder) and select "Make Alias." Now, place said alias in the your Movies folder, which is located in /Users/username/Movies.

Now, you'll be able to browse and play movies of the folder that the alias points to. And if QuickTime can play the file, then so too can Front Row.

Quick! The boss is coming! Hide your screen! What, you don't have Spaces set up so you can switch to that handy Excel worksheet you've got open? That's okay -- just put your display to sleep.

Of course, there are other reasons to want to quickly turn off your display, but they all have one simple key combination: Control + Shift + Eject.

It works with both desktop and laptop Macs. Moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard wakes it right back up when you're ready.

Of course, if you want to put your whole computer to sleep, you can use Option + Command + Eject. There are other helpful shortcuts, too, in this article deep in the TUAW archives.

Thanks to our own Michael Rose for this one. Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's Mac 101 section.

If you're like me, then you have around 7 home screens. It's annoying to flip back and forth between them to find the Apple apps, which are normally stored on the first home screen.

With the introduction of the new iPhone/iPod touch 2.2 firmware, you now have the ability to jump to the first home screen with one click. No matter which screen you're on, just click the home button again. You will instantly be shuttled back to the first screen. Now you'll never have to flip again.

Want more tips and tricks like this? Visit TUAW's iPhone 101 section.

If you're jonesing for your Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts to work on Windows, or if you just can't give up Apple's keyboard while using Boot Camp, the AppleK Pro keyboard driver for Windows might just be your fix. This little driver allows you to use most Mac OS X shortcuts (such as cmd - shift 3/4 for screenshots and cmd - opt - esc for the Windows Task Manager), and you can even plug in an Apple USB keyboard to keep on truckin' (great for the Boot Camp users in the audience).

My big gripe with AppleK Pro however (besides the logo), is its outlandish $25 price. $5 - sure. $10 - I'd consider it (if I had to use Windows, that is). Even $15 might be reasonable, as long as you throw in the answer to the meaning of life or something. But $25 for some keyboard shortcuts? I might as well buy a new keyboard - at least then I could have one of those cool Matrix-style, multi-keyboard setups and act like I can actually see things when I stare at scrolling Klingon-ish code. Maybe these guys should hook up with MacZOT to cut the Mac shortcut addicts a break.

As I was working on an AppleScript-related post this morning, I couldn't seem to find any TUAW Tips in our vast archives that explained how to enable that AppleScript menubar item (pictured) that is mentioned so often in Mac software circles. This, of course, called for just such a tip.

So: the AppleScript menubar item. It's a very handy tool for accessing all those AppleScripts you hear about that automate this or toggle that. As long as you save those scripts in ~/Library/Scripts (where ~ is your Home folder), they'll appear in this AppleScript menu - once you've enabled it. I personally think this menu item should be included in the default set of every Mac, but I'd wager that Apple sees this as a little too nerdy of a feature to drop on brand new users. Fair enough.

To enable this menu (nerd) in Tiger, go to /Applications/Applescript and open the AppleScript Utility. It offers a few options for handling AppleScripts, including turning on this menu and the order in which the menu displays scripts from both the default system level /Library/Scripts (in your main hard drive) and your personal ~/Library/Scripts folder. If you're on 10.3 (Panther), I *think* you have an /Applications/AppleScript folder, but instead of a full-blown AppleScript Utility app, it's an AppleScript called 'Install Menu' or something similar. Back on Tiger in the AppleScript Utility - you don't worry about the GUI Scripting option unless you come across a script that specifically needs it, though I don't think enabling this for simplicity's sake can harm anything either.

If this process went according to plan, you should now have your very own AppleScript menubar item like I have in the screenshot here. clicking it will offer a simple menu of all the scripts you have between the two directories you chose to display. As long as you enabled your personal Home script directory, any scripts you save there should appear in this menu immediately after saving, ready to carry out your bidding.

With that said, why not check out some of our past AppleScript posts, such as one of my personal favorites: an AppleScript from Fraser Speirs that opens iSync, syncs all your devices (such as a phone or PDA), then quits iSync. If you use an application launcher such as Quicksilver, you can tie handy scripts like these to Triggers (system-wide keyboard shortcuts) for even more convenience.

If you've ever wished for the ability to go to the next unread message in Mail, instead of having to shuffle through all the unread ones, some enterprising AppleScript.net forum members have put together a script that might go well with your favorite app/script launcher, such as FastScripts.

I tried this out with my preferred everything-launcher, Quicksilver, and it worked like a charm. I saved the script in Script Editor, then simply added it as a Trigger in Quicksilver with a keyboard shortcut. This has the fortunate side effect of being accessible from anywhere in the OS, so when I press my hotkey, Mail comes to the front and moves to the next unread message in the selected mailbox. Here's hoping Apple's Mail engineering team is listening and has something a little more integrated cooked up for Leopard's Mail.

[via Hawk Wings]

We here at TUAW are suckers for productive shortcuts, and since yesterday's System Preferences tip was such a hit, I thought I'd post a few shortcuts to speed up the Sleep, Restart and Shut Down commands. There's actually quite a few ways to accomplish these tasks, so I'll try to mention all the methods I've heard of.

The first: hold the option key while selecting Restart or Shut Down from the Apple Menu to bypass the 'Are You Sure?' dialog, and cut right to the chase. You even get visual feedback in the Apple Menu; click the menu, then press the option key to see the trailing dots disappear from those two commands (as far as I know, this is a typical UI feedback element used throughout the OS; any commands - at least in Cocoa apps - that have keyboard modifiers will change their appearance in the menu if you press the modifier before choosing the option).

The second method is my personal favorite: 100% keyboard shortcuts. Here's a list:

• Sleep = opt + cmd + eject
• Restart = ctrl + cmd + eject
• Shut Down = ctrl + opt + cmd + eject

The third method, involving the power key, can still be counted as a keyboard shortcut, but since I almost never touch the power key (I Sleep my Macs about 99% of the time via my aforementioned favorite method), I don't really consider it part of my typical keystroke regimen. For you power key lovers out there, you can press your Mac's power key, and at the resulting 'Are you sure?' dialog that contains four buttons (Restart, Sleep, Cancel and Shut Down), you can press the first letters of a couple of these actions. Specifically, 'r' for Restart, 's' for Sleep and Enter for Shut Down. 'C' for Cancel doesn't seem to work, but Esc should get you out of the dialog if you need to keep computing.

Here's hoping you don't have a Homer Simpson-like brain, where each new shortcut you learn knocks out an old one. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on these shortcuts, and enjoy one more trick for working with your Mac just a little bit faster.

This simple tip was actually sent to us by TUAW reader Zoli Honig. It works on my MacBook Pro, and I assume other portables: if you hold the option key while pressing any of the F-key shortcuts for display brightness, keyboard brightness or audio volume settings, System Preferences will open and take you straight to the relevant preference pane. I don't know if this is Mac OS X Tiger only, and I don't have desktop machine to test with, so if you're still on Panther or using some kind of desktop Mac, feel free to share whether this tip works on your machines in the comments.

If Gmail's UI floats your boat but you prefer using a desktop email client for 'no waiting for a refresh' feel, Ken Mixter has developed a Thunderbird extension just for you. The GmailUI extension brings many of the shortcuts and search expressions of Gmail to Mozilla's Thunderbird client. Keyboard shortcuts like J and K for moving up and down through messages, as well as search expressions such as 'subject:' and 'from:' can now be a part of your Thunderbird experience. Ken even went so far as to include Gmail's 'archive' functionality and (oddly) a quick calculation function, right from within Thunderbird's search box.

The extension appears to be completely free, and Ken is accepting feedback and suggestions at his site. Head over to Mozilla's addons site to grab the extension, or check out Ken's site for a lot more details of everything GmailUI is capable of.

[via Gmail.pro]

Hot on the heels of brining Universal status to their Application Enhancer, Unsanity has released UB versions of ClearDock (free) and Menu Master ($10). ClearDock, as you might glean from the name, is a one-trick pony that can strip the dock of its transparent background or allow you to adjust the background and the application triangle color to your liking. Menu Master is a slick utility for assigning, removing and rearranging shortcuts for menu items in any Mac OS X application. It also has a Menu Accelerator feature which allows you to "access menu items by name without using the mouse". Both applications have received feature additions and improvements, as well as bug fixes along with their UB updates.

ClearDock again is free, while Menu Master has a demo available, and a license will run you $10. Both require the previously mentioned Application Enhancer in order to work their magic on your Mac.

Elias Torres has put together a most excellent Google Calendar Quick Add extension for Firefox. If you aren't familiar with gCal's Quick Add feature, it's in the upper left of gCal (or just hit 'q' on your keyboard), and it's great: you can create a new event simply by typing it as a sentence, such as: "dinner with Jane May 1st 6 pm." No tabbing or clicking around to chose numbers and fields. Nice.

Elias' Firefox extension does a great job of enabling this slick Quick Add ability from any other window/tab in Firefox, and so far it works flawlessly, though I have a couple of tips for you. First, make sure you've already opened gCal at least once during your browser session for this extension to work; it re-uses your session cookie instead of prompting for your password. Also, if you open this Quick Add window but decide you don't need to enter an event for one reason or another, simply hit esc to get rid of the window, as its close button doesn't work.

[via Hawk Wings]

Today's tip involves a Mail.app hint I found that I thought was just too handy not to mention. If you use Mail.app and you open some messages in their own window, you might have noticed that if you hit reply, the original message disappears in favor of your new message composition window. Understandably, this is a source of frustration for many a user.

Fortunately, Rob Griffiths over at Macworld has discovered a simple way around this: hold the option key when hitting Reply, Reply All or Forward, and the original message will stay put while a new, separate composition window opens. This makes it a little easier to refer back to the original message, especially if it's lengthy.

This works on Tiger's Mail.app, but I don't have any older versions of Mac OS X to verify this on. Feel free to sound off in the comments if you've tested this on Panther or even Jaguar. My one complaint about this trick: it doesn't seem to work if you use the keyboard shortcut for Reply. Holding option when hitting cmd - r results in that Funk/hault sound, informing me that the shortcut is a no-go. Either way, this should still be a handy trick for you chronic Repliers using Mail.app.

[via Hawk Wings]

Sure, you can simply hit the delete key in Mail.app to send a message to the Trash, then empty the trash or go in and manually delete the message again to remove it for good. Or, you could use a simple, handy little tip that MacOSXHints tracked down to immediately and permanently delete any message from any folder in Mail.app. You simply need to use the cut command (cmd-x) on any number of messages to permanently remove them from Mail, no Trash middle-man required.

Of course, a mild word of caution might be needed here: bypassing the Trash means you're bypassing the trash. That message is gone for good if you use this command, so use it wisely, young Mail.app padawan.

[via Hawk Wings]