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Filed under: Terminal Tips

Terminal Tip: Enable half-star ratings in iTunes

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Dec 31st, 2008

Do you like giving ratings to songs in iTunes? If so, then you've probably noticed that you are only able to rate songs on a full-star basis, not enough granularity for some music fans... there's a longstanding AppleScript hack to enable half-stars, but now there's an easier way around this issue. Macworld's Rob Griffiths found a work around, involving a simple Terminal tip to enable half-star ratings.

To enable half-star ratings, close iTunes, and open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities). Once you have Terminal opened, type the following command and press enter: 
defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE
When you reopen iTunes and rate a song, you will be able to give half-stars. That simple. If you wish to make things normal again, open Terminal and type the same command, replacing "TRUE" with "FALSE."

Tags: half-star rating, Half-starRating, iTunes, ratings, start, Terminal, Terminal Tips, TerminalTips

Filed under: Tips and tricks, Troubleshooting

"My Mac Won't Start!" pocket guide

by Dan Lurie (RSS feed) on Jun 19th, 2006

For their 100th QuickTips email newsletter, Seattle area mac support agency CreativeTechs has published a handy little  troubleshooting guide that fits neatly in your shirt pocket. The "My Mac Won't Start!" pocketmod tiny guide is available as a free PDF download, and covers basic troubleshooting steps such as starting up in safe mode, single user mode, booting from an external device, and attempting to view the machine using target disk mode.

The QuickTips newsletter is something I've been subscribed to for a few months now, and it never fails to bring new insight into the way I use my Mac. Although aimed at creative professionals, the mailer has tips that are applicable to almost everybody, no matter their profession.

Tags: creative, guide, mac, my, my mac wont start, MyMacWontStart, osx, pocketmod, quick, start, techs, tiny, tips, troubleshooting

Filed under: Productivity, Terminal Tips

Remapping Key Combinations

by Fabienne Serriere (RSS feed) on Mar 13th, 2006

Some people may think I am pro-*nix, but actually I really just like getting information out there for all our readers. Today I came across a great tip on Switch about Windows-like key bindings. If you don't dig the way Apple has the start and end key combos mapped in OS X, you can change them by creating the file ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict with the following contents:

/* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict - Home/End keys more like Windows */
{
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* home */
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /* end */
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* shift home */
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /* shift end */
"^\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:"; /* control home */
"^\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";/* control end */
}

I personally tested this key binding hack in 10.4.4 and it does work. To test it be sure to quit out of your text application first. Also note that you will have to create a KeyBindings/ directory in your ~/Library/ because it is not there by default. To reverse the key bindings back to normal, just delete the DefaultKeyBinding.dict file you created and restart your text application. If there is a simpler GUI way to create these modifications please post about it in the comments for our readers.

If on the other hand you live in Terminal like me, the start of line and end of line key bindings are Control-A and Control-E respectively. This should feel comfortable to people accustomed to the normal Emacs mode in a shell in other *nix based operating systems.

[via Switch and comments on Ask Slashdot]

Tags: end, endofline, keybinding, keycombinations, start

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