toolbar posts

Filed under: Mac 101

Mac 101: Where'd my send button go?

by Robert Palmer (RSS feed) on Sep 28th, 2008

More Mac 101, TUAW's series for beginners. My mom called me up last week with this question about Mail: "Where did my send button go?"

Turns out she had mistakenly clicked the white chiclet (pictured) in the upper-right hand corner of her message's compose window, hiding her toolbar. When she clicked it once, Mail remembered her settings and hid the toolbar for other message windows, too.

So, just clicking that chiclet showed the toolbar again, and brought her send button back. Magic.

Also, you can hold down command and click the same chiclet to show and hide icons and text labels in the toolbar. Repeatedly clicking with the command key held down cycles through all your options.

Now that my mom is happily sending emails again, I can sleep well knowing all about the new Bob's Big Boy and the local woman who was on Survivor.

Tags: button, disappeared, hide, label, mail, missing, send, show, toolbar

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, Freeware, Leopard, Developer

Refresh Finder is ready to refresh Leopard's Finder, too

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Nov 13th, 2007

Reader Fredrik L sends word (thanks!) that Samuel Svensson is back from India, and that means his little mini-application, Refresh Finder, has been updated and is Leopard-ready.

There's not much more to say about this one-- you can probably guess what Refresh Finder does from its name, and while it is small and simple, it's also proof positive that even small and simple things can make life a lot easier. Keeping your Finder windows up to date isn't hard, but it's definitely helpful.

Tags: application, icon, leopard, refresh-finder, samuel-svensson, simple, small, toolbar

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Apple, Developer

Cabel's Coda toolbar and the Three Pixel Conundrum

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 11th, 2007

Panic's Cabel Sasser has updated his blog (finally! His Miis were cute and all, but I was tired of seeing them every day) with a really interesting post about how he designed the toolbar for the everything-web-development tool that apparently is the bee's knees, Coda.

Instead of using the standard rounded bevel of OS X's unified toolbar, Sasser decided he wanted to do something a little different, and created a tab-ish vertical indent. Unfortunately, the way OS X's toolbars work didn't vibe with his idea (there were just three pixels at the bottom that couldn't be edited the way he wanted), so the Panic team ended up developing their own entire toolbar. That, he says, is why you can't rearrange the icons in Coda-- because the app isn't using the system toolbar.

But the best part is saved for last. All the hard work paid off, because even though Sasser had to drive his team nuts just to figure out a way to get around those three pixels, Apple eventually agreed with him. And the new toolbar in Leopard looks strangely familiar. Great story, and a real shot in the arm to developers who might not otherwise be pushed to bother with all the coding required to get the look they want exactly right.

[ via DF ]

Tags: cabelsasser, coda, code, design, developer, development, leopard, os x, OsX, panic, toolbar

Filed under: OS, Software, Tips and tricks, Mods

Tip: Easily cycle through toolbar icon sizes and formats

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 30th, 2007

Steven Frank has been blogging a number of Coda-related tips since Panic released this ground-breaking app last week. Fortunately for the non-code ninjas in the crowd, Steven's tips haven't been all PHP and CSS-obsessed, however, as he just released this handy gem that I've never seen before. Apparently, in most Mac OS X apps (probably the Cocoa-based ones, so Firefox is out), you can cmd-click the 'standard toolbar widget' in the upper right of the window (the one that looks like a throat lozenge) to cycle through all the different states of toolbar buttons. Large icons + text, small icons with no text and even two different sizes of text-only buttons are all readily available for you to customize in most apps.

This is a handy tip especially for me since I *hate* how large Apple made the default icon size in the toolbar, and I previously was right-clicking and chosing 'Use Small Icons' in every single one of my apps. Until a developer comes to my rescue with some sort of AppleScript that can set the default icon size in every app to what I believe it should be, this tip is the next best thing. Thanks Steven!

Tags: coda, icons, mac, os x, OsX, size, sizes, toolbar

Filed under: Productivity, Tips and tricks, Mac 101

Mac 101: Applications in the Finder toolbar

by Mat Lu (RSS feed) on Apr 14th, 2007

Last year (pre Mac 101) we told you about the ability to customize your Finder toolbar with folders for quick access, but you can also put applications there to use with drag and drop operations. For instance, in my Finder tool bar I have AppZapper, ImageWell, and Path Finder. This way I can easily uninstall applications, do simple image edits (especially resizing), or reveal the file in Path Finder just by dragging things onto the appropriate icon. This can be a real time saver for any applications you use regularly, particularly by drag and drop.

To customize your Finder toolbar, just right-click on an empty area of the toolbar and choose "Customize Toolbar..." You'll want to have another Finder window open to your Applications folder and then you can just drag and drop application icons from the other Finder window onto the toolbar of the window with the customize sheet open.

Update: As several folks have rightly pointed out you don't need to use the "Customize Toolbar..." command, though I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that Apple officially recommended doing it this way.

Tags: Finder, Mac 101, Mac101, toolbar

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

Google Toolbar 3 official rele- no wait, it's a beta

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Dec 13th, 2006

Google has released version 3 of their Firefox Toolbar, a handy collection of Googlefied tools that tie into their ever-expanding lineup of services. This update ushers in some significant new features, including:

A Bookmarks menu (finally!) for their del.icio.us-like Google Bookmarks service (notice I didn't say 'del.icio.us killer')
A very functional Send To button with which you can easily share a page or excerpt via email, text message or their own Blogger service
A Google Docs & Spreadsheets button that can open "most popular file types" right inside Firefox, including those you drag into the browser or even (optionally) double click from the Finder
A master sign-in button for your Google Account

Also apparently new in this version are custom buttons you can add to the toolbar yourself. In fact, once you install it and restart Firefox, you can right-click in our search field at the top of TUAW and add our site as a custom search to Google's Toolbar. Searching TUAW has never been so easy!

[Update: There is a little confusion as to how to actually get this new version. On the download page for Google Toolbar, be sure to click the Try the new Google Toolbar beta! link, not the big blue button that says "Download Google Toolbar." I imagine they keep the two versions separate so they don't force everyone into living on the bleeding edge.]

Tags: beta, firefox, google, google toolbar, GoogleToolbar, toolbar

Filed under: Software

Create custom folders with FolderBrander

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Apr 19th, 2006

Here's a good idea. We all know that the Finder will let us put references to folders in both the Dock and Finder window sidebars. However, a row of generic folders in the Dock looks just like that...a row of generic folders. How do you know which is which? If you don't feel like hunting around for the perfect freeware desktop icon that says "2005 tax stuff,", check out FolderBrander.

It's a simple utility that lets you quickly add color or text to a folder's icon. The sliders let you position/skew your text so it looks right, and it will even work if you aren't using the default Aqua icons. Now your folders are identifiable at a glance.

FolderBrander requires Mac OS 10.3 or later and a single license will cost you $9.95US.

Tags: desktop icon, DesktopIcon, dock, finder, folderbrander, icon, sidebar, toolbar

Filed under: OS, TUAW Tips

TUAW Tip: Customize the Finder's toolbar, too

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Feb 20th, 2006

Dave Caolo showed you how to take control of the Finder's sidebar a couple weeks back. Today, I wanted to shed the same light on the Finder's toolbar, as you can customize it and add some tools not found in a default Mac OS X installation.

The first thing I like to do is add 'other' kinds of folders (and files) up there, such as my Library, that I don't necessarily want in my sidebar. To do this, you can drag a file or folder up next to the buttons in the Finder, and wait a second - you won't receive instantaneous feedback like you do when adding something to the sidebar. After a second or so, the Finder's search box will move over farther to the right (like when you add something to the Dock), signifying that you can now add that item to the toolbar.

You can also add a few more tools to the Finder toolbar by right-clicking on it (just like many other application windows) and choosing "Customize Toolbar." You will be presented with a whole set of handy buttons and actions you can drag and drop to add such as eject, get info, connect to server, burn and more. Even though we covered how to get a file or folder's path by command-clicking on a window's title bar icon, I also like to add the Path button to the Finder's toolbar with this trick for one more level of convenience.

Since I'm willing to bet that I haven't covered all the Finder toolbar tricks, feel free to share yours in the comments.

Tags: customize, Finder, tips, toolbar, TUAW Tip, TuawTip

Tip of the Day

Holding the Command key (aka the Apple key) and pressing Tab will cycle through your open applications. It's easier to Cmd-Tab if you are Copy (Cmd-C) and Pasting (Cmd-V) to and from various applications.

Learn More

TUAW flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Featured Galleries

TUAW bloggers (30 days)

#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Steven Sande	51	4
2	Dave Caolo	36	1
3	Mel Martin	31	0
4	Mike Schramm	31	0
5	TJ Luoma	24	31
6	Joachim Bean	18	2
7	Michael Rose	17	15
8	Victor Agreda, Jr.	17	7
9	Erica Sadun	16	2
10	Josh Carr	13	22
11	David Winograd	11	17
12	Ken Ray	11	2
13	Sang Tang	11	1
14	Brett Terpstra	9	8
15	Megan Lavey	5	9
16	Tim Wasson	4	1
17	Chris Ullrich	4	1
18	John Burke	4	3
19	Kent Pribbernow	4	0
20	Lauren Hirsch	3	0

More Apple Analysis

AAPL on BloggingStocks The Apple category feed from BloggingStocks.com
AAPL Quote, News & Summary The AAPL financials page from AOL Money and Finance
iPhone analysis from BloggingStocks iPhone tag feed from BloggingStocks
Macintosh news and reviews on Download Squad The Macintosh category feed from Download Squad

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)