Migrating to new mac

Copy Mail over:
copy entire mail folder over from HD/Users/~/Library/Mail
copy over ~/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

Safari Bookmarks:

Copy ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist from one Mac to the other.

Mac startup problems

Mywork MacBook Pro wouldn’t boot up.  It was hung on the gray screen with the apple logo and the spinner spinning.  THIS article told me what to try and fortunately, the save-boot did the trick.  However the safeboot booted into the blue screen and I had a mouse cursor I could move but Finder did not appear.  I turned it off and back on and it came up all the way. This article has more details on the problem.

Update: Next day wouldn’t boot up at all. Was stuck on blue screen.  I took the following steps to backup files:

• Reboot and hold down <Command> S to boot into Single User Mode shell
• /sbin/fsck -fy
• mount -uw /  ; Make drive writeable
• mkdir /Volumes/usb
• ls /dev/disk*   ; Locate usb drive, should be last one listed
• /sbin/mount_msdos /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/usb
• cp -r srcFolderName /Volumes/usb
• /sbin/umount /dev/disk2s1  ; !!! Important. Unmount before removing drive

Connecting to Windows machines on network after upgrading to Leopard

After upgrading my MacBook Pro from  Tiger (10.4) to Leopard (10.5.8), I was no longer able to see the other Windows machines on my network.  What appeared to  work  is  to select Sharing from the System  Preferences, clicking the  Options button and turning on Share files and folders using SMB. Then in the Finder menu selecting Go…Connect to Server… and entering smb://ComputerName for each. This doesn’t seem to be permanent between reboots however.

Here is a thread discussing this issue.

One suggestion from the thread is to go System Preferences…Network and select Assist Me at the bottom.  Trying to setup a connection sets some values (DHCP?) which may fix things.

Connecting to Mac File Sharing from Vista PC

I've been befuddled by Vista, unable to connect to my MacBook Pro from my Vista laptop.  I could always connect from the MacBook to my Vista laptop, though.  Connection issues has been a source of pain for me ever since I started using Vista.

I searched and came across this tip that solved all my problems!  Thanks Matt!

1. “Click Windows Visa Start Orb
2. In search box, type “regedit” and return
3. Once regedit opens, click File -> export to make a backup copy
4. Navigate to Computer HKEYLOCALMACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Lsa.
5. In the right pane, right-click the “LmCompatibilityLevel” key and select “modify”
6. Change the value from 3 to 1
7. Exit regedit and you should now be able to properly authenticate to your Mac OS X (or other Samba) share.”

Copy a file path to the clipboard on a Mac

The Mac does not support copying a file or folder’s path to the clipboard; weird.  Get Info separates the path from the filename and doesn’t allow you to select either.  There are various workarounds.  This thread discusses some.  I went with this solution which offered a "workflow" file download which I opened in Automater and saved it as a context menu for Finder.

It was suggested that you can drag and drop into a terminal window and then copy paste the path that displays.  You can do this with any program that offers an editbox control.  For example open TextEdit, do File…Save As and drag and drop to the filename EditBox which you can then copy to clipboard from.

BTW, if you ever need to drag & drop into a widget, start dragging then hit F12 to switch to the widgets screen.

Update:  Today an article came out in MacWorld on this subject.  Their first suggestion using Finder Services didn’t work for me.  I just get an icon of a folder or file and when I put TextEdit into plain text mode I get nothing.  Also, the workflow solution I linked to above gives a HFS (colon separated) path,  whereas the article has an example of a script generating a "POSIX" path.  You can download the POSIX version here (thanks Scott) and copy it to ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder/.

Pixen: A Free image editor for Mac

I am using Pixen for image editing on the Mac.  Like others that have written, I was surprised that no such program was included in the Mac OS.  I’ve just barely started using it but it so far it does what I need.  I was particularly impressed with the getting started wizard that took you through an overview of the program and  allowed you to set some program settings at the same time!  I model of what all programs should offer.  The only think I would recommend is showing a Page X of Y on each wizard page to let the user know how long it is.

Update:  Paintbrush is a nice alternative that emulates the Windows Paint program

Archives in Cocoa

If you need to save and load data from files, and you don’t mind creating binary files (don’t need to read or edit them), then Archives are the simplest way to go.

Load contents of file into an NSArray:

    NSArray* m_ProcessedFiles = [NSKeyedUnarchiver unarchiveObjectWithFile:destPath];

Save contents of array to file:

    [NSKeyedArchiver archiveRootObject:m_ProcessedFiles toFile:srcPath];       

Shortcut for renaming a file in Finder

Incredibly, it’s taken me until now to learn the equivalent of F2 in Windows to put a filename in "edit" mode in Finder.  You simply press the <Enter> key with the appropriate file highlighted.  Good Grief.

Listing folders first in Finder column view

I have to agree with this thread regarding the order of folders/files in Finder.  I much prefer seeing a list of folders at the top followed by the files.  I like the idea someone posted of preceeding folder names with an underscore to force them to the top. I may do that.

General Mac tips

Managing desktop

Use Expose to help access open windows: System Preferences…Dashboard & Expose.  I use the upper left corner of the screen to show all windows and the lower left corner to view desktop.

Keyboard shortcuts

<fn><delete> will do a forward delete
<fn><option><delete> deletes word to right of cursor
<Left Arrow>/<Right Arrow> to open/close folders in finder
Cmd+[, Cmd+] to move backward and forward in finder history

Secrets Preferences Pane – turn on showing of hidden files in finder and much more

How to Print Screen to a file on the desktop in Mac OS X

The basic functionality of taking a screen capture of a window or desktop in Mac OS X takes an image and dumps it to a file on the Mac desktop. Each uses the pressing of Command and Shift keys concurrently as the basis for execution, followed by a number:

• Command+Shift+3: takes a screenshot of the full screen (or screens if multiple monitors), and save it as a file to the desktop
• Command+Shift+4: brings up a selection box so you can specify an area to take a screenshot of, then save it as a file to the desktop
• Command+Shift+4, then spacebar, then click a window: takes a screenshot of a window only and saves it as a file to the desktop

How to Print Screen to the Clipboard on a Mac

This functions a lot more like Print Screen in the Windows world. If you want to do the equivalent of Print Screen to the clipboard so that you can paste it into another app, these are the commands you’d want to use:

• Command+Control+Shift+3: take a screenshot of the entire screen (screens if multiple monitors), and saves it to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere
• Command+Control+Shift+4, then select an area: takes a screenshot of selection and saves it to the clipboard for pasting elsewhere
• Command+Control+Shift+4, then space, then click a window: takes a screenshot of a window and saves it to the clipboard for pasting

Show hidden files

Open Terminal window and type:  defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE