Getting iPod controls to appear on iPhone in Sleep Mode

When the iPhone is in sleep mode (i.e., "locked"), double click on the
home button and iPod controls appear on the screen.

Shortcut to Creating Aliases

To create an alias, click on the icon,
hold down command-option and drag the icon to create an alias

Reformat FAT32 Drive to HFS+ When Disk Utility Gives an Error

I bought a new Seagate 1.5 TB drive (Windows version, which is cheaper than the Mac version, and I don't need firewire). Usually, reformatting a FAT32 Windows drive to Mac's HFS+ format is a snap in Disk Utility. However, it gave me an error and wouldn't format it.

After looking around, I found the solution at
http://www.wilko.com/weblog/index.php?url=archives/112-Reformatting-a-FAT32-drive-to-HFS+-Never-trust-a-GUI.html#feedback

Just open Terminal and type
diskutil eraseDisk "Journaled HFS+" "[DRIVE NAME HERE]" disk1

In about a minute, the drive is HFS+ formatted.

Saving Autorecovery Files - Deeper Safety net

I have MS Word set to save autorecovery files every minute. This works fine if there's an actual crash. But Word deletes these autorecovery files if you close the Word file normally. But what if you do something stupid - like close a file by checking "don't save changes" when you actually did want to save?

Solution: I have Synchronize Pro X set to check every time the backups folder notes a change (i.e., everytime an autorecovery file is created) and to save that to a different folder. That way, you're essentially saving a copy of the file every minute for safekeeping.

Mounting Windows network drives at login (OS X tip)

http://macbitz.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/mounting-network-drives-at-login-os-x-tip/

Noname attachment sent by Apple Mail to Gmail

Someone sent me a .doc file that I couldn't open because of the

way Apple Mail encodes files. 

Here's a site that will decode the file for you.

http://www.rjohnson.id.au/attachment_decoder/

To avoid the problem in the future, here are the instructions:

"Sending via Apple Mail

Before sending attachments via Apple Mail, make sure that under the

menu Edit> Attachments, the option Always Send Windows-Friendly

Attachments is checked. Selecting this option helps to avoid problems

even when the recipient of the email is using a Mac."

Open Mac programs at startup but as hidden
http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/05/01/how-to-automatically-launch-programs-when-os-x-starts/

How to remap keys on Windows keyboard for use with Mac

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/09/11/mac-101-using-your-windows-keyboard/

Syncing iSync/iCal with Razr

Isync couldn't sync with the Razr V3m calendar.

This site shows you how to do it (and provides the key download file)
http://blog.aragirn.net/2007/03/21/razr-v3m-and-isync/

Syncing Google Calendar and iCal (Can then Sync to iPod)

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#

Enable Single Window Mode for Safari

From http://www.mactips.org/ Posted: 10 Oct 2008 05:53 AM CDT

"You may have noticed that some links in Safari absolutely refuse to open in the same window. After a while this can leave you with several windows open at once - which can make your desktop a real mess.

You can, however, change this so that links that would normally open in a new window will now open in a new tab instead.

To do you need to launch the Terminal and type in the following:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Hit return the quit and restart Safari. Now all of your links that would normally open in a new window will open in a new tab. If you want to change back to the previous settings all you have to do is open Terminal and type in:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool false

The close and restart Safari again."

Get rid of "._" files from Mac

The Mac seems to leave a lot of "._" files on windows disks (which was meeting with complaints from our network people). Terminal has a built in command to get rid of these:

dot_clean -m [disk name]

You can find the names of your disks by typing
mdutil -sa

For more info:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/dot_clean.1.html

Update:
Well, this seems to work on local drives but not network drives. I found a utility that (among other things) has a check box that deletes the files off the network and prevents them in the future: http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php

Update2:
Type this command in terminal so that OS X never saves ._DS files on network drives again

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Here's the apple page about this
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1629

Free DVD Ripper - Mac : Handbrake

I needed a free DVD Ripper for the Mac and found a nice one: http://handbrake.fr/
It's easy to use and the quality looks perfect.

Ejecting a disc from iMac

Sometimes the iMac will accept a disc but then not load it; there's
button for manual ejection.

So, open terminal (in utilities) and type "drutil tray eject"

Hibernate option disappears in Vista - Get it back

Click the start button and type "powercfg.exe /hibernate on" in the command/search box and hit control-shift-enter.
Voila, it's back.

Mac Office 2008 Bug - Error Trying to Customize Keyboard

If you try to assign a shortcut through Tools-Customize Keyboard,
Word gives a message "Word cannot change the function of the specified key."

Since I was trying to map the em-dash and en-dash, I was able to map
them by going to Insert-Symbol-Keyboard Shortcut.

Indexing Network Drives With OS X 10.5 Spotlight

Google desktop can't index network drives on the Mac, and Spotlight doesn't either (by default).
Here is how to turn indexing on with spotlight.

1. Open Terminal (in utilities)
2. To give you the status of your drives type
mdutil -sa
3. Type the following to turn indexing on (if your drive has spaces in the name, you need to put the path in quotes)
mdutil -i on [path name]

Great quote - Professional jobs

Making partner in a law firm is like winning a pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie.
-Old saying quoted in Curtis Sittenfeld's excellent "American Wife"

One could say the same about academics, and I imagine many/most professional jobs.

Making Home and End Keys work on the Mac as they do in Windows

I've made the switch to a map desktop. This handy tip allows you to have
the keyboard use the home and end keys as they work in Windows.

http://lifehacker.com/software/keyboard/mac-switchers-tip--remap-the-home-and-end-keys-225873.php

iTunes Genius

The new Genius playlist feature in iTunes is brilliant. Click on a key song and it will generate a playlist. I've tried this a few times and it's worked amazingly - Adele's "Chasing Pavements" generated not just a Kate Bush song, but the perfect Kate Bush song ("This Woman's Work.") It went like this for everything I've tried. With a large iTunes collection, it's like a better Pandora, or even more like the most perfectly selected satellite radio station. To me, this is the most revolutionary digital music innovation since iTunes/iPod iteself.

Here's an example for Bettie Serveert's "Tomboy"

Reply to all in Gmail

I use reply to all for an enormous amount of collaborative work email. The "reply" link

at the top of Gmail messages makes it too easy to just reply to the sender.

Great keyboard shortcut: Hit A while reading a message and Gmail opens a reply to all.

Hit Control-A and it opens a new window with the response to all.

Now if I can just make that an automatic response.

When will you run out of gmail space?

I've switched completely to Gmail and have been digging it.
Instead of over quota warnings from my university, there is
plenty of room.

I discovered a cool calculator to determine when, given Gmail's
ever increasing space allocation and your current usage, you'd
ever run out of space.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/08/when-will-you-run-out-of-gmail-storage_01.html

The answer for me: "never."

Sweet.

Drag and Drop Attachments in Gmail

I've switched to gmail as my main work email. One drawback was

the cumbersome method of attaching files via the browse button.

Solution: There's a Firefox add-in that allows you to drag and drop attachments

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2190

Safari (at least on the Mac) already had this capability

Great Quote

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
- Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho

Freeware - Getting files from Mac formatted (HFS+) drives to Windows

This is a nice piece of freeware called HFSExplorer. We were able to get files from a Mac formatted iPod onto windows in a snap.

http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/index2.html

Breaking footnote links in Microsoft Word

A medical journal wants a .doc file with the footnote numbers but
with the links to the footnotes broken. Here's how to do it:

Highlight entire file (Control-A)
Control-shift-F9

For more Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts, go to
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290938

Running Windows Vista Chkdsk to fix an external drive

Click on the start button
Type chkdsk [drive letter] /f
Hold down Control and Shift while you push enter

Using Presenter Tools in Mac PowerPoint 2008

The Presenter Tools option in the Slide Show option in Mac PowerPoint 2008 looks cool. You can view the slide being shown right now, upcoming slides, notes, and a clock simultaneously.

BUT, I was having a problem -- on the screen of my MacBook was the slide to be shown to the audience, and the projector was showing the presenter's view.

To Fix:
On your main mac status bar, go to the monitor icon and make sure that mirroring is turned off.
In PowerPoint, Go to Slide Show menu
Choose "Set Up Show"
Choose "Screen"
PowerPoint tells you to click the screen that you want for the audience monitor. Select the bigger screen. Now it works the way it's supposed to!