Monday, 25-Mar-2013 07:38:35 EDT
- More iCloud ☁ :
Documents & Data can be saved there, incl. Auto Save & Versions. For Apple & App Store apps only, but you can backup any text files in the TextEdit folder, and pdf & (almost) any graphics in the Preview folder. Only 1 level of subfolders, though. (Of course, you can back up anything as an attachment in Notes or Mail.)
- More trackpad gestures
- To see hidden scrollbars when not scrolling, rest (i.e., tap but don't lift) 2 fingers on trackpad.
Putting cursor over a scrollbar makes it fatter.
- 3-finger single tap looks up word, in Finder invokes Quick Look (besides spacebar).
- In @ least Preview & TextEdit, App Exposé (4-finger swipe down) also shows recently open files.
(
: This isn't always updating in Preview, which also isn't always opening pdf's to the last opened page.)
- Notification Center:
- organizes alerts from Mail, Calendar, Software Update, ...
- shows events for next 24 hrs. in sidebar (accessed by rightmost menu item or 2-finger swipe from right side of trackpad)
- Social networking more integrated: e.g., mail anything from Finder, Preview, etc., using the Share button.
- Messages (with FaceTime) replaces iChat & iMessage.
- Dictation
- Preview form input. (But for reading the output in Acrobat, save by printing to PDF, or see this article.)
- Gatekeeper for security. (Name sounds familiar.)
- But...
Freeware
Miscellany
- BetterTouchTool assigns more stuff to trackpads, etc. I use it to allow tapping in the corners to replace the Home & End keys (which don't exist on my new wireless keyboard), closing windows (⌘W), ⌘-click in Safari & Mail, & Enter Full Screen (⌃⌘F) elsewhere.
- NetNewsWire: RSS.
- Meteo(rologist) is my favorite weather menu item. (It uses weather.com. I gave up on widgets: I don't even display Dashboard in Mission Control.)
- TexShop:
Front end for MacTeX.
(Doc: paste this link by hand.)
- SyncTeX: ⌘-click on input/output to find same spot in other window; works with Full Screen.
- Auto Save & Versions.
- Safari extension arXivTeXifier (included in spires.app) TeX's in the arXiv listing abstracts of people too lazy to get rid of all those $'s.
- Flashmode automatically TeX's while you're typing. (Haven't tried it yet.)
- MacFusion is an interface to
FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE; include MacFUSE Compatibility Layer), which
mounts (s)ftp volumes as the Finder should, so you can add files, & edit with TextEdit.
- MacFusion has a bug
: You can't delete entries in the server list. Instead, go to ~/Library/Application Support/Macfusion/Filesystems & delete them there (by date).
- Xcode (from the Mac App Store, also in menu) includes:
- FileMerge compares 2 text files (& merges) with a nice interface. (If you want to access it directly, you can make an alias to the file in Contents/Applications; as usual, access Contents of an app by right-clicking & selecting Show Package Contents.)
- iOS Simulator shows what your web pages look like in iOS. (Separately found in Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications.) If you choose Hardware > Device> iPad (Retina), it will be huge.
- Note: Simulators & Command Line Tools now need to be downloaded separately via Preferences... > Downloads > Components. (Requires free developer account.)
- MiroVideoConverter can convert mp4 (m4v) to ogv (Ogg Theora) for your web pages (for those people who insist on using Firefox).
- In case you lost them, here are some ancient Mac system sounds.
- Various versions of Fortran;
CERNLIB & other HEP. (Requires Xcode.)
- Tab View (pinch)
- Address & search boxes merged
- Bookmarks & open tabs sync over iCloud
- Safari Extensions (link in Safari menu) install automatically from Apple's site:
- Franker translates selected text/whole page, inserting translation following original.
- Tabletoy allows floating table headers & sorting by columns.
- autocomplete prevents blocking saved usernames/passwords.
- ClickToPlugin:
- Blocks flash.
- Replaces it with HTML5 when available (e.g., on YouTube), & allows downloading it.
(Also Media Center downloads HTML5 stuff more generally.
Note: GarageBand will convert ≤ 40 sec. segments of videos into ringtones.)
- YouTube Lyrics shows lyrics for YouTube music videos.
- If audio is played as Flash instead of HTML5, it can be saved using Soundflower & QuickTime Player: Set the sound output in System Preferences, & the microphone in New Audio Recording in QuickTime Player (but leave its volume @ minimum), to "Soundflower (2ch)".
- Ad blocking: GlimmerBlocker (Java), http proxy (in System Preferences; for all all browsers, & even RSS readers).
- If there is a Java vulnerability specifically affecting web browsers (i.e., @ certain web sites), you can disable Java in Safari Preferences... > Security. This won't affect GlimmerBlocker or the other Java apps listed below.
- When subscribing to filters, note the preference "Automatically update subscription".
- Here's a useful filter written for me by the author based on some related code I found on the web, for making text bigger on Wikipedia; after making a new filter, paste this in "Rules in":
- MathML (needs work).
- QuickTime (7) Plug-in will view QuickTime Virtual Reality & MIDI files, which QuickTime (X) Player won't. (GarageBand will import & edit MIDI.)
Graphics
- Vector graphics ("draw"):
LibreOffice
(Draw)
- Allows editing of PDF (including conversion to PS).
- Lots more tools than basics: e.g., gradient shading, transparency, primitive 3D.
- Retuns to Select tool after use of any other tool.
- Includes text editor (Writer) that's better at reading MS Word files than TextEdit (but so is Quick Look).
- 3D graphics (raytracing, etc.): Art of Illusion (Java);
saves as JPG (e.g.), but Preview will convert to PDF.
- Bitmap graphics ("paint"):
- Seashore
- Gimp is more powerful but more awkward.
There are 3 versions (native -- no X11/XQuartz), by:
Simone Karin Lehmann,
Clayton Walker,
Partha Bagchi.
- Due to interface bugs, you may want to use Windows > Single-Window Mode for now.
- If you want more themes (e.g., Aqua), you can install them the hard way in
Contents > Resources > share > gimp > 2.0 > themes.
- JaxoDraw (Java) draws Feynman diagrams with just the trackpad/mouse. (Others require programming & specifying coordinates.)
Tips
Text
- Substitution, built-in (e.g., 1/2 → ½) or added (e.g., ^2 → ²).
Set up in System Preferences… > Personal > Language & Text > Text.
Use menu item Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement.
Great if you like to type math (in email, e.g.) as Unicode.
- ⌥⌫ deletes words.
- 2-finger single tap (right-click on mouse) on a typo to choose a correct spelling is easier than retyping.
⌃T between 2 letters to transpose them.
Also note the menu item Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Correct Spelling Automatically.
- 3-finger swipe (click & drag with mouse) to select text as contiguous letters.
1-finger double-tap (select word) & 3-finger swipe (double-click & drag with mouse) to do it with words.
Triple-tap (-click) with paragraphs.
- Character Viewer for all Unicode characters (e.g., math in Mail):
"Edit > Special Characters...", or add directly to Title Bar by selecting in
"System Preferences… > Personal > Language & Text > Input Sources".
(See also my Unicode page.)
- STIX fonts (now included in OS X) have TeX characters, useful in figures, MathML, etc.
Finder
- Screen Sharing (also in Messages) allows remote control of your Mac (even over the internet).
- ⌘⇧4 to select portion of screen for snapshot, or hit space
for camera to select window (or dock, menu bar, or desktop for all).
- To create an alias while dragging, hold down ⌥⌘. (⌥ alone creates a copy.)
Other
- News/rumors:
9T🕘 5Mac
(RSS).
- Apple keynote coverage:
engadget (& sometimes also direct from Apple).
- To get to the Dock in Full Screen mode, go "past" the bottom.
- Enlarge cursor: System Preferences > Accessibility > Display.
- To add a keyboard shortcut for a menu item, System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. If you want to add a shortcut for something with an ambiguous "last name", you need to give the full Menu Title, separated by "->" (not ">") w/o spaces.
- In LaunchPad, drag an item on top of another to create a folder; hold ⌥ to get wiggly icons with X's for deletion.
- Grapher (in Applications > Other) also does equations nicely;
for arithmetic, just delete the "x=" (or whatever) & type.
You can even export the equation as (La)TeX: Use the secondary click & select the menu item.
- Quicktime Player does screen video capture.
- Wi-Fi Diagnostics, located in /System/Library/CoreServices, has a Wi-Fi Scan under File > Network Utilities (⌘N).
Bugs 
- Some weird iTunes Store permission problems seem to be caused by the folder /Users/Shared/SC Info; you can delete it.
- If Photo Stream doesn't work, you may need to Sign Out (& back in) from iCloud (in System Preferences).
- Network problems:
- You may never have this kind of problem: I had some network problems whenever I woke my Mac. Turned out our university had changed the IP addresses of its DNS's but not disseminated this information widely enough.
- I still have the same problem, less frequently. A temporary fix is to restart the ethernet connection with
this AppleScript that contains the code:
do shell script "sudo ifconfig en0 down; sudo sleep 10; sudo ifconfig en0 up" with administrator privileges
- Help kept complaining I wasn't connected to the network. Turned out it was a corrupt preference file. (I had that kind of thing a lot in pre-OS X days.) I deleted ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpviewer.plist & com.apple.helpviewer.plist.lockfile, restarted my Mac, & emptied the trash. (This may work for other programs, if you don't mind losing all your preferences.)
- If a program gives some weird error message doing something it did fine the day before, and seems to run fine otherwise, restart it.
- When a file won't delete because it claims it's in use, Secure Empty Trash.