OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

• 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...
  • doesn't support Macs over 5 years old
  • no RSS

Freeware

Miscellany

1. 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.
2. NetNewsWire: RSS.
3. 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.)
4. 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.)
5. 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).
6. 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.)
7. MiroVideoConverter can convert mp4 (m4v) to ogv (Ogg Theora) for your web pages (for those people who insist on using Firefox).
8. In case you lost them, here are some ancient Mac system sounds.
9. Various versions of Fortran; CERNLIB & other HEP. (Requires Xcode.)

Safari 6

1. Tab View (pinch)
2. Address & search boxes merged
3. Bookmarks & open tabs sync over iCloud
4. Safari Extensions (link in Safari menu) install automatically from Apple's site:
   1. Franker translates selected text/whole page, inserting translation following original.
   2. Tabletoy allows floating table headers & sorting by columns.
   3. autocomplete prevents blocking saved usernames/passwords.
   4. ClickToPlugin:
      1. Blocks flash.
      2. 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.)
   5. YouTube Lyrics shows lyrics for YouTube music videos.
5. 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)".
6. 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":
     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <glimmerblocker-rules> <rule priority="2" host="wikipedia.org" host-type="domain" type="modify" whitelist="1"> <comments><![CDATA[Set font-size in Safari.]]></comments> <transform language="js" version="1" content-type="html"><![CDATA[var ua = gb.request.headers['User-Agent']; if (ua && ua[0].match(/Safari\//)) { gb.addStyleElement("html, body { font-size: 16px; }"); }]]></transform> </rule> </glimmerblocker-rules>
7. MathML (needs work).
8. QuickTime (7) Plug-in will view QuickTime Virtual Reality & MIDI files, which QuickTime (X) Player won't. (GarageBand will import & edit MIDI.)

Graphics

1. 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).
2. 3D graphics (raytracing, etc.): Art of Illusion (Java); saves as JPG (e.g.), but Preview will convert to PDF.
3. 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.
4. JaxoDraw (Java) draws Feynman diagrams with just the trackpad/mouse. (Others require programming & specifying coordinates.)

Tips

Text

1. 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.
2. ⌥⌫ deletes words.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.)
6. STIX fonts (now included in OS X) have TeX characters, useful in figures, MathML, etc.

Finder

1. Screen Sharing (also in Messages) allows remote control of your Mac (even over the internet).
2. ⌘⇧4 to select portion of screen for snapshot, or hit space for camera to select window (or dock, menu bar, or desktop for all).
3. To create an alias while dragging, hold down ⌥⌘. (⌥ alone creates a copy.)

Other

1. News/rumors: 9T🕘 5Mac (RSS).
2. Apple keynote coverage: engadget (& sometimes also direct from Apple).
3. To get to the Dock in Full Screen mode, go "past" the bottom.
4. Enlarge cursor: System Preferences > Accessibility > Display.
5. 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.
6. In LaunchPad, drag an item on top of another to create a folder; hold ⌥ to get wiggly icons with X's for deletion.
7. 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.
8. Quicktime Player does screen video capture.
9. Wi-Fi Diagnostics, located in /System/Library/CoreServices, has a Wi-Fi Scan under File > Network Utilities (⌘N).

Bugs

1. Some weird iTunes Store permission problems seem to be caused by the folder /Users/Shared/SC Info; you can delete it.
2. If Photo Stream doesn't work, you may need to Sign Out (& back in) from iCloud (in System Preferences).
3. Network problems:
   1. 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.
   2. 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
   3. 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.)
4. If a program gives some weird error message doing something it did fine the day before, and seems to run fine otherwise, restart it.
5. When a file won't delete because it claims it's in use, Secure Empty Trash.