Mac OS X Hints

Make apps appear correctly in Mission Control

Dan Miller — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:00:00 -0800

Sometimes, when you tell an app to appear in specific workspace, it doesn't. Ditto for when you want an app to appear in every workspace. If that's happening to you, here's a workaround.

Remove unnecessary System Preferences icons

Lex Friedman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0800

If your System Preferences window feels cluttered, you can remove icons that you no longer need.

Quickly create new Sticky notes

Lex Friedman — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0800

Here are two ways to quickly create new notes from selected text or images in the Mac's venerable Stickies app.

Enable local Time Machine snapshots on a desktop Mac

Lex Friedman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0800

Lion introduced local Time Machine snapshots for when your laptop isn't connected to your backup drive. But you can enable those local snapshots on a desktop Mac, too.

Select and copy text within Quick Look previews

Lex Friedman — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:00:00 -0800

When you use Quick Look to preview documents, you can't select and copy the text without exiting Quick Look and launching the right application. Unless, that is, you use this hint.

Clean out Launchpad completely

Lex Friedman — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0800

If you use Launchpad, you know it can get awfully crowded, which makes it less useful. Here's a way to clean it out entirely so you can start over with just the apps you want.

Post to Twitter with Siri

Lex Friedman — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:00:00 -0800

Siri says it can't post to Twitter. We found a way that indeed it can.

Photo Booth power user features

Lex Friedman — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:00:00 -0800

If Photo Booth power users used to be uncommon, we're about to fix that.

Hidden Lion gesture switches to previous space

Lex Friedman — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:00:00 -0800

After a quick trip to Terminal, you can use a secret four-finger double-tap to go back to your previous space.

Fix Lion's erroneous autocorrections, permanently

Lex Friedman — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:40:00 -0800

If Lion regularly autocorrects words that you'd prefer it just leave alone, there's an easy fix.

Determine which base station you're connected to on a bridged network

Lex Friedman — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 03:00:00 -0800

Setting up a bridged network can be pretty straightforward. Figuring out which base station you're connected to a bit more complicated--until you learn the trick.

Start dictation by lifting your iPhone 4S to your ear

Lex Friedman — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:00:00 -0800

Siri's Raise to Speak option works differently when there's a keyboard on screen: It starts transcription mode instead.

Enable iTunes track notifications in the Dock

Lex Friedman — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:20:00 -0800

A Hints reader discovered a cool trick that enables iTunes track notifications in the Dock.

Toggle between iTunes Match and USB

Lex Friedman — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:00:00 -0800

When you enable iTunes Match, you lose the ability to sync music from iTunes. But there's an easy workaround for when you want to put lots of songs on your iOS device without waiting for them to download from iCloud.