Mac OS X Hints

Organize videos by groups in iTunes

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:40:00 -0700

By classifying all kinds of videos as TV Shows in iTunes, you can make them easier to organize.

How to delete the Dock delay

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:00:00 -0700

If you have the Dock set to disappear when it's not in use, you can make it reappear by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen. But when you do that, there's a slight delay before the Dock actually reappears. Here's how to make it appear immediately.

Delete Dropbox cache to recover drive space

Kirk McElhearn — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:40:00 -0700

If you use Dropbox to share files with co-workers and clients, you might be surprised to find yourself running out of room on your hard drive. Here's how to find and delete the offending files.

Send text, files from Mac to iOS via Messages

Kirk McElhearn, — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:00:00 -0700

There are a variety of ways to send text and files from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad (and vice versa). But you might not have thought of one of the easiest: Use Messages.

Unzip almost any archive file

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:00:00 -0700

Sometimes, .zip files (and other archives) don't unzip when you double-click them. When that happens, there are a couple of other things you can try.

Search for messages by domain in Lion

Kirk McElhearn — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:45:00 -0700

In earlier versions of Mail, you could easily search for all messages from a given domain (macworld.com, for example). In Lion, such searches became a lot harder. Here's how one Hints reader does it.

Customize shortcuts for Mission Control, Dashboard

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 08:40:00 -0700

The Mission Control preference pane offers a limited set of keyboard shortcuts for triggering both Mission Control and Dashboard. But if you want to use a shortcut not included in that limited palette, there is a way.

Auto-convert songs at higher bit-rates in iTunes 10.6

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0700

Among the new features in the iTunes 10.6, one in particular is good news to anyone with lots of lossless tracks: The ability to convert those tracks at higher bit-rates when syncing to an iPod or iOS device.

Use OS X linen pattern for desktop background

Kirk McElhearn — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 06:20:00 -0700

You know that dark linen-pattern background that Apple's been using everywhere lately--the Lion login window, for example? If you like it, you can use it as your desktop background. Kirk McElhearn explains.

Add Finder labels via drag-and-drop

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0700

There are plenty of ways to assign a color label to a file or folder in the Finder. But one OS X Hints reader seems to have found a new one.

Correct spelling from the keyboard

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0800

OS X's built-in spell-check is nice, but it usually requires you to move your hands from the keyboard to the mouse to select the correct spelling. But one OS X Hints reader found a way to select the correct spellings from the keyboard.

Use iTunes to rip audio from videos

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:40:00 -0800

Have some videos from which you'd like to save just the audio? A Hints reader uncovered a iTunes menu item that does just that.

Search iTunes radio stations using playlists

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:22:00 -0800

By default, you can't search for stations in the Radio section of iTunes; the search field is dimmed. But there's a workaround that'll let you find the station you want.