Clark's Tech Blog

OK, I know OSX Hints will have a slew of Snow Leopard hints over the next couple of months. But here are a few that folks have mentioned to me that might be helpful.

Finder Column Sorting

This has been a bee in my bonnet for some time. I thought Snow Leopard didn’t fix it beyond the old Leopard then someone pointed me to the Arrange By menu. Not only can you change the sorting but there are great shortcuts!

Cyberduck

Even the version of Cyberduck purportedly SL compatible isn’t. Try the nightly builds. Right now even the beta from last week won’t start up on Snow Leopard. (They really need to display a link prominently on the page)

Font Smoothing

I like it at the default setting but it is odd Apple removed the controls. Switch it to the anti-aliasing you want with the following:

defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing #

where # is a number between 1-4. Be aware this may screw with the Pref Pane a bit though. (According to here)

Sound Menu

Option click the sound icon in the menu bar to get a list of input and output devices.

Battery Menu

Option click gives the numeric battery level and an indicator of your battery condition. (As one who has had to replace his battery due to too many failed “sleep on lid close” this is nice. Now let’s hope SL fixes that lid close issue)

WiFi Menu

Option click the WiFi menu to get details on your network. (Yes, I was option clicking and cmd clicking everything in sight tonight)

Script Editor

Not really a tip, but don’t be afraid to lookup dictionaries. There isn’t the huge delay anymore. (Of course it’s not instantaneous either) They also list application paths and versions which is nice when dealing with multiple version of an application.

Preview

Cmd-Delete now sends the currently viewed document to the trash.

Services

I know this ones been talked a lot about but I figured I’d mention it anyway. There is now a Services section in the keyboard pref pane that lets you control active services and assign keystrokes to their activation. This is very useful.

Scroll Bars

When Leopard came out with a new iTunes appearance many of us thought this would be bound for the system as a whole. Surprisingly that never came. I figured at a minimum Snow Leopard would unify the scroll bars. Still no go – surprising given then attention to detail in Snow Leopard.

If you want iTunes like scrollbars everywhere do the following.

1. Download the Extras2.zip file. (MacThemes)

2. Backup your old file.

sudo mv /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras2.rsrc-old

3. Copy the new file (this assumes your terminal is at the location you downloaded to)

sudo cp Extras2.rsrc /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/

4. Logout and log back in.

Grab

If, like me, you hate that Apple makes screen captures tiffs rather than jpgs do the following:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

Now when you do Cmd-Shft-4 you’ll get a jpeg. (Remember if you hit spacebar immediately after you can select just a window rather than the screen) Note that this tip oddly only affects the command shortcut and not the Grab program.

Extended Mice

USB Overdrive works, although it is a bit clunky. (IMO) When you click on a 32 bit Pref Pane it’ll restart in 32 bit mode as opposed to 64 bit mode. I expect most companies to update their pref panes fairly quickly.

Logitech drivers won’t install properly. Right click in the Finder on the installer and select “Show Package Contents” then find Logitech Control Center.mkpg. If you run that it’ll install properly. The only downside is that the Expose controls assume Expose is where it was in Leopard whereas Apple moved it. There are two solutions. One, put an alias in /Applications for Expose. Or simply use the LCC to set your extended buttons to button 8, 9, 10 etc. and then go in the Expose control panel and tie events to those buttons. (The latter is what I did)

Here’s hoping a solid alternative to LCC becomes available though.

There’s probably a bunch more but those are what I’ve found thus far. I must say that Snow Leopard has fixed a large number of small issues I’ve griped about for a very long time. The only big one left (other than a more unified appearance) is the ugly bright 7 selection or label colors in the Finder. Of course I rarely use labels that much so it’s not that bad. I do wish one could switch them to more subdued pastels though.

Related posts:

1. Upgrading to Snow Leopard Part 5: The Python Gripes
2. Upgrading to Snow Leopard Part 6: 64bit vs. 32bit
3. Upgrading to Snow Leopard Part 7: One Month Later
4. Upgrading to Snow Leopard Part 4: MySQL
5. Upgrading to Snow Leopard Part 3: MacPorts
6. Upgrading to Snow Leopard Part 1: Python
7. 64bit vs. 32bit Kernel in Snow Leopard
8. Security and Snow Leopard