Posts Tagged ‘Applications’

Hidden Gems Inside Mac OSX Terminal

// February 22nd, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Apple, Applications, Mac, OSX, development, tutorials

Inside the Terminal app on your Mac, you can apply a number of great command functions that enable you to ‘pimp out’ your mac and reveal many hidden features. I’m going to list a few really useful and purely cosmetic ones that you can try out.

Web Inspector

This is a really useful feature that does not feature on Safari by default and enables you to inspect elements and source code inside a web page, not quite web development toolbar, but handy. The only downside to this app is that unlike Firebug you cannot edit code on the fly.

Heres the code: defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1
Replace the code to defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 0 to reverse this function.
Once this is enabled in Safari, you can open it up in two ways – Via the menu option or you can Control/Right Click to open the application.
Heres a screenshot of what it looks like:

The Safari De-Bug Menu

Make Hidden Icons In The Dock Translucent

Type: defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES
Type NO to reverse this funcion

Activate Mouse-Over Gradient In Leopard

This creates a gradient background shadow in stacks and the dock when mousing over using Leopard.
Type: defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES
killall Dock
Type NO to reverse this function

3 Dimensional Dock In Leopard

Does what it says on the tin.
Type: defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO
killall Dock
Type YES to reverse this function

Drag Widgets Out Of Dashboard Onto Desktop

Here you can drag widgets from your dashboard onto your desktop. You need to re-launch the dock for this to take effect by typing “killall Dock” and hitting enter. If you click and hold onto a widget in the dashboard and then press F12 to return to the desktop, the widget won’t disappear with the rest.
Heres the code: defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
Type NO to reverse.

Make A Screen-Saver Your Desktop Background

This enables you to set your screen-saver as your desktop background. When enabled you can stop this by pressing Control-C or Command.
Heres the code: /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

Show Hidden Files In Finder

You can use this to show any hidden files in finder
Type: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Type FALSE to reverse this function.

If you have any handy terminal functions you would like to share, get in touch and I will list them here.

Design

// December 23rd, 2007 // No Comments » // Applications

design logo

Heres a little app which will sit nicely alongside Firebug and Web Developer, it’s called Design. It features tools such as Grid which will place an overlay over any web page, Rule displays rulers on a page and has guides which can be snapped in place (useful for displaying elements on a page), Unit allows measurements between any two points on a page, and finally there is a crosshair function which will assist you in layout alignment.

“Design is a suite of web-design and development assistive tools which can be utilised on any web-page. Encompassing utilities for grid layout, measurement and alignment, Design is a uniquely powerful JavaScript bookmarklet.” Allan Jardine (Creator Of Design)

It supports the following browsers:

  • IE 7
  • Firefox 2+
  • Safari 2.0.4+
  • Opera 9.2+

Note* There is no support for IE6

Find Out More About: Design

Adobe AIR

// December 15th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Applications, Flash, development

adobe air logo

Adobe has released it’s new development tool AIR (formally called Apollo) which is in Beta as we speak. This little app allows you to create rich desktop applications such as widgets or gadgets. It’s a tool that blurrs the boundaries between the desktop and the web.

Adobe AIR allows you to use your existing Flash, HTML, CSS, and AJAX skills to create packages that can run from your desktop and the web. It can also read and write files on the computer’s OS directory structure. This is something Flash could not do on it’s own as it could only communicate with the web and not the directory. Using AIR creates a catalyst to merge the two together enabling us to create some interesting mash-ups all without learning a new language or new tools just your existing ones.

I am currently working on an app using AIR that will be able to pull in RSS feeds from different websites to your desktop. I hope to make this customizable so that you can pick and choose what feeds you want, and it will be available for both Mac and PC. As soon as it is ready, I will make it available to all to download from this site.

Visit: Adobe Labs