Combine Images into a PDF with Automator

It is trivial to combine several images into a PDF using Automator:

Step 1: Open Automator.app.

Step 2: When prompted, select the "Files & Folders" option and change "Get content from:" os that the top menu is "My Mac" and the bottom menu is "Ask for files & folders when my workflow runs".



Step 3: Check the box for "Allow Multiple Selection" on the "Ask for Finder Items" action.



Step 4: Do a search for "New PDF" and add the "New PDF from Images" action.



Step 5: Edit the "New PDF from Images" action with a name for your new PDFs.



Step 6: Run the workflow.

IMAP IDLE in Apple Mail

IMAP IDLE is the fastest way to automatically find out about new emails. When you enable IDLE, the server (GMail) notifies the client (Apple Mail) that there is a new email. When IDLE is disabled, the client (Apple Mail) needs to ask the server (GMail) if there is any new mail. When the server is notifying the client that there are new messages, you get your emails much faster without having to check for new mail manually.

Here's how to enable IDLE in Leopard Mail:
(Tiger users must use this plugin.)

Step 1: Open Mail's preferences. (Cmd-,)

Step 2: Go to the "Accounts" section and select the IMAP accpimt you wish to enable IDLE for.

Step 3: Click on the "Advanced" section.

Step 4: Check the box next to, "Use IDLE command if the server supports it."

Step 5: Close the accounts window and click on the "Save" button when prompted.

Welcome2Mac: Use iTunes to Convert Audio To MP3

Welcome2Mac is The MacTipper Blog's weekly tip where all the people new to Apple's latest operating system can get Mac tips to help them better use Mac OS X.

In this week's Welcome2Mac, we're going to take a look at converting audio to MP3 in iTunes.

Step 1: Open iTunes and select an audio file.

Step 2: Right click on the selection and select "Create MP3 Version". If you do not see "Create MP3 Version" then continue to step 3.



Step 3: Go to the iTunes preferences. (Cmd-,)

Step 4: Click on the "General" tab.

Step 5: Click on the "Import Settings…" button.



Step 6: Change the "Import Using" menu to "MP3 Encoder".



Step 7: Hit return twice. (Once for the import settings window and once for the preferences window.)

Step 8: After completing steps 3 thru 7, you should be able to right click on a song and select "Create MP3 Version".

Easily Select In QuickTime Pro

There is a really easy way to select a specific part of a movie in QuickTime Pro:

First, set the movie to the frame you want as the "In" point. (where the selection begins.) Then, hit the "i" key. This will move the selectors to that point. Next, set the movie to the frame you want as your "Out" point (where the selection ends.) Then, hit the "o" key. The end selector will move to that point.

[Via]

Remove Individual History Items in Safari

It is quite easy to remove individual history items from Safari's history.

Step 1: Open Safari and go to the Bookmarks page. (If you are in Safari, you can click here.)

Step 2: Click on the "History" section in the left column.



Step 3: Find the history items you want to remove. Don't forget about the search function in the upper-right corner.



Step 4: Select the sites you want to remove and hit the delete key to remove them. There is no undo.

Top Tips for Top Sites

Top Sites, a new feature in Safari 4, has a few tricks you can use to make it as helpful as possible.

What the Blue Star Means
If you see a blue star in the upper-right corner of a site, that indicates that the site has been updated. Safari uses the RSS feed of the relevant site to determine if it has been updated.



Arrange Your Top Sites
Click on the edit button in the lower-left corner to arrange your sites.



To remove a site, click on the X in its upper-left corner. To make sure a site stays on the top sites, click on the push-pin button or move the site to a different place in the grid.



Add a Site
Here's how to add a site to your Top Sites:

Step 1: Go to the site and copy its URL from the address bar.
Step 2: Open Top Sites. (Cmd-Shift-1)
Step 3: Click on the edit button in the lower-left corner.
Step 4: Paste the URL into the address bar of the Top Sites window. Do not hit return.
Step 5: Drag the favicon of the site from the address bar into the Top Sites section. As you drag it, the sites should rearrange themselves.
Step 6: Drop the site into the place you want it.
Step 7: Click on the done button.
Step 8: Click on the Top Site you just added.

Script to Change the Default Name of Screenshots

I have written a script that will automatically change the name any screenshots you take to begin with a number. For example, this script will change "Picture 1.png" to "1 Screenshot.png".

You can download the script from here.


Once you've downloaded the script, you'll need to set it up.

Step 1: Put the script in a safe place.

Step 2: Open up the script and edit the first three properties.

the_suffix: This is what will come immediately after the number.
folder_path: This is the folder that your screenshots go to. Most likely it is your desktop. To change this, delete the text that is already there and drag in folder that you use. If you are asked if you want to copy the files in, simply select the "Alias" option. Make sure that there is a trailing slash.
default_extension: Put in the extension of screenshots you take. Make sure there is a leading dot.

Once you're done editing the AppleScript, save it with "Cmd-S".

Step 3: If you don't already have it, go get Lingon.

Step 4: Open up Lingon and make a new script by hitting Cmd-N.

Step 5: In the first dialog, select "My Agents".



Step 6: For the name, use something like "com.mactipper.screenshots.folderaction". It is important that it has a unique name.



Step 7: For the "What", type in "osascript " then a double-quote mark ("), then drag in the script you edited. Finally, end it with another double-quote mark.



Step 8: For the "When", set "Run it if this file is modified" box to the folder that your screenshots go to. To make sure this is done properly, click on the text box then drag in the folder from Finder and drop it onto the box. Finally, add a trailing slash (/) to the file name.



Step 9: Your final setup should look something like this:



Step 10: Hit Cmd-S to save the script.

Step 11: Restart your computer to load the LaunchD script.

Step 12: Take a screenshot to make sure everything works. The script can sometimes take a couple seconds to take action, but it does do the trick.

[Download the AppleScript]
[Download Lingon]
[Change Your Default Screenshot Folder]

Delete and Close a Windowed Email

Here's a quick tip for Apple Mail. If you've opened an email in its own window by selecting the email then hitting Cmd-O or return, you can delete the email and close the window by simply hitting the delete key.

Welcome2Mac: Spotlight Comments and Image Dimensions in Finder

Welcome2Mac is The MacTipper Blog's weekly tip where all the people new to Apple's latest operating system can get Mac tips to help them better use Mac OS X.

In this week's Welcome2Mac, we'll be taking a look at Spotlight comments and finding the dimensions of a photo inside Finder.


Spotlight comments allow you to add comments to files that are read by Spotlight. Then, when you need to find the file, you can just search for the specific comment instead of trying to remember the name of the file.


If you want to apply a Spotlight comment to multiple files, you'll need to open them individually. I have written an AppleScript to let you add spotlight comments to multiple files at once. You can download "Spotlight Commenter" here.


If you have the proper settings, you can find this out the dimensions of an image directly from Finder.

Icon View:
Open up a Finder window in icon view. (Cmd-1). Hit Cmd-J to open the view preferences. Check the box for "Show item info".



CoverFlow and List View:
Unfortunately, there is no way to get the dimensions from inside the Finder window. However, if you hit Cmd-I to get the item's info (or Cmd-Option-I to open the inspector), then click on the expansion arrow next to "More Info", you will be able to find out the Dimensions in addition to a couple other bits of information.



Column View:
If you don't already have the preview column set, open a window in column view and check the box for "Show preview column". Once it is checked, the dimensions will be found in the lower section of the preview column.

Playlist Folders: On iPods and Holding Smart Playlists

A while ago I wrote about playlist folders in iTunes. Since then, I have two things to add to that post.

Folders on iPods
If you have the most recent iPod Nano or Classic - I believe this started with the "widescreen" nano - then you can now sync playlist folders with your iPod. This means that your playlists can be grouped in a much more usable fashion on the iPod.

Use Folders to Hide Playlists
When creating a Smart Playlist, you are not given and/or options. So, to make Smarter playlists, some people will create multiple Smart Playlists, then combine them together with one Smart Playlist using the "Playlist > is/is not > [A Smart Playlist]".



Using folders you can stick all of your supporting Smart Playlists into one folder to keep them out of the way while still retaining access to them.

Reset AutoFill Data For a Specific Website

Step 1: Open the Safari preferences. (Cmd-,)



Step 2: Go to the "AutoFill" section.



Step 3: Click on the "Edit…" button next to the "Other forms" checkbox.



Step 5: Scroll through the list and find the offending website.



Step 6: Select the offending website and click on the "Remove" button.



Step 7: Click on the "Done" button to exit the window.



This should reset the text that AutoFill remembers for that site.

Turn On and Off Your Airport With a Keyboard Shortcut

I have found a way to script turning on and off the airport. If you just want a script to do this, you can download one here. This script should work with Tiger and Leopard. However, I have only tested it on Leopard.

Tiger users: the following section does not work in Tiger because the networksetup CLU is in a different place than in Leopard. You will need to replace every instance of "/usr/sbin/networksetup" with "/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Support/networksetup"

Now for the guts of the script. To find out how to use the networksetup command line utility, use:

/usr/sbin/networksetup -printcommands

Note that to use the networksetup CLU you need to use "/usr/sbin/networksetup" and not just "networksetup".

The terminal command to turn off the airport is:

/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower off

to turn it back on, change "off" to "on":

/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportpower on

[Via]

Fully Delete Files From External Drives

When you delete files off an external disk the files are moved to a hidden folder on the external disk. The files in the hidden folder will continue to take up room despite you deleting them.

A way around this is to open Terminal and use "rm -rf " then drag in the file I want to delete and hit return. I have written a very simple AppleScript to do this. Just place it in the Finder window's toolbar and you can easily drop files onto the icon to fully delete them.

[Download Link]

Text of the script:

on open the_items
repeat with each_item in the_items
set the_path to POSIX path of each_item as string
do shell script ("rm -rf " & quoted form of the_path)
end repeat
end open

on run
set the_items to (choose file with multiple selections allowed)
open the_items
end run

Use Search Operators When Finding Emails

It is possible to narrow your search results in Apple Mail right from the search bar. To do this, use one of the following parameters followed by a colon, then your search term:

to
from
subject
date

So, if I wanted to find an email with a link to a YouTube video from jd@example.com that was sent to me on christmas, I would use:

from:jd@example.com date:12/25/2008 youtube.com

Welcome2Mac: Sideways Scrolling, QuickTime Controls, Full Keyboard Access

Welcome2Mac is The MacTipper Blog's weekly tip where all the people new to Apple's latest operating system can get Mac tips to help them better use Mac OS X.

In this week's Welcome2Mac, we'll take a look at scrolling left/right with a scroll wheel, watching QuickTime videos, and full keyboard access.


Simply hold down the shift key when scrolling to scroll left and right instead of up and down.


You can pause QuickTime movies by single-clicking on the video section of the QuickTime player. You can play the video by double-clicking on the video section. If you want to scan backwards and backwards, just scroll left and right. In a QuickTime embedded player, scroll down and up instead of left and right.




This blue glow in a dialog box tells you that you can hit the spacebar to activate that button. Don't see the blue glow? Here's how to enable "full keyboard access":

Step 1: Open System Preferences and go to to "Keyboard & Mouse" preference pane.
Step 2: Go to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" section.
Step 3: Change the radio button at the bottom to "All controls".



To use full keyboard access, hit space to active the glowing button. Use tab to move the glow to the next button.

Get the Text of Multiple Emails

To get the text of multiple emails, select the messages you want to copy, then open TextEdit and paste the emails into a new document.

AppleScript Droplet to Convert Movies to MP3

I have written a simple AppleScript to extract the audio from a movie and convert it to MP3.
You do not need QuickTime Pro to use the script.

Download the AppleScript from this link.

To use the script, simply drop the video file onto the script. The script will ask you where you want to save the audio files to. In the folder that you choose there will be two folders created: one for the AIFF audio files and one for the MP3 audio files. Your final MP3 files will be placed in the MP3 folder.

QuickLook and AppleScript

You can call the QuickLook feature in Leopard to show an image in an AppleScript. The particular Terminal command is "qlmanage". Add the "p" flag to actually show the file in a QuickLook window. For example:

qlmanage -p '~/Desktop/My Movie.mp4'

Combining this with the beauty of applescript, you could use this simple subroutine:

on quicklook(the_file)

set the_path to quoted form of (POSIX path of the_file) as string

do shell script ("qlmanage -p " & the_path)

end quicklook

Play YouTube Videos in an Embedded QuickTime Video

If you want to save as much processor power as possible while watching YouTube videos, joeyhagedorn.com has posted a simple bookmarklet that will change the default flash player to an embedded QuickTime player.

Just looking at Activity Monitor, I saw that the QuickTime player uses about half the processor power that the Flash player uses.

When viewing with the embedded QuickTime player, you can fast-forward and rewind by scrolling up and down respectively. Double-click on the video section to play and single-click to pause. Once the video is fully buffered, you can right-click on the video and select "Save as QuickTime Movie".

If you use Greasemonkey, Greasekit, or (previously mentioned) GlimmerBlocker this Greasemonkey script will allow you to choose whether you watch with QuickTime or Flash in addition to providing a convenient download link.

Automatically Block Websites On a Schedule

I wanted a way to automatically block websites based on the time of day. I've written before about blocking websites with the /etc/hosts file [1] [2] and figured it wouldn't be too hard to write up an AppleScript to do this.

Step 1: Download and Edit the AppleScript

You can download the AppleScript from here. Once downloaded, unzip the file and open the AppleScript. Inside, you'll need to edit the first three properties. These are pretty self-explanatory.

growl_installed: If you want to have Growl notifications when the script is run, set this to true. If you want ninja-like site blocking, set this to false.
blocked_days: Enter in the weekdays that you don't want the script to work. In the original script, it will not run on Sunday, Monday, and Saturday.
blocked_sites_text: enter in the sub-domains you wish to block. (en.youtube.com, www.youtube.com, youtube.com, etc.) Each domain must be on a new line.


Step 2: Run the script to test it out.

Hit Cmd-R to run the script. Because this is the first time you've run the script, you will need to enter an admin password. Your password will be safely stored in your Keychain.
Assuming everything worked out, save the script somewhere convenient.


Step 3: Get the Terminal Command

We're going to be using LaunchD to do the automatic blocking. To use LaunchD, we'll need to know the Terminal command to run the script. To do this, open up Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type in "osascript" followed by a space. Next, find the script in Finder and drag-and-drop it onto the Terminal window. This will fill in the rest of the command. Hit return to make sure it works. If it does, select the Terminal command and hit Cmd-C to copy it to your clipboard.


Step 4: Create the LaunchD Script

This is actually pretty easy, but somewhat tedious. You can use Lingon to do this. If you aren't familiar with the process, I wrote a rather detailed post about it previously. You can read it here. You want to create a LaunchD script for each time you want the blocked status to change. So, if you want sites blocked from 8-12 and 1-5, you would need to create a duplicate script for each time. When I did this, I named my scripts "com.mactipper.autoblock.8am", "com.mactipper.autoblock.12pm",
"com.mactipper.autoblock.1pm", etc. so that I could easily identify them later.


Step 5: Restart Your Computer

The final step is to restart your computer. This will ensure that the LaunchD scripts are loaded.

Welcome2Mac: Various Tools in Preview

Welcome2Mac is The MacTipper Blog's weekly tip where all the people new to Apple's latest operating system can get Mac tips to help them better use Mac OS X.

In this week's Welcome2Mac, we're going to take a look at several of the tools at your disposal in Leopard's Preview.app. Preview is the default image viewer in Mac.

The first tool we'll look at is the image resizing tool. To access it, go to the "Tools" menu and select "Adjust Size…". You can then adjust the size of the image to the size you need.



Another handy tool is the "Adjust Color" tool. This is a simple interface for adjusting an image to your liking. Go to the Tools menu and select "Adjust Color" or hit Cmd-Option-C.



If you want to crop an image, you can use the select tool (Cmd-3) to select an area, then hit Cmd-K or Tools > Crop.



If you want to remove a solid color background from an image, you can use the Instant Alpha tool to do this. To access the Instant Alpha tool, hold-click on the select button and choose "Instant Alpha". Follow the on-screen instructions to use the Alpha tool.



Finally, you can annotate an image – add arrows, circles, etc. to an image – with a little working. Start by right clicking on the toolbar of a window and select "Customize Toolbar…". Then drag the "Annotate" icon to the toolbar. Now, when you want to add an annotation, click-hold on the annotate icon. (Learn more about this feature in this previous tip.)

Make Your Computer Figure Out Proportions

If you don't want to have to figure out the proportionally correct size of an object, I have found an easy way to make your computer do all the heavy lifting.

Step 1: Open Keynote, Pages, iWork, or iWeb.

Step 2: Using the inspector (Cmd-Option-I), create an object in your program that has the known dimensions.



Step 3: Check the box for "Constrain proportions" and type in the new dimension you desire. Finally, hit tab and the program will return the proportionally correct dimension.

GlimmerBlocker: Do Cool Stuff With Safari

Greasemonkey, for the uninitiated, is an extension for Firefox that can apply javascript, on the fly, to pages that you visit. There are Greasemonkey scripts for just about everything. Unfortunately, the main contender for the light side of browsers Safari is Greasekit. Which, when I installed it last, was more of a curse than a blessing.

Enter GlimmerBlocker. GlimmerBlocker is a Preference Pane for Safari that can apply various filters to websites that you visit. In my opinion, the best part about GlimmerBlocker is that you can apply some GreaseMonkey scripts through GlimmerBlocker. Unfortunately, not all of them work. However, in general, if it's a simple script, it will work.

Another feature of GlimmerBlocker is that it will blacklist known ad websites. This means that you don't need to deal with ads when browsing the web.

Finally, GlimmerBlocker offers the option to do searches from the Safari URL bar. For example, typing "gim northern lights" will initiate a Google Image search for "Northern Lights". Unfortunately, this is a bit limited in that you can't include apostrophes or other non-letter characters.

[Via]

Eject Toolbar Item in Finder

To add the eject toolbar item to Finder, right click on a Finder window's toolbar and select "Customize Toolbar…". The eject icon is in the second row, first column. Simply drag it to where you want it in the toolbar, hit the done button, and you're good to go!

Replace GrowlMail with an Applescript

As mentioned in my previous post about Safari 4, installing the Safari 4 beta breaks GrowlMail which, in turn, breaks Mail. The temporary solution was to run a terminal command to make GrowlMail only show a summary of emails received. I have written a script to use instead of GrowlMail.

The only caveat to this script is that it cannot retrieve the body of the message. This appears to be a problem with Apple Mail. Other than that, this script displays a notification telling you the account the email was received to, the name of the sender, and the subject of the email.



To use the script, create a new rule in Mail that filters out all the messages you do not want. (The script, by default, filters out Junk Mail and mail you've read.) Set the action of the rule to run the script. Finally, disable GrowlMail.



You can download the script here. Don't know what Growl is? Download it here or learn about it from MacTricksandTips.

Earn Free Stuff Online Using SwagBucks

This "tip" is a deviation from my usual tips. Today's tip is just a bit down the page or you can read it here.

Pretty much anybody who uses the internet has looked for a way to make some easy money online. Unfortunately, most of the ways to do this are either scams or not very lucrative. As an example, my mom signed up for something that required about 15 minutes of work a day and only earned her $25 in one year. I have found a way to earn free stuff online using the search engine SwagBucks.



What kind of free stuff?
Well, in my case, anything on Amazon. I have been earning $5 Amazon gift cards which means that I can buy pretty much anything I want off Amazon. If I needed to purchase the item anyway - for example: socks - then the $5 is pretty much cash in my pocket. (Budget the socks with cash, buy the socks with Amazon gift cards, use the budgeted cash for something else.)
Alternatively, if I wanted something pricey - like an iPod - I could earn one over a period of time with just a bit of effort everyday on my part.

How does it work?
When you do a search with SwagBucks, you have a chance of winning any number of SwagBucks. If you win a SwagBuck it gets added to your account. When you have enough SwagBucks, you can purchase something from the SwagStore. (Such as $5 Amazon gift cards or a $15 iTunes gift card.) I have earned enough SwagBucks in the last two weeks to get a $5 Amazon gift card.

Why would they do this?
When you search with their search engine, they get money from sponsored links and ads. They pass a bit of this money onto you through free SwagBucks.

How do you know this works?
Like I said, I've already earned a $5 Amazon gift card. My sister, who told me about this, has earned several gift cards. To make sure this was legit, I used the gift card I earned to buy something small off Amazon. The gift card worked like a charm. From everything I have read, seen, heard, and experienced, this is perfectly legit.

Why are you telling us, your Mac loving blog readers?
Two reasons.
Reason number one: to find something like this - that is totally legit - and not share it, would be a crime. It is super-easy to use and does what it claims.
Reason number two: if you sign up under my reference link I get a SwagBuck for every SwagBuck you earn (up to 100). If this sounds like something for you, and you haven't signed up already, this is a way you can say "Thank you" that not only helps me, but helps you as well.

Sounds good, how do I sign-up?
Just use this URL. As per their privacy policy they will not sell your info. In my experience, they only use your email address for contacting your for legitimate reasons (confirming email address, notifying you your prize has processed, etc.)

I've signed up; any tips for getting more SwagBucks?
1: Follow the twitter feed.
I've found that by subscribing to their Twitter feed via RSS I can get most of the SwagCodes they offer.

2: Don't search too much.
Theoretically, the more you search, the more you earn. I have found this to not be true. Instead, searching five times a day - every day - has earned me a decent amount of SwagBucks.

3: For big-ticket items: get them through Amazon.
If you're going to go for something big, like an iPod, you can save some serious SwagBucks. Getting Amazon gift cards versus getting an iPod Touch will save you 1,000 SwagBucks!


To sum up: SwagBucks is a perfectly legit way of earning free stuff online. Sign up today!

Saved Folders for Specific Applications

MacOSXHints.com pointed out that you can create saved searches for application specific Open/Save dialogs. By combining this with spotlight comments, you can create a smart folder that combines several folders together, but is only show in one specific application.


Step 1: Find all the folders you want to add to your saved search. For each folder, hit Cmd-I to open its info window and add a spotlight comment to tag the folder.



Step 2: Go to the application you want to add the saved search for and hit Cmd-O or Cmd-S to bring up an Open/Save dialog.

Step 3: Using the Spotlight search bar in the upper-right corner, do a search for "kind:folder". This will filter out all files so that you can essentially have a list of folders to choose from.



Step 4: Click on the "+" button to add another parameter.



Step 5: Click on the "Kind" drop-down menu. Select "Other…" and search for "Spotlight". Add the "Spotlight Comment" parameter.




Step 6: Set the spotlight comment parameter to "contains [your spotlight tag]".



Step 7: Set the scope to "Computer".



Step 7: Click on the "Save" button in the upper-right corner.



Step 8: Fill in a name and hit the Save button. I would suggest only adding the smart folder to that application. You can do this by checking the box next to "Display Smart Folder in this application only".