Here are a few commands that can be used to activate hidden features of Mac OS X. There are quite a few of these commands floating around the internet, but I have chosen to highlight the ones that I find the most useful. The commands will require use of the terminal, but don’t worry we won’t be doing anything complicated. In most cases you can simply copy the command from your browser window (be careful not to highlight any stray characters or newlines) or enter it manually if that is more your style.
Once you have opened up the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) we’ll begin with a neat trick for iTunes.
Invert iTunes Store Links
Normally the arrows (see image below) next to artists and albums in your iTunes library will point to the artist or album on the iTunes store when you click them. I found that feature to be slightly annoying and immediately turned the arrows off via the iTunes-Preferences pane. However, when I came across this command which causes arrows to point to the artists or albums within your own iTunes library, I suddenly found a use for those little arrows.
If you want to listen to all of your Beatles songs, simply click the arrow next to the Beatles name. The resulting page will only contain songs by the selected artist or album. Simply put NO at the end to reverse the effect.
Dashboard Development Mode
This allows you to easily place a dashboard widget on the desktop without having to use a third party application such as AmnestyWidgets. Simply enter the following command,
then relaunch the dock by typing killall Dock and pressing enter. Now when you click and hold onto a widget in the dashboard–and press F12 or F4 (new keyboards) to exit the dashboard–the widget will appear on your desktop. The only downside to this is that the widget will float at the top level of all windows so doing this with large widgets is probably a bad idea. Simply put NO at the end to reverse the effect.
Plain Text Mail
This command will force all email in Mail.app to be displayed as plain text, which is very useful if you despise HTML emails as much as I do.
Simply, replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse the effect.
Expanded Save Dialog
This is a great command that prevents you from having to press that pesky down arrow to show the column/list view of folders within the save dialog.
Simply replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse the effect.
Disable Crash Reporter
This command disables the crash reporter dialog that normally appears when an application quits unexpectedly.
Simply replace “none” with “prompt” to reverse the effect.
Show Hidden Files in Finder
This command tells the Finder to show hidden files/folders such as ‘.Trash’.
Before the changes will take effect you’ll need to relaunch the Finder either by logging out and then logging back in or by using the ‘Force Quit’ dialog. Simply replace TRUE with FALSE to reverse the effect.
Deactivate the Dashboard
Some people simply don’t like the dashboard and view it as nothing more than a distraction and a waste of computer resources. This command will disable the dashboard without the risk of any system damage.
Relaunch the dock by typing killall Dock and pressing enter. Replace YES with NO to reverse the effect.
Note: The above tips (and more!) can be found at macosxtips.
Add New Comment
Viewing 3 Comments
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks
(Trackback URL)
November 2, 2007 at 11:14 am
[...] You can also find other command line tips here. [...]
November 20, 2008 at 10:06 pm
[...] How to Access Hidden OS X Features [Mac Tip] : Zaphu] No Comments so ...