10.5 Leopard Appswitcher tricks

A new trick in leopard is the ability to hide applications right from the app switcher toolbar.
First invoke the app switcher by using your predermined mouse shortcut or by hitting OPTION - TAB and then mouse over the apps you’d like to hide and hit CMD -H to hide or show the application.

You can also quit applications right from appswitcher by mousing over the application you’d like to quit and hitting CMD-Q and it’ll quit instantly, this is very handy.

Spotlight as a Calculator

A little known fact about spotlight is that not only can you search your computer, but it also doubles as a simple calculator
While it doesn’t seem to handle complex math equations it will certainly help you figure out how much that new Macbook and Ipod are going to set you back!

All you need to do is activate Spotlight ( CMD + Spacebar ) and type your query and spotlight will do the math for you!

Add Spacers to the Leopard Dock

If you find your Leopard dock a little messy, Here’s a tip that’ll allow you to add spacers to the dock to seperate your apps/documents into groups on the dock.If you’d like a space on the left or application side of the dock, Open terminal (~/applications/utlities/terminal.app) and enter the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

If you’d like to add one to the right or document side of the dock enter this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

To see your changes you’ll also need to restart the dock by entering the command:

Killall Dock

Afteryou’ve done this once, you can drag the spacers where ever you’d like and even create more by simple entering the same commands into terminal over again.To remove the space, simply click and drag the space out of the dock like you would any other application or document and ” poof ” it’s gone.

Apparently

wordpress was playing a few games on me in this post .. It should be fixed now, Sorry for the confusion folks.

Using Tabs in OS X Terminal

A handy new trick that comes along with 10.5 Leopard is the addition of tabs to terminal just like you’d find in safari.

If you’d like to open a new tab while in terminal just hit CMD - T and a fresh terminal tab will open. You can drag these tabs into any order you like, You can also grab and drag a tab out into it’s own window if needed, if you can’t seem to get this to work, drag the tab up or down from the tab bar, as dragging it left or right seems to just rearrange the tabs left or right. Another nice feature is the ability to apply different window styles to each tab, letting you easily distinguish which tab is which on the fly

Also if you have a bunch of Terminal windows open you can go to Window/Merge All Windows in the menu bar and terminal will place all the windows in one nice and neat tabbed window with all your sessions open in tabs.

Lose Leopards transparent menu bar

If you don’t like the transparent menu bar in leopard there is something you can do about it. OpaqueMenuBar is a nice piece of donation ware that will allow you to change the menu bar so that it’s opaque ( quite obviously ) with just a few clicks.

While it is freeware, the developer does appreciate donations in order to fuel his efforts, so make a donation if you like this little utility!

Remove Leopards 3D Dock

If you’re looking for a way to remove the 3d styled dock from leopard, Here’s how you do it
First open terminal and enter this command:

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

To change it back simply enter :

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES

Then Type:

killall Dock

The dock will then restart with a new 2D style dock similar to that of Tiger, but slightly better looking in my opinion.
If you’re not up for entering terminal commands and would like to achieve the same thing you can also download the DockDoctor widget from innermindmedia and it’ll let you toggle back and forth with 0 effort right from your dashboard.

Leopard Keyboard Shortcuts

Here’s a list of handy Shortcuts for leopard, Most of us know these already but it’s still nice to have a refresher list.
If you’re switching from a Windows all you pretty much have to remember is that most of these shortcuts are the same in Windows, you just swap out CTRL for the Apple key and you’re golden.

Preferences…. Apple - Comma
Open……….. Apple - O
Move to trash.. Apple - Delete
Copy ………. Apple - C
Cut ……….. Apple - X
Paste ……… Apple - V
Save……….. Apple - S
Print………. Apple - P
Switch apps … Apple - Tab
Get info …… Apple - I
Quit……….. Apple - Q
Close………. Apple - W
Undo……….. Apple - Z
Redo……….. Apple - Y
Bold……….. Apple - B
Underline…… Apple - U
Find……….. Apple - F
Hide App……. Apple - H
Minimize App… Apple - M
Spotlight…… Apple - Space
Screenshot…… Apple - Shift - 3
Selective Screenshot…… Apple - Shift - 4
Individual Window Screenshot…… Apple - Shift - 4 Then Spacebar
Expose All Windows…… f3
Dashboard…… f4
Taken From LeopardTips Blog and expanded.

Add Functionality to Quicklook

Quicklook is the one reason I’ll never be satisfied on a non 10.5 computer ever again. The way it lets you look at any file with just a pop of the spacebar is something you just can’t imagine getting any better.. but then along comes The Folder Quick Look Plugin which you can find here.

Basically what it does is add a holy dose of extra goodies to Quicklook, including allowing you to view the contents of a folder without browsing into it at all.  Check out Here

Modifying Leopards Stacks

I find Leopards new Stacks feature incredibly useful, and fun to watch at the same time! Here are a few tweaks to help you make the most of stacks.

You can add a ” Recent Items” Stack to your dock by entering the following in terminal ( You can find terminal in /applications/utilities )

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

Once the stack appears you can right click it and select its type, and a few other features. To add a nice hover effect for the icons in a stack when expanded, Enter this line into the terminal

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES

Type the same, with NO at the end to reverse this effect.

If you don’t like stacks and the reduced folder browsing capabilities, you can download Quay, Developed by Rainer Brockerhof, It Allows you to add your drive, or folders to your dock and browse them via a menu just as you would in OS X Tiger.

Modify Your Leopard Dock With DockDr

Alot of People don’t seem to like the new dock in OS X leopard, I however think it’s great, but needed a few changes, or at least a way to change it around and modify it.
I created this neat little piece of software called DockDR that enables you to do just that.

With a few clicks you can change the docks dimensions and even swap between 8 different dock skins without having to mess around in system folders or settings.

You can also Disable Dashboard and adjust Icons settings, Check it out at www.innermindmedia.com

You can find DockDr at www.innermindmedia.com , There is also a widget version that allows you to toggle between 3D and 2D dock styles.