Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, tips & favorite features

[patch29]

What are some of your favorite Tiger tips and features?

Dashboard is one, which has its own thread here. (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=10893)


Slideshow, either via an email or create a selection of images, ctrl+click, choose slideshow, it could not be easier. :thumb

[patch29]

Safari, feels much faster, pages that used to load slowly now load fast.

RSS

(RSS screensaver is cool, load your favorite RSS page and watch the headlines fly) :thumb

No more annoying, page did not load, message bumping that tab forward. :clap

email links or content from safari via mail.

[patch29]

Mail

I think it is much nicer, never used mail in 10.3, but now I have switched from Entourage. I am still working on new features that I like, but so far so good.

[patch29]

Quicktime 7

Finally

Live resize. With QuickTime 7 you get clear, fluid playback even as you change the size of your player window. :thumb

also works with 10.3.9

[DavidTO]

Quicktime 7

Finally

Live resize. With QuickTime 7 you get clear, fluid playback even as you change the size of your player window. :thumb

also works with 10.3.9


I believe the live resize requires Core Image support.

When in Spotlight, hold the command key to jump to the top hit. While holding the command key down, use the down arrow to jump to the first item in a category.

Live dictionary: holding cmd-ctl-d hover your mouse over any word in a cocoa app. The definition pops up. Control or right click, you can choose Look Up In Dictionary, as another way of accessing it.

[patch29]

Safari tip

ctrl+click on image gives Copy Image Address :clap

[DoctorIt]

I finally got mine. will be installing tonight... thanks for the tips Patch!

[JohnR]

Spotlight is awesome!

I'm very pleased with Tiger so far.

iChat with 4 people talking (total) is pretty cool too.

[JohnR]

Preview actually recognizes NEF files! :clap Now I see previews of my files before I open them!

[patch29]

I noticed in column view I get good info on files too. This could have been in Panther or before, but I just noticed so it is new for me.


A movie or audio file will play in the column view preview, and my raw images show there as mid size thumbnails.

[patch29]

ctrl+click in the dock and you can set application to open on login. :thumb

I reboot when I walk away, but would like PS to open if I know I will be working on it, a nice simple fast way to activate or deactivate startup at login.

[patch29]

A few things I wish I could do via the OS or wish I knew how to do. :ear



Set the restart countdown timer to a lesser value. I don't need two minutes to realize I don't want to restart, 10 maybe 15 seconds, but I would like to be able to hit restart and leave, not have to wait to clear the countdown window.


Is there a way to turn off dashboard, or if you don't have any widgets running, it is not really taking up any resources? I might not want it running all the time, but having quick access to the dashboard features would be nice, also being able to create sets of widgets that switch between, if I am on the road I may need different travel info, or at home I may want two I see all the time, stocks and weather, but use the screen capture one enough, but don't want it always running, sets and quick access drop down menus would be useful.


I wish there were a keyboard shortcut for creating a pdf, no need for the print panel to open, just hit a shortcut and it drops a pdf on you desktop.

[DoctorIt]

Mail

I think it is much nicer, never used mail in 10.3, but now I have switched from Entourage. I am still working on new features that I like, but so far so good.really? did you use calendar stuff in entourage? that is why I use it... well that and I'm still stuck with outlook on the work PC, so with a few applescripts I found, I can sync between them.


I did the install yesterday. Love it. But noticed one thing - why are all my fonts "bolder"? I asked my labmate who installed this weekend as well, and he said the chinese fonts are all bold and fat too. Anyone else notice this or is it a default setting I can change somewhere? I'm referring mainly to the browser, both safari and camino. but in their preferences, making changes seems to have no effect.

:dunno

[patch29]

really? did you use calendar stuff in entourage? that is why I use it... well that and I'm still stuck with outlook on the work PC, so with a few applescripts I found, I can sync between them.


I did the install yesterday. Love it. But noticed one thing - why are all my fonts "bolder"? I asked my labmate who installed this weekend as well, and he said the chinese fonts are all bold and fat too. Anyone else notice this or is it a default setting I can change somewhere? I'm referring mainly to the browser, both safari and camino. but in their preferences, making changes seems to have no effect.

:dunno

I used the calendar more than ical, but I have switched to ical now. I only go back to look at very old emails in entourage now.


The second part you are 205. (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=100044#post100044) :D

[DoctorIt]

I used the calendar more than ical, but I have switched to ical now. I only go back to look at very old emails in entourage now.


The second part you are 205. (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=100044#post100044) :DI can't be expected to keep up with all the Tiger threads can I?

Thanks, its bugging me too, but I guess I'll have to assimilate. I particularly don't like how fat all the type is on smugmug. Yuck. Looks better on my work PC, what a darn shame that is!

[patch29]

I can't be expected to keep up with all the Tiger threads can I?

Thanks, its bugging me too, but I guess I'll have to assimilate. I particularly don't like how fat all the type is on smugmug. Yuck. Looks better on my work PC, what a darn shame that is!


Tweak your settings in Appearance in system prefs.

[DavidTO]

My best hint is macosxhints (http://www.macosxhints.com/index.php). Hint after hint.

Today's hint: to access the Dashboard bar (where the widgets live) you can type cmd= (the command key and the equal sign).

[DavidTO]

In another thread pathfinder and I were talking about the upgrade path to Tiger.

If you want to do everything absolutely possible to make it a seamless transition, then take a look at this. (http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050429000534549)

[pathfinder]

In another thread pathfinder and I were talking about the upgrade path to Tiger.

If you want to do everything absolutely possible to make it a seamless transition, then take a look at this. (http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050429000534549)


Your lionk requires a membership and won't let me in :cry But I remain interested in upgrading. I talked to the kids at the Apple store Saturday and they report no problems with upgrading yet that they know of. Take that with a grain of salt of course...
I plan on installing for my PB some time this week - maybe Weednesday. I also need to upgrade to CS2 apparently - folks seem to be saying nice things about it also.

[rutt]

Your lionk requires a membership and won't let me in :cry But I remain interested in upgrading. I talked to the kids at the Apple store Saturday and they report no problems with upgrading yet that they know of. Take that with a grain of salt of course...
I plan on installing for my PB some time this week - maybe Weednesday. I also need to upgrade to CS2 apparently - folks seem to be saying nice things about it also.

ImagePrint requires an upgrade for Tiger and if I weren't telepathic I wouldn't have succeeded in doing it. It's a very useful piece of software, but the documentation of the upgrade was wrong, hidden, and spotty. Maybe if you get your retailer to help you...

If you use fink, it requires a complete reinstall which isn't really a problem, but takes longer than you might like.

In the course of upgrading to Tiger, I discovered that Desktop Manager (open source freeware virtual desktop manager) is now ready for prime time and works better than either of the two commercial competitors.

Wacom tablets don't play perfectly with Energy Saver. With the mouse on the tablet, the screen never blanks no matter what the settings. On the other hand, the screen saver does kick in. (Upgraded to latest wacom Intuos 3 driver.)

I was disappointed with spotlight. It has great potential, but the exact rules for what gets searched and how are obscure and that makes it hard to trust the results.

[DavidTO]

Your lionk requires a membership and won't let me in :cry But I remain interested in upgrading. I talked to the kids at the Apple store Saturday and they report no problems with upgrading yet that they know of. Take that with a grain of salt of course...
I plan on installing for my PB some time this week - maybe Weednesday. I also need to upgrade to CS2 apparently - folks seem to be saying nice things about it also.

Ah, that's because it's an archived article. It's a free site, but the archives require membership--because they're so darn useful to tech types.

It's basically the same as I said in the other thread (http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=105828&postcount=3) .

Things in that article I didn't mention: Update all your apps before the upgrade. Disconnect all firewire peripherals and update firmware. Disable plugins and other add-ons (enhancer apps for Mail, or whatever), identify and remove any corrupt preferences (download Preferential Treatment for this).

Just know that I didn't do any of the things above, just the other things in that other thread (linked above), and I was fine...but you never know.

[DavidTO]

I talked to the kids at the Apple store Saturday and they report no problems with upgrading yet that they know of. Take that with a grain of salt of course...


Yeah, ridiculous coming from the company that gave or discounted Virex and Norton Parental Control to .Mac users--both of which are not Tiger compatible, and both of which require uninstallers (unusual for Mac apps). Sure it's not a PROBLEM, until you upgrade and NPC won't allow you to log into any user, which happened to me on the family iMac, I quickly reverted back to Panther on that system. They just don't need Tiger that bad, and I have to figure out blocking all those bad internet sites...

[DavidTO]

OK, so maybe I'm a slow learner, but I just now checked out Smart Folders.

Basically, it's a folder of a found set, with tons of options.

I mean, seriously, choose "Other" as your criteria (for example, instead of "Last Opened"), and take a look at what you have to choose from.

...still haven't figured out how I'm going to use it!

[DavidTO]

OK, so maybe I'm a slow learner, but I just now checked out Smart Folders.

Basically, it's a folder of a found set, with tons of options.

I mean, seriously, choose "Other" as your criteria (for example, instead of "Last Opened"), and take a look at what you have to choose from.

...still haven't figured out how I'm going to use it!


Anyone else had time to look at this and figure out how to make use of it? It seems so powerful...

[colourbox]

Anyone else had time to look at this and figure out how to make use of it? It seems so powerful...

One widely used example is a smart folder of all documents modified within a date range. I have a Smart Folder called "Last 3 Days" that is also added to my sidebar. It's any document or folder I've edited in the last 3 days, very useful. Smart folders are great in Mail; I have some for "any message containing" a particular client's e-mail address, for instance.