19 Aug 2010

Five Obscure Mac Keyboard Shortcuts

Yes, it’s a list post, with a prime number of items, to boot. Sue me. Here’s five of the more obscure Mac keyboard shortcuts I use, plus some bonus tips for good measure. If you know about all of them already, you’re probably really über-geeky (umlaut tip: hit Option‑U to prepare an umlaut; it’ll then appear […]

4 Aug 2010

Installing Markdown as an OS X Services Menu Item Using Automator

I just had a quick look around the web for ways to install Markdown translation as a Service (i.e. available from the Services menu) on my Mac. Most of the hits I got seemed to be quite old, and involved hacking about with an existing service for another text converter. So, I experimented. And the […]

9 Mar 2010

Taking Screenshots from the Command Line in OS X

I was so impressed with this I had to share. I was looking for a way of taking screen shots of a user taking a screen shot. Yes, that’s a bit meta. Basically, I wanted to grab some screen shots for a tutorial piece on how to capture screen shots on a Mac. So I wanted […]

31 May 2009

The Finder, the mini-Finder, and Cool Interactions

Lukas Mathis recently gave a lovely detailed analysis on his blog about how the Finder — and various other OS’s file managers — interact with applications when it comes to opening, saving and creating new files. This made me want to mention a couple of very nice interactions that the Finder has with applications at the kind of “should this […]

9 Mar 2009

Work in Progress

Yup, I’ve been distracted again. Coming soon: my first OS X dashboard widget, a “next three departures” live timetable for the local ferry boats.