|
|
|
|
| Architosh News Reports | |
| Anthony Frausto-Robledo ([email protected]) |
|
|
|
Architosh review: Mac OS 9 - The Missing Manual - Page 2
Cool Trick No. 3 Believe it or not not all Contextual Menus have equivalents in the Finder's menu bar. As it turns out there are some exclusive Contextual Menu commands. These are only accessible by Control-clicking a document, file or disk or some other item. The "Exclusive 5" are: 1.) Find Similar Files (control-click a document), 2.) Index Selection, 3.) Attach a Folder Action, 4.) Change Desktop Background, and 5.) Summarize Text to Clipboard. Here's a great power trick. If you have tried to have Sherlock index your entire hard drive you may have discovered that it asked for 20 hours or some ungodly amount of time to complete that task. When do you ever have 20 hours to turn over to your computer? Never, right? However, do you really care about indexing all of those System Folder files and those Adobe plugins? No. So instead, do this. Steps: Select the folder or folders of files that do matter for indexing and Control-click, and select Index Selection from the Contextual Menu.
Here's a tip for architects and other CAD pros. It is helpful to have Sherlock index your project CAD files. Sherlock will index all of the notation in your CAD files. Now the next time you want to find that construction drawing with that strange use of "Abracadabra brand" sealer you can have Sherlock find it for you if you forgot which project or CAD file it belonged. Or you can have Sherlock find all of the instances (CAD files) which used a particular type of thing or had a particular type of note. Very cool! Cool Trick No. 4 What good is a book on the Mac OS if it didn't teach you something about improving your life on the Internet? Well, the good news is David Pogue has an entire section (Part 4) devoted to Mac OS 9 Online. In it you will find all kinds of things about using iTools more effectively, Web sharing and searching the Internet with Apple's unique Sherlock 2 technology. Now that's innovation. And yet there is one more thing. How to speed up your Web browsing. Here's what you do. To speed up your Web browsing you cache your HTML files to a RAM disk. After all, a RAM disk is 100 times faster than your hard drive. Any Mac with any type of Web connection will see big improvements, especially those on modems. Here are the Steps: 1. Create a RAM Disk by opening up your Memory Control Panel (see below). Click "Save on Shut Down" and then move the slider to the size of RAM disk you want (larger for longer surfing sessions). Close the Memory control panel. 2.) Restart your Mac. 3.) Open your Web browser and select Preferences from the menu. Depending on your browser Click Advanced and then either Change Location (MS IE) or Cache (Netscape) and then Choose. You need to set your cache size to equal your RAM disk or slightly smaller. What you want to do is select your RAM disk as the place to cache your files while surfing. Done.
Now when you hit the Back button when browsing all of those image files will load much faster. Do this for all of your machines and each browser you use for more enjoyable surfing. Review Summary and Recommendations If you liked any of these power tips there are dozens more in Mac OS 9 - The Missing Manual. In addition, some other notable areas include a very good introduction to AppleScript -- something Apple's own documentation doesn't do well at all. Not only does David Pogue give you some excellent scripts to try out and learn on, he provides you with a methodology for going about learning AppleScript.
Also, David gives you an entire chapter on Mac OS 9's new Multi-User abilities, an area in the OS that can get a bit tricky. In addition he also has a list of remedies for what to do when things go wrong. Some other neat sections in the book include how to unleash the full power of Apple's utility SimpleSound to record sound up to many hours long at different recording settings. Now you have dictation abilities on your Power Book! Also there are in-depth explanations of QuickTime Pro and a whole chapter on Speech technologies in the Mac OS. Can this book be improved? Sure, add more pages of Pogue's great writing. But seriously, this is one of the best, if not the best book, on the Mac OS I've ever read. The only minor improvement I would make is to the graphics in the book. The great classic Apple manuals use a judicious use of white space and stronger heirarchial use of text fonts for the various sections and parts of the manual. It would be nice to see a book publisher in this genre for once not try to cram too many things on to each page. For graphics the book is only par for the course. Yet, the content shines. As I said in the beginning, the book is very friendly to first time Mac users thanks to its clear and simple organization. It is very comprehensive in general but lays the emphasis on what's cool about Mac OS 9. And not just what Apple thinks is cool about it. If I was to recommend just one book to a beginning or intermediate Mac user, Pogue's Mac OS 9 - The Missing Manual would definitely be it ... without question. And for advanced users -- while the Mac OS 9 Bible is sure to top that list -- Pogue reveals a good many neat tricks that even the most advanced Mac user may have yet to discover.
Anthony Frausto-Robledo, B.Arch., is the founder and editor of the award-winning Architosh Web site. Educated as an architect, he has been an AEC professional for over 15 years and was a senior designer with distinguished Boston architectural firms prior to launching his firm BritasMedia. As president of BritasMedia, Anthony consults AEC firms on Web, animation and IT-related issues in addition to publishing the Architosh site daily. He has been a member of the Design Studio and History & Theory faculty at the Boston Architectural Center College of Architecture and Interior Design since 1997. BritasMedia's mission with the Architosh Website is to 'help re-establish' the Apple Macintosh platform as the premier worldwide leading computer system for technical design professionals.
Other Architosh News Stories & Related Info MacCAD News: Autocad and ProE for Mac OS X efforts - Hot! Mac3D News: Strata introduces Strata3D, and for FREE! - Hot! Alias' StudioTools CAID and Apple's Industrial Design Group - Hot! Architosh reminds you to take a look at LightWave 6.0! Palladio software for the Macintosh: Book plus Planmaker / Facademaker Special Mac REPORT: Diehl Graphsoft explains merger with Nemetschek
|
||||||||
| Feedback | Back to Architosh News |
|
|
|
Help support Architosh by shopping at amazon.com Thanks!
|
|
|
|
|
|
