Mac Must Knows

Having a stack of CDs for different programs and games is fine, but what if you could put them all on your computer...

Wouldn't you rather just double-click a file instead of looking for a CD then putting it in?

It's actually quite easy to put all your CDs onto your computer. The information is saved in a .DMG (Disk Image) file which is like a virtual CD.

To do this all you have to do is:

1. Put the CD into the disk drive.
2. Open up Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility).
3. Select the CD you inserted in the right-hand menu.
4. Click New Image.

And your done. The CD is converted to a .DMG file and saved on your computer.

Now whenever you want to run that CD you just click on the file.

Easy!

Something about Mac OSX is that, the more free space you have on your hard drive, the faster your computer runs.

Cleaning out your hard drive is a great way to speed things up.

Go through your folders and look for things to delete. Stuff like...

• Movies you don't watch.
• Music you don't listen to.
• Files you no longer need.
• Pictures you don't really need (Things off the internet).
• Applications you no longer use.
• Duplicate Files.

And so on...

There are a few programs that can help you do this. They can tell you where the most space is being taken, what duplicate files you have and other things to help you clean things up.

I'll go over them in a different post.

The more free space you have the better.

Did you know that you can run Leopard in tons of different languages? And not only leopard, most of your applications probably have a few language translations.

All this language support takes up space though. And more then a few megabytes. Getting rid of the language files you don't need could easily scrape 5gb off your hard drive.

So how do you choose the ones you want and get rid of the ones you need?

It can be done with a program called "Monolingual". It let's you choose the language files you want to use and get rid of the ones you don't.

Start by opening it up.

In the languages section check all the languages you aren't going to use and uncheck the ones you will.

Next simply click remove and your done!

You'll be amazed at how much space this saves.

#1 On my list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is Quicksilver.

Finally we have Quicksilver. I put it as #1 on the list... not necessarily because I ranked everything from best to worst... but this is definitely my favorite.

I call Quicksilver a application quick launcher... but it's soo much more!

I'll try describing it to you but I'll most likely fail so excuse me if that happens. The best way to understand it is download it and try it yourself.

Quicksilver allows you to do tasks like open applications, manipulate files, run scripts send e-mails and more... only using your keyboard.

This application will make everything you do go 10 times faster... literally.

Say you want to open an application... say iTunes.

Now I could go to the application folder and do this but that takes a lot more time then using Quicksilver. I would open it by:

1. Opening quicksilver using my chosen "trigger" (a combination of keys you press to start Quicksilver. I use Option + Space.)
2. Type "i" (Quicksilver indexes everything on your computer, typing "i" makes it search for things with/relating to "i")
3. If you use iTunes all the time, Quicksilver will figure this out and iTunes will be at the top of the list for things to open.
4. Hit enter and iTunes opens.

This takes all of 2 seconds.

Quicksilver doesn't only let you open apps, you can open bookmarks with it, find and open files and so much more.

Check it out because me explaining it will take up too much space.

Quicksilver Website: http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver

You can download and find out more about it there.

Enjoy!

#2 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is AppZapper.

With a Mac, installing and uninstalling is as easy as moving a package to or from the "Application" folder.

Or is it?

Adding an application is very straight forward. Drag the app to the "Application" Folder. But how about removing applications?

Well, when you move the file and run the app, other program files get moved to different areas in your computer.

Then down the road you don't want that anymore. So what do you do? Drag the file to the garbage. Fine, but one small problem with this though.

The other files that were installed are left behind.

AppZapper is an application that removes the ENTIRE application, leaving no trace behind.

Now this isn't much for something you have to buy, so it does other things.

AppZapper also makes it easy to install plugins, widgets and preference pane items you may have installed. It's kind of like the ultimate Mac uninstaller.

You only buy it once (for the small price of 12.95$) and you get free updates for life, give it a try at:

AppZapper website: http://www.appzapper.com/

#5 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is "Onyx".

After using your mac for a while it is going to accumulate junk type files, permissions get changed and so on.

This can cause your computer to slow down and so on.

For this reason it is good to have a application to clean out the crap and check that everything is working alright. There are a few applications that do this but my favorite is Onyx.

Why?

Well all these applications do pretty much the same thing... Onyx just does it for free.

You can get a variety of different apps but they cost money and do the EXACT same thing. Why pay?

Onyx also lets you get at some of your Mac's hidden features allowing you to customize things like your Dock, Finder, Dashboard, Login, Safari and other things.

Onyx is a great application to have to do regular cleaning and change hidden preferences.

Definitely worth looking at.

The Onyx Website: http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html

#6 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is "The Unarchiver"

Everyone who's used a computer has surely come across compressed file. Stuff like ".zip" or ".rar".

These types of files/folders require the files to be extracted. This means a special program.

My last mac came with "Stuffit Expander" which did all this. I used that and it did the job.

Recently though I got a new mac and it didn't come with this. Instead of just going for the "Stuffit" again I decided to see what else was out there. After some research I found "The Unarchiver".

The Unarchiver is a fast and simple file extractor that works better then the one built into Mac OS X.

Why is it better then Stuffit? Cause it's free!!

Every computer needs a file extractor and the Unarchiver is as good as it gets.

Check it out here:

The Unarchiver Website: http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html