This is where compressing files can come in handy. Whether you have a long list of photos that you want to share with a friend, a Powerpoint project with corresponding PDFs to send to business partners, or a couple of text files you’d like to take with you to work on, a quick compression of these file groups will help you save space. While the amount saved will vary by file type – graphic and text files generally have a higher compression ratio while executable files have lower – you’re likely to save some space no matter what. Doing so is a pretty simple process in Mac OS X.

To start, find the file or files that you’d like to shrink into a single .zip file. If you’re looking to add multiple items, hold Command with each click to make your selections.

Once you have your items of interest, you’ll want to start the compression process. Right click the selection. When the file menu appears, select Compress.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll see a window appear with the status of your compression process. The window will indicate how many files will be in your compressed file, the size of those files, and about how long the process will take. Then just wait until completion as your Mac works its space-saving and size-shrinking magic.

Depending on what you choose to compress, the name of the final product will vary. For example, if you compress a single folder, it will appear in your finder with the same name as the folder but with a .zip extension. If you choose multiple files or folders to be compressed, your result will be “Archive.zip.” This is something you’ll want to note when looking for the results of the process.

Your final product will be a smaller, movable file that can be read on any Mac or PC. Simply double-clicking the .zip file on your Mac will unzip the files and give you access to everything inside. This makes it easy for sharing, moving, and storing. No matter what you decide to do with your newly shrunken archives, you’ll be doing it while taking up less space than usual. A zip file will save the average user about 10 percent of the initial space that the items previously occupied. This adds up quick when you have a sizable amount of items to zip up.

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When you pull down a menu within a program, certain actions have a given keyboard combination next to them. While tons of applications built for Mac come loaded with shortcuts meant to make the user experience easier, there are certain functions that just don’t get the same love. If you find yourself using those particular options on a regular basis and would like to stop searching the menu bar for it every time you need it, then consider defining your own shortcut for the action in question.

To create a shortcut, you’ll need to open up your System Preferences from the Apple menu.

From here, you’ll want to select “Keyboard” from the Hardware heading.

Once you’re into Keyboard menu, you’ll be presented with two tabs: “Keyboard” and “Keyboard Shortcuts.” Select Keyboard Shortcuts.

From the sidebar, select Application Shortcuts.

Then click the “+” button to add a new keyboard shortcut.

From the drop down list, select the application you’d like to add a shortcut to.

In the Menu Title text box, type in the name of the action that you want to create a keyboard shortcut for. Make sure to type the name exactly as it appears.

In the Keyboard Shortcut text box, you will be able to define the exact keystrokes you would like to hit to perform the given command within the application. If the shortcut you choose is already taken by another command it will override it, so make sure your keystroke of choice is available or you know what you’re replacing.

Click Add when you are satisfied with your setting.

Now when you open up your application and take a look at the drop down menu that houses your command, you should see a keyboard shortcut next to it. Here is the before and after in the example I used, adding a shortcut to Zoom in the web browser RockMelt.

Before:

After:

As you can see, my shortcut is now listed in the menu. Of course, it works when you perform the keystrokes as well.

Sometimes the shortcuts that come with an app aren’t exactly helpful to a user’s specific situation. You can also use this process to modify an existing shortcut if you find an easier combination of keystrokes easier to remember than the default setting. Follow the same steps as above and simply type in the name of the command that you would like to change the shortcut for. Similarly, if you find yourself needing to perform a given task regardless of what application you may be in, you can define a universal shortcut that will work in all applications. If this is the case, follow the steps above and select All Applications from the Application drop down menu when creating a new shortcut.

However you choose to use this tutorial, it promises to make your life easier – one shortcut at a time.

Image credit: By Vintuitive

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The command will be entered into Automater. Open up your Applications and find Automater to start.

Once  you have opened Automater, you will be prompted to select a template. Your workflow will be a Service, so select Service and click “Choose.”

There are two columns on the left side of the window. In the second column are a list of selectable actions. Using the search or the scroll, find “Run AppleScript.” Double-click it and you will be presented with the AppleScript terminal.

Select the command below and paste it into the AppleScript terminal.

on run {input, parameters}
    try
	set MyText to input as string
	set NombreSignes to the number of characters of MyText
	set NombreMots to the number of words of MyText
	set NombrePara to the number of paragraphs of MyText
	set LeResultat to "The selected text contains :" & return & "- " & NombreSignes & " sign(s) ;" & return & "- " & NombreMots & " word(s) ;" & return & "- " & NombrePara & " paragraph(s)."
	display dialog LeResultat buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon note
    on error errmsg number errnum
	display dialog errmsg & " [" & errnum & "]" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon stop
    end try
    return input
end run

Hit the green Play button to see the script in action.

Once you’ve confirmed that the code is working, save the command with a name like “Count Selected Characters” or some variation of that. Make it something you will recognize and understand the function of when you see it.

Once the command is entered, open up a program of your choice. Select a group of text within that program and right click. At the bottom of your menu, you should now see a command with the name that you gave it.

Click on it and it will deliver a pop up screen that tallies the character and word count of your selected text.

Having easy access to a word count function is something that TextEdit users have been dying for. It’s also a great feature to have around for Mail.app users who try to keep their character count low during correspondence. With the addition of Twitter and social network integration into OS X, having a quick way to check character count is extremely handy. It’s much easier to keep your words concise and punchy when you have the ability to check it just a click away. This is a simple service that will serve you well, whether you’re a writer with a word quota or a constant Twitter user with a character cap. Keep it all in check with this easy to execute command.

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If you’re finding your sessions start off a bit slow, it’s likely because of the load of apps that are ready and waiting to grab your attention right away. These apps are called “login items” and they will make their presence known as soon as you’re signed in. Some apps are welcome additions to this list – anything that you find yourself using on a regular basis. For example, most of my work happens in TextEdit and DropBox, so I like to have these apps available immediately for my personal convenience. On the flip side, Skype likes to make itself available at start up and I rarely use it. To fix this and set up login for a more customized construct, we’ll have to dig in to the System Preferences.

Getting to Your Login Items

Either through the Apple Menu or Finder or the Applications folder – however you may choose – open up your System Preferences.

Once you’ve opened up your System Preferences, look down to the System category and select Accounts (may also be labeled as Users and Groups).

This panel with default to the Password tab. Make sure that you’ve chosen the account that you want to modify.

Click the lock icon in the lower left hand corner. Authenticate your password when prompted. This will allow you to make changes to the settings.

Switch over to the Login Items menu.

Removing Login Items

There is a list of applications that are currently set to open right when you log in. To remove an application, simply highlight the app in question and hit the “-” (minus) button. This will take the app or item off the list and, subsequently, off the queue of things to do at start up.

Adding Login Items

If you’re more interested in adding an application, start by hitting the “+” (plus) button. This will present you with a Finder menu in which you can find the application you wish to launch at start up. Select it and hit the “add” button. You can also do this with documents, AppleScript, and Automator actions. Whatever you select will now launch upon logging in to your account.

Hiding Login Items

If you’d like to have an application start at login but would like it to be hidden, simply check the “Hide” checkbox in the Login Items menu. This will make the app or action of choice launch but not be visible on your screen at start up. It’ll make the application available to you but save any visual clutter that may occur.

This is a great way to clean up and speed up your start up, as some installed apps make a special effort to get your attention by defaulting to launch at login. It will also optimize your experience by giving you immediate access to the things you need. Seconds saved add up quick, especially when you’re cutting the time it takes to go through start up and find the apps you actually want to have handy.

The post How to Set Applications to Launch at Start Up [Mac] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

A simple trick that you can use to prevent yourself from emails overloading is to increase the mail checking interval so you have time to clear one batch of mails, have a rest, before clearing another batch.

Mail.app defaults itself to checking for new emails every five minutes. This means, of course, you only have that little 5 minute window to handle whatever is on your plate before your next round of distractions arrive in tow. Go into the Preferences panel. To do this, open Mail, click on the Mail menu, and open Preferences. Make sure you’re open to the “General” tab within the Preferences, which will look like the screen below:

The part of this menu that our focus will be on is the “Check for new messages” option. The default is “Every 5 minutes.” Change it to “Every 30 minutes” or “Every hour”. This will be your decision, as you are more familiar with your personal work habits and ability to assign attention. Either setting will free up a significant chunk of time for you to hone in on tasks at hand while keeping updates coming in a reasonably timely manner.

Turning off the auto checking completely

Another option that you can choose that can also be set from this same menu is one that will turn off automatic checks all together. This option, denoted as “Manual,” means that Mail.app won’t even think about bringing you a new email until you tell it you’re ready. It puts the power completely back into your hands, which may be more than you want to deal with. Play around with the options and see what fits you best.

Mail.app’s Preferences are a great place to browse around for other little tweaks. This is a simple one that is not only helpful for time management and personal productivity, but also a great thing to know about when snooping around with the settings. It’s an easy change to make but one that is under utilized by Mail.app users.

The post Increase Your Mail Auto-checking Interval to Prevent Emails Overload [Quick Tips, Mac] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

From programs that aren’t even for a given file type to apps that you no longer use, it doesn’t matter what it is if it’s still lodged within the “Open With” menu and is keeping you from getting to the choice you actually want. Luckily, there are ways to get rid of those excessive options.

First things first, you’re going to want to understand how these programs get on this list. It’s auto-generated by your Mac based on the applications you have installed. That’s a handy feature, except for it doesn’t update very often. That means even if a program is technically useful for a given purpose, you may not use it any longer or may have a preferred choice.

There are two approaches you can take to ridding yourself of these apps: Start from scratch or eliminate them one by one.

Method 1

To start, you’re going to need to find the proper folder. Open up “Home -> Library -> Preferences”. From here, you’ll need to find a file named “com.apple.LaunchServices“. Take it and trash it. You don’t need that crap! Well, it’ll regenerate. So technically you do need it. But it’ll clear out the list and start from scratch with only the programs that you currently have installed. Any time you need the list refreshed, just trash that buggy little file and start over.

Method 2

If you’re a little more precise with your “Open With” menu and just want to get rid of a few selections that you’ll never select to use, that’s more than doable as well. This is an excellent choice if you’re planning to hang on to an application but won’t be using it for certain file types. For example, QuickTime player can handle tons of file types but you’re probably not going to use it for JPEG.

Taking care of things this way will take a little more time, as you’ll have to go app by app. Start by finding a given application you’d like removed from a list and right-click it. Select “Show Package Contents” from the menu that appears. From within the app bundle, open the “Contents” folder. This will hold a file called “Info.plist”. Coincidentally, you’ll have to select an application to open this file with. TextEdit will do the trick but the entire point of this is making your favorite apps more available, so fire up your text editor of choice. Search the text for that resembles the following strand:

<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key><array>
<string>txt</string>
<string>srt<string>

This dictates the type of files that the given application is capable of handling based on the suffix. If you don’t want a given file type to be considered for the program, delete it from the line of text. Save the file and close your application, and you should notice the application is no longer listed for the given file type.

The post Get Rid of Unnecessary Apps in Your “Open With” List [Mac] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

What is this thing?

Cobook calls itself, “the smart address book.” It backs up that claim with every usage. This little app lives in your menu bar and delivers easy access to contact information. Call upon it with the stroke of a hotkey and Cobook will allow you to swiftly search through your sea of companions and co-workers to find the people your looking for. It’s a feature-rich tool that also integrates social network updates, allows tag grouping and organization, and has a handy sync feature that will bring your contacts from all over into one place.

Setting it Up

First and foremost, you’re going to want to download and install the app. Once you’ve nailed that crucial step, you can begin to import your contacts. By defaul, Cobook will snag your existing listings from Address Book. If you’d like to pull in your contacts from other services, it’s as easy as a couple of clicks. Cobook will prompt you to do so after the initial install, but you can also do this by clicking the gear button and opening Preferences. This will display a listing of locations that you can then import contacts from, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Contacts, Google Voice, and Xing. Using this is as easy as hitting the “Connect” button, logging into your chosen account, and letting Cobook do what it does best – bring your contacts one step closer to you. Make sure to take advantage of the contact merge feature if you have a person of interest on more than one of those networks. This is as simple as clicking and dragging one contact on top of the other.

Social Network Integration

Importing your social network contacts has an added benefit aside from just bringing them into the forefront of your communication control. Once you give it access, Cobook automatically watches your networks and provides updates to their information. If a LinkedIn connection changes jobs or a Facebook friend gets a new phone number, that will be reflected on their listing in Cobook. It’ll give you information that you’d otherwise have to dig for, like birthdays and contact pictures, as well.

Shortcut Command

Once you’ve got all your connections collected in Cobook, you can call upon them just as quickly as you brought them into the program. No matter what you’re doing, Cobook is available to you through its global keyboard shortcut. A quick tap of “Control + Shift + Space” will bring up your contact listing, and defaults your cursor in the search bar so you can swiftly sift through to find who you’re looking for.

Tagging

To keep your contacts better organized, you can use Cobook’s tagging system. To use this, simply enter Edit mode by clicking on the pencil icon, select a contact – or multiple ones to group more than one person with a particular tag – and choose to add a tag. You’ll then be able to use the search bar to find people based off a given tag that you’ve designated to them. This is an infinitely handy feature if you have a group email to send out to a specific subset of your contact base.

If you’re looking for a better way to manage your connections and keep in contact, you need not look any further than Cobook. It’s a powerful tool packed into a tiny app that is happy to wait in your menu bar for you to use it. Odds are good it won’t have to wait long, because it’s definitely one of those apps that will make your life easier.

Cobook

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The first thing you’ll be tasked with doing is opening the Terminal, as that’s what you’ll be using to create your computer’s sleep schedule. The Terminal sits within the Utilities folder on your Mac, so find it and open it.

The first command will be to set up the sleep times for your Mac. To do this, type into the Terminal the following command:

pmset schedule sleep "MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS"

Make sure to replace the date with whatever day is applicable to the cycle you’re creating using the full “Month/Day/Year” formatting. The time is dictated on a 24 hour clock, so 00:00:00 corresponds to midnight. 12:00:00 is noon, 22:00:00 is 10pm and so on.

Now that your Mac knows when to call it a night, it’s time to give it a wake up call. Once again you’ll be working within the terminal to dictate the time. To set the alarm for your Mac, use this command:

pmset schedule wake "MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS"

This command will ensure that your Mac will be up at the time that you decide for it. Macs don’t have the ability to hit the snooze alarm, so you’ve guaranteed your computer will be awake right when you expect it to be.

That’s all there is to it. Your Mac now has a dedicated sleep cycle for the day. You can, of course, duplicate these commands to create a schedule for longer absences. If you’d like to make this command part of your Mac’s daily routine, you can use the “repeat” command. For waking your computer at the same time every day, type this command in the Terminal:

pmset repeat wake MTWRFSU HH:MM:SS

You can choose the days you want this to happen by simply picking the dates out of the command “MTWRFSU”. If you just want the wake to occur on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, just use the “MWF” part of the command.

Similarly, you can repeat the sleep schedule by using the repeat command. To make your Mac take a little nap at the same time every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, you’d type the command as follows:

pmset repeat sleep TRU HH:MM:SS

Now your Mac won’t spend those late nights stirring at all hours and will maintain a consistent cycle of sleep according to your dictation.

Image credit: Time

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Monitoring Your Processes

First and foremost, you’ll want to be proactive with your Terminal use to keep applications from going terminal. The best way to do this is to monitor disk activity. To take a look at what’s going on in your Mac at any given time, open up the Terminal and type

top

This will present you with a listing of everything that is happening under the hood of your machine.

Included in this read out are the processes that are running on your system. They are shown on the bottom half of the screen. The information that is laid out across the screen may seem hard to read, but there are a few important details that you can glean from the Terminal. Important areas to check include the

• %CPU – which tells the amount of CPU the given process is utilizing
• Time – which denotes the accumulated amount of time an application has taken up.
• PID, or Process Identification – This number will come in handy when dealing with a specific individual application or process.

If you’d like to find a specific application to focus your attention on – perhaps for being particularly problematic to you – that isn’t showing up within your list, you can find it within the Terminal command lines by using the command

ps -ax | grep [application name]

For example, if you were to “ps -ax | grep TextEdit,” the Terminal would spit out information about that application, including that ever important PID number.

Killing a Process

Once you have the PID of a troublesome process, you can eliminate your struggles with ease without leaving the terminal. This is where the Terminal becomes your sword against the sworn enemy, the spinning rainbow wheel.

With the PID of your problem process, type in the command

kill -9 PID

The “-9″ in the command line dictates to the Terminal that your command is not ignorable, essentially guaranteeing to you that the execution will take place.

If you still have problems killing the program, it could be possible that program isn’t being run by you and instead is the action of the root user. There is a work around for this. Simply add “sudo” to the front of your command, making the full line read as

sudo kill -9 PID

This command will then prompt a administrative password request which when fulfilled will complete the kill request.

Using the Terminal can be an affective way to monitor and manage your processes and their functions within your computer. If you notice a process that you don’t recall launching, are having difficulties with a particular program, or simply need to free up some of your CPU, these commands for your Terminal should be kept close. Use them with care, because a typo command could be problematic. Following the directions above should lead to a satisfying way to manage your machine.

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iCloud

Apple made its best effort to really make all your data available everywhere. The additional integration of iCloud into Mountain Lion is perhaps their strongest effort at this. While it’s great, it’s also unessential if you’re a Google Drive user. Sign into your Google account in a little program called InSync and you’ll be able to manage, edit, and share your documents online and off from any device.

Messages

Mac users have come to be very familiar with iChat since its first appearance in 2002. But, as of OS X Mountain Lion, the little instant messenger will be no more. It’s replacement is Messages, a similarly skinned and featured chat program with integration for FaceTime and its mobile kin iMessage. Though Apple killed the beta version of the program, you can still access much of its functionality with a third party program. Trillian is a brilliant do-it-all chat client that has support for all of your accounts, synchronized conversations from desktop to mobile device, and complete integration with your Address Book contacts.

AirPlay Mirroring

AirPlay Mirroring was placed in Mountain Lion to allow for sharing the on-screen experience on your Mac through Apple TV. AirParrot gives you the ability to mirror specific apps or your full desktop for $10, while AirServer takes things a step further and gives you a mirror of your iOS device to your desktop for no cost.

Notification Center

The Notification Center on Mountain Lion is a much awaited inclusion. Users of Growl will appreciate its functionality, while those who have never experienced anything like it will never want to go without it. But, as just noted, it’s pretty similar to Growl, pushing forward system alerts in an non-intrusive manner. Paying a couple bucks toward Growl will get you Rollup, a feature that is essentially the same as Notification Center’s pulldown notification history. If you’re missing those updates that pop up with texts and calls, supplement with BigPhone Lite. You’ll receive communication notifications and be able to respond right from the menu bar.

Reminders and Notes

Two applications with extremely simple functions – taking notes and keeping to-do lists – are now a part of Mountain Lion with platform syncing. It’s a great idea that’s been around for awhile through other applications. If you’re not using Evernote yet, expect to forget all about Apple’s Notes program thanks to this feature-rich, media friendly, cross-device app. The same can be said for Wunderlist, a to-do list on steroids that is accessible on pretty much any device you own.

Safari Upgrades

Safari gets an overhaul in the process of the OS X upgrade, but its a tune up to nothing we haven’t seen already. The unification of the search bar and URL bar can be obtained through installing the Ominbar extension. The inclusion of Share Sheets into Safari allows you to pass around media and web pages through various accounts and services, or basically exactly what bookmarklets do. If there’s a service you know you’d like to share with, search for it with the term “bookmarklet” and create a collection of easily accessible share buttons for anything and everything. Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Pocket, Reddit; You name it, there’s probably a bookmarklet for it.

Tweet from Anywhere

Another part of the Share Sheets feature list is the inclusion of Twitter in apps so you can tweet from anywhere. You can already do this with the official Twitter for Mac client. Download it, login, right-click highlighted text in anything from TextEdit to the Finder, and send it off to all of your followers.

Gatekeeper

While it’s a common belief that Macs don’t get viruses, it’s not true. It may be rare in comparison to Windows operating systems, but that doesn’t mean having protection is a bad idea. Apple addresses this with GateKeeper, but there’s applications that are more feature rich than Apple’s installation limiter. Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac is free, functional, and fantastic for keeping everything bad out.

What other apps do you use to get Mountain Lion functionalities on your Mac?

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