Safari 4: Getting Links to Open in Tabs

Although I generally love my Mac after using it for nearly a year now, there are still some things about Apple applications that annoy the hell out of me. For instance, I really want my browser window to take up my entire screen. Why do I have to use a 3rd party hack to do this? Ridiculous.

In that same vein, why can't I get Safari links to open in a new tab by default? As an example, I use Gmail and Google Calendar in lieu of an Apple Mail or Outlook-based system. If I click on the Calendar link within Gmail, why does Safari insist on opening this in a new window? ANNOYING.

Anyway, it appears I have found a solution.

Open a terminal, and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Hit enter. Restart Safari. That should do it.

Stop your MacBook/Pro from waking up in your bag

Shortly after I got my MacBook Pro, I started running into situations where the machine was waking up in my bag on the way to wherever I was going and overheating. This is a problem, obviously, because shutting down is simply not an option--it's too inconvenient.

After doing some research and implementing some of the things I found, I am happy to say that I am no longer experiencing any issues.

Here are some simple suggestions to try:

1. Unplug everything before your put Mac to sleep. As you may or may not know, plugging in or unplugging ANYTHING on your MacBook will wake the computer.
2. Disable "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer." If you have any kind of bluetooth mouse or other peripheral in your bag, one small bump can wake your Mac from sleep mode. To do this, go into your System Preferences, then Bluetooth, then click the Advanced button, and uncheck "Allow Bluetooth..."
   

If you still experience problems, you can change the settings so that putting your Mac to sleep will actually put it in hibernate mode. Hibernate mode is like Sleep, only instead of keeping your state in memory (which uses battery life), it writes your state to the hard drive (which uses no battery life). This is kind of a compromise between sleep and shut down. It takes a little longer to come back when you wake it up, but you don't have to close any applications or lose any work.

The command-line trick to this is the following:

• Open up a terminal window (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
• Check to see what sleep setting you are using. Type: pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
• If you are using setting 3, which should be the default, you can change to setting 1 which is hibernate only by typing: sudo pmset -a hibernate mode 1
• Of course, if you ever want to switch back to the default, just set it back to 3
  

The GUI trick to this is the following (this way is nicer):

• Download SmartSleep, and follow the installation instructions
• Run the application, and choose "hibernate only" from the drop-down list
  

Finally, if you STILL have problems, you might want to try resetting the memory and the controller chip. Disclaimer: I have no idea if this will actually work, but this is a set of instructions provided by AppleCare to someone having this issue who doesn't have Bluetooth even enabled:

1. Turn off your Mac.
2. Remove the battery and unplug the power cord.
3. Press down the power button and leave it pressed for 15 seconds.
4. Put the battery back in, then plug in the power cord.
   
5. Turn on your Mac while pressing the following button combination: command+option+P+R.
6. Keep the buttons pressed until the Mac restarts three times.
   

If you've tried all of the above and are still having problems, good luck! At that point, I would consider the possibility that you have a lemon.

Smart Folders in Finder; Search Criteria (Any, All, None)

So one of the first things I wanted to do since the Mac became my main machine is change the behavior of the Smart Folders in Finder. The Smart Folders are the icons you see in Finder under "SEARCH FOR" in the left-hand column.

What I was really aiming to do is use these for documents only (and by documents I mean word, excel, etc.), and remove the search criteria for video and images. So if you click on one of those Smart Folder guys and then the gear button on the top of the Finder window, you'll get a drop-down with an option to select "Show Search Criteria." Once you click that, you'll see how Finder is filtering out your files for that particular Smart Folder.

Now, the part I couldn't figure out was how to replicate the "None of the following are true" functionality that is found in the default Smart Folders "Today," "Yesterday," and "Past Week." If you click on one of the Plus buttons in the search criteria, you'll see that the option for "None" or "Any" isn't present. To get these options, you need to hold down Option (Alt) and the Plus button will change to (...). Then, once you click the new button, you'll get the option to add criteria for "Any," "All," and "None."

Problem solved... Smart Folder creation/modification complete!

MacBook Pro

Well, I finally made the switch completely. I am sold on Mac and OS X. What finally got me was the improvement of the virtualization software... I can run Windows now in VMware fusion, and even play some Windows games with 3D acceleration without having to dual-boot into Windows. This is good stuff.

Since I am all-in now with Mac, I will probably be posting more stuff at a faster pace. Stay tuned...

Firefox Tabbing in HTML Forms

Another OS X default behavior that has been causing me grief was manifesting itself in Firefox. If you are like me and you use the Tab key on your keyboard to cycle through form controls in HTML, I'm sure you feel my pain... Tab will skip the Submit button (and maybe other controls--admittedly I have not fully researched this).

To fix this behavior, open up System Preferences, click on the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, and check the "All controls" option from the radio buttons at the bottom of the window. Thanks to Robert Nyman's website for the tip.

Windows-Style Application Switcher (ALT+TAB)

Another of the instantly annoying features of OS X that I quickly encountered was the behavior of the application switcher, which you use by pressing ALT+TAB in Windows or Option+TAB in OS X.

In Windows, the application switcher will switch between all windows on your system, minimized or not. In OS X, you have the following functionality:

• Option+Tab: Cycle through all applications
• Option+Tilde: Cycle through all open windows
• Control+F4: Cycle through and bring to the forefront all windows

Not to mince words, I find that all of these options suck and are less productive than the Windows application switcher which will cycle through all Windows and only bring to the forefront the window that you select, and a quick ALT+TAB afterwards will switch back to your prior window (so you can easily flip back and forth between applications).

The OS X functionality was driving me crazy until I found Witch, which (no pun intended) will allow you to mimic the Windows application switching behavior in OS X. Unfortunately, although it is free to try it is not free to use, and will run you €9.95 (that's euros, not dollars). That said, in my estimation for a Windows switcher it is money well spent.

Once you install Witch, you will only have to change one setting to mimic Windows behavior, and that is in the Behavior section. Change the "Sort windows by" value to "window activity order," and that should do it. Additionally you may want to remap the Forward and Backward key combinations under Triggers » All applications depending on how you have laid out your keyboard.

Open Terminal Here

Since I have made the switch from Windows, I have really missed the XP PowerToy "Open Command Window Here," where you could open a command window in the exact folder that you were browsing in Explorer. Luckily, I was able to find a Mac substitute called "Open Terminal Here" which does the same thing in Finder, provided by Marc Liyanage on his homepage.

Installing the tool is a snap... just follow the directions in the description.