Author Topic: Lion tips and tricks (Read 3389 times)

Paddy · « **on:** July 29, 2011, 11:16:41 AM »

Thought I'd start a thread with useful things that people have discovered about Lion.

This one looks quite useful - I haven't run into the problem yet myself, but for those who have, it's been a real head-scratcher.

http://ryanarmstrong.net.au/blog/mac-osx-l...ion-failed.html

daryl66 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 02, 2011, 05:44:37 PM »

QUOTE(Paddy @ Jul 29 2011, 11:16 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thought I'd start a thread with useful things that people have discovered about Lion.

This one looks quite useful - I haven't run into the problem yet myself, but for those who have, it's been a real head-scratcher.

http://ryanarmstrong.net.au/blog/mac-osx-l...ion-failed.html

If you are using a Magic Track pad, do not throw away all of your usb mouses. After upgrading the mini it could NOT find the trackpad. I had to plug in the mouse to get started. Eventually got the Trackpad recognized but do not know how that would have been accomplished without the mouse.

So far about what was expected. Found 4-5 PPC apps that won't work but nothing disasterous .YET

Daryl

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #2 on:** August 02, 2011, 10:08:50 PM »

Just discovered that one can use a two-fingered swipe instead of the back/forward button in Safari.. I'm getting used to the pad, but it seems to take extra pressure for a 'click' than the old scroll-ball or the Magic Mouse...it could be that the Pad is sitting on the rather firm anti-static desk top pad, I may move that pad further to the left and put the Magic Pad on the normal table top.

daryl66 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 03, 2011, 11:20:51 AM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Aug 2 2011, 10:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just discovered that one can use a two-fingered swipe instead of the back/forward button in Safari.. I'm getting used to the pad, but it seems to take extra pressure for a 'click' than the old scroll-ball or the Magic Mouse...it could be that the Pad is sitting on the rather firm anti-static desk top pad, I may move that pad further to the left and put the Magic Pad on the normal table top.

Suspect you will find that it is just "the nature of the beast" re the "click pressure"

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #4 on:** August 03, 2011, 12:06:19 PM »

I moved it onto a hard surface and it is much better. I think it would probably have the same problem (too soft a surface) if I placed it on my head!

...that reminds me, I haven't got Typinator installed/working...

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #5 on:** August 04, 2011, 02:50:44 PM »

Most people know there was a way to use an OS installer disk to reset one's password. With Lion, of course, there is no Installer Disk (although you can pay through the nose for a juiced up thumb drive!). So, how does one reset that oh-so-easy-to-forget "master" password? Well, Apple's Way is to use your Apple ID. You do have an Apple ID, right? Sure you do, at least if you've ever bought anything with iTunes or the Mac App Store.

<Here are the instructions from Apple> (might want to print this page out). And, if you've avoided getting an Apple ID, why not byte the bullet <right now>, I just know you'll feel better being a registered member of the Apple Club.

Now, there is another way to do this same thing but it requires using Terminal after restarting into the Recovery partition. Not any more secure than the old way but maybe faster since no optical drive/media is involved.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #6 on:** August 05, 2011, 06:38:15 PM »

I have several smilies set up with Typinator to make entering them faster. Unfortunately, Lion 'sees' the two-word combinations and assume I made a mistake!

The audacity of the OS!!!

So, I looked for ways to stop this unwanted 'auto-correction' and found many sites suggesting it just be turned OFF ("Language & Text" Pref Panel). Well, yeah, that would probably stop it...but what about those 1 in a million times when I actually make a misteak?! So I decided to just use the little "+" button under the list of "Use symbol and text substitutions" and see if I could teach/demand the OS to behave a little better. So far, it works only if I type the things out, if Typinator does it for me, the OS claims dibs and adds the space between the two words.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #7 on:** August 05, 2011, 08:54:34 PM »

I've had "blank" spaces on my Dock ever since I capitulated and let it exist (although hidden unless I really wanted to see it). It required a simple copied script that you pasted into Terminal (each time you pasted it in and executed it, you got one blank space on the Dock). You could then move it anywhere you wanted some definition/separation between types of items on the Dock. Here is the command from <7 Simple & Great Tricks to Tweak Your Dock>

I'm unable to get that to work in Lion, however. So I found a solution that will work until the new defaults write script comes along. Simply download a group of images from <Adam Betts>. The 'things' are actually custom icons sitting on an AppleScript that does nothing but Quit. Of course, the ".app" extension makes the Dock think it's an App and so it is allowed to sit on that side of the Dock. In reality, it is an app, of course, just one that sits around looking 'pretty!'

And 'elbowing' things nearby!

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2011, 10:32:47 PM »

Unwanted Spel Chekin'

I have several shortcuts set up in Typinator to insert the text codes that insert certain faovorite 'smilies' in my entries at TS. Some of them are two-word names such as wallbash, laughhard, rolleyes, etc. Naturally, Lion wants to separate the two words which breaks the whole process. :-(

I tried setting up some spelling corrections in Typinator and it seems to be working. The shortcut for wallbash is .+h+b (looks more like a 'head bash!) which spits out

. Lion had previously been changing that to :wall + space + bash: I'm now having to write this out in this manner to keep Typinator from changing it back to what I really need to insert at that forum!

So, if you have Typinator, Text Expander or something similar, try this method of 'taming' the Lion's spel chequer! ;-)

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #9 on:** August 08, 2011, 04:31:40 PM »

Nevermind!

The tip on 'tricking the Spel Chekor only works if you type the whole thing in manually. Having Typinator insert it gives the OS the opportunity to be the last one that gets to make corrections.

If I don't type anything at the end of an inserted smilie code, the OS leaves it alone and I can then click Send. Otherwise, continuing to type will let the OS 'see' the 'error' and replace it with a useless, two-word do nothing text.

However, it's still a possibly useful method of avoid manually typing from being automatically 'corrected' by the OS.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #10 on:** August 10, 2011, 09:07:28 AM »

I think I have finally found a fix for a subset of the unwanted spele cheqking behavior of Lion. I modified the Typinater rules to add a space to the end of the two-word smilies (rolleyes, wallbash, etc.). For some reason the OS 'sees' that as a "don't-touch-this-bunch-of-letters-thank-you-very-much" command. Sometimes an extra space seems to be added but the forum software (or maybe just HTML returned) ignores additional spaces, anyway. Final result is purfekt!

What is weird is that iOS doesn't do this word splitting, at least in the older version that I run. Maybe the newer versions have "improved" the algorithms?!

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #11 on:** August 11, 2011, 08:03:43 PM »

I've not seen the value of the Resume function yet. It's becoming recognizable, at least, but was very confusing at first.

What's this?! You now have two documents open! The one you wanted, the one you double-clicked, but why is that other one open? Oh yeah, that's the last one you had open when you last used this app.

Seems counter-intuitive to always open the last document(s) that were open when you 'start' the app with that double-click on a completely different document. If I wanted to see those newer ones, I would either double-click one of them or use the Recents menu. Who decided that I would always and forever want to work on the last document that happened to be open when I quit an app?

Wasn't me, I know that...

Seems to me that Apple has made something very irritating out of something that was very simple to do, when the user wanted to do it!

Furthermore, this behavior is System-wide rather than a pref for each app. I would have much rather have had to turn this 'feature' OFF manually because it would have been enabled by default for each app. As it is now, turning it off kills it in all apps.

And yet Apple wants developers to make this available in their apps; I can hear the complaints to a developer when it doesn't work in some updated app because the user forgot that it had been turned off several weeks ago...in the System Prefs.

There are 'work-arounds,' of course:

before

Apparently, Apple's intention with this 'Resume' function is to get us into the habit of never closing apps...

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #12 on:** August 18, 2011, 10:34:23 AM »

Finally needed to use a Pages document today. Double-clicked it as usual and was greeted by a message suggesting I "contact the developer to make sure the app was compatible with Lion."

I thought that's what the iWork Updater 6 was supposed to have provided!

Who would have thought I should have investigated the actual 'proof-of-concept!" No, I blithely accepted Apple's promise and 100% accuracy of their previous updates...

Checking the Apple Forums revealed that others had discovered the same behavior (from all three iWork apps). Software update claimed my versions were up-to-date (which was true). Unzipping my archived versions did get SU to decide those versions needed updating, but it did not create versions that would work in Lion.

Not even if I downloaded the updater from Apple directly.

The only solution that seemed to work, as stated in the Forums, was to completely un-install the apps, re-install from whatever media they came on and then do the updating. Fortunately, that also worked for me. I have no idea why, however.

Along the way, I discovered that there don't seem to be any ".bom" files in any Receipts directory. This may be part of the recent "buy-from-the-Mac-App-Store-and-we'll-keep-track-of-everything" philosophy at Apple. The directory is still there but the only ".bom" files are from non-Apple apps/developers. The actual app installations are now kept in a "InstallHistory.plist" file. One advantage might be to provide a list of all the files an installer creates, even though the locations aren't listed. The list also includes how the instal occurred; Software Update, the developer's installer, etc.

Aside/Rant:
I'm trying to be a 'security-conscious' user and forcing a password login. But, once again, I'm growing weary of constantly being asked for that password to make changes in the /Library. In fact, duplicating/archiving a 'System" file provides no request for a password. The OS acts like it is following my command and even beeps when it is 'complete.' However, nothing actually happens (unless the action is putting the file somewhere else on the drive!)! In order to do my standard 'archive-before-updating' method, I have to copy the system file to somewhere in my Home directory. That move then requests my password.

I'm not actually sure this is because I changed the way I log in or if it is the "Lion" way of operating.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #13 on:** September 07, 2011, 07:25:49 PM »

One of the major changes in Lion is the auto-save and the Revert functions. I've used the Revert function a couple of times and I am very impressed. The ability to get an earlier copy of a file is not really new. It's the basic function of Time Machine. But TM 'only' saves a version once an hour, and it's pretty much a replace the old file or add the old one as an additional copy. You can then and only then, make use of what's in it.

Revert can do exactly the same thing as TM but so much more! You can replace the whole file, if you want. But the file can be much newer than the last TM backup. But the most important capability is to just view the current and the backups, side by side. And all the previous versions are available! But the real beauty of the system is that you can copy anything in any version and paste it directly into the current one...without leaving the Revert setup. This can really be useful if you brain storm, cut, delete, edit every other minute! Most likely all your work is still available even if you don't have an external drive connected!!!

This feature makes many of the things people are unhappy about almost worth the upgrade!!

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #14 on:** September 12, 2011, 09:20:12 AM »

Found a review/report of an app called <Lion Tweaks> at MacWorld.com today. Many of the 'tweaks' have been made available in other more general purpose utility apps but this one is unique for a couple of reasons: It is developed by a 16 year-old young man and it is a small collection of 'tweaks' that seem to be bothering most people.

I've installed the app (which really does need to be in the Applications folder, not in a lower-level area, BTW. It is completely free (although I think a donation would be appropriate!). It is convenient. It works!

One item I wanted to check out was the ability to turn Resume off in single apps. Photoshop Elements was frustratingly always including the last image I had edited, even though I had developed a habit of closing every last image before quitting the app. I used Lion Tweaks to disable Resume in Elements. Opened Elements and noted that the last image still appeared.

Quit Elements and went on checking Lion Tweaks , assuming that, like many other things Adobe, it simply didn't care about co-operating with anything Apple. Within a few seconds, I got the larger than normal, "Adobe, in it's infinite wisdom, has detected that Elements has unexpectedly quit. Would you like to read the rest of this dialog and wonder why it takes so long for Adobe to realize this or why they feel inclined to highjack this OS function or would you rather just close the dialog?" But that indicated that Adobe may have actually got the message about how I wanted it to operate, so I opened it again and much to my enjoyment, it opened without including any old images!!! Thanks, Fredrik!!

News:

Author Topic: Lion tips and tricks (Read 3389 times)