One of the things that can effect performance on your Mac is the Dashboard.
The dashboard sits in the background and has a whole host of small widgets which it must keep stored in RAM.
Pop open the dashboard and check out what widgets you have running. One thing you can do is to delete the widgets that you no longer use.
Alternatively if like me you don’t use the dashboard at all you can just switch it off.
To kill the dashboard open the terminal and enter
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
killall Dock
Don’t worry this isn’t permanent, you can get the dashboard back at any time by doing this.
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
killall Dock
But in order for any of these changes to take effect, you must restart the Dock by typing:
killall Dock
Posted in Apple OSX
Tagged with OSX
I have just made the step of submitting some feedback to Apple via their feedback site at www.apple.com/feedback.
My idea is a simple one, but one I think could be a real benefit to folks like me. Alternatively it could be the worse idea ever conceived. Read More >
Posted in Apple Featured OSX
Tagged with Apple IOS OSX
If you are anything like me you will hate to see a mess. I keep my desk so tidy that sometimes I wonder if I actually do any work there, so why can’t I do that same for my dock? I can, lets get started.
So I have a dock that looks like this, and I hate it. It’s disorganized ugly and more difficult to use than it needs to be.
To start putting things right we’ll need to open the Terminal. If you’re concerned about working in the terminal then let me just say that this is possibly the simplest thing to do in the terminal. Don’t be scared, its worth it.
The Terminal can be found in your Applications folder under Utilities or you could just type start typing Terminal into spotlight.
Now it’s decision time. You see the small dashed line? It separates the applications from the system folders and trash. You can add a space to either side of the line but the command is very slightly different. For reasons that will become apparent now is a good time to decide how many spaces you might like. It’s not the end of the world if you change your mind so don’t worry.
To add a space on the left of the dashed line copy and paste the below code into the terminal and hit enter.
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={};
tile-type="spacer-tile";}'
You will notice that nothing appears to have changed. That’s fine. If you decided that you wanted four spaces paste the code and hit enter a further three times. Still nothing will have happened and that’s because we need to restart the dock. Again into the terminal enter, or copy and paste this line and hit enter.
killall Dock
You will now see that the dock will slide out and in again and that you should now have a few spaces at the right hand end of the dock. You can now move them around to wherever you like in order to tidy up your dock. If you decide you don’t want a space just drag it off and it will disappear in a puff of smoke.
My dock now looks like this, much better I’m sure you’ll agree.
Oh and by the way, If you like a space on the right side of the separator the code is below. Use it in exactly the same way as above.
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={};
tile-type="spacer-tile";}'
Note: The terminal code needs to all be on one line.
Posted in Apple OSX
Tagged with Dock OSX Terminal
There is a lot a talk about application launchers recently and there are some really good solutions to the problem. But is it actually a problem?
Granted a lot of these app launcher applications do perform a lot more than just launching applications but I’m just thinking about launching apps.
I have briefly tested a couple of applications and though they are very good I just find that I don’t need them. I have never felt the need to keep one of these apps beyond it’s trial period.
So what do I do?
Well, I just use software that’s built in. Spotlight.
Spotlight comes pre setup with the keyboard shortcut of CMD Space.
So how do I launch an app? Try this key sequence on your mac. (CMD SPACE saf ENTER)
⌘␣saf↩
All being well Safari just opened for you.
Could anything be any faster than that? Tell me you think.
Posted in Apple OSX
Tagged with OSX Spotlight
I just came across a very good reason to need to restart the finder on my mac. It’s a silly thing that I bet we have all done at some point.
I was working on a site and I wanted to change the permissions on every file. Rather than selecting the correct folder and applying the changes recursively I selected every single file and clicked Get Info.
So now my desktop is cluttered with about a million different get info windows.
Clicking close on each one would take an age so here’s a quick tip.
Open up the terminal. Don’t be scared it’s nothing complicated. Now copy the below code and paste it in. Or retype it if you have the patience.
killall -KILL Finder
Hit return and the dock and finder will restart. All those pesky windows will have closed and everything is back to normal.
Anyone else got any cool terminal tricks? I’d love you to share them in the comments.
Posted in Apple OSX
Tagged with OSX Terminal
