For opening the Finder in the current working directory that you’re in the Terminal with use the command:
open .

The open command is very powerful, here are some other options for the command:

Options:
-a Opens with the specified application.
-b Opens with the specified application bundle identifier.
-e Opens with TextEdit.
-t Opens with default text editor.
-f Reads input from standard input and opens with TextEdit.
-W, --wait-apps Blocks until the used applications are closed (even if they were already
running).
-n, –new Open a new instance of the application even if one is already running.
-g, –background Does not bring the application to the foreground.
-h, –header Searches header file locations for headers matching the given filenames,
and opens them.


For opening the Terminal in the current working directory of the Finder download this script. Put it in some static folder, I myself have it in ~/Library/Scripts. Once the script is in your folder drag the app into the Finder’s menu-bar. Here are the options for opening the terminal.

• Clicking the application icon creates a new Terminal at the Finder’s location (i.e. the old behavior)
• ⌘ + Clicking opens a new tab in the frontmost Terminal instead of opening a new window
• ⌥ + Clicking runs the cd command in the frontmost Terminal window if it is not busy. Otherwise it opens a new window/tab (depending on the state of ⌘)

Maururu

The default format for screenshots in OS X is png, which is not a particularly universal format. I prefer jpg because everything accepts it. To change the default to jpg, type the following code:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

To change to any other format (i.e. gif, tiff, pdf, et cetera), replace “jpg” with the desired extension. To activate the change, log out, then log back in.
Edit: Sorry if there was any confusion, this is all done in Terminal

One of our sponsors, MacMall is running an end of the year clearance sale.

Some of their Apple products are discounted up to 40%.

This is a great way to support MacTips while saving yourself some cash.

Some of the better deals include the 17" MacBook Pro and the iPod accessories .

If you were planning on purchasing some Apple gear with that Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket, support MacTips and buy through MacMall .

If you’d like to visit MacMall without supporting MacTips, use this link.

Without a question my favorite Mac app currently is TextMate. TextMate has a lot of power in itself, but it wouldn’t be near as powerful as it is without it’s Open Source like community (even though the app itself remains Closed, developed by Allan Odgaard). Since there is no way that I could ever sum up the power of TextMate in one post I’m going to have TextMate series covering different parts of TextMate in different posts. This is part one on Snippets.

Snippets are little bits of text that expand to be huge amounts of text and provide the simplest form of automation in TextMate with either a Tab trigger or Key command. Not only can snippets expand but can have Placeholders that you just Tab to add in some text and Tab again to the next place. It’s a little hard to explain so here’s a picture:

Before using Tab trigger:

After using Tab trigger:

So as you can see it expands the text, and has some text selected already for me that I can change or hit Tab again and go on to some more text.

For making your own here’s what this snippet looks like in what’s called the “Bundle Editor” (where you make snippets for what are called Bundles which hold all your Snippets, Commands and so forth):
< %= link_to "${1:link text...}", :action => “${2:index}” %>

The “< %= %>” is part of Rail’s syntax, there nothing really going on here. The ${1:link text…} however has quite a bit going on. The “${ }” signifies that the text inside of the brackets is going to be selected. The number sets the points at where the cursor will end up after each Tab (in this case after hitting 1 Tab will have “link text…” selected). For creating snippets where you don’t want selected text you would just use “$INSERT_NUMBER”. For example:

This would be the position after 3 Tabs:

This is produced by this snippet:

< *div ${1: id="${2:name}"}>
	${3:$TM_SELECTED_TEXT}

< */div>

I added in *s because the pre tags don’t work for some reason.

Because I didn’t have any text selected it behave like a regular simple Tab trigger ($3) however if I had of had anything selected it would be inside the div.

There’s a bit to get you going on Snippets and TextMate which you can check out here.

One of the main focuses of iTunes is album covers. From cover flow to little pop-ups, album covers have become nearly ubiquitous in iTunes and most iPods. Traditionally, only one cover is assigned to each song. However, it is possible to assign more than one cover to a single song. To do this, simply select any song and enter the Get Info mode by pressing  . Select the Artwork pane on the far right, select “Add…,” then tell iTunes where to find the cover art.Although this does not have too many obvious positive values, it is a great tool for those of who want a logical way to store your album covers. This way, you can add images for the back of albums or liner art. Sadly, Apple does not allow assigning multiple covers when in the mass edit mode, so it is something you must do one-by-one for each song.

If you are working on an important project which you do not want to be deleted or altered by accident, you can easily lock it.

You do this by right clicking/ctrl clicking the file, then select “Get Info”, finally check the box that says “Locked”. If done correctly a little lock should appear next to the icon:

Now if you attempt to trash it, a pop up will say that it is locked and cannot be trashed, likewise, it will also ask you if you are sure you want to save the changes every time a modification is made. To delete any locked file, hold option when emptying the trash and it’ll be gone for good

1. Open Automator.app (/Applications/Automator.app)
2. Choose File –> New
3. In the Starting Points menu, click Music and Audio. Choose “my iTunes Library” in the “Get content from” pop-up menu. Then in 2nd pop-up menu, choose “Ask for songs and playlists when my workflow runs”.
4. In Library list, click Mail.
5. In Actions list, drag the action called New Mail Mail Message into the Workflow pane. Click on the Options button and turn on “Show this action when the workflow runs.”
6. Choose File –> Save

Instead of hitting option-command-=/- to zoom in/out, hold the ctrl key and use 2 fingers on the trackpad or alternately, scroll on the scroll wheel to zoom in/out. Much faster, much easier.

Note: Only works with 10.4 and above. Also required is a trackpad with the scrolling feature (~2005+, you can check this by seeing if your laptop has built in bluetooth. If it does, you’re good to go), or a mouse with scroll wheel/ball.

Also see this past article on the zooming feature

Technorati Tags: zoom, scroll

Here’s a quick and painless way of “printing” anything that can be printed into PDF format. Simply click file->print->PDF, then select “Save as PDF” or whatever else from the list that you want.

Note: Picture from Leopard, the Tiger interface is different but similar

A bunch of people on Twitter compiled this fairly good list of “must-have” tiny Mac apps:

1Password - Password keeper, generator and form filler. USD$29.95

Adium - IM client for AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more. Freeware.

AppZapper - The uninstaller Apple forgot. USD$12.95

Butler - “The Original Many-Tricks Pony.” Donationware.

Camino - Alternative web browser. Freeware.

Coda - Web development app. USD$69

Colloquy - IRC, SILC & ICB client. USD$15 Donationware.

Default Folder X - Open and Save dialog enhancer. USD$34.95

EagleFiler - Archive and search mail, Web pages, PDFs, chats, and more. USD$40

ecto - Blogging client. USD$17.95

Firefox - Alternative web browser. Freeware.

FruitMenu - Apple menu and contextual menu customizer. USD$10

Handbrake - DVD to MPEG-4 converter. Freeware.

Hazel - Housekeeper for the Finder. USD$21.95

iPulse - All encompassing system gauge in a single “window.” USD$12.95

Journler - Idea keeper and organizer with iLife integration and blogging support. USD$10 Donationware.

Linkinus - IRC client. USD$20

LiteSwitch X - Keyboard application launcher. USD$14.95

MailPlane - GMail desktop client. USD$24.95 (USD$19.95 until Dec. 31, 2007)

MarsEdit - Blog publishing desktop client. USD$29.95

MenuMeters - CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring tools in your Menu bar. Donationware.

Money - Personal accounting app. USD$39

NetNewsWire - RSS reader and browser. USD$29.95

Paparazzi! - Web page screenshot utility. Donationware.

Quicksilver - A unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data. Freeware.

Skitch - Screen shooting, annotation and sharing app. Currently in an invitation-only private beta.

Snapz Pro X - Full motion screen capture application. USD$29 for image capture only. USD$69 for video screen capture.

SOHO Notes - Digital note-taking application (successor to StickyBrain). USD$39.99

Soulver - Notepad for the mathematically inclined. USD$17.95

SpamSieve - Bayesian spam filtering add-on for almost every Mac email client there is. USD$30.

SuperDuper! - Bootable backup and recovery utility. USD$27.95 (Free with fewer features)

svnX - GUI for most features of the Subversion client binary. Freeware.

Synergy - Menu bar controls for iTunes. See site for licensing costs.

TaskPaper - To-do list app. USD$18.95

TextExpander - Keystroke automator. USD$29.95

Transmit - FTP client. USD$29.95

TypeIt4Me - Keystroke automator. USD$27

Vienna - RSS reader. Freeware.

Vim - GUI editor. Freeware.

VisualHub - Video conversion tool for apple tv, iPhone, DVD, iPod, PSP, Tivo, AVI, WMV, FLV, etc. USD$23.32

VoodooPad - Wiki-based note pad. USD$29.95 (Lite and Pro versions also available)

WebnoteHappy - Bookmark manager with note taking and del.icio.us support. USD$29.95 (Freeware version also available)

Xee - Image viewer. Freeware.

xScope - On-screen tools for graphic designers. USD$14.95

Yojimbo - Information organizer. USD$39

All these are great and many I use but one especially is an unsung hero for me. That being LiteSwitch X. LiteSwitch X takes over the Command-Tab function and adds a lot more than what is built-in by default. It’s features include; drag and drop functionality, Get Info, Show in Finder, Hide/Show, Switch & Hide Others, Relaunch, Quit, Force Quit and more. You can get it here for $14.95.

There is another alternative that I am aware of: Witch. Witch is free and probably has more features however because Leopard can’t use PullTab (a hack that allowed Witch to take over Command-Tab) Witch can not take over Command-Tab and has to be something else (such as Option-Tab).

[Via: MacMerc]