Mac Annoyances | O'Reilly Media

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Mac OS X? Annoying? To Mac fans, the mere idea that Mac OS X could be annoying is, well, un-Mac-like. After all, don't we all agree that it's the greatest operating system for personal computers? Yet, we still complain. The reason is simple: anything as complex as Mac OS X is bound to have some kinks in it. In fact, while system software updates usually fix problems, they can also add brand-new annoyances themselves. For instance, while the 10.3 update added some great new features, such as Exposé, it also changed the way the toolbar works, requiring you to learn new ways to do things.

Or so it may seem. That's where this chapter comes in.

You may not realize it, but the solutions to many of your everyday Mac OS X annoyances are in the OS itself. Some lie just below the surface, while others are undocumented. Other fixes can quickly be found in low-cost, third-party software that you can download from the Internet. In this chapter, I'll show you workarounds, tricks, tips, and configuration changes to overcome Mac OS X's annoyances.

I'm running an older version of Mac OS that is damned annoying…

Stop right there-enough said. If you are running anything before Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), you can only benefit from upgrading to the latest version of Mac OS X. If you have Mac OS 9 or earlier, upgrading to Mac OS X means, among other things: no more constant rebooting, no more applications running out of memory, and fewer headaches in communicating with Windows PCs. Mac OS X also offers much easier connections with cameras, musical instruments, and other peripherals. It is also miles ahead of Mac OS 9 in terms of available software and hardware-GarageBand, iPhoto, and so many other cool applications only run on Mac OS X.

If you're already hip to all the Mac OS X benefits, but you're running a version earlier than 10.2, you should upgrade to the latest version, whether it's 10.3, 10.4, or beyond. Mac OS X has matured since version 10.1.

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I'm running an older version of Mac OS that is damned annoying…

Stop right there-enough said. If you are running anything before Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), you can only benefit from upgrading to the latest version of Mac OS X. If you have Mac OS 9 or earlier, upgrading to Mac OS X means, among other things: no more constant rebooting, no more applications running out of memory, and fewer headaches in communicating with Windows PCs. Mac OS X also offers much easier connections with cameras, musical instruments, and other peripherals. It is also miles ahead of Mac OS 9 in terms of available software and hardware-GarageBand, iPhoto, and so many other cool applications only run on Mac OS X.

If you're already hip to all the Mac OS X benefits, but you're running a version earlier than 10.2, you should upgrade to the latest version, whether it's 10.3, 10.4, or beyond. Mac OS X has matured since version 10.1.x. The later versions have fixed many of the interface annoyances of the first few versions, and support more peripherals and more software. Mac OS X Versions 10.2 and later are also smarter than the earlier versions and can keep the system running smoothly with self-repair functions. For example, when you run an installer program for new software or for an upgrade, Mac OS X runs routines that adjust some of the system software to ensure the application launches quickly and runs efficiently. This process is known as prebinding, which helps the program communicate with the system software. When you launch an application, Mac OS X checks to see if the software needs tweaking.

The easiest way to upgrade to a current version of Mac OS X is to buy a new Mac with the OS preloaded. Of course, it's quite a bit cheaper to install OS X on your current Mac; just make sure your hardware is up to snuff. First, you need a processor that is a PowerPC G3 or better. Officially, Apple says Mac OS X won't support processor upgrade cards, but in fact, OS X does run smoothly on upgrades. The real issue is that Apple won't provide tech support when you add an upgrade card, which is why the card manufacturers provide the tech support. (See Chapter 7 for more information on upgrade cards.).

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Mac OS X's help system isn't always what I'd call "helpful." It tells me the obvious, like how to turn something on or off, but it often lacks specifics about my own configuration.

The theme of the help system seems to be, "Help, schmelp. You'll figure it out." Fortunately, there is additional help available. Use Sherlock to look up Apple's Knowledge Base articles, which often give you the nuts and bolts details that the help system lacks. Apple has published thousands of articles, many of which point out known bugs with certain software and peripherals and provide workarounds or outright fixes.

Sure, you can access the Knowledge Base with a web browser, but why would you do that when you could use Sherlock? Open Sherlock, click the AppleCare icon at the top, and type your search criteria. Press Return or click the magnifying glass icon, and Sherlock presents a list of articles. Single-click an article title, and the article appears in the lower pane of Sherlock, as in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2: The AppleCare channel

If Apple's web site doesn't have what you need, don't worry; plenty of other sites can help. Apple's discussion boards (http://discussions.info.apple.com) are a good place to search for solutions to problems. For troubleshooting a problem, two of the best web sites are MacInTouch (http://www.macintouch.com) and MacFixIt (http://www.macfixit.com). O'Reilly's Mac DevCenter (http://www.macdevcenter.com) has some great articles describing how to get things done with your Mac, from delving into digital photography and recording music to heavy-duty programming. For collections of handy tips, check out Mac OS X Hints and (http://www.macosxhints.com) and OS X FAQ (http://www.osxfaq.com).

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The Finder's sidebar in Mac OS X Panther can be handy, but it eats up screen space. That can be a problem if I want to see the contents of multiple windows at once. Manually opening and closing the sidebar is a pain in the neck-or rather, a pain in my clicking-and-dragging finger. Is there any way to avoid the Finder sidebar altogether?

There are two tricks you can use to keep the sidebar closed, while still getting quick and easy access to your folders and files. In fact, these tricks also work in Mac OS X 10.2, which doesn't even have a sidebar. The idea is to make efficient use of the pop-up menus that both the Dock and the Finder's toolbar have-menus that don't take up any screen space when you aren't using them. Check this out:

Drag your Applications folder and your Home folder (the folder with the same name as your username) from a Finder window into the Dock, next to the Trash icon (the only place the Dock allows folders). Now click one of the folders and hold for a second or two. A menu will pop up, displaying the contents of the folder. Move the cursor to one of the folders in the list, and another menu pops up, displaying its contents, as in Figure 1-3. You can put any folder in the Dock, but I like to use Applications and Home folders, because they contain almost everything that I want to access.

Figure 1-3: You can use the Dock's hierarchical pop-up menu to access your applications, files, and folders.
If you'd rather not clutter up the Dock with a bunch of new icons, drag frequently used folders or files to the toolbar of any Finder window. In Mac OS X 10.3, you have to hold the folder over the toolbar a second or two, wait for the mouse cursor to get a plus sign (+), then drop it. The great thing about the toolbar is that you can add as many files and folders as you want, without shrinking the size of the icons, as with the Dock. When there are too many icons to fit in the toolbar, a double arrow appears. Click it, and your files and folders appear in a drop-down menu, as in Figure 1-4.

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That's all well and good, but Jaguar's toolbar was better because the icons had titles. In Panther, when I drag two folders to the toolbar, I can't tell which is which, because they both have identical icons.

You haven't been fiddling with Panther's settings enough. Apple didn't actually remove toolbar icon titles-they just turned them off. The easiest way to turn them back on is to Control-click the toolbar to bring up its contextual menu. Next select the Icon & Text item, and your toolbar icons now have names.

Yes, you are allowed to change your mind. To remove an icon from the Finder's toolbar in Mac OS X 10.3, hold down the

key and then click-and-drag the icon off. When you let go of the mouse, the icon disappears with a puff of smoke, just like when you remove an item from the Dock or the Finder's Sidebar.

In Mac OS X 10.2, you don't need to hold down the

key-just drag the icon off of the toolbar and let go. (Score one for Jaguar fans.) Also remember: any changes you make to one Finder window's toolbar is reflected in every Finder window that has a toolbar displayed.

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OK, smart guy. I tried to drag my Applications folder from the Finder's sidebar to the Dock-just as you suggested-now it's gone from both. What gives?

The folder may be gone from the sidebar, but it's still on your hard drive. When you drag a folder to the Dock, the Finder toolbar, or the Finder's sidebar in Mac OS X 10.3, you must drag it from the main part of a Finder window. That is, you cannot drag an item from the Dock to the Finder toolbar or from the sidebar to the Dock. The sidebar, Dock, and toolbar don't hold an actual file or folder, but merely an icon that represents it.

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I'm bummed that Apple deleted Favorites from Mac OS X 10.3. Yes, I know, the sidebar is supposed to be the new Favorites, because it appears in Open and Save dialogs. But I had a lot of Favorites, and now they're seriously cluttering the sidebar. Also, to be honest, I really miss the heart-shaped icon.

The good news is that you can add a Favorites folder, complete with precious heart-shaped icon, to the Finder's sidebar. The good folks in Cupertino stashed away the old one to keep fans of "classic Favorites" happy. You can also add a Favorites icon to the toolbar, though you must also add it to the sidebar to get it into the Open and Save dialogs. To locate the Favorites folder, open a Finder window and click on your Home folder, and then click on the Library folder (~/Library). Inside, you will find the good ol' Favorites folder. Now drag the Favorites folder to the Finder's sidebar and/or toolbar. Amazingly, the Favorites icon takes on its old heart-shaped icon.

An easy way to get the Favorites folder (or any folder or file, as a matter of fact) into the sidebar is to select it and press

-T.

The bad news is that there's no way to migrate your old Favorites into the new folder, and there's no Add to Favorites button or menu command. There is, thankfully, a simple method to move items into the Favorites folder: in the Finder, select a file or folder, and press Shift-

-T.

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Classic applications don't seem to get the whole Dock thing-it's like they don't even know it's there. Classic windows slide underneath the Dock, which means I have to move the window out of the way to get to the scroll arrows or other controls, such as Word's view buttons. It's even more annoying when the Dock's Hidden feature is turned on-I go to scroll, and up jumps the Dock for the interception. Is there any way to make Classic apps any smarter?

As we say in my home town of New York, Fuhgedaboutit! You can, however, move the Dock to the side of the screen to get it out of the way of your Classic window. Actually, I recommend the side location even if you work mainly with Mac OS X-native applications. Apple's displays have wide form factors, giving you plenty of room to position a fully open document alongside a vertical Dock. I prefer the right side myself, but southpaws may be more comfortable with the left side of the screen.

To make the change, click the Apple menu, click the Dock item, and choose Position on Right (or Left) from the submenu. The Dock is now positioned vertically, with the Trash icon at the bottom.

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Call me old-fashioned, but I've never liked the Dock. It takes up too much screen space on my 12-inch iBook. A hidden Dock just gets on my nerves, unexpectedly reappearing when the cursor gets near it.

You actually can do without the Dock, using built-in tricks or add-on utilities. First, however, you must get rid of the Dock. Amazingly, you can't actually turn off the Dock-an annoying fact in itself-but you can make it barely noticeable. For starters, make the Dock really small-a centimeter or two-and then hide it.

To shrink the Dock down to insignificant size, start by removing most of the icons in it-just drag them to the desktop and let go. You can remove everything but the Trash and Finder icons. (Application icons still appear in the Dock when you launch them.) Next, go to the Apple menu and select Dock → Dock Preferences. When System Preferences opens, move the Dock's size slider to Small. The Dock shrinks to the size shown in Figure 1-5. Now you can click "Automatically hide and show the Dock." With this setting, it pops up only if you happen to move your cursor over that square centimeter.

Figure 1-5: By using these settings and removing most of the icons, you can make the Dock teeny tiny. (Did you miss it? Look again; it's just underneath the dialog window.)

Now that the Dock is out of the way, you need a way to switch between open applications. In Mac OS X 10.2 and later, hold the

key and hit the Tab once. With Panther and later, an Application Switcher (shown in Figure 1-6) stays in the middle of your screen as you hold the

key, displaying the icons for the applications that are currently open. With the

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I've never gotten used to the schizophrenic behavior of application switching when running Classic and Mac OS X native applications together. When I'm running a Classic application, the good ol' application switcher menu is there in the upper-right corner, but it disappears when I switch to a Mac OS X-native program. I wish the app switcher menu would just stay put.

You can add a Classic-style application switcher menu to Mac OS X with a shareware program called ASM (http://www.vercruesse.de). It also includes the Hide and Show commands of the Mac OS 9 application switcher menu. With ASM installed, an application menu is always there when you switch between Classic and native apps.

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I'm sick of the brushed metal look. It was okay when iTunes appeared on the scene, but brushed metal has now spread like the Plague to just about every Apple application. The dark, metallic Finder in Mac OS X 10.3 is just too much for me-it's like the dungeon of some 3D game. I wish I could go back to good ol' Aqua.

Although iTunes often gets the blame (or credit, depending on your point of view) for starting Apple's brushed-metal design craze, the look actually originated in QuickTime Player 4.0 in 1999. For now, Apple loves brushed metal; a Preference setting to switch between Metal and Aqua is not likely to come out of Cupertino. If you want to Aquify Panther, you'll have to take matters into your own hands, with the help of a piece of freeware or shareware.

At the time of this writing, the simplest Aquifier to use is the free Whiteout (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21363). Whiteout works on the Finder and Cocoa applications, such as Safari, iSync, and Address Book, to replace the brushed metal (see Figure 1-7) with off-white Aqua pinstripes (see Figure 1-8). It's not exactly the Jaguar Aqua, however, because it doesn't return the old translucent titlebars. It also doesn't work with Carbon applications, so it can't touch iTunes, iPhoto, or the QuickTime Player.

Pinstripes aren't your only option. If you want more choices in replacing the brushed metal, try the more complicated shareware program ShapeShifter (http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/shapeshifter), which lets you change the Mac OS X appearance using free themes that you can download from a variety of sources. I like Panther Aqua No Brushed (http://www.cepophan.com/themes), which replaces the brushed metal with a light flat gray. The best way to search for multiple ShapeShifter themes from different sources is to go to http://www.MacUpate.com and search for "ShapeShifter."

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I hate it when Apple deletes features for no good reason. The Finder's Computer view disappeared when I upgraded to Panther. I love the Computer view, which lets me see multiple drives, mounted disk images, and my mounted iPod, all without having to look on the desktop. Yes, I know that the Go menu's Computer command brings up this view, but the command doesn't appear in the sidebar or in new Finder windows.

Actually, Apple didn't delete the Computer view in Mac OS X 10.3; they just disabled it. Fortunately, it's easy to turn back on. With the Finder as the front application, go to the Finder menu and select Preferences (

-,). Click the sidebar icon. Under "Show these items in the sidebar," click the checkbox next to Computer.

Now, if you want the Computer view to be the default when you create new Finder windows, click the General icon at the top of Finder Preferences. Now, choose Computer from the pop-up menu labeled "New Finder windows open with."

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The menus are full of keyboard equivalents for commands, but I don't know what the symbols mean. Sure, the cloverleaf symbol (

) is obviously the Command key, but the other symbols are just hieroglyphics.

In the help system, Mac OS X provides a Rosetta Stone for these mysterious ciphers. In the Finder, just choose Mac Help from the Help menu. In Panther, search for "symbols for special keys". In Jaguar, search for "keyboard shortcut symbols". Table 1-1 lists some of the keyboard symbols you'll frequently encounter.

Table 1-1: Menu symbols and the keys used for them
Symbol	Key
	ShiftW
	Option
	Control
	Command (Apple key)

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In Panther, the Search field in the Finder's toolbar returns results before I'm finished typing. This was pretty cool at first, but then I realized that it's an annoyance if you type the wrong character and have to backspace. Each time I backspace, the Finder keeps searching and locking up the Mac for a few seconds at time. Can't Mac OS X wait until I finish typing before it starts searching?

Unfortunately, if you continue to use the Search field, be prepared to be constantly annoyed: Mac OS X won't wait until you finish typing. However, if you can't stand being annoyed, ditch the Search command and use the Find command; the Find command waits until you hit Return or Enter before searching. In the Finder, just hit the

-F to bring up the Find dialog, and you can search anywhere on your Mac.

If you're a point-and-click kind of user, you can replace the toolbar's Search field with a Find Command button. With a Finder window open and in the foreground, go to the View menu and select Customize Toolbar. A dialog sheet slide down from the titlebar, as in Figure 1-9. When this dialog is visible, you can drag anything off the toolbar, so drag the Search field off to get rid of it. Now, drag the Find icon to the toolbar.

Removing the Search field makes room for other icons. So while you're at it, you can add any of the other toolbar icons from the dialog or move the existing ones around. When you're finished, click the Done button.

By the way, Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) doesn't have the search-as-you-type feature, so this procedure isn't necessary.

Can't see the toolbar in a Finder window? Click the clear, oblong button in the upper-right corner of the window. This toggles the toolbar and sidebar on and off.

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I know I can bring up the Force Quit dialog box with the Option-

-Esc keys. But is there any way to force quit a misbehaving application without using the Force Quit dialog to choose the application? Bringing up the Force Quit dialog seems like an unnecessary step, and occasionally, things are so messed up that the dialog won't open.

You can Option-click any Dock icon to choose Force Quit from the Dock contextual menu that appears. This quits the application immediately, without bringing up the Force Quit dialog. If you add the Shift key to Force Quit's keyboard shortcut (Shift-Option-

-Esc), the topmost application is instantly killed off, again, without opening the dialog. Une danse de la mort, so to speak.

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The arrangement of items in System Preferences is confusing. The System and Personal categories seem to be a hodgepodge of items, which makes it difficult to find the item I'm looking for. A simple alphabetical list would be simpler. I know I can drag items to the System Preferences toolbar, but dragging all of them there doesn't seem any less annoying. Is an alphabetical list too much to ask?

You actually have three ways to select an icon alphabetically. The first two methods work in Versions 10.2 and 10.3; the third technique is a Panther-only trick:

Use a menu.: System Preferences' View menu lists all of the icons alphabetically-simply choose the one you need.
Reorganize System Preferences icons.: The View menu also has an option called Organize Alphabetically. This command displays the System Preference icons in alphabetical order, making them easier to locate (if you're alphabetically oriented)

Use System Preferences' Dock menu.: In Panther, the Dock menu displays all of the panes-as long as the System Preferences has been launched. You can hide System Preferences ( -H) to reduce screen clutter. Then, you can select any System Preference pane no matter what application is in the foreground (see Figure 1-10).

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I like to watch the movie previews in Sherlock's Movies channel, but the movie window is so small, it's hard to distinguish Woody Harrelson from Woody Allen.

Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3 have a little-known zoom feature that you can use to enlarge movie previews or anything else on screen. Turn it on first in the Universal Access pane of System Preferences. Under the Seeing tab, click Turn on Zoom. To zoom in on your movie preview, press Option-

- (+). To zoom back out, use Option-

- (-).

Figure 1-10: When System Preferences is running, you can bring up any of its panes from its Dock menu.

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I use Panther's built-in fax feature, but it forces me to fax each file separately. It's not only annoying, but it adds to my long distance bill. I'm not interested in creating a beautiful desktop publishing page layout containing everything-I just want to fax multiple documents.

You get what you pay for. Though accessible from the Print dialog, Panther's free fax software is rather disappointing, providing minimal features and no hidden extras. However, for a mere $30, you can buy Page Sender from SmileOnMyMac (http://www.smileonmymac.com) and use it to combine multiple files into a single fax. It does this by treating additional documents as attachments. Basically, you choose Print for the first document you want to fax and then select Page Sender as your printer in the Print dialog box. Then all you need to do is click the Attachments button to add the other files to the fax. You can even set the order in which the documents will be faxed by dragging them around in the Attachments list (see Figure 1-11).

Figure 1-11: Page Sender lets you fax multiple files as attachments to a faxed document, and lets you arrange the order in which the files will be faxed.

Creating an image of what's currently on screen-a screen capture-is useful to send settings to a tech support center or just to show others what you are doing on your Mac.

Mac OS X offers several different ways for you to take a screen shot. The easiest way is to use the keyboard command Shift-

-3. This creates a PDF file containing an image of your entire screen. You can find the file, called Picture1.PDF, on the desktop;

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Some software installers place on my hard drive an application or utility that launches at startup. I've collected an array of these apps that all start up at the same time, which is a nuisance. I want the applications, but I don't like this auto-launch feature.

You can tell Mac OS X not to launch these startup items using System Preferences. In Panther, go to the Accounts preference pane and click the Startup Items tab. (In Mac OS X 10.2, go to the Login Items pane to see the list of annoying startup applications.) To prevent one of these applications from launching at startup, select the item and hit the Delete key. This does not delete the program; it just deletes its designation as a startup item.

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In Jaguar, I could type a folder's path in the Go To field of the Open and Save dialog to quickly save a file to any folder. But now that I've upgraded to Panther, I'm annoyed that Apple removed the Go To field from all of the Open and Save dialogs. Now, to designate a folder, I have to click and scroll and click and scroll…well, you get the idea.

Although the Go To field has been removed from the Panther dialogs, you can still enter a path in the Open and Save dialogs by holding the Shift-

-G keys when a dialog is present. This brings up a small "Go to the folder" window where you can type a path. In fact, the new field now also auto-completes your terms. For instance, if you type ~/do and wait a second or two, the system changes that to ~/Documents for you. A handy feature because, as you know, typing isn't considered very "Mac-like."

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I'm always creating files for a particular project that requires filenames to begin with the same set of numbers and letters and only the last few characters differ-for instance, SFG_010526_GB2.jpg, SFG_010526_ GB3.jpg, SFG_010526_ GB4.jpg, and so on. After a while, it gets to be a pain to keep typing these repetitive filenames, as I'm not the most accurate typist. There's got to be a better way.

The Save and Save As dialogs of Panther have a new feature that makes repetitive file naming a walk in the park. First, make sure the dialog is expanded so you can see the columns and the sidebar, as shown in Figure 1-12. Click any grayed-out file, and its name appears in the Save As field. Now, just change the characters at the end of the filename and click on the Save button (or hit Return).

Figure 1-12: Click a grayed-out file in the Save dialog, and its filename is copied to the Save As field.

Having trouble remembering what's in your obscurely named files? You could open each file, one by one, to find out, but you'd probably forget again in a week. Instead, why don't you add descriptive comments to each file and then have your comments displayed in the Finder, as shown in Figure 1-13?

Figure 1-13: To get this view, first tell the Finder to display comments for this folder. Then drag the Comments column next to the Name column.

To add a comment to a file, Control-click (or right-click if you have a two-button mouse) the file and choose Get Info from the Contextual menu. Open the Comments field at the bottom and type in your comment. You want it to be long enough to make sense, but short enough so you can see it in a Finder window. Do this for all the files in a given folder.

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I went and installed Panther, and now I see that Key Caps, a standard Mac utility for many years, is gone. Key Caps was a great little tool for finding out which keys you needed to press to type an umlaut (ü), accent (é), or other special characters, such as the trademark symbol (™) or the British pound sign (£). I'm quite annoyed that Apple dumped Key Caps from Mac OS X.

Like some of the other, older features mentioned in this chapter, Key Caps isn't really gone; it's just that its name has changed. However, Apple has hidden it so well that even if you knew the new name-Keyboard Viewer-you wouldn't find it. It's no longer a standalone application, so a search for it would come up empty. The Keyboard Viewer is disabled by default, and enabling it requires close attention. Open System Preferences and click on the icon for the International preference panel and then follow these step:

Click the Input Menu tab on the right, and see window like the one in Figure 1-14.
Click the checkbox next to "Show input menu in menu bar" at the bottom. This immediately creates a new menu bearing the icon of an American flag on the upper-right side of your screen. (You'll see the French flag, or other flags, if you have other languages set as your default.)
The trick now is to add Keyboard Viewer to this menu. In the list of countries, find the Keyboard Viewer, and click its checkbox, as in Figure 1-14.

Now, go to the Input menu (see Figure 1-15) and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. A floating palette with a picture of your keyboard appears. Similar to Key Caps, Keyboard Viewer lets you press one or more modifier keys on your keyboard (Shift, Option,

) to display different characters. The Keyboard Viewer palette is visible and active in any application. To add a special character to your document, hold the appropriate modifier key and click a key on the Keyboard Viewer palette.

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Argh! Some of my files and applications won't open and are exhibiting other weird behaviors. And my Mac is less responsive than usual. I didn't do anything to cause these problems. At least, I don't think I did.

Anything from a bad crash to a routine software installation can cause these problems. Or they can just arise over time. Fortunately, there's a good chance that repairing file permissions using Disk Utility will get your Mac working swimmingly again. Even if you are a seasoned Mac user, don't sweat it if you don't know about file permissions. The concept comes from Unix, and because Mac OS X is a Unix operating system, it has file permissions. In Unix, every file is owned by a user. You, the carbon-based life form sitting before your Mac, are only one such user. Other users include various Unix entities running on your Mac. The permissions tell the operating system who (or what) is allowed to read, write, and, in the case of programs, execute them. Occasionally, the permissions for various Unix system files get set incorrectly. You can use Disk Utility (Mac OS X 10.2 or later) to reset these permissions back to normal.

Repairing permissions is easy. You don't need to boot from an installation CD, as you would when fixing drive problems. You can run Disk Utility from the startup drive to fix permissions on the same drive:

Figure 1-15: The patriotic Input menu lets you show the Keyboard Viewer, which replaced the Key Caps utility in Panther.

Launch Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities).
In the left column, select your startup drive or partition.
Click the First Aid tab. (Figure 1-16 shows Panther; the layout in Jaguar is slightly different.)

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Okay, so I ran the Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk functions of Disk Utility, but my Mac is still a bit tired. I may be having temporal hallucinations, but startup also seems to take longer.

The fact that you start up in the morning means that you shut down your Mac at night, a laudable practice that conserves energy and saves you or your company money. However, it also means that the Mac is not running the Unix maintenance tasks that are set to run between midnight and dawn. (These tasks won't run if the Mac is asleep, either.) For instance, there are Unix scripts set to clear out unnecessary system files, make adjustments to certain files, and check log files. For example, one of these scripts deletes files in the /tmp directory every night. Other maintenance tasks are set to run weekly and monthly. If these Unix maintenance scripts aren't running because your Mac is powered off or in sleep mode at night, your Mac's performance could be rather sluggish.

The Repair Disk button of Disk Utility is designed to fix more serious problems with the data structure of your hard disk volume. There are often no symptoms, but if the problems accumulate, you can loose data. Because of this, you should back up your Mac before using Repair Disk.

Running Repair Disk isn't as easy as running Repair Disk Permissions; for one thing, you can't use Disk Repair on the current startup drive. You must restart from another bootable Mac OS X drive, or start up from Mac OS X's install CD, which contains a version of the Disk Utility. To do this, insert Disc 1 into your Mac and restart while holding down the C key; this forces your Mac to start up from the CD. After your Mac starts up, go to the Installer menu (immediately to the right of the Apple menu) and select Disk Utility.

It is useful to run Repair Disk every few months, but because Mac OS X checks the disk every time you startup and shutdown, it isn't necessary to run Repair Disk as often as you should run Repair Disk Permissions. If Repair Disk tells you that there are problems it couldn't fix, you should consider running a third-party utility, such as Disk Warrior from Alsoft (

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My Ethernet port seems to have stopped working. It was working fine for a while, but ever since I installed a minor Mac OS X 10.3.x update, System Preferences crashes when I try to bring up the Network pane. I've tried fixing file permissions and running various disk drive utilities. I was optimistic at first because the repair utilities discovered permissions and disk problems. Unfortunately, my Ethernet port still isn't functioning, even after the utilities fixed the problems they found. What am I missing here?

You may have a corrupt network configuration file. This type of problem can affect not only Ethernet, but AirPort networking as well. System Preferences may or may not unexpectedly quit, but failure to even get on a network when you could before is a symptom of a corrupted file. First, throw away a file called NetworkInterfaces.plist, which is located in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration. Now restart your Mac. Mac OS X looks for the NetworkInterfaces.plist file at startup, and if it can't find it (which it won't because you've moved it to the Trash), the system creates a new NetworkInterfaces.plist file. Now, when you open the Network preferences panel, you should be able to connect to your network.

You may have noticed that there are a lot of Library folders. There's one in your Home folder, another at the root level of the system, and yet another in the /System folder. The reason is rooted in user domains, which is the Unix concept that specifies which users can make changes. The Library folder in your Home folder holds files (preference files, fonts, sounds, and files used by applications) that you have complete control over-this is your domain. You can delete or add anything here (though I highly recommend against deleting anything that you aren't sure about). However, if your Mac has multiple users, the other users won't be able to make changes to this folder.

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I've been using Mac networks since System 6, but accessing file servers in Mac OS X 10.3.2 is so annoying that I'm almost ready to erase the hard disk and reinstall Mac OS X 10.2. I can't seem to get file servers mounted on the desktop. You would think that a setting that says "Show connected servers on the Desktop" would do what it says, but I've gone to Finder Preferences (the General tab) and selected this. The Finder doesn't seem to respond. Do I need to replace a broken file?

This was one of the most annoying aspects of Panther-one that befuddled Mac users on networks everywhere-until Apple fixed it with Version 10.3.3. (In terms of networking, you can think of 10.3.3 as "Panther 1.0.") Upgrading Mac OS X returns your networking back to normal. With Mac OS X 10.3.0, Apple created a file-sharing dichotomy-two completely different user interfaces and behaviors for mounted servers, depending on how you logged on. Here's the basic problem with Versions 10.3.0, 10.3.1, and 10.3.2:

If you log onto your server by browsing-which means going to the sidebar's Network icon and choosing it from a list-the mounted server volumes won't appear on your Desktop, nor will they appear in the sidebar. You must click on the Network icon to access the server.
However, if you log in by typing a URL in the Go menu's Connect to Server dialog box, the server behaves just as mounted servers have on Macs since the 1980s-as if it were a hard drive. The server appears on the Desktop and in the Finder's sidebar only if you have set it in the Finder's Preference dialog (in the General and sidebar tabs). If you're temporarily stuck with one of these older Panther versions (that is, the powers that be at your office won't let you upgrade), the obvious workaround is to always use the second method to access servers. You can type an IP address or a URL (starting with afp:// for a Mac server or

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I'm current on my Mac OS X updates, but what I really want in Panther is the ability to browse in the Connect to Server dialog, the way I could in Mac OS X Jaguar. Isn't there a hack that does this?

Panther is full of hidden tricks, so it should be of no surprise that there is a very simple hack for browsing the Connect to Server dialog box. A one-line AppleScript creates a Jaguar-style browsing Connect to Server dialog. To create it, you must open the Script Editor, which is located in the AppleScript folder inside the Applications folder. As in Figure 1-17, type the following line in the Script Editor:

    open location (choose URL) with error reporting

Figure 1-17: This one-line script in Script Editor creates a Connect to Server Dialog that lets you browse for servers (see Figure 1-18).

Now, save the script. Click the Run button to bring up the Connect to Server dialog, shown on the right side of Figure 1-18. Notice that several servers show up in the list. Also notice that there is a Show pop-up menu that lets you browse for specific types of servers, including file servers, web servers, and FTP servers.

Figure 1-18: To the left is the standard Panther (non-browsing) Connect to Server dialog. To the right is the browsing version created with the AppleScript.

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