UsingMac.com
Mac Tricks and Tips, Wallpapers and Applications for Mac Users
Social Networking Gets Easier with EventBox
DIGG, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter are my daily visits. However, have you even imagine having all of the benefits of these sites nicely packaged in your Mac Desktop?
EventBox!
This is the solution, EventBox packs all of those online services into a sleek and simple box and - as the name suggests - the box is called event box.
20 Killer Firefox Extensions
As Firefox community is getting more and more crowded by developers, it's even harder for us to filter out the best extensions to enhance our browsing experience.
Last time, I've written an article about 8 Essences Power Browsing with Safari which focused more on increasing the browsing productivity while using Safari web browser. This time, I will expose you to the world of Firefox, where the beauty of its extensions can save your soul from being eaten by boring working routines.
Let's see what are these killer Firefox extensions.
8 Essences of Power Browsing with Safari
Obviously, we want to have the best user experience while using this web browser and for sure, there should be some hidden features inside. That's why I'm here, exposing you to several remarkable findings on Safari web browser. And these findings will become your basic guide on using Safari web browser, if you are new to the world of Mac.
You could expect to find something new here, trust me.
25 Useful Shortcuts for Safari
In most applications, there will be a bunch of shortcuts to help you boost your productivity. Especially in Mac, you will see more shortcuts than when you used Windows, it's just because Mac users are meant to be more productive and used less hand-mouse movement.
Some of the shortcuts, however, are not usually used, some are even not widely known. Today, I'd like to compile some of the useful shortcuts for Safari that you will probably use in the future, including the less-known but highly useful ones.
Apple Products Now and Then
It has always been my dream to collect classic Apple products and publish it on this site. Apple was really powerful, lackness of advanced resources in the old times didn't affect its development process; Apple was still producing fancy stuffs.
In front of your eyes, you will see collection of Apple products from time to time. Enjoy Different!
Mac Compatible Web Browsers
I love browsing the web. I also love collecting available web browsers for Mac. Below, there are several well-known web browsers, you should have heard. But I think this topic will be practical for Mac switchers, so I bring this up. Hope you can extract the benefit out of this topic.
Safari
This silver-based browser interface looks very simple. Its pleasing view make it match the simplicity of your Mac. Have high rate performance, built-in finder, built-in artificial intelligence to help you fill in forms, good security, easy to access RSS Feedback and flexible text field. I simply love the layout.
22 Apple Inspired Free WordPress Themes
As one of the fellow bloggers, I admit that I should contribute something to the blogosphere. So, I decided to compile a nice list of unique Apple inspired WordPress theme. Hope that with this, I can make a little contribution to blogging community and at the same time add nice WordPress themes to your collection.
Tip: Click on the preview image to try out the theme.
Leopard Mac WordPress Theme
Leopard look alike 3-column layout WordPress theme. The Leopard Logo and Leopard designed Aurora wallpaper make this theme more attractive. [Download]
Using Safari Browser Bookmark
Safari is the default web browser for Mac. Because of not only its speed performance but also its constant stability, it has become favourite web browser for Mac users, standing as high as Firefox browser.
In Safari, as well as other web browsers, you can find built-in bookmark service to help you surf the web and take your surfing result as reference easily. Today, I'm going to share you some of the tricks in using Safari browser bookmark.
Let's get started by familiarizing with two kinds of Safari browser bookmark.
Safari Bookmarks Bar and Bookmarks Menu
Bookmarks Bar is located just above your browser tabs. Bookmarks that are placed in this bookmarks bar are meant to be accessed quickly as future reference. I usually put my recent bookmarks on the bookmarks bar first before moving them to my bookmarks menu.
Tip: There is an easy-to-remember shortcut to access to bookmarks stored in bookmarks bar: Command-1, Command-2, Command-3, etc. These shortcuts are automatically assigned according to the order of your bookmarks from left hand side of the browser (exclude bookmarks folder).
Firefox 3 How to: Store Bookmarklet in Bookmarks Bar
Last time, I've compiled an article about Bookmarklets for Mac Safari. Actually, those bookmarklets also can be used on your Firefox 3. Because those bookmarklets are running with javascript. As long as you have your javascript turned on, you can use them.
"A bookmarklet is an applet, a small computer application, stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page." ~ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's a bit tricky to store your bookmarklets on Firefox 3 Bookmarks Bar. Simple favicon drag and drop, unfortunately, cannot work in Firefox 3. You still can do simple favicon drag and drop to bookmark a certain page of your visited site. But I don't know why, it just can't work on storing bookmarklets.
Therefore, you need another way to store the bookmarklets on bookmarks bar. I have two alternative ways here and I will explain you the details on how to make it. This is the case if you're willing to read through the article though. You can also watch the short video tutorial at the end of this article.
Firefox 3: The Hidden Robots
I know maybe this doesn't have strong relation with Mac, but I cannot resist to post this the most hilarious hidden feature of Firefox 3: The Robots!
WWDC 2008: Welcoming iPhone 3G
First of all, I really want to thanks Apple for its kindness to provide us "only" this screenshot of iPhone 3G after WWDC 2008 finished.
Actually, I hope to see live broadcast of this year WWDC from Apple official website. After refreshing hundreds of time on the site, I decided to give up my stubbornness.
Update: Apple has uploaded WWDC 2008 Keynote Address.
Bookmarklets for Mac Safari
Above: Safari splitted by two. Done with bookmarklet.
There is a way to quickly run short script in your Safari web browser; It's by using bookmarklets. Bookmarklets are bookmark items and bookmark items are not limited to only url address; We can also make short javascript function as bookmark item by simply dropping the favicon to bookmark bar.
Impressive Safari Plugins
Safari has been optimized for Mac and because of that, it becomes the best browser for running on Mac. However, with Firefox empowered by plenty of plugins, it's confusing to determine which one to choose: Safari or Firefox?
After searching around the web, I found several impressive plugins for Safari, such as del.icio.us bookmark, StumbleUpon toolbar, Tab Exposé, Greasemonkey script customizer, and many others. Interested?
Set Default Web Browser
You can use Safari to set your default browser. This can be done by following several steps:
- Open Safari
- Go to Safari ▸ Preferences.. or Using Keystrokes Command-Comma
- Choose General Section
- Select Default Web Browser and Done
Safari - Exporting Bookmarks into HTML File
There are 2 ways to export Safari Bookmarks plist file into HTML file, the first one is the geeky way and the other is using third party application. Let's see how it can be done.
The Geeky Way
Open your Terminal and execute this command line, which will add Debug menu to Safari :
Safari and Firefox - Quick Google Search
Usually, what will you do when you want to start new search with Google search bar on the top-right corner of your web browser? There are three ways to do that.
Type 1. Google Homepage
This is the least advanced way. However, most of my friends still use this way. First, you open new tab (keystrokes : Command-T), followed by typing in the url address "www.google.com", filling in the search term and Google will return you the result.
The advantage of using this way is that you can see Google homepage which in special occasion, the logo is changed.
Safari - Easy Private Browsing Toggling
It's quite surprising that when I open my MacBook today, I saw a globe instead of Apple logo. Anyone knows why?
Safari Private Browsing
Ok. Let's talk about Private Browsing of Safari. We all know that with private browsing, whatever we browse won't come out at the History section of our Safari browser. It's quite a nice feature that Safari has.
Opera - Installing User-Defined Script
With Opera, you can do something similar to Firefox add-on called Greasemonkey.
Greasemonkey is used to customize webpage to be displayed as your own preference. However, if you're not Firefox user, you also can do this by using Opera.
How to do that? Let's explore those steps.
Open All Safari Bookmarks with a Click
Since the update to Leopard, I've become Safari addict because it not only accelerates faster than other browsers but also provides handy way to manage bookmarks and easy way of accessing them back.
Actually, I was used to be questioning myself how to open all my bookmarks in one category faster. I'd discovered the way, i.e. by clicking on Open in Tabs.