Make a bootable Mac OS X USB flash drive for repairs

Getting Started
To start you will need to have a USB based Mac, either Intel or PowerPC based on what you plan on repairing and at least a 16GB USB flash drive, I use the a S200 16BG Ironkey from Amazon. SanDisk also carries a reliable drive. Lastly you will need a version of Mac OS X.

1. Plug in your USB flash drive to your Mac.
3. Open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities)
4. Select your flash drive in the list on the left.
5. Click on the Partition tab and select “1 Partition” from the Volume Scheme drop-down menu.
6. Enter a name for your USB flash drive (I called mine “Lifesavor OS X”)
7. Under Format select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. Make sure the size is somewhere around +/- 16GB.
8. Below the partition display click the ‘Options’ button.
9. Choose “GUID Partition Table” from the popup window and click OK.
10. With you setting chosen click the ‘Apply’ button. Disk Utility will take a minute or two to complete this task.
11. Insert your Mac OS X installation disc.
12. Double-click the ‘Install Mac OS X’ icon and progress through the installer until you get to the screen that says “Mac OS X will be install on…”
13. Click the ‘Show All Disks’ button and select your USB flash drive.
14. Click on the ‘Customize’ button and a new window will appear.
15. Un-check all of the items except ‘Essential System Software’. Save space and don’t check ‘Rosetta’ and ‘QuickTime 7′.
16. Click OK to Install. The rest of the process should be automated and might takes about 30-60 minutes.
17. Once Installation is complete test the flash drive by booting it up. Restart your Mac and hold down the Option key to choose your flash drive manually. HINT: You will need to do this in the future also to boot to the drive.
18. After restarting using the USB flash drive follow the set up prompts just like you would a new computer.
19. Once the OS is running launch Software Update and make sure that your flash drive OS is up-to-date.
20. Finally install any third party diagnostic utilities you may have. For example, Alsoft’s DiskWarrior is an invaluable tool going beyond what Disk Utility has to offer.

DONE! Although booting to a flash drive is a bit slow it does the job and is convenient; a lot lighter than dragging a book of CD/DVD’s around. Hopefully you will never have to use it but having it available is a great portable emergency too for troubleshooting your Mac.

Improve your MacBook Pro’s Performance

I have been using Apple’s MacBook Pro line since they first came out in 2006 and have serviced quite a few since then. I have pulled together some helpful tips to help you increase your performance and get the most out of your MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. These tips address best use practices, dealing with sluggish performance and battery issues.

Good Sound Apple Advice
Right out of the box make sure you follow some of the tips found in the MacBook Manual. This includes conditioning your battery and other helpful tips.

Increase Your Performance
If you leave your MacBook on 24/7 only plugging it in to recharge it and you notice in decrease performance you might want to consider shutting it down waiting a while and then restarting. Most people say that the MacBook should be designed to operate all the time but you should give it a rest once and a while mainly because it needs to run maintenance scripts in the background. These maintenance scripts run every hour, day or week and if you contently put it to sleep it won’t have the opportunity to run them. When you restart the system checks the last time they have been run and forcibly runs the ones you haven’t run in a while.

Another way to increase performance is to check your Energy Saver Preferences and see what your graphics are set to. Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver. Click on the Graphics pane at the top and enable ‘Higher Performance’ instead of ‘Better Battery Life’. This forces your MacBook to run faster graphics instead of the lower more energy efficient on.



Single Button Trackpad Troubles
If your MacBook (late 2008) is one with a single button and found that it is sometime unresponsive then your are probably due for a Firmware Update. You can restore your trackpad back to its old glory by installing the MacBook Pro Trackpad Firmware Update 1.0. One note of warning here that if the Firmware install gets interrupted, or was interrupted, for any reason you may wind up with an nonfunctional trackpad. If this happens you will need to find a wired mouse and perform the Firmware update again.

Battery Not Holding a Charge
This is a common issue with most MacBooks that are now 2 years old. Make sure you have conditioned your MacBook Battery, check out my Getting Started guide for MacBook. If you feel a new battery might be your next step make sure you have installed the latest MacBook Pro Battery Update. How to tell if the battery update has been installed.

1. Go to SystemConfiguration folder: From the Go menu select Go to Folder.
2. Type: /System/Library/SystemConfiguration
3. Click Go.
4. Select the file named BatteryUpdater.bundle.
5. From the File menu, choose Get Info and check the Version or type Command-I.
6. If the version is BatteryUpdater 1.3 your system and battery are up to date.

If installing the batter update does not work you can test your battery with coconutBattery. coconutBattery shows your current charge of your battery and its current maximum capacity in relation to its original factory capacity. This might prove that you need a new battery and a visit to the Apple Store might be in order. Your MacBook might qualify for a new battery even if it is out of warranty.

Sleep Issues
If your MacBook Pro doesn’t turn on or start up after being turned off or going to sleep try the following suggestions in order until your computer turns on:

1. Make sure the power adapter is plugged into the computer and into a functioning power outlet. If the power adapter is not charging you won’t see the indicator light on the power adapter turn on when you plug in the power cord. Try unplugging and replugging the power cord to reseat it on the MacBook and try a different outlet.
2. Check whether the battery needs to be recharged. Press the small button on the left side of your computer. You should see one to eight lights indicating the battery’s level of charge. If a single light indicator light is on, connect your power adapter to recharge. If you press the battery button, and all battery indicator lights flash five times quickly you may need a new battery.
3. Try returning the computer to its factory settings by disconnecting the power adapter and holding down the power button for at least 5 seconds.
4. If you recently installed additional memory, make sure that it is correctly seated and compatible with your MacBook. Try removing the new RAM and reinstalling the old chips allows the computer to start up.
5. Press the power button and immediately hold down Command+Option+P+R keys simultaneously until you hear the startup sound a second time. This resets the parameter RAM (PRAM).

Macintosh Laptop Setup Guide for MacBook and MacBook Pro

Got a new MacBook or MacBook Pro? If the answer is yes or even if you are just setting up a used Mac laptop here are some pointers to keep in mind. I setup new Macs on a daily bases and have my own new MacBook Pro 17-inch. The most important thing to remember after getting your new Apple laptop is setting it up properly. Before you get to far past the packaging here area few tips to keep in mind as you set up your new laptop.

Unpacking and Preparing
Carefully removed your new Apple Portable from the box place it on a sturdy work surface and near a power supply. You will want to locate the power adapter and connect it to the appropriate MegaSafe or adapter insert on your laptop and plug in the adapter portion into a wall outlet. Your connector should have a indicator light to let you know that the battery is charging. Connect your laptop to the internet by Ethernet, phone, tethering or have Airport connection info handy. To maximize the life of your battery please refer to my MacBook Calibration instructions.



Powering On and Setup
If you don’t already have your laptop open, open it. The latest MacBook line doesn’t have a latch button it will simply just open. Press the power button on the top right corner of the keyboard. Once on the Setup Assistant will appear and walk you through how to set up the basics for your Account. Setup your primary account and please for me, setup a password. I can’t tell you how much trouble that causes when someone brings in their machine with a corrupt or failed system and the password is missing. If you have another Mac and are planning on transferring information from it to your new laptop you can use the Migration Assistant. If you want to do this later you can find it in under Applications > Utilities > Migration Assistant. Once complete repair permissions.



Up and Running!
Once you are up and running check out my tips and tricks to learn more about Mac OS 10.5 and Mac OS 10.6. If you are a brand new users Follow my weekly Mac OS X QuickTips on Twitter or my audio based Mac OS X QuickTips. Hope you have fun using your new MacBook, MacBook Pro or other Apple portable!

Exploring Mac OS X Preview Hidden Features

Exploring Apple’s PDF Annotator

In a previous post, Mac OS X Preview: Unlocking Previews Hidden Features, I point out some of the hidden features for managing your PDF’s in Preview. In this article I would like to point our some of the more advanced annotating and markup features hidden within Preview. Preview usually launches as you default image and PDF viewer and we close it sometimes as quickly as it opens. What you are missing is that Preview is a fast and efficient way to share comments and to mark up a PDF, even more effectively than working with Adobe Reader.

If you go to Preview’s Tools menu you will find sub-menus for Mark Up and Annotate. Mark Up allows you to highlight, strike through or underline selected lines within a portable document file. Annotate enables you to draw graphic and comment based elements such as rectangles, ovals, notes and links (hyper-link style).



Using Mark Up
To use the Mark Up tool start by selecting the text that you would like to either highlight, strike through or underline. Next to Previews menu at the top and select Tools > Mark Up and select you desired formatting type.

Add Shapes
Using the Annotation features such as oval and rectangle tools is simple.

1. Select the Annoation Tool you would like to use: Circle or Rectangle
2. Click anywhere in the PDF.
3. A colored shape will appear in the document.
4. Move, drag and size to your specifications.

Notes and Links
Using Add Note or Add Link annotation features are done in a similar manner as with the shapes. Simply select the annotation tool you would like to use: Add Note or Add Link. Click anywhere in the PDF where you would like to relate the note or the link.

Notes:

1. A box will appear in the side-margin.
2. Double click into the box to edit.
3. An annotations tool box will appear in the upper corner of your screen. You can also open this window by holding down Command+I.
4. You can change the color of your note using the Inspector Window.

Links:

1. Select the area within the PDF you would like to Hyperlink. You can drag the link square to any size you like.
2. Double click into the box to edit.
3. An annotations tool box will appear in the upper corner of your screen. You can also open this window by holding down Command+I.
4. In the Inspector Window you can Link within the PDF or you can create a URL.

If you make annotations regularly you can add them to your Preview Toolbar. To add them select View > Customize Toolbar… from Previews menu. Drag the tools that you use the most to Previews toolbar.

Unlocking Apple Mail Hidden Features

Mac OS X Mail

Since the beginning of Mac OS X Mail has been a prepackaged along with the operating system. Apple Mail has had to compete with Eudora, Thunderbird and Microsoft’s Entourage. Mail is more than just an email program allowing you to send and receive, you can manage and track messages, guard against spam and even create Smart Folders that automatically organize your mail. Mac OS X Mail also utilizes Spotlight technology so you can find your email messages instantly and accurately. Since its early appearance Mail has become more powerful being coupled with MobileMe and allowing plug-ins from third-party developers. Here are some helpful tips for you to unlock some of Apple Mail’s Hidden Features.

Column Views in Apple Mail
WideMail 0.5.1 is a widescreen Apple Mail Plugin that allows for column views. The most recent version is only Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard compatible. Dane Harnett is working on a new version for Snow Leopard and you can keep tabs on the release at his site www.daneharnett.com. Click here to download WideMail-0.5.1.dmg.zip (1.2 MB). Once downloaded simply launch the “WideMail Installer” inside the Disk Image (DMG) to install/upgrade. Be sure to sign up to get Dane Harnett’s RSS feed to find out about new releases. If you have any questions, queries or have found a bug, don’t hesitate to send Dane at email: daneharnettgmail.com.

Got Headers? Show Full Headers in Apple Mail
Most users of Apple Mail don’t realize how full featured it is. Apple has toned it done to simplify the Application for the common users. However you can unlock a lot of features. This is a common feature I use for displaying and forwarding the full headers of a message using the Mail application in Macintosh OS X. With the Mail application open do the following:

1. 1. Click on the “In” mailbox. You can also do this by selecting Mailbox from the main Menu > Show > In or press Command + 1.
2. 2. Select the message you want to see the full header information.
3. 3. From the Main menu select View > Message >> Long Headers or Command+Shift+H.
4. 4. To forward the message click the Forward button or Select Message > Forward Message ( Command+Shift+F is also an option).
5. 5. Complete the “To:” address field as well as the subject, then send the message.

Filtering Junk Mail
Gettting a lot of junk mail? Also called “spam” Apple Mail has great Junk Mail features. Junk mail filtering is on by default, but you can modify how Mail deals with your unwanted email after it goes through a little training period. When you first start using Mail the Junk Mail feature is enabled and goes through a “training period”. Messages that are suspect appear in brown text with a little bad icon in your Inbox. If Mail marks something as “junk” that isn’t simply select the Message and click the Not Junk button to help train Mail. If a message comes through that is junk but isn’t marked as “junk”, simply select the message and click the Junk button to help train Mail. To make further changes:

1. 1. Choose Preferences from the Mail menu.
2. 2. Click the Junk Mail button to display its settings.
3. 3. To make certain types of messages exempt from junk mail filtering, select/deselect item check boxes below the line, “The following types of messages are exempt from junk mail filtering.”

Depending on how things are going with training Mail take some time to evaluate how well Mail is flagging your junk mail. If it’s working for you simply, select “Move it to the Junk mailbox (Automatic)” radio button in the Junk Mail pane of Mail preferences. This will create a Junk mailbox along the other mailboxes you have in the left column. Mail will now automatically move junk mail to this mailbox.

Remember to check your Junk mailbox periodically to make sure that you aren’t missing anything important. You can click “Not Junk” on the messages that was mistakenly considered spam.

Searching Mail
If you need to find a certain email message you can search for specific text in any message, mailbox or subject line by using the Search field in Mail. Coupled with Spotlight technology you will be able to find what you are looking for in or out of the Application. To get started:

1. 1. Type the text that you want to search for, like “cupertino” or “Apple Computer”, in the Search field in the upper-right corner of the Mail window.
2. 2. Mail displays a list of its search results. Click the All Mailboxes button to display results from all mailboxes, or click on a specific mail box and get all the related messages from it.

Unleashing Snow Leopard Exposé Features

Exposé Hidden Features

Snow Leopard “hidden features” brings with them a host of new tools that range from an improved Finder Toolbar and useful Exposé features. I want to take a minute to showcase a few of these Exposé features enhanced by Snow Leopard that I have found to be the most useful in my everyday computing.

Activate Quick Look
With a Finder Window open you should by default have the Quick Look “eye” in menu bar. If not you can add it by Customizing Your Toolbar by performing Control + Click on the Finder Window Menu bar or from the main Finder menu Click View > “Customize Toolbar…”. From the menu that drops down Drag the “Quick Look” Icon to the bar and Click “Done”.

Using Quick Look
To use quick look simply select an item that appears in the Finder Window and Click on the Quick Look Icon in the Menu bar. You can also activate it by selecting an item and tapping the Space Bar.

Quick Look Slide Show
Activate Quick Look slideshow after selecting a group of files. These can be either images or regular files. With the Finder Window open hold down the Option key to change the Quick Look icon to a Play button or use Command-Option-Y. By click the play button Quick View will go into full screen mode with auto play, forward/backward buttons and slide table view.

Find Window You Need with Exposé
Quick Look is a part of Exposé where you can easily see, access or hide applications windows or documents. Mac OS X 10.5 you can use F9 to display all open windows on your Mac. Using Snow Leopard 10.6 you can use F3 to show all window by Application. You can also sort alphabetically using CMD+1 or by Application using CMD+2.



Exposé by Application
Want to see all the windows you have open by Application. Simply Click and hold open the Application Dock to show all its windows. To enlarge a view simply hover over it and tap the Spacebar.

Getting Fancy: X-ray Folder previews using Quick Look
So when you have tried all this and you want to make Quick Look stand out here is a easy Terminal command that will allow you show a preview of the folder’s contents inside a translucent folder icon. The enable this Quick Look preview that allows you to view the files inside the folder and cycle through them so you can see all of them perform the following command:

defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1

killall Finder

Mac OS X Toolbar Tips and Tricks

Customizing OS X Toolbar

If you’re new to Mac OS X you might not know that you can customize OS X Toolbar. Here are some tips that might help you improve your work-flow and get organized. At the top of every Finder window is a row of function and navigation buttons. By default your Finder window will have the folder back and forward buttons, view controls, Actions and Search. One click of any of these base icons lets you quickly backtrack your folder navigation, get a new perspective, trigger a command, or search your location. Here are some additional tips for getting the most out of your Finder Toolbar.

Removing or Shrinking
If you are not interested in having the buttons on top of the Finder window or need space simply click the oval toolbar button in the upper-right corner of the window. You can also hide the toolbar by either selecting View > Hide Toolbar or pressing Command-Option-T.

Customizing the Toolbar
There are a lot of different options in customizing your Toolbar. To customize simply open a Finder Window and select from the Finder Menu > View > Customize Toolbar. A window will appear and you can add additional favorite items into the toolbar by dragging and dropping them. You can also remove items by click and dragging them out of the Toolbar. To reset the Finder Menu Bar you can drag the default set into your toolbar. If you need to conserve space you can adjust the size of the icons or just show the icons, icons and text or just text. You can also add Files and Folder to the toolbar by dragging and dropping a folder or file from one Finder Window to the active Customize Toolbar.

Using Finder Views
Improving your work flow is key in managing your projects. Using your Finder Views can help you view important files and organize lists quickly and efficiently. The four views you can use are the Icon, List, Column and Cover Flow.



Icon View lets you see each folder and file as an icon and is typically the default Finder view. This view is useful id you want to arrange icons in a specific way, create groups, or help you remember file locations. With OS X 10.5 you can view detailed information about each file or folder. Drawback of this view are that it can easily becomes messy.
List View is the most versatile in that it not only shows the file’s name but also its attributes such as size, kind, version, comments and labels. The advantages of using this view is that it allow for sorting of files by the column headings and that you can see a folders contents without leaving the initial folder. Drawbacks are mainly in the creation of new folders as you can loose them in the list.

Column View displays files and folders in a hierarchical view allowing you to easily keep track of where you are within your Mac’s file structure. This is by far my favorite view in that you can see an items path and you can easily move files and folders around easily. The only drawback is that the Column view is dynamic and changes usually occur when you’re selecting or moving and item. This might need some getting used to if you are new to Mac OS X.

Cover Flow View is the newest Finder view. New to OS X 10.5 Leopard it is my least favorite view. It is based on a feature found in iTunes and allows you to see the contents of a file as thumbnails. The only real advantage for using this view is when browsing an images folder. You can easily thumb through multiple images with ease. Main disadvantage is in displaying the thumbnail previews can hog resources, although most new Macs shouldn’t have any problems.

Apple Time Machine

Exploring Network Attached Storage

When Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was announced Apple’s Time Machine features were revealed creating a great deal of buzz and anticipation of what this type of solution this would be. Integrated systematic backups were a long standing desire by many Apple users but to have it integrated as a part of the operating system was unheard of. The primary feature of Apple’s Time Machine is that it automatically saves an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac including photos, music, videos, documents, applications, and settings. The simplest way to start using Time Machine is to set it up using an external drive, however with the arrival of Time Capsule users had an additional option. Frequently I am asked what is the best option when setting up Time Machine and what are the associated costs.

External Hard Drive
Essentially the most straightforward option for Time Machine is using it with an external hard drive. It is really easy to set up, backs up quickly using USB 2.0, FireWire 400 or FireWire 800 and is arguably the most reliable. A external hard drive could run you anywhere form $89 for a Maxtor USB 2.0 to $154.94 (Lacie d2 Quadra, my pick). To set this up all you have to do is:

1. 1. Attach the drive and Mac OS X 10.5 will ask you if you want to use this drive as your Time Machine backup drive.
2. 2. Click OK
3. 3. System Preferences will automatically launch with the Time Machine window open.
4. 4. You will be asked to choose you backup Disk.

That is pretty much it. The first backup takes a while but after that it runs fairly quickly.



AirPort Extreme with External Hard Drive
The current AirPort Extreme Base Station with Gigabit Ethernet ($129.99 +LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB ) offers external USB hard drive sharing with all users on your network and can be accessed remotely over the Internet. An additional plus is that you don’t have to sacrifice a wireless printer when you hook up the hard drive. Just connect a USB hub to AirPort Extreme and attach your devices to the hub, that’s it. You can share a printer and a hard drive or multiple printers and multiple hard drives. To set this up you will have to already have your AirPort Extreme configured.

1. 1. Launch Apple AirPort Utility
2. 2. Click the Disks icon
3. 3. From the main window of AirPort Disk Utility enable “Show AirPort Disks in the menu bar”.
4. 4. Enter the username and password required to access the AirPort Disk.
5. 5. Click the AirPort Disk menu bar icon and select the Base Station with desired USB hard drive.
6. 6. Select the desired hard disk (AirPort Disk).
7. 7. Enter the username and password required to access the AirPort Disk(s).
8. 8. Once mounted on your desktop launch System Preferences.
9. 9. Click on Time Machine.
10. 10. Click on Choose Backup Disk.
11. 11. Select the AirPort Disk.

Network Attached Storage – Time Capsule
The easiest route to take here would be to purchase a Time Capsule Dual-band ($275.69 + tax). Here you getting a router and drive in one. Just plug in, configure and let Time Machine do the rest. Here are some quick setup steps.

1. 1. Connect your Cable/DSL to your Time Capsule via an Ethernet Cable.
2. 2. Connect the Time Capsules power cable.
3. 3. Open AirPort Utility (Applications > Utilities).
4. 4. Your Time Capsule will appear with a name like “Time Capsule fea88c”. Click continue.
5. 5. Select “Create a new wireless network” and click Continue.
6. 6. Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions. Apply the settings.
7. 7. Click the AirPort Disk menu bar icon and select your Time Capsule.
8. 8. Login.
9. 9. Launch System Preferences.
10. 10. Click on Time Machine.
11. 11. Click on Choose Backup Disk.
12. 12. Click on Set Up Time Capsule.
13. 13. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Network Attached Storage – non-Apple
If you are interested in using Time Machine with either a non-Apple router with a USB hard drive connected or Network Attached Storage (NAS) device like a Drobo + DroboShare Bundle ($652.99 ) or 500GB LaCie Network Space ($116.99) or similar you are going to be disappointed. What I have read is that any NAS or non-Apple router is not going to work with Time Machine unless you do some terminal commands to override it. What I have seen to make this work with any NAS based drive is that you need to trick Time Machine in to backing up to the drive. Here’s how:

1. 1. Setup your Drobo and DroboShare and make sure everything is working together.
2. 2. Next you will need to create a sparse bundle image using Disk Utility. Start by launching Disk Utility.
3. 3. Click on New Image at the top.
4. 4. Save your image temp.sparsebundle. Your Volume Name: Back up < Name of your Mac >. The Volume Size is typically twice the actual size of the installed HDD you are backing up.
5. 5. Copy the disk image to the root folder of your NAS.
6. 6. Open a Terminal and execute the following command for the Mac to be backed-up by Time Machine.
   

   defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

7. 7. Launch System Preferences.
8. 8. Click on Time Machine.
9. 9. Click on Choose Backup Disk.
10. 10. Time Machine will fail or stop the prepare action as soon as it starts. If you now look at the connected NAS drives root folder you will notice an additional file is created. The file will be named something like :
    

    NAMEOFHARDDRIVE_001debec863e.temp.sparsebundle
    
    Rename this file to NAMEOFHARDDRIVE_001debec863e.sparsebundle.

11. 11. In System Preferences > Time Machine click on the Change Disk and select None from the list.
12. 12. You can now delete the xxx.temp.sparsebundle from your NAS.
13. 13. Now again you select your NAS as your Time Machine Disk. This time there should be no errors and Time Machine will start backing up your Mac.

Give Your Mac Kiosk Some Saft!

Configure a Mac Kiosk

I am constantly on the lookout for doing things more efficiently. A few months ago I posted a how-to Configure a Mac Kiosk. In the article I talk about how Mac 10.5.x OS has made it simpler to set up your computer as a Kiosk. I outline some steps using Terminal, System Preferences and a browser and what hardware I would use.

I was recently asked to put together a Kiosk environment and found a plug-in for Safari that has been available since Mac OS 10.3 Jaguar. I guess I was to set in my ways of hacking my Macs to notice it before. The plug-in is called Saft developed by Hao Li (http://haoli.dnsalias.com) has a long standing reputation and has gotten great reviews from MacWorld.

What can Saft do for you?
Saft adds features to Safari like drag-able tabs, full-screen browsing, searchable bookmarks and history, URL short cuts and a really great Kiosk mode. The Kiosk feature, modifies Safari in many ways to secure the system and user information with out having to make as many modifications to the system. Here is are some of it core features:

• Fix menus by removing Quit, Open File, Save As, Hide, Services and more
• Delete all cookies when going to home page after inactivity
• Disable contextual menu for browser and plugins
• Disable help button in dialogs if any
• Add password protection of the preferences panels
• Add options to limit access to Apple menu, process switching, force quit and session termination
• Add option to go to home page after defined inactivity time
• Allow only HTTP and HTTPS and disable Finder access via AFP, FILE, FTP and so on
• Prevent opening multiple browser windows by opening URLs in tabs
• Prevent JavaScript from opening and loading files
• Stop normal termination and reboot
• Add “Empty Cache” button in browser windows
• Quit Finder

Getting Started
Similar to my last guide on how-to Configure a Mac Kiosk you need to replace Finder with Safari and disable Bluetooth and Keyboard Shortcuts. This will give you a basic deployment of a Kiosk. You can further restrict sites thought Saft or use Mac OS X Leopards built in Parental Controls. To start using Saft follow these few quick steps to get started.

1. 1. Download Saft (http://haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/)
2. 2. Make sure you are running the latest version of Mac OS 10.5.8 and have Safari 4 installed.
3. 3. Install http://haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/.
4. 4. Launch System Preferences > Accounts and create a non-admin account for kiosk deployment. See “How to Configure a Mac Kiosk”.
5. 5. Replace Finder with Safari using Terminal. ( See Replacing the Finder below.)
6. 6. Disable Keyboard Shortcuts and Bluetooth. Navigate to the System Preference and Turn-off Bluetooth and the same for Keyboard Shortcuts.
7. 7. Close System Preferences.

Replacing the Finder
Next you will have to Launch Terminal (still in Guest Account):
1. 1. Close System Preferences.
2. 2. Launch Terminal from the Application/Utilities menu by hitting APPLE (Command) + “N”. (You can also do this from the Admin area but will have to log in as guest in Terminal with the su guest command + password)
3. 3. Once Terminal is open type the following:
   

   defaults write com.apple.loginwindow Finder /Applications/Path

4. Tip! To set the Application path you can have the Applications Folder open behind Terminal and once you have typed com.apple.loginwindow Finder drag the Application from your Applications Folder in to the waiting cursor point in the Terminal window.
5. 4. Type “exit” and Quit Terminal and Log Out of your Guest Account.
6. 5. Next simply Log Out and re-Log In as Guest and you should only see the application launch instead of your Finder.


Finally Log-in to your new guest account, which will launch Safari on Start Up.

1. 1. Find the site you want to bookmark and set it as the home splash page.
2. 2. Go to the Finer Menu at the top and click on Run Full Finder.
3. 3. Enter your Admin user name and password.
4. 4. Double click on the hard drive and navigate to Saft. Once launched Set Safari as launching Saft on start up.


Hopefully this will be easier than my last Kiosk how-to!


]]> http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/09/configure-a-mac-kiosk-2/feed/ 1 http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/08/speakable-items/ http://www.macusersguide.com/2009/08/speakable-items/#comments Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:44:23 +0000 cberkeley http://www.macusersguide.com/?p=2028


Using Speakable Items in Mac OS X




Get Mac OS X Talking


Speakable Items in Mac OS X can make you feel like your a Sci-Fi movie hero able to talk to your super computer. Even Michael Knight got to talk to his car KITT! So why shouldn’t you be able to talk to your Mac. Well you can, introduced in OS 9 in 1993 Apple’s Speech was ahead of its time. It went missing during the early OS X years and reemerged in Jaguar Mac OS X 10.2.

This great tool is located in your System Preferences under System > Speech. Simply activate it by turning “ON” Speakable Items and you can give up typing, get rid of your mouse, yell at you computer as much as you want and still have it talk to you.

Speech is built-in right at the core of Mac OS X, there is no need to install a special application or devices to make it work. The following are some tips to help you get started using Speakable Items.

Speech Commands Window
Once launched the Speakable Items, a small round window with a microphone image, will appear hovering over your desktop. Click the triangle at the bottom of the window and choose “Open Speech Commands window.” You can also press or speak the listening key, ESC by default, and speak the command “Open Speech Commands window” or “Show me what to say.”



Adding Applications and Troubleshooting
If you want to add applications all you have to do is launch the application with Speakable Items enabled and it will create a folder inside the Speakable Items folder in your user directory under Library/Speech/Speakable. You can add commands to an application by opening the Speakable Items folder and drag items or an alias into the folder. The filename of the item is the command you say to open it, but be sure to follow the guidelines for naming speech commands.
If you have reinstalled an application and it is not responding to your commands you may need to recreate a Speakable Items folder for that application. To do this simply:

1. 1. Close the application and open the Library/Speech/Speakable Items folder in your home folder.
2. 2. If you have reinstalled the application drag the application’s folder from the Speakable Items folder to your desktop.
3. 3. Open the application again (this creates a new folder for it inside the Speakable Items folder).
4. 4. Drag the spoken commands out of the old application folder on your desktop and into into the new folder inside the Speakable Items folder.

After you add a command to an application’s Speakable Items folder, wait about 20 seconds before using the command. Make sure the name you give your command is different from any other command in that application’s Speakable Items folder.

Adding Scripts
To create a Speakable Item AppleScript command for an application open the application that you want to create an AppleScript for. Make sure the application window is at the front of all other windows on your screen. Tip: It is better to close all open applications and just work with the one that you are working in AppleScript with. With AppleScript open follow these steps to create the Speakable Item command:

1. 1. Click on Record in AppleScript.
2. 2. Launch the Application, a folder is created for it inside the Library/Speech/Speakable Items folder in your home folder, if not already present.
3. 3. The ‘tell application’ part of the scrip should have been written. Next perform the actions you’d like to do in the application you opened, and then save it as a compiled script.
4. 4. The filename you give the script will be the command you’ll speak to use it. (Remember to follow the recommended guidelines for naming spoken commands.)



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