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Tips & Tricks
Mac OS
Enable iTunes track notifications in the Dock
Although there are 3rd party utilities which will display the track iTunes is playing, here's a hidden setting in OS X Lion provided by Keir Thomas (an award-winning author with over ten computing books to his name) which will do the same. First, quit iTunes and open the Terminal window and type the following (go to /applications/utilities before pasting in the command):
defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool TRUE;killall Dock
Hit return.
Restart iTunes and start playing a track. You will note a popup notification over the iTunes icon which identifies the track currently playing.
To add the iTunes icon to the popup, follow the instructions above and copy and paste the following command in the Terminal window:
defaults write com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image -bool TRUE;killall Dock
To deactivate the popup, copy and paste the following two lines in the Terminal window (/applications/utilities). Close iTunes before doing this.
defaults delete com.apple.dock itunes-notifications
defaults delete com.apple.dock notification-always-show-image;killall Dock
Keir Thomas's newest book is Mac Kung Fu: Over 300 Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks for OS X Lion.
How to create a screenshot on the Mac OS
- Apple (Command) Key +Shift+3
This will capture the entire desktop as a picture. This will allow you to capture the whole screen. The image will be saved on your desktop. If you only want a portion of the saved image, you will need to crop the image using image editing software. - Apple (Command) Key +Shift+4
This option will allow you to use your mouse to select a portion of your desktop for capture. You will note a mouse pointer appear in the shape of a cross. Hold down your mouse button and drag to select that portion of the screen you want to capture. When you relase your mouse button, the screenshot will only snap that part of the screen. Press the "Esc" buton to release. The image will be saved on your desktop. - Apple (Command) Key +Shift+4 then press Spacebar
This option will allow you to select which window you want to capture.