

What tweaks do you use in your Macintosh? - redxblood

Do you have any tips&#x2F;tweaks&#x2F;hacks you use in your Mac? Software or hardware alike.
======
charlesism
• Change the Trackpad plists to allow _both_ two-finger tap, and bottom-right
click. Apple took away the option to set this from the GUI in Lion, for some
reason.

[http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/105705/50905](http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/105705/50905)

• Add "System Files" and "File Visibility" to the list of Spotlight options

• Install "EasyFind.app" so I'm not at the mercy of my Spotlight db (as useful
as Spotlight can sometimes be)

• Install Services like "WordService for Mac" to alphabetize text, or convert
text encodings

• Install my own services to do things like "chmod +x" or "copy file contents
as base64" or "copy path to this file as text" (I'd die without this) from the
GUI

• Set "System Preferences > Keyboard" to "All controls" to uncripple key
commands

• Install "KeyRemap4MacBook" and enable Fn+J/K/L/I as cursor keys

• Install "Display Rotation Menu" menulet to switch between portrait/landscape

• Install "SizeUp" to move/resize windows

• Change the Finder setting to allow text selection in Quick Look previews:

"defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE"

• create a softlink to my "~/Library/" named "~/Library /" (or alternately
just chflags nohidden)

------
bgar
Right now there's a few essentials for my Air:

\- PCKeyboardHack
[https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/pckeyboardhack.html...](https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/pckeyboardhack.html.en)
to map CapsLock to Escape

\- KeyRemap4MacBook
[https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/](https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/)
to map Fn to Ctrl

\- Spectacle [http://spectacleapp.com/](http://spectacleapp.com/) to resize
windows with the keyboard

\- Caffeine
[http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/](http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/) to easily
toggle the screen's sleep setting

\- The Unarchiver
[http://unarchiver.c3.cx/unarchiver](http://unarchiver.c3.cx/unarchiver)
handles tons of file formats

------
sunspeck
f.lux [http://justgetflux.com/](http://justgetflux.com/)

As much a brain hack as a Mac hack. #1 recommendation.

~~~
OWaz
I second f.lux as I've been using it for a few years. Just try it for a while.

------
johncoltrane
When I install a new system, I always go through these steps in no particular
order:

* change the appearance and the contrast color from "blue" to "graphite"

* disable the zoom effect and enable automatic hiding of the dock

* limit Spotlight's scope

* increase the speed of the mouse

* install Perian

* install Secrets

* install Slate

* install ClipMenu

* install QuickSilver

* install QuickCursor

* install MacPorts (and the required XCode)

* install Subversion, Git and Mercurial

* install a bunch of CLI utilities like cdargs or tmux

* install MacVim and clone my config

~~~
Dorsai
I would love something like QuickCursor... How did you install QuickCursor?
(builds won't launch due to the OS X Sandbox?)

~~~
johncoltrane
If you don't mind downloading binaries from total strangers, this is the one
I'm using right now:

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9lhundywuz7llg/QuickCursor.app.zi...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9lhundywuz7llg/QuickCursor.app.zip)

------
delkant
I'd recommend
[http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/](http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/) (the
easiest way to run windows app on mac) The first time I installed it was
because I couldn't find a tool like total commander
([http://www.ghisler.com/](http://www.ghisler.com/)) for mac, so I will add
that to my list total commander :D

The rest really depends on what you will do with it.

------
squidsoup
Fullscreen tmux with all development in linux VMs. I don't even know why I'm
using a Mac anymore.

F.lux and an email client that works.

------
Jemaclus
My required installs:

* f.lux * Divvy (resize windows on the fly) * TotalTerminal (a visor-style thing for using the terminal) * Alfred 2 (a Spotlight replacement - I used to use Quicksilver, but it's no longer actively developed)

~~~
ipodize
Quicksilver is back under development - the latest version is 1.1.2, and the
last commit at their repo[1] was five days ago... Not on fire, but there is
stuff happening.

Also, you may like Moom[2] for window management - sucky name, but the feature
set makes up for it ;)

[1]:
[https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/](https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/)
[2]: [http://manytricks.com/moom/](http://manytricks.com/moom/)

------
helloanand
I have a MBPR. \- I used QuickRes2 to switch to a much higher resolution
1920x1680 which is not possible otherwise. \- Wrote a script to download the
beautiful bing.com backgrounds for use as wallpapers

~~~
gsands
Care to share the script?

~~~
helloanand
#!/usr/bin/env bash

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin
PICTURE_DIR="/path/to/your/directory"

#mkdir -p $PICTURE_DIR

cd $PICTURE_DIR

urls=( $(curl -s [http://www.bing.com|grep](http://www.bing.com|grep) -Eo
"url:'. _? '"|sed -e "s/url:'\\([^']_\\)'. _/ http:\/\/bing.com\1/"|sed -e
"s/\\\\\//g") )

for p in ${urls[@]}; do filename=$(echo $p|sed -e "s/._\/\\(.*\\)/\1/") if [ !
-f $PICTURE_DIR/$filename ]; then echo "Downloading: $filename ..." #wget -q
-O $PICTURE_DIR/$filename $p curl -Lo "$PICTURE_DIR/$filename" $p else echo
"Skipping: $filename ..." fi done

------
tsm
Install:

* Homebrew

* Caffeine and NoSleep

* SetResX for Retina displays (lets you deretinafy and use native resolution)

* KeyRemap4MacBook to swap () and [] (but I might be weird)

* iTerm2

------
Dirty-flow
you can find some tips and tricks on Apple Stackexchange:
[http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/400/24026](http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/400/24026)

------
jads
If I could recommend just one, it would be 1Password.

