More Leopard Tips and Tricks
January 23, 2008 by Ross McKillop
Here are some more Tips and Tricks for Leopard users, compliments of our forum regular Wraith2021.
Turning the Dock 2D
There are people out there who don’t like the new 3D Dock in Leopard. Well if you are one of them, here is a quick and easy terminal command to make it 2D. Launch Applications-> Utilities -> Terminal, and type:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock
This will turn the Dock 2D. If you want to put it back to normal just type:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO
killall Dock
Widgets On Your Desktop
For some users it may make sense to “detach” widgets from the Dashboard and leave them on the desktop. This can be accomplished easily with following terminal command, and is quite useful at times. Open Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal, and type:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES
killall Dock
Now when you go into dashboard if you hold the left mouse down on a widget you wish to bring to the desktop and press F12 (or fn+F12) this will drag the widget to your desktop. To put it back simply do the same again, hold the widget while pressing F12 (fn+F12) to drag it back into the dashboard.
If at any time you wish to disable this function, simply type in terminal the following:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode NO
killall Dock
Quick Dictionary
This is a good use of the built in dictionary. All you have to do is hover your mouse over any word and press ctrl + cmd + D. This will pop up an instant dictionary reference to the word in question.
Locking Files
If you are working on an important project which you do not want to be deleted or altered by accident, you can easily lock it.
You do this by right clicking (ctrl-clicking) the file, then select Get Info, finally check the box that says Locked. This should now show a little lock next to the icon. If you attempt to throw it in the Trash, a pop up will say that it is locked and cannot be trashed, likewise, it will also ask you if you are sure you want to save the changes every time a modification is made.
To delete any locked file, hold the Option key when emptying the trash and it’ll be gone for good, or unlock it.
Speedup Your Desktop
The Mac OSX is a powerful OS, and has some hidden gems, If your graphics card supports Quartz 2D Extreme then running this command will make your mac a whole lost faster. Simply go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal and type:
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled -boolean true
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor -dict deferredUpdates 0
This should give your desktop a power boost.
how do you know if quartz 2d is supported? is it supported on a intel gma x3100?
if so, then when i tried it, it asked for my password after the first - which i typed in and it said it was incorrect…is there something that i’m missing?
To check if Quartz 2D is supported go to System Profiler: click the Apple icon in the top left corner ->Choose ” About This Mac” -> Click the “More Info…” button -> Select “Hardware” and then “Graphics/Displays”.