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jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:09 PM

seems like its a pretty pointless tool if you have to already have the dictionary open. i thought it might be built into the OS. well, i'll check that out and see what i find. thanks for the tip.

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:11 PM

ok, well that still didnt work. i have dictionary open and i am ctrl+cmnd+d, and nothing.

surferboy · May 1, 2005, 05:17 PM

I am still blown away by the RSS screensaver. Does anyone know if it is possible to get an RSS feed that just does sports scores- like a ticker or something?

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:18 PM

where do i have to have the mouse? also, when i move the pointer over a word it changes from the arrow to the text select icon, does that mean it wont work?

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:19 PM

Does anyone know if it is possible to get an RSS feed that just does sports scores- like a ticker or something?

ooh, that would be sweet

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:22 PM

not to harp on this, but is it the contextual menu popup or just a popup of the definition? thanks.

MrForgetable · May 1, 2005, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by jedifunk

where do i have to have the mouse? also, when i move the pointer over a word it changes from the arrow to the text select icon, does that mean it wont work?

nevermind. you don't need dictionary open. it works for me when i have the text select pointer over the word.

TETENAL · May 1, 2005, 05:31 PM

You don't have to have Dictionary.app open. That would be silly.

MrForgetable · May 1, 2005, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by jedifunk

not to harp on this, but is it the contextual menu popup or just a popup of the definition? thanks.

here's a little screenshot (hope it isn't too big?)

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:35 PM

well damn, why wont it work? is it because i'm on a PB? do i need to use the fn key in conjunction with the other keys? '^' stands for the control button right? thats what the keyboard shortcut in sys prefs says. i'm really starting to bug out on this!!!!

btw, to get somewhat back on topic: overrated for me so far is spotlight. but since i dont search for stuff that often i can see why its not a big deal for me. but i just LOVE dashboard.

MrForgetable · May 1, 2005, 05:41 PM

i'm on a 15" pb.

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 05:44 PM

and your hitting ctrl+cmnd(open apple)+d? i think i might loose it soon if this doesnt work.

beverson · May 1, 2005, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by coldfusion1970

You have to add them through Safari.
Bookmark any RSS feed in Safari and its available in the RSS screensaver.

Yeah, I can't seem to get that to work. I bookmarked an aggregated feed as a single page, but it won't show up in the RSS Screensaver prefs as an option, even though I see it in the list of "All RSS Feeds" in Safari.

murk · May 1, 2005, 05:51 PM

Spotlight is my biggest disappointment. Maybe it's because I'm using an old Sawtooth 450, but searching causes the results to trickle in over a period of several minutes. It's really not any faster than the search at the top of Finder windows in Panther. I thought it was supposed to be instantaneous.

MrForgetable · May 1, 2005, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by jedifunk

and your hitting ctrl+cmnd(open apple)+d? i think i might loose it soon if this doesnt work.

i'm holding control+command+d and it works flawlessly everytime. don't highlight anything?

parsec_kadets · May 1, 2005, 06:17 PM

Originally Posted by MrForgetable

you have to launch dictionary

No, you don't.

parsec_kadets · May 1, 2005, 06:27 PM

I think dashboard is the most overrated feature, but for different reasons than you may think. Dashboard doesn't really do anything. It's just a "special" desktop which runs certain apps. What makes Dashboard sink or swim are the widgets. The weather, dictionary, phone book, and package tracker widgets are great. But you already see some terrible widgets that take up way too much space and just needlessly replicate functions that are already well implemented in other apps. The google search widget on dashboardwidgets.com is an example of this (not the search sticks mind you).

MrForgetable · May 1, 2005, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by parsec_kadets

No, you don't.

yep if you read farther you would have seen that I figured that out

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 07:02 PM

ok, so nothing i do will make this work. i tried changing the shortcut to another combo of keys, that didnt work. i tried logging into my 2nd account that i keep clean for troubleshooting, that didnt work. not sure what else to try.

the only 'extras' i have installed are microsoft mouse (for my intellimouse- which i'm not using right now), menumeters, and sidetrack. it doesnt seem like any of those would interfere, and since i tried it from my other account i dont think its those.

is anyone else having problems with this?

uPod-wePod · May 1, 2005, 07:05 PM

command-option-control-8 gives you a nice white-on black

;-)

jedifunk · May 1, 2005, 07:06 PM

ha ha, ok, so my dumba** finally figured it out (with the help of the apple support forums). i had moved my dictionary app to a different folder within the apps folder so i guess tiger couldnt reference the application. it works just fine now!

funny how little stuff like that can make a big difference. i've been banging my head against the wall all afternoon, and it was a tiny little oversight! thanks for all the help.

scottrussell · May 1, 2005, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by MrForgetable

here's a little screenshot (hope it isn't too big?)

So how did you get the screen capture to work? Using SHIFT+APPLE+3 or 4 loses the dictionary window before snapping the picture. Thanks!

CharlesS · May 1, 2005, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by jedifunk

ha ha, ok, so my dumba** finally figured it out (with the help of the apple support forums). i had moved my dictionary app to a different folder within the apps folder so i guess tiger couldnt reference the application. it works just fine now!

funny how little stuff like that can make a big difference. i've been banging my head against the wall all afternoon, and it was a tiny little oversight! thanks for all the help.

Well, that's certainly lame. Doesn't Apple know about their own LaunchServices API?

Timan · May 1, 2005, 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by scottrussell

So how did you get the screen capture to work? Using SHIFT+APPLE+3 or 4 loses the dictionary window before snapping the picture. Thanks!

Not sure how he did it, but when I took a pic to show a friend, I used grab + timed screen capture.

MrForgetable · May 1, 2005, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Timan

Not sure how he did it, but when I took a pic to show a friend, I used grab + timed screen capture.

yep. i used grab+ timed screen capture also.

DavidHossack · May 1, 2005, 10:44 PM

Preview can now do timed screenshots. Heck of a lot nicer than Grab-Grab hasn't been updated since 10.0 or so....

Look in the File menu

Timan · May 1, 2005, 11:36 PM

Anyone else notice when using that shift + apple + 3 or 4 the quality of the png's aren't that great?

CharlesS · May 2, 2005, 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by DavidHossack

Preview can now do timed screenshots. Heck of a lot nicer than Grab-Grab hasn't been updated since 10.0 or so....

Look in the File menu

Unless you want the cursor in the screenshot for whatever reason (useful if you're making an instruction manual where you want to show exactly where to click on something). In that case, Grab seems the only way to go as Preview doesn't seem to give you that option.

WJMoore · May 2, 2005, 04:33 AM

Originally Posted by Geobunny

Heh, how wonderfully pointless!

It does do something useful: it reloads the widget, especially useful when developing a widget.

coldfusion1970 · May 2, 2005, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by surferboy

I am still blown away by the RSS screensaver. Does anyone know if it is possible to get an RSS feed that just does sports scores- like a ticker or something?

Well heres a good RSS feed for UK football updates :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/rssfeed/0,,5,00.xml

coldfusion1970 · May 2, 2005, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by jedifunk

where do i have to have the mouse? also, when i move the pointer over a word it changes from the arrow to the text select icon, does that mean it wont work?

As long as you've double-clicked the word to select it, then <command>+<CTRL>+<D> will pop-up the definition.

It doesnt work in the finder so it may not work with 'carbon' applications.

coldfusion1970 · May 2, 2005, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Well, that's certainly lame. Doesn't Apple know about their own LaunchServices API?

Well Apple do say that you should move the applications from the applications folder (and i guess that includes putting them in sub-foldes). I would guess its more a Unix issue as Mac OS 9 never had that problem.

coldfusion1970 · May 2, 2005, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by beverson

Yeah, I can't seem to get that to work. I bookmarked an aggregated feed as a single page, but it won't show up in the RSS Screensaver prefs as an option, even though I see it in the list of "All RSS Feeds" in Safari.

Well i just book-marked Macnn.com and switched to the screensaver and it was already available as a option.
I assume in the Safari address bar that the URL ends in '.xml' or '.rss'?

workerbee · May 2, 2005, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by coldfusion1970

It doesnt work in the finder so it may not work with 'carbon' applications.

It also doesn't work with OmniWeb.

tuqqer · May 2, 2005, 03:18 PM

I've found that the ctrl+cmnd(open apple)+d (to reveal a small dictionary) only works in Safari. I haven't gotten it to work in the Finder, FireFox, Entourage, or other non carb apps. Does work in iChat.

Randman · May 2, 2005, 03:42 PM

After showing the missues around, Safari 2.0 is impressing me even more. The ability to send an actual webpage directly through the Mail to someone is amazing.

cdetdi · May 2, 2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by uPod-wePod

command-option-control-8 gives you a nice white-on black

;-)

Is this new?! It's really quite awesome! I think it is easier on my eyes too! How cool!

cdetdi

alephOne · 06:34 PM

Deleted

ginoledesma · May 2, 2005, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by cdetdi

Is this new?! It's really quite awesome! I think it is easier on my eyes too! How cool!

Not sure about the keystroke, but this was available in the previous release via Universal Access. Other accessibility keystrokes are:
- Command-Option = (to zoom in)
- Command-Option - (to zoom out)

This requires the zoom feature to be enabled.

andretan · May 2, 2005, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by cdetdi

Is this new?! It's really quite awesome! I think it is easier on my eyes too! How cool!

cdetdi

It's been around since Panther AFAIK.

Look under Universal Access in System Preferences.

alephOne · May 2, 2005, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by Geobunny

...and the American version of English at that!

You know, I was worried about this as well, but it doesn't actually appear to be a problem. When I switch my language in the International Preferences (I usually have it on either Canadian English or UK English) and the spellings and all that match whichever variation of English I have selected. If I type "color", it still gets flagged as a misspell. Likewise, if I look up "colour", the appropriate definition comes up. Although I will admit that I haven't used the dictionary much yet, so there may be some glaring things that I simply haven't encountered yet. (For example, when Canadian English is selected, will it be "aluminum" or "aluminium"? And does it differentiate between "program" and "programme"? Does it use ligatures? I'll have to check these when I get home.) So far, though, for practical daily use it seems as though I was worrying about nothing.

DylanG · May 2, 2005, 08:12 PM

Command-Ctrl-D is very cool and something I didn't know about before this thread. But this brings up my biggest complaint as a recent switcher - there are too many functions that rely on arcane keystroke combinations that either I don't know or I can't remember. (I realize that the dictionary lookup is duplicated via a context menu but the general complaint holds.)

Longtime Mac users seem to have a special part of their brain that remembers these.

Oh, and I'll vote Dashboard as most overrated. Maybe some really cool widgets will come out and I'll change my opinion but right now it seems little more than eye candy.

CharlesS · May 2, 2005, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by coldfusion1970

Well Apple do say that you should move the applications from the applications folder (and i guess that includes putting them in sub-foldes). I would guess its more a Unix issue as Mac OS 9 never had that problem.

UNIX has nothing to do with it. The reason Mac OS 9 didn't have this problem was because Apple looked up applications by creator code in those days, using the Desktop database. In OS X, we have the LaunchServices database which does the same thing, but for some reason Apple isn't always using it anymore.

MartiNZ · May 2, 2005, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by DylanG

Command-Ctrl-D is very cool and something I didn't know about before this thread. But this brings up my biggest complaint as a recent switcher - there are too many functions that rely on arcane keystroke combinations that either I don't know or I can't remember. (I realize that the dictionary lookup is duplicated via a context menu but the general complaint holds.)

Longtime Mac users seem to have a special part of their brain that remembers these.

Oh, and I'll vote Dashboard as most overrated. Maybe some really cool widgets will come out and I'll change my opinion but right now it seems little more than eye candy.

It's quite funny, but I think that they maybe even put in all these little shortcuts and hidden/undocumented/not obvious features just so we'll have stuff to talk about around places like this, and so that we'll still be finding new things in Tiger this time next year and going: "Wow that's so cool!"

... it's a mac user thing I guess.

surferboy · May 2, 2005, 09:39 PM

Originally Posted by DylanG

Command-Ctrl-D is very cool and something I didn't know about before this thread. But this brings up my biggest complaint as a recent switcher - there are too many functions that rely on arcane keystroke combinations that either I don't know or I can't remember. (I realize that the dictionary lookup is duplicated via a context menu but the general complaint holds.)

Longtime Mac users seem to have a special part of their brain that remembers these.

Oh, and I'll vote Dashboard as most overrated. Maybe some really cool widgets will come out and I'll change my opinion but right now it seems little more than eye candy.

Dylan, I'm with you on the keystroke thing. But, you know you can right click a word and you get an option "Look up in Dictionary"? May be a little easier doing that than the keystroke deal. But, doing that launches the Dictionary app.

MartiNZ · May 2, 2005, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by surferboy

Dylan, I'm with you on the keystroke thing. But, you know you can right click a word and you get an option "Look up in Dictionary"? May be a little easier doing that than the keystroke deal. But, doing that launches the Dictionary app.

It doesn't necessarily launch Dictionary.app; rather it's based on your preference settings within it.

That reminds me, show all extensions in the Finder now shows .app as well - never used to!

Geobunny · May 3, 2005, 03:40 AM

Originally Posted by MartiNZ

That reminds me, show all extensions in the Finder now shows .app as well - never used to!

Yeah, I noticed that too. I actually find it rather annoying as it makes my Applications folder look quite messy now I think. Or maybe that's just me.

[Edit: Forgot to say; Most over-rated: Spotlight & Dashboard. Underrated: erm...still looking...maybe the fact that they fixed the disk image creation bug introduced in 10.3.9! ]

Fonzie · May 3, 2005, 06:31 AM

Originally Posted by Timan

Anyone else notice when using that shift + apple + 3 or 4 the quality of the png's aren't that great?

I've noticed that. I wish they'd stayed with PDF's.

Simon · May 3, 2005, 08:45 AM

^ Ditto that.

tuqqer · May 3, 2005, 09:22 AM

I've noticed that. I wish they'd stayed with PDF's.

No kidding. I'd really love to hear the logic behind changing screenshots to PNG.

Is PNG readable by more computers? If I send a screenshot in PNG to a Windows user, will I first need to convert it to something else, or is PNG some new uber file format?