Most all web developers, most certainly those who work with Firefox, are familiar with Firebug. This tools nevers ceases to amaze me, the ability to change information (for example style attributes) on a webpage as your are viewing the page, is amazingly useful. Version 3.x of Safari now includes the option to enable a Firebug like debugging tool called Web Inspector…
You won’t find access to Web Inspector in your default installation of Safari. However, making the necessary configuration changes is as easy as running the following command from a Terminal:
If you prefer, you can use the Property List Editor to set the WebKitDeveloperExtras property in the Safari property file, which is located here: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safai.plist (use Finder to locate the file and double click to open). You’ll need to restart Safari after making the changes to enable Web Inspector.
To open the Web Inspector, right click and choose Inspect Element as shown in the figure below:
We all know that installing 4gb of RAM will speed up a Macbook and make the whole experience that little bit more smoother and quicker - but what can you do NOW for FREE that will help speed your bundle of joy along and keep it’s user happier? I will tell you 6 things that will help.
1. Remove files from the desktop
Each time that OS X loads it has to index the contents of the desktop, create thumbnail icons for each file and catalog the contents of each folder there.
Do yourself a favor and move those files to the relevant folders they belong in. This will increase the speed at which your desktop loads and therefore make your Macbook faster.
2. Remove unwanted start up applications
Go into System Preferences and User Accounts. View the list of applications that have been set to start against your user name and remove (untick) any that you don’t need any longer.
It’s great to have iChat start automatically - but not essential.
You can view a list of applications running in the background by using the top command from the Terminal window or by using the Activity Monitor application.
Dictionary - With Dictionary as a part of Mac OS X (10.4) there is a feature that not too many Mac users know about.
When in any of the Cocoa (Mac native) applications you can hover your mouse above the word and press Ctrl-Cmd-D on your keyboard. You will get the Dictionary description for that word. Just move your mouse over to any other word and the Dictionary description for that word is displayed instantly.
And no, you don’t need to have Dictionary open at all.
A few examples of applications where this works are; Safari, Mail.app, MacJournal, TextEdit, Text Wrangler, Comic Life, iWeb. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with any of the Mozilla applications, including Firefox, Camino and Flock.
Invert screen
Another function that not too many Mac users know is “Invert screen”. Just press Ctrl-Option-Cmd-8 on your keyboard and see your Mac invert its colours.
This would be funny if you go to the Apple shop and do it so you can watch the salesperson freak out.
Why spend more during times of economic hardships. You may very well spend them on refurb Apple products that come at a cheaper price compared to the newer ones.
Recent Comments