Applications :: Tweak F-Key Functionality On A Per-App Basis?
Oct 8, 2009
I like being able to use the F-Keys on my keyboard to perform the assigned special features printed on each key (brightness +/-; Spaces; Expose; iTunes Playback Controls; etc) without having to press the 'Fn' modifier key to do so.However, when I work in Photoshop, I've always used the F-keys to run Actions and to execute menu items, and having to tack on the 'Fn' key to do so is a series buzz kill (especially when you consider I already use multiple modifier keys along with the F-keys in Photoshop - for example Shift+Cmd+F2 might do something like add a Hue/Saturation Layer... when you complicate an already complicated shortcut by making it Fn+Shift+Cmd+F2, the shortcut basically becomes to complex to use in real life...Anyone know of a third party System Preference Pane 'haxie' (or something along those lines) that would allow me to configure, on a per-application basis, the 'Fn' modifier key and whether or not it will be required for single button usage of Apple's various special features, or for standard F-Key functionality)?
I've been working to get a document camera plugged into my computer, and I just got it working via a Canopus box. The Canopus box takes the s-video and sends the signal through firewire to my Mac. But the image is upside down. Flipping the camera around would be very inconvenient... is there any program I can get that will allow me to invert the video signal? Also, what's the best way to display a video signal on the screen? I'm using screen capture software so I want the video image on the screen while I'm recording. So far I have only figured out iChat --> Video Preview. It seems to me there should be something more handy... with maybe a few zoom buttons, reflect image, that sort of thing.
Does anyone know if Apple is working on improving Address Book? It seems that not much has changed in a long time with the Address Book. It is a nice app for keeping up with personal contacts. However, do you think that Apple will develop it further to be more like Outlook, in terms of features that can be applied for business use? Please let me know if this is being worked on or if there are rumors. Outlook 2003 is turning to dust in the wind, and I am not that satisfied with Office 2007. I am hoping to move away from those products, but Apple's offerings pale in comparison to Microsoft's.
I'm just posting for the archives my success with installing Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2 Standard Edition on a Jan 2008 Mac Pro (8x2.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM). I've installed Server 2003 a Mac Mini (1.83 Ghz), MacBook (Late 2006) and an iMac (early 2008) and didn't find the information available online to be greatly helpful, so hopefully this post will help somebody like me sometime in the future. To set up Windows Windows Server 2003 R2 on a Jan 2008 Mac Pro:
Boot OS X and run Boot Camp Assistant as usual. Install Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 as usual (comes as 2 discs, but only requires the second disk upon your first successful log in so this isn't a problem with bootcamp). Eject the Windows installation CD in the windows explorer by right clicking the D: drive and selecting Eject.........................
I use my top right corner for flicking of my screen when I need to, really useful for saving energy in class and if I'm listening to music while travelling and sleeping.
The only thing that annoys me about it is, there's no option to set a key to wake the screen. I mean, when using it travelling or in bed, it would be great to use the volume and next/previous keys on my macbook keyboard without waking the screen. Maybe a terminal tweak to make it ignore a few keys, or having a specific key binded to wake the screen that anyone knows about?
My macbook pro came installed with 4GB of RAM but this is slowly being eaten away. Brand new there was 2.77Gb available. Yesterday there was 2.4 and today there is 1.43Gb free. ( I know this as I am using free memory) Nothing is running but Finder and now this browser. Without the browser (Safari) I cannot seem to get more than 1.7Gb free. Something seemnd s to be gobbling up about 1Gb in the background this is not visible to Finder/Force quit
I have a macbook pro mid 2010 model running OS X Lion 10.7.4 with 8GB of RAM (3rd party upgrade), 128 SSD. Up until about 3 weeks ago everything was running fine. Then one day the mac just froze and it's been doing it ever since on an irregular basis. Some days it will happen 10 times in one day, then it won't happen for 3 days. Symptoms:- The mac will freeze completely, no mouse, trackpad or keyboard input, if itunes is playing a song it will just hang and repeat last 1/2 second of the song like a broken record. The only way out of this state is to do a hard reset. ocasionally I get some screen on startup that says I must hold down the power button to restart. It says this in about 5 different languages. Occasionally starting up the mac gets to the grey screen then doesn't move. Again I must do a hard reset.
Attempted Fixes: Booting up in safe mode does not fix the issue. It sometimes freezes in safe mode, or gets stuck on the grey screen. Apple Hardware Test - No issues found after running 3 times in extended mode. Verified/Repaired disks - Problem remains. Restored from a time machine backup. I didn't expect this to fix it, and it didn't.
I'm aware that with windows computers you need to defragment regularly to keep processes running top notch. However, I read that the macbook runs on fragmentation, thus, defragging is not necessary.
However, I saw in another thread that defragging is also important for a macbook. My question is: 1. Is it necessary to defragment? 2. If so, what is a good program for defragmenting on a macbook?
I want to let my wife use my Macbook Pro until I can get her her own. But I have a lot of apps installed that she would never use and I want to make it as user friendly as possible.
So is there a way to hide apps on a per user basis to make it as easy as possible for her.
Info: Macbook Pro 15" Late 2010 Core i7 27" LG Monitor Bose Sound, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
I'm interested in seeing how many of the people that own a unibody Macbook Pro switch graphic cards on a regular basis. I know when the unibody Macbook Pros came out people were complaining that switching graphics cards required logging out. Is this still an issue or do most people stick with one? I just switched to the 9600M after being on the 9400M for about two months as I needed the extra power and battery life wasn't an issue.
How do I stop itunes from corrupting it's library on almost a daily basis? It's actually becoming infurating to use, and what's happening is I am losing my downloads since the last automated itunes backup (having to rename & replace the current corrupted library with the last backup which is usually a day or two old).
I have a macbook pro. My machine won't wake up at all. Battery is being charged on regular basis. I have tired to hard boot but all i hear is sound of machine booting up and shutting down. Is there ant possible way I can get my display back on my machine? When i close the lid, the indictor light is blinking slowly but as soon as i open the lid cover screen is always black. For last 5 days I have tired to discharge the battery and charge again, attached a wired mouse to see if it might wake up my machine but with no luck.
The cursor on my Macbook Pro skips and puts me at a different spot on a regular basis. This makes typing very difficult particularly when the page is accessed through the internet.
My new MacBook Pro runs perfectly. However, it makes the "funk" alert sound effect on a random basis and it is getting pretty annoying. Why is this happening? I am apparently not the only user experiencing this issue, but they did not identify the sound as being one of the built-in sounds.
I've been looking around for an enhancement to iCal - a menubar item that would display upcoming schedule items, and allow you to add things to your iCal schedule without having to open iCal each time.I remember that classic app, Claris something-or-other, that could sync with a Newton, was designed like that.anyway, has anyone heard of something like this to extend functionality of iCal in this way? Preferably OS 10.4 compatible, as I don't have 10.5.
Is it possible to add functionality to the Quickview feature in leopard so that I can view more image file formats like IFF, OpenEXF etc...? I assume it's linked to the Preview application so if that can view them then QuickView should be able to too?
I've been hearing a lot about macbooks overheating, and was just wondering what are the ramifications of it overheating? Does it act slower, or over time does over heating lead to long term defects or something? Are there sings I should look for or something I should do if I sense my mac getting really hot?
My professor uses her macbook pro along with her apple remote to advance her slides. I unfortunately can't afford a new macbook (being a starving college student), and I really like the ability to advance powerpoint with the apple remote (via 3rd party software). I have a research presentation coming up at the end of the semester, and the classroom that we're in does not have remote control for presentations. My question is, is there anything that I can purchase to add this type of functionality to my iBook G4 (14" 1.24GHz 512MB).
I was actually wondering also if attaching a universal iPod dock paired with the apple remote might provide this? I'm gonna consult the Geeks at the Apple Store in Manhattan when I go on Saturday, but I'd thought I'd ask here first.
I own an early 2011 13' MBP with a preconfigured 256 Gb SSD. since OSX Mountain Lion will be released next July, I was wondering if the new Power Nap functionality will be supported on my MacBook (on the website it states you need flash storage installed)?
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
So I went out and bought the wireless Mighty Mouse. My first impressions are not good. Although I like the functionality, it just doesn't feel right - it feels a little flimsy and I can't get used to the scroll wheel. To top it all off, mine has a defect (it won't scroll left....only up/down/right). So I'm going to take it back to the Apple Store tomorrow. I think I'll end up getting something different, but I would like to keep with a Bluetooth one so I don't have to plug anything into my computer.
So I'm reading an article and one of the new features it touts for Snow Leopard is. Trackpad gestures for all. Snow Leopard lets all Macs with gesture-capable trackpads use the entire set of gestures. Before, older MacBooks were limited to one- and two-finger gestures. So I got to thinking, are there any third party USB multi-touch 'gesture-capable' trackpads one can buy for the Mac Pro? I have a brand new MBP and LOVE the huge track pad (wouldn't mind it larger - on the left side of my Mac Pro keyboard!) and the gestures and miss it when I'm on my Mac Pro. I'm on my third Mighty Mouse (they get gunked up beyond repair - the ball goes bad - might be dust in India, not sure but tried all the rolling and upside down rubbing alcohol and everything) which is pretty slick and responsive, but still, I can't wait till the if/when Apple launches a multi-touch pad for their desktops. Is there any other option?
I use a unibody MBP for business, and often have to give presentations. Is there a method or hack for making the MBP only use the external display (ie the projector) rather than being limited to mirroring or extended desktop? This is so I can drive the presentation using the laptop keyboard but at the full 4:3 resolution of the projector, which is better for slides.
I am aware of the clamshell method but this requires either doing a cold boot and quickly closing the lid, or connecting an external keyboard and waking from sleep with the lid shut - neither of which is very convenient or should even be necessary, frankly.
On my old Thinkpad I could toggle/cycle through LCD/Mirror/External - is there a hack or some shareware which would duplicate this functionality on the MBP?
I will be online (Chrome) when all of the sudden no pages will load. If iTunes is open at this time, it will repeatedly give me a "-50" error. Once I close and reopen iTunes I get Error Code 13014. When Recieveing these errors, none of my files are accessable, and sometimes not visible. I must restart the computer and then it works fine, but 15 minutes later it does the same thing. I beileve it all has to do with my iTunes but I don't know how to fix it.
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I know that some of the older MacBooks (2006-07) have multi-touch trackpad. Are some of those models only one or two finger touch? I am wanting to upgrade to Lion OSX and want to make sure the trackpad will support three and four finger gestures. And which is the oldest macbook model that supports multi-touch and will support all the functions on OSX LION?
I've just upgraded from 10.6.8 to 10.9.3 and am very disappointed to see that everything in the sidebar is shown in shades of gray. I've used FolderBrander for many years to color code my finder folders and it was great that the folder colors also appeared in the sidebar in 10.6.8. I could group associated folders by color in the sidebar and that made for very rapid and accurate access deep into my folder architecture. I am mourning this lost functionality. how I could send this dissatisfaction along to Apple along with a request to restore colors to the sidebar?
