This is really cool, I think so anyway. Address book does Google Maps! If you have a contact with a street address within, you can ctrl-click (right click) to bring up a menu with “Map Of” as an item. Choose “Map Of” and watch the location appear in Google Maps!
This tip is for people new to Time Machine and curious about internet files on their computers. Time Machine is a great new addition to the Mac OS X experience. However, while it’s nice to have your entire hard backed up, there are files you might NOT want sticking around on your computer taking up space, much less backed up–like any temporary Safari files.
The files that we all probably get rid of regularly are cache files, history files, and, more than likely, downloads that you’ll undoubtedly erase or move right after download (like large disk image files that you’ve already used). But with Time Machine running, how can we REALLY erase these files securely/forever?
Cache files - The good news is that, according to Apple and the Apple support forums, temporary cache files are ignored by Time Machine altogether. You can see this by opening your “cache” folder, going into Time Machine, and seeing all the empty, black windows behind the current one.
History - In case you didn’t already know it, you can exclude certain items from being backed up by Time Machine. In other words, you’re telling it to “ignore” something when it backs up. While it’s usually a good idea to back up everything, you might want your browser’s history file ignored. It’s as simple as entering Time Machine preferences, clicking “options,” and dragging the file/folder you want ignored into the list. I chose to ignore the files in this path: “user>library>safari>” You may want to choose other files, but that’s up to you.
Downloads - Obviously, there are many files you download from the internet that you want instantly eliminated from your HD, but unless you delete them before Time Machine’s next backup, you won’t get rid of them. To rectify this, just add your “downloads” folder (or wherever you save things to) to Time Machine’s exclusion list as above, and those pesky files won’t outstay their welcome.
Obviously, every user is different, so make sure to make your “exclusion” choices carefully. (I, for example, use my downloads folder as a temporary folder, but you may not). As a side note, take care when excluding System level directories, as doing so makes it harder to restore your system if your disk becomes damaged, etc.
Both PDF’s and images can be looked at a little closer in Leopard- here’s how. You may need to click in the Quicklook preview window after pressing the space bar to ensure the following work:
Images: “Option click” the file to zoom in and “shift-option click” to zoom out
PDF’s: Click command (apple) and the equals (=) key (don’t press the shift key on this occasion) to look closer, and command (apple) and the minus (-) key to zoom out.
So Stacks are cool, and they show you what’s in the folder, but only the last added item (for Downloads) or based on your sort preference for others.
So what about a cool icon, and also a nice stack of the contents? You got it! Whatever you have at the front should be dated a long way into the future to ensure it stays at the front. To do this you can use a utility like FileBuddy, A Better Finder Attributes or some such.
Or if you know how, use the ‘touch’ command in the terminal. Or if not, type “man touch” to find out how. Want some cool icons to have at the front? Well, start here with some great transparent folder icons provided by a Japanese blogger. They even come pre-dated a long way into the future. Enjoy!
I think I posted earlier about the ability to share any folder in Leopard in the Sys Prefs -> Sharing section. Something even cooler has been brought to my attention. You can create ’sharing only’ users that can access your shared folders.
For example, here I’ve created a “leech” user that can access the “funnies” share. Clicking on “options” allows me to set how I’d like to share the file. Apple FileSharing, or Windows (SMB), or both, or how about FTP as well?
Creating a ’sharing only’ account for people to access your network resources does not create an actual full user account on your mac. cool.
Giving friends temporary access to your Mac without also giving them access to your own files is something you may need to consider one day.
You can allow guests to log into your Mac without creating any accounts or changing your machine. Check out sys prefs -> Accounts. make sure you can make changes (click padlock icon and enter your admin password)
You should see a list of accounts, one should be the guest account, click it and see what appears. “Enable the guest account so that friends can temporarily log in to your computer. Logging in to the guest account does not require a password. Users cannot log in to the guest account remotely.” “When a guest user logs out, all information and files in the guest account’s home folder are deleted” .
You can also choose whether you want guests to be able to connect to shared folders or not.
I can’t take complete credit for this–some of the information in this tip is thanks to “A New Mac Tip a Day. However, the icons used and the method for getting them is unique to this tip.
I have personally always liked a “uniform” look to the old contextual folders I used to keep in the right hand side of my dock in Tiger. As long as each folder is identifiable, it gives the dock a cleaner look–especially when you compare it to the current “stacks” mentality of Leopard.
To complete this trick, you need to understand the concept that whatever item is sorted at the top of a stack will act as the displaying icon of that stack in the dock–a fact that is obviously annoying and counter-intuitive. This tip will use that to our advantage, though!
1) Let’s begin by choosing one stack icon to change. Let’s go with “Applications” for now. If you open your main HD directory, the applications folder has the nice clean blue “applications” folder. Right click on that folder and choose “get info.” The familiar info pane pops up for our Applications folder.
2) In the info pane, go up to the top to click and highlight the Application folder icon. Copy it.
3) Now create a new folder on your desktop.
4) Right-click on this newly created folder, bringing up the info pane once again. This time, go up to the top of the pane, click once on the icon to highlight it, and PASTE the Application icon you copied in step 2.
5) Now you have a folder with an “Application” folder look to it on your desktop. Here’s where the fun part comes in: Rename the folder to “0Applications_Label” — or something similar, as long as the number “0″ is the firs character in the name.
6) Drag this newly renamed folder into your Application folder or Stack (either way is fine, as long as it’s in there!).
7) Right click on the Applications stack in your dock, and make sure to sort the contents by “name.”
And that’s it! Now you have a nice new “Applications folder” in your dock, and no matter what the contents are, you will always see the Application folder icon there.
Repeat these steps for any stacks you keep in the right hand side of the dock. I did it for 3 other folders: My “Home” folder, my “Downloads” folder, and a personal “To Be Sorted” folder I use daily. In each case, I made a new folder, added identifiable icons, renamed each (”0Downloads_Label,” etc.), and put them in their respective stacks. The result is below:
magnified:
So far, the only drawback is that you can still see some “lower leve” stacking of icons within each stack, but that’s ok. It looks better, and works better!
The only thing missing is contextual browsing! 
If you open Time Machine whilst making sure that Mail is the active application, it will open up a complete history (once you have set up Time Machine of course) of your inboxes, sent messages, drafts etc. Restored messages are placed into a new folder under Mailboxes. Very useful for finding accidentally deleted messages…
