home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Nebula 2
/
Nebula Two.iso
/
Documents
/
Other
/
tricks.1.0.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-02-22
|
13KB
|
385 lines
Author: Timothy J. Luoma <luomat@capitalist.princeton.edu>
Last Update: 18 Feb 1996
To Receive: send email with subject "ascii nexttricks"
Version: 1.0.0
This is a compilation of various bits and pieces of information I've
collected. Some of them I discovered, some were told to me by others.
Where I remember the names of those who told me, I have cited them herein.
These have been collected since 1992, so some of them may not work with
all the versions of the OS. And of course, there's no guarantee that any
of this will remain in OPENSTEP 4.0.
All of these do work with NS 3.2 on NeXT hardware (what I have), unless
noted.
================================================================
================================================================
FILE VIEWER
================================================================
================================================================
(+) UNHIDE APP
In the File Viewer's Processes window
(Tools/Processes menu), under applications, select
an application and then click on its icon in the
panel and it will be unhidden.
================================================================
(+) COPY PATH
In the File Viewer's Inspector (command-1), if
you click on the path listed, you can copy it to
the pasteboard
[ NOTE: you get the _path_to_ whatever you are
selected on in the File Viewer, not the actual
file itself ]
================================================================
(+) REMOVE RECYCLER FROM DOCK (or any other running app)
<COMMAND> & Drag the recycler (or any running app)
to remove it from the DOCK. The recycler will
appear at the bottom left corner of the screen
when you next login.
================================================================
(+) LOGOUT PANEL
ALT & COMMAND & Double-Click while Workspace is
not the active app brings up the Logout panel.
To change which application will bring up the
logout panel upon a 'quit' command, use:
dwrite Workspace DockController X
where X is a number. The NeXT Icon for the File
Viewer is considered 0, the second icon on the dock
is 1, the third is 2, and so on. The change takes
place upon the next login.
================================================================
(+) DOCK ON-TOP OF OTHER WINDOWS
The dock can be made to be below any window on
screen by alt-clicking once on NeXT icon.
Alt-clicking once again will return it to being
above all other windows.
================================================================
(+) FILE VIEWER - COMPRESS/UNCOMPRESS
Starting with 3.0 (I think) the File Viewer
provided a way to compress files easily through
File/Compress. It would create a file with the
extention .compressed which is (for most purposes)
the same as .tar.Z. If you want to use GZIP for
better compression, use these two dwrites:
dwrite Workspace AlwaysTarForCompress Yes
dwrite Workspace compress /usr/bin/gzip
You will also have to change the 'uncompress'
to gunzip:
dwrite Workspace uncompress /usr/bin/gunzip
[NOTE: even if you do not use gzip for compression, you
can use gunzip to uncompress. It uncompresses many forms
of compression. ]
[WARNING: if you do this, the files you create called
"foo.compressed" will really be "foo.tar.gz". If you e-mail
them to someone else, make sure to use the precise name,
in case they have not switched their WM compression to
Gzip.]
================================================================
(+) CHECK ARCHITECTURES AND ASSOCIATED FILE TYPES [3.2]
Select an app and open the Contents inspector
(COMMAND & 2 in the File Viewer) to see what
architectures are present and what files will
be opened by that application (ie if you select
Mail.app, it will show that both .vox and .mbox
files are opened by Mail.app)
================================================================
(+) FORCE OPEN-IN-SPECIFIC-APPLICATION
COMMAND & Drag a file to an Application icon to
force that application to open it (it's an easy
way to get WordPerfect to open a RTF, for
example.)
================================================================
(+) RUNNING TWO COPIES OF THE SAME APPLICATION
Normally you cannot launch two copies of the
same app. Doing 'ALT & Double-Click' from the
File Viewer will launch the app a second time.
================================================================
================================================================
GENERAL
================================================================
================================================================
(+) FONT PANEL - FAST PREVIEW
To see different fonts quickly, hold down SHIFT
and Click once on the "Preview" button on the
Font Panel. It will "stick" in preview mode and
selecting other fonts will cause them to be shown
in the Font Panel's window.
Click on "preview" again to toggle back to normal.
================================================================
(+) CYCLE THROUGH CURRENT WINDOWS
COMMAND & up/down arrow keys will show you all
the windows which are currently unhidden.
NOTE: There is no known way to make any
particular window active, other than
clicking on it.
================================================================
(+) MENU ITEMS and COMMAND KEYS
Command keys (like "command-p" for "Print") can
be made for each application (rather than system-
wide, like Preferences.app does) The form is:
dwrite APPNAME NXCommandKeys "Menu
Item,Letter,Another Menu Item,Another Letter"
make sure each has a corresponding letter, and
each item is separated by a comma. Everything
after <NXCommandKeys> must be inside quotation
marks.
If you want to make system wide command keys,
check out "System NXCommandKeys" (or use
Preferences.app's "command" module)
================================================================
(+) CHANGE THE SIZE OF THE OPEN/SAVE PANEL
ALT-resize the Open/SavePanel to change
the size without changing the number of
columns in the browser.
{from: yoda@cis.uni-muenchen.de (Marc Guenther)}
If you accidentally make your Open/Save/etc
windows one column, remove these dwrites:
System "NXWindow Frame NXOpenPanel"
System BrowserColumnWidth
================================================================
(+) DRAGGABLE ICON FROM MINIATURIZE BUTTON [3.3]
Hold down the alt key and mouse down/drag the
miniaturize button of any window that has a
title which represents a file name (e.g. Edit).
You'll get a draggable icon for the file.
{ from: Mark_Wagner@NeXT.COM }
================================================================
(+) OPEN NEW HELP PANEL FROM INSIDE HELP PANEL
Control-clicking on any item in the table of
contents of a Help Panel opens another help panel.
{from: Robert Davis (davisre@netcom.com)}
================================================================
(+) OPEN PANEL -- Change Directory
You can drag a folder/file from the FileViewer
into an application Open panel. It will make
the open panel "change" to the folder/file
you dragged.
{from: Manuel Cordero <cordero@pros.com>}
{also from: Doug Sanders <dsanders@Trimark.com>}
================================================================
(+) MICRO-SCROLLING
ALT-Drag the scroll-bar in any window to drag at
half-speed. This is helpful for large files
and folders in the File Viewer
{from: Michael Moellney
<moellney@michi.bota.uni-bonn.de>}
================================================================
(+) MOVE WINDOW WITHOUT SELECTING
alternate-dragging windows by the title bar
will prevent them or the app which belongs to it
from becoming active.
================================================================
(+) HIDE ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS
<COMMAND> & Double-click on the icon you want to
remain visible
================================================================
(+) PAGE UP / PAGE DOWN
<ALT> & click on up/down arrow
================================================================
(+) NEW SHELL IN DIRECTORY
<COMMAND> & Drag a file to Terminal.app's icon
and a new shell will open with that directory
as the current path
================================================================
================================================================
MAIL.APP
================================================================
================================================================
(+) MAIL HEADERS (Mail.app)
Usually in a mail window you can see the To From Subject
and Date fields, and you cannot see the Received Status
Message-Id Return-Path and Next-Reference fields (unless
you use terminal)
What you do not see can be controlled by this dwrite:
dwrite Mail MailFilter
(default MailFilter: "Received: Status:
Message-Id: Return-Path: Next-Reference")
in the form:
dwrite Mail MailFilter "HeaderItem4:HeaderItem5:HeaderItem6"
This is also helpful for getting rid of "X-" lines in the
header such as "X-Envelope-To: X-Listprocessor-Version:
X-Loop: X-Mailer: X-Mailing-List: X-Newsreader: X-Vms-To"
{ from: izumi@pinoko.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) }
[NOTE: In 3.3 this was made much easier by it being
added to the Preferences panel of the Mail.app]
================================================================
(+) MAKE SORTING PERMANENT (Mail.app)
If you sort a mailbox and then compact it,
it goes back to the chronological order of the
messages (some might consider that a bug).
To make permanent: Sort messages, select, then
'copy' and then 'paste'. They will appear in
the mailbox sorted.
[NOTE: After 'copy'-ing the messages, you might
want to delete the messages before you 'paste'
the sorted ones back in, to avoid duplication.]
================================================================
(+) VIEW ALL HEADER INFORMATION (Mail.app)
Select a Mail message and paste it somewhere
other than a mailbox (say, a Compose window
or an Edit file) you can see all of the
header information.
================================================================
(+) PASTE --> APPENDED MESSAGE (Mail.app) [3.x]
Select some text and then go to a mailbox window.
Do 'paste' and then text will be added as a
message with the title "Appended Message"
================================================================
(+) PRIVATE GROUPS (Mail.app)
When making Private Groups, just about everyone
I know thinks it is easier to edit the
~/.NeXT/.mailalias file directly rather than
messing with the Addresses window in Mail.app.
Here's how it's done:
- Quit Mail.app if it's running.
- Open ~/.NeXT/.mailalias in Edit.app
- add the groups you want in this form:
nameofgroup:username1,username2,username3
Make sure there you have a Carriage Return
after each line.
You can make aliases for really long email
addresses via: name:someone@somewhere.com
so all you have to do is type "name" to send
an email message to "someone@somewhere.com"
================================================================
================================================================
TERMINAL.APP
================================================================
================================================================
(+) OPEN CURRENT FOLDER IN FILE VIEWER (Terminal.app)
While in Terminal.app, you can open the current
folder as its own window in the File Viewer via:
"open ." or another folder by ending the path with
a "."
Example: to open the "/NextApps" folder, type:
"open /NextApps/."
================================================================
(+) EDIT EXECUTABLE FILE (Terminal.app)
To edit an executable file in Edit.app, use
'openfile', which will automatically open Edit.app
Alternatively, you can get the replacement 'open'
from the FTP archives and type:
open -a Edit -o BinaryName
Another alternative is to change the Workspace
DefaultTerminalApp via:
dwrite Workspace DefaultTerminalApp Edit
(this will allow you to Double-Click on an
executable file from the File Viewer and have it
open in Edit.app. This will not prevent the files
from executing properly.)
================================================================
================================================================
PREFERENCES.APP
================================================================
================================================================
(+) ARRANGE PREFERENCE MODULES (Preferences.app)
Click on the module and Control-drag it into the
order you want them to appear.
This is reflected in the "Preferences LayoutOrder"
dwrite.
This way you can move the modules you use more
often to the left, and the ones you use less
frequently to the right.
================================================================
<< This is the end of the file -- TjL >>