A couple of newbie Mac questions

[jive]

Anyway to defrag a Mac? I used to have to do this on my PC every few months just to keep it speedy - does a Mac need it done?

Safari - Is it possible to keep everything in one window? There is a Single Window option in FF but I prefer Safari to FF, it loads pages faster (in my experience)

Front Row - When listening to iTunes in FR it always plays albums/artists/songs in the order they are in, never a random option apart from Shuffle Songs


And finally, anywhere on the web (I'm sure there must be) that has decent tips and tricks for OS X? Things like holding Tab and Expose etc...


Cheers for readin and answering this poorly constructed post!

jive

 

[timmac]

Defragging: No need to do it on a Mac, supposedly. The why's are above my head, but if you search "defrag" on the Apply knowledge base, there's an article explaining why. Supposedly, OS 10.4 will defrag files smaller than 20 MB during it's regular mainenance routines (another reason to leave your mac on 24x7).

Safari: Click Safari>Preferences. Somewhere in the preferences, there's an option to enable tabbed browsing. Make sure it's enabled (I think that's what you mean be keep everything in one window).

Front Row: I've never used it. I don't see the point in it. But then again, my iMac is in a closet I converted to an office, so there'd never be an "audience" for front row there.

Tips: Look at the top of each of the forums here. You'll see "mac guides" on various subjects. Also, just search "osx tips." There's lots out there. And, even though it's not online, I have to highly recommend these books."Mac OS X, Tiger Edition: The Missing Manual" and "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual" both by David Pogue.

 

[nathanbusby]

As far as I know Mac's don't need defragging. Something about the file system being totally different to Windows.
With Front row and itunes I experince the same thing unless I play shuffle.
As far as tricks are concerened it seems you are already there or here
MacRumours!!

 

[jive]

Defragging: No need to do it on a Mac, supposedly. The why's are above my head, but if you search "defrag" on the Apply knowledge base, there's an article explaining why. Supposedly, OS 10.4 will defrag files smaller than 20 MB during it's regular mainenance routines (another reason to leave your mac on 24x7).

Safari: Click Safari>Preferences. Somewhere in the preferences, there's an option to enable tabbed browsing. Make sure it's enabled (I think that's what you mean be keep everything in one window).

Ahh cool.

I've been a long time user of FireFox on PC (and now Mac) and so have become used to everything opening in Tabs. When you click a link posted in forums, it will open in a new Window rather than Tab, in my eyes, this kind of defeats the purpose of Tabs... So yeah, I was looking for a way to run Safari completely in one window (apart from Downloads) when I'm using it.

 

[ImAlex]

Ahh cool.

I've been a long time user of FireFox on PC (and now Mac) and so have become used to everything opening in Tabs. When you click a link posted in forums, it will open in a new Window rather than Tab, in my eyes, this kind of defeats the purpose of Tabs... So yeah, I was looking for a way to run Safari completely in one window (apart from Downloads) when I'm using it.

Exactly what I was looking for! It is bad that Apple didn't think about that and don't have that feature in Safari. As you say it throws off the use of tabs.

 

[wordmunger]

Well you can always right click (or control-click) on the link to open in a new tab. Or just use Firefox, which in my view is better than Safari anyways.

 

[yellow]

And finally, anywhere on the web (I'm sure there must be) that has decent tips and tricks for OS X? Things like holding Tab and Expose etc...

I'm sure a lot could be gleaned from:

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

 

[steve_hill4]

Well you can always right click (or control-click) on the link to open in a new tab. Or just use Firefox, which in my view is better than Safari anyways.

Or command-click will open in a new tab whilst keeping the current one active. This doesn't apply to all browsers, (I use Camino and haven't found a way of doing this, justs opens in a new tab and switches to it), but quicker than right-clicking and selecting to open in new tab.

Edit: Prat, after all this time it turned out I had forgot to click to open new tabs and windows in the background.

 

[jive]

I know I'm just being lazy but I prefer either just using my mouse or just my keyboard...

 

[reh]

So yeah, I was looking for a way to run Safari completely in one window (apart from Downloads) when I'm using it.

Check out SafariStand. It allows forcing "new window" links to open in a new tab instead.