AppleChronicles

This page contains features and/or settings I have found useful on the Mac.

More will be added, so check back.

• Make your own stationary to use in Mail
  Create an html document you want to use as your stationary (use any html editing tool). Save the html document, then open it in safari. Press command+i to add the html page to a new outgoing mail message. From Mail, go to File > Save as Stationery.
• Put your own image icon on a Stack
  For example, you may create a Stack called "Quick Apps" so you can see a quick fan of frequently used applications. You create a folder by that name and put in aliases for the applications you want. Create a 48x48 image file (jpg or png) with the icon you want, make sure to hide the extension (in get info). Use the name " Quick Apps" (note the leading space) for the image, and put it in the "Quick Apps" folder you will use for the Stack. Drag the folder to the right side of the Dock to create the Stack.
• Make quick backups of critical folders (Documents, Mail, Keychains, ...)
  Create a burn folder and put in aliases for the folders you want to backup. Click "Burn" when viewing that folder in Finder. Good for quick DVD backups. Do it often, in addition to using Time Machine.
• Select any one of multiple "from" addresses in Mail
  In Preferences > Account Information > Email Address you can put in multiple email addresses separated by a comma. Then when you compose an email you can select the address to use in the From dropdown box.
• Use multiple address books
  You can use multiple address books by using File > Import/Export from within Address Book. This will allow you to have multiple address book archives and import the one you want to use. You can print address labels from within Address Book using File > Print > Style - Mailing Labels.
• Skip the trash (USB drives, bootcamp, . . . )
  To delete a file (bypass the trash can) on any particular drive/volume, create a file named ".Trashes" (no quotes) at the root of the drive. Since that is a hidden file to OS X it will be easier to create the file from Windows. This works great on USB drives where you may want actual deletion rather than a trash can.
  
  This should also be used with bootcamp (create the ".Trashes" file in the Windows partition) to avoid Windows files being put in the trash if deleted from OS X. Deleting Windows files from OS X using the trash can has been known to create invalid file names in the Windows partition. It really is best to only delete Windows files from the Windows partition.
• Edit your custom dictionary
  The OS X built-in spelling dictionary is a great feature. You can add words by selecting "learn spelling". But you may want to edit words that have been added, or add a bunch of words at once. You can edit the dictionary file directly using any text editor. The file is located in the Spelling folder within the Library folder within the main user directory.