If you frequently access a file server from a Mac it’s pretty helpful to map the network drive to your desktop. There’s two ways to do this, one method is just mapped for one time use and will reset after a reboot, and another method is a more permanent route that allows the mapped network drive to always appear and mount on your desktop after system reboots and user logins.

This method maps a network drive that ...]]>

If you frequently access a file server from a Mac it’s pretty helpful to map the network drive to your desktop. There’s two ways to do this, one method is just mapped for one time use and will reset after a reboot, and another method is a more permanent route that allows the mapped network drive to always appear and mount on your desktop after system reboots and user logins.

Map a network drive to Mac OS X

This method maps a network drive that will disappear if the network connection drops or if you reboot your Mac:

• From Finder, hit Command+K to bring up the ‘Connect to Server’ window
• Enter the path to the network drive you want to map, ie: smb://networkcomputer/networkshare and click ‘Connect’
• Enter your login/password and click “OK” to mount the network drive
• The drive will now appear on your desktop and in the Finder window sidebar

Map a network drive to Mac OS X that re-mounts after system reboot

This method allows you to reboot your Mac and have the mapped network drive automatically remount and appear on the desktop, this is more persistent than the above method:

• From the Finder, hit Command+K
• Enter the path to the network drive you want to map, ie: smb://networkcomputer/networkshare and click ‘Connect’
• Enter your login credentials and click “OK”
• The drive is now mounted, but continue on to map for system reboot persistence
• Now enter into System Preferences, from the Apple menu
• Click on ‘Accounts’
• Click on “Login Items”
• Click on the + button to add another login item
• Locate the network drive you previously mounted and click “Add”
• Exit out of System Preferences

Your network drive will now be mapped and automatically remounted when you reboot your Mac.

Make the mapped network drive visible on the Mac desktop

It’s possible that the mounted drive will not appear on the desktop due to a system setting. If you want the mapped drive icon to be visible on the Desktop, be sure to do the following additional steps:

• From the Finder, open Finder Preferences by hitting Command+,
• Click the General tab
• Select the checkbox next to ‘Connected Servers’
• Close Finder Preferences

Selecting the checkbox next to Connected Servers ensures that you’ll see the icon on your Mac Desktop, otherwise it will only be visible in the Finder window sidebars and Open/Save dialogues.

Remount mapped network drive with a click

A great additional step for either method is to create an alias of the mapped network drive. This allows you to reconnect to the share with just a click. Here’s how to do this:

• Right-click on the mapped network drive on the Mac OS desktop
• Select “Make Alias”

Now you can double-click that alias to reconnect to the network drive instantly.

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As many of you know i run a Computer Support business, Two days ago I had to mount a Windows XP drive to the system and get the “My Documents” Folder and the Outlook .pst files backed up for a client. When I  mounted the drive to my mac I remembered that the Outlook.pst files are often in a hidden folder called local settings. It took a little digging but to get Finder to show the Hidden files I had to ...]]>

As many of you know i run a Computer Support business, Two days ago I had to mount a Windows XP drive to the system and get the “My Documents” Folder and the Outlook .pst files backed up for a client. When I  mounted the drive to my mac I remembered that the Outlook.pst files are often in a hidden folder called local settings. It took a little digging but to get Finder to show the Hidden files I had to run a little Terminal command.

Here is the Step by step to get the Hidden files to view in the Finder.

Open the Terminal

Type in the following or just copy and paste it in (leave off the ” marks)”defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE” then hit return.

Then Relaunch the Finder by going to the Apple Logo menu and click Force Quit… then select Finder and Relaunch

When you are ready to Stop seeing the Hidden files Open Terminal back up, type in the following or just copy and paste it in (leave off the ” marks)”defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE” then hit return. Relaunch the Finder and they will be gone.

I also found out you can do this with a Preference Pane item called secrets you can find out a lot more about it at http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-secrets/.

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Okay so thats a bit of a lie. With these 2 methods the program will open, print the item, and then close the file.  

The first way is to select Print in the Finder s File menu.  This only works if you have the file selected in the Finder window. For example I have a Numbers document named Bills in my documents folder. If I wanted to print that, with this meted, I would open a Finder window navigate to the file and select ...]]>

Okay so thats a bit of a lie. With these 2 methods the program will open, print the item, and then close the file.  

The first way is to select Print in the Finder s File menu.  This only works if you have the file selected in the Finder window. For example I have a Numbers document named Bills in my documents folder. If I wanted to print that, with this meted, I would open a Finder window navigate to the file and select it. Go to the Finder File menu and select Print. This will open numbers, print the document, and close the file. It does not close the application though. This method is really solid as long as you only print to one printer because you can only print to the default printer. If you have multiple printers in your environment then you need to try the second method. 

Open System Preferences and open the Print & fax dialog. Start dragging the printer icons to the desktop.  You can keep the icons on the desktop or if you choice move them to the Dock. When you are ready to print a document then just drag the file from a Finder window to the printer icon you want to have print the document.

If you are going to use the first method then I would suggest adding a keyboard shortcut to make this even faster. To do this open up your System Preferences and navigate to the Keyboard & Mouse dialog. Select the Keyboard Shortcuts and click the “+” button. this will open a new window. Fill out out with the same setting in the picture. Application = Finder, Menu Title = Print and then click on the Keyboard Short care area and type what you want to use. I used command+p. Click Add and you are in business. Now all you need to do is select the file in the Finder and press command+p and the default printer will print out your document.

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After downloading something, I usually want to go to my downloads folder. I’ve discovered recently that you can put folders into your Safari bookmarks bar. This means that instead of having to click on my downloads folder in the dock, I can simply hit a Keyboard Shortcut and it will open up the Downloads folder in Finder. 

Step 1: In Finder, locate the folder you want to be able to open up from the bookmarks bar.

Step 2: Open up Safari and ...]]>

After downloading something, I usually want to go to my downloads folder. I’ve discovered recently that you can put folders into your Safari bookmarks bar. This means that instead of having to click on my downloads folder in the dock, I can simply hit a Keyboard Shortcut and it will open up the Downloads folder in Finder. 

Step 1: In Finder, locate the folder you want to be able to open up from the bookmarks bar.

Step 2: Open up Safari and make sure the bookmarks bar is visible. (Cmd-Shift-B)

Step 3: Drag the folder from Finder into the bookmarks bar. 

Step 4: To access the folder with a keyboard shortcut, figure out how far from the left of the bookmarks bar you placed your new bookmark. If you put it as the 4th bookmark from the left then the keyboard shortcut would be Cmd-4. If you placed it in the 9th position, then it would be Cmd-9.

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I have most of my folders set to open with the defaults I’ve set for icon size, view columns, etc.; plus a few folders which have their own customized settings. In Tiger and earlier, there was a button on the View Options panel to restore a customized folder to the default view, but we lost this with Leopard. 

To restore a folder to the default view settings in Leopard, open the View Options panel (Command-J, or View » Show View Options) ...]]>

I have most of my folders set to open with the defaults I’ve set for icon size, view columns, etc.; plus a few folders which have their own customized settings. In Tiger and earlier, there was a button on the View Options panel to restore a customized folder to the default view, but we lost this with Leopard. 

To restore a folder to the default view settings in Leopard, open the View Options panel (Command-J, or View » Show View Options) then hold down the Option key. With the Option key down, the ‘Use as Defaults’ button will change to ‘Restore to Defaults.’

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I found a really nice tip for those of you who connect to a lot of removable devices and what them to stay in the Finder side Bar.

If you’re anything like me, then you probably access files within folders within folders on removable media (i.e. external hard drives, Flash drives). It can become quite a hassle (with a trackpad, anyway) to open the the media device, select the folder, navigate, select another folder, navigate, and then select the desired file ...]]>

I found a really nice tip for those of you who connect to a lot of removable devices and what them to stay in the Finder side Bar.

If you’re anything like me, then you probably access files within folders within folders on removable media (i.e. external hard drives, Flash drives). It can become quite a hassle (with a trackpad, anyway) to open the the media device, select the folder, navigate, select another folder, navigate, and then select the desired file or folder.

I tried adding my commonly-accessed (but time consuming to reach) external hard drive folder to the Finder’s sidebar, but whenever I took my MacBook somewhere and the folder wasn’t present, the sidebar alias disappeared.

So my solution was to make a local alias of the removable folder, put it in my Documents (or any other local) folder, then drag the alias to the sidebar. Now I can eject removable media without losing my sidebar shortcut.

[robg adds: I thought we had run something similar in the past, but I can't find it now -- so if this is a duplicate, please let me know. Also, if you use this hint, you should be aware that the cautions in this hint are still valid in 10.5.4: if you delete (via Command-Delete) or rename the "alias" in the sidebar, you will rename or delete the original folder on the networked volume instead! When you place your local alias in the sidebar, the Finder converts it into a direct pointer to the remote folder, instead of placing the alias in the sidebar, so any changes you make affect the original, not your alias.]

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If you want to be able to get Time Machine’s  icon off the menu bar to free up room for something else you can. To do this open the Time Machine Preferences and un-checking the box “Show Time Machine status in the menu bar”.

The next thing you are going to want to do is make it a bit easier to get to Time Machine when you need it. Open up a new Finder window and navigate to the ...]]>

If you want to be able to get Time Machine’s  icon off the menu bar to free up room for something else you can. To do this open the Time Machine Preferences and un-checking the box “Show Time Machine status in the menu bar”.

The next thing you are going to want to do is make it a bit easier to get to Time Machine when you need it. Open up a new Finder window and navigate to the Applications Folder and scroll down to where you see Time Machine. Click and hold Time Machine’s icon and drag it up to the grey area next to the search box (see photo below.) Now Time Machine is out of the way (off the Menu Bar) and easier to manage sitting on top of the finder window.

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Most people know that if you right click and select “Get Info” or “Command + I” on a file in Finder you will get all kinds of information about the file. But, did you know that if you select a few files and “Option + Command + 1″ “Option + Command + I”(Thanks Dave M for the pick up)on that it will show you the total size of the files you have selected.

Are you tired of telling finder it is okay to empty the trash just after you asked it to?

If you are anything like me than you are. To get rid of this notification all you need to do is open the preferences in the finder and deselect the check box next to “Show warning before emptying the trash”.

However if you are a keyboard junky like some people I know then you can ...]]>

Are you tired of telling finder it is okay to empty the trash just after you asked it to?

If you are anything like me than you are. To get rid of this notification all you need to do is open the preferences in the finder and deselect the check box next to “Show warning before emptying the trash”.

However if you are a keyboard junky like some people I know then you can just use the keyboard to empty the trash. You must have the Finder as the active application, if you do then use the keyboard to hit the Command (Apple Key)+Option (alt)+Shift+DELETE keys at the same time and you will hear the empty trash sound. If you did not have Finder as the active application then you will probably hear the donk sound.

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