Some Snow Leopard Tips !

There are a huge amount of hidden settings for Mac OS X and its applications that aren't accessible from preferences dialog boxes or the System Preferences. Applications such as Tinkertool and Mac Pilot allow you to access some of these, but the real flexibility is from the Terminal. From here it is possible to edit any preferences file for any application on your Mac.
You'll find the Terminal in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder. 
To carry out any of the following commands you will need to copy/paste or type in the line of text then hit enter.

See You – Folder Previews in Quick Look
Save some precious time by seeing all the content of a folder. Hit the space bar and you can view all the files via a  translucent folder icon.

You need to type the following command:
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1






Auto Action – Autoplay Movies in QuickTime X
Apple sometimes messes up and QuickTime is a great example.

If you want to play your movies automatically and surely miss the preferences option then use this command:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1





Full Screen Action – QuickTime  In Full Screen When Switching Applications
Sometimes you want a sneak peek at all the action and when you do that, QuickTime will automatically exit full screen.

To rectify this, use the following magical words:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGFullScreenExitOnAppSwitch 0




Always Use Protection – Snow Leopard’s Hidden Malware Protection

Bet you didn’t know this one. Apple has quietly incorporated  malware support that detects malicious software and its quite effective too. Read all the details here.




Test Your Text – Enable Text Substitutions

If you want to globally enable text substitutions, use the three commands one after the other:

defaults write -g WebAutomaticTextReplacementEnabled -bool true
defaults write -g WebAutomaticDashSubstitutionEnabled -bool true
defaults write -g WebContinuousSpellCheckingEnabled -bool true




Shortcut To Success – Access iTunes
Access iTunes by just hitting the (F8) “Play” button which is above the 8 and 9 keys.



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Round It Of – Get Rid of Rounded Corners in QuickTime
If you don’t care for the  rounded corners when playing movies in QuickTime, then don’t fret as you can get rid of them in seconds.

Just type:

defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGCinematicWindowDebugForceNoRoundedCorners 1




Go To China Town – Draw Chinese Characters On The Trackpad
I can’t speak Mandarin but I just find this a super cool feature.
In Snow Leopard  you can draw the actual characters on your trackpad!






Just Shoot Me- Record Videos Via QuickTime X
You don’t need to invest in some fancy software to shoot yourself as now you can record from your iSight camera.






Stick Them Up – Keyboard  Shortcut For Sticky Notes
Assign a  a keyboard shortcut (System Preferences > Keyboard)  so that you create a  sticky note automatically when you select some text.


Hope you enjoyed this article and more importantly enjoying your Mac with Snow Leopard. Do tell us if you know more tricks or tips and don’t forget to write them in the comments section.