Author: Timothy J. Luoma 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) & 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 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 } {also from: Doug Sanders } ================================================================ (+) 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 } ================================================================ (+) 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 & Double-click on the icon you want to remain visible ================================================================ (+) PAGE UP / PAGE DOWN & click on up/down arrow ================================================================ (+) NEW SHELL IN DIRECTORY & 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 >>