Trisha Cupra » Mac Stuff

By the way ~ Mac Hack: Order Folders before Files in Finder

Trisha Cupra — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:20:03 +0000

Since I got my first Mac a few months ago, I’ve been really annoyed by Finder not listing folders first when you choose to arrange your files by Kind.

And I’m not just clinging to my old Windows ways. I have used Ubuntu Linux a lot, and folders come first there, too. I’ve finally found out a very quick fix that works. You just add one letter to one system file.

You need to edit that file with Admin priviledges (either use TextMate which apparently prompts you for a password, or do it the hard way like me and change the priviledges of the file and containing folder first in Get Info.) Then you Force Quit Finder to relaunch it. (No need to log out.)

Here are all the gory details…

Finder, order folders before files and OS X Finder Annoyances – Sort Folders Before Files

Any questions? I’d be happy to try and help. Just leave a comment.

Mac Problem – When moving the mouse moves the entire enlarged screen

Trisha Cupra — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:04:21 +0000

I’ve owned my iMac for just a few months now. I love it, but the most frustrating hiccups I’ve had is when I’ve had my toddler, Rocco, on my lap and he’s gone crazy on the keyboard. He’s already renamed my hard drive, but the worst thing that happened was when the whole screen became larger and would move around with the mouse. It really freaked me out. It makes the computer only just usable. Just usable enough to try to find the fix.

The first time this happened was about a month ago, and I managed to google the answer. I promptly forget what the trick was, and today it happened again.

Well, I very much freaked out this time when I just couldn’t find the same web page with Google as I had before.

But I did find the fix. It turns out that Rocco had pressed the Control key while I was scrolling up a web page with the middle scroll button of my mighty mouse. That made the screen zoom in wildly.

All I needed to do was hold down the control key and scroll downwards with the scroll button.

I’m posting this partly as a reminder note to myself for next time Rocco does this trick, and for anyone else who has this happen to them.

Mighty Mouse needed a bath – How feeding it alcohol fixes scroll button issues

Trisha Cupra — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:23:17 +0000

Are you a Mac owner with a wired Mighty Mouse who has ever had trouble with scrolling with the roller button? I’ve had a bit of trouble with mine. A few times I’ve temporarily lost the ability to scroll upwards with it. Very annoying. I was thinking of buying a new one off eBay so I had a look at the Apple site to see what the RRP for one is (mine came with my new iMac a few months ago).

Well, in the customer reviews (of all places) I found out how to fix the scroll button. Turns out, like a lot of computer problems, it’s a cleaning issue. You just need to get that tiny little ball clean again.

The customer review explained that you just dampen a cotton tip (q-tip) with alcohol and give it a clean, let it dry for about 5 minutes and bingo. It worked for me, and I didn’t have any alcohol handy so I dipped my cotton tip in the baby wipes container instead. But, try at your own risk.

After a quick Google I’ve discovered there’s a few different ways you can get your scroll button clean. See the MacOSXHints forum for more info.