Start customizing the toolbar and then drag the stand-alone ‘add bookmark’ button to the bar. You’ll see that the location bar attached button disappear in a puff of smoke. Click done and then right click on the stand-alone button. Click ‘remove item’ and you’ll be left with the most minimalistic browser experience you can imagine.

Safari 4 is shockingly fast and hasn’t crashed on me once.

Hide Desktop Files

do shell script "chflags hidden ~/Desktop/*"

Reveal Desktop Files

do shell script "chflags nohidden ~/Desktop/*"

Copy each script into its own Script Editor window and save them to ~/Library/Scripts. I wish I’d known about this trick sooner.

Unlike other free mail services, Gmail doesn’t inject ads into emails that you send. Like the others, however, it does display ads when viewing your mail. And with Gmail it’s a bit unsettling. Gmail effectively reads your incoming mail and pitches you ads based on its contents. The ads are, of course, algorithmically served, so it’s not like a team of Gmail slackers actually access your mail and decides what ads to show, but it’s weird none the less. Fortunately you can turn them off.

Install GreaseKit for Safari and then install the Gmail Without Ads GreaseMonkey script. The ads will vanish and leave you with a clean replacement for Mail.app.

Before:

After:

Consequently, I have no need to have the iTunes Store app on my iPod at all. Luckily the conscientious developers at Apple have given us a way to remove the iTunes Store app icon from our devices by way of the Restrictions pane in System Preferences. Open up system preferences and tap ‘General.’ Scroll down a little and you’ll see ‘Restrictions.’ Tap it and you’ll be asked for a password (I recommend 1-2-3-4). Entering a password will enable the mobile equivalent of Parental Controls on your Mac. From here you can toggle access to Safari, the App Store, iTunes and even to content marked ‘Explicit’ in your music files. Turning restrictions on for any will make the corresponding app icon disappear. (As you can see, I’m not a big fan of YouTube either.)

Now, how about a way to hide Stocks and Weather?

But as every would-be writer knows, getting started is half the battle. To ease the friction of entering into this ‘distraction free’ scenario, I made a little AppleScript to give you one less excuse.

tell application "Finder" to set windSz to bounds of window of desktop

set w1 to item 1 of windSz
set w2 to item 3 of windSz
set h1 to item 2 of windSz
set h2 to item 4 of windSz

set nw2 to (w2 * 0.7)
set nh2 to (h2 * 0.9)

set nw1 to (w2 - nw2)
set nh1 to ((h2 - nh2) - 20)

tell application "Backdrop" to activate

delay 0.1

tell application "TextEdit"
	activate
	set winNo to (count windows)
	if winNo is less than 1 then
		make new document
	end if
	set bounds of window 1 to {nw1, nh1, nw2, nh2}
end tell

What Does the Script Do?

Please have a look for yourself.

How Does the Script Work?

The above bit of AppleScript first checks your monitor size and does some calculations to determine an appropriate size for a TextEdit window. Secondly, it checks if you have a TextEdit document open. If so, it grabs it and resizes it in front of BackDrop. If not, it makes you a new one. It’s quite simple and, in my opinion doesn’t require much explanation. Let me know in the comments if you disagree.

Download BackDrop. It’s freeware.

Via TUAW.

The Two Apps I Use

TaskPaper. TaskPaper is a simple, plain text based list making app. Just beneath the surface, however, TaskPaper hides away considerable GTD power. @done or other tags make it easy to quickly wade through lists with hundreds of entries, and a ubiquitous hot-key triggered capture window make sure your sudden ideas don’t slip through the cracks. It’s 29.95 and, for me, well worth it.

GeekTool. GeekTool is a brilliant little app. GeekTool can display detailed system info – from application events, top processes, uptime and a lot more – embedded right in your desktop (this excellent post from Lifehacker explains in detail how to do all this). I use GeekTool in a very simple way: to make sure my todos are always visible while I’m at my Mac. GeekTool is freeware.

Pretty and Practical – Your Todos on Your Desktop

Before I go into the details of how to do it, have a look at the screenshot on the right (you can click to enlarge if you want to have a read). In my opinion, not only is it practical to have your todos embedded in the desktop, it can also be very pretty. And why shouldn’t one have both?

As I mentioned above, TaskPaper creates lists in plain text. In other words, TextPaper task lists are formatting free and can thus be viewed in virtually any text editing application on any platform. Within TaskPaper, your lists certainly appear to be formatted – I don’t purport to know how this works – but outside TaskPaper, a straight forward separation of projects and tasks makes your lists readable.

In order to view your TaskPaper todo list in an app other than TaskPaper, you’ll need to change the extension. TaskPaper docs have a proprietary .taskpaper extension which other apps won’t understand. Rename it to .txt and you’re good to go. Even with the extension changed, the document will still open with TaskPaper by default, so you don’t need to worry.

Setting Up Your Todo.txt to Work with GeekTook

After you’ve renamed your todo doc, download GeekTool and install the preference pane. Here’s how to set it up:

What if I Don’t Use TaskPaper?

As you might have guessed, GeekTool can display any plain text file. If you don’t use TaskPaper but do keep yourself organized via plain text, GeekTool can throw it up on the desktop for you. I like TaskPaper for the power it extends to simple text files, and I like plain text because of its versatility. For me, it’s the right match.

Download TaskPaper. It’s 29.95 after a 30 day trial.

Download GeekTool. It’s freeware.

Center All Open Windows

If you have a bunch of windows open all over your screen, go to the Window menu and hold down Option. ‘Bring All to Front’ will change to ‘Arrange In Front,’ which will center all your windows.

Command-1 or 2 or 3, etc. to Select Bookmark Bar Bookmarks

Press Command-1 to 9 to select bookmarks in the Bookmarks Bar. Also works if you save JavaScripts to the Bookmarks Bar for extra functionality.

Close All But the Active Tab

Command-Option-W will close all tabs but the current one. Or Option click on a tabs closure X for the same effect. If multiple windows are open but have no tabs, Command-Option-W will close all of them.

Hide the Toolbars

Sometimes toolbars can get in the way. Look under the View menu to hide the Bookmarks Bar, Toolbar and Status Bar. Or better: try this near-full-screen Safari AppleScript.

Merge Your Open Windows

Again in the Window menu, Merge All Windows will collect all of your open windows into a single one. You can also drag tabs between windows for à la carte tab management.

Open Select Portions of a Page in Dashboard

Dashclip allows you to take any section of a webpage and make it into a Dashboard widget. Find it under Safari’s File menu.

Summarize Text in Web Pages

Highlight some text in a page and go to Summarize in the services menu. A popup window will open with your text compressed to the essential bits. It’s intelligent.

Define Any Word on the Fly

Hover over a word and invoke OS X’s system wide dictionary by pressing Command-Control-D. Look near the bottom of the pane to switch to Thesaurus.

Command-Option Click to Open a Link in a New Window

Hold down Command when you click a link in and it will open it in a new Tab. Hold down Comand-Option and it will open in a new Window.

Instantly Return to Any Page

Snapback is like a temporary bookmark. It’s a great way to return to a main article in Wikipedia or Google search results after you’ve inevitably followed too many disparate links. Mark your page and return to it via the History menu.

Find a Particular Tab’s Browsing History

Click and hold the Back button in any tab to see the history for that tab only.

Open All Links in a Bookmark Folder

Hold down Command to open all the links in a Bookmarks folder in the Bookmarks Bar. If you already have that folder set to open all contained links (you can set it so from the Show All Bookmarks panel), holding Command will let you view the contents of the folder instead.

Quickly Search Google

Right click on a word and select Google Search from the contextual menu. Hold down Command to have your search open in a new tab.

Use the Activity Window

Select Activity from the Window menu and a new window will open detailing everything that is happening behind the scenes on all your open web pages. From here you can open or download any page element (source code, style sheet, media) by double clicking. Read Secrets of Safari’s Activity Window for more details.

Launch Downloads from the Download Window

Safari’s Download manager may be sparsely featured, but you can open any file in the list directly by double clicking on its icon.

Open an Address in a New Tab

Hold down Command when opening a url from the location field and it will open in a new tab.

Force Stubborn Site Links to Open in New Tabs

Command clicking on a link will open it in a new tab most of the time. However, some sites are able to override Safari’s commands and have links open in the same window. Enter this command in Terminal to regain control:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Via MacTips.

Reopen All Windows After a Crash

Unfortunately, Safari doesn’t yet support reopening tabs from a previous session. If Safari crashes, however, you can quickly restore your windows from the History menu.

Hold Option When Entering Private Browsing

Private Browsing mode in Safari temporarily disables history and cookies and so your browsing history is kept secret. Hold down Option in the application menu when selecting it to kill the redundant explanatory dialog box.

Drag Files from Finder onto Choose File Dialogs

Sometimes you need to upload something and it’s a pain to navigate your HD when the file you need is sitting right in front of you in finder. Drag it onto the choose file link instead to save some time and hassle.

That’s it for now, but if these aren’t enough check out Tips, Tricks and Add-ons to Maximize Safari’s Potential and It’s a Drag: the Power of Drag and Drop in Safari.

Unfortunately, the talented Mr. Rask has not provided a direct download page for the icons. Instead, head over to the general download page and scroll the little preview panel at the bottom of the page until you see the speaker icon. Click on it and you’ll be able to download the icons. All of Rask’s icons are free for personal use.

Img2icns takes regular image files and converts them to .icns files, the format used by OS X for file, folder and application icons system wide. Previously, Img2icns was a one trick pony, albeit a useful one. Aside from Img2icns killer image-to-icon conversion feature, it can now set file icons, extract images from icons and even manage your conversion history. Here’s a detailed look at what Shiny Frog’s new release can do.

Set the Icon For a File, Folder or App from Any Image

Img2icns’ killer feature has always been its ability to instantly convert an image or picture into an icon. Icons in OS X have a unique .icns extension and are formatted such that they contain samples of various sizes. If you want to use one of your pics as a icon for an often used file, you’ll first need to convert it to .icns format to do so. Search the web and you’ll find a few somewhat complicated Photoshop tutorials on how to create .icns files for OS X, but with Img2icns you need only drag your pic onto the drop zone and Boom, as they say, you’ve got your icon. If you’ve got a bunch of pics to convert, drag them all onto the app to convert the lot of them in a single click. As an added bonus, Img2icns now supports raw Photoshop files as well, so there’s no need to save out your work in a different format before creating an icon.

But why make an icon if not to customize a file, folder or app? Just drag your chosen file onto Img2icns and the app will do the work for you. No messing around with the Get Info window or other complicated steps to follow. Before the update, Img2icns was the easiest way to create icons for your Mac. With version 1.0, it’s now the easiest way to set them as well.

Batch Extract Images from Application and File Icons

Completely new in Img2icns 1.0 is the ability to create images from icons, which is a real seller for Mac bloggers like myself. Previously I published a little AppleScript to dig into the Resources package of an application and open its icon up in Preview. It’s a convoluted process, to say the least. With the new Img2icns that process again becomes a simple drag and drop affair. Open up your Applications folder and drop an app onto Img2icns or its dock icon. Img2icns will extract your icon and give you the option of exporting it to PNG, TIFF or GIF format, all of which will preserve any transparency in the icon.

Sometimes for MacMembrane I write up a number of applications for a single post and thus I need app icons for multiple apps. This laborious process makes me quite excited about one of the new features of Img2icns: batch conversion of icons to images. Select a bunch of apps in Finder and drop them onto Img2icns. With one click you can export the entire batch as PNG, TIFF or GIF files. After playing with the app for only a few minutes I realized the amazing time saving potential of this feature.

Manage Your Icons with the Built in History Browser

Currently I have a single folder where I store all of the icons that I make or extract for easy access should I need them down the line. The new Img2icns now has a convenient history feature that might make my primitive filing system a thing of the past. All of your icons are stored in a folder in ~/Library/Application Support/Img2icns (where ~ is your home folder), but a pop-up HUD history browser built into the app will make ever visiting it unnecessary. You can export any or all of your icons directly from the history panel or drag them back on to the app to use them as file or folder icons again. Double clicking on any icon in your history will open it up in Preview, or you can drag it out of the pane and onto your desktop if you prefer. The history panel is very convenient and will keep you from losing track of your work.

Some Bonuses and Caveats: Favicons, iPhone Icons and Interface Elegance

Img2icns will also export images at the size and format necessary for use as favicons on websites or for use as bookmarked iPhone icons. For both exports you will need to rename your resulting files favicon.ico and apple-touch-icon.png respectively before they can be dropped in the root directory of your website, but other than that your exports are ready for use. It would be nice if a future update automated this small process as well.

Unfortunately, Img2icns does not have any AppleScript support, which is a shame given the app’s in built potential to both convert and manage icons. Hopefully the developer will add scripting support in a future update.

On a final note I’d like to mention just how far the app has come in terms of aesthetics. Previously, it would be hard to claim that Img2icns was a beautiful application. The app did have a cool icon, but it was by no means a professional offering, and the app’s UI was little more than a drop target on a grey background. With the new release Shiny Frog has really invested in the design of the app and it’s paid off – the whole experience is quite beautiful. From the contemporary grunge of the main UI to the smooth animations that accompany your actions and even the app’s download page, Img2icns has graduated from a simple but useful side-project into a serious contender.

Download Img2icns from Shiny Frog software. A basic version, which lets you convert and set icons, is available for free. A full license is 12.90 USD and unlocks all of the new features of the app.