DRAG-AND –DROP DESKTOP PRINTING

Want the ability to print a document right from your desktop (without opening the application first?) Go under the Apple menu, under System Preferences and choose Print & Fax. When the preference pane appears click on the Printing button then click the Set Up Printers button. Your printer appears in the Printer List dialog. Click on it, then go under the Printers menu (in the menu bar) and choose Create Desktop Printer. A standard Open/Save dialog appears asking you where you want to save it. Click Save and an icon for your printer appears on the desktop. To print a document, just drag-and-drop it on this icon. Some documents, such as TextEdit files and PDFs, go straight to the printer. Other files launch their default application and open the Print dialog.

PRINTING FROM THE DESKTOP (W/O A DESKTOP PRINTER)

Don’t want a Desktop Printer icon cluttering up your desktop, but you still want to print files from the desktop or a Finder window. Then try this little trick: Control-click on the file you want to print to bring up a contextual menu. Go under Open With, and choose Printer Setup Utility from the list. (If it doesn’t show upthere, you have to click on Other, then use a standard Open dialog to navigate to the Printer Setup Utility – its inside the Applications folder, within the utilities folder.). Just choose it, and it either starts printing or takes you directly to the default application’s Print dialog.

SEEING THUMBNAILS IMAGES OF YOUR PHOTOGRAPHIC

Tired of seeing the default icons for your digital photos? Then change just one tiny preference setting, and working with digital photos in Finder windows becomes infinitely easier. The preference is called Show Icon Preview and turning it on automatically replaces the default file icons with thumbnail previews of your photos, so you can see what they look like right in the Finder window. This preview is only available when viewing a Finder window in Icon view, so start by clicking on the View by Icon button in the toolbar. Then, press Command-J to bring up that window’s View Options and turn on Show Icon Preview. That’s it—now your digital camera images won’t have generic icons. Instead, they’ll display thumbnail photos of your full-sized images as their icons.