POWER COPY AND PASTE

In previous versions of Mac OS X (and Mac OS 9 for that matter), if you clicked on a file, copied it (Command-C), then opened an application (like Mail) and pasted it (Command-V), it would only pasted that file’s name which is just this side of worthless. Now in Panther, in some applications, it pastes the actual file, so you can copy and paste a file from a Finder window or the desktop right into your application. Okay, so what if you do want just the name (which happens from time to time)? Just click directly on the file’s name (to highlight it) then press Command-C to copy it. Now, you’re copying just the name. It’s a power-pasting thing!

ADDING AUTOMATION THROUGH FOLDER ACTIONS

At the office, I’m on a network and I have a Drop Box where my co-workers can send me files. However, for a long time, if a freak put something in my Drop Box, I wouldn’t know it unless they called or e-mailed me and told me so. But now any time one of them drops something in my Drop Box, a message dialog appears that says, “Something freaky is in your Drop Box.” This is a simple Apple-Script (think of an AppleScript as a built-in automation for your Mac, just like Photoshop Actions add automation to Adobe Photoshop). 

Mac OS X includes some cool sample Scripts (Actions) or you can download about a bazillion from the Web for free.  To assign a Script to a folder, start by Control-clicking on that folder then choose Configure Folder Actions from the pop-up menu that appears. This brings up the Folder Actions Setup dialog. This is where you toggle various Scripts assigned to folders on and off, or even edit Scripts (if you know how to write AppleScripts).

Click the plus-sign button at the bottom left of the dialog to add your folder to the list (this actually brings up a standard Open dialog that shows you folder, so click on your folder in the Open dialog and click Open). Once you do this, a window pops down with a list of built-in sample Scripts you can assign to this folder and their names give a cryptic description of what they do. Pick the one that sounds like what you want to do (to replicate my Drop Box warning,” choose “add –new item alert.scpt”) and click the Attach button (you’ll see your newly assigned Script appear in the column on the right of the dialog). You’d think that would do it, but you have to do one more thing because although you assigned a Folder Action to this folder, you have not yet enabled Folder Actions. Click the Enable Folder Actions checkbox at the top-left corner of the dialog. This is a global on/off switch, so any folder to which you’ve attached Scripts is now “activated”.

By the way, once you apply Actions to a folder, you can turn Folder Actions on or off globally b Control-clicking on any folder and choosing Enable Folder Actions or Disable Folder Actions from the pop-up menu. Note: You have to Control-click on the folder to access these Folder Action command; they don’t appear in the menu if you click on the folder and then click the Action button in the Finder window. Why? I have no idea.