Change default screenshot format

Mac screenshots by default save in .png format. Would you prefer the default format to be JPG, or something else? Here's the simple way to change it.

From Finder, launch Terminal:

top menu  Go > Utilities > Terminal

Copy and past in the following line, it's a single line with no break:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg;killall SystemUIServer

Want a different format? In this line of code, replace jpg with one of the following:

gif

PDF

png

tiff

Apple OS 10.10 Yosemite - get rid of DropBox green ticks

I've finally decided to install Yosemite - I skipped Mavericks to allow a few bugs to be eliminated.

Now to customise it to what I prefer - that is, the best of the old with the best of the new.

DropBox

If you depend on DropBox, as I do, you will instantly see that your list of files has acquired a column of garish bright green ticks, indicating that DropBox has synchronised the file. What a horrible idea!
Here is how to get rid of this distracting feature. Thanks to the Apple user discussion, referencing this link: http://www.mrh.is/writing/about/how-to-get-rid-of-the-new-dropbox-checkmarks

1. Download the latest DropBox app, from the DropBox website. Follow instructions to install it.
2. Open your Applications folder and find the DropBox app. 
3. Right click on the DropBox app and select Show package contents.
4. When the folder opens, click the down arrow to show the files and folders. Find Plugins and click to show what's in that.
5. See garcon.appex and again, right click to Show package contents and open the Contents folder.
6. Then in the Resources folder, click the down arrow to show the contents.
7. You will see the offending green tick, named overlay-uptodate.icns
8. Rename that file either by right clicking on it, or by clicking slowly,  - I called it overlay-uptodate-old.icns .
9. Close all those folders. 

You might need to restart your computer, but the green ticks will be seen no more.

How to revert to iTunes 11 if you don't like iTunes 12

Some reviewers think iTunes 12 is "Apple's worst software ever" because of the visually incoherent way it presents information on your media collection - in particular, the complete lack of the sidebar, where media were listed by category.

I agree - but luckily, if you have accepted the iTunes 12 "upgrade" you can fairly easily go back to iTunes 11. Here are very clear instructions, from MacWorld repeated on the LifeHacker blog.

First off, download copies of AppZapper and Pacifist , backup your computer, then create an installer with Pacifist. (Pacifist allows you to unpack .dmg installation packages and extract individual files and folders. Not something one needs to do every day! but in this case it's just the job.)

1. Quit iTunes 12 and launch AppZapper
2. Open AppZapper's preferences and uncheck"Keep Apple Applications Safe"
3. Drag the iTunes 12 icon from the Application folder to AppZapper and click the "Zap!" button
4. Download iTunes 11 - from the Apple support site
5. Open up Pacifist and drag the iTunes 11 DMG file into it. 
6. Select "Contents of Install iTunes" and then click "Install"
7. Navigate to your iTunes folder. Within that find the iTunes library and then find the iTunes LIbrary.itl file. Drag it to your desktop or to the trash.
8. Launch iTunes 11.

Done.
- Actually, not quite! Where is my iTunes music and media? Apple support gives the following instructions for retrieving it:

Re-creating the iTunes Library file

Note: After re-creating your library, any devices that you sync with iTunes (Apple TV, iPod, iPhone, iPad) will see your iTunes library as a new library and will completely resync. The next sync with such a device will take longer and may reset some options since your rebuilt library isn't familiar to the device.

1. Quit iTunes.
2. Locate your iTunes folder (this is the folder that contains the iTunes Library and iTunes Library.xml files).

Operating System	Default location of iTunes Folder
Mac OS X	/Users/[your username]/Music
Microsoft Windows XP	\Documents and Settings\[your username]\My Documents\My Music\
Microsoft Windows Vista	\Users\[your username]\Music\
Microsoft Windows 7	\Users\[your username]\My Music\

3. Open your iTunes folder.
4. Drag the "iTunes Library.xml" or "iTunes Music Library.xml" file to the Desktop. If neither is available, learn how to add files back to the Library (because the XML file is not available, playlists and other information will not be available).
5. Drag the following file from your iTunes folder to the Trash:

Mac OS X	"iTunes Library" or "iTunes Library.itl"
Microsoft Windows	"iTunes Library.itl"

6. Open iTunes.
Important: Do not add any content into iTunes at this point (such as by purchasing something from the iTunes Store).
7. Choose File > Library > Import Playlist.
8. Navigate to the "iTunes Library.xml" file on the Desktop.

• Mac users: Click Choose.
• Windows users: Click Open.

If your Podcasts list in iTunes is empty after following these steps, learn how to add them back into iTunes.

Hooray, it's all back.

Doubtless Apple will try to "upgrade" you to iTunes 12 with every software update. Click Details instead of automatically accepting and you'll be able to avoid the horrid thing.

Locked out after Mac OS update

Every time I update Mountain Lion and restart my MacBook Air it refuses to recognise my password.

If this happens there is a long way round to get it to open up and a quick, short way. Yes, guess which I tried first:
1. Boot in Recovery system. Press and hold the Command and R keys while you start or restart.
2. When restarted, click Utilities in the top menu bar and select Terminal from the dropdown menu.
3. When Terminal starts, type
resetpassword
and press Return.
4. Then respond to the dialogue boxes to reset your password. You can use the one you had before if you can remember it.

Okay, what's the easy way?

Try to Restart using the restart button in the usual way.

When you get the choice of user identities click on yours and enter your password. If it's refused three times you'll be offered the chance to reset it using your Apple identity. Easy!

Sound lost on iMac

This iMac is not very new! So when it ceased to emit sound other than the startup chord I wondered if something had died inside it.
I have a pair of external speakers plugged in, so first I tried unplugging those. For a while, music flowed out of the tinny internal speakers, but next day - silence reigned again.
So,

1. tried restarting the computer - no change. Opened System Preferences > Sound, nothing appeared wrong.
2. Okay next most simple answer - unplug and replug. When I'd unplugged and replugged the audio speaker jack in the headphone socket a couple of times - Yes! Fixed!
3. En route to this happy result, I also checked System Preferences > Sound again and found that the Mute button at the bottom of the window had got ticked. Well, unticking that doubtless helped.

Quickly change to an open application

Sometimes it's difficult to return to a file or an application that's open by clicking an open window in the usual way. Here are two ways:

In System Preferences, set one of the corners of your desktop so that when you move the pointer into it it shows you either Mission Control - all the windows and applications that are open - or just the applications.

Or, press cmd-tab. You can then tab across the row of your open applications and stop on the one you want to return to. Neat and quick.