Comments on: OS X Finder tutorial and customizations (Part 7)

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:39:51 +0000

Hi Gabi,
It appears there is a solution to that error posted here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1730909&tstart=0

By: Gabi

Gabi — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:19:54 +0000

Scott
I have been away from home – and from my computer – for a certain time, so I only answer to-day to your message posted on 03.20.10 at 12:09pm. I’ve just tried what you told me to do, but I have now another problem. When I open my Network Preference, I get a message, in French, because my computer, bought and used in France, speaks French !! The rough translation of the message would be “Your Network settings have been modified by another application”. The worst part of the deal is that, when I click on the blue “OK” dot in the corner of the message box, the box only disappear for a short moment and keeps on coming back after each click. The only solution is for me to close the Network Preference, but then I cannot go any further in the advice you gave me. How can I get rid of this message box and get access to my Network Preference? Cordially Gabi

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:09:08 +0000

@Gabi,
It sounds to me like you have an old internet connection config laying around. Perhaps at some point in the past you used to have to use PPP to connect to the internet, and that has now changed.

This is a little dangerous advice, as I do not want to break your internet, so proceed with caution. I am assuming you have internet that is always on, that you need not do anything other than turn on your computer to have ready internet access. Your either have a cable or DSL modem plugged directly into your computer, or you have a cable or DSL modem plugged into a router, which you then plug into, or use for wifi based access.

If you would like to clarify those points, that would help.

If you open your System Preferences, go to the Network Preference, i the left, you should see a list of items that represents all your network connections. One will have a green round icon next to it to let you know that is the one that your active internet connection is working against.

The others listed are either old, or for other types of connections. If one of them stands out to you as the one related to your PPP connection, you can click on it, click on the gear icon in the lower left of the window, and select “Make Service Inactive”.

if that solves your problems, you could then delete the item later with the minus icon next to the gear icon in the same area.

Finally, click on the gear icon again, and select “Set Service Order”. Drag the items in the list that pops up so that the order is based on importance. You would put your current active internet connection first, then something like Bluetooth DUN last, and order correctly, everything else in-between. Click “Apply” in the lower right, and you should be good to go.

By: Gabi

Gabi — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:51:25 +0000

Every time I open a new session on my computer, I get a message box “An incorrect PPP option has been set. Please verify your settings and try again”. I just click on the box, the box disappears, and my computer works just as well as it has always worked. This has been going on for about a year now, and I did find a way to get rid of that message.
I have a PowerPC G4 with a Mac OS 10.4.11.
Thank you for any suggestion.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:43:25 +0000

@Jim Does this happen to all apps, or just Finder? Finder is a little strange, in that while it is technically an application, it is also technically not an application. It is faceless, there is not much to see about it, it is just a menu bar and your files.

So, when you select the Finder, you should see your other frontmost app get a little less prominent, but it will not be hidden. If you look in the menu bar to the upper left, you should see “finder” is now the used application.

In all honesty, using the application switcher to move to the Finder is perhaps the least useful aspect of the application switcher. Toggling back and forth between two apps is where it really comes in handy.

Take a look at “Overview of the Application Switcher” for a more in-depth look.

By: Jim Hamm

Jim Hamm — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:58:05 +0000

I hold the Command key down and tap the Tab key to cycle through open apps, but if I put the focus on, say, Finder, it doesn’t bring it to the forefront. What am I missing? Thanks…Jim

By: Zoom feature

Zoom feature — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:46:19 +0000

Thanks for the zoom tip. When reading your tutorials I “squeeze” the window of your text to the right, cutting off the ads so I can slide the active window to the far right of the desk top, so when I try out the pointers you are discussing (ie the pop down windows from the tool bar) they won’t cover the text of your article i am trying to follow.
I tried the “zoom” tip and my “squeezed” window expanded to full width and then shrank back to my prior selected size when I selected the “zoom” button again.
these bits size tips are fun. Thank you all! Bill

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:30:14 +0000

@Bob
Yep, keyboard commands and such will be mentioned in a full posts soon. I want to cover why you would use them, when they are a good idea, and how to prevent getting overwhelmed by just how many ways there are to do the same thing.

Thanks for taking the time to post a comment.

By: Bob Douglass

Bob Douglass — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:48:16 +0000

Maybe it is too soon to bring this up, but I always try to teach my students to look at the equivalent keyboard command that is posted to the right of most menu items… and try to use it instead of always mousing up to the menu to choose an item.
I may have missed it, but I don’t think you have addressed this rather basic, but important item. (From my experience, you’ll have to also clearly explain which key corresponds to which symbol.
Good tutorial; keep going!

By: ThorKee

ThorKee — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:36:23 +0000

Re: Zoom:
Click it once to resize the window to the smallest size that can contain the window’s current configuration of icons; click it again to go back to the previous dimensions.

The only problem is that it’s sometimes not obvious that that’s what it’s done if you’ve scrolled down before clicking it.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:53:01 +0000

@switcher
To quickly get to the Finder, Command and Tab will take you there. You will see the smily finder icon. Press the tab key while still holding down the command key, and you will switch to that “application”.

I have some other ideas about how you can get to the Finder very fast as well, I have added a note to our future posts file, and we will see about covering it later on.

By: Scott Haneda

Scott Haneda — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:49:49 +0000

@salamander
Just a small note, in general, replies can be addressed to the first user with using the @username format. We would like to get all our commenters to adhere to this generally accepted format.

Thanks also for supplying the answer to @switcher as well, we appreciate you taking the time to do this.

By: salamander

salamander — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:56:09 +0000

To the first commenter, you can press the
“command” button and at the same time hit the “tab” button to cycle you to the Finder.

By: switcher

switcher — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:30:48 +0000

Thanks for taking the time helping us newbies.

I’m only on a 13″ MacBook, so I hid the dock and exclusively use spotlight to launch apps. However, typing “Finder” in Spotlight does not find the Finder. How do I quickly go to Finder without using the mouse? Thanks!