Change the Number of Files Shown in “Open Recent” Menu Items of OS X osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® Change the Number of Files Shown in “Open Recent” Menu Items of OS X

The File menu in just about every file-centric application throughout OS X has an “Open Recent” option, which displays the 10 most recent files that have been used in that given Mac app. While 10 recent documents is a fair amount, many of us prefer to have more recent files visible in those Recent Files menus, and that’s what we’ll show how to adjust with a simple settings change. Users will have options to set the recent document list to: none, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or a whopping 50 recently used files, though

1. Go to the  Apple menu and open System Preferences


2. Choose the “General” panel


3. Look for the “Number of Recent Items” option near the bottom – this is often erroneously displayed in Mavericks (a bug, presumably) so just look for the number submenu next to “Documents, Apps, and Servers”


4. Pull down the submenu and choose the number of recent files you wish to display in the “Open Recent” menu


5. Close out of System Preferences, and then quit and relaunch the app(s) to see the change

Using the TextEdit app as an example, making this change to show 20 recent items reveals many more options in the “Open Recent” menu.

It’s important to note that making the change to “Open Recent” menu also directly changes the “Recent Items” submenu visible in the  Apple menu… why an application-level control is directly correlated to a system-level item is a little peculiar, as it would likely make more sense for them to be separate – something that may be possible with a ‘defaults write’ command (any ideas? let us know!). On the positive side of these settings being directly related, it could be easier to see files that may have been opened without user consent by increasing the number of visible items overall.

Note for those wanting to return to the default opting this setting in all versions of OS X is set to ’10′ recent items.

This trick works the same with just about every version of Mac OS X, though some changes were made to OS X Mavericks which removes some specificity. Prior to Mavericks, users were able to adjust the number of recent items on a very specific basis, setting a unique number for Applications, Documents, and Servers. Now, there is only one option that covers all of them, which carries into the  Apple menu as well.

For those who don’t use the Recents items lists because they are tucked within a menu, you can also enable a hidden Recent Items list in the Dock of OS X by using a defaults command.

Thanks to @sambowne on Twitter for the tip idea, don’t forget to follow us there too.

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Change the Number of Files Shown in “Open Recent” Menu Items of OS X osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® Change the Number of Files Shown in “Open Recent” Menu Items of OS X

The File menu in just about every file-centric application throughout OS X has an “Open Recent” option, which displays the 10 most recent files that have been used in that given Mac app. While 10 recent documents is a fair amount, many of us prefer to have more recent files visible in those Recent Files menus, and that’s what we’ll show how to adjust with a simple settings change. Users will have options to set the recent document list to: none, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or a whopping 50 recently used files, though

1. Go to the  Apple menu and open System Preferences


2. Choose the “General” panel


3. Look for the “Number of Recent Items” option near the bottom – this is often erroneously displayed in Mavericks (a bug, presumably) so just look for the number submenu next to “Documents, Apps, and Servers”


4. Pull down the submenu and choose the number of recent files you wish to display in the “Open Recent” menu


5. Close out of System Preferences, and then quit and relaunch the app(s) to see the change

Using the TextEdit app as an example, making this change to show 20 recent items reveals many more options in the “Open Recent” menu.

It’s important to note that making the change to “Open Recent” menu also directly changes the “Recent Items” submenu visible in the  Apple menu… why an application-level control is directly correlated to a system-level item is a little peculiar, as it would likely make more sense for them to be separate – something that may be possible with a ‘defaults write’ command (any ideas? let us know!). On the positive side of these settings being directly related, it could be easier to see files that may have been opened without user consent by increasing the number of visible items overall.

Note for those wanting to return to the default opting this setting in all versions of OS X is set to ’10′ recent items.

This trick works the same with just about every version of Mac OS X, though some changes were made to OS X Mavericks which removes some specificity. Prior to Mavericks, users were able to adjust the number of recent items on a very specific basis, setting a unique number for Applications, Documents, and Servers. Now, there is only one option that covers all of them, which carries into the  Apple menu as well.

For those who don’t use the Recents items lists because they are tucked within a menu, you can also enable a hidden Recent Items list in the Dock of OS X by using a defaults command.

Thanks to @sambowne on Twitter for the tip idea, don’t forget to follow us there too.

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How to Instantly Mark All Email As Read in Mail for iOS osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® How to Instantly Mark All Email As Read in Mail for iOS

Mail app on the iPhone and iPad received a major revamp along with iOS 7 that includes a variety of improvements and adjustments, but out of all the new features, some of the simplest changes are perhaps the most welcome. Case in point; a new and much faster way to easily mark all emails in Mail app as read. Yes, you read that right, you can now almost instantly mark all email as read on the iPhone, without having to use any quirky tricks or workarounds to complete the task. Amazingly, this simple option took until iOS 7.0 for users to get, but now the process is very direct and extremely quick:

1. Open Mail app, and go to an inbox where you have multiple emails that are set as unread


2. Tap on the “Edit” button in the corner


3. Now tap on the “Mark All” text (at the bottom on the iPhone)


4. Choose “Mark as Read” to instantly mark all mail as read

For the best results when trying to mark all as read in a huge inbox, be sure to scroll down a ways so that more messages load. Stragglers that are not loaded within Mail app or within the scrollable region won’t necessarily get marked as read, though part of that seems to depend on the individual email service that users have configured with Mail app.

The status effect is immediate, and all mail messages will lose the little blue dot next to them which is used to indicate an unread email. This really helps to quickly clear out a busy inbox, or just to cut down on the red notification badges that sit on the Mail icon if you don’t like them lingering around on the home screen.

As you’ll likely notice when tapping on “Mark All”, above the mark all as read option is a “Flag” choice for those who use flagging. Also, this process can be done the other direction too, and used to mark all emails as ‘unread‘ if that is desired as well. Between the three new bulk management options, it is now much easier than ever to manage enormous inboxes or just to declare inbox bankruptcy, mark everything as read (or spam if you hate your email senders), and start over from scratch again with inbox zero.

Sure this seems like such an incredibly simple feature, but it is actually a huge improvement from the behavior of marking bulk email as read in prior versions of iOS. Users who have not yet updated to iOS 7.0 will have to use the older methods of individual email selection, which really emphasizes how superior the new ‘mark all as read’ option is compared to the old trick that required individually marking selected mail messages as read by manually selecting multiple threads, to achieve a roundabout ‘mark all’ result. It’s worth mentioning that old per-email message trick does continue to work in new versions of Mail app for iOS though, so if you need to just mark a smaller group of mail as read rather than everything, you can still do so by manually selecting them.

Like this email trick? Don’t miss 10 pro tips for smarter usage of iOS Mail.

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Train iOS Autocorrect to Stop Correcting Specific Words osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® Train iOS Autocorrect to Stop Correcting Specific Words

The iOS Autocorrect feature is notorious for being very aggressive in correcting certain words, particularly those words with colorful, offensive, or controversial meanings – basically any curse word. If you get fed up with autocorrects persistent mouth (finger?) soap, you can either use shortcuts to automatically replace the words that autocorrect struggles with, try to force learning with word repetition, or, perhaps easiest and new since iOS 7; use the excellent Safari Search trick outlined below to train autocorrect to stop correcting specific words, and to also learn new words:

1. Open Safari in iOS (yes, the web browser) and open a new window / tab


2. Tap in the topmost “Search” box and type the word you want autocorrect to stop correcting, then tap on “Go” to search for it


3. Now go back to any text editor, Messages, etc, to type the originally intended word – no more autocorrecting it!

This is extremely effective if you’ve been struggling with the iPhone / iPad autocorrecting certain names, or the many infamous curse word corrections of duckings, tucks, ducks, shots, ships, bass wholes, and all the rest. (excuse the language)

If you put a typo into the Safari search box and now autocorrect is making things even worse, you can always start over again by resetting the entire autocorrect dictionary within iOS to the defaults, just keep in mind that everything autocorrect related will be cleared out and all of your typing corrections and learning will start from scratch with that approach.

Overall this is probably a better trick than using the shortcuts method because it won’t clutter up the Keyboard Shortcuts and text expansion, which is better used as intended for quickly typing out things like email addresses, long names, and phrases.

Heads up to Gizmodo for the excellent find!

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Correct How Siri Pronounces Names in iOS osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® Correct How Siri Pronounces Names in iOS

While Siri is great at pronouncing some common names, Siri can also completely blunder on others, turning a first or last name into an almost unrecognizable mess of noises that barely resembles the way the name actually sounds. Fortunately, iOS now makes it very easy to correct Siri directly and verbally, so the next time Siri messes up you can instantly fix the pronunciation and get her to speak the right way. Or you can preempt any mistake, and with names that you anticipate Siri to mispronounce you can correct before the virtual assistant has a chance to screw it up by teaching her (or he!) the right way to say a name.

Correcting Siri Name Mispronuncations

Use this trick after Siri has messed up a name:

1. Summon Siri as usual, either by holding down the Home button or the earbud button


2. Tell Siri “That’s not how you pronounce [name]“


3. Provide the proper pronunciation for the name in question


4. Let Siri provide three alternate pronunciations for the name based upon your verbal input, listen to the three, and choose “Select” for the most accurate method of pronunciation

Teach Siri How to Properly Pronounce a Name

Would you rather teach Siri of the proper way to pronounce a name?

1. Summon Siri and say: “Pronounce the name [name] as [pronunciation]“


2. Let Siri confirm the name from the contacts, choose “Yes” or “No” as needed to move to the next step


3. Select the best of the three options Siri has offered as the pronunciation based upon your speech

If the three pronunciation examples that Siri provides are way off, tap on “Tell Siri Again” to offer the proper way again. For the most part it will offer a close-enough option in at least one of the initial three, but if Siri completely fails then tap the Tell Again option and annunciate each distinct syllable a bit closer.

Repeat this as necessary for names that Siri is mispronouncing, and you can also choose to correct either the first name and last name, or go all in one and correct the entire names pronunciation if the assistant is butchering the whole thing. Fixing the pronunciation is also important for improved name recognition for contacts with defined relationships, and just natural language commands in general.

This works the same on the iPad and iPhone, so long as the device as Siri support and at least iOS 7.0 or newer. Prior to iOS 7, users had to go about adding the phonetic spelling of a name to fix (or at least improve) how Siri pronounced names. The phonetic spelling trick continues to work, and if the verbal pronunciation correction doesn’t fix how she/he speaks the name, it may still be the only option.

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Move Dashboard To Another Space Location in Mission Control for OS X osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® Move Dashboard To Another Space Location in Mission Control for OS X

Dashboard is the largely under loved and unappreciated feature of Mac OS X that gives you quick access to a variety of widgets, providing things like weather info, quick unit conversion, a dictionary, world clocks, and whatever else you have setup in there. The newer versions of OS X have turned Dashboard into a dedicated Space, making it a unique virtual desktop of sorts and throwing it in with desktops and fullscreen apps, and up until OS X Mavericks it was stuck on the far left of Spaces within Mission Control. Now that has changed, and since OS X 10.9 the Dashboard can be moved to a new space location, just like any other Desktop Space or app in full screen mode:

• Open Mission Control, typically this is done with a three-finger swipe up gesture on a trackpad or MagicMouse, or by hitting the F3 key


• Click and hold on the “Dashboard” space, and drag and drop it to a new location

You can choose to place Dashboard between existing desktop spaces, full screen apps, or to the far right end or left side (the default).

Rearranging the placement of Dashboard will change where it shows up when skipping between desktop Spaces and Full Screen Apps, whether you’re using the swipe gestures or control key tricks to navigate around or jump between them. If you’re accustomed to a specific workflow with those, adjusting Dashboard position in Mission Control may not be the best idea.

Note this won’t have any effect if you choose to use Dashboard outside of Mission Control, meaning used alone and not as a Space. Personally, I prefer that latter option and to have Dashboard overlay atop the desktop screen and whatever is currently active on the display. This is obviously a matter of personal preference, but to me that provides for the quickest access to things like world clocks, weather, and the dictionary/thesaurus. Nonetheless, for those who prefer Dashboard as a dedicated Space, this can be a handy trick. Thanks to Pete R. for sending in the tip!

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Use a Swipe Gesture to Go Back in Many iOS 7 Apps osxdailynews.blogspot.com

osxdailynews.blogspot.com ® Use a Swipe Gesture to Go Back in Many iOS 7 Apps

iOS 7 has introduced a new gesture-based method of navigating back to prior pages, screens, and panels throughout many apps on the iPhone. Essentially, this gesture can be used to replace the “Back” button, and though not all apps support the swipe-to-go-back gesture yet, plenty of Apple defaults do. For now, you can definitely use the trick for going backwards in Safari to a prior web page, back in Settings panels, App Store screens, within the iTunes Store, and a handful of others too. It’s a simple swipe back gesture similar to what would be used to navigate around the home screen panels of icons, but it does require a tad more precision and thus may take a little bit of practice to get right:

• Navigate within a compatible app so that a “Back” choice is optional, be it to a new web page or deeper in a Settings screen panel


• Swipe to the right from the edge of the display to go back, try to make the swipe as horizontal as possible

The right-swipe gesture must be initiated from the outside edge of the screen, or almost perfectly horizontal, to trigger the back movement, otherwise you’ll likely scroll slightly down or up instead. Either of those tricks works, but the outside edge method may be easiest for most users.

It does take a bit of practice, but usually after a few tries you’ll perfect it rather quickly, even if it’s not nearly as forgiving as some of the other iOS 7 gestures, like the one to quit an app. It’s likely more strict to avoid accidentally triggering, but it does give it a slight learning curve to master.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find the back-swipe gesture can make it easier to go back a page/panel when using a smaller screened device with a single hand, like an iPhone or iPod touch, since it can be activated with just a move of the thumb. It’s still handy on the iPad too, but be sure to use a single finger or touch point, otherwise you may wind up unintentionally triggering the app switcher or one of the other iPad specific gestures instead.

Swipe navigation and touch based gestures aren’t particularly new, they’ve been on the iPad for a while, and for Mac users with trackpads or a Magic Mouse, within OS X too for navigating within Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Mission Control, skipping between Spaces, moving about the Finder, and, pretty much identical to this trick for iOS yet for OS X, go back within a lot of Mac apps too.

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