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Stumbled across this one by accident today. I knew about the ’slideshow’ screen saver (a classic), but had no idea there was a ‘collage’ and ‘mosaic’ screen saver in Leopard! They’re all pretty darn cool, and I figured you would like to read more about it, so here we go!

Here’s a quick ‘How to’ use the Leopard Slideshow, Collage and Mosaic Screen Savers:

1. These screen savers are options you can turn on in your System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver. Click the ‘Screen Saver’ button at the top to get your screen saver options.

2. Now, here comes the important part. In the screen savers list, you’ll see all of the installed screen savers listed… Scroll down a bit until you see the ‘Pictures Folder, Choose Folder, Library’, etc…

These 3 screen savers work by pulling images input from your system… i.e. from iPhoto, or just images saved to your hard drive. So, in this example, these screen savers will be available from the following folders: Pictures Folder, Choose Folder, Library, Last Roll, and Last 12 Months. Select the one you want to use.

3. After making your selection, you should notice 3 new buttons popped up beneath the preview…

These buttons control the display style (the 3 different types of screen savers).

Slideshow
The first one is for ’slideshow’. This will turn your screensaver into a basic slideshow with pictures fading in and out.

Collage
The second option is ‘collage’. Basically what this option does it pull images from your computer, spin them onto the screen and then place them on the desktop. Kind of like adding photos to your refrigerator… Try it out and you’ll see what I mean.

Mosaic
Finally, the third and last button is the ‘mosaic’ option. This is one cool screen saver. Click it and watch the preview. It’s magic!

Try all 3 of these to see what you like best. They’re all great, especially if you have a lot of pictures on your hard drive.

Fool around with these and I guarantee you’ll have lots of fun!

Are you tired of the look of your Leopard dock? Want a change? I’m surprised at how many people want to change this… and the good news is that if you do want to change up your dock, it’s very easy to do. With some basic photoshop skills you can even create your own.

To Replace Your Leopard Dock Graphics:

1. Go to Macintosh HD > System/Library/Core Services
2. Right click on ‘Dock’ and select ‘Show Package Contents’
3. Go to > Contents/Resources
4. Backup the files you are about to replace
5. Move the original files to your trash
6. Move the new dock files into the folder
7. Open Terminal and type ‘killall Dock’
8. Your new dock will be installed

Make sure you make a backup of the original dock files.

For all kinds of pre-made docks (to drag and drop using the steps above) and for more info on installation and how to create your own… check out this great site.

This little ditty is an ammendment to a post I recently made: Coverflow Makes for Great Font Browsing.

You can use ‘Quick Look’ to take an even better look at the fonts in your fonts folder. In cover flow mode in Finder, select the font you wish to preview. Notice the preview in the cover flow window. Cool.

Now, all you have to do is hit the spacebar. ‘Quick Look’ will jump in and give you a preview of the full file!

Not enough? Now try hitting the two arrows near the bottom of the quick look window. This will give you a fullscreen preview of the file. When you’re done previewing simply click the X to close, or the 2 arrows to go back to the main quick look mode.

This doesn’t apply to font files alone. Try this out on any file in any location on your mac! It’s a very handy little shortcut that lets you take a closer look at your files without having to open up any applications!

Thanks to our good friend Dan on this one.

If you’re like me, and you design a lot of things on your mac (websites, posters… you name it)… You should appreciate this one.

I was fooling around with the coverflow option in finder the other day when I somehow stumbled into the fonts folder. I wondered to myself, ‘geez, will Leopard give me a preview of the fonts in coverflow?’ I had to check it out to see.

What do you know, coverflow DOES show you a preview of your fonts… And it’s very handy to flip through your fonts if you’re looking for something in particular.

If you’re like me, and the font dropdown in Photoshop just isn’t enough (small, small previews of the fonts) then this is a good option. Add a shortcut to your fonts on your desktop or dock, and large font previews are always one-click away!

Thankfully, on our end here at Mactropolis the Leopard upgrade went without a hitch. However, that hasn’t been the case for everyone. There have been some nasty installation problems, one of note right here.

To sidestep these issues and put you on the path to ‘Leopard Bliss’ I’ve put together this brief guide to (hopefully) around any potential problems that might arise.

Again, my experience with the upgrade has been flawless, but after some reading and research here are the things you’ll need to keep in mind and do to make sure your data is safe.

Getting Started

Did you backup your data? This isn’t 100% necessary, but how would you feel if you lost all of your important files? Pretty bad huh? If your life would end and crumble should you lose your files, BACKUP your data. End of story.

You can use the Disk Utility, or any other backup software.

Things to Check Before You Start 

• Once you’ve created the backup, check it and double check it again to make sure it is in place.
• Will your current software work with Leopard? Check vendor websites to ensure all of your software will work after the OS upgrade.

Installation

Installing OS X Leopard is actually a walk in the park. Follow the instructions given to you by the installer. It will walk you through the process. In 1.5 to 2 hours your OS X should be shiny and new and have leopard spots all over it (ok, maybe there won’t be any leopard spots, but you know what I mean).

Step 1: Select a Destination: Choose the drive where you want to install Leopard, and click ‘Options’. From here you can choose the install method (upgrade, archive and install, or erase and install).

Step 2: Select What NOT to Install. You may want to leave some items out of the install to save on hard drive space. Some items you may want to leave out of the installation:

• Fonts can be a huge space hog. If you don’t need the fonts listed simply deselect them.
• Language Translations. If you’re going to run OS X in english-only, you can deselect this item. Or open it up to deselect individual languages.
• Printer Drivers. Open this up and deselect all but the brand of printer you own.

When Installation is Complete

With a little luck, once installation is done you should be good to go. The first thing I did was check to make sure my programs were functioning properly. Thankfully they all were and I was ‘good to go’. Again, if a program isn’t working properly check with the vendor to see what the issue might be, and how to resolve it. You will also want to make sure that all of your data transferred properly. If you used ‘archive and install’ go to the /previous systems/previous system 1 folder and look through the subfolders to check that everything was transferred.

Getting Back to Business

Hopefully the process was a smooth and easy one for you. If so, just pick up where you left off! If you’re still having issues feel free to contact me (mayor AT mactropolis.com) for support. There are also numerous other guides and forums out there to help with issues. So if you’re stuck there are more than a few resources out there to tap into!

This is a handy little feature in OS X Leopard.

Ever wish there was a quick way to pull up a map of an address in your address book? Well, now there is.

First, open up Address Book and select the contact you need a map for. For this example, I’ll select Apple Computer Canada.

Then, with your pointer on top of the actual address, control-click. When the dropdown appears, select ‘Map Of’…

Now, your browser will open Google Maps with the map of the address right there on your screen! Fantastic

With the new web clip button in Safari, you can turn any page into a Dashboard Widget on your mac. This feature gets 2 big thumbs up from me.

Pictured above and highlighted in yellow is the web clip button in Safari.

Why is this so cool?

It means no more opening up Safari (or whatever browser you happen to use) to load up your favorite website. Now, thanks to this cool new addition all you need to do is open up your Dashboard Widgets to see what’s new. Your widgets pop up, and BAM right in your face is the current, real-time version of your favorite webpage. It’s a real time saver.

Pictured below is a quick step-by-step to help you get started.

1. Open Safari and browse to one of your favorite sites that you check regularly. Click the ‘Web Clip’ button.

2. Now, click the area of the page you would like to store in your dashboard. Safari automatically highlights ‘chunks’ of the page for you. Don’t worry about that, you can adjust the size and location of the area in the next step.

3. Adjust the size of the area by using the handles around the outer edge, and the location of the area by clicking and dragging.

4. Click the ‘Add’ button at the top right, and you’re done! Safari automatically creates a widget out of your selection and stuffs it right inside your dashboard. Now, all you need to do is open your dashboard at any time to see what’s new at your favorite site!