TextEdit

While the need to locate a specific line in a text file may not be a very useful feature in regular prose text, for managing structured code such as scripts and XML files that are common in OS X, being able to identify a specific line or two may be quite useful.

If you have attempted shell scripting in OS X, you may find that when your scripts run into errors you will be given a brief description of the problem that includes the line where the problem occurred. While the use of BBEdit, TextWrangler, and other powerful text editors … Read more

Apple recently released OS X 10.8.3 along with security updates for past versions of OS X, and while the updates have worked properly for the vast majority of users, a few have reported having the problem that certain programs like Preview and TextEdit now will not run. When the program is opened, in some cases the system prompts users to authenticate and repair the user Library, but after this is done the program simply quits after bouncing in the OS X Dock for a few seconds. In other cases the program may simply crash and generate an error … Read more

Paper by FiftyThree is an app that lets you sketch drawings and diagrams on your iPhone and iPad and share them with others. A free app from iTunes, Paper by FiftyThree installs easily.

There's barely an interface with Paper by FiftyThree. You can touch the screen of your device and draw anything you want, just as if you had a stylus and paper in front of you. There's a selection of tools available, but it pops out of the way when you don't need them. Paper by FiftyThree claims that its engine reacts to touch-screen pressure in … Read more

Underneath its slick interface, OS X has a number of hidden configuration files that contain the settings for default and standard behaviors. While in most cases these files being hidden is good for system stability and security, sometimes you may need to access one for troubleshooting purposes or to apply small customizations to the system.

Often these files can be accessed with simple one-line Terminal commands, as is commonly seen with the "defaults" command for editing program or service property lists; however, at other times you might need to make more extensive edits to a settings file. When … Read more

HipGeo Travel Blog and Trip Journal (free) lets you tell the story of your vacation with images, videos, text, tags, and more all tied to your geolocation. You start by signing up through Facebook or Twitter, then you can choose people to share your travels with. If you just want to see the app in action before you take your trip (and see best practices from other users) you can use an explore button to check out blogs of popular or featured users, or look at posts from near your location.… Read more

To fend off attacks and faulty programming, Apple has implemented sandboxing routines to manage what system resources applications have access to. While the sandboxing process should allow the applications to run as intended by the developer, sometimes an odd bug or configuration error may result in random breaks in functionality.

For example, TextEdit is one of the sandboxed programs that Apple includes in OS X. Sandbox entitlements allow it to save to the filesystem and accept keyboard inputs, among other features, so you can use the program to create documents and edit them. However, if a sandboxing error involving one … Read more

Apple's TextEdit program is a basic text editor included with OS X, which like WordPad for Windows can be used to quickly create text documents in plain text (.txt) or in rich text (RTF) formats. Similar to Preview for image files, TextEdit is commonly used as a starting point for opening various supported file types in order to preview them and make small edits to their contents. This helps when you need to quickly edit scripts and HTML code, or system configuration files.

TextEdit is not only useful for quickly editing code (which is primarily stored in basic text … Read more

An apparent bug is present in OS X 10.7 "Lion" that causes some applications to crash when the system's network location configuration is changed. However, while the system generates a crash report, the applications appear to have not crashed at all.

This issue happens because of a bug with how OS X handles both network location configurations and its process sandboxing routines.

In OS X you can set up different "locations" in the Network system preferences -- convenient configurations for the various network setups you might need for your work. For instance, a home … Read more

Evernote for Mac is just one part of an excellent, access-from-anywhere note-taking system. In addition to the Evernote desktop client, you can create and get to your notes from a variety of mobile devices (including apps for the iPhone and iPad) and any Web browser on any computer. A free Evernote account links all your notes together.

Evernote is a mature and popular application, with an impressively streamlined interface that shares similarities across its multiple platforms and gives you many different ways to create notes and collections of notes called notebooks. Your notes can be text, images, or Web clippings, … Read more