All over the map | Let your Mac entertain you | All over the map
Blow up the world | We are the world | Shorter shortcuts
Wizard of odd | Floating free and easy | Playing cat and mouse
Random acts of art | Not-so-secret secret about box
Quarky aliens | Turn a PC into a Mac

Show Sherlock a thing or two

Whether you have an old version of the Macintosh operating system with Find File or a newer version with Sherlock, you can show it an example of the kind of file to look for.

In Find File, set the query term to "file type", then drag a file of the type you are looking for into the empty box at the far right. It will fill in the proper term itself. For example, dragging a Photoshop 5 file to the box results in a search for a file whose "file type" "is" "8BPS", which we never would have known otherwise.

In the early version of Sherlock, go to the Find File page and drag the sample file into a search field. Sherlock will pick up on the name, size, date created and other info from this file. You may have to click on More Choices several times to see it all.
In Sherlock 2, click on the Edit button to bring up the More Search Options dialogue box. Drag the file into a field and you’ll get a page full of information (including content) for you to search on.

Let your Mac entertain you

Like a nice tune to brighten up your mornings when you boot up your computer to start to start the day?

Simply put an audio file or QuickTime movie (or an alias to such a file) in the Startup Items folder which is found in your Systems folder. It will play automatically when your desktop appears.

Or put the file in the Shutdown Items folder to play when you close up the system.

All over the map

Want to be part of the crowd that hops around the world at a moment's notice?

In the Apple menu, click on Control Panels and open the Map control panel. Hold down Option and click on the Find button repeatedly. You'll jump to each location in the Map's secret database.

Or how about finding a mysterious place people are always referred to but can never locate — namely the "middle of nowhere"? In the Map control panel, type MID in capitals. Click on Find. The location will change to "Middle of Nowhere" and the map will show you exactly where that is.

Blow up the world

Yet another undocumented Map trick: Hold down the Shift key and open the Map control panel. You'll get an expanded view of it, heavily pixelated. Try again, holding down the Option key and you'll blow it up more. Then try with both Shift and Option.

We are the world

Fed up with the map altogether now? So replace it with another graphic. In a paint, photo or image-editing program (or even in Simple Text), select an image and copy it to memory (with a Copy command or with the Command-C key combination). Now go back to the Map, click on the map graphic, open the Edit menu and select Paste. You can even put your own face there.

Shorter shortcuts

Making an alias (an icon that acts as a shortcut to another file) is easy, of course. Select the file, click on Make Alias under the File menu (or press Command and M), and a copy of the icon appears that you can move to anywhere, such as in the Apple Menu folder.

It's so easy, there couldn't be anything simpler, could there? Amazingly, there is.

Hold down the Command and Option keys and drag the file to where you want the alias to appear. The alias appears as directed while the original file stays where it was. And, thankfully, the alias doesn't have the redundant "alias" added to the title.

Wizard of odd

Merlin the magician lives — in Photoshop.

To get this strange message and a glimpse of the old wiz, launch Photoshop. With or without a file opened, bring up the Layers palette (click on Show Layers in the Windows menu). Hold down the Option key and click on the small arrow at the top right of the Layers window and select Palette Options.

For no apparent reason, Merlin will appear. Click on Begone to get rid of him.

Floating free and easy

How long have you been using your Mac with a recent operating system? We'll give 10-1 odds you still don't know the Finder menu in the top right corner of your screen can be made into a floating pallette. Just click there and, holding down the mouse button, drag the box down onto the screen.

And we'll give 20-1 odds you don't know all the ways you can reshape this pallette. You can grab the right side of the pallette and drag to expand or contract it or you can click on the resizing box (the second one from the right at the top of the pallette). But that's only the beginning. Try holding down each of Command, Option and Shift as you click on the resizing box and note the effects.

Playing cat and mouse

There's a little game and other Java-based effects hidden on many Macs with recent operating systems.

Find the Apple Extras folder on your hard drive (or install the folder from the system disk if you don't already have it) and dig through these subfolders: Mac OS Runtime for Java, Apple Applet Runner, Applets and Jumping Box. You should find a file called "example1.html". (It may be located somewhere slightly different on your system.) Double-click on this file and you'll start the Mouse Track game.

It's brutally simple. You try to click on the little box that keeps trying to evade your cursor. When you succeed, your prize is a tiny sound effect.

In the Applets folder you'll find other folders containing small animations with names like example1.html, example2.html and so on, that you can check out.

Random acts of art

There was an undocumented feature that let you set the Macintosh's desktop to display pictures chosen at random with Operating Systems 8 and 8.1 but unfortunately it was dropped with OS 8.5. The new OSes have removed the Desktop Pictures control panel through which the trick was conducted.

However we've discovered a different way to get random desktop pictures in Mac OS 8.5 and higher.

Open the Appearance control panel. (The fastest way to it is to click on the Apple Menu at the upper left of your screen, click on Control Panels and select Appearance.) In the Appearance control panel, click on the Desktop tab. On the left is a small image of your currently selected desktop picture or pattern.

Go to your hard drive and find the folder in which your desktop pictures are kept. (In ours, it's a folder called Sample Desktop Pictures within the Apple Extras folder.) Simply drag this folder over to the open control panel and drop it on the desktop image. A new picture will appear in the window. Then click on Set Desktop and close up the panel.

From now on, each time you start your Mac a different picture will be chosen at random from the folder of pictures to be your desktop image.

Not-so-secret secret about box

This has become a well-known classic Easter egg for Macs, uncovered in System 7.5 but dropped in recent versions of the Mac OS.

Open the Notepad and type "secret about box". Highlight the phrase and drag it onto the desktop where you can dump it.

Immediately you'll start a game similar to Breakout in which you direct with your mouse a bouncing ball towards blocks bearing the names of the system's developers. Click outside the game to quit it.

Quarky aliens

First there was the great attacking-alien Easter egg in QuarkXPress 3.32, which continued in more recent versions. To get the effect on a Macintosh, you select an item you want to delete in a Quark document and press the Command, Option, Shift and Delete keys simultaneously. A small alien trots out and destroys the targeted item with his ray gun.

Then a new alien conspiracy was revealed in QuarkXPress 4.0. It turns out that if you repeat the trick five times in a row, a much larger alien with a goofy bazooka-type weapon makes a colourful and explosive appearance.

Turn a PC into a Macintosh

This nasty but harmless prank could be seen as a Machead's revenge on a Windows user.

Tell a PC-using friend you've got a great Web site to show them on their Windows computer. Then direct them to www.yaromat.com/macos8/index.htm with their browser. Before they can stop it, the computer will start scrolling up messages indicating their Windows system is being replaced by the Macintosh operating system. It'll even appear to boot up like a Mac and give them a screenwide desktop identical to the Mac's.

If your (former) friend frantically clicks on the various Mac-style desktop icons they'll find a memory game to play and will eventually discover in the trash how to restore the appearance of the screen to the usual Windows design. No harm done, it was all an Internet illusion.