Some commonly used tips for Mac

This post provides some frequently used tips for Mac.

  • Record a video on Mac (QuickTime)

  • Insert and play a video file from your computer (mac)

From HERE.

  • Open unidentified

Open Program from Unidentified Developer (Mac)

  1. In the Finder, locate the app you want to open. (Don’t use Launchpad to do this. Launchpad doesn’t allow you to access the shortcut menu.)
  2. Press the Control key, then click the app icon.
  3. Choose Open from the shortcut menu.
  4. Click Open.
  • Open a group of pics in preview to scroll (use arrow keys) to view

  • Save word doc 2 PDF (make link clickable)

From HERE

 

 

 

 

Screenshot shortcuts on Mac

The Mac OS has always made it easy to capture a screen shot. (A screen shot is an image of your computer desktop or an active window.)

This post  provides a summary of all the keyboard shortcuts you can use to capture your screen on Mac. (Check HERE for screenshot shortcuts on Linux.)

  • Entire screen

 Command + Shift + 3

The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your Desktop with the filename starting with “Picture” followed by a number (e.g., Picture 1, Picture 2, …)

 

Command + Control + Shift + 3

The screen shot will be copied to your clipboard, so you can paste it into another program suchas PowerPoint, Word, GIMP.

 

  • Customized area of screen

Command + Shift + 4

A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your Desktop following the same naming convention as explained on the first tip above.

 

 Command + CTRL + Shift + 4

A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, you can paste the screen shot to another application.

 

  • Active window

Press and hold

Command + Shift + 4 

then tap on the Spacebar.

The cursor will change to a camera, and you can move it around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and the screen shot will be saved as a PNG file on your Desktop.

 

Press and hold

Command + CTRL + Shift + 4

then tap on the Spacebar.

The cursor will change to a camera, which you can move around the screen. As you move the cursor over an application window, the window will be highlighted. The entire window does not need to be visible for you to capture it. When you have the cursor over a window you want to capture, just click the mouse button and you can paste the screen shot into another application.

 

  • Screenshot with tooltip

 Command + SHIFT + 4

The trick is simple, you have to keep press (+SHIFT) first. Then hover mouse to make tool tip appear and press (4).

         Simple way to do this : a small trick

 1. open you screen , for which you want to take screen shot 
 2. point to tool-tip , it will show that tooltip .
 3  then capture whole screen by Command + Shift + 3 
 4. preview above captured image , and expand to full screen 
 5. now use Command + Shift + 4 to capture tool-tip

 

 

 

  • References and Further reading list

 

 

 

 

 

How (and why) to clear the caches on your Mac

Your Mac takes care of routine maintenance behind the scenes eventually, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep things tidy yourself in the meantime. One easy way to keep your Mac running its best is to occasionally clean the cache.

This post provides brief instructions on how to clean user caches and brower cashes manually, without using an application. For more in-depth caches cleaning, check out the references section below.

  • Clean up user caches manually

To find and clear your user cache manually, do the following:

    • In your Mac’s user folder, there’s a hidden Library folder, which itself contains a folder of caches left by the applications you’ve installed on your Mac.
    • Strongly recommend that you remove the insides of ~/Library/Caches  and   /Library/Caches folders, but not the folders themselves.
    • Want to make sure your junk user cache data is gone forever? – Empty out your Trash.

How to check a cache folder size

If you are unsure and want a safer option, go ahead and learn on how to use CleanMyMac to handle caches properly. It will find up to 5x more junk cache data to remove from all over your system.

 

  • Clean up browser caches manually

We love our browsers but we don’t love it when they start to use up hard disk space with cache files. Whether you’re wanting to free up space, get your browser performing better or trying to remove your history for the sake of privacy, removing your Mac browser cache will help.

Your browser cache is essentially saved bits of the websites you’ve visited recently. That way, if you go back, your computer can re-use locally cached elements that haven’t changed, which speeds up load times versus reloading everything fresh from the remote server. Your cache will overwrite itself eventually, but you can clear your cache, history, and cookies anytime you want to gain a little bit of extra security and speed up your Mac.

      • Clear Safari caches

To delete Safari’s websites’ caches and cookies via browser preferences:

      1. Click Safari in the top menu click Preferences.
      2. In the window that appears, click the Advanced tab, and enable Show Develop menu.
      3. In menu bar go to Develop and choose Empty Caches.

Check and delete Safari browser cache with Terminal:

      1. Press Command + Shift + G to open up the Terminal
      2. With these simple commands you can delete Safari’s cache file. But first, check its size using the disk usage (du) command:
        du -h /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db
        Note: replace “$HOME” with the name of your home folder

        1. To delete Safari’s cache file type:
          rm /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db
          Note: when you use the remove (rm)command files are essentially unrecoverable.
        2. A more prudent approach is to use the move (mv) command:
          mv /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db ~/.Trash/
          This will move the file to your user’s ($HOME) trash. From there it is still recoverable until you empty the trash.
          Safari will create a new Cache.db file automatically when you open a new webpage.
        3. Open a new webpage or restart Safari and recheck disk usage:
          du -h /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db

Clean cache in Safari

      • Clear Chrome caches

The simplest way to clear Chrome browser cache manually is:

      1. In the top right corner of Google Chrome browser click the 3-dot icon to choose Settings. 
      2. At the bottom of the menu, choose Advanced (or use Cmd+Shift+Delete keyboard shortcut)
      3. Click Clear browsing data and deselect all, but Cached images and files. Choose time range and hit Clear data button.

Delete caches in ChromeOne more way to delete Chrome browser cache is to clear some folders where these data located.

      1. To find Chrome cache files, open Finder and click to Go to the folder.
      2. To go to the folder where Chrome’ primary cache locates type: ~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/
      3. To go to the folder with the additional bulk of cached data type:~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Application Cache/
      4. Select files within these folders and delete them.

          • Clear caches in Firefox manually

      1. Click the hamburger icon in the top right corner and choose Preferences.
      2. Choose Privacy & Security on the left sidebar.
      3. Scroll to the section Cookies and Site Data and click to Clear Data… tab
      4. Now, check Cached Web Content  and click Clear button to delete Firefox cache.
      5. Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Clear cache in Firefox

 

 

 

References

The guide to clean all caches on a Mac

There are three types of caches you can clean on your Mac:

    • User (or App) cache. These cache files created by all the apps that you use on Mac. It includes apps that came with your macOS (like Mail) as well as 3rd-party apps (like Sketch). Every applications creates a lots of cache – it wouldn’t be surprising to clear up gigabytes of space when cleaning app caches.
    • System cache. These cache data created by the built-in macOS system services that run your Mac.
    • Browser cache. All browsers store your browsing history and cache data from websites you visit. You know how you shop for something online and then for weeks you’re seeing it everywhere? That’s because your browser caches hundreds of files that make up the websites you visit. Caches also include cookies and trackers that save information about your browsing history and report the data back to the site. This works out in your favor when you return to a site without having to log in again, but it can also leave you feeling like your computer is spying on you.

Old cache files do nothing but cluttering your system and slowing down your Mac through all the wasted space it is taking up.  Here’s a guide to cleaning all these caches, at the end of which your Mac will be lighter and leaner.

Besides browser and website information, your Mac keeps several caches of its own for different reasons. The good news is you can clean them up manually, or you can clean them with a special app which can clear the browser cache in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, as well as your system cache, email cache, user cache files, and even your DNS cache files.

How to delete user caches on a Mac

User cache makes up the majority of junk data on macOS. Your applications accumulate user’s cache data on a hard disk the longer they are in use. Some apps and utilities can build up cache sizes that reach into gigabytes. This is often just a waste of space, particularly with apps you don’t use every day. By clearing your user apps cache files, you’ll be amazed at how much hard disk space you can reclaim.

Note: Manually clearing cache files on a Mac is something that anyone can do. It takes some time and patience, but if you follow our instructions, you can get the job done all by yourself. Please follow the instructions closely.

Clean up user caches manually

To find and clear your user cache manually, do the following:

    • In your Mac’s user folder, there’s a hidden Library folder, which itself contains a folder of caches left by the applications you’ve installed on your Mac.
    • Strongly recommend that you remove the insides of ~/Library/Caches  and   /Library/Caches folders, but not the folders themselves.
    • Want to make sure your junk user cache data is gone forever? – Empty out your Trash.

How to check a cache folder size

If you are unsure and want a safer option, go ahead and learn on how to use CleanMyMac to handle caches properly. It will find up to 5x more junk cache data to remove from all over your system.

Get rid of cache files with CleanMyMac

    1. Launch CleanMyMac app.
    2. Select System Junk in the left sidebar.
    3. Hit Scan at the bottom of app’s window.
    4. Then click Clean.

Remove system junk

And you’re done! If you’d like to remove only cache files and nothing else, click on Review Details before clicking Clean. Deselect everything but System Cache Files and User Cache Files, then click Clean.

FlushDNS cache

Your Mac’s DNS cache is a list of all the DNS queries that were resolved for every site. When you type in “setapp.com,” the DNS server resolves that to a numerical IP address. But if you notice a site not loading, or your browser acting up or working too slowly, resetting the DNS cache might be the cure.

To flush DNS cache manually

    1. Open Terminal (⇧ Shift++U, and double-click on Terminal)
    2. Type this into Terminal: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder;say cache flushed
    3. Press Enter to run and fill your admin password to execute the command.

To clean your Mac’s DNS cache with CleanMyMac

    1. Open CleanMyMac and select Maintenance in the left sidebar
    2. Check the box for Flush DNS Cache
    3. Click the Run button at the bottom of the window

Flush DNS caches

Delete system caches on Mac

System cache files are generated by OS X and, unlike application cache, have nothing to do with the user. The hidden system caches are mainly created by the apps that run on your Mac. The clearing of system cache is not recommended in manual mode, unless you are very careful or trying to fix a problem. System cache files do not generally take up much space, which is another reason why a clean out isn’t as necessary as with user cache.

Clean up system cache data manually

You can find and delete system cache in the same way as user cache, by

    1. Going to ~/Library/Caches and hit Enter to removing the insides of the folders with the app name.
    2. System cache folders are named com.apple and should be backed up for safety.
    3. Go into the com.apple folders and delete the files inside of them. Only the files, not the folders!
    4. Right click on the Trash icon and “Empty Trash”.

That’s it, now, just like with your user cache, your system cache is also clear.

Be careful: not all app cache files can be safely deleted. Some app developers keep important information on cache folders. The great idea to backing up a folder before you erase all files inside. If everything works fine, you can delete this backup.

One-button solution to cleanup macOS caches

CleanMyMac is such a great tool because it lets you perform the exact maintenance you want, or run a Smart Cleanup scan with a single click and have the software make recommendations.

Smart cleanup

Clean up browser caches

We love our browsers but we don’t love it when they start to use up hard disk space with cache files. Whether you’re wanting to free up space, get your browser performing better or trying to remove your history for the sake of privacy, removing your Mac browser cache will help.

Your browser cache is essentially saved bits of the websites you’ve visited recently. That way, if you go back, your computer can re-use locally cached elements that haven’t changed, which speeds up load times versus reloading everything fresh from the remote server. Your cache will overwrite itself eventually, but you can clear your cache, history, and cookies anytime you want to gain a little bit of extra security and speed up your Mac.

Clear Safari caches step-by-step

To delete Safari’s websites’ caches and cookies via browser preferences:

    1. Click Safari in the top menu click Preferences.
    2. In the window that appears, click the Advanced tab, and enable Show Develop menu.
    3. In menu bar go to Develop and choose Empty Caches.

Check and delete Safari browser cache with Terminal:

    1. Press Command + Shift + G to open up the Terminal
    2. With these simple commands you can delete Safari’s cache file. But first, check its size using the disk usage (du) command:
      du -h /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db
      Note: replace “$HOME” with the name of your home folder
  1. To delete Safari’s cache file type:
    rm /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db
    Note: when you use the remove (rm)command files are essentially unrecoverable.
  2. A more prudent approach is to use the move (mv) command:
    mv /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db ~/.Trash/
    This will move the file to your user’s ($HOME) trash. From there it is still recoverable until you empty the trash.
    Safari will create a new Cache.db file automatically when you open a new webpage.
  3. Open a new webpage or restart Safari and recheck disk usage:
    du -h /Users/$HOME/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db

Clean cache in Safari

That’s all.

Chrome clearing cache tutorial

The simplest way to clear Chrome browser cache manually is:

    1. In the top right corner of Google Chrome browser click the 3-dot icon to choose Settings. 
    2. At the bottom of the menu, choose Advanced (or use Cmd+Shift+Delete keyboard shortcut)
    3. Click Clear browsing data and deselect all, but Cached images and files. Choose time range and hit Clear data button.

Delete caches in ChromeOne more way to delete Chrome browser cache is to clear some folders where these data located.

    1. To find Chrome cache files, open Finder and click to Go to the folder.
    2. To go to the folder where Chrome’ primary cache locates type: ~/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/
    3. To go to the folder with the additional bulk of cached data type:~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Application Cache/
    4. Select files within these folders and delete them.

How to delete cache in Firefox manually

    1. Click the hamburger icon in the top right corner and choose Preferences.
    2. Choose Privacy & Security on the left sidebar.
    3. Scroll to the section Cookies and Site Data and click to Clear Data… tab
    4. Now, check Cached Web Content  and click Clear button to delete Firefox cache.
    5. Exit/quit all browser windows and re-open the browser.

Clear cache in Firefox

How to clean all browsers cache data at once

    1. Open CleanMyMac and select Privacy in the left sidebar
    2. Click Scan at the bottom of app’s window
    3. Then Select Items to advance to the next page. The list is broken down by app: you can check each browser to remove all data, such as cookies, browsing history, downloads history, HTML5 local storage, saved passwords, and even close the tabs from your last session. Or you can uncheck any of that you want to keep
    4. Click the Remove button at the bottom of the window when you’re ready to delete everything that’s checked

Cleaning in progress

Use latexdiff to compare different versions of LaTeX tex files to visually mark differences

This post introduces how to use latexdiff to compare two versions of latex *.tex files, in order to visually mark changes to tex files.

(One colleague asked me about the usage of latexdiff, so I think it is a good time to write it up into a blog post to share with those who need some help with this.)

latexdiff is a Perl script and requires an installation of Perl 5.8 or higher.

Use latexdiff to mark differences and create a new LaTeX document with markup differences between two latex files.

  • Linux (Ubuntu) users

latexdiff can be found in Ubuntu repository and detailed description of usage can be found here.

In your terminal, issue the commands below to install latexdiff.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install latexdiff
# open your terminal, and cd to the tex files you need to compare
# issue the following command
latexdiff original_version.tex revised_version.tex > diff.tex

Run the diff.tex file like you run a normal tex file, you will see beautifully marked differences in the pdf file.

  • Mac OS X users

latexdiff is a Perl script and requires an installation of Perl 5.8 or higher.
Mac OS X includes an installation of Perl and no additional setup is required. latexdiff can be found in any CTAN repository
(If you are using MacTex on your mac,  latexdiff is already installed in MacTex under /usr/texbin/latexdiff. No need to install it separately. To use latexdiff in commend line, see below)
After you setting perl and latexdiff, just open your terminal, and cd to the path where you put you two versions of latex tex files, and then issue the command. (If the two tex files are located in different location, you can just give the relative path to that location for each version of tex file.)

 

$ latexdiff original_version.tex revised_version.tex > diff.tex
will compare original_version.tex to revised_version.tex and create a new file diff.tex showing the differences.
Run the diff.tex file like you run a normal tex file, you will see beautifully marked differences in the pdf file.
  • Online latexdiff 

when you get the diff.tex on the online latexdiff, you can paste into a new tex file and then you can run it and you will see the pdf which shows the differences.
  • Multiple tex files for each version

If each version of your text files contains multiple (sub) tex files or if you want to use latexdiff with Git, check the Reference lists for potential solutions.

References

LATEXDIFF: SUPERB DIFF TOOL FOR LATEX (pdf) — talks about solutions to multiple files, but this can only deal with sub-files on the same level, not nested cases.

Two LaTeX gems: ShareLaTeX and latexdiff (pdf)

Using Latexdiff For Marking Changes To Tex Documents (pdf)

Multiple-file LaTeX diff (pdf— this one is very good. – use python code to merge multiple tex files to one big tex file for each version and then use latexdiff to make comparision.

Latexdiff with subfiles (pdf) — this one talks about solutions to multiple tex files.

Using latexdiff with git (pdf) – Git Latexdiff  — this is about using git together with latexdiff

Git and latexdiff: compare versions of LaTeX documents (pdf) — this is also about using git together with latexdiff