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Spaces, a new feature in Leopard, allows all Mac users to become much more efficient in their desktop space and usage.

As a Linux user, I use compiz-fusion with my 8-sided ‘cube’ so keep all of my programs organized and allow me to be as efficient as possible with my desktop space.

How do you organize your apps?? I keep Thunderbird on one space, my instant messenger app on another, my music program on a third, and my internet apps on the rest.

Wouldn’t it be easy to keep all of these apps organized if I could just say ‘this app only opens on this space, and this other app opens on another space’? Well, you can do just that, and this is how to assign apps to open in specific…

I know this is a short tip, but I thought it was pretty cool (and useful).

Have you ever wanted to save a bit of text from a website? In Windows you would have to highlight the text, right click, open a document, and paste it in. In Mac however, all you need to do is highlight the text and then drag the text over to the desktop. It will create a document and save your text in it automatically.

For all you Linux users out there; this tip works for you too! (It saves your text in a file called ‘dropped text.txt)…

OpenOffice is a great free alternative to Microsoft Office. For more information on OpenOffice check out my recent post Open Office- The [Free] Microsoft Office Alternative. However, if you already use OpenOffice on a daily basis, then you have probably noticed how slow it loads. Here is how to speed up the load time:

1.) Launch OpenOffice - It does not matter which of the subprograms you open.

2.) Click ‘Tools’ and then select ‘Options’.

3.) Select the ‘Memory’ from the list on the left side.

4.) Under the ‘Graphics cache’ subheading, change the settings to the following:

• Use of OpenOffice.org - 128MB
• Memory per object - 20.0MB

5.) Under the ‘Cache for inserted objects’ subheading, change the settings to the following:

• Number of objects - 20

Here is what it should look like…

For the past couple months I’ve been having my desktop background change randomly. With my mass amount of pictures (Ferraris, Space Shuttles, and satellites) changing every 5 minutes, I decided to go on the hunt for a program that would allow me to do something even cooler. I came across a neat little program called ‘Wallsaver‘ and decided to give it a try. With Wallsaver you can easily select any Mac screen saver and set it as your desktop background. While this has no practical use, I usually use it to wow my fellow Mac users.

One of the main things I like about Wallsaver is that it is so easy to turn

Apple’s SMS (Sudden Motion Sensor) has been used to create some pretty useful as well as useless programs. I wrote an article a few weeks ago about iAlertU and it’s uses. Smackbook is a program that makes use of the SMS to switch between workspaces in Leopard. To change workspaces, just tap the left or right side of your laptop. Here’s a quick look at what it does:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uvQTTPr9Rw]

Now I know there are a lot of people out there who would not want to hit their laptop (me being one of them). There is another option for us, but unfortunately only for those of us who have MacBook Pros with the built in light sensor:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slZDN7zeMWI&feature=related]

I have found a great tutorial that not only explains how to install Smackbook…

As a student, I spend a lot of time in the library or out of my room with my laptop. Sometimes it becomes a bit of a hassle when I feel the need for a snack or I have to use the rest room because I don’t like leaving my laptop unattended. There is however a program that might help with that. iAlertU is a FREE program that is essentially a car alarm for your Macbook or Macbook Pro. iAlertU makes use of the motion sensing technology already built into your laptop. If someone were to press a key, move the laptop, or even unplug the laptop, iAlertU will take a picture with your webcam and automatically email it to you and it will make a car alarm type noise…

Quicksilver is a productivity tool that will catalog everything on your computer including applications, folders, files, emails, iTunes and much more. As you type, Quicksilver searchs its catalog gives you several actions you can take depending on what the results were. For example, if you search an application you can launch that application or open the folder where that application is stored. What makes Quicksilver so great is that is has plugins for A LOT of programs.

The best part is Quicksilver is adaptive. This means that it will start to recognize what you search for the most and place it at the top of the results. You can even search using keywords or abbreviations. The main thing to remember is Quicksilver is much more…