Tag Archives: Preview

fixed : quick slideshow of a folder of pictures

Posted on by
Reply

Question :
Someone sent me a bunch of photos that I need to review. I have them in a folder, but I don’t want to import them into Photos.app, Keynote or PowerPoint or even Preview.app to have a look at them and select the most important ones.

Is there any option or simple app to do this ?

 

Answer :

Yes there is, there is an option for this in macOS (and OSX) called Quick Look. In previous versions of OSX and Mac OSX the Quick Look option was visible in any Finder window as a ‘button with an eye icon on it’, in macOS it is slightly hidden in the pulldown menu that opens when you click the ‘button with a sprocket (gear) icon on it’.

There’s even a shortcut for this :

  • open a Finder window
  • open the folder with the photos in it
  • select the photos you want to review (hold the CMD-key while picking photos one-by-one, hold the SHIFT-key to select multiple photos in a row, or press the CMD + A key combo to select all photos)
  • then press the SPACEBAR to view all selected photos as a slideshow
  • or press the ALT + SPACE key combo to view all selected photos as a full screen slideshow
  • note : the file names are shown with each photo, so if you need to review and select photos you will know which photos you have chosen

That’s it.

enjoy 😉

 

 

Advertisement

fixed : cannot print PDF form from macOS Preview.app

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

I have received an eMail from a vendor that includes a dispatchnote PDF that I need to print.

The PDF opens fine in Preview.app, but when I try to print it, everything seems to work fine, only the print doesn’t come out of the printer…

I can’t find the problem : the PDF appears in the printer’s Job List, the status bar fills up completely, the printer makes some noise to indicate that it is receiving data, the print job is deleted from the Job List, and nothing comes out of the printer… there are no error messages, no indication what so ever that something went wrong… the pint just won’t come out of the printer…

I checked to see if there is something special about the PDF-file that might be causing this, but I can’t find anything special about it… the PDF is not locked or anything…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

Even though it is not clear where this problem comes from, the solution is simple : use Adobe Reader (a.k.a. Adobe Acrobat Reader DC) or Adobe Acrobat Pro if you have it.

To do so, do this :

  • go to https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/otherversions/
  • at Step 1, 2 and 3 set the right OS, language and version, then click the Download Now button to download Adobe Reader
  • when the download is done, install Adobe Reader on your Mac
  • then, open Adobe Reader
  • and open the hard-to-print PDF from Adobe Reader
  • as soon as it starts appearing on-screen, you can press [CMD] + [P] to get to the printing screen
  • from there, just try to print again…
    • note that this is not your regular macOS printing screen, so you might want to check if all settings are to your liking before you give the actual print-commando (you might have to set things like double sided printing again)

The fact that the file is not printing from Preview.app, but it is from Adobe Reader, might indicate that the PDF was created by Adobe Acrobat Pro on Windows and that there is a problem in the version of Acrobar Reader that was used that causes this problem to arise…

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : animated GIFs not playing in Preview.app

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

For my work I regularly get animated-GIF for online advertising campaigns send to me offline. As it turns out I can only view them in the Finder’s preview, but when I double-click on them, they open in Preview.app as a static picture…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

As any .gif-file is considered as a picture by OSX, both static and animated GIFs will be opened in Preview.app by default. Too bad, but Preview.app can only display static pictures, no movies, nor dynamic pictures…

The solution is simple ; just make OSX by default open all .gif-files in an application that can handle animations, like your web browser.

to do so :

  • locate and select any of your animated .gif-files in the Finder
  • then press the [cmd]+[i] key-combo on your keyboard (a.k.a. “get info”)
  • in the info-window that opens, scroll down to “Open with:”
  • make sure the triangular arrow in front of “Open with:” is pointing down
  • if the triangular arrow is pointing to the right, click on it
  • just below “Open with:” you will see “Preview (default)”
  • click on that, and change it to “Safari” (or any other application that can handle animated GIFs, if you don’t see the application you’re looking for listed, select “Other…” and select the one you prefer from you Applications folder)
  • then, don’t forget to click on the “Change All…”-button also

…that’s it, from now on, any .gif-file on your Mac will be opened in Safari (or your chosen alternative) by default, and you will see all animated-GIFs opened as animations when you lick on them.

enjoy !

😉

Donate Button (MacManusNL)

fixed : move opened Preview-document from outer corner of Desktop

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

I somehow managed to move an open Preview document to the outer corner of the Desktop in such a way that there’s no part of Preview’s document window in sight that can be clicked and dragged. So, there’s no way to drag the open document onto the center of the Desktop…

And closing the document and opening it isn’t an option either, since nove of the red/yellow/green window buttons are in sight either…

How can I fix this ?

 

Answer :

Here’s what to do :

– click and hold the Preview app icon in the Dock

– in the pop-up menu that opens, click on “Show All Wondows”

– in the view that opens, select the troublesome document

…now the document will open in the centre of the Desktop, and you can drag it or close it.

That’s it !

Enjoy !

Donate Button (MacManusNL)

fixed : custom Quartz-filters are not available system-wide

Posted on by
2

Question :

In the past, I used to create my own custom Quartz-filters in ColorSync Utility, and they were instantly available system-wide in MacOSX. Now, in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion and OSX 10.9 Mavericks ( and OSX 10.10 Yosemite and OSX 10.11 El_Capitan ), I don’t have access to my Quartz-filters anymore…

What is wrong ? And how can I fix this ?

Answer :

In the latest versions of OSX [*], there seems to be a bug preventing OSX to find Quartz-filters stored outside of the ‘official’ “Filters”-folder that is inside the “Library”-folder in the “System”-folder… so, since all custom-made Quartz-filters are stored inside the “Filters”-folder that is inside the (invisible) “Library”-folder in the User’s “Home”-folder, your custom-made Quartz-filters are not found by OSX…

The solution is to just move them into the right (official) “Filters”-folder. [**]

(Yep, it’s that easy…)

For an in-depth step-by-step guide for doing so, follow the procedure outlined here.

NOTES :

[*] this bug was solved/removed with the introduction of macOS 10.12 Sierra

[**] put differently :

In all versions of OSX from OSX 10.8 Mountain_Lion up to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan,
new Quartz-filters created in Colorsync Utility are/were automatically saved in :
~/Users/[username]/Library/Filters/
But all other applications (including e.g. Preview) weren’t able to access or use them as they could only load Quartz-filters from :
~/System/Library/Filters/
and – only if you created the following folder manually – from :
~/Library/Filters/
So you had to manually move your custom Quartz-filters to :
~/Library/Filters/
to be able to use them in Preview.app and alike

Donate Button (MacManusNL)

tip : quickly cut-out part of a picture in OSX

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

I have a nice picture I want to use in a presentation, but I don’t want the entire picture, just part of it.

Is there an easy way to cut the desired piece out ?

…even if I don’t have Photoshop ?

Answer :

Even if you don’t have Photoshop, cutting out part of a picture for (re)use in PowerPoint, Keynote, Word, Pages, your website, LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc. is very easy on your Mac :

1- open the picture in Preview app (usually that would only require you to double-click on the picture’s icon)

2- click on the Image-button (Edit button)

3- in the Editing-toolbar that appears, click on the Image-button (Selection button)

4- now the + (Plus sign) appears, so : click on one corner of the part of the picture you want to select and drag to the opposite corner [ you can do this rather ‘roughly’ ]

5- then the selection area appears [ normally a rectangle with dots in the corners and on the middle of the side ] ; drag the dots so, that the selection area exactly fits the part of the picture that you want to take out

6- then press the ‘Copy key-combo’ (CMD + C)

7- now choose “New From Clipboard” from the “File”-menu, or press the ‘New key-combo’ (CMD + N), and you will get a new window with only your ‘cut-out part’ in it

8- if that looks as you envisioned it, choose “Save” from the “File”-menu, or press the ‘Save key-combo’ (CMD + S), and save the cut-out picture as a JPEG or PNG (or TIFF)

Donate Button (MacManusNL)

fixed : HP DeskJet 930c can’t print PDF

Posted on by
Reply

Question :

I got an eMail-attachment in PDF, and when I tried to print it from my OSX 10.8 “Mountain Lion” MacBookPro, a completely blank page came out of my HP DeskJet 930c…

And when I tried printing the entire mail (including the preview of the PDF), the eMail-bodytext got printed, but there was a blank spot where the PDF-preview should have been…

What can I do ?

Answer :

For some unknown reason, the HP DeskJet 930c seems to have problems printing PDFs from OSX 10.8 “Mountain Lion”. The only remedy seems to be to install Adobe Reader and print every PDF from there…

…to make printing from Adobe Reader a little easier for you (and something you will not forget when you do not print PDFs for some time), it would be good to set Adobe Reader as the preferred software to open any PDF on your Mac. To do so, do this :

– select any PDF-document’s icon on your Mac

– then press [CMD]+[I] on your keyboard

– in the ‘Get Info’ window that opens, go to the chapter called “Open with:”

– if the grey triangular arrow in front is pointing to the right, click on it to make it point downward and reveal the pulldown-menu that you can should choose “Adobe Reader” from

– after you’ve done that, make sure you also click the “Change All…” button

…now any PDF-document you get on your Mac or in your Mac will open up in Adobe Reader, and you can print it from there

That’s it !

Donate Button (all)

Enjoy !