If you hate the dock's current look and want a more uniform, less reflective look back, you can pin the dock to the sides of the screen in the preferences, OR, if you want the plain look on the bottom, type this in Terminal.app:

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock

The same commands, with YES changed to NO will revert things.

Heres my tips and tricks:

1. Time Machine is very nice but i think the UI looks a lot better without the tacky stars flying past. To remove them replace HyperBlueStar.tiff etc and NormalBlueStar.tiff etc in /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources with 8x8 pixel black squares in .tiff format using photoshop or any other image editing app. remember to rename the 8x8 tiffs to the appropriate colours i.e. HyperBlueStar.tiff and HyperRedStar.tiff etc and backup the original files if you want to revert back.

here is the end result. a lot slicker and more professional IMHO.



2. If you want to change the sidebar headings in Finder dig down into System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/ and copy LocalizableCore.string to the desktop. open it in TextEdit or your favourite text editor and search for SD5 and change the headings strings as you like. Save it and replace the original and then restart the finder by typing the command "killall Finder" in terminal or option-rightclicking on finder in the dock and choosing relaunch.

As I found out today, the Workgroup Manager for Leopard Server works on Leopard client, if you wish to make more detailed changes to users or groups that previously required Netinfo Manager, such as changing the location of a user's home folder.

Here's a new Leopard tip I hadn't hear before - hold down the option key while clicking on the Airport icon. It gives you your MAC address, channel, transmit rate, etc.

Photo Booth lovers;

Option + Photo button = instantly take photo.
Shift + Photo button = no flash.
Option + Shift + Photo button = instant no flash photo.

sweet! great tips

richthomas, do you mind digging up another screenshot of what the tweaked Time Machine looks like please?

Ricky.

Nice!

sorry i was cleaning out all my screenshots on my flickr accoutn and must a deleted it

ill put it back up soon enough

Here's a tip for those of you using Stacks.

When using Stacks in grid mode it's possible to set it so each item you move your cursor over within the Stacks grid will be highlighted.

Just insert these two lines of code in Terminal exactly as written:-

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean yes
killall Dock

The first line above sets a hidden preference value to yes; the second restarts the Dock so that change takes effect.

Note: this only works in grid mode not fan mode

heres a tip for spotlight

those of us that love having a 'neat' dock and dont want all our programs there.

simply press command and space to bring up the spotlight search box and start typing the application name. its damn quick (on my macbook at least) and its easy to get to programs that way.

enjoy

the airport tip was great too, thanks for that.

another one that isnt REALLY for Leopard, but for Aperture

if you are using Aperture on anything but a *** Pro, it may be a little sluggish, simply turn down the quality of the preview in the Aperture prefs
it sped up my aperture when browsing the library by a fair bit on 4 (Low)
it does not affect the fullscreen image at all

Just found a great tip for something that was annoying me (probably from previous versions, but a great tip anyway): when resizing columns in the Finder, if you hold down alt/option while doing it that becomes the default column width from now on. No more "..." shortening of file and folder names!

Alternatively, if you hold down alt/option while moving your mouse over the names you get a tooltip box with the full name in it.

Double-click the column resize handle to automatically resize the column to the longest item.

If you've found that the canned searches that appear in the sidebar are far too broad to be of any use, you can replace them with more finely targeted searches of your own. For example you might want to have a saved search that lists all plain text, rich text, PDF, and office documents in your Documents folder.

Start by opening Finder and pressing -F to open the Find dialog. Alternatively, you can create a new Smart Folder, which works the same way. Then select the scope of your search (where to search) - eg. This Mac, or a specific folder.

To do a boolean operation (OR , NOT, etc.) hold the Option key down when clicking on the + sign, which turns it into an ellipsis (...). You can then choose from the following criteria:
if Any of the following are true (= boolean OR);
if All of the following are true (= boolean AND);
or if None of the following are true (= boolean NOT).

For the example above, you would create a search like this:

Once you've created your search, you can save it as a Smart Folder and/or add it to the Finder sidebar.

To edit a saved search, open the search in Finder, then click on the "gear" button to the left of the blue Info button, and choose 'Show Search Criteria' from the drop down list. This will bring up the search builder as shown above. Add or adjust your criteria, and don't forget to save it.

Happy searching

I just saw this on TUAW and thought it was pretty awesome. I've never read about it before.

To zoom in on the Desktop in Leopard do the following:

Step 1. Load System Preferences -> Universal Access


Step 2. Change the Radio Button to "On" in Zoom


Step 3. Press the "Options" button next to Zoom


Step 4. Press "When zoomed in, the screen moves: continuously with pointer."


Step 5. Now that it is enabled when you press "ctrl" and move two fingers on the trackpad the screen zooms in.

P.S: This is my 100th post! woohoo, let's party.