Using scripts I found on the internet, I created Finder applets that batch convert plain text, rich text, .DOC and .DOCX formats into PDF without the need to launch Microsoft Word and using the print or export menu. I also created unobtrusive icons to replace the default Apple Script icons.

To use, simply drag the files onto the chosen app. The apps can be used from the Applications folder, or from the Finder toolbar as an applet. You have two options:

• quick PDF – No additional software is required or launched. All is done using Apple Script and Mac OSX’s built-in tools. This is the quickest way to convert a text or document into PDF. It also creates an RTF (rich text format) file first, and then converts the RTF to PDF, thus you will have both. The new files will be created in the same location as the original. If you do not need the RTF, simply delete it.
• PDF via Pages – iWork Pages is required and will be launched. This is the more system-heavy option that will maintain the formatting and hyperlinks in DOC and DOCX files. With this option, you can specify the location of the new file.

Click here to see the download page on my site.

My old harddrive was a mere 320 GB with a 250 GB partition devoted to Time Machine backups. I wanted to move on to bigger and better things, i.e. a new 1 TB drive, but I still wanted to keep my old backups. Here’s how it’s done.

Open Disk Utility, which can be found in Utilities or under Spotlight.

You want to restore the new disk with the contents of the old disk. See the image below.

In the “Source” box, drag the original backup from the left sidebar. In the “Destination” box, drag the destination. Easy peasy.

Click “Restore” and the new disk should begin transferring.

I now use a 500 GB partition on a 1 TB harddrive for my Time Machine backups.

This could take hours depending how much data you have to transfer.

Connect your drives directly to your computer. I initially tried doing it through a powered USB hub. Cancelling and connecting my drives directly to my Mac changed the transfer time from 9 hours to 3 hours. I guess going through an extra wire and a USB hub takes 3 times as long.

Let’s say you just uploaded a bunch of pictures from your digital camera. You need to resize them for faster upload to Facebook,other social networks, and quick emailing. You can do this all for free in the Finder without any additional software!

Automator is an app that comes free on your Mac. Use Spotlight to find it, which you can quickly access by clicking on the magnifying glass in the top right or by pressing Command+Space bar. Type “Automator” and click on the robot holding the blue tube.

We’re going to create Service items in Automator. These items will show up when you control-click on items and when you go into the Finder menu under Services.

Resize

Create a new Service item and select the values in the image below.

Under Photos, drag and drop ‘Scale images’ to the main area. Click “Don’t add” so that it replaces the file with a resized version (as opposed to creating a duplicate). Pick your pixel value. You can also use a percentage by changing the item in the dropdown to “Percentage.” Name your service appropriately. This name will show up in the menu.

Rotate

Do the same to create a rotate service, but instead choose “Rotate image” and select your values. You’ll need to make another if you want to do both clockwise and counter-clockwise. Name your service appropriately. This name will show up in the menu. To do the degree sign (°) press Cmd+Shift+8.

Now go try it out on a batch of images! You should be able to quickly rotate and resize from within the Finder.

You can download the Services above here. Drag and drop them into the user Library > Services folder.

Not sure if it’ll work. If not, make them using the steps above.

So let’s say you have a shiny new set of icons that you love and you want to keep using. You’ve managed to change every icon in your dock, even the Finder icon. Now you want to know how to change the iCal dock icon. When you do it the normal way it just changes back to the default icon once you open it. When it’s closed, it shows the wrong date. How do you fix this, you wonder? Well, here’s how!

I’m going to use the Litho set of icons I got from The Icon Factory and DeviantArt.

Step 1: Acquiring the icons you need

You will need to get icons to be like the ones above, i.e. an empty one named App-empty.icns and one to be used as the application icon named App.icns. Chances are, it’s pretty difficult to download them like this, so you might have to make them from icons you find. If you make the icons from scratch, make sure you leave enough space for the date.

To make them into ICNS, first find appropriate images to use, as described above. So you found the images you want to use, they’re probably in folder icon format (an icon format that is not going to work in this instance) or PNG. There are a variety of ways to do this, but I used the program img2icns to make these into *.icns files.

You may need to change them from Folder icon format to PNG then to ICNS, depending on what format they’re in.

Step 2: Installing the acquired icons

So, do you have an icon named App-empty.icns and another named App.icns? If yes, please continue. If not, please go back to step 1 and try again. You must have these icons to continue.

Put these icons in a safe place on your harddrive. Once you’ve put them where you want them, control click on them and click “Get info,” or simply press Command+I while selecting them. You want to click the checkbox next to “Locked” so that when you drag and drop them, they get copied instead of moved.

Go into applications and control click/right click on iCal and click “Show package contents.” The package will open. Go into Contents then Resources.

You need to do two things to change the icon properly:

a) Drag the newly created (and locked) icons into the Resources folder. You’ll need to be an administrator to authenticate and overwrite existing icons. This will take care of the application icon in the Applications folder, as well as the icon when iCal is opened in the dock.

b) If you’re running Snow Leopard, in the Resources folder, find the folder iCalDockTilePlugin.docktileplugin. Go into Contents then Resources of this folder and drag and drop App-empty.icns in there. This will take care of the Dock icon when iCal is closed. If you’re not running Snow Leopard, I’m not sure what you’ll need to do. If you can figure it out, please post it in a comment here.

There you have it! This should work. If you want to use the litho icons from Icon Factory, I’ve got the ICNS files I’ve made available for download here.

Renamer4Mac was a good option for a while for batch renaming but then it stopped being free.

A great free mass file renamer for the Mac is Name Mangler.

Great for batch renaming of files like photos, filenames of songs, episodes in a series, etc., basically anything that you have lots of and they have similar names. So if I wanted to organize the pictures from my NYC trip a bit more neatly, instead of having pictures named CIMG1002, CIMG1005 (because you deleted 2 in between), it’s good to make my photo names relevant to each other and neater, so it’d look something like NYC001, NYC002 (or any format you choose). Nice and neat way to organize your files.

If you’re OCD about the way things look and are organized on your computer, this could definitely save you some time (and money if you were looking at Renamer4Mac). It’d also make it a lot easier to find pictures, and avoid any problems of copying over some of your pictures because they have the same filenames, or getting your pictures jumbled up if they’re in the same folder.

Only problem with this is I can’t seem to figure out how to get the toolbar icon in my Finder windows like displayed in the third image on the site.