Terminal Tricks!

Check out some of our favorite ways Terminal can customize your Mac.

If you have a nice-looking screensaver like us, you want to see it all the time. Type the command below in Terminal, and your current screensaver will appear as your Desktop’s background image. Then, as with all commands on this page and the next, hit Return.

1. Make Your Screensaver the Desktop Background

You know that screensaver, right? Now it’s your wallpaper! Whoa. Trippy.

If you have a nice-looking screensaver like us, you want to see it all the time. Type the command below in Terminal, and your current screensaver will appear as your Desktop’s background image. Then, as with all commands on this page and the next, hit Return.

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &

Simple? Check. Fun? Totally. But if you get motion sickness, simply close the Terminal window to return your Desktop to normal.

2. Re-Index Spotlight

If Spotlight’s acting funky, re-indexing will get it up on the right side of the bed.

Spotlight search results not appearing as they should? Force Spotlight to re-index itself with the following two commands: 

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo mdutil -i on /

You’ll be prompted for your administrator password. Then, after a few minutes’ delay, Spotlight will begin re-indexing your Mac.

3. Put Spacers in your Dock to Organize Apps

Here’s Cory’s impressively crowded Dock before he added spacers...

...and afterward, those lovely little gaps create logical groupings of kinds of apps.

The Dock is a great place for your most-used applications, but it can get a little crowded. With a Terminal command, you can add spacers to your Dock to organize things a little better. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities), then type the following command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'

Type the command once for each space you’d like to add, then type the following to restart the Dock: 

killall Dock

In the new Dock, you’ll see the spacers to the right of your applications. Drag spacers around to create “sections” of applications in your Dock. To remove a spacer, simply drag it off the Dock.

4. Create a Recent Items Stack in the Dock

Stacks let you quickly access data from your Dock, but Apple doesn’t let you add a stack containing your most recently accessed files or apps unless you use the following Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

Then restart the Dock: 

killall Dock

When the Dock reappears, you’ll find a stack of recent items beside the Trash. To change which items appear in the stack, right-click it to choose Recent Applications, Recent Documents, Recent Servers, Favorite Volumes, or Favorite Items. 

Live in the Cloud with Dropbox 

Forget USB thumb drives—Dropbox is where it’s at for keeping your data everywhere you are.

If you frequently use a USB thumb drive to move documents between systems, here’s how to put that data in the cloud -- and keep it synced to multiple computers -- using a free Dropbox account.

1. Download It

Visit dropbox.com and click the Download Dropbox button. When the installer opens, drag Dropbox to your Applications folder and double-click the icon to open it. Click Continue to start setting up a new account. 

Applications folder, meet Dropbox. Dropbox, say hi to Applications.

2. Install It

On the next screen, fill in your name, email address, and password (Dropbox automatically fills in your computer’s name). Next, you’ll be asked what size Dropbox account you want; the default 2GB is free, so click Continue. Select Typical setup on the next screen, then Skip Tour, and finally Install, which adds a Dropbox folder to your Mac’s Home folder (and to Places in Finder window sidebars).

If you send referral emails to friends and get them to sign up for Dropbox, you can add another GB or more of space to your account.

3. Move Into the Cloud

Files placed inside the Dropbox folder will be uploaded to the cloud and available from other computers with Dropbox installed or by logging into your dropbox.com account from any web browser. Files with a blue icon are currently syncing; files with a green icon are synced, meaning they exist on your computer as well as in the cloud. Dropbox gets you started with Photos and Public folders, but you can create new folders (File > New Folder) and drag and drop files into them with ease.

The little green arrows mean a file’s safely uploaded.

4. Save into the Cloud

You can also open or save files directly from applications. For example, open a new document in a word processor and enter some text. Select File > Save from the menu and find your Dropbox folder (or subfolder) from the Places sidebar. Click the Save button, and your file is beamed up to Dropbox, where it can be opened from another linked computer with the File menu or by double-clicking it in your Dropbox folder.

Dropbox.com also saves previous versions of your files—handy!

5. Go Mobile--And Share!

Finally, install Dropbox on your other systems or download the free universal app for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Log in with the same email account and password you set up in step 2, and you’ll now have access to all your Dropbox data everywhere you go.

Nothing beats having all your files with you everywhere you and your iPhone go.

Be sure to also check out the Sharing feature (accessed via the tabs in your account at dropbox.com), which lets you invite other Dropbox users to a shared folder, creating a virtual server that can be invaluable when collaborating or just distributing photos. Just keep in mind that the free Dropbox account is only 2GB, so you probably won’t want to use it for big multimedia files, especially on internet connections with slow upload speeds.