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Mac OS X Services in Snow Leopard

Mac OS X Services let one application supply its powers to another; for example, a Grab service helps TextEdit paste a screenshot into a document. Most users either don't know that Services exist, because they're in an obscure hierarchical menu (ApplicationName > Services), or they mostly don't use them because there are so many of them.

Snow Leopard makes it easier for the uninitiated to utilize this feature; only services appropriate to the current context appear. And in addition to the hierarchical menu, services are discoverable as custom contextual menu items - Control-click in a TextEdit document to access the Grab service, for instance.

In addition, the revamped Keyboard preference pane lets you manage services for the first time ever. You can enable and disable them, and even change their keyboard shortcuts.

Submitted by
Doug McLean

 

 

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Poll Results: Running for Office?

Poll Results: Running for Office? If the response to last week's poll asking if people planned to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2001 (and if so, why) is any indication, the Microsoft folks have their marketing work cut out for them. A full 51 percent of respondents said they didn't plan to upgrade. Of the people who do plan to upgrade, the reasons were relatively varied, with the simple "Want latest version" leading the pack. Office 2001's new features attracted other people, followed by the desire for a better interface, better document sharing, and bug fixes. Least important was company policy, interestingly enough, and a similar number of people voted for other, unspecified reasons. [ACE]

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<http://db.tidbits.com/article/06133>

 

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