16 Coolest New Features In Mac OS X 10.5 That You Didn't Know About

I didn't know there was wikipedia support, I'll have to check that out sometime.

Any word of A2DP (Blutetooth stereo) support? I hope that made it!

This already exists. Why on earth is apple listing this feature when it already works in 10.4 6. Scroll Non-Active Windows Scroll any open window, even if it’s not active. Simply position your mouse over the target window and scroll.

"Harness the power of Wikipedia when you’re connected to the Internet — built right into it’s Dictionary." "its". Not "it's".

Grammar checker! SMS forwarding! Mac OSX just keeps getting better. Scrolling non-active windows doesn't sound like much, but you'll be surprised how often you need it.

Right on! I'm going to find plenty of use for much of the above. Readers - check out the rest of the features at apple.com.

Wiki in in the dictionary will be great, afterall I'm always connected to the net.

#2 is great!

I think that is big that you can open word documents in text edit, i wonder why they didn't do that before?

Nice work! The vast majority of this list I had no idea about.

The funny thing is that when Microsoft tried to do anything with Adobe's PDF format (i.e., enable save to PDF from Office 2007) they are threatened with lawsuits and all that ridiculous BS. Apple on the other hand, will allow editing, manipulation, and saving to PDF format...and Adobe doesn't say a damn thing. What a joke!

thats a really useful comment mate, enlightened us all ;)

You must not be using the new Grammar check feature, because "it's" should not have an apostrophe in item 15.

[...] or above) processor. Of course, production environments will want to wait until 10.5.2 or so, but new features such as Quick Look, Cover Flow, and enhancements to Preview, Applescript, and Automator should make [...]

be: "...Why on earth is apple listing this feature when it already works in 10.4..." You must be using a different version OS X 10.4 than me.

"This already exists. Why on earth is apple listing this feature when it already works in 10.4 6. Scroll Non-Active Windows" It doesn't have full support under Tiger. Try opening a finder window and then trying to scroll Safari in the background. Doesn't work. Leopard builds this in universally.

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I think the coolest little known feature in OS X 10.5 is Resizable Partitions in Disk Utility!!! This is a killer feature fully cementing Disk Utility's bad ass.

I wonder... Why Yahoo address book?

My personal favorite new addition is the time slider in DVD Player, I have used VLC to watch DVDs just because there was a time slider, I am stoked for that.

Yahoo address bar? Who cares

Leopard also introduces SVG support, among others in Safari. Learn more about this nice standard at http://svg.startpagina.nl

MikeZ: Since NeXTstep, TextEdit was just a frontend for the builtin RTF support. Hopefully, ODF (OpenOffice) and MS Office support in Leopard TextEdit means it's builtin just like RTF, and it will show up in iWork, etc.

16 Coolest New Features In Mac OS X 10.5 That You Didn’t Know About... Jon Henshaw: 6. Scroll Non-Active Windows Scroll any open window, even if it’s not active. Simply position your mouse over the target window and scroll. Meaning with the scrolling features of your mouse or trackpad. It’s already possible to s...

I'll be happy about the Dictionary only if it has languages OTHER than US English which only US people use. If the dictionary ties in with the Regional settings then that would be cool. Grammer checker is a have anyway.

you can already print a PDF from the printer chooser, so apple must have paid Adobe to be adble to use the PDF feature

You cannot currently scroll an INACTIVE window. You can only scroll it if you make it active first. Mac people used to be smarter than Windoze people.

[...] Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand this week, you’ll know that Apple are releasing their OSX upgrade 10.5 (Leopard), and if you have had your head stuck in the sand, well, shame on you. Like every true mac geek, I can’t wait to get my hands on it. By now, I’m sure we all know about Leopard’s new features. But what about it’s lesser known facets of awesomeness? Jon Henshaw of Sitening tells us about 16 of the not so publicised cool new Leopard features. [...]

Adobe has stated that they're going to (apparently already have) make PDF an open standard, which probably why apple can modify PDFs now

While the Yahoo address book syncing is awesome... why didn't Apple include the obvious and practical Gmail address book syncing?

Interesting what they've finally nailed down.

Yes, we need gmail sync Joe, info@steamteam.ca

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>You cannot currently scroll an INACTIVE window. You can only scroll it if you make it active first. Mac people used to be smarter than Windoze people. Yes you can - hold the Command key and then drag the scrollbar of an inactive window. This feature has been in OS X for as long as I can remember - looks like they've just made it easier to do.

[...] Study the 16 Coolest New Features In Mac OS X 10.5 That You Didn’t Know About [...]

Paul: That doesn't work. What's wrong with you?

# xxdesmus Says: "Apple on the other hand, will allow editing, manipulation, and saving to PDF format…and Adobe doesn’t say a damn thing. What a joke!" Adobe has taken steps to make PDF an open standard, which it is. Some people feel that they finally realized they'd lose money when they realized the biggest software company was going to use the "open standard" PDF. Also, iirc Apple has an agreement with Adobe wrt Display PDF.

@xxdesmus: Since the neginning PDF has been the underlying rendering system of the whole Mac OS X system. That's why it's so easy to "export" any kind of document to PDF (by using the "Print" window). Apple and Adobe have an agreement! @MikeZ: TextEdit has been able to open Word documents fo a long time! The new TextEdit can open the new OpenDocument and Word (2007) formats.

@Tom: The trick described by Paul works great (I forgot thet you could do that)

Tom: Scrolling an INACTIVE window DOES work. You have to HOLD DOWN the COMMAND KEY on your keyboard. Then click on the scroll bar of an inactive (background) window and scroll it. You can also click on the title bar and move the window around... all while KEEPING THE WINDOW IN THE BACKGROUND. If you can't do this, you must be a moron. It has been in Mac OS for YEARS (at least back to Mac OS 9, maybe before that).

"If you can’t do this, you must be a moron" This type of comment is not needed or helpful.

The command key scrolling trick works in Safari, but it doesn't work on Finder windows -- the window is activated regardless of whether you hold down command or not. In fact, I just tried it on Thunderbird and it doesn't work there either. Furthermore, this inconsistently applied trick is obviously an obscure keyboard shortcut that isn't printed in any menu, so how is one a "moron" for not being aware of it?

"You cannot currently scroll an INACTIVE window. You can only scroll it if you make it active first. Mac people used to be smarter than Windoze people." I never noticed until reading this thread, but the Finder offers this ability today. You can scroll a background Finder window by simply putting the cursor over it and scrolling. Leopard, apparently, is offering it for all apps. As for holding the command-key--that's different.

Ben (40): It only works sometimes - try opening iTunes as a background window and the doing this with Safari at the front - it doesn't work. However, make iTunes the focus, and put Safari in the background and the trick works. Maybe Leopard just irons out the inconsistencies...

^^ Er, what's with the rudeness? Yes, you can command-drag or command-scroll (and sometimes even command-click-through) inactive windows for a long time now, but scrolling via the scroll-wheel in inactive windows is new. Minor, IMO, but nifty. Nice list.

Yes, You can hold the command key and then drag the scroll bars on inactive windows, however this is not the same as what's coming in Leopard. By holding the command key, you are telling the window to not activate because you still have to click and drag on the scroll bar. Doing this without the command key would obviously select and activate the window. In Leopard, you can use the scroll wheel/ball on your mouse and just mouse over the window and scroll, without any holding down of keys or clicking.. This is a NICE feature..

Unless I can finally export my contacts into a CSV (or such) file, Address Book still a useless application...

Hey... want to stand in line with me at the Apple store in Green Hills next friday? We can be sick fanboys together.

Regarding PDFs, The old NEXT systems used Display PostScript, which iirc was very expensive to license. I believe that they switched to PDF because it is an open standard that anyone can use. I don't believe they have or require Adobe's permission to do this.

John Mc : Bunch of tools can do that, check out versiontracker.com or macupdate.com

> Unless I can finally export my contacts into a CSV (or such) file, Address Book still a useless application… Address Book has had an Export vCard function for a long time now. vCard is the standard contact info exchange format; CSV is a feeble fallback if nothing else is available. (I've had the problem that it creates the vCard file in UTF-16 even if my preferences specify otherwise, but you can easily convert UTF-16 to UTF-8 using TextEdit.)

[...] There are over 300 new features in Leopard. Here are some of coolest ones. [...]

The most exciting new feature of Leopard isn't even on Apples list... Resolution Independence at last!

Apple licensed PDF ages ago when they first built OS X. The entire GUI is built on PDFs.

And these features aren't even the really cool ones. Paramount, yes. It's what you can do with the other features, combined with these system wide services that one can really make new applications to only strengthen Apple's platform and foothold into all markets. UNIX Certified, 64 Bit clean, OpenDocument and OOXML (Federal Governments the world over but importantly the US Government requires OpenDocument) and more will make so many doors open. OS X Server has a ton of features for the IT Departments to drool over.

AMAZING!!!

Tom: Scrolling an INACTIVE window DOES work. You have to HOLD DOWN the COMMAND KEY on your keyboard. Then click on the scroll bar of an inactive (background) window and scroll it. You can also click on the title bar and move the window around… all while KEEPING THE WINDOW IN THE BACKGROUND.

Regarding DPS/DPDF: When we merged from NeXT to Apple the renegotiation for DPS had to change. We sold Openstep User for $799 and Openstep Developer Tools for $4999 with WebObjects 4 varying in pricing. The price for co-developing DPS was $10/license. DPDF was negotiated to always be 1 revision behind the current revision sold by Adobe. With Adobe preparing to release PDF 1.7 as an Open Standard [clearly the threat from Microsoft is being taken important by Adobe] whatever is in that Standard is no longer barring Apple from contractually not being allowed to do. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pdf/pdf_reference.html It's clear that PDF 1.7 is released. Adobe most certainly wants to leverage the broad developer community and distinguish itself and the UI and implementation angles. They've got enough invested in PDF that having it be the print standard will guarantee their Pre-Press and backend services are top tier.

What about the new features for Automator? They look pretty useful/powerful.

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Does the Guest account get access to another user's iTunes library? I always figured that would be an option, but don't see it mentioned. Imagine you're hosting a party and want to play music using iTunes. And you want to let other people play DJ from time to time. Shouldn't they be able to do so without having full access to your personal account?

I think number 11 is a current feature of AIM, not a new feature of iChat. http://dashboard.aim.com/client/65 "Don't waste your text messages. Send IMs directly to your friends' cell phones using AIM! That way, you'll never miss an IM. Forward messages to your cell phone when you go offline. Staying in touch just got sweeter."

Excellent list. Thanks! Have placed my preorder for Leopard. :)

X-mouse is a great feature! We use Solaris boxes at work and I've used that feature for years! Windows even had that feature available for at least XP (and if I remember correctly, 98SE) through one of the Power Tools downloads. I was surprised when I bought my iMac that it didn't support X-mouse. Yet another thing to look forward to in Leopard!

[...] Leopard gets cooler Filed under: OSX — 0ddn1x @ 2007-10-21 19:13:38 +0000 http://sitening.com/blog/2007/10/16/16-coolest-new-features-in-mac-os-x-105-that-you-didnt-know-abou... [...]

Yes! Grammer Check! Finally! As someone who didn't grow up speaking English, I NEED this. I hope it works well as the grammer test on MS Word. Thanks Apple!

[...] Sitening.com nos trae 16 nuevas funciones de Leopard, algunas de ellas muy poco conocidas: [...]

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Ben: "If you can’t do this, you must be a moron. It has been in Mac OS for YEARS (at least back to Mac OS 9, maybe before that)." Well, I guess I'm a moron then... I started with a Mac Plus years ago and never heard of this feature in all these years. Right now, I've got Tiger and an old machine running Panther and every time I command-click on a background scroll bar, as described here, it just brings the window to the foreground. I guess my Macs are morons too because they can't even do it.

[...] In questa attesa spasmodica per Leopard, la voglia di provarlo è tanta. E c’è chi ha già avuto il piacere di usarlo. Tra questi Jon Henshaw di Sitening.com, che ha selezionato le 16 migliori features che nessuno (o quasi) conosce. [...]

[...] that makes Google think we’re somebody. It’s possible that our recently Dugg article, 16 Coolest New Features In Mac OS X 10.5 That You Didn’t Know About,  pushed us over that threshold. Or it could have been Scott’s entry, San Diego Wildfire [...]

[...] but certainly things you can live without if you don’t have Leopard. I found this list of 16 coolest new features that highlight some of the advances. The one feature that I really thought would be really great is Spaces, which [...]

AFAIK, Apple built on NeXT's "display Postscript" which was expensive to license (but NeXT's workstations & servers were expensive anyway). I think Apple worked out a way to get around this, but the Apple PDF is not always the same as the Adobe PDF ... also the Apple stuff wont give you nearly as many options as Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro (though maybe there is a way around this too?) Sometimes this is good... as Acrobat CS3 was giving us some issues (Acrobat 8 Reader, Pro). And sometimes its not as good... like if you have a 10.3 or 10.2 machine, the PDF is pretty old (so rendering can be an issue). I'm guessing MS would try to muscle its way into PDF... but Apple is PDF (since OS X anyway). GO WIKI IT!