Have Your Desktop Background Be a Video

For those who have subscribed to the RSS feed, there is a video for this tip.

Something I've been wanting to do for a while is be able to have my desktop background be a movie instead of just an image. Unfortunately, using the method outlined below, you can't pause the movie, but this will have to do for now.



Step 1: Download and install the SaveHollywood screensaver.


Step 2: After you've installed SaveHollywood, go to your screen saver preferences and select it as your screen saver. Click on the options button and set it up as you would like. When researching this tip, somebody suggested using music videos as your desktop background.


Step 3: After you've setup SaveHollywood, we now need to set our desktop background as the screensaver. This really isn't hard. Simply run this command in Terminal: (The command should only be one line. Not two!)

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background > /dev/null 2>&1 &

This should activate the screensaver-on-desktop effect.


Step 4: To stop the screensaver-on-desktop effect you can either close the Terminal window or go to Activity Monitor and quit the ScreenSaverEngine process.


Step 5: If you want a button to turn on and off the screen saver effect, then you can use the following applescript:

tell application "System Events"
if process "ScreenSaverEngine" exists then
tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to quit
else
do shell script "/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background > /dev/null 2>&1 &"
end if
end tell


This will turn it on if it's off and off if it's on. Simply save it as a applescript application or download it from here.



Other Options

If you don't like this particular method of getting movies onto your desktop, there are two other ways of doing it:

1: Divx Player

2: Desktop Movie Player


Divx Player

The Divx Player option is probably the better of the two. First, download the free Divx Player. After launching the app, simply open any video file and hit Cmd-D (Playback>Desktop) to have it play on the desktop. To pause the video, simply right click on the Divx Player dock icon and select the Pause/Play option.

Pros:
Pause/Play capability.

Cons:
Another app in the dock.
It works best with Divx movies. (Plays some normal filetypes, but, not iPod/TV files)


Desktop Movie Player (not recommended at all!)

The Desktop Movie Player was another solution I found while researching this tip. Download the Desktop Movie Player and drop a movie onto the icon to have it start playing.

Pros:
Easily play movies.

Cons:
PPC based (runs very very slow/uses rosetta)
No pausing.
Another app in the dock.


For those of you who prefer a demonstration, I've made a video for this post. Watch it here.

If you've followed this tip and setup a video on your desktop, what do you have playing? Leave a comment!

Get An Organized Desktop

If keeping your desktop organized is a problem for you, then this might help you. While this tip is not exclusively for Mac, having an organized desktop will keep your computer speedy.

What I do, is I have a six circles that are different colors. I also have one circle in the center which I use for stuff like pictures or text. For an example, look at my current desktop:



As you can see, I have the center circle filled with this rather grotesque comic from See Mike Draw (I have edited the center circle more than I normally would to get it to look right.) Also, I have two pernament files on my desktop. An alias to my Hard Drive (Upper right) and an alias to this applescript (Lower Left). I'll tell you why they are aliases later.

I made the core background picture using Keynote. Then, if I want to add something, I simply go to my root keynote file and edit the center circle. So, if I need to remember something, I'll stick the text in my center circle. If I find a funny picture, I'll stick it there.

To get the picture onto my desktop, I do a slideshow in keynote, and, while still in the presentation, will take a picture of the current slide. This way, I have a full-screen version. After that, I stick it in my rotating background images folder and wait for it to show up.


Now I'll tell you how to edit it. First of all, you can download my keynote file here. Sorry, but, it's in 800x600 format. So, you might have to change that if you're on a widescreen computer. You also might want to rearrange/add some circles/squares/triangles/whatever shape you want. Once you have your shapes arranged, you want to add the center circle. Make it a color you want and then set the fill to either nothing or an image. If you do an image, it might turn out perfectly, it might not. YMMV. If you do nothing, then you can do text.

To do an image, select the circle and hit Cmd-Optio-I to open the inspector. Click on the 4th tab from the right and change "Fill" to "Image Fill".

To do text, make a new text box and type in the text you want. Then, place it in the center circle.



Why would you want this kind of background? Well, for two reasons:

1: You'll eventually have a more organized desktop.
2: You can put text in the center and have it memorized in a short period of time.


Finally, the aliases. I mentioned earlier that I have two aliases on my desktop. The reason that they are aliases is simple: because aliases do not display the "item info" under the icon. This is a strange behavior, but, it makes my desktop look a bit cleaner, so, I use it.


Well, that's all for this week. If you deployed my ideas listed above, or, are bored, email me a pic of your desktop!

A Specific Location For Autosaved Files in TextEdit

If you use TextEdit and have turned on autosave, then you might be familiar with the file called "_Your_file's_name_ (Autosaved)". Well, when I save a document called "Secret File" to the desktop, a file called "Secret File (Autosaved)" appears on the desktop. Then, when I save the document, the file disappears.

While this is not unusual, it can be quite handy. It reminds you to save your file every time you see it. However, what I discovered yesterday, is that you can place this file where you want on the desktop (for example, in the lower right hand corner) then, when the file next appears, it will be located in the lower right hand corner rather than in the default file location.

The reason this is nice is because you can move it to where you will see it, then, you will get a reminder to save your document.

Clean Up Time!

Your desktop is cluttered with stuff, right? Well, when mine gets cluttered, I start putting stuff "off-grid" and I often stack related items. Well, when I finally get annoyed with how messy my desktop is, I usually go to my desktop in a finder window, switch over to columns, and organize it. Well, if you want to do a quick clean up, in finder, you go to View>Clean Up. If you have a stack of items, you can select them, then have finder de-stack them for you.

Quick Save in a Save Dialog Box

Whenever you save something to save, you can press the blue arrow box icon to extend the save window. This is all nice and good, but I want something quicker. Something that doesn't use the mouse. Well, one way that you can save time is by hitting Cmd-D. This will switch the save location to the desktop. You can also hit Cmd-Shift-H to switch it to your home folder. A quick way for a quick save.

More to LS? >>/>

As an amendment to yesterday's post, there is actually more you can do with the "ls" command. Here's what.

Assuming you have already changed the directory to your desktop. (cd ~/Desktop/) you can create a text list of all the items on it. (And save it as a text file.)

To do this merely replace "ls" with "ls >> ~/Desktop/Filename_You_Want.txt"

If ~/Desktop/Filename_You_Want.txt already exists it will add the list to it. If ~/Desktop/Filename_You_Want.txt doesn't exist, then it will create a new file with the list you made.

Thanks to TXP for the help!

Easy Desktop Pictures

In view of today's new contest (contest #7) I'm going to have a tip telling you how to easily get a copy of your current background. The easy way to do it is to merely hit Cmd-Shift-4. Then, press the spacebar. This will bring up the little camera mouse. Hold that over an empty place on your desktop and click. This will create a full size image of your current background picture, on your desktop called "Picture 1".

Can You See Me Now?

Sorry for no new post this morning. However, I’m writing the tip right now. So, here it is:

If you want more room on your desktop (or any other window in icon view) you can easily get more room. Open the window/click on the desktop and hit Cmd-J to open the view options. At the top, it will give you options such as Icon size and Label Font Size. Set the icon size small and the text size small. This can give you significantly more screen space to use for icons. Alternatively, you can make the text/icons larger to see them better.

Snap That Grid!

I really like the “Snap To Grid” option for the desktop. But, sometimes, I want to put a file in a non-grid space. This poses a problem because there’s no obvious way to do that. However, if you want to do this, all you have to do is hold down the command key when you drop it. This also works if you don’t use grid mode and want to snap something to the grid. Really nice to know! Especially if you use aliases like I do.

)BTW, if you use blogger, would you be able to tell me if you can upload pictures through the post composer? Because it's still not working for me. Thanks!)