Mac Preference To Close Window When App Launched

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Terminal may be one of the least used but most powerful apps included with a Mac. At first glance, Terminal seems to be the antithesis of the Mac’s friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface), presenting instead a simple command line interface that harkens back to the days of glowing CRTs with green, amber, or whitish text, connected to some distant computer system.

(The default Terminal window, with black text on a white background.)

The Mac’s Terminal app emulates the old terminals, and provides access to a UNIX shell, where you can issue commands to manipulate the UNIX system that underlies the Mac OS. The UNIX shell, in this case, a Bash shell, provides a command processor that can interpret text entered by the user. It’s not just simple text commands you enter, such as displaying the contents of a folder, that the Bash shell can process, but also scripts, chains of commands, piping, conditional testing, variables, and more. The entire syntax that the Bash shell understands is a bit beyond this article. If you’re interested in creating shell scripts, Apple provides a developer’s guide to scripting using Terminal and the various UNIX shells.

May 07, 2015  In OS X, extensions are incorporated throughout the system and can be controlled through a dedicated system preference panel. In this article, we want to talk about where you will see extensions throughout your OS X system, and how to enable or disable them, if desired. Jun 11, 2018  3. Quit Safari without closing the window you just set to full screen mode. It’s very important that you don’t close the application window before quitting the app. You can quit an app from the menu bar, by right-clicking on the app’s Dock icon, or by pressing Command+Q. When you reopen Safari, it should still be in full-screen mode.

In the first part of our introduction to Terminal, we’re going to look at Terminal with an eye to more basic usage, primarily as a way to modify the standard behavior of the Mac OS. We’ll also look at some basic file system manipulation as examples of ways to use Terminal. So, let’s get started with how to launch and configure Terminal for your use.

Launching and Configuring
The Terminal app is located at /Applications/Utilities. You can launch Terminal just like any other Mac app. Once launched, Terminal will display a window containing a title listing the current working directory, usually your home folder, the type of shell in use, such as Bash, and the window size in characters, such as 80×24 (80 characters across and 24 characters or lines down).

The working area of the Terminal window will initially contain just a few lines of text. On my Mac, it displays the last time I logged in (used Terminal), and then the Terminal command prompt, which consists of my Mac’s name, the current directory, and the currently logged in user, ending with a $ prompt.

Just after the $ prompt is a dark rectangle that serves as Terminal’s cursor, showing the current location at which text will appear.

(Terminal after issuing the cd . and ls commands. Note the window has been customized with a different background color.)

Let’s try our first Terminal command. At the prompt, enter:

cd .

Then press enter or return on your keyboard.

Nothing much happened, although if you look at the Terminal window title, it changed to say Users. If you look at the prompt, it changed to show that the current working directory has changed to Users.

That’s because the cd command means to Change Directory, while the . tells the command to go up one level in the directory hierarchy.

Let’s try one more command, and then move on to some Terminal configuration options.

At the prompt enter:

Mac Preference To Close Window When App Launched 2017

ls

Press enter or return.

This time, the Terminal window will produce a list of items found in the Users directory. On my Mac, I see a Shared folder, along with three user account folders. If you wanted to examine any of these folders, you could use the cd command we tried earlier, such as cd Shared. Please note Terminal is case sensitive, so Shared is not the same folder as shared. Once you’ve moved to a new folder, use the ls command to view its contents.

OK, let’s move on to getting Terminal to look and operate the way you want it to.

Customize Terminal
Terminal has a number of customization options that you may wish to take advantage of, starting with the basic background color and text color. Terminal comes with a number of predefined profiles that set the colors used in a Terminal window. You can try each one out by selecting Shell, New Window, and then selecting a profile name from the menu.

(The Inspector is an easy way to select one of the predefined profiles for the Terminal window.)

There’s an easier way to examine the various profile settings, without having to open multiple Terminal windows; instead, select Shell, Show Inspector. In the Inspector window, click the Settings button. Every premade profile will be shown; you can click on a profile and the current Terminal window will change to show the new scheme. Go ahead and click through the various profiles until you find one you like.

If you would like to always have your Terminal window use a specific profile, here’s how to do it:

Select Preferences from the Terminal menu.

Select the General button in the Preferences toolbar.

Select On startup, open: New window with profile:

In the drop-down menu, select the Profile name you would like to use. You can always go back to the Inspector window to find the profile name you wish to use.

You can further customize a profile by selecting the Profiles button in the toolbar.

Select the Profile you wish to customize.

Click the Gear button, and select Duplicate profile.

Give the duplicate profile a new name.

(Profiles can be modified or new ones can be created using Terminal Preferences.)

The new profile will be based on the previously selected profile. You can now make changes without adversely affecting the original. We encourage you to experiment with the various settings. You can change text size, font, and color, background color, cursor style, and window size. While it’s OK to look at all the settings that can be changed, try limiting your customization to text, cursor, and window coloring for the time being. As you become more proficient with Terminal, other settings can be adjusted to meet your needs.

Now that you’ve seen that Terminal can be customized to your needs, let’s take a look ahead to part two of our Terminal series.

More About Bash and Commands to Customize Your Mac
In the second installment of our miniseries on Terminal, we’re going to take a more detailed look at the Bash shell, including some tricks that make entering and repeating commands a simpler process, and how to create a simple script. We’re also going to take a look at a number of commands that can be used to customize your Mac, including the “defaults” system used by the Mac to store system and application preferences. You’ve probably seen the defaults command mentioned in various Mac tips and tricks that involve using the Terminal app.

Before we move on to part two of our Introduction to the Mac’s Terminal App, we’re going to leave you with an example of the defaults command you can try out right now.

Modify the Dock to Include a Recent Items Stack
As far as the Mac OS is concerned, the Dock is just another app. As such, it has a number of preferences we can manipulate using the defaults command. You’ve already been using the defaults command every time you opened the Dock’s preference pane and made a change. In the background, a defaults command is executed to change a preference.

(The Terminal window after the defaults command is used to modify the Dock with a new Recent Items stack.)

In this example, we’re going to change a preference that will enable a Recent Items stack to be created in the Dock and marked as persistent, so it will stay in the Dock from restart to restart.

At the Terminal prompt, enter the following:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{ “tile-data” = { “list-type” = 1; }; “tile-type” = “recents-tile”; }’

You can triple-click the line above to select it, and then copy/paste the command into Terminal.

Press enter or return to execute the command.

You’ll need to restart the Dock application so it will read the changes to its preference files.

Enter the following text into Terminal:

Killall Dock

Press enter or return.

The Dock will relaunch itself. Look on the right-hand side of the Dock, near the Trash icon; there should be a new stack named Recent Applications. If you don’t wish to keep the Recent Applications stack, you can drag it from the Dock to the Desktop to delete it.

Preference

See you next week for part two of our Introduction to Terminal.

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The full-screen mode on many native Mac applications is great. It takes full advantage of most Mac Retina displays, and it gives you the maximum working space. It also diminishes distractions by hiding the Dock and the status bar. If this is a look you like, you can follow the steps below to make sure some applications always open in full-screen mode on your Mac.

Step 1: Enabling Resume

Macs actually have a featured called “Resume” that allows apps to save their state on close. When reopened, the application will launch itself in the same state. This means reopening any documents you had open and placing windows in the same location as they were on close. This will also capture window settings like full screen mode settings and other options.

Make sure the box next to “Close windows when quitting an app” is unchecked. This will allow Resume to function, permitting the app to reload its previous status.

Step 2: Configuring Apps to Open in Full Screen Mode

Once that’s set, you can set up the apps that you’d like to have open in full screen mode. For example, if you want to have Safari in full screen, you would do the following.

1. Open Safari.

2. Set Safari’s window to full screen by clicking the green button in the upper-left of the window.

3. Quit Safari without closing the window you just set to full screen mode. It’s very important that you don’t close the application window before quitting the app. You can quit an app from the menu bar, by right-clicking on the app’s Dock icon, or by pressing Command+Q.

When you reopen Safari, it should still be in full-screen mode. Mac died during software update high sierra. If you want other applications to also open in full-screen mode, you’ll need to open those applications separately and follow the same steps there.

This setting will only hold for Mac apps that open in Full Screen mode, not simply apps that make their windows larger. For example, Photoshop doesn’t have a full screen mode: instead, it makes the window take up the available monitor space. Safari, on the other hand, has a true Full Screen mode, hiding the menu bar and creating its own Space for the application to occupy. You can tell the difference by looking at the green button’s icon. If it has two arrows, as above, that’s a true Full Screen app. If it has a plus symbol (+), that’s just maximizing the app’s size.

You’ll also want to adjust how to quit applications. If you close windows before quitting an application, then those windows will not be saved. Some users, especially those that migrated from Windows, may have developed the habit of closing application windows before quitting the application. Make sure you stop doing this.

Step 3: Opening Apps at Startup with Login Services

You can also launch applications at login so that they’ll be full screen and ready for you when you open your Mac. Of course, you may also have to navigate out of the windows if your last application opened in full-screen mode. Give it a try and see how it works for you. If it imposes a lengthy startup time on your Mac, you may want to limit the number of apps starting at launch.

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Select the “Users & Groups” pane.

3. Click the “Login Items” tab.

4. Click the “+” button at the bottom of the list of applications.

When

5. Select the application you wish to have launched at startup.

Step 4: Quitting Correctly

For these changes to actually matter, you’ll want to make sure that you’re shutting down your Mac and closing your applications correctly.

You also have the option to reopen all the applications you have open at the time you shut down your Mac or log out. At the shutdown confirmation window, be sure to check the box that says “Reopen windows when logging back in” before clicking Shut Down or Log Out.

When quitting apps, don’t close the application’s windows before quitting. Leave the windows open, then quit the application via your preferred method. When you reopen the application, it will open with the same window state. This means that full screen mode will be engaged. It will also open the documents that were open previously, allowing you to quickly pick up where you left off.

Also: Setting Up Spaces for Multi-Monitor Users

In addition to the steps above, you’ll also want to optimize your workspace for full screen applications. If you have more than one monitor, that means you’ll need to set up separate Spaces for each monitor. Otherwise, you’ll end up blacking out the other monitor when you set an application to Full Screen, which probably won’t improve your productivity.

1. Open System Preferences.

2. Choose “Mission Control” from the top row.

3. Check the box next to “Displays have separate Spaces.”

This won’t have any affect if you don’t have more than one monitor. But for dual monitor users, it will prevent you from blacking out your second screen when you set an application to full screen mode. Instead, you’ll be able to continue working with other apps on the adjacent monitor or monitors.

Setting Each App

The first setting, regarding closing windows when quitting apps, will affect every application on your Mac. However, it won’t automatically make every app open in full-screen mode. You’ll need to set that up individually within each app. Other apps will, however, open in the last state you left them in. If you don’t like this behavior, you can close windows before quitting certain apps. This will allow you to set some applications to open in full screen mode as you desire, rather than applying a global system preference.

You might also like the following macOS tips:

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