In this tutorial you learn how to create a scheduled Automator workflow that automatically sends birthday greetings to people in your Address Book. Along the way, you’ll learn:

• How to use Automator to find contacts from your Address Book
• A really easy way to send birthday greetings with Automator, and
• How to schedule Automator workflows in iCal, so that they run automatically on a regular basis.

Ready to automate? Let’s get started!

Tip: You can click any of the screenshots below to enlarge them.

1. Create the workflow

I showed the basics of starting Automator and creating a workflow in my last tutorial. As before, start Automator then click the Custom icon to create a custom workflow, then click Choose:

Fire up Automator, then click the Custom icon to create a custom workflow

2. Add an action to find people whose birthday is today

Automator provides many actions that can work with contacts in your Address Book. To view them all, click Contacts in the left hand column of the Actions/Variables pane.

The action that we’re interested in here is Find People with Birthdays, so drag that action into the right-hand Workflow pane. The default setting finds contacts whose birthday is today, which is exactly what we want:

Drag the Find People with Birthdays action to the workflow area

3. Add an action to compose a birthday greeting email

Now that you have a list of the people whose birthday is today, you can send each of them an email message. Apple provides many actions for automatically composing and sending emails, giving you a lot of flexibility. Handily, one of these actions is Send Birthday Greetings, which not only sends a “Happy Birthday” email, but even lets you attach a birthday card image to the message.

To add this action, click the Mail item in the left hand Actions/Variables column, then drag the Send Birthday Greetings action to the bottom of your workflow. This will send a greeting email to all of the contacts that were found by the Find People with Birthdays action:

Add the Send Birthday Greetings action to your workflow

Once you’ve done that, you can customize the action if you like. For example, you can add your own greeting, choose a card image to send, or opt to send a random card to each recipient. (Unfortunately you’re stuck with the 6 cards that Apple gives you – if you want to attach your own image then you can use the Add Attachments to Front Message action.)

4. Add an action to send the email(s)

The previous action merely composes the email messages in Mail, ready to send. To actually send the messages, you need to use the Send Outgoing Messages action. Drag this action below the Send Birthday Greetings action in the workflow:

Drag the Send Outgoing Messages action into your workflow to actually send the email(s)

5. Save your workflow as an iCal Alarm plugin

You’ve finished creating your workflow to send birthday emails, so now it’s time to save it. You’ll save it as an iCal Alarm plugin, which means that you can use iCal to schedule the workflow to run each day.

Choose File ⇨ Save As Plug-in. In the sheet that appears, choose iCal Alarm for the Plug-in for setting, and name the workflow Send Today’s Birthday Greetings, then click Save:

Save your new workflow as an iCal Alarm plug-in

Tip: Automator saves iCal plugins as applications in the ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/iCal folder.

6. Schedule the workflow

Once you click Save, iCal pops open and automatically creates an event for your workflow. Click the Edit button to schedule the event. You can then set it to run every day at midnight, for example:

Once you've saved the workflow as an iCal plugin, you can set it to run every day

Tip: Automator creates an “Automator” calendar and puts scheduled workflows in it. You can then avoid clutter in iCal by deselecting the “Automator” calendar to hide all the workflow events.

That’s it! Every day at midnight – assuming your Mac is awake then – iCal runs your scheduled workflow and sends a birthday greeting email to anyone in your contacts who has a birthday that day. Simple!

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to scheduling Automator workflows with iCal. As you can see, the combination of Automator and iCal’s flexible event handling makes it really easy to create automated daily tasks.

Have fun!

In this beginner Automator tutorial I’ll walk you through the process of creating a simple Automator workflow, from start to finish. The workflow, called “Zip and Send”, will zip up selected file(s) and automatically email the resulting zip archive to an address you specify.

Opening Automator

To run Automator, open your Applications folder in the Finder and double-click the Automator icon. When Automator starts, you can choose a starting point for a new workflow:

(Click image to enlarge)

These options just provide basic templates to get you going. For now, just choose the Custom icon, as shown above, then click Choose.

About Automator Actions and Workflows

The Automator window contains an Actions/Variables area (on the left) and a Workflow pane (on the right):

(Click image to enlarge)

There’s also a small bottom-left pane that describes each action or variable.

What are actions, workflows and variables? I’ll cover variables in another tutorial; here we’ll concentrate on actions and workflows.

Actions are simple tasks that Automator asks other apps to carry out, such as “New Folder” or “Pause iTunes”. You string actions together to make a workflow, which is a script of tasks for Automator to run. You can then save your workflow and run it whenever you like.

Many actions have an output (such as a piece of text or a file name) that is then passed to the next action as an input. This is indicated by a little arrow symbol between the 2 actions:

Building the Workflow

Here you’ll create a simple but useful workflow to zip up some selected file(s) and email the zip file to a specified email address. Follow these steps to create the workflow:

1. Add an action to create a temporary folder for the zip archive

In the Actions/Variables pane click Files & Folders in the left-hand column, then drag the New Folder action in the right-hand column into the right-hand Workflow pane. Click the Name field in the action and type ArchiveTemp. Make sure Where is set to Desktop – this will create the ArchiveTemp folder on your Desktop:

(Click image to enlarge)

2. Add an action to get the items selected in the Finder

With Files & Folders still selected in the left-hand column, drag the Get Selected Finder Items action below your previously-created New Folder action in the workflow. This action grabs the names of any selected files and folders in the Finder and passes them as input to the next action:

(Click image to enlarge)

3. Add an action to remove the temporary folder from the selected items

Unfortunately the selected items grabbed by the second action will also include the ArchiveTemp folder created by the first action, so you need to remove this folder from the list of selected items. You can do this with the Filter Finder Items action. As before, drag this action below the other actions in your workflow. Set the first option to Name and the second option to is not equal to, then type ArchiveTemp into the box:

(Click image to enlarge)

4. Add an action to create the archive

Now you’re ready to add an action to create a Zip archive of the selected items. First though, you need to manually create the ArchiveTemp folder on your Desktop so you can tell the action where to save the archive. So right-click (or Control-click) your Desktop, choose New Folder, and name the folder ArchiveTemp.

Now switch back to Automator and drag the Create Archive action into the workflow, below the other actions. Click the Where option in the action, choose Other from the pop-up menu and select the ArchiveTemp folder that you just created on your Desktop. Leave the Save as box saying Same name as input – this will name the archive after the selected file (if more than one file was selected, it will call the archive simply “Archive.zip”):

(Click image to enlarge)

5. Add actions to send the email message

The next step in the workflow is to send the created archive file as an email attachment. Click Mail in the left hand column, then drag the New Mail Message action to the bottom of your workflow. Click the Options button at the bottom of the action to display the action options, then click the Show this action when the workflow runs checkbox. This will pop up a dialog prompting for the recipient and other details when the workflow is running:

(Click image to enlarge)

The New Mail Message action takes the archive file generated by the previous Create Archive action, and attaches the file to a new email message.

To actually send the message, you need to use the Send Outgoing Messages action. Drag this action below the New Mail Message action in the workflow:

(Click image to enlarge)

6. Add actions to remove the temporary folder

That’s the archive created and emailed. All that’s left to do now is clean up by moving the ArchiveTemp folder to the Trash.

First, add an action to select the ArchiveTemp folder. Click Files & Folders in the left column, then drag the Get Specified Finder Items action to the bottom of your workflow. Click the Add button in the action, then in the dialog that appears choose the ArchiveTemp folder on your Desktop:

(Click image to enlarge)

Finally, drag in the Move Finder Items to Trash action to delete the ArchiveTemp folder:

(Click image to enlarge)

Testing the Workflow

You’ve now created your workflow! To test it, first switch to the Finder and click a (reasonably small) file or folder to select it. Then switch back to Automator and click the top-right Run button. You’ll see Automator moving through each action in your workflow. When it’s time to send the email, you’ll get a dialog asking you to enter the email details – do this, then click Continue:

(Click image to enlarge)

Automator now automatically composes and sends the email. Job done!

Saving the Workflow

The last step is to save your workflow so you can use it again later. There are a few different ways you can save workflows. In this example you’ll save your workflow as a Finder plug-in so you can run it straight from the Finder.

Choose File ⇨ Save As Plug-in, then make sure Finder is selected and enter Zip and Send. Click Save to save your workflow:

You can now easily zip and send any selected file(s) or folder(s) in the Finder. Select the item(s), then right-click (or Control-click) one of the items and choose More ⇨ Automator ⇨ Zip and Send:

(Click image to enlarge)

All done!

I hope you found this Automator tutorial helpful. Let me know if you like it and I’ll write some more tutorials!

I hope you find it useful! If you’d like to see a term added to the list – or you think one of my definitions needs correcting – please let me know in the comments below. Thanks!

.dmg file

See Disk image.

.plist file

See Preferences file.

Activity Monitor

A Mac OS X utility (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor) that lets you view information about the apps and processes currently running on your Mac.

AHT

See Apple Hardware Test.

AirPort (and AirPort Extreme etc)

Apple’s name for the common Wi-Fi protocols, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n, used to network Macs (and/or PCs) together wirelessly.

Alias

A small file that links to another item on the Mac hard disk, such as a document, folder, or application. When you double-click an alias, you open the original item.

Alt key

See Option key.

Aperture

Apple’s professional photo management and retouching app. Its main competitor is Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom.

App

A common abbreviation for “application” – a software program.

Apple Hardware Test

A program that runs tests on your Mac hardware to look for problems. How to run Apple Hardware Test.

Apple menu

The first menu item on the menu bar at the top of the screen. Contains various system management functions.

AppleCare

Apple’s customer support and hardware servicing arm. The standard AppleCare plan features 90 days of free phone support and 12 months of warranty, but this can be upgraded by purchasing an AppleCare Protection Plan.

AppleCare Protection Plan

An upgrade to the standard AppleCare warranty and support service. The AppleCare Protection Plan (APP) gives 3 years of warranty and technical support for products such as Macs and iPods.

AppleScript

An easy-to-learn scripting language that you can use to automate tasks on your Mac. AppleScript programs can issue commands to most Mac apps, making it easy to automate tasks such as opening, editing and saving documents.

Archive and Install

A method of upgrading or re-installing the Mac OS X operating system. The existing system files are moved to a Previous System folder, and new system folders are created. You can optionally preserve your existing user accounts and data with this method. More info. Also see Erase and Install.

ATI

A supplier of graphics chips used in many Macs. ATI dominates the graphics chip market along with Nvidia.

Automator

Like AppleScript, Automator lets you automate repetitive tasks by issuing commands to applications running on your Mac. A set of commands is known as a workflow. Automator is very easy to learn, since it uses a graphical interface to construct workflows.

Bluetooth

A wireless technology designed for transmitting data over short distances (between 1 and 100 metres). Common uses include mobile phone headsets; wireless keyboards and mice; and tethering mobile phones to laptops to allow internet access via the phone. Most Macs and many Apple accessories are Bluetooth-enabled.

Boot Camp

A utililty that comes with Mac OS X, allowing you to install Windows on your Mac in a separate hard disk partition. This allows you to dual-boot – that is, choose to start either Mac OS X or Windows when you start up your Mac.

BSD

Berkeley Software Distribution. An old version of the UNIX operating system, on which Darwin is partially based.

Bundle

A folder containing related resources that is presented as a single “file” to the user. Applications and plugins are usually grouped as bundles. Bundles are convenient to use – for example, to run an application bundle, you just double-click the bundle’s icon.

Cache

A temporary storage area for frequently-accessed data. In mac terms, the term Cache usually refers to the files stored in ~/Library/Caches.

Chime

The “bong” sound that your Mac makes when it starts up. (If it annoys you, you can turn it off.)

Combo drive

Apple’s name for the older, cheaper optical drives that can read and write CDs, but only read DVDs. These days practically all Macs come with SuperDrives.

Command key

The key with the Apple and/or clover-leaf (⌘) symbol (usually next to the space bar). Mainly used where you would use the Control key on Windows.

Console

A Mac OS X diagnostic tool (Applications > Utilities > Console) that allows you to view various log files, such as the system log and mail server log.

Control-clicking

Refers to holding down the Control key and clicking the left (or single) mouse button. Has the same effect as right-clicking with a 2-button mouse.

Darwin

The core operating system on which Mac OS X is based. Darwin is Free (open source) software.

Dashboard

A Mac OS X app that can hold widgets (mini-applications). By default the Dashboard is hidden out of the way, but you can toggle the Dashboard and its widgets by pressing F4 (F12 on older Macs).

Data fork

A feature of the Mac OS X file system that allows data, such as the contents of a document, to be stored within the same file in which resources are stored. Also see Resource fork.

DDR3 SDRAM

A type of RAM (memory) chip commonly used in current Apple computers. SDRAM (synchronous dynamic RAM) allows data to be pipelined, providing fast throughput. DDR3 (double-data-rate three) is twice as fast as the older DDR2 SDRAM.

Disk image

A file containing a “virtual disk” that you can access by double-clicking the file’s icon. Commonly used to bundle an application’s install files into a single, easy-to-download package.

Disk Utility

A general-purpose Mac OS X utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility) for manipulating hard disks, CDs, DVDs, and disk images. Features include verifying and repairing hard disks; creating and burning disk images; formatting disks; and erasing disks.

Dock

The Mac OS X launcher. The Dock is the bar of icons usually at the bottom of the screen. Clicking the icons launches applications or opens files or folders. The Dock also has a Trash icon for storing deleted items.

Drop Box folder

A folder in each Mac user’s Public folder that is writable (by not readable) by all other users on the same Mac (or another Mac on the same network). This allows other people to “send” you files or folders.

Erase and Install

A method of upgrading or re-installing the Mac OS X operating system. The entire hard disk is erased, and a fresh copy of Mac OS X is installed. You should back up your hard disk first, and you’ll have to set up all your applications and settings again after the install. More info. Also see Archive and Install.

Exposé

A Mac OS X feature that instantly reveals all windows in an app (press F10), all windows in all apps (F9), or the desktop (F11). This makes it quick to find any window that you need.

FileMaker Pro

An easy-to-use database application with a graphical front-end, popular on Macs. The publisher, FileMaker Inc, is now owned by Apple (though the software is cross-platform).

Final Cut Pro

Apple’s professional video editing software, only available for Macs. Comes as part of Final Cut Studio. A cut-down version, Final Cut Express, is also available. FCP’s main competitors include Avid Media Composer and Sony Vegas Pro.

Finder

The Mac OS X app that lets you view and manipulate files and folders. It’s the first app you see when you first log in to your Mac. You can switch to the Finder by clicking the Finder icon on the left hand side of the Dock.

FireWire

Like USB, a standard way to connect peripherals to a computer. Also known as IEEE 1394. While USB is more popular, FireWire is better suited to high-speed peripherals.

Force Quit

Stop an application running immediately. Force quitting is useful if an application has “hung” (become unresponsive and is displaying the spinning beach ball of doom. To force quit an app, switch to another app (such as the Finder) then choose Force Quit from the Apple menu.

GarageBand

Apple’s music authoring software – part of the iLife suite.

GB

Gigabyte – a unit of measurement of storage. A gigabyte is a thousand million bytes (though it can sometimes be slightly higher than this, depending on interpretation). One byte is enough to store a single letter of the alphabet. Commonly used to refer to RAM and hard disk size.

Get Info

The Mac equivalent of Windows’ Properties dialogs. With many items – such as files and folders in the Finder, or songs in iTunes – you can right-click (or Control-click) the item and choose Get Info to retrieve information on the object.

Grab

A Mac OS X utility (Applications > Utilities > Grab) for taking screenshots on your Mac.

Home folder

The top-level folder for storing your documents and other data. Each user on a Mac has their own Home folder, located inside the /Users folder.

iCal

Apple’s calendar application that comes with Mac OS X. iCal lets you create multiple calendars; view each calendar by day, week or month; add events and appointments to calendars; sync your calendars with other people; and create To Do items.

iChat

Apple’s instant messaging app bundled with Mac OS X. iChat can work with AIM, MobileMe, ICQ and XMPP protocols, and allows text, voice and video chats.

iDisk

A remote, virtual disk that you can use to store and share your photos, movies and other documents. You can access your iDisk from any Mac. This service is included as part of a MobileMe subscription.

iDVD

Apple’s DVD authoring software – part of the iLife suite.

iLife

Apple’s suite of personal media apps. Contains iPhoto (for photo cataloguing and basic editing), iMovie (for movie editing), iDVD (for DVD authoring), GarageBand (for music composition), and iWeb (for website authoring). MobileMe subscribers can also create online photo and video albums using iLife.

iMovie

Apple’s movie editing software – part of the iLife suite.

Intel Core 2 Duo

Core 2 is the name for a range of Intel CPUs, or processor chips – the “heart” of modern Macs and PCs. Most current Macs use 2-core Intel Core 2 Duo chips, while Mac Pros use 4-core Intel Xeon processors.

iPhoto

Apple’s photo editing software – part of the iLife suite.

iSync

A Mac app that synchronizes iCal and Address Book data with handheld devices, such as smartphones and Palm organizers.

iTunes

Apple’s free music management app, shipped with Mac OS X and also available for Windows. iTunes is also used to sync various Apple devices such as iPods and iPhones with Macs or PCs.

iWeb

Apple’s Web authoring software – part of the iLife suite.

iWork

Apple’s suite of Mac office apps. Features Pages (a word processor), Numbers (a spreadsheet app) and Keynote (a presentation app). Also, iWork.com (currently in beta) is a subscription service letting you upload and share iWork documents collaboratively.

Keychain

Mac OS X’s central password storage system. Each user on a Mac has a keychain, in which they can store login passwords, encryption keys, and encryption certificates. This allows you to manage all your passwords under a single login. You can view and edit your passwords and other keychain items by running Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.

Keynote

Apple’s presentation application – part of the iWork suite.

Logic

Apple’s professional music sequencer and digital audio workstation app. Used by musicians for creating, recording and mixing music. Its main rivals are Steinberg’s Cubase and Digidesign’s Pro Tools. Available in Studio (pro) or Express (cut down) versions. Much of Logic’s tech is also used in the consumer-oriented GarageBand.

Logic board

The main electronics board inside your Mac. Often known as motherboards or mainboards in the PC world.

Login Items

Applications, documents, or other things that you want to open automatically whenever you log in. To set up a login item choose Apple menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items, then click the + button.

Mach

The microkernel at the heart of the XNU kernel – which is, in turn, the heart of Mac OS X. Mach manages the currently-running applications and processes on a Mac computer, allocating resources such as processor time and memory to these processes.

Mighty Mouse

A two-button mouse available as an option for Mac computers (though it can also be used with PCs to some extent). Features a central “scroll ball” that lets you scroll in all directions: up, down, left and right. Available in wired or wireless versions.

MobileMe

A suite of online Apple services available via a US $99/year (at the time of writing) subscription. Previously known as .Mac. Services include iDisk online storage (accessible via the Mac Finder, Windows Explorer or a Web browser); an @me.com email address, online address book, and online calendar that can all sync to various Apple devices such as Macs and iPhones; and an online photo/video gallery feature.

Numbers

Apple’s spreadsheet application – part of the iWork suite.

Nvidia

A supplier of graphics chips used in many Macs. Nvidia dominates the graphics chip market along with ATI.

NVRAM

Non-volatile Random Access Memory. Macs have a small amount of NVRAM used for storing settings when the Mac is switched off. PRAM is an example of this.

Option key

A modifier key like Command or Control (usually sits between the Command and Control keys on the keyboard). Often used for secondary actions, or for entering accented characters. May be labelled, Alt, Option, or ⌥.

Pages

Apple’s word processor application – part of the iWork suite.

Parallels Desktop

A Mac application that lets you install Microsoft Windows in a virtual machine (computer) on your Mac. You can then run Windows apps and Mac apps at the same time. See also VMware Fusion.

Partition

A data area on a hard disk. A hard disk can contain a single partition spanning the whole disk, or it can contain multiple partitions.

PMU

Power Management Unit. The chip on a Mac logic board that controls power to hard disks and peripherals, as well as the Mac’s sleep/wake feature.

PRAM

Parameter Random Access Memory. A small amount of memory that stores various Mac settings such as display settings and speaker volume, even when the Mac is switched off. Find out more. Sometimes you need to reset the PRAM to fix various Mac issues.

Preferences file

A file that stores an application’s user preferences. Most preferences files are stored in ~/Library/Preferences, and end with a .plist extension.

Preview

A Mac OS X utility for viewing images and PDF files. Preview supports a large number of file formats, making it a useful general-purpose image viewer.

Primary mouse button

The main button on the mouse, used for the majority of actions. This is usually the left button (or the only button on one-button mice) but this can be changed by choosing Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Mouse and clicking Right for the Primary mouse button option.

Public folder

A folder in each Mac user’s Home folder that is readable (but not writable) by all other users on the same Mac (or another Mac on the same network). This allows you to share selected files and folders with other people.

QuickTime

An Apple technology capable of handling audio, video, images and other media in various formats. The QuickTime Player app uses these technologies to allow media to be played back.

Resource fork

A feature of the Mac OS X file system that allows resources, such as icons, dialogs, document window positions and so on, to be stored within the same file in which data is stored. Also see Data fork.

root user

The superuser, or administrator account on your Mac. The root user has full control over all aspects of the Mac, including reading and writing system files – with potentially dangerous consequences! For this reason the root user is disabled by default; however you can enable it if required.

Safari

Apple’s Web browser that ships with Mac OS X and iPhone OS. Also available on Windows.

SATA

Serial AT Attachment. An interface for connecting storage devices, such as hard drives, to computers. Most modern Macs use SATA. Older Macs and PCs used the slower PATA (Parallel ATA).

Secondary mouse button

The right mouse button, used for things such as bringing up contextual menus. On a single-button mouse you can achieve the same effect by holding Control and clicking the primary (left) button. You can swap over the left and right buttons if desired (see Primary mouse button).

Serial ATA

See SATA.

Sleep

Allows you to “turn off” your Mac, conserving power, without actually having to restart the Mac from scratch when you turn it back on. Macs support various sleep modes: Quick sleep, which keeps the memory powered up; Deep sleep (or hibernation), which writes the memory contents to disk and completely powers off the Mac; and Safe sleep, which keeps the memory powered but also writes the memory contents to disk in case there’s a power failure. Most desktop Macs default to Quick sleep, while most MacBooks default to Safe sleep. Various 3rd-party apps such as Deep Sleep let you choose which sleep mode to use for your Mac.

Spaces

Apple’s virtual desktop feature of Mac OS X. It allows you to spread your open apps between several virtual desktops and switch between desktops quickly, thereby giving you more desktop space to organize your open applications.

Spinning beach ball

Officially known as the “spinning wait cursor”. The rainbow-coloured spinning disc that signifies that an app has become unresponsive.

Spotlight

The Mac’s built-in search engine, accessed by pressing Command-Space or clicking the top-right magnifying glass icon. Allows you to search through your files, data, music, applications and so on. Also available on iPhone/iPod Touch by swiping to the right on the first Home screen.

Stacks

Folder icons in the Dock that, when clicked on, reveal their contents in a fan, grid, or list format. It’s a great way to quickly access the contents of a folder while reducing visual clutter. To change the appearance of a stack, right-click (or Control-click) its icon in the Dock and choose from Fan, Grid, List, or Automatic.

Startup disk

The hard disk containing Mac OS X that is read when your Mac starts up. Normally this is the built-in hard disk, but you can use an external disk or network drive instead (System Preferences > Startup Disk).

sudo

Stands for “superuser do”. A command-line program run via the Terminal that lets you run programs as another user – usually the root user or superuser. Often used for carrying out administrative tasks.

SuperDrive

Apple’s name for the optical drive used in most Macs. These days this tends to be a burner capable of reading and writing CDs and DVDs. You can also buy external SuperDrives.

System Preferences

A Mac OS X utility that allows you to set various preferences for your Mac. Preferences are set via preference panes; several panes are installed by default, and new ones can be installed by 3rd-party software and drivers. Default preference panes include Appearance, for customizing the look of the Mac interface, and Sound, for controlling sound effects and input/output volume.

System Profiler

A utility (Applications > Utilities > System Profiler) that displays details of your Mac’s hardware and configuration.

Target Disk Mode

A Mac startup mode whereby, instead of booting into Mac OS X, the Mac’s hard disk appears as an external disk on another Mac connected via a FireWire cable. This allows the contents of the first Mac’s hard disk to be accessed even if the Mac isn’t capable of booting (for example, if the OS has become corrupted). To activate, hold down the T key while starting the Mac.

TB

Terabyte – a unit of measurement of storage. A terabyte is a thousand gigabytes (though it can sometimes be slightly higher than this, depending on interpretation). One byte is enough to store a single letter of the alphabet. Commonly used to refer to hard disk size.

Terminal

A Mac app (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) that lets you give textual commands to your Mac, rather than using a graphical interface. Often used to perform low-level maintenance or configuration tasks.

Time Machine

Apple’s backup utility included in Mac OS X. When enabled, it regularly backs up your files and application data to an external (or network) hard disk. You can later retrieve the files or data from any previous backup that exists on the backup disk.

Toast

A Mac application published by Roxio for authoring and burning CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. It can also convert various audio and video formats, and copy non-protected discs.

Trash

The Mac’s Trash can temporarily holds any files and folders that you have deleted. You can delete a file or folder by dragging it to the Trash icon in the Dock. To delete the contents of the Trash permanently, right-click or Control-click the Trash icon and choose Empty Trash.

USB

Universal Serial Bus. A standard way to connect peripherals – such as printers and digital cameras – to a Mac or PC.

VMware Fusion

A Mac application that lets you install Microsoft Windows in a virtual machine (computer) on your Mac. You can then run Windows apps and Mac apps at the same time. See also Parallels Desktop.

VoiceOver

A Mac OS X accessibility feature that allows user interface elements and paragraphs of text to be spoken by the Mac. Enable it via Apple menu > System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing > VoiceOver.

Volume

A storage area accessible to Mac OS X. Typical examples of Mac volumes include the startup disk volume (usually called “Macintosh HD”), any external hard disk volumes, and any mounted CDs or DVDs.

Wi-Fi

A trademark used to describe wireless networking products and technologies, such as Apple’s AirPort base stations and cards.

Widget

A mini-application designed to run in the Mac OS X Dashboard. Widgets are built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. You can add widgets to, or remove widgets from, your Dashboard. Many widgets are available online for download.

Do you know any other useful Mac terms to add to this list? Please let me know in the comments!

I quickly learned that, in order to be productive on my Mac, I was going to have to get organized. Here are some simple techniques that I’ve found helpful for keeping my Mac data ship-shape.

1. Organize your files and folders

I do struggle at times to keep my legions of files and folders organized (in fact only the other day it took me over an hour to find an old document I created 3 years ago!). Here are some tricks that I’ve found helpful:

• Keep your Desktop and Home folders clean. Avoid putting any files or folders on your Desktop – not only is it visual clutter, but it results in a disorganized mess! Similarly, don’t dump files directly in your Home folder. Instead, create subfolders in your Documents folder (or wherever is convenient) and put files in there.
• Tell Firefox to use your Downloads folder. While Safari plays by the Downloads folder rule, Firefox dumps downloaded files on your Desktop by default. Not good. Go to Firefox > Preferences > Main > Save Files To, click Choose, then pick the Downloads folder in your Home folder.
• Organize your Finder sidebar. The left-hand sidebar in each Finder window gives you instant access to files and folders with a single click. Make the most of it by adding the files and folders you use most often. To do this, just drag a file or folder from the main Finder window to the sidebar. While you’re there, remove unwanted files and folders by dragging them away from the sidebar.
• Make important folders stand out. You can assign a colour to a folder by hitting Command-I then clicking a colour in the Label section of the Info dialog. Alternatively, give a folder a custom icon. Find the image you want to use – whether on your Mac or on the Web – and copy it. Now select the folder, hit Command-I, click the folder icon at the top-left of the Info dialog, and hit Command-V to paste your image. (You can also grab ready-made icons off various sites.)
• Use Smart Folders. These work much like Smart Mailboxes in Mail. Smart Folders don’t actually contain any files, but they let you group files and folders together based on specified rules. This is handy if you want to access all documents on a given project in one place, for example. Find out how to create Smart Folders in Leopard.
• Use Spotlight comments. Spotlight does a pretty good job of finding files, but you can make its life easier by tagging files and folders. Select a file, hit Command-I, then add your tags in the Spotlight Comments field at the top of the Info dialog. The file will now come up in Spotlight searches for those tags. Good for grouping files by topic or project.

2. Get organized with Mail

Dealing with thousands of email messages – and finding them easily when you need them – can be a real challenge. Fortunately the Mac’s built-in Mail app is pretty good at searching for messages, and it also has a couple of powerful features to help you organize your emails effectively:

• Smart Mailboxes: These let you quickly access messages based on specific criteria. Create a new Smart Mailbox by clicking the + icon at the bottom of the folder list and choosing New Smart Mailbox. You can then create rules to determine what messages are viewable in the Smart Mailbox. For example, you can specify  all emails from a certain person or group, or all emails that haven’t been replied to yet. Messages aren’t actually stored in Smart Mailboxes; instead you can think of them more as predefined searches. They’re also more powerful than the standard Mail search, since you can specify multiple criteria at once.
• Rules: Mail’s Rules (Mail > Preferences > Rules) automatically perform actions on incoming messages. As with Smart Mailboxes you can choose from a wide range of criteria to identify the message. Available actions include moving or copying the message to a mailbox; playing a sound; bouncing the Dock icon, or even replying to the message or running an AppleScript. Great for automatically filing emails or alerting you to important emails. (Find out more about using rules.)

3. Spring-clean your hard drive

There’s nothing like reducing clutter to help you get more organized. Clear out unwanted files and folders from your hard drive regularly; not only will you feel good but you’ll get some disk space back too!

To find files you haven’t used in ages, switch to List View in Finder (Command-2) and click the Date Modified column header twice to list the oldest files at the top.

A great way to find those space-hogging files is to use a tool such as the free GrandPerspective. Delete stuff that you’re unlikely to use again, and archive the rest onto DVD.

4. Declutter your Dock

Remove apps you don’t use every day from the Dock – simply drag the app icon away from the Dock. This reduces visual clutter and makes it quicker to find your frequent apps.

You might also find it helpful to drag your most frequently-used apps over to the left side of the Dock (assuming you scan your Dock left to right).

Another nice trick is to group shortcuts to your commonly-used apps into folders that you then add to the Dock. This article explains how to do it.

5. Organize applications using Spaces

The Mac’s Spaces (virtual desktops) feature is a handy way to organize your open apps. You can place each app (or group of apps) into its own space – for example, you can have Mail in one space, Safari/Firefox in another, Pages/Word in a third, and Photoshop in a fourth. You can then use shortcut keys (Control-arrow keys by default) to flip between each space. This gives you quick access to all your open apps while avoiding screen clutter.

Here’s a great article that shows how to set up Spaces, and also how to use your Login Items to restore your open apps after a restart.

Those are my tips for organizing stuff on your Mac. I hope you liked them! If you have a tip then please post it in the comments below – thanks!

Removing duplicate contacts

If you’re as disorganised as me then you might often end up with more than one card for the same person (often with different phone numbers and email addresses in each card). If you have hundreds of contacts then finding and merging these duplicates manually can be a pain.

An easier way is to choose Card > Look for Duplicates. This automatically rummages through your contacts, identifying cards with the same name. You can choose to merge any identical cards, and also whether to merge cards with the same name but different contact details (the contact details from one card are added to the second and the first card is deleted).

You can manually merge cards too. Shift/Command-click the cards to merge, then choose Card > Merge Selected Cards. This is a safer approach as no contact details are overwritten (Look for Duplicates tends to overwrite one card’s field with the same field from the second card, which is a bit of a bug methinks – this is in Mac OS 10.5.6).

Choosing your own card

When you first set up your Mac, Address Book creates a “me” card with your own contact details. However you might find that you end up with a second card which better represents you – this can happen if, for example, you import your contacts from another app or device into Address Book.

To make this second card the “me” card instead, select it and choose Card > Make This My Card. (You can also locate the “me” card with Card > Go to My Card.)

Adding extra fields to a contact

At first I was surprised to find that there was no “URL” field type in the cards, and no obvious way to add one. In fact there are lots more fields you can add to a card, including URL, birthday, anniversary (or other date), maiden name, and so on. You just have to know how to add them!

To add a field type, choose Card > Add Field, then choose a field to add from the submenu. Some fields (such as Middle Name and Birthday) are unique – you can only have one field per card. Others – like URL or Dates – let you add multiple fields of that type, so you can have two URLs (homepage and work, for example).

On a related note: You can customise the default fields that appear in a newly-created card by choosing Card > Add Field > Edit Template.

Choosing which email address to use in a group

I find Address Book groups really useful for creating email mailing lists. Once you’ve created a group you can send an email message to all people in that group just by typing the group name into the To field in Mail.

However, many people have more than one email address. How do you choose which email address to use when sending group mails? One way is to click the Address button when composing a Mail message; you can then choose which address to use for each contact by Command- or Shift-clicking the appropriate addresses, then clicking To, Cc or Bcc:

For a big group, though, this is a drag. Fortunately Address Book lets you set a default email address to use for each contact in the group. What’s more, this is on a per-group basis, so you can use a contact’s work email for one group and their home email for another group, for example.

To do all this, choose Edit > Edit Distribution List. Click a group in the left column, then go through each email address, clicking the address you want to use for each contact (the selected address is in bold):

Now the next time you compose an email to that group, the selected address for each contact will be used.

(You can also set each contact’s default physical address and phone number for the group – used when printing contacts. To do this, click the Email column header and choose an option from the pop-up menu.)

Emailing contacts automatically when you change your details

Moving house or changing phone number/email address is enough work as it is, without having to tell all your friends and family your new contact details. Address Book has a nice feature to make this job much easier. Open the Preferences dialog (Address Book > Preferences), then in the General tab select the Notify people when my card changes option. Now, whenever you change any of your card’s fields, Address Book will ask you if you want to email a group of people about the change:

Click Notify, then select the group(s) you want to email. You can also customise the email message that is sent. Then click Send. Your message is sent with your updated vCard attached; each recipient can then just click the vCard to update your details in their address book. Easy!

(You can also send your current contact details to a bunch of people at any time by choosing File > Send Updates.)

I hope you enjoyed these Address Book tips and tricks. Know of any more? Please let me know in the comments below!

Read on for 10 simple Mac troubleshooting tricks that you can try when your computer acts up. These are in approximate order of priority, so try the first suggestion first, and if it doesn’t work, try the next.

(Disclaimer: Although these tips are fairly innocuous, there’s always a chance that trying them might make things worse. Always make sure you have a backup of all your data before proceeding!)

1. Restart the Mac

The classic tech support answer. If your Mac is behaving strangely then the first thing to do is shut it down, wait a few seconds, and turn it back on again. This resolves a lot of software (and temporary hardware) glitches.

2. Make sure your system and apps are up to date

Sometimes problems are caused by bugs in old versions of software. If you’re seeing a problem in a particular app, check to see if a newer version is available. Usually there’s a Check for Updates menu option under the menu with the same name as the app (e.g. iTunes) or under the Help menu.

To make sure your system software is up to date, choose Apple > Software Update.

3. Disconnect peripherals and network cables

Sometimes when your Mac plays up it’s easy to forget that the problem may be down to something you’ve plugged in the back, rather than a fault inside the Mac itself. Try shutting down the Mac, then disconnecting all non-essential cables (leave the power cable, keyboard and mouse plugged in and, of course, the display if it’s your only one) and restarting. If the problem goes away then you might have a dodgy cable or peripheral. Plug them back in one at a time until the problem reappears.

4. Look in the logs

Mac OS, and most applications, store information about what they’re doing in various log files on your hard disk. When things go wrong then it’s worth checking these logs to see if there are any tell-tale messages. The easiest way to do this is with the Console utility (Applications > Utilities > Console):

(click image to enlarge)

Click All Messages in the left-hand pane to view all recent messages logged to the log database. Scroll down in the right-hand pane to view the latest messages. You can also view log files for individual system processes under the LOG FILES section in the left-hand pane. The top-right search box is also useful for finding messages logged by a particular app (just type the first few letters of the app name).

If you find a suspect message, google it. More often than not you’ll find a Web page that describes the problem (and ideally helps you fix it).

5. Search Apple Discussions

Mac troubleshooting without help can be a bit like shooting in the dark. Apple’s helpful discussion forums are a great place to look for more info on a problem, or to ask questions about the problem. Since the forums are frequented by thousands of other Apple users you’ll often find you get a good response to your query.

It’s worth learning how to search the forums effectively, as the default search settings aren’t that useful. Here are some quick tips:

• Use AND (all caps) between two or more words to return only results that contain all those words.
• Put quotes around a phrase to search for that exact phrase only, rather than individual words.
• If a particular word is more important in your search query, add a caret (^) followed by a number directly after the word (the higher the number, the more that word is boosted). For example, Intel^4 iMac RAM problems makes sure that your search is more likely to return discussions on RAM issues associated with Intel-based iMacs.
• The default search is limited to the last 90 days, which means that issues resolved more than 3 months ago won’t show up. To change this, click the more options link above the search box, then change the Restrict by Date Range option to All:

Here’s a full list of search tips from Apple.

6. Try using a new user account

Many problems can be caused by corrupt data or preferences in your user account. You can rule out this possibility by creating a brand new user account, logging into it and trying to reproduce the problem there.

To create a new user account, choose Apple > System Preferences > Accounts, then click the lock icon, enter your password, and click the + (plus) button. Enter the new user details and click Create Account:

(click image to enlarge)

Once your account’s created, log into it and do whatever caused the problem in your existing account. If everything works OK then you can try copying all your documents, photos, movies and other data files to the new account and using that account instead. If you still see the problem in the test account then the issue probably isn’t related to files or settings in your existing account.

7. Restart the Mac in Safe Mode

Safe Mode (aka Safe Boot) is a special mode of Mac OS X that disables certain features and checks your startup disk. If you’re having a problem with your Mac, booting into Safe Mode might help isolate or fix the problem, or it might at least let you start up your Mac so you can investigate the problem further.

To start up in Safe Mode:

1. Shut down your Mac
2. Power on the Mac
3. Wait until the chime has played, then immediately press and hold either Shift key
4. When the grey Apple logo and spinning gear appear, release the Shift key

To return to normal mode, simply restart your Mac. This Apple article explains Safe Mode.

8. Run a hardware test

If you suspect that the problem might be hardware-related, you can run Apple Hardware Test, a little utility that puts each part of your Mac’s hardware – such as its RAM, processor and logic board – through its paces. Here’s how to run a hardware test. (Note: Newer Macs come with the Apple Hardware Test program built in, so you don’t need to insert the install DVD for these Macs.)

9. Repair disk permissions

Some issues are down to wonky permissions on certain files. Every file and folder on a Mac’s hard drive has a series of permissions, or privileges, associated with it, and sometimes these permissions get messed up. Repairing permissions resets these file and folder permissions to their correct values. It may not fix the problem, but it can’t hurt to try.

To repair permissions, start your Mac as normal then open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Select your startup disk in the pane on the left, then click the Repair Disk Permissions button:

(click image to enlarge)

Permissions repair takes a few minutes. Once it’s finished you may need to restart your Mac. With a bit of luck the problem will be fixed.

10. Verify and, if necessary, repair your disk’s file system

Hard disks are cranky beasts, and go wrong fairly frequently. Disk and file system problems can be as minor as temporarily losing track of a few files to total wipeout. Symptoms of file system issues can range from application hangs and crashes through to not being able to boot at all.

The Disk Utility app (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility) lets you check a hard disk’s file system for problems. To do this, select the disk to check in the left hand pane and click Verify Disk. You’ll see various messages appear in the window, and after a few minutes you’ll see a green message if the disk is OK, or a red message if problems were found:

(click image to enlarge)

If your file system has problems then you can attempt to repair it. First, and most important, make sure you have a backup of your data. Of all the tips in this article, this one has the most potential to cause additional problems, since repairing a disk involves messing around with the data on the disk.

If the disk you need to repair isn’t your startup disk (the disk you booted Mac OS from) then you can repair it in Disk Utility by selecting the disk in the left-hand pane then clicking the Repair Disk button.

However, if, as is more often the case, your startup disk has problems then you can’t use Disk Utility while booted into Mac OS (since the disk is in use by the OS). Instead, do the following:

1. Insert your Mac OS X install DVD into the DVD drive, then restart the Mac.
2. When you hear the chime, hold down the C key until you see the Apple logo and spinning gear.
3. Select your language in the dialog that appears.
4. Go to the menu at the top of the screen and choose Utilities > Disk Utility to launch Disk Utility.
5. Click the First Aid tab (if not already selected).
6. Select the disk to repair in the left hand pane.
7. Click the Repair Disk button.

If all goes well then your disk will be repaired (this may take a while) and you can then restart the Mac.

Hopefully, following these 10 Mac troubleshooting steps will fix your problem, or at least help you identify the cause. If not then your best bet is to post your problem in the discussion forums, or call Apple Support. Good luck!

I suggested he made sure Google SafeSearch was enabled, and pointed out software such as NetNanny. Then I rummaged around in System Preferences and found that Leopard has some pretty comprehensive parental filters built in, in the form of Parental Controls. They look pretty handy for keeping your kid safe on the Internet, and also for preventing accidental damage to your applications and OS installation (kids being the curious creatures that they are).

Here’s how to use Parental Controls on your Mac.

Creating an account and enabling Parental Controls

The first thing to do is create a separate account for your child (if you haven’t already). As an administrative user, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Accounts. Click the lock symbol at the bottom left of the dialog (if locked) and enter your password.

Now click the little + (plus) button below the list of accounts. In the sheet that appears, choose Managed with Parental Controls from the New Account drop-down list, and fill in the other fields:

Click the Create Account button to create your child’s account.

If your kid already has an account, simply select it in the Accounts list then select the Enable Parental Controls checkbox to the right of the list.

Accessing Parental Controls

Now click the Open Parental Controls button in the Accounts preference pane to jump to the Parental Controls preferences. (You can also access these preferences by clicking the Parental Controls icon in the main System Preferences window.) Choose your kid’s account name to manage that account:

You can see that there are 5 ways to manage your kid’s access: System, Content, Mail & iChat, Time Limits, and Logs. Here’s an overview of how they work:

System

The System pane lets you control access to the Mac’s apps, files, hardware, and some admin functions:

• Use Simple Finder: Select this to use a simplified, kid-friendly version of the Finder for the account, with a minimal Dock and simple Finder windows. Only one Finder window is on-screen at any one time. The user only has to click once on apps or documents to open them, and is prevented from messing with system files and settings. You can also choose which apps to display in the My Applications window using the list further down the System pane. Here’s how Simple Finder looks:

• Only allow selected applications: Regardless of whether Simple Finder is enabled, check this option to choose which apps the user can run. Again, you choose the apps to allow using the checkboxes in the list further down the pane.
• Can administer printers: Deselect this to prevent the user from selecting printers and changing printer settings.
• Can burn CDs and DVDs: Deselect this, and the user can’t burn discs.
• Can change password: If selected, the user can change their password.
• Can modify the Dock: Select this to let the user add or remove items from their Dock.

Content

The Content pane controls access to content on the Web and in the built-in Dictionary. Select the Hide profanity in Dictionary checkbox to remove access to naughty words (if Timmy searches for a naughty word, Dictionary simply reports it as not found).

Website Restrictions controls what sites your kid can visit. Select the Try to limit access to adult websites automatically option, and Mac OS looks at things like URLs and page content to determine if pages should be blocked. (This also blocks, for example, Google searches for “sex”.) You can click Customize to create a whitelist of sites to always allow, or add additional sites to block.

To really lock down Web access, select the Allow access to only these websites option. All sites not in the list are blocked. You can then add and remove sites from the list to specify exactly which sites your child can visit.

Although the Website Restrictions section has a Safari icon, it does in fact prevent access to blocked sites from any browser, not just Safari.

Mail & iChat

In the Mail & iChat pane, you can control who your child can exchange email and chat messages with. Select the Limit Mail checkbox to prevent the user sending email to, or receiving email from, anyone not on the allowed list. Select Limit iChat to do the same for instant messaging.

To add allowed people to the list, click the + (plus) button at the bottom of the list. You can choose people in your address book, or enter new people. For each person, you can specify their email address, their AIM screen-name, or their Jabber account.

If you’ve elected to block email, you can select the Send permission requests to checkbox, then enter your email address in the box. Then, any email messages sent to your child from people not on the approved list are forwarded to you for checking. Selecting this option also gives your child the option of clicking a button to send you a permission request  message if they want to send email to someone not on the list.

The settings in this pane only work for the Mail and iChat apps, so you’ll need to block other apps such as Thunderbird or AIM in the System pane, as well as block sites such as mail.yahoo.com (if your child uses Yahoo! Mail) in the Content pane.

Time Limits

Use this pane to control when, and how long, your kid can login to the Mac:

• Weekday time limits controls how much total time the user can spend on the Mac each day during the week (Monday-Friday). You can choose from 30 minutes to 8 hours. The user is warned when they have 15 minutes left, at which point the time can be extended by an administrator (i.e. you) if little Timmy is persuasive enough.
• Weekend time limits is similar, but controls the daily access time for Saturday and Sunday.
• Bedtime lets you choose the hours of the day when the child can’t use the Mac. Select School nights and choose a start and end time to block access each school night (Sunday-Thursday). Select Weekend to do the same for Friday and Saturday nights (when, presumably, Timmy can stay up a little later).

Logs

If you’re concerned about exactly what little Timmy is doing on your Mac, head over to the Logs pane. You can view different time periods by choosing from the Show activity for drop-down menu, and choose an activity type in the Log Collections list on the left. The Group By drop-down lets you group the logs by type (e.g. website or application) or by date.

For each activity type, you can view the list of activities in the pane on the right. Use the little disclosure arrows to drill down. Click an item to select it. You can then check out logged web pages or applications by clicking the Open button at the bottom of the list, and block or allow specific web pages or applications by clicking the Block/Allow button.

Summary

While it’s not entirely foolproof, the Mac’s Parental Controls give you a fairly comprehensive way to control and monitor your child’s access to your Mac. Depending on your point of view, you might find some aspects, such as the logging, somewhat Big Brother-ish; then again, if you’re worried that your child is hanging out with unsavoury types online then it’s one way to reassure yourself without having to peer over their shoulder whenever they’re on the Mac.

Oh, and it’s probably stating the obvious, but if you do set up Parental Controls for your kid(s) don’t forget to set a secret password on your own account!

Smart Groups

You probably know that you can organize your contacts into groups by clicking the + button at the bottom of the Group list to create a new group, then dragging contacts into that group.

However, Address Book also lets you create Smart Groups. These work pretty much like Smart Playlists in iTunes. Choose File > New Smart Group, then specify your search criteria in the dialog that appears:

The Smart Group automatically updates its list of contacts whenever you add, remove, or edit contacts in Address Book. Select the Highlight the group when updated checkbox, and whenever a contact is automatically added to or removed from the group, Address Book highlights both group and contact in purple.

(By the way, if you hold down Option while a contact is selected in the contacts list, Address Book highlights the group(s) they’re in – including regular groups as well as Smart Groups – in yellow.)

Smart Groups are great for grouping all the people who work at a certain company, or who live in a certain town, for example.

Dialling a contact

Right- or Control-click a phone number in Address Book and, if you have IP-to-phone software installed such as Skype or Gizmo, you can dial the number, or send an SMS to the number, right from the pop-up menu:

You can get a similar menu of options by clicking the field label to the left of the field.

Finding a contact in Google Maps

Do the same trick with an address field, and you’ll get a Map Of option. Click to display the address in Google Maps:

Displaying a phone number in large type

Again, right/Control-click a phone number, or click the field name next to the phone number. Now choose Large Type from the menu to display the number in huge letters on the screen. Perfect if your phone happens to be on the other side of the room!

Printing

Ever tried printing from Address Book? Not only can you print a list of names and addresses, but you can print address labels, envelopes, and even a handy tabbed pocket address book that’s great for those times when you don’t want to, or can’t, take your iPhone or PDA with you. Just select the contact(s) you want to print, then choose File > Print and pick an option from the Style menu inside the Print dialog:

There are many more little-known features of Address Book – not to mention a wealth of plugins available for the app – that I’ll cover in a future post. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed these little tips!

If you remember, iTunes 7 and earlier gave you a Preferences option to turn them off. And rightly so – they clutter up the UI in my opinion.

However, for some bizarre (no doubt marketing-related) reason, Apple removed this option from the Preferences dialog in iTunes 8. Thanks guys.

Fortunately, there’s still a way to turn the arrows off. Quit iTunes, open a Terminal window, and type:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool false

Now relaunch iTunes. The arrows will be gone. To turn them on again, type:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -bool true

Not so fast…

Before you turn the arrows off, though, you may be surprised to learn that they do, in fact, do more than just take you to the iTunes Store.

This post on macosxhints.com contains a couple of comments which taught me something new: You can actually Option-click an iTunes Store arrow to find stuff in your library. Option-click a track name column or album column arrow to get a list of all tracks in an album; Option-click an artist column arrow to view all tracks by an artist.

So those arrows are actually useful after all! In fact, by changing another hidden preference, you can swap the behaviour of clicking/Option-clicking:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool true

Now clicking the arrows takes you to the album or artist in your library, while Option-clicking jumps to the Store.

Obviously, you can revert back to the original behaviour by typing:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool false

And there you go! The hidden delights of those little arrows.