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Revealing Hidden PDF Services in Mac OS X 10.2.4

Posted by pudge on from the better-than-faxing dept.

cspiff writes "In Mac OS X 10.2.4, Apple quietly added the ability for users and developers to enhance the standard Print dialog with custom PDF-handling options. To enable it, just create a folder '~/Library/PDF Services' and populate it with aliases to applications, scripts, Unix tools, or other folders. Those items then show up in the Print dialog as optional handlers for Mac OS X's built-in 'Save as PDF' feature. Drop a renamed alias to your mail client in there, and you've added convenient 'Send PDF as Email' functionality to every application."

2 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Holy smokin' joes... by torpor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... is it just me, or does OSX frickin' rock or what?

    What would you have to do to do something like this in Windows land? Some sort of .DLL monkeybusiness? Registry hacking?

    Man, am I ever glad I switched. Friend of mine just came to my office to report yet *another* full re-install of WinXP is required on his test machine because ... 'something has gone wrong with the USB driver updates'.

    Can he figure it out? No. Is he stupid? No. Does Microsoft suck at designing OS's that make sense? Yes.

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  2. visit the site! by funwithstuff · · Score: 5, Informative

    For more info on all sorts of techy Mac OS X stuff, just read www.macosxhints.com, where this hint came from. All free and sensible, with daily updates.

    Current stories include:
    Hiding information from nmap
    Accessing the 6BONE with OS X 10.2
    Automate screen captures via Grab and GUI Scripting
    Large image previews in column view
    Hear new Mail messages announced by customized voices
    Network proxies and internet access via AirPort
    Cocktail - A collection of mini-utilties in one app
    Restore Aqua look and feel in NetBeans 3.4 with Java 1.4.1
    Temporarily silence the startup sound
    Another USB to network printer conversion

    --
    it's not about the karma, it's about the whuffie