How to password-protect a PDF before e-mailing in OS X

The print-to-PDF feature in OS X is convenient for quickly preserving a document's layout in the PDF format, so it can be viewed on most computers and tablets. If you would like to send someone a formatted document that contains sensitive information, you may want to add the step of protecting it with a password.

To do this, you can use a container format such as a ZIP file or an encrypted disk image (using the Disk Utility program in OS X); however, these may be a bit cumbersome to manage, both for the sender and recipient.

An alternative is to send the PDF as an encrypted PDF file with a password that must be entered by the recipient before the PDF can be read.

There isn't a specific option to print a document to an encrypted PDF format in OS X, but the procedure is simple enough:

1. Use the PDF menu in the print dialog box and choose "Open PDF in Preview."
2. Press Command-S to save the PDF.
3. In the save dialog box, click the "Encrypt" check box and provide a password for the PDF, and then save it to your desktop (or similar location).
4. Now click the Sharing toolbar button in preview and choose the Email option.

This action will create the encrypted PDF and offers a relatively easy way to attach it to a new e-mail message. However, if you use this feature regularly then you may want a slightly more streamlined approach.

Luckily, OS X supports an option for custom print plug-in workflows that you can use to encrypt a PDF directly from the PDF menu in the print dialog window. To do this, open the Automator program (in the Applications folder) and follow these steps:

When creating the workflow, for the encryption action be sure to check the option to show the action's input when the workflow runs (click for larger view).

1. Create a new workflow.
2. Select "Print Plugin" as the type of workflow to create.
3. Locate the "Encrypt PDF Documents" action and drag it to the workflow area.
4. Click the Options button for this action and check the option to "Show this action when the workflow runs."
5. Locate the "New Mail Message" action and drag it to the workflow, below the encryption action (you can optionally use the "Add Attachments to Front Message" action, or have this in a separate workflow altogether).

Save the workflow with a name like "Mail Encrypted PDF" and you should be good to go. Now whenever you print a document you can choose this workflow from the PDF menu and after you supply the password to use, the system will generate the secured PDF document in a new e-mail message.

How to enable and use the OS X Contacts debug menu

Browsing Address Book archives, among other options, is a hidden feature in the OS X Contacts program.

A number of programs in OS X include a hidden menu that offers some extra functions. These are generally not intended for use by the end user, but there are times when these features can be useful. For instance, there's a debug menu in Disk Utility that lets you enable viewing hidden partitions to better manage volumes and disks.

Similar to Disk Utility, a debug menu exists in the Contacts program for managing your Address Book database, which offers a couple of useful features.

To enable the debug menu, simply open the Terminal utility (in the Applications > Utilities folder) and run the following command:

defaults write com.apple.AddressBook ABShowDebugMenu -bool true

The Debug menu in the Contacts program offers a few useful features.

When run, the next time you launch the Contacts program you will see a new debug menu. The first six options in this menu will write debugging and programming information to the OS X console, or otherwise help in the development of the program. The remaining options offer the following features:

1. Enter Time Machine
   This is redundant with the Enter Time Machine feature in the Time Machine menu extra, but does offer a hot key (Control-Command-B) to quickly load the Time Machine backups. This can be useful if you regularly find yourself accessing deleted contact data.
2. Browse Archive
   This option is perhaps the more useful, where you can use Contacts to load a previously exported Address Book archive. To export an archive, you can use the option to do so in the File menu, but this will save everything in a single archive file that when opened will try to replace your current Contacts database. If you use the Browse Archive option instead, then you can open the archive without replacing your current one, so you can browse the contacts in there, export them as a vcard, or simply select and copy them to paste them into your main Address Book archive (quit and relaunch Contacts to reload the main database).
3. Refresh Accounts
   This is primarily useful for networked Address Book accounts such as those through LDAP services, or online services like Google and Yahoo. If a change online has not updated in your Contacts list, then you can invoke this to manually refresh it.
4. Show People Picker Panel
   This panel is the standard contacts picker, similar to the contacts panel in Apple's Mail program. It allows a more condensed view of your contacts, and offers options for dragging and dropping, or otherwise entering contact data into fields of various programs.

To undo this menu addition in Contacts, you can either repeat the command above in the Terminal but replace "true" with "false," or you can run the following command to completely revert the changes:

How to open multiple Finder windows at the same location

Here's how to duplicate the current folder view in a new Finder window in OS X

When using the Finder in OS X, sometimes you may want to have multiple views of the same folder open at once. Usually it's quick to create a new Finder window and navigate to the folder; however, this may be inconvenient if the folder is buried deep in the filesystem, such as may be the case when troubleshooting a problem or two with the system, retrieving a backed-up file, or organizing an extensive tree of work files.

If you need a faster approach, there are several, some of which use the Finder and its capabilities, and others that involve secondary programs.

You can select and copy the path, and then use the Go to Folder option in the Finder (Shift-Command-G) to paste the path and access it.

This is convenient for a single duplicate instance, but if you would like more than one duplicate, select an item in the folder and get information on it. Then expand the General section of the information window and note the "Where" listing that shows the full path to it. Select the entire path, starting with the first forward-slash and including all lines to the last folder. Then press Command-C to copy it.Firstly, in Finder, you can quickly create a duplicate folder view by pressing Command-up arrow to reveal the folder highlighted in its parent directory, and then pressing Control-Command-O to open the folder in a new window. You can then switch to the prior window and double-click or press Command-O to open the folder directly.

With the path copied, press Command-N to create a new Finder window, and Shift-Command-G to bring up the "Go to Folder" field. Paste the copied path into this field, and press Enter to have the window go to that location. Repeat, creating a new window and pasting the path for any additional windows you would like.

You can create a sidebar favorite of a current folder by dragging it directly, or a reference to it from the title bar or Finder Path bar, and dropping this at a location in the sidebar. You can drag it out of the sidebar when no longer in use.

An alternative approach is to make use of the Finder's sidebar and toolbar, by dragging the current folder to these locations to make a link (you can drag the folder from the window title to the sidebar, for example). Then create a new Finder window by pressing Command-N, and click the new Favorite link to set the location. When finished, you can drag the link out of the Favorites.

Similar to the Finder's favorites menu, you can use the Dock by dragging the folder to it (in the user files section between the Trash and the separator bar), and then holding the Command key while clicking the folder. This will create a new Finder window at that folder for each click.

A final alternative is to use Spotlight, provided the folder is in your home directory, on an indexed external drive, or in another area meant for access by your user account. To do this simply search for the folder name and it should show up as a search result. Then select it and press Command-Return to open a new folder revealing the item. You can then repeat this to open additional folders revealing the item.

How to recover your iTunes account ID

If you have regularly used iTunes to purchase music and movies, then you may have a significant collection of titles that are tied to your specific iTunes account. However, if you have used more than one iTunes account, then you may run into trouble if you cannot remember the account ID you used to purchase the items.

The iTunes log-in prompt offers no way to retrieve a forgotten ID.

At the very least, if the songs are DRM-protected and you have not authorized your system to play them, then iTunes will present you with a notice to log in to your account before it will play them.

While Apple offers a quick password recovery link in the authorization window, this requires you first enter a valid corresponding Apple ID, so if you have forgotten your iTunes account ID, then you may be at somewhat of a loss for what to enter. However, there is an easy way to look this up using the items you have already purchased.

As shown in this Apple knowledgebase article, each song or movie you purchase in iTunes will be tagged with your name and the account used, so you can use this to find your lost account username.

The iTunes ID will be in the location of the blue box, when you get information on a previously purchased song or movie.

To view this information, simply select any song or movie and press Command-I or choose "Get Info" from the File menu. Then in the Summary tab of the window that appears (this should be the default tab), you should see the name and Apple ID listed. Now you can use this Apple ID as the username in the iTunes authorization window, and then retrieve the password as well if necessary.

Quickly fix Dropbox permissions errors in OS X

Dropbox is one of the more popular cloud-based syncing and storage tools, and offers Mac users a convenient way to transfer files from one system to another, or share files with colleagues. Dropbox can sometimes give you errors, saying that it cannot transfer something because it does not have permission to access some of the files being copied.

If this happens, then it could be because of an improper permissions setup with the Dropbox configuration files in your account, or with the files currently being copied.

If a permissions error such as this occurs, then the first thing that might come to mind is to use Disk Utility's Permissions Fix routine. But this only affects access permissions on system files and installed applications, and will not touch files in your user account.

Holding the Option key in the Account section of the preferences will show the "Fix Permissions" option, instead of the standard option to unlink the current computer.

Instead, for Dropbox-specific errors, you can use a feature in the program that will tackle file permissions associated with the program's configuration and data files being handled by it. To do this, open the Dropbox preferences by going to its menu extra, then clicking the gear icon, and finally choosing Preferences. Then go to the "Account" section of the preferences, and you should see a button labeled "Unlink This Computer..." If you hold the Option key, then you will see this label change to "Fix Permissions," and clicking the button will result in Dropbox running its permissions repair routine.

This procedure should address most permissions-related issues with Dropbox, but if not then you can try running a home folder permissions fix, which should ensure that all files in your home directory are fully accessible by your account. To do this, reboot the system into Recovery mode by holding the Command-R keys at startup. Then choose "Terminal" from the Utilities menu, and run the command "resetpassword" (all one word, and lowercase).

When the password reset tool opens, select your hard disk, and then your username from the drop-down menu. Then click the button to reset home folder permissions and ACLs, and after a few seconds the process should be complete. Now reboot the system normally, and log back into your account. Then try using Dropbox again.

While the procedure here is described with respect to Dropbox, access issues with other cloud-based storage services like Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and SugarSync can also benefit from running a home directory permissions fix.