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How To: Force Safari to Download PDF Files

I hate having my Internet Browser display PDF files when I click on them. I much prefer them to be downloaded. Here are two commands that changes this default behavior.

in terminal (as Admin or Root user) type:
defaults write com.apple.Safari
WebKitOmitPDFSupport -bool YES

Essentially you’re removing PDF Support from Safari so that it doesn’t know what to do with the files. Safari simply downloads the file to the /User/Downloads directory instead.

Keep in mind that updating Safari or Adobe Acrobat may change the PDF handling behavior back to the default. Yes, it is also possible to right click on a PDF and use “Download Linked File,” but this process is more automated.

How To: Disable Dashboard in OS X

Dashboard in Leopard is a love it or hate it application. There are several useful applications that can make life easier. On the other hand, it’s easy to hit the activation buttons on Mighty Mouse by accident. Other people may begrudge Dashboard’s use of memory. It’s not much, but on low end machines every bit counts.

This is how to disable Dashboard:

Open Terminal (as an admin user)

type: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

Hit Enter

type: killall Finder

When Finder restarts, Dashboard should be gone. To turn it back on follow the same instructions, but replace YES with NO.

The first command is the powerful one. There are a lot of default behaviors that can be changed in OS X if the write command is known.

The second command, killall Finder simply does the same as force quitting Finder from the GUI. It forces the Finder to quit, relaunch and reload everything, including the Dock. In this case it does not relaunch Dashboard though.

Please let me know if you find this helpful. Also suggestions for other terminal commands would be appreciated.