From The Tips Box: Mac Printing, Belt Hangers

Readers offer their best tips for printing documents in Mac OS X, hanging up your belts, and the many wonders of wristbands.

Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favourites. Got a tip of your own to share? Add it in the comments or send it using the contact tab on the right.

Instantly Print a Document From The Finder In OS X

Simone discovers an awesome shortcut in OS X:

Not sure whether this has been reported before: in Mountain Lion you can print documents more or less directly from the Finder. Just press Cmd+P, and the document’s default application will open and print it.

Turn An Old Smartphone Mount Into A Belt Hanger

QuickTek finds a new use for an old smartphone mount:

Repurpose an old smartphone car mount as a belt or clothes hook.

Make Life Easier With A Pair Of Cloth Wristbands

Josh Cook shares his love for wristbands:

I’m a graphic designer by trade, and an internet junkie by choice. The majority of my time is spent between drawing sketches for concepts and pushing the mouse around. Here’s what I’ve come to realize: Wristbands are incredibly useful for a lot of life’s mundane situations.

When I’m drawing and using the mouse, a wristband provides a plush cushioning for the wrist’s pisiform bone, which becomes easily inflamed and malformed with the constant friction (compare the little nubby bone on the inside base of your upward-turned wrists; almost guaranteed that the dominant hand will have a larger bump than the other). A wristband is also a godsend when it comes to wiping away eraser crumbs with minimal interruption after a lot of drawing revisions without smearing the sketch, as the cloth surface is much better than ones oily and moist skin. And speaking of smearing, having your wrist elevated ever so slightly dramatically reduces general smearing of graphite via the side of the palm, a constant headache for artists.

Did I mention that you can store small items between your skin and the band? Erasers, brushes, pencils, packs of gum…whatever! You can even loop your iPod headphones around it for secure storage. Had to park your car out in the blazing summer sun? Slide the band down to your fingers and it becomes a guard from the heat when you grab at your piping hot seat belt. They’re also cheap (I’ve found plain coloured ones in vending machines for $US0.50), come in damned near any colour, pattern, or branded logo imaginable (though dark is recommend to hide stains), and are easily cleaned in the sink with water and soap.

Wristbands. I’m telling you: Lifesaver.

Photo by Richard Eriksson.

Share More Than Just Photos And Videos In SkyDrive For Android

Anitgandhi discovers a workaround in SkyDrive’s new app:

For people using the new SkyDrive app on Android: it may say that we can only upload pictures and videos, but there is a way to actually upload anything from your SD card. Open a file manager app (I use ES File Explorer, it should most probably work on any major one though) and navigate to that file. Long press that file, choose share. You should see that typical options like through a text or email, but you should see a SkyDrive option as well (at least it does for me on ICS). Choose that option, and the SkyDrive app will pop up, asking you where you want to upload the file!