At WWDC I was asked how to remove the disclosure triangle in an NSOutlineView. Well, first things first. You can change it with this bit of code in your delegate:

- (void)outlineView:(NSOutlineView *)ov
  willDisplayOutlineCell:(NSButtonCell *)cell
  forTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn
  item:(id)item
{
  [cell setImage:[NSImage imageNamed:@“collapsedglyph.tiff”]];
  [cell setAlternateImage:[NSImage imageNamed:@“expandedglyph.tiff”]];
}

If you want to set it to nil, you will have to create an image that is empty.

–corbin

I did some cool rail riding last weekend:

http://www.bluetreesoft.com/wallpapers/wallpapers.cgi/east_cliff?ppp=0

Here’s a snapshot:

I am actually right above the cliff. Check out the other pictures.

Cool, huh! This is what I do in my spare time. Today, after work, I’m doing a mountain unicycle ride at the Soquel Demo forest.

At WWDC, I quickly mentioned how easy it is to add tooltip’s to an NSCell for an NSTableView/NSOutlineView.

Here is a quick snippet of code on how to do this only if the text doesn’t fill up the entire cell:

- (NSString *)tableView:(NSTableView *)tv toolTipForCell:(NSCell *)cell rect:(NSRectPointer)rect tableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tc row:(int)row mouseLocation:(NSPoint)mouseLocation {
    if ([cell isKindOfClass:[NSTextFieldCell class]]) {
        if ([[cell attributedStringValue] size].width > rect->size.width) {
            return [cell stringValue];
        }
    }
    return nil;
}

You will obviously have to set the delegate for the tableview to be whatever class implements the above method, and this will only work on Tiger. But, it is REALLY easy to do.

Okay, one of the coolest Tiger enhancements has to do with keyboard shortcuts. The “really smart” Human Interface people at Apple figured out some stuff that bothered me in Panther. The main one that I like is “move focus to the menu bar”. Turn on this shortcut in the “keyboard and mouse” section of System Preferences. By default it is set to Ctrl-F2, but i changed it to Cmd-F2 because it is easier to type.

First, how does it work?
Well, you type “Ctrl-F2” (Cmd-F2 in my case), and the Apple menu item has focus. Begin typing, and “type to select” matches what you typed. Way cool! Hit Enter to “drop down” a menu item, and then you can begin typing again to select a sub menu item. It took me a while to realize it is doing a “type-to-select” based on the name, and not “type the first letter to select” (which is the way it works on Windows, but the Apple way is MUCH smarter).

So, what is better about it in Tiger?
Well, in Panther, the apple menu was initially dropped down — this means, there was no way of type-to-selecting a menu on the top level. Now, I use this feature ALL THE TIME! It is a great speed improvement for touch-typists who don’t like using the mouse all that much. For example, in most apps I can type this sequence: “Cmd-F2 F ENTER O” and the “open recent” menu will be open. It is GREAT! Use it. It will save you some time.

Mail has a cool way of making unread messages stand out. It is really easy to do this type of thing with NSTableView/NSOutlineView. Subclass the one you want, and override drawRow. Toss in the code you see below, and it should give a cool highlight on all expandable rows in an NSOutlineView (you will have to modify it to have it work in NSTableView — just remove the call to isExpandable).

- (void)drawRow:(int)row clipRect:(NSRect)clipRect {
    if (([self isExpandable:[self itemAtRow:row]]) && (![self isRowSelected:row])) {
        // Draw a light-blue “mail like” border around the row, if not selected
        NSRect rect = [self rectOfRow:row];
        [[[NSColor blueColor] colorWithAlphaComponent:50/255.0] set];
        NSBezierPath *path = [NSBezierPath bezierPath];
        [path setLineCapStyle:NSRoundLineCapStyle];
        [path setLineWidth:rect.size.height - 3];
        int rowLevel = [self levelForRow:row];
        float x = rect.origin.x + 10.0 + (rowLevel * [self indentationPerLevel]);
        float y = rect.origin.y + (rect.size.height / 2.0);
        [path moveToPoint:NSMakePoint(x,y)];
        [path lineToPoint:NSMakePoint(x + rect.size.width - 2*10.0, y)];
        [path stroke];
    }
    [super drawRow:row clipRect:clipRect];
}

NOTE: use this at your own risk. I think resizing the thing doesn’t quite work.