How To...

We get a lot of e-mail asking “How do I do this...” This chapter answers a couple of the most common questions.


I don’t want to see a tile for my screen saver (or for the Finder, The Tilery, whatever). How can I make The Tilery not show these tiles?

Hold down the command-key and click the tile you’d like to hide. Then select Hide Tile from the Tile menu; the tile will vanish.

There will now be a new menu item in the Tile menu, labeled “Show Tile for whatever-the-tile-was-called.” To un-hide the tile, select that menu item. You can also select Show All Tiles to show every hidden tile.


How can I change the label on a tile without changing the name of the original item?

You can do this for remembered tiles, but not for non-remembered tiles. Here’s how: Hold down the command-key and click the tile whose label you’d like to change. Now press the RETURN key, and you will be able to edit the tile’s label just as if you were using a word processor. When you’re done editing, press RETURN again.

To restore the tile’s default label, completely delete all text in the label and press RETURN.


How can I make the tiles appear in a different place?

Remembered tiles can be simply dragged to wherever you want them, and they’ll stay there until you drag them somewhere else.

Ordinary tiles are laid out in rows according to the “Anchor and Chain.” Select Tile Placement from the Preferences menu; all your tiles will temporarily vanish and will be replaced by two tiles displaying pictures of an anchor and a chain, and a small window containing instructions and a couple of buttons. Drag the anchor tile to the corner of the screen where you’d like your row of tiles to begin. (The chain tile will follow along.) Now drag the chain tile in the direction you’d like the row to go, either horizontally or vertically. The space you leave between the anchor and chain controls the spacing between all the tiles.

Your remembered tiles will also follow the anchor and chain, if you select the “Adjust Remembered Tiles to Grid” checkbox in the window. They’ll stay put if you leave that box unchecked.

When you’re ready, click OK. If you decide to leave things unchanged, click Cancel instead. The anchor and chain will vanish and your regular tiles will reappear, either in their new locations or (if you clicked Cancel) in their old ones.


Whenever I quit from an application, The Tilery always winds up in front. How can I prevent that?

Select Defer to Finder from the Preferences menu if you would like to have the Finder automatically brought to the front after you quit an application.

If you would prefer to have the next application in line brought to the front instead, select Defer to Next App.

If you want the regular behavior back again, select Don’t Defer.

Please be aware that this feature isn’t magical. The Tilery will do its best, but that may not be perfect. For example, if you like to hide applications you may be happier with Defer to Finder than with Defer to Next App. The Tilery can’t always tell when an app is hidden, and may mistakenly bring a hidden app forward, which will un-hide it.


I don’t like the shape, size, or colors of the tiles. How can I change them?

Select Tile Styles from the Preferences menu. You can choose from eight different styles which give you choices for icon size, label, and window kind; and you can select colors for open tiles, remembered tiles, the “frontmost” bars, and the labels.