Edit: This post was originally a reply to artie505 in "Microsoft Word 2011 – Normal Template Modification" in the Mac OS X Applications forum.



I hadn't, but now I have. (Many thanks for the recommendation and for reminding me.) Just downloaded and installed it; it's in my dock, cheek by jowl with Finder.

I tried to store it in my (Mac-generated) Utilities folder, but the system wouldn't allow me to, stating that the Utilities folder can't be modified. What's that about?

Now, if I could find a nice little Desktop utility such as Note Pad (which I can't bring over from OS 9) ….

Glad you got the Normal template trouble sorted, Dr. G.

It would be helpful if you started new threads for new issues, at this point the problem putting EasyFind into your Utilities folder and a replacement for Note Pad.

The Utilities prohibition is a new one on me (I'm surprised that OS X didn't offer you an opportunity to authenticate, or did you either overlook it or fail to understand that "authenticate" means "enter your password?"), but, along with requiring authentication to delete many items from /Apps (...began in Snow Leopard) and hiding ~/Library (...began in Lion), there seems to be a vague pattern emerging; I wonder what's next. (I wonder what happens with DiskWarrior, which, as do any number of other utilities, likes to live in /Apps/Utils?)

I hate Apple's Stickies (If you've got it, have you tried it?), which is what your Note Pad sounds like, and I use Sidenote in its stead. (I note, though, that there are any number of other Stickies replacements out there.)

And I found it at http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12541/notepad.
However, while it says free download on that site, trying to download it sends it to the Mac App Store which wants to charge for it. Crap on that.

It did indeed ask me to authenticate, but not having a clue what that meant, I just moved on and stored it in Applications.
I just went back and tried again and by 'authenticating' it allowed me to put it in the Utilities folder. What weird stuff!

Is $0.99 that much of a deterrent?

I've seen Stickies but have never cared for the thing.
NotePad is very much different, allowing a little pad to sit on the Desktop for note taking, storing bits and pieces for the nonce, and so forth. It's a nice little utility.

Yes.

And from what I can tell, including others' comments on the website given, it doesn't retain its very simple character in the latest incarnation, being bloated with options. They should have let well enough alone.

Thread closed temporarily for clean-up.

Edit: I detached the most recent off-topic replies from Microsoft Word 2011 – Normal Template Modification and moved them here to New Users as a separate thread.

Find Any File could be used instead of (or in addition to) Easy Find.

Addendum to thread #17982:

Another strange occurrence: After I put EasyFind into the dock, quit it, then tried to reopen it, it refused to do my bidding. I tried doing the same thing with an alias, but that didn't work either. Now, this is an application in the Applications folder (filed under Utilities); so why won't it work like any other application, such as dragging its icon to the dock? Most curious. What am I missing?

Drag its icon out of the dock (the dock icon is only an alias) and then go to /Applications/Utilities and drag it back in. This often solves this type of problem.

You're right. That seems to have done it; open-close-open-....

Out of curiosity, cyn, what was wrong with my link? The present one is the same one I've got in my database.

> NotePad is very much different, allowing a little pad to sit on the Desktop for note taking, storing bits and pieces for the nonce, and so forth. It's a nice little utility.

Sidenote doesn't sound quite right for you, then; take a look at the offerings here.

However there are some 30 notepad type apps in the App store and some, but not all, of them are FREE. You might want to check them out. Some of them will even use Apple's forthcoming Cloud to share their data with corresponding apps on the iPhone or iPad.


OS 9 was a single user operating system but OS X (BSD Unix with a GUI) is inherently a multi-user operating system and that cannot be changed or removed. If you dig deep enough into the operation of OS X you will find there are multiple users running in OS X at all times. These "users" are essential for the operation of the OS. As with all multi-user operating systems, OS X takes many precautions to prevent any user from intentionally or unintentionally damaging the system. As a part of this protection, most of the files and folders at the drive root are owned by the user System and not you — even if you are logged on with an administrative account. Thus the "authentication" step required before writing, or deleting, files from folders owned by another user on the computer, specifically the user System. By-the-way the authentication is a key part of the system that protects OS X from viruses and other forms of malware.

You probably are not going to like this suggestion, but I urge you to read David Pogue's Mac OS X: Lion Edition. Lion and its OS X predecessors are entirely different animals from what you have been used to and this would save you hours of frustration and aggravation trying to map a Lion into an ancient mouse.

Nice explanation. Merci.


Not at all. I commented on DP's up-coming book earlier and am eagerly awaiting its release. So there.