Subscribe to How-To Geek

Recommended: Click Here to Run a Free Scan for Common PC Errors   [Sponsored Link]

Power Up Your OS X Terminal With iTerm

As a long-time keyboard ninja, I was very saddened to see that the built-in terminal in OS X is extremely limited in available options, especially the lack of tabs. Supposedly the upcoming Leopard release will include them, but I can't wait that long…

A quick google search came up with iTerm, a superior application that's earned a permanent place in my toolbox.

image The image “http://www.howtogeek.com/geekers/keyboardninja.png” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

If you look very closely, you can see the transparency, which is completely configurable (I set mine to 10%). All of the colors are customizable as well.. I prefer the green on black, but you can use it in the default configuration if you want.

Right-clicking on the terminal will give you quick access to your saved "bookmarks".

image

Or you can hit cmd+B to open up a panel on the side showing the bookmarks, but I haven't yet figured out how to launch them via the keyboard. You can launch a new tab with the cmd+T shortcut, but it'll use your default session.

image

If you take a look in the preferences, there's a bunch of options to change the look & feel of tabs… you'll need to restart iTerm to actually see all the changes, even though it looks like it changes them right away.

image

And a very interesting feature… full screen mode! I was really surprised to see this one in there.

image

There's a lot more features, so you'll just have to take a look.

Download iTerm from SourceForge

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 09/11/07 and tagged with: Apple

Leave a Comment




Leave your friendly comment here. If you have a computer help question, leave it on the forums instead.

Note: Your comment may not show up immediately on the site.

Copyright © 2006-2008 HowToGeek.com. All Rights Reserved.