The mental object direction organisation we use to publish everything that appears on Macworld.com — include this very Weblog entry you ’re interpret correctly now — uses a web internet browser - based port . satisfy in a few area , select an choice or two from a drop - down menu , push a button , and presto — your very deep view are pushed live for the entire world to see .

Or , at least , that ’s how itshouldwork when everything ’s hum along like it ’s suppose to . But a few weeks ago , every meter I went to post a story through Safari , I was greeted by an unwished-for visitant — OS X ’s spinning beach ball .

The spinning beach is the multi - dark-skinned orb that appear on your display , presumably because it would be too difficult to program your Mac to say “ unlax — this is survive to take for a while . ” It generally limits its ( unwelcome ) appearing to when you ’re trying to do processor - intensive tasks or asking your Mac to think really intemperately about something . Only now , the beach musket ball was pop up whenever I tried scroll through a list of options or filling in a field using our content direction system . And it was spin for quite a while , too — maybe not long enough for me to make a sandwich , but certainly enough clip to foot out the bread and lunchmeat .

So what does aMacworldeditor who ’s puzzle mighty hackneyed of cooling his heels do to rid himself of the beach - ball blues ? He turn to his smarter , well - informed colleagues for help . Or more specifically , he steer over toMac OS X Hintsfor a small enlightenment .

( Full - disclosure : Mac OS hug drug Hints is run by Rob Griffiths , who also write a similarly - named column for this powder magazine . I have no musical theme why this might deter you from take heed to Rob ’s respectable counsel and advice on OS - related subject , but I thought I ’d remark it anyway . )

Thetip that make unnecessary my baconcame from OS X Hints proofreader nolaPBG4 who suggest deleting autofill entry by going into Safari ’s Preferences , pick out Autofill , clicking the Edit release for Other Forms and selecting Remove All . nolaPBG4 also suggests turn off any language in Safari that you do n’t need . I followed both pieces of advice , and I have n’t been plagued by a beach - ball sighting since .

One lingering question : the peak says to delete autofill ledger entry “ from time to metre ” , but how frequently does that mean ? Weekly ? Monthly ? Every 3,000 naut mi ? Or do I just await until the beach ball rise its ugly head again ? It ’s no big deal to edit those entries , I suppose , but I also rule it convenient to let the autofill feature fill in frequently - used field . I imagine I ’ll figure it out on my own shortly enough .

But none of that should detract from an excellent tip for solving a problem that probably affect more Mac drug user than just me . If you ’re come across a little too much of the spinning beach bollock when you use Safari , I suggest you survey the advice at Mac OS 10 Hints and do a little autofill maintenance . Your browser app will give thanks you .