Every Monday, we'll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple's built-in command line application. You don't need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type 'em out!

Occasionally, you may need to convert plain text files to PDF to more easily share them over the Internet or email. Sure, you could use the vast majority of applications with a rinting feature coupled with OS X’s ability to “Print to PDF,” but if you’re working in a command-line interface, there’s a simple way to do it, and we’ll show you how with two freely available tools: enscript and ghostscript.

Every Monday, we'll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple's built-in command line application. You don't need any fancy software, or a knowledge of coding to do any of these. All you need is a keyboard to type 'em out!

When erasing files on your Mac (or any computer for that matter), trashing a file only removes the pointers to the file(s) on the hard drive. The file is still there, and intact. If you want to completely erase the file, then a secure erase is your only option: After removing the file pointers, the secure erase will randomly write data over top of the erased file to reduce the possibility of the file being read in the future. Continue reading and we’ll show you how to use the srm command to securely remove files form your Mac in the Terminal.