Safari | Alt-click to download files

November 06, 2007

In Safari, if you hold the ALT key when clicking a link, the linked file will download rather than displaying in the browser window.

This is handy if someone directs you to files to download from the web, like this image file:
http://autoscopia.com/macformom/images/avaaz_billboard_jerusalem.jpg

You could click the link to open the image in your browser, then drag and drop it on your desktop, but if there are a lot of files to download that can be tedious. Instead, you can hold the ALT key and click all the links, and all the files will download to your Desktop.

Posted by Brad at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

I Was Mauled By A Leopard Also

October 31, 2007

I was mauled by Leopard yesterday, and then again today, in a similar manner to that described by Dr. Macinstein in the post, Mauled by a Leopard.

It's surprising there's no decent synonym for 'mauled.' I can't say I was savaged (too intense), attacked (it wasn't intentional), torn to pieces (a bit over the top), clawed (close), or scratched (what, like a kitten?). It was a mauling - there's no other word for it.

Dr. Macinstein had 3 problems:
1. Adobe Creative Suite 2 stopped working.
2. Leopard ate his keychain
3. Final Cut Studio 2 wanted his Serial Number again

I escaped problem one, but Leopard ate my keychain and Final Cut Studio 2 (ie. every Apple Pro app) lost it's serial number. I also have one other different problem: Motion won't launch.

The biggest problem was that Final Cut Studio 2 lost it's serial number. I punched in the number from the install CD, but then it began asking for the serial number for Final Cut Studio 1, as it was an upgrade. After looking for an hour at home, and then driving to the office to look there, I came to the conclusion I'd accidentally thrown away Final Cut Studio 1 in the big clear out a few months ago, when we had to make space for the birth of a new Mac (or Linux) user. So I had no serial number for Final Cut Studio 1.

In the end, I fixed the technical problem, so I didn't need the serial number, although I know I'll need it again at some unexpected and inconvenient point in time.

How to get Final Cut Studio 2's serial number back:
Incidentally, I did an Archive and Install of Leopard, so that may be a prerequisite for the following tip to work.
1. Navigate to your Previous System folder, then /Library/Application Support/ProApps/
2. Grab the file called "Final Cut Studio System ID" and drop it in the same relative location in your Leopard system folder, ie. /Library/Application Support/ProApps/

Having done that, Final Cut sprang to life, as did every other Pro app, with the exception of Motion, which still crashes on launch. I suppose I will have to re-install Motion. Hopefully I won't need serial numbers.

Posted by Brad at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

Unarchiver | Password protected Zip files

July 12, 2007

If someone gives you a Zip file, and you click it, OS X's built-in BOMArchiveHelper.app will unzip the file for you when you double-click it.

However, if the Zip file is password protected, you'll just get an error message. That's when you need to use the free "The Unarchiver.app." You can download it from VersionTracker.

Whitewatery people will already have The Unarchiver.app installed on their Macs. To use it to open a password protected file, right-click (or Control-click) on the zip file and select "Open with > The Unarchiver."

Incidentally, if you receive a Zip file via email, you'll want to drag the attachment to your Desktop and then double-click to unzip. If you click the file in Mail.app, it will unzip, it just won't look like it has, as it will unzip the file into the Mail Downloads folder in your Library, which you won't normally access.

Posted by Brad at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

Use your Mac to join the next superpower

May 30, 2007

Avaaz is a global organization that uses the internet and mass media to foster the growth of the world's next superpower, ie. the people. People from all over the world sign electronic petitions on the things we can all agree on. Avaaz presents the results to political institutions (UN, G8, WTO, World Bank, etc) and runs TV and newspaper ads in cities all around the world to give us a voice. 

For example, the image below is a brilliantly designed billboard ad currently displayed in Israel. 

"At first they look just like ordinary travel ads, and Israelis love to travel. But the idea that they might be able to travel to Damascus or Dubai (if they only sit down and start to negotiate on the basis of the Saudi Initiative...) is pretty wild in Israel -- and our soundings indicate these billboards could make waves. "80,000 Avaaz supporters demand Real Peace Talks Now" is the punchline." -- Avaaz

Translation:
Celebrate Shavuot (upcoming Jewish holiday) in Syria - just $390
* price for one room, double bed - depends on negotiating the Saudi Initiative
80,000 global e-activists demand Real Peace Talks Now
Reference

Once you sign a petition, you'll receive regular email updates with links to new campaigns. Adding your name to campaign after campaign can seem a bit monotonous, but the rewards are great. I feel I have a more effective voice than I do voting in national elections. I feel more connected to other people in the world. I feel the world is a less crazy place. 

Watch the "Stop the Clash of Civilizations" video and sign the petition:

Sign the petition to demand Real Peace Talks Now

Join us! Our numbers are growing quickly. There are now about a million of us from 198 countries.

"Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in several languages including Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Nepalese, Dari, Turkish, and Bosnian.

Posted by Brad at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

Mail | Turn off web bugs

April 17, 2007

Did you know your email is bugged?

Email marketing messages typically include web bugs, which are normally small, invisible images with a tracking number in the file name. They are typically used to track when, and how often you view each message.

This isn't really a big deal, except that spammers also use web bugs. Thus, when you view a spam message - often simply by selecting it so that you can mark it as junk - you send a signal back to the sender as if to say, "Thank you very much for the spam. Please send more!" And that's probably not a signal you want to send.

How to turn off web bugs

1. Open mail > Preferences > Viewing, and uncheck the box beside "Display remote images in HTML messages"
2. Close the Preferences window.

Email messages with images will now display a "Load Images" button - for the one's you do want to view.

Find out more about web bugs on Wikipedia.

Posted by Brad at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

Safari | Control-click web PDFs

April 12, 2007

Viewing PDFs in a web browser can often be frustrating. Sometimes the text is too small to read. You can't search it. You may not be sure how to download it. It can be a drag.

If you are viewing an online PDF with Safari, control-click on the PDF. A menu will display giving you the option to zoom in or out. "Auto Size" will blow it up to the width of your browser window. And most importantly, you can select, "Open with Preview.app." Got to this PDF and try it.

Before I found out about this option, I used to download all PDFs, and then open it in Preview. When I was done, I'd locate the file and trash it. Silly me. If I use the tip above, I can simply close the PDF when I'm done and it's gone. Full control, no debris.

Posted by Brad at 09:50 AM | Comments (1)

Selecting Text

March 30, 2007

To select a word
Double-click it.
(Click it twice in rapid succession.)

To select a paragraph
Triple-click it.
(In some applications, like Firefox or Preview, triple-clicking selects a line of text.)

To select a block of text
Click the start position, then hold the SHIFT key and click where at the end the area you want to select. This doesn't just work in text you are writing. It also works with text you are reading, like a web page in Safari, or an email in Mail.app.

Posted by Brad at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

Suitcase Login Items Coup

March 22, 2007

I ran into a particularly vexing problem with Extensis Suitcase at work recently, and I thought I'd share the problem here (of all places) for a couple reasons.

First, discussion boards on the web are littered with other people who have had the same problem, and few good solutions are offered.

Second, the solution is completely counter-intuitive: nobody expects developers to over-ride system settings in such a way that it appears the system is malfunctioning. So one could spend hours trouble-shooting all sorts of complex things to try to solve it, and fail miserably, when the solution for most of us will be quite simple - we're just looking in the wrong place. 

Problem: 
When you install Extensis Suitcase, it will add itself to the Login Items (System Preferences > Accounts > My Account > Login Items) for every account on the Mac. This will tell Suitcase to launch whenever anyone logs into any account on the Mac.

Obviously, there will be some users who won't want Suitcase to launch every time they log in as they don't use the application. As irritating as Extensis' presumption is, most people would probably know they simply need to remove Suitcase from the list of "Login Items" in System Preferences. The problem is, you can't. Clicking the "-" button to remove the item will work with any other application, but it won't work with Suitcase. What happens? Nothing. The button doesn't work.  

Worse still, the problem appears to be some kind of malfunction, as if something is wrong with System Preferences. Most users would be forgiven for searching through "Startup Items" folders, deleting Preference files and chasing other wild geese, because as I said above - nobody expects software developers to over-ride system settings in such a way that it appears the system is malfunctioning. Who would do such a thing!?! Extensis, it seems. 

Solution:
Assuming you haven't deleted Extensis Suitcase and all associated files in a fit of rage...

Launch Suitcase and go to Suitcase > Preferences > General > Application Options, and untick "Open Suitcase automatically when you log in"

It took me 2 hours to figure that out. The odds of me looking at Suitcase's preferences for an answer approached zero, for a couple reasons.

First, every time Suitcase launched, I force-quit it more venomously, so the odds of it even launching were slim.

Second - and more importantly -that's not how the operating system is designed. Applications are subordinate to the operating system, and they do not normally launch coups of this kind. If they did, the entire system would collapse in chaos and no one would be able to troubleshoot any problems. 

When the time comes that we can replace Suitcase with another, better designed application, I expect we will replace it faster than you can say "Quark."

Posted by Brad at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

Making the most of iLife seminars

March 08, 2007

Apple has a series of online video seminars that outline how to use the personal tools that come with every Mac "to create professional looking marketing materials like newsletters, presentations, podcasts, movies, photobooks and web sites."

The tools are all personal - iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie, iWeb, and Keynote - but the application is for small business users. In other words, the seminars show you how to use the tools created for Mom, for small business purposes. The seminars are great, if only to show you what you can do, and give you an idea of how easy it is. Each segment is about 10-15 minutes long, and the series is about an hour long.

The series is done in a TV magazine style, with David Griswold, Founder of Sustainable Harvest coffee company being interviewed by an Apple Rep, and demonstrating how their small company uses the iLife tools. This format makes the videos a lot more watch-able than many tutorial demonstrations which rely solely on images of a computer screen and voice over.

Incidentally, the quality of the videos is astounding. When I launched the first one, I nearly fell off my chair. I suppose we've all become so accustomed to seeing YouTube videos that our expectations are quite low. The videos are very similar to digital TV quality. If I tell QuickTime to display it at double the size, the image is HD (high definition) size and the titles remain crisp and clean, which is pretty amazing, as they start playing within about 2 seconds.

The only down-side is you need to register. There's a "Register" button at the top right of the page.

QuickTime tip:
The videos will launch in QuickTime player. To make them display at twice the size, select "Double Size" from QuickTime's "View" menu. Alternatively, hold the APPLE key and press '2.'

Note: iLife (iPhoto, GarageBand, iTunes, iMovie HD, iDVD, iWeb) is included with every new Mac. It is not included when you buy a new major version of Mac OS X. And if you want to upgrade iLife, you need to buy the box. (About $89 Cdn. £55 UK)

Posted by Brad at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)

Mail | Paste and match style

March 01, 2007

For Meghan,

Have you ever copied styled text from a web page, and found it was all wrong when you pasted it into an email message?

I used to go through this all the time. Either the text is gigantic, or the line spacing is weird, or it becomes invisible because it's white text on a white page. Or I try to copy text from an email message I recieved, and when I paste it into a new message, it's blue. I don't want blue.

To try to fix it, I'd open Mail's text formatting palettes and start changing the colour and size. Which kind of works. But the line spacing issue ends up being impossible to get rid of and infects the whole email message. It would never end well. But now...

There's a simple solution:

1. Copy the styled text from a web page - try the lovely turquoise text above.
2. Place the cursor in your message where you want it to appear.
3. Select, "Paste and Match Style" from the Mail.app's Edit menu.

The keyboard shortcut for "Paste and Match Style" is ALT+SHIFT+APPLE+v.

You may want to use 2 hands. Actually, if you can pull off this manueuver using only one hand, you should get a prize.

This tip also applies to TextEdit and iChat.

Posted by Brad at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Coping With New Technology

February 19, 2007

New technology has always posed learning challenges. Once technology becomes familiar, it seems obvious and we can't imagine how anyone could not immediately know how to use it. Remember the trouble people had when the book was first introduced?

Posted by Brad at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

MS Word | Convert Word 2007 documents

February 12, 2007

DocX Converter writes:

In Office 2007 Microsoft introduced a new file format called the Microsoft Open Office XML Format (.docx). This format is not compatible with older versions of Microsoft Word or with alternative operating systems like Linux or Mac OS X. Nor is it compatible with other word processing applications like OpenOffice, Lotus 123, or NeoOffice.

People with Windows may be using Office 2007 already, and may send you files in this format. You won't be able to open them. Fortunately, there are conversion options:

DocX Converter
DocX Converter is a free web service that converts these troublesome files. It also includes a widget for OS X.

For more options, go to Creative Techs:
Convert MS Word 2007 .DOCX files for a Mac

Posted by Brad at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

OS X Keyboard Shortcuts!

February 01, 2007

As promised, Apple's official collection of common Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts, available from their support site.

Download Whitewater's collection of common Keyboard Shortcuts. This is a shorter compilation of shortcuts. The file will download to your desktop for printing, future reference, never getting around to actually looking at, etc.

Remember, all the keyboard shortcuts available are listed next to each item in every menu of every application you use. Now that's good design.

Posted by Brad at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

Keyboard Shortcuts for Speed

January 31, 2007

What is a keyboard shortcut?
A keyboard shortcut is a combination of two keys (usually) which, when pressed simultaneously, accomplish a task. For example, if you wanted to copy some text, you could select it, and then move the cursor to the "Edit" menu, and select "Copy." Alternatively, you could select the text, and then use a keyboard shortcut to tell your Mac to copy it by holding down the APPLE key and pressing 'c' for copy. My convention for writing the "Copy" keyboard shortcut is "APPLE+c."

Why use keyboard shortcuts?
In a word - speed. While it may only take a second or two to move my mouse to select the "Copy" from the "Edit" menu, it probably takes less than an eighth of a second to accomplish the same thing using the keyboard. And if you are a laptop user like Mom, the time to move the cursor using the track pad on a laptop can get very long. Perhaps up to 4 or 5 seconds. So the gains in speed are even more dramatic.

How can a normal person learn all these arcane commands?

Half the problem is finding out what the keyboard shortcuts are.
Fortunately, the most useful ones are ideally placed: most items in most menus have the keyboard shortcuts listed right beside them. Like so:

Notice the weird looking characters running down the right side of the menu list? Those tell you the keyboard shortcuts for each command. Also notice that that squiggly clover leaf looking icon is also displayed on the APPLE key. Thus, we can see the keyboard shortcut for "Undo Typing" - hold the APPLE key and press the 'z' key. (Incidentally, the Apple key is actually called the "Command" key, but like many people, I find I get the "Command" and "Control" keys mixed up, so I call it the "Apple" key.)

The other half of learning keyboard shortcuts is remembering them.
Considering that knowledge is essentially familiarity, learning keyboard shortcuts is simply a matter of finding some way of forcing yourself to use them. You might try learning one a day. Or you might simply notice you are using the same command repeatedly on a particular task - say, copying and pasting text back and forth from one document to another - and take the opportunity to use the keyboard shortcuts for that task. You'll get the task done quicker and have learned 2 keyboard shortcuts.

I expect you'll also be glad to know that the shortcuts have been designed to make them easier to remember. Copy, for example, is APPLE+c - 'c' for copy. Cut is APPLE+x - the 'x' looks like scissors. Paste is APPLE+v - 'v' looks like the insertion symbol one might use marking up text by hand.

Another benefit: Windows keyboard shortcuts are pretty much the same as on the Mac. Windows shortcuts use the CONTROL key rather than the APPLE key. But otherwise, are pretty much the same, as far as I know.

Not only that, but on the Mac, keyboard shortcuts typically apply across all applications. APPLE+s is Save, no matter what application you are using.

In the next post, I'll give you an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts from Apple, as well as a revised list of the most common commands. So stop mousing around already!

Posted by Brad at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

Control-click words

January 18, 2007

Not sure about a word? Not sure how to spell it? Don't know what it means? Want to find out more? Control-click it, i.e. hold down the CONTROL key and click the word. 

Control-clicking a word will give you option to spell check, use Spotlight to search for the word in all documents on your Mac, search the web with Google, or look up the word in OS X's system-wide Dictionary.

This tip would effectively end the days of leaning across to your colleague and asking them if they know how spell 'naive,' or of reading an article and simply ignoring the words you don't

This is what is known as a disruptive technology - if you don't disrupt your familiar habits and go out of your way to use it, you disrupt your colleagues.

(Go on - select 'disruptive technology' and control-click it to Google what it really means.)

Posted by Brad at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

The "Where'd It Go" Dictionary (Windows Version)

January 08, 2007

One for the switchers: the Windows version of the "Where'd It Go" Dictionary.

If you are a PC-based person who is new to the Mac, bookmark this handy guide from MacTipsAndTricks.com. It will allow you too look up common functions for Windows and find out where the equivalent functions are in Mac OS X.

So if you want to use your digital camera with your Mac, and know only that you would use 'Camera and Scanner Wizard' on Windows, you can look up "Camera and Scanner Wizard" in the guide and it will tell you,

When you connect a digital camera or scanner to your Mac, either iPhoto or Image Capture opens automatically and prepares to download the pictures automatically.

And here's a tip to make the guide more useful: once the page loads in your web browser, use your browser's 'find' command to search for the thing you know in Windows: hold the APPLE key and press the 'f' key. (It works in all browsers.) The guide is not exhaustive, but if you searched for "camera" or "scanner" or "wizard," you'd find out what you needed to know. One to bookmark!

I like to keep more important bookmarks in my Dock. Grab the icon in your web browser's address field and drag it down to the right side of the Dock.

Posted by Brad at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

Address Book | Back up

January 03, 2007

Save yourself some grief later, and back up your Address Book now. Why?

It's too quick and easy not to bother. And if Apple have made it so easy to back up and restore your contact info, we can assume they did so for a reason. Few, if any, other applications have back up built-in.

To back up
Open Address Book and choose "Back up Address Book" from the File menu. A dialog will open asking you where to save the backup file. By default, Address Book will opt to save the file in your Documents folder (in your Home folder). That's a good place to save it. The date will automatically be included in the file name.

To Restore from back up
In Address Book, choose "Revert to Address Book Backup" from the File menu. A dialog will open asking you to locate your backup file. Select the backup file and click the Open button. Address Book's backup files end in ".abbu" which presumably stands for "Address Book Back Up."

Since it's so simple and quick, it makes sense to back up your Address Book regularly.

Posted by Brad at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

Eejits Guide to Mac

December 19, 2006

Paula from Whitewater writes:

Most of us suity-type bods who were PC-based freak out when joining Whitewater, as we are faced with the dreaded Mac on top of trying to get our heads around a new company and new clients.

First, welcome to Mac for Mom! You can think of it as Whitewater's new repository of Mac tips. It's geared toward new Mac users like my Mom. She's a PC-based suity-type bod too.

Second, I expect many of the people who were PC-based were using older versions of Windows which, like Mac OS 9, are quite different to Mac OS X. So that is quite a change. But don't freak out just yet. The good news is that, according to David Pogue of the The New York Times, learning Mac OS X is a perfect way of preparing oneself for newer versions of Windows like Vista.

Windows Vista

From: Vista Wins on Looks. As for Lacks... by David Pogue, for The New York Times. (Registration may be required. To find out how to view sites that require registration, while skipping the tedious form filling, read about BugMeNot.)

Posted by Brad at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

Mail | Auto-complete words

December 18, 2006

If you press the ESC key while typing in most OS X applications, a small window will pop up showing you a list of possible words for auto-completion. You can then double-click the word you want to type. Or you can use the up and down arrow keys to navigate through the list, and hit the RETURN key to choose the word you want.

This is a handy option if you're trying to type a longer word which you aren't exactly sure how to spell. You can type the start of the word, and then auto-complete the rest.

I put this in the Mail.app category because that's where I do most of my writing. I expect Mom would probably do most of her writing in Mail as well. It also works in TextEdit.app. However, it only works in applications written specifically for OS X. Thus, like system-wide spell check, it won't work in Microsoft Word, which is really an OS 9 application adapted to work in OS X.

UPDATE:
After trying to use auto-completion for a while, I see that it's quite buggy. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

I've learned several ways to get it working again, or partially working again, but unless it works 100% of the time, it's not worth bothering with.

I'll post a note when it becomes dependable.

Posted by Brad at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)

About Versions of OS X

December 15, 2006

Some of the information on this blog may not apply to the version of Mac OS X that you are using.

If you have an older version of Mac OS X, you may find references to features which don't exist for you (yet). Since it's very difficult to constantly specify versions of OS X, and therefore, also specify which versions of particular applications I am referring to, I'm simply going to side step the issue. Tips will always be written to be relevant to the latest available version of OS X and related applications at any particular moment in time. If we all keep OS X up-to-date, it shouldn't really be a problem.

We are currently using Mac OS X 10.4 (or Tiger). Mom's currently using Mac OS X 10.3 (or Panther), but she'll be upgrading at Christmas. The next version of OS X - 10.5 (Leopard) - is expected some time in the new year.

Posted by Brad at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)

Safari | Bug Me Not

December 14, 2006

Have you ever found yourself following a link from an article on the web to another site, only to find that when you got there, you had to fill out several pages of registration forms just to read the article?

If you're like me, you probably pounded your fist on the table and cried, "The internet is not supposed to be like this! It's a communication medium. Why won't you people communicate? Why should a person have to fill out a lengthy profile including name, age, sex, address, occupation, income, phone number, and so on, simply to read a newspaper article on a site that one may never return to again?"

Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to clear immigration at JFK and buy The New York Times than to actually register at the site. Immigration is less nosy.

Here are 3 good options for dealing with unwanted registrations.

Denial
If you aren't too annoyed, you can rewind to the point before you clicked the link. Pretend it doesn't exist. Life is too short. Nothing to see, move along.

Junk Registrations
If you really want to read the article, and you are very annoyed, you can get revenge and ameliorate your anger by registering and providing junk data. This is a popular tactic that can actually be fun once you get into the swing of it.

Make up a fictional person. Give them an interesting life. I used to be a female doctor of 52 who made gobs and gobs of money living and working in Qatar. Aside from the simple pleasures of inventing people, you protect your identity, and devalue the registration database, which is liable to be sold on to other businesses. By protecting your identity, you can expect to get less spam. And you can take heart in knowing that there are tens of thousands of other people like you, using junk registrations to chip away at the notion that forcing visitors through invasive registration processes is a good idea.

Bug Me Not
Get smart and go to BugMeNot to get the log in details for the site you want to visit. When you get to BugMeNot:

1. Copy (APPLE+c) and paste (APPLE+v), or type in the domain name for the site you want a log in account for - for example, "nytimes.com" - then click the "Get Logins" button.
2. Copy and paste a log in name and password from the listed results.
3. Switch back to the site you want to log into, and provide the name and password where required. If the site gives you the option, tell it to remember you.

If it will remember you, you can now visit the site in the future without having to go through this process again. Otherwise, it's probably easier to go back to BugMeNot than it is to store and retrieve the password. I like to think of BugMeNot as the place I store my passwords for sites I rarely visit.

Posted by Brad at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)

President Bush Uses The Google

December 08, 2006

Mom says the name of this blog suggests it's for people who find "for Dummies" books too difficult. I laughed, and assured her it was never intended in this way. It's simply meant to suggest that it's easy. 

But after reading President Bush Uses The Google, I'm starting to like Mom's interpretation better.

Posted by Brad at 04:35 PM | Comments (1)

Safari | Open in new window

December 05, 2006

To open a link on a web page in a new window, hold the APPLE key while clicking on the link. This will allow you to follow the link without losing the page you are reading.

If you use tabs, the new page will open in a new tab.

This works the same in Firefox, if that's your preferred browser.

It also works in the Finder: hold the APPLE key while you double-click a folder, and the folder will open in a new window.

Posted by Brad at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

iPhoto | Keywords

March 10, 2006

In Tagging iPhoto, Melvin Rivera provides a quick explanation of how to use keywords in iPhoto:

"Most people I know don’t know that iPhoto can be tagged with keywords. Or if they do they don’t know how to use them. They’re not to blame, iPhoto has always had an awkward implementation of keywords. iPhoto 06 improves on keywords but they are still confusing to most users I know. So here’s a quick tutorial on setting up and managing keywords in iPhoto. This tutorial uses iPhoto 06, but it can be implemented in earlier versions that support keywords."

Posted by Brad at 10:21 AM | Comments (2)

Mail | Spell check

August 05, 2005

Rather than having and maintaining a separate spell checker for every application, OS X includes a system-wide spell checker which is shared by all applications. So rather than having to teach your text editor how to spell "email" and then having to teach your email application how to spell "email," a single correction will affect the spelling in all your applications. Which is nice...

You probably most use OS X's spell checker in Mail, so we'll use that as an example.

To access the system-wide spell checker in Mail:
From the EDIT menu, select SPELLING, and then SPELLING...

This will open a window that looks like this:

First, if you look at the drop down menu under "Dictionary," you'll notice that the Americans have appropriated the English language, so you'll want to change it to the appropriate regional variation on 'standard' English - "British English!" Set it to "British English" and it will always use the British dictionary. Now you can type "colour" and the spell checker won't tell you it's spelt wrong. I have mine set to Canadian English, in a vain attempt to maintain my cultural heritage while in exile.

In the illustration above, I had the word "email" highlighted in my message when I selected "Spelling..."
Then I clicked the "Learn" button to teach the dictionary the word "email" (which it obviously didn't know).

I'll assume you can figure out what the rest of the buttons do.

Posted by Brad at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

System Preferences | How to zoom in on the screen

July 28, 2005

Want to quickly zoom in on something that appears on your screen? A small, fuzzy CCTV image, perhaps? This capability is built into Mac OS X. It's designed to help visually impaired users, but it can come in handy for anyone.

When working with images in Photoshop for example, I now prefer the Mac screen zoom to Photoshop's. With the Mac screen zoom, the view follows the cursor, so unlike Photoshop, there's no scrolling involved. Or when using the living room Mac, (which acts as our TV, VCR, DVD, stereo, etc.) the screen zoom makes it possible to see what I'm doing from across the room, like browsing TV schedules or movie reviews on the web. A wireless keyboard and mouse are somewhat essential in this regard.

So — zooming in CCTV images...

To Enable Zoom

1. Open System Preferences
2. Select "Universal Access"
3. Select "Seeing" from the row of buttons across the top
4. Under "Zoom," click the "On" button

To zoom in
Hold down the ALT and APPLE keys and then press the PLUS key (beside backspace)

To zoom out
Hold down the ALT and APPLE keys and then press the MINUS key (beside the plus key)

Granted, the keys may be in slightly different places on a laptop keyboard. And granted also, I'm using Tiger. In your version, the button to turn on Zoom is slightly different.

If you want to make adjustments to the Zoom behaviour, go back to:
System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing, and in the Zoom area, click the "Options" button. Then fiddle with the settings and test it out to find out what they do exactly.

Posted by Brad at 01:12 AM | Comments (2)

Are you ok?

July 13, 2005

When I heard the news of the London bombings, the first and only thing of relevance I could think to do is send you an email to say we were okay. Since then I've had a few email messages from friends checking that we were alive and well. After talking to other people — everyone has seemingly been exchanging these messages — it seems slightly odd that the subject line so often seems to be, "Are you ok?" Often there is no other message, just the three word question. It's email condensed to the level of text messaging.

In the wake of the bombings, there was a flood of these brief, call and response messages back and forth across the normally conversational telecommunications network. People used text messaging and email like ham radio operators: the point of communication became solely focussed on simply re-establishing communication.
— Are you OK?
— Yes. Are you OK?

The bombings took place on Thursday, July 7th. Tomorrow is Thursday the 14th. At noon, everyone is meant to stop for two minutes of silence. When I say stop, I mean go to a public place and not move for two minutes. It's partly in remembrance, partly an act of community. Apparently, the buses are stopping.

I like it. In it's purest form, it's like a giant sculpture of a city and it's people as a memorial for those who were killed. I'd like to see lots of photo and TV documentation. I mean, I'd like to see it. And I'd like to see television pictures of it happening across the entire city. It seems like the only reasonable response.

Posted by Brad at 11:01 PM | Comments (3)

Home | Pictures | iPhoto

June 19, 2005

If you had a digital snapshot camera, here's how you'd use it with your Mac. After you took a bunch of pictures, you would plug it into your iBook: iPhoto would then launch, and copy all your pictures from your camera to your computer, and remove them from the camera so you could start shooting more. It would store all the pictures in a folder called "iPhoto Library" in your Pictures folder.

iPhoto will do for your photos what iTunes does for your music. iPhoto is photo album software. It will keep track of all your photos. And you can create your own photo albums. In iPhoto, an album is simply a collection of photos. You can print your own photos with a cheap photo printer and get glossy pictures that are comparable to what you'd get from a photomat. Or with a few clicks you can order prints or a book of the photos for delivery from Kodak. It all happens within iPhoto. I think you'll find yourself wondering how you could do so much — so simply.

You can also view your photos as a slide show. If you've transferred your music CD collection to your iBook, you can pick a song to play with the slideshow. Pick the right music with the right photos and you can actually make 'em weep. And if you want to share a slideshow with someone, you can save it with the music as a QuickTIme movie. Slideshow movie files are relatively small, so you can email the movie to a friend. You can also click a button to send a particular picture to someone by email.

If you ever thought about getting a snapshot camera, there's never been a better time. Digital cameras just keep getting better and cheaper, and will undoubtedly continue to do so. A 3 Megapixel camera is probably all you'd need. More Megapixels cost more. Smaller cameras cost more.

A Megapixel is just a unit of measuring how big your pictures can be printed without looking terrible. 4 Megapixels is probably equivilant to an 8" by 10" photo, ie. far bigger than you'd normally get from the photomat. So you'd probably want a relatively cheap 3 Megapixel camera.

In the meantime, if anyone emails pictures to you, you can add those to iPhoto too. It's a great place to store them, view them, share them, and find them later.

Here's an iPhoto Tutorial. It's like the iTunes one for music.

Posted by Brad at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

Home | Music folder | iTunes

If you transfer your CD collection to your iBook, you would store the music files in your Music folder, which is inside your Home folder. Each song is a separate file. You transfer your CDs with iTunes.

iTunes will turn your stereo into a music jukebox. It's like a 5 disc CD player, but with an unlimited number of CDs. And you can quickly create your own musical collections to suit your mood, type of activity, or social occasion. Your iBook is set up to wirelessly send the music to the stereo, so the songs on your laptop will come out of your stereo. If you want to find, or buy a song or album, you can do that through iTunes as well. Once you register an account at Apple's iTunes Music Store, you can find a song, download it, and be playing it through your stereo in about 5 minutes.

Check out this excellent iTunes Tutorial from Apple. It's a series of movies introducing and explaining what you can do with iTunes. Look for the "Watch the Movie" buttons. The movies have sound. Note: there's no movie on the first page.

Posted by Brad at 03:46 PM | Comments (2)

What to file?

I was once advised against getting a day planner. I'd mentioned that I was getting so busy, I needed one.
"If you get a day planner, it will just fill up. Don't do it."
"Yah - that's kind of the point. I can't keep track of the things I need to do."
"It will fill up and then you'll have even less time."
"Is this like - if you are bored you will live longer?"
"Yes."
If you feel too busy and can't keep track of all the things you have to do, then a day planner isn't going to help. The day planner is really a machine for making sure you are busy all the time. A day planner is a dangerous technology which changes how you think, restructuring time to resemble the grid on it's pages. The day planner's little boxes want to be filled in. At some point the user may begin to wonder whether the day planner is working for her, or if she is working for the day planner.

So in response to your comment, Mom - maybe not having any documents to file is a good thing. Travel light.

What might you have and where might you file it?
You want to store all your documents in your Home folder, which has a house icon. Your Home folder will have folders inside it for sorting files. If you did have files, you'd want to store them in one of the subfolders in your Home folder, like Mom's Docs, Movies, Music, or Pictures.

Note: Most Macs don't have the equivalent to "Mom's Docs." That's a special folder I created because some applications use "Documents" to store settings and data that no one ever really wants to know exist. There's no reason to have to mix that stuff up with documents that might have some relevence.

I'll follow up with separate posts.

Posted by Brad at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

Finder | Move a file

June 14, 2005

As you are probably aware, there are many ways to accomplish the same task. Often people learn one way of doing things, and stick with it and make it a habit. When I started using OS X, I struggled with breaking old habits and learning new ones. I did this quite self-consciously because I just couldn't cope with the range of new options. I need a standard way of doing things.

Here's a relatively new and smart way of moving a file while avoiding wrestling with window clutter, ie. having a bunch of windows open which obscure each other. It's a good, standard approach.

How to move a file:
1. In Finder, navigate to the folder where you want to put the file - but don't open the folder. You'll know you are there when you can see the folder you want to put it in. We'll call this the destination folder.

2. Grab the destination folder and drag to the left sidebar of the Finder window.

3. Now navigate to the file you want to move.

4. Grab the file you want to move and drag and drop it onto the destination folder you added to the sidebar.

The file will be moved to the destination folder.

5. If the destination folder is not something you will go to, or add files to on a daily basis, you can remove it from the sidebar by grabbing it and dragging it to the right. Once it passes the divider marking the edge of the sidebar, you'll see a cartoon rendering of a puff of smoke appear under the folder and you can let go. It will disappear in a puff.

Tip: If you are unfamiliar with adding items to the sidebar, it's easiest if you add them to the very bottom of the list.

I found this approach a bit difficult initially, because I would normally think of the file first, then where I wanted to put it. So it took a bit of work to get in the habit of thinking first about where I wanted to put the file, then putting it there. Nonetheless, it's still better than opening multiple windows.

With these instructions Mom, I've used words that are verbs for fairly basic tasks, like grab, and drag and drop. I'm testing to see what I can get away with abbreviating, so do leave a comment to let me know which are meaningless nonsense.

Posted by Brad at 08:57 PM | Comments (1)

Finder | Switch to Finder & open new window

June 12, 2005

I talked to Mom on the phone about what info would be most helpful to her. Apparently she uses a shared computer at work, and doesn't keep any of her own files on it. So while she is fairly comfortable with web and email, she doesn't have much experience with working with files. So I'm going to drip feed her the basics for working with files, ie. working with the Finder.

(It's odd that many of us refer to it as The Finder. I notice it really is just called Finder. Where did we get the additional the from? Did Apple change the name?)

How to switch to Finder and open a new window with one click:
Click on the Finder icon in the Dock.

The Finder icon is always the first item on the left in the Dock (the strip across the bottom of the screen). If there are no Finder windows open, it will open one. If there is already a window open, it will bring the open window to the front.

Posted by Brad at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)

Tiger | Woods

June 08, 2005

Anna left a comment asking when you were going to get Tiger, so I got you this. (Sound's like a lot of birthdays, doesn't it?)

If you don't know my Mom, she's a serious golfer. If you don't know Macs, Tiger's the new version of Mac OS X. If you don't know golf... never mind.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 Demo (60MB)
http://www.macgamefiles.com/download.php?item=17718
This is a direct download from MacGameFiles. If you click this link Mom, a free demo version of "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" will download to your desktop. It will probably take about an hour to download, but it can do that in the background, even if you're doing web and email. 

Tiger Woods PGA Tour is like a 1st person shooter, ie. you see from the point of view of the character, but you hit around golf balls instead of killing truckloads of hapless bystanders (or violent monsters - granted). You may have seen TV ads for this game: Tiger Woods is lining up a shot in a sand trap which suddenly sinks into the earth until it's about 30 feet deep. - ? - Maybe not.

From MacGameFiles.com:

This 4-hole demo of Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2003, featuring the Sahalee Country Club, holes 10-13.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2003 brings golf to life on the computer in a completely 3-D world with a brand new course and PGA TOUR golfer lineup. Put every skill to the test on eight pro courses, including the exclusive St Andrews Golf Links and Pebble Beach Golf Links. New rendering effects allow the grass to grow around your feet, making the rough rougher; weather effects let you "feel" the sun, the wind and the chill as the fog rolls in.

Initially, I was very skeptical about the whole idea of virtual golf. I couldn't imagine how one would hit the ball. Would you press a button? What's the point?

But the game is good. You use the mouse to make Tiger swing the club. It requires some timing, but it makes sense and feels very natural after a while in a very uncanny way. And I found the quality of every aspect of the game design really impressive. The environmental soundtrack consists mostly of birds, wind, and a crowd that responds in keeping with the quality of your shots. The sounds of the club swinging and the ball hitting the fairway are the epitome of high realism.

The editing is really good too. It seamlessly mixes TV style golf coverage with more cinematic transitional shots of Tiger addressing the ball. (It's funny the lingo that seeps in unaware. Where'd I pull that one from? ;-) The level of attention to detail is evident in the way the designers have cut from one shot of the ball in the air to the next while keeping the ball composed in exactly the same position relative to the frame. It makes it easy to follow the ball from one shot to the next.

In any case, it's certainly worth the download. And here's a tip: try playing very badly. Make Tiger embarrassed and ashamed. It's very amusing.

The file that downloads is called "Tiger 2003 Demo.sit". It will download to your Desktop. If you double-click it, after a minute of processing, it will create a new folder on your desktop called "Tiger 2003 Demo." That's the game. If you look in the folder, there's a text file called "ReadMe.txt." Open that and read "Playing the Demo." You only need to read until it's explained how to hit the ball and aim. And then you're swinging!

Oh, and Mom will get Tiger once she wears out her current version, Anna ;-) Otherwise everything will change just as it's become familiar and her book would be out of synch with her Mac - and I don't think the Tiger version of the The Missing Manual is even out yet. She'll have to make do with Tiger Woods. (Heh. I hadn't noticed - he has a golfy name.)

Posted by Brad at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)

A little too quiet, if you ask me

May 31, 2005

Heh. I was kind of expecting something to go wrong. I hoped to ease you into using a new kind of computer (not Windows) in a new way (at home, sitting on the couch, with the weather channel or some endless golf tournament on the TV in the background) with tips and resources and lots of help. Moms need help with computers. Everybody knows this. Moms even know this.

But nothing seems to have gone wrong. There was the incident involving the faulty electrical socket - the symptoms included a lot of dead networking bits - but it was the house's fault. And Mom had it sussed anyway. She sorted it, powered it up again and everything came back to life and worked the way it's supposed to work in a perfect world.

Anyway, Mom's had her Mac for a little over 2 months and nothing has gone wrong. I don't know whether to be more impressed with Mom or the Mac. I feel a bit like Jimmy Stewart when he hooks up the head psychiatrist with Harvey.

Posted by Brad at 11:11 PM | Comments (2)

Safari | Make text bigger

May 14, 2005

If you find text in a web page is too small (or less commonly, too large)...

Increase text size:
Press the APPLE key and + key

Decrease text size:
Press the APPLE key and - key

It works in Firefox too!

Posted by Brad at 02:05 PM | Comments (2)

Exposé | Which keys do what

May 02, 2005

I grabbed this image from Apple's feature page on Exposé to save you a click, Mom. Now you'll always have it handy.

Apple also has a great demonstration movie for Exposé. It simply shows what F9, F10, and F11 do.

Posted by Brad at 01:08 AM | Comments (1)

Mail | Drag and drop attachments via the Dock

April 26, 2005

If you want to send someone an image by email, you can drag the image file down to the Mail icon in the Dock.

1. In the Finder, navigate to the folder containing the image file.

2. Drag the image file to the Mail icon in the Dock (the strip of icons across the bottom of your screen).

As a result
Mail will move to the foreground, and a new message window will open with the image file already attached to it. All you have to do is address it.

For me, it's by far the simplest, fastest, best way of doing attachments. I avoid having to navigate through folders ala the Attach button.

If you want to send a bunch of files, you can select them all and drag the bunch of them to the Mail icon in the Dock.

Alternatively, if you already have a new email message window open, you can drag the file you want to attach directly into the message.

Posted by Brad at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

Oops! Undo

April 18, 2005

Oh, the cruel irony. I was just polishing up some fine points on the "Undo" command, previewed it, and accidentally closed my browser window and lost my post. I need a new posting method. One that gives me the option to undo. (Safari has an undo, but it doesn't work if you are typing in a text box on a web page. Urgh!) I know the solution, I just need to implement it.

Anyway...

The keystroke, or keyboard shortcut for "Undo" is:
APPLE+Z
where APPLE is the key with the Apple icon on it, and Z is the letter 'z.'

In other words, hold down the APPLE key - there's one on each side of the space bar - and press the 'z' key. I've written it in all caps as a convention - so it stands out from the normal words. Note that this does not mean capital 'z,' which would mean pressing the SHIFT key as well, to make the 'z' a capital 'Z.' (I thought that for a while myself. But of course, APPLE+SHIFT+Z is the "Redo" command, which is used to re-do something you undo-ed ;-)

The point of keyboard shortcuts is that they are faster than using the mouse. Most keyboard shortcuts are common accross all applications, and most of them are very common tasks which you may use many times a minute, so if you spend a little time learning the basic ones, it's definitely worth it.

If you look at the Edit menu pictured above, you'll also note that to the right of each item in the menu, there's a squiggly thing with a letter beside it. These are the keyboard shortcuts for each menu item. As you know, "Undo" is APPLE+Z. Taking that as an example, from the menu we can see the keyboard shortcut for "Copy" is APPLE+C. "Paste" is APPLE+V, and so on.

Also, what I've been calling the APPLE key is actually called the "command" key. Like many people though, I tend to confuse the "command" key with the "control" key. They both start with 'C' and only the "control" key is labelled: "cntrl." The APPLE key has no name - just the squiggly icon you see in keyboard shortcuts in the menu - and an Apple icon. So it's called the APPLE key.

So many qualifications for such a simple, little panic button.

Posted by Brad at 10:38 PM | Comments (1)

Help

April 12, 2005

While you are waiting for the book Mom, you might want to get familiar with the "Help Viewer" application (ie.program). Your Mac has a universal help system available, which will tell you the basics about whichever application you happen to be using. The Help Viewer application can be launched from the "Help" menu, which is always the last menu to the right, in the top menu bar. Help Viewer is like a mini-web browser that will display help info for whatever application you are using when you launch Help Viewer.

If you launch Help Viewer when you are using the Finder, it will open to the page, "Mac OS Help" which contains general infomation about how to do all kinds of stuff with your Mac. I'd recommend browsing through "New to Mac OS X?" This section contains really basic orientation info. Check out the sections for new computer users, and for people who've switched from Windows. You might also want to explore "Browse Mac OS Help."

Here's a trick you can try right now: hold down the APPLE key (beside the space bar), and the SHIFT key, and then press the QUESTION MARK key. Help Viewer will launch and display help info for Safari, or whatever application you are using when you press the keys. Very handy for figuring out how to use an unfamiliar application.

Posted by Brad at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual

April 02, 2005

Mom, I sent you a copy of Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther edition. It should arrive in about a week.

As far as manuals go, it's a real page turner. But then I'm the kind of person who would sit down with a nice cup of tea and start reading from the beginning to the end. You may not find it gripping enough for that. If not, it will be a good reference book to turn to when you want to find out how to do something in particular.

I hesitated to send this because the next major update of Mac OS X 10.4, a.k.a. Tiger, will be out any week now. However, the Tiger edition of the Missing Manual apparently won't be out until the summer, which seems a long time to go without any book help. "Panther," in the title of the book refers to OS X 10.3, which is what you are currently using. And "OS" obviously stands for "Operating System" ;-)

For more info on the book, check out the O'Reilly Online Catalog

Posted by Brad at 07:39 PM | Comments (1)

Mom's got a Mac

March 17, 2005

Mom got a Mac today. It's a 14" iBook with a combo drive. She was going to get Bluetooth, but it was going to take too long: 3 weeks instead of immediately.

Here's what she got:

Mom's iBook Specs

• 1.33GHz PowerPC G4
• 512K L2 cache @ 1.33GHz
• 14-inch TFT Display
• 1024x768 resolution
• 768MB DDR266 SDRAM
• 60GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo Drive
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9200
• 32MB DDR video memory
• AirPort Extreme built-in

And an Airport Extreme base station and an iSight.

Posted by Brad at 04:24 PM | Comments (1)