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December 19, 2006
Eejits Guide to Mac
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)
December 18, 2006
Mail | Auto-complete words
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)
December 15, 2006
About Versions of OS X
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)
December 14, 2006
Safari | Bug Me Not
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:
- 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.
- Copy and paste a log in name and password from the listed results.
- 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)
December 08, 2006
President Bush Uses The Google
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)
December 05, 2006
Safari | Open in new window
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)
