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March 30, 2007
Selecting Text
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)
March 22, 2007
Suitcase Login Items Coup
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)
March 08, 2007
Making the most of iLife seminars
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)
March 01, 2007
Mail | Paste and match style
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:
- Copy the styled text from a web page - try the lovely turquoise text above.
- Place the cursor in your message where you want it to appear.
- 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)
