Practice your shortcuts.

I am sometimes surprised by the number of people who say “how did you do that?” when I use a shortcut in front of them. Shortcuts save so much time and hassle, and just help you to get the job done faster and more efficiently.

Most of you will already be familiar with Command-Q (Quit); Command-P (Print) and that Ctrl-Click brings up a sub-menu when clicking on an object. But there are so very many shortcuts you can use to streamline your work, I suggest that you check them out and try to learn them by heart - at least the ones you need to use on a regular basis. Performing a Google search “mac shortcuts” brings up thousands of sites hosting information of this subject, but here is one I myself liked:

Mac Shortcuts

Faulty Mighty Mouse

I have frequently met people who tell me that their Mighty Mouse is faulty and that they want to bring it over for a technician to check as they suspect a hardware problem.

Usually the problem is linked to the scroll ball, which will more often than not only work in one direction.

The cause of the problem is not hardware, but simply dirt from your hand which has become entrapped in the scroll ball housing.

All you need to do to overcome this is to get a lint-free cloth, put a few drops of surgical spirit onto it and rub the scroll ball gently for a couple of minutes. Holding the mouse upside-down during the procedure helps to free the dirt more efficiently.

Add keywords to iPhoto

If you have a large collection of pictures in your iPhoto Library, then you’ll know how difficult it can be to find a particular photo. This is why adding keywords to pictures can make your life easier, as these allow you to tag one or more keywords to your pictures to make searching easier.

In iPhoto ’08 adding keywords to pictures has become extremely easy as shown in the screenshots above. You need to have the “Add Keywords” option selected first, and to do this go to View > Keywords. Once this is done, simply hovering over a picture with your mouse brings up the “add keywords” prompt, and clicking on this opens up a field where you can type in your keywords.

iPhoto ’08 also has built-in keyword manager (Window > Show Keywords) which gives you the facility to add and edit keywords. Since iPhoto ’08 attempts to “auto-fill from your keyword library as you enter keywords below photos, this makes the process all the more convenient and efficient.

It is interesting to note that iPhoto ’08 has a little pop-up menu to the left of the search field that allows you to search by keyword, date and rating as well as your standard “everything” searches for added accuracy. Clicking the Keyword search brings up a popup which you can click to find related pictures.

Holding the “shift” key during a keyword search adds an “Or” to your search (i.e. search “family or friends”). Holding down the “Option” key adds a “and NOT” to your search (i.e. search “family or friends and not London”). Holding the “Ctrl” key adds an “and” to your searches (i.e. search “family and friends”).

Create your own alert sound

Mac OS X allows you to customise almost everything on your machine, and that includes customising your alert sounds. Alert sounds are audible notifications made by the OS when it needs to get your attention, such as when a wrong key combination is inputted.    

Before you begin, it is important to note that these sounds need to be in .aiff format and have that extension, otherwise they will not work. If you find a sound you like but it is in a different format you can easily convert it using iTunes (I don’t have the space to cover this here but will in a future edition). You can also create custom sounds in GarageBand, or download a selection of free ones here.

Anyway this is pretty simple - once you have located the .aiff file you would like to use as an alert sound, just drag it to your Macintosh HD > Users > Username > Library > Sounds folder. Don’t worry if the folder appears empty since certain system files may be hidden.

Then go to the System Preferences > Sounds and there, provided you used the correct file and extension, you will find you custom sound.

Enjoy!

Changing Icons

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Changing icons on a Mac couldn’t be easier.

Once you have decided which folders you would like to have different icons, you would need to download some icons off the internet. A word of warning - these are normally free. You’d REALLY have to like a set of icons to pay for them. Here are a couple of sites which host free Mac icons:

Free Mac Icons   Free Mac Icons   Free Mac Icons   Free Mac Icons   Free Mac Icons 

You can find more by just typing “Free Mac Icons” into a search engine such as Google.

Open the folder containing your icons, select the icon you want and go to File > Get info (Command - i). Next select the folder whose icon you wish to change and do the same (Command - i), ending up with a similar scene as in Fig. 2 above. 

Next, in the “Get Info” window of your selected icon, click on the icon preview and choose Edit > Copy. Then in the Get Info window of the icon to be changed, click on the icon preview and choose Edit > Paste.

That’s it. Done.

Note: You may also find custom icons for system items such as the trash and other hard to reach icons - these would require third party software such as Candybar in order to be changed.

Browsers

A lot of people like Netscape. I am one of them - I don’t exactly know what it is about it but its go a Mac feel about it, hard to explain.

I am not alone. There is a big community out there who hook up and share ideas and wax lyrical about the products, it’s features and benefits. 

Sadly, all this is going to come to an end. The end of an era really (sniff) as the good people at Netscape have announced an end of support as of 01 March 2008. For those of you who wand to download the last version and keep it as a memento you will find it here. Try not to delay too long as it won’t be there forever.

Netscape users are being advised to download Flock (or Firefox which I already use). I have not tried Flock but I’ll give it a try and see how it goes.

Flock - the browser for people who like to be connected

Those of you who have downloaded and tried it - let me know what you think!

Using Burn Folders

Creating a “Burn Folder” is the simplest way to make a backup of your work on a CD or DVD (depending on the type of optical drive your computer came with of course). You do not need any  software other than the system to do this and yet the result is pretty sophisticated.

First of all you need to create the actual Burn Folder, and you can do this by either right-clicking (or ctrl-clicking) on your desktop and selecting “new burn folder” or, in finder, choosing File > New burn folder which creates a Burn Folder on your desktop.

Once this has been created, selecting items to burn is a simple matter of exploring your hard disk and dragging items to this Burn Folder. Note that the system creates an “Alias” (or shortcut) of each item you wish to burn (rather than moving the actual item) so that the actual items remain in their proper places in your hard disk hierarchy and nothing is disturbed. 

It is also worth noting that the actual burning process can be delayed for as long as you like, so that if you are backing up a work-in-progress you can wait until you feel you have enough to back up.

Once you are ready to perform the burn, insert a blank CD or DVD, open your burn folder (containing aliases to the items you wish to burn), click the “Burn” button in the top right-hand corner and you’re off. 

If you have not inserted a blank disk, its no problem as you will be prompted to insert one by the system as in the above illustration.

Once the burn has been carried out and you are satisfied with the results, you can delete the burn folder as it contains only aliases.

Creating PDFs from any file

Mac OS X has for some time had the built in ability to save files through the print dialogue box. Many other applications include a built in PDF export feature but the beauty of this is that you can do it from nearly any application.

Simply go through the motions of printing the file (Command-P) and notice the little PDF button at the bottom left of the print dialogue box. Pressing this button brings up a whole host of PDF-based features including the save as PDF one I am talking about here.

It is also interesting to note that you also have the option to Mail a PDF, so if you wanted to share a document just choose this option to mail the PDF to someone.

Combined with the “Adding pages to PDF files using Preview” page in my archive this give you a very powerful tool for projects or for presentation work.

Cut and paste

Cut and paste are features available in all platforms and have evolved over the years and become refined. In OS X, you will all know the shortcuts by now:

Select All: Command A

Copy: Command C

Cut: Command X

Paste: Command V

However there are some variations. For example you can paste and match the style of your current document in most applications by pressing Command/Option/Shift/V or choosing the “Edit > Paste and Match Style” item from the main menu.

When pasting images you frequently need to resize them. Holding down the “Shift” key while doing so allows you to preserve the image’s aspect ratio.

These days many of these commands work in file management in OS X. For example, you can select a file or folder on your desktop and right-click (Crtl-click) and copy the item and then paste it in a different location by right-clicking (Crtl-click) and choosing “paste item”. However the “Cut” feature is disabled in this mode - so if you select an item on your desktop and right-click on it you will not see a “Cut” command on the contextual menu.

If you need this feature there is shareware that is available here.

Webcams on older Macs and PowerMacs

With the demise of the iSight camera some time ago, many people thought that they would not be able to enjoy video conferencing on their machines.

Enter Macam from our friends at Sourceforge.net. Macam is a generic driver which supports hundreds of commonly available webcams so that they can be used with your macs running many video-aware applications. However iChat will not recognise most USB webcams unless you install iChatUSBCam which is a software unrelated to Macam.

Anyway Sourceforge have gone as far as testing and listing most USB webcams on their site, stating whether or not they work. So getting a webcam that will work with your Mac is simply a matter of looking it up on this page to see if it will work with Macam.

There is also an interesting FAQ page in case you may have any queries.

Enjoy!

Moving music/pictures/movies to an external hard disk.

This is particularly useful if space is limited. External drives are cheap (and getting cheaper) and this is a convenient way to work, allowing you to shift your files from one computer to another with ease. Let us assume that you wish to move your music to an external drive - the principal is the same for music, pictures and movies. As in all cases of this nature please backup your data before starting this job.

Quit iTunes. 

The first step is to copy the folder containing your iTunes music (iTunes folder) files from your “Users > username > Music” to your external drive. Once this is done (and your music is backed up) you can delete the “Users > username > Music > iTunes” (iTunes Folder) from your internal hard disk and free up the space. Remember to empty trash.

Next, navigate to where you moved your iTunes folder in your external hard disk, right click (or crtl click) on this folder and select “Make Alias” and this will create an Alias (shortcut) called “iTunes Alias”.

Drag this alias into your “Users > username > Music” folder on your main hard disk (where your original iTunes folder was before). Once it is there you need to rename it as “iTunes” (i.e. remove the word “Alias” from the file name).

Launch iTunes - if all is well you will be able to see your music normally. 

If you launch iTunes with the external hard disk disconnected you will not be able to access your music. Also beware of the pitfall - do not try and sync your iPod with your external drive disconnected!

Carrying out the same exercise on your laptop would mean that you could share your music between two Macs. Ensure that you are running the same version of iTunes on each computer as the iTunes database file (.xml) on the most recent version will not work on earlier versions.

As always, please keep a recent backup of your data.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-t. . . . t .

Much as I hate to be the harbinger of doom and destruction to come, certain things just need to be SAID. 

I know that problems with electricity here are a rarity, but just in case I thought I would make this point and help you to protect your expensive equipment.

When a power surge strikes, you are given precious little warning - i.e. zilch nada. Some times the screen may flash, and you can get that strange smoky smell. But your motherboard/power supply are fried, and your deadline is in 15 minutes. So, what to do? 

Protect yourself. Now! There are quite a few trailing sockets on the market which have built-in surge protection and the cost of these is negligible when compared to the price of replacing a motherboard or power supply. 

Some UPS systems come with a built-in voltage stabiliser, and you can also get a separate voltage stabiliser. 

A UPS protects your equipment, especially your hard disk (and therefore your precious data), against major damage. If a power-cut (rare though they may be) should occur at the precise moment that you are reading from your hard disk, irreparable damage can be the result. And if you’re not backed up - oh, invest in a UPS. They’re cheap these days. 

Finally - our old friend lightning, aka Thor’s hammer. Leaving your modem plugged into the phone line and computer can cause fatal problems in the case of a lightning strike. So, going over to wireless would be one solution. Another would be to unplug the modem before you leave the office at night (like, that’s on your mind after a hard day’s work). One client was worried because his iMac wouldn’t start up following a thunder storm. It was only when he moved it out of its little cubbyhole that he saw a big black hole had burnt right through the case. No wonder it wouldn’t start up! If he’s reading this he knows who he is ;) 

Taking precautions against these very real hazards must be worth it even just for the peace of mind they bring with them! Think of your blood pressure.

You’ll love yourself if you ever needed it. And I’ll tell you something for nothing - the feeling of satisfaction you feel when a power-cut strikes and you just keep on working... well it’s priceless. Those of you who have experienced it know what I mean.

P.S. Sorry there’s a PC in the above picture - I didn’t have the heart to use a Mac :)

Online data storage

No matter how good your backup system may be and irrespective of how often you may perform your backup, it can never hurt to store your most crucial files in a safe location online as well as locally. Just in case. 

All you need is a broadband connection, a good (free or otherwise) online data storage provider and, in my humble opinion, OneButton FTP (a software which allows you to upload you data to a predetermined destination. You can download OneButton FTP here:

OneButton FTP

Some providers (such as iBackup) provide their own interfaces, with others you’d need an FTP Client such as OneButton FTP. Here are some storage providers, some free, some not:

Online Storage    Online Storage    Online Storage    Online Storage    Online Storage

Remember - you do this once and thereafter its plain sailing. Chances are you’ll never really need it, but you’ll be glad you had it if you ever did.

Safari - using a Web Page’s resources

To use these handy features you’d have to be using Safari - they are really easy and handy functions which takes full advantage of OS X’s superb html handling.

Firstly whilst browsing the www you come across a page that you just know will interest your friend/brother/cousin and decide to send them the link. Well more than that you can send them the actual page using the combined power of Safari and Mail. From the File menu you fill find the “Mail Contents of this Page” item an selecting this will open the page in Mail ready to send - simple as that. It is interesting to note that all the links on the page you email are actually active on the mailed page! (Fig. 1)

Next you can actually create your own custom widgets (see tips passim) from the webpage of your choice. Once again in Safari just choose the “File” menu, and then select the “Open in Dashboard” item. One word of advice here; use your mouse to select the area you wish to make into a widget and press the “Add” button by pressing “Enter” . (Fig. 2)

No you have a widget with working links that you can use in Dashboard!

Tip of the day

A problem I frequently encounter in the realm of cross-platform emails is that an OS X Mail user would email images to a Windows user who would be unable to download and save the images as they are “embedded” in the email - i.e. they do not behave as attachments.

A simple fix for this is to ensure that the format of the email you are sending is “plain text” as opposed to “rich text” - in the Mail menu choose the “Format > Make Plain Text” command as in Fig. 1 (or just use the shortcut: Shift ⌘ T).

If this is something you do with a great deal of frequency, you can opt to permanently compose in Plain text by selecting the option in your Mail Preferences > Composing (Fig. 2).

Safari merge all windows feature

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Sometimes when browsing around the web chasing deadlines you end up with more open windows than is good for you (Fig. 1)! Often sites carry links including the Javascript command to open link in a new window, the leading cause for this problem.

Safari has this problem under control, thanks to its “Merge all windows feature. Simply go to the “Window” menu in Safari, select “Merge all windows” (Fig. 2) and that’s all there is to it - a nice organised view of what you’re doing (Fig. 3).

I am using Safari 3 here - you may need to enable the “Allow tabbed browsing” feature from Safari > Preferences in earlier versions.

For the record; in Safari 3, you can go to the Window menu and select the “Move tab to new window” command to extract one of your tabs from the whole lot.

Saving usernames and passwords in Safari

For security reasons Safari does not remember passwords as default. For those of you who need this feature on a regular basis this can be annoying to say the least.

The fix is a simple one: just go to the Safari menu > preferences and select the “Autofill” tab; all you need to do is check the Usernames and passwords box and the next time you are prompted for a password you will be given the option to save the password in your keychain.

Speaking of keychains. If there is something you do on your Mac which requires a password, and this password changes regularly, it is a good idea to go to the Keychain Access utility and clean up the keychain list pertaining to that item since frequent password changes can sometimes cause problems in your keychain. However, a word of warning on this: if you’re not sure what you are doing please don’t try this yourself.

Customising your trackpad

Those of you using relatively recent Mac laptops can use the two finger trackpad scroll. As its name suggests, if you put two fingers on the trackpad you can scroll, much like a scroll wheel on a mouse. A very handy and labour-saving tool!

You can customise the way your trackpad works by going through the Keyboard & Mouse system preference and selecting the Trackpad tab. There you will find options to select two finger scrolling, plus you can opt for a zoom function using two finger scrolling in conjunction with a key (“ctrl” by default, but you can change this).

There are options that also allow you to use the trackpad to click, drag and drag-lock objects; it all depends how you like to work.

Fast user switching

Many of you share your Macs, usually with a family member. Often enough the other user(s) have their own account so that your settings and files remain untouched. So far, so good.

The problem arises when you are in the middle of some work (i.e. updating your website) when your little son comes in before school saying that he has to make a correction to a project he has to present in class this morning.

So you stop what you are doing, save your work and log out so your son can log in with his account. 

The most efficient way of doing this is to enable fast user switching. The advantages of this are that (as the name suggests) it is fast, and also that you don’t have to close files and save work to log out this way.

To enable fast user switching simply go to your System Preferences, select Accounts, select the “Login Options” at the bottom of the User pane and check the “Enable fast user switching” selection box. Obviously you would need to have a second user created on your machine for this option to be available.

Once these steps are complete all you have to do is click on your user at the top right of the screen (between the clock and the spotlight icon) to bring up a list of users you can switch between. 

Playing with Widgets

Widgets may have started of as a little bit of fun, but they have become a serious helper which I use all the time. There are presently 3637 widgets available for download, and more and more are added every day. This is where you will find them:

Widget downloads

As you all know, pressing F12 or clicking the dashboard icon in your dock will bring up the widgets presently installed in your system. Sadly all to often these are the standard ones that come shipped with your Mac. Clicking the + sign at the bottom left of your screen brings up the widget bar which is where you can add other widgets which are installed but not active. You will notice that while the widget bar is active each widget on your screen has an X in the top left corner - click this and you disable the widget if its one you don’t want.

Clicking the “manage widgets” button when the widget bar is active brings up the widget manager which is another way of enabling and disabling your installed widgets, and also includes a shortcut to the download site - the button at the bottom of the widget manager called “More Widgets”.

Another interesting feature is that you can select a widget twice from the widget bar and give them different preferences for comparison purposes. For example, you can have two weather widgets, one for Valletta and the other for London.

Other very useful widgets that I use every day are the Dictionary and Thesaurus and Unit Converter widgets, but with 3637 to choose from this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. 

Did I say 3637? Probably by the time you read this it’ll be more...

Your Home Folder

So what exactly is the “Home” folder, anyway? Its got an icon that looks like a little house and its got folders containing all your documents, movies, music, pictures and applications. Also it has a Public folder which you can use to store files you want to share with other users; a Downloads folder which as the name suggests is where a file downloaded from the internet is normally kept; a Desktop folder which stores the files on your desktop; a Library folder which stores files necessary for the smooth running of your Mac (a word of warning - do not touch!).

If you share your Mac with other users, you will notice that there is a Home folder for each user in the Users folder. OS X keeps each user’s files secure and only the user can access them. In fact when logged in as, say, user A and you try to browse the files of User B, you will notice that all his folders (with the exception of the Public folder) will have little “no entry” signs signifying that you do not have the necessary permission to access these folders.

Its worth navigating about your hard disk a little until you become used to the hierarchy. Column view works best for me when I look around, but you may prefer list view, icon view or, if you’re using Leopard, coverflow.

User accounts and security

Mac OS X allows you to create separate accounts for each user of your computer. It is also possible to set separate access privileges for each user. This is particularly useful if for security reasons you only want one user (the Administrator) to make any changes (software installation etc.) to the system. Obviously all users are allowed to set separate preferences.

The three main types of users in OS X Leopard are:

•Administrator - has full access to all customisable options. When setting up your computer for the first time this is the account you will create by default. 

•Standard - a strictly limited user. Options you select whilst setting up a standard user can limit this user further.

•Shared - similar to standard but also intended for more than one user.

Then of course there is the root user account. The root user (sometimes referred to as the superuser) allows you to manage files and folders without being told by the operating system that you have insufficient privileges. However it has to be said that this is an extremely powerful and equally dangerous account to use and is intended mainly for troubleshooting by “someone in the know”. 

Certain very cautious users prefer to use their machine under a standard account. This prevents any unauthorised persons from carrying out any admin tasks on their Mac say, when they are online as any such task requires an admin password. 

However in my opinion although this is a prudent measure it can be overkill since OS X is perhaps the most secure OS in the world. It can also be rather annoying since all but the most mundane tasks require a password.

Leopard’s Maltese Support

One of the most compelling reasons to upgrade to OS X 10.54 is it’s built-in support for the Maltese language.

Opening the “International” System Preference (Formats tab) allows you to choose Malta as your preferred region, and this is customizable so that you can select the Euro instead of the old Lm currency.

Selecting the “Input Menu” tab allows you to select Maltese - since we are a bi-lingual nation you can opt to select both Maltese and English and toggle between them the Input Menu in the Menu Bar.

I strongly suggest that you check the “Show Input Menu in Menu Bar” option in the “International” System Preference to facilitate this option. You might also try checking the “Keyboard Viewer” option in international so that you can call up the Keyboard Viewer when you need it (remember “Key Caps” in OS 9? This is similar).