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Apple has a series of lessons for learning and using Macintosh computers that are very helpful! There are lessons for beginners, lessons on how to maintain your Mac and keep it happy, lessons on trouble-shooting. Exploring this website is a "must-read" for Mac Users. There's even a lesson for PC people that are switching to the Mac.
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/
GET COMPUTER BOOKS CHEAP!!
Though the title above sounds like a used car salesman, there is a website where you can get Peach Pit books for 35% off, with free shipping. With the price of computer books, this is a tremendous savings. Carole Martin handed out the information at the November evening meeting. Here's what you do:
1. Go to http://www.informit.com/sales/ms
2. Down the right side, click on the round icon for Peachpit Press
3.Then: a. If you see the book listed that you want, click on the book and more info comes up. Click the blue BUY button and you will be ordering one copy. If you want more than one, change the number and update. If you do not see the book you want, you can first go to the PeachpitPress.com site to get the ISBN number. Then, at the top of the informit pge, click to "search by ISBN." Put only the numbers into the box and click "search." When the book you want comes up, click BUY.
4. That will take you to the checkout page. YOU MUST USE THE SAME NAME AND ADDRESS THAT APPEARS ON YOUR CREDIT CARD.
Carole provided the ISBN on the books that we are most likely to want:
Mac OS X Leopard ISBN-13: 9780321402636
iLife '08 ISBN-13: 9780321502674
Tips are added to the page at the end of the list, so the newest tips are at the bottom of the page just above the V-MUG dividing the general tips from the CMUG tips.
Using Your Dock on OS X
Did you know that you can add and remove icons from your Dock? To add, simply go to FINDER and look for the MENU bar that says GO - now go to APPLICATIONS. Drag the icon for the program and place the icon where you desire it on the Dock. Please do not drag a folder but go into the folder and drag the program's icon. The icon will stay in the Dock until you drag them out. Removal is so simple, so simply hold down you mouse and drag the icon onto your desktop and poof, it is gone.
Note: You are not moving the program but creating an alias that is placed in the Dock.
Safari Status Bar
Safari's status bar is not always visible by default. If yours has disappeared, go to VIEW > STATUS BAR, or, easier, just key in Command-forward /
Stickies
Do you use Post-it-Notes or pieces of paper to jot down items that you might forget? Your Mac has an organized way to maintain your temporary thoughts. In OS X, go to the Applications folder and
drag STICKIES to the Dock. You can create Stickles that can be different sizes and colors too and these will be automatically saved until you delete them. These may be used for a Store List that you update prior to the dreaded trip, reminders about Rebates that have been mailed, a "To Do" List and on and on. You may print these, too.
Stickies that are Stuck (Won't close or move in OS 10.3.7)
If you have Stickies where you can not see the Red-Yellow-Green buttons and it will not let you move Stickies to
access them, go to the WINDOW menu bar in Stickies and click on ZOOM. Now you can move or close the items that are stuck.
Ordering Multiple Prints with One iPhoto "Prints" Order
To order multiple prints in one iPhoto order, enter the Organize area of iPhoto, hold down the Command (Apple) key, and click to select all the images you want printed. Each selected image will have a blue border around it. Click Order Prints to place the order. When the ordering window appears, scroll to find and choose the appropriate print size for each image.
Registration Required ... ?
Call it Avoidance : As in, avoid the annoyance of having to register just to read an article (and let the cookies in and possibly end up with another stream of promotional mailings...) If a website wants you to register before you can read an article or get to where you wanted to go in the site, you can go first to http:// bugmenot.com, then type in the URL of the site you are trying to access. Voila! A username and password will be issued to you without having to offer any of your personal information as might be requested in order to register.
From BMUG newsletter, April 2005, who got it from Design Tools Monthly via Mac Hints&Tips
Translate Gibberish
You can sometimes clean up an encoded email attachment, one of those with all the garbled letters, and Stuffit will translate it. Open the file in Text Edit or a word processor, and then delete everyting above the line that begins with Content-Type. Save the file as "Text Only," and drag it on top of Stuffit Expander. (This has worked for me on several files! Ruth) from MacWorld April, 2005
Good Stuff for Newbies and Switchers
This website has good information and tips for people new to Macintosh. Go to http://www.mactips.org/archives/2005/07/29/netnewswire-efficiency-tips/ and on the left side of the web page, click on Easy Tips.
Quickie Scroll Bar Moves
If you click-and-hold on one scroll arrow, you can move your mouse off of it and onto the opposite-direction arrow, and scrolling will immediately reverse. In previous versions of the Mac OS, you would have to first release the mouse button, move to the opposite arrow, then click-and-hold on that arrow and wait for scrolling to commence again. This not only took an extra mouse click, but you had to wait for the scrolling to begin again.
To make this trick useful at all, you'll need to have your scroll bars together -- there's not much point to holding the mouse button down while you move the mouse 10 inches down your screen from the Page Up arrow to the Page Down arrow. The easy way to do this is to visit the Appearance System Preferences panel, and click the Together radio button next to "Place scroll arrows." However, this gives you a double-scroll arrow only at the bottom of the scroll bar area. That's not a lot of help if your mouse is at the top of the scroll bar. With just a tiny bit of Terminal work, though, you can have the best of both worlds -- double scroll arrows at both the top and the bottom of the scroll bar.
Launch Terminal (in /Applications: Utilities) and type in the following command, then press Return:
defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleBoth
You'll now have double arrows at both ends of the scroll bar in any newly-launched applications. Any applications that were open when the command was executed, however, will have to be relaunched for the changes to take effect. If you ever tire of this, the easiest way to revert to another style of scroll bar arrows is to just pick one of the other two styles in the Appearance System Preferences panel.
Make Your Own Font Chart
You can save yourself bundles of time by having a chart that shows what all your fonts will look like on the page.To make your own personal chart, go to http://www.versiontracker.com. In the search box at the top of the page, put in "fonts." When the font list comes up, find and download FontDoc." You can print your font list out of FontDoc, or, if you wish to put them in columns to save space, you can copy/paste the list generated by FontDoc into Microsoft Word.
CD Ejection Stuck?
Did you ever have a CD or DVD get stuck in your SuperDrive? And it would not come out? Open
System > Library > Core Services > Menu Extras and double-click on “Eject menu.”
This produces an Eject Menulet in the menu bar. Use it to open the SuperDrive.
ANOTHER METHOD;
First, quit all running applications. Sometimes an open file will make the OSX think its a disk open, when it's not. If that doesn't do it, Restart the computer while holding down your mouse button.
Mac OS X Startup Keystroke Commands
If you’ve ever had a system crash and had to reboot from your CD drive or other volume on your hard drive, these startup keystroke commands can be a life saver (at the very least, a time saver)
• Press and hold X: Forces your Mac to startup in OS X
• Press and hold Option/ Command/Shift/Delete: Bypasses your primary startup volume and looks for a different startup volume such as a CD or external disk that has a system folder.
• Press and hold C: Start up from a CD that has a system folder.
• Press and hold N: Attempts to start up from a compatible network server
• Press and hold R: Forces PowerBook screen reset
• Press and hold T: Start up in FireWire Target Disk Mode (If your system is connected to another Mac by
a FireWire cable, your Mac’s hard drive will mount on the other Mac’s desktop.)
• Press and hold Shift: Start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items and non- essential
kernel extension files.
How to Enlarge the Cursor
from http://www.Macosxhints.com via Jack Kraft
(OSXHints website is run by Bob Griffiths, Senior Editor at MacWorld Magazine.)
One of the new features of Tiger is the ability to scale up the pointer for those people who have a hard time finding it. I find it's also quite useful if your Mac is hooked up to a TV, or if you have an absurdly high DPI count. Simply scale up the pointer, and you can find it anywhere on the screen. Be warned, the results are a little ugly.
To access this new feature, open System Preferences, then open the Universal Access pane, and click on the Mouse [& Trackpad] tab.
At the bottom of the tab is a slider that adjusts the size of the pointer. I've found that doubling the size (32x32) works best. Move the slider just to the right of the second hash mark; the right diagonal edge of the pointer looks squashed otherwise.
Can't Remember the Password?
submitted by Al Sypher, Ocala MUG
If you can't remember a password for a website (or anything else for that matter), all your passwords are saved in the Keychain Access
utility (which probably isn't news to you), but the cool thing is you can do a Spotlight search from right within Keychain to quickly find
the password you're looking for. Start by looking inside your Applications folder for the Utilities folder, and inside of that double-click on Keychain Access. When it opens you'll see a search field in the upper-right corner. Type the name of the site you're looking for, and it will appear. Double-click on the result and an info dialog will appear, and to see your password, turn on the show Password checkbox. (Tip courtesy of Scott Kelby's
book-Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips)
Click to Minimize
Minimize (send to the Dock) a file/folder by double-clicking on the Title Bar of the window.
Cycle through Open Applications
Hold down the Command key and hit Tab to cycle through all open applications.
Exposé
Use function keys to Show All Open Windows (default F9), or Go To the Desktop(default F11) quickly while working. If your f keys are not working, go to System Preferences: Personal: Dashboard and Exposé to set them up.
URLs to your Desktop or Folder
Highlight the URL of the webpage you want to capture. Drag it off the webpage to the destination you wish. Shortening or changing the name of the URL will not affect it.
Add Links, Files, Folders to Window Toolbars
1. Make any window active.
2. Go to View on the top Finder screen menu, and down to Customize Toolbar.
3. Drag the icon of your selection to the title bar of the folder/file window.
Replace Icons
1. Select and copy the new icon.2. Select icon to be replaced, and go to Get Info (command i).3. Highlight the icon in the upper left of the Get Info window. 4. Paste (command v), and the former icon will be replaced.
Revert back to Mac folder icon
1.Create a new untitled folder (command shift n). Click on the folder icon and copy it (command c).2. Select icon to be changed, and go to Get Info (command i).3. In the Get Info window, click on the upper left icon to select it. 4. Paste (command v) the Mac icon.
.mac menu
For .mac account users: Go to: infinitenexus.com and download .macMenu
It places an icon in the menu bar that provides easy access to .mac features.
It is a free program. I've used this for 3 months. (Brian Mitchell, VMUG)
Here is a group of tips from CMUG, used with their permission. CMUG is a Mug group covering all of Citrus County, based in Crystal River. See their website at: http://cmugonline.com/index.html
Watching Movies with Windows Media Player
Mr. Gates doesn't give much away for Macs these days. He does, however, let you use a Mac version of Windows Media Player. If you've received a link that ends in .wmv in an email from a PC friend, you won't be able to see the movie without Windows Media Player. You can find it at this site: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=windowsmedia.
It comes in both OS 10 and OS 9 versions. Download it, install it and watch the movie.
To Change your Browser Home Page
Setting what page you see (Home Page) when you open your browser is an easy task, regardless of what Operating System or Browser you use. You can set any web page. Some people use their hometown newspaper. Others open to their ISP Web Mail.
Go to Preferences:
• Safari (OS X): General. Type the URL (the www, etc.) in Home Page box. Close window.
• Internet Explorer (OS X and 9): Web Browser>Browser Display. Type the URL in Address. Click OK. Close Window.
• Netscape (OS X and 9): Appearance>Navigator. Type the URL in Location. Click OK. Close Window.
Some people like the browser to open with a blank page. Preferences in all these Browsers provide that choice. In Safari, You find a Pop-up Menu that provides four choices. When you have the Home Page Preferences set, quit the browser, then reopen it. It will open with the new Home Page.
Google is a great search engine. You can find out more than you need to know about anything imaginable. It does other things that you might find a need for.
Tricks with Google. Go to Google.com in your browser.
•Find an Address. You've got a phone number, but you don't know the address? Type the phone number (area code, etc.) in the search box. Google will find the address and give a link to maps.
• Find Pictures. Select Images on the Google page. Type the kind of pictures you want to see and click Search. Control-click on the picture you want and select “Download image to disk” to put the picture on your desktop .
To Make Symbols with the Keyboard
You can use the keyboard to make special symbols in your Appleworks documents:
• To make a bullet (•) use Option-8
• To make degree symbol (º) for 72º, for instance, use Option-zero
To Cancel a Drag and Drop
• Press esc during the drag. Icon snaps back to original
My flat panel iMac doesn't have a reset switch. How do I reboot my computer if I get stuck?
Answer:
The new iMac doesn't have an obvious reset switch; however, you can reset it. Apple suggests that you press and hold the power button for five seconds when your iMac is unresponsive. In most cases, this will restart your iMac -- and, of course, cause you to lose unsaved changes in open documents. If holding down the power button doesn't work, unplug the computer.
How Can I Check to See If a Message I Receive is a Hoax?
Answer:
Sometimes our mailboxes get really cluttered with forwarded messages about some sick or lost child, chain letters that require us to send to 5-10 friends or something terrible will happen, or notices of new viruses that will eat our computers. Most of these are hoaxes or urban legends and require no further action from us. Before we forward these messages on to our friends, we need to check out their authenticity. There are several sites that have already done the research and have listed the scams, hoaxes, true and false viruses and urban legends. If in doubt, go to:
http://www.snopes2.com/
http://HoaxBusters.ciac.org
http://www.truthorfiction.com/
http://www.museumofhoaxes
End of CMUG tips. All the above tips were used with CMUG permission.
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