• March 2013

     

    Turn Notes Into Stickies

    The Notes app in Mountain Lion is a great tool for jotting down thoughts, lists, to-dos. If you want to keep a Note in view on the Desktop, like a Stickie, just double-click the note in the list window. Now you can move it around your Desktop and keep it in view.

    iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

    Easier Reading with Reader

    Have you found an interesting article to read, all of the ads on the screen are distracting?

    Safari has a built in READER feature that will open most articles in a new window with just the article. No distractions.

    1. Click on a new article. Most newspaper and magazines with substantial text will support this feature.

    2. Click on the word READER that appears at the far right side of the page’s address (this may not be available for all articles).

    3. The article will open in a new window with just the text.

    4. Click READER again to get back to the full page in Safari.

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    Saving Photos From Mail

    A reader recently sent this question:

    “If I get an email with photos attached, there is a drop down menu that invites me to save as or add to iPhoto. The iPhoto option does not work. Of course I can drag and drop or I can save as but I’d like to know why the add to iPhoto option does not work.”

    There is a bug in Mountain Lion with Apple’s Mail program so this feature currently doesn’t work. So, until Apple fixes this, the easiest way to save photos you receive in Mail is to drag them, one at a time, onto the iPhoto icon in the Dock.

    If you are still using Lion or Snow Leopard, this Save to iPhoto feature does still work.

    iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

    Deleting Photos

    A reader emailed me this question:

    “I need to delete pictures from my iPad. I need more space on it for games for my grandson, but when I follow the steps below, my delete button changes to DELETE EVERYWHERE. I don’t want the pictures deleted on the MAC. How to delete from the iPad device only without losing the same picture on the MAC?”

    The Delete Everywhere refers to the photos on the iPad only. You may have them in the Camera Roll and in an album. Deleting the photo from the camera roll will also delete it from any albums it is in.

    It will NOT be deleted from your Mac. You can test this by deleting a single photo, then checking your Mac.

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    The Power of Preview

    A reader recently sent this question:

    “When I open a PDF in Preview I get a list there of about 10 items (Pics). I didn’t notice these before is there a way to get them off Preview when I open it?”

    Apple’s free Preview app is the easiest way to open and read PDF files. You can see the entire document in full screen and you can also see the thumbnails, miniature images in the sidebar for navigating quickly to a particular page.

    To show or hide the thumbnails, from the View menu, choose what you want to see: contents only or thumbnails.

    You can also make your choices from the Toolbar by clicking on the View icon all the way on the left.

    iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

    Quick Definitions

    If you are reading an article on Safari and need to look up a word, here’s a fast and easy tip:

    1. Tap and hold your finger on the word to highlight it

    2. A choice will appear

    3. Tap Define

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    Viewing Full Names of Files

    A reader recently sent this question:

    “If you put some icons on the desktop, the names on this icons get truncated and its difficult to figure out the name you picked. How would you increase the number of characters you can use in naming a desktop icon where it can be seen?”

    First you should remember that, the more files and folders that you have saved onto your Desktop, the slower the Mac will be. While you can adjust the size of the icons and text (In the Finder, under the View menu, choose Show View Options) it won’t change how many letters are revealed.

    If you move all of these items into a single folder on the Desktop, then you can play with the different view options of that folder (by icon, list, column, coverflow) and you’ll be able to read full titles.

    iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

    A Trick For Rearranging Icons, Creating Folders

    There are several ways to move and organize your favorite Apps on your screen.

    First, press and hold on one of the icons to get them wiggling.

    To move an App, just drag the icon to a new position.

    To move an App to a different screen, drag it all the way to the edge of the current screen to advance to the next screen.

    This can be frustrating, getting the icon to easily move to the next screen. So here’s a great trick:

    1. Press and hold on one of the icons to get them wiggling

    2. Drag the App into the Favorites Bar at the bottom (If there is no free space, temporarily move several of your existing favorites onto a screen to create some space in the Bar)

    3. Swipe to the screen where you want to put it

    4. Then drag the App from the bar up to where you want it

    To group similar Apps together, drag one on top of another and a Folder will be created that you can rename.

     
  • April 2012

     

    Make Things Bigger on the Desktop

    Did you know that you can make the text AND icons bigger on the Desktop?

    1. From the Finder click the View menu

    2. Choose Show View Options

    3. You can drag the top slider to make the icons bigger or smaller

    4. Change the text size

    5. You can even reposition the label text from the bottom to the side

    6. Click a check mark next to Show Icon Preview and you’ll see a thumbnail of all of your jpgs

    iPad and iPhone App of the Month

    Auto-Complete Text

    Do you type the same phrases all of the time on your iPad or iPhone? You can create shortcuts for these frequently used sentences.

    Let’s say you often type “Love you much” in your emails.

    You can create a shortcut so that, when you type LYM it will automatically type the complete phrase.

    1. Tap Settings

    2. Tap General

    3. Scroll all the way down to Keyboard

    4. Scroll down to Shortcuts

    5. Tap Add New Shortcut…

    6. Type in the complete phrase, ie: Love you much!

    7. Next to “Shortcut” type the letters you want to use for that phrase, ie: lym

    8. Tap SAVE

    9. Open up Mail and try it!

    You can create many different shortcuts. I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many you can create.

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    Launch Pad

    Lion’s Launch Pad offers you an easy way to look at your Apps. But it only shows Apple Apps and those you’ve downloaded from the App store. To see ALL the Applications on your Mac, click on the Go menu in the Finder and choose Applications.

    iPad and iPhone App of the Month

    Play With Friends

    There are lots of fun apps that let you play with your friends, even when you’re not together. All of the games offer a free version and a paid version without ads.

    Words With Friends is just like Scrabble. Play with me–my name is Ruthr

    Draw Something is a combination of Pictionary and Jumble, so that you have letters to give you a hint about what your friend has drawn. No artistic skills necessary. Play with me–my name is Ruthspark

    —————–

    Drafts in Mail with Lion

    Lots of folks are asking where the Drafts Folder went in Mail after they installed Lion. It used to be that SAVE AS DRAFT was a choice. Now, just close the email you want to save and it will give you the option to Save As Draft.

    Once you’ve saved something, the Drafts Folder will appear in the Mailbox list in the left column.

    iPad and iPhone App of the Month

    Weather

    The weather widget in the Notification Center doesn’t just show you the weather for today. It can also show you the weather for the next five days.

    Just swipe left or right for the full forecast.

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    Where Are Those Missing Keys

    The Apple Wireless Keyboard is sleek, compact and feels great on your fingers. But it’s missing the numeric keypad and a few other keys that some people are lost without.

    Today’s tip is especially for all of you recently converted PC users who miss those special navigational keys.

    Use the FN key (bottom left of your keyboard) with the following keys:

    PAGE UP = FN + up arrow
    PAGE DOWN= FN + down arrow
    HOME = FN + left arrow
    END = FN + right arrow
    FORWRD DELETE = FN + delete

    iPad and iPhone App of the Month

    Rearranging and Grouping Apps

    There are several ways to move and organize your favorite Apps on your screen.

    First, press and hold on one of the icons to get them wiggling.

    To move an App, just drag the icon to a new position.

    To move an App to a different screen, you can try dragging it all the way to the edge of the current screen. But this is aggravating and it doesn’t always work.

    Instead, drag the App into the Favorites Bar at the bottom, slide to the preferred screen, then drag the App to where you want it.

    The Favorites Bar can hold up to 6 items on an iPad and up to 4 items on the iPhone. You can temporarily move something off of the Favorites Bar to use the placeholder for all of this moving and rearranging.

    To group similar Apps together, drag one on top of another and a Folder will be created that you can rename.

     
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