iChat is Apple’s FREE video chatting software. You can use it to talk and video chat with anyone who has a Mac. (Use Skype to talk with PC users.) All you have to do is create a free identity and you’re ready to go!

When you open iChat for the first time it will ask you to put in your account name. If you have a MobileMe account, click on the word AIM and change it to “MobileMe” then type in your information, along with your password and click Done.

If you don’t have a MobileMe account, click on the word AIM and change it to “mac.com” and then click Get an iChat Identity.

Fill in all of the boxes, accept the agreement, click Done and you’re set up to iChat.

Now you just need to add the Identities of the people you want to chat with.

If you’d like to try it out, Add me to your Buddy List by clicking the PLUS sign at the bottom of the Buddy List window. My iChat identity is mactoschool@mac.com

The next time you see me online, click on my name and we can chat!

Getting the Most Life Out of Your Batteries

Move Your Dock
For many people with laptops, having the Dock positioned at the bottom of the screen causes accidental clicks on icons. Try moving your Dock to the left or right of the screen to give you more vertical space. From the Apple menu, choose Dock. Follow the arrow over and click on Position on Left or Right.

Keeping an Icon in the Dock
If you use a program often but the icon keeps disappearing, don’t panic. The next time it is there, click and hold on the icon to reveal a menu. Choose Keep In Dock or, if you don’t see that choice, click on Options and then choose Keep In Dock.

Changing the Batteries on Your Mouse or Keyboard
It’s best to turn off the computer before changing the batteries. This way, when you restart, the mouse and keyboard are automatically recognized and ready to go.

Scanning with Snow Leopard
If you’ve been using a version of your printer software to scan and now it doesn’t work, it’s because Snow Leopard has built-in scanning capabilities. Open Preview (found in the Applications folder in the Hard Drive.) From the File menu, choose Import from Scanner and follow the arrow to the right to choose your scanner. Click Scan to start and then follow the on-screen directions.

Favorite iPhone App of the Month
Around Me: This app helps you find the closest gas station, pharmacy, hotel—you name it. It includes maps, phone numbers, even street view photos so you can recognize the location as you’re driving by.

If something happens to your computer (loss, theft, crash, dead hard drive), you could lose everything on it: your addresses, your documents, your photos—EVERYTHING. So why not be safe instead of sorry and start backing up your computer regularly. I believe there are three levels of backing up, depending on what kind of user you are.

For many people, a single system-wide backup is enough. Using Apple’s built in Time Machine software and an external Hard Drive, everything on your computer is archived as it changes. It’s easy to restore everything if you have a computer crash. Backup happens in the background so you don’t need to do anything.

If you have a lot of photos, in addition to backing up on an external drive, I recommend also archiving your photos onto DVD’s. If you archive photos by year, by subject, by albums, it’s easy to locate and use those pictures in the future. And it is a second copy of your precious memories.

If you create and change documents often (Quicken, Word, Excel files) I recommend that, in addition to backing up on an external drive, you also copy these important files regularly to a flash drive/thumb drive. This way, you always have the most recent versions of your most important documents in your hand and can use them on any other computer that has the software.

Don’t wait until you lose you data to start backing up. Backing up takes so little time and effort and gives you so much peace of mind.

New Year, New Habit, Part 2

In my creativity classes I encourage my students to change their visual environments because when you see different things, you begin to see things differently. You can apply this to your computer environment as well.

• Change your desktop picture.
• Choose a new screensaver for when your Mac is sleeping.
• Try typing in a new font.
• Rearrange the things you look at on and around your working space.
• Notice what happens……

It’s Time To Upgrade to Snow Leopard

There have been two important updates to Snow Leopard, OS 10.6 since it’s initial release in the fall and now is a good time to upgrade to this latest version of the Mac operating system. While it is not packed with a lot of new features, Snow Leopard is advertised as being faster and more reliable than Leopard.

If you are still running Tiger (OS 10.4), this is a great time to finally upgrade to all of the new features and capabilities that Leopard has to offer.

Just be sure your computer has the minimum requirements:

Snow Leopard requires an Intel-based Mac with a minimum of 1 GB of RAM.

To see if your computer has the minimum requirements, click on the Apple icon in the top left corner and choose About This Mac.

For assistance purchasing and installing additional memory to meet the minimum requirements, contact Ruth.

How To Get Snow Leopard

If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, you can purchase Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard for only $29.00.

If your Intel-based Mac is running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, you can purchase the Mac Box Set, which is a single package that includes Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, iWork ’09, Apple’s productivity suite that includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote, and iLife ’09 with the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb and iDVD all for only $169.

Visit the Apple store in town or online for purchasing information.

If you’d like help installing Snow Leopard and then tweaking things for your personal preferences, schedule a session with Mac to School today!

How to Open .Zip Files

If double clicking on the file doesn’t work, then you need to download the free Stuffit Expander tool.

Go here and click Download Now

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10653042

When it’s done downloading you’ll see a blue screen. Double click on the Stuffit Expander 2010 Installer icon

Click Open, and follow the screens to complete the installation. You’ll have to type in your computer’s password.

In the Install Options window, remove the check mark to add it to the dock, then click Continue.

Click OK and you’re done.

You can close the installer window and drag both the stuffit icon and the stuffit.dmg file to the trash

Now you should be able to double click on any zip file and it will open.

How to Open Newer Microsoft Files

If you receive a word document ending in .docx or an Excel file ending with .xlsx and you don’t have Office 2008,you can still open these files. You just need to download the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0.2 .

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EDB6CD8F-832C-4123-8982-AC0C601EA0A7&displaylang=en

and follow the on screen directions to download the program.

Relief From Computer Stiffness

So many of my clients spend hours in front of their computers. Most do not even think to take a break for anything more than a quick bite to eat or a run to the bathroom. When we sit at our desks, our shoulders are hunched forward, our neck is stiff, our heart is closed. It is so important to regularly counter this posture with stretches and movement.

For some great ideas to relieve computer stress and strain click on the Stretches link above.