Printing Mailing Labels

Apple’s Address Book/Contacts makes printing mailing labels so easy. You first need to create a Group of only the people you want to print labels for.

Here’s are three great videos from The Virtual Classroom that will show you how easy it is to create a group and print your labels.

The steps are different, depending on the version of the OS you’re using (Mountain Lion, Lion or Snow Leopard), so choose the video for your situation.

Printing Mailing Labels with Snow Leopard
Printing Mailing Labels with Lion
Printing Mailing Labels with Mountain Lion

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Groups in Contacts

iOS6 changes how you see your Groups in you Contacts. When you tap Groups, it now shows a list of all of your Groups. But if you tap on one, all it does is remove the check mark next to it.

So how do you see who’s in a group?

1. Tap Groups and they will all be checked
2. Tap All Contacts and it will uncheck every group.
3. Then tap the Group you want to see
4. Tap Done
5. Now it shows you only the people in that Group

To see All Contacts again:

1. Tap Groups
2. Tap All Contacts
3. Tap Done

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Adjusting the Brightness

Does your computer screen seem dim? Does the screen get dark if you don’t touch it for a while?

One way to brighten the screen is by pressing the key on your keyboard above the number 2 with the picture of the sun on it.

To change the setting that automatically dims the screen:

1. Under the Apple menu, choose System Preferences

2. Click on Energy Saver. It looks like a light bulb

3. Adjust the time settings for the Display Sleep

4. Remove the check mark next to Automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Picture Frame

Family gatherings are a great time to share photos. And it’s fun to be able to have your photos displayed in the background.

When your iPad is asleep and locked you can still view Photos using the Picture Frame mode. It’s different than the Slide Show mode when you are in your Photos.

To set your preferences for Picture Frame:

1. Click Settings

2. Click Picture Frame

3. Choose your Transition

4. Choose how long it shows each photo, whether to Zoom in on faces, and if you want them Shuffled, in a random order

5. Choose which photos and albums to show

6. Sit back and enjoy.

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Finding and Searching on the Mac

Every program on the Mac has a Search tool. Usually it’s a rounded rectangular box with a mini magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the screen. (If you don’t see it, try dragging your window wider to reveal it.)

Just type what you’re looking for in this box to save you time and aggravation.

In Mail, when you Search, you can limit where Mail looks and what it looks for by clicking on one of the choices across the top: All Mailboxes or just the one selected, whether the text is in the Entire Message, From, To or part of the Subject of the email.

To find a folder or document saved on your Mac, you can use click on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner to open up Spotlight, which gives you a list of all items.

A second way to Find documents is to choose the Find command under the File menu in the Finder. Type in what you’re looking for and a list will appear. Click once on the item and at the bottom of the window, you’ll see the path listed, so you know where to find the item.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Finding and Searching on the iPhone and iPad

Are you looking for a person’s phone number? While you might think it’s pretty easy to click on your Contacts and scroll to that person’s name, there is a much faster way.

Slide to the screen to the left of the first Home screen to reveal the built-in Spotlight program.

Begin typing the person’s name.

Not only will their name appear next to the icon of the Contacts, but you’ll also see all emails related to that person, any iCal appointments, even text messages.

Click on any entry and you’re there.

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Back Up Your Contacts/Address Book

Even if you use Time Machine to backup your computer, it’s a great idea to have a separate backup of just your Address Book, just in case.

You can keep the file on your hard drive or also copy it to a flash drive or your external hard drive. Better save than sorry!

Here’s a free video lesson that will teach you how to back up your Contacts!

And, remember, deleting a person from your Contacts on your iPhone or iPad will also remove them from your Contacts on your Mac!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Signatures in Email

By default, every email you send says “Sent from my iPhone or iPad.” You can remove this and even add your own signature. And, with iOS6, you can now have a different signature for each of your email accounts.

1. From the Home screen, click on Settings

2. Scroll down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Scroll all the way down to Signature

4. Choose All Accounts if you want to use the same signature for all of your email accounts

5. Click Per Account if you want to create unique signatures for each email account

6. Delete the existing text and type what you’d like it to say

7. There is no need to Save it, just tap back to Mail and you’ll see that, next to Signature, it now shows either the text you typed or the number of how many email accounts you have

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