June 27, 2008 Meeting

Aoraki Macintosh User Group Home Page

Snippets from Previous Meetings





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APPLEBYTE ONLINE

The Christchurch-based Apple User Group of Canterbury (AUGC) have kindly offered AMUG members the facility of downloading their monthly magazine Applebyte in PDF format. If you'd like to download the June issue, click on this link: http://www.appleusers.co.nz/pdfs/AUGCApplebyte200806.pdf



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Several computing queries and suggested solutions included:

iCAL TIMES AND DATES

My dates in iCal events don't allow me to make changes to them. Why?

Check in the System Preferences/International/Formats and ensure that you have selected New Zealand as the Region, as this will make a difference to the way that iCal behaves.

A4 FOLDED CARD

I want to print an A4 double-folded (ie. A6 sized) greeting card. Which applications can I use?

Several Mac apps which you can use are Print Explosion and Print Shop, both of which have templates for producing double-folded cards on A4 paper.

JERKY MOVIES

Sometimes when I'm viewing movies from the Internet the quality is jerky. What can I do about this?

There are several things you may be able to do, depending on the type of movie:

  • If the movie is one which is cached (saved temporarily in a ‘holding’ file on your computer), you can let it play right through (to fully load it) then replay it. The jerkiness may be caused because as you are viewing it the ‘playhead’ point has caught up to the download point, causing a jerky appearance. You can sometimes rectify this by moving the playhead point on the movie's progress bar slightly to the left, so that it will play a little earlier than the download point.
  • However you can't use the above solutions if you are viewing a movie which is being streamed ‘live’, as this is not cached in your computer. Also see the session on Web Video Downloads in last month's (May 2008) minutes.

INTERFERING NEIGHBOURS

My neighbours have the same wireless Broadband modem as I do, and when we're both using them our Internet connection speed slows down markedly. What's the solution?

It seems that you're both on the same wavelength. If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) provided the modem, contact them for advice. If you got the modem elsewhere, consult its documentation and/or contact the manufacturer.

WORD 2008 PROBLEMS

I've had a problem with not being able to edit Word files after moving them from another computer to my Mac which has Microsoft Office 2008 on it What can I do?

Even though your Mac has the latest version of of Office loaded onto it, check with Microsoft to get the updated version. as it's possible that the cause your problem has been rectified in the latest version.



SESSIONS

MacBASICS ~ RESIZING IMAGES FOR E-MAIL

A query had been posed before the meeting on how to resize images so that they are of suitable size for e-mailing; it is NOT good practice to send full-sized images via e-mail unless you know that the recipient intends to print them — the resolution (number of pixels contained in the image) is far less for images sent for on-screen viewing than for those which will be printed. As the megapixel capacity of cameras has rapidly increased, so of course has the image filesize — but there are still many who are on dial-up Internet connections!

Preview can be used to resize images (go to Tools menu/Adjust Size and choose settings), but iPhoto can conveniently be used in conjunction with your chosen e-mail to both resize the images and insert them in a message. If you haven't already done so, tell iPhoto which e-mail application you use by going to iPhoto's Preferences menu and, on the General pane, selecting your preferred application:

An icon for your e-mail application will now appear at the bottom of the main iPhoto window. First select the photos you want to send (remember to Shift-click the first and last of a consecutive group, or Command-click a group of separate images), then click the E-mail icon. Select the file size you want, and your images will be automatically resized and inserted into a new message.

The Mail application can also be used on its own to resize, as when you insert an image, Mail will automatically reduce it to a small image, and show its filesize at the bottom of the window - you can adjust this if you wish:

MULTISESSION CD BURNING

At the May meeting members asked if a CD could be used for more than one set of recording, and the answer was no... and yes! If you burned files onto a CD by the usual process of dragging them onto the disk icon, then ejecting the disk (at which stage the files are burned on), then you can't add more to the CD later.

However, if you use a process called Multisession Burning, you can add more to a CD, and can do this as many times as you like until the CD is full. Tony explained how you do this:

When you burn a disk normally, you copy either single files (documents, images, audio tracks, etc) or folders of files onto the CD, then burn it, and the disk is ‘closed. at the end of the burn process. However, if you first load the files onto a Disk Image [see below], then burn the Image onto the CD, you have the option of leaving the CD ‘open’ to allow for further subsequent burn sessions. Think of the comparison like this:

Burning Folders/Files | Burning Disk Images:


  1. About Disk Images
    A Disk Image is an archive file containing the complete contents and structure of a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive, CD, or DVD. This will appear on a Mac desktop as a file with a .dmg suffix. When the image is opened (it may do so automatically) a Mounted Volume icon will appear - this looks like a generic drive icon. [Note: When you want need to get rid of a Disk Image, just drag it to the Trash, but its Mounted Volume (drive) needs to be ejected, like any other drive or disk.]
  2. Create a Disk Image
    Open the Disk Utility application, which is in the Utility folder within your Applications folder (HD/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility) — from the Finder you can get to it quickly by clicking on the Go Menu and selecting Utilities, or by holding down both the Shift and Command Keys and typing U.
    Click on the New Image button. Give it a name, press Command D (to save it on the Desktop) and click Create. The Volume format must be MacOS Extended (JournaledƑ.
  3. Copy Data to the Disk Image
    Drag folders or files onto the Volume (drive) icon of the disk image. This behaves like any folder, and you can double-click it to open a window to see its contents, if desired
  4. Burn Disk Image to Disk
    Insert a blank CD into the disk drive.
    In Disk Utility select the disk image to be burned.
    Click the Burn button in the toolbar. In the drop-down menu which appears, under Burn Options, click the checkbox by Leave disc appendable — this allows you to make additional burns on the CD. Click the Burn button, or type Command-B.

    The above process is summarised in Disk Utility Help under ‘multisession burning’ [ Note: At the meeting I said you must go to the Images menu and select Burn, but this is not necessary — TC]

    5. EVERNOTE

    Mary presented a Screencasts Online session which explained the Evernote application, which has a system for creating, filing and arranging information as written text, as images, or in other formats. It is available as either a free basic edition or as a fully-featured paid service. It is designed for information management, not file management. The Mac version requires MacOS 10.5 (Leopard).

    Evernote is a searchable repository for notes, screen-clippings, fies, images, labels, web pages or sections, audio — anything you might want to save. Information can then be synchronised between devices:

    This feature makes it particularly useful for transferring data between computers, for if you have Evernote on two (online) computers, the contents of each are synchronised almost instantly (manually) or on an automatic schedule (set between 5min/1hr).

    One specialised search feature is its ability to search for text strings not only within written passages, but within images also — a sign, notice or other text such as the wording on printed T-shirts becomes searchable too.

    Evernote is also still in beta. The free version offers 40MB per month for uploading and unpredictable OCR performance, while $45 a year gets you a 500MB a month allowance, priority OCR, better security features, and support.

    Visit http://www.evernote.com/ for information, download and introductory video.

    iPHOTO BOOKS

    Tony gave a short session on how to arrange an iPhoto book, in response to a request regarding the process for doing this. In brief, the sequence is:

    1. Select the photos you wish to use — this doesn't have to be a precise selection; you can add more later, or may not use all that you've selected.
    2. Click on the Book button, and select the theme, cover-type and size.
    3. Arrange your pages by dragging photos into the placeholders.
    4. Add captions if desired.
    5. When your arrangement is completed, click Buy Book.
    6. Enter your address and billing details.

    About 7-10 days later your book will arrive (from Australia) in the mail.

    LABELLING PHOTOS

    A request on how to put labels onto photo images led to a demonstration by Tony:

    You can use applications such as Pages, AppleWorks (Drawing mode) and Photoshop to add labels and captions onto images, but probably the most accessible program to use is Preview. Make sure that you have an updated version, as earlier versions don't have the Annotate facility [you get a new version of Preview when you update your Operating System — see Sheryl for updates].

    When you open an image in Preview the Toolbar should show at the top of the window — if it doesnŐt, either: go to View Menu/Show Toolbar, or type Command-B, or click the small grey button on the right-hand end of the window's title bar.

    Look for the Annotate button in the toolbar, but donŐt be surprised if it's not there, as it isn't included by default. To add it, go to View Menu/Customize toolbar, find the button, drag it to the toolbar, then click Done.

    To make a label, click the Annotate button and select Note. You'll notice that the cursor now changes from an arrow to a cross — move to where you want the label to be and drag the mouse to form a text box of roughly the desired size. The word text appears — double-click on it an type the label.

    Reposition by dragging anywhere on the text box. To change the font (or its size, colour or style) select the text itself so that it's highlighted, then go to Tools menu/Show Fonts or type Command-T to open the Fonts window. [NB. some of the functions such as underlining, shadow, etc don't seem to be available— they appear to work while the text is highlighted, but vanish when the text is deselected].

    SNOW LEOPARD

    Hugh introduced MacOS X's recently-announced next version, entitled Snow Leopard, which is in the process of being developed. When it arrives it will only work on Macs with Intel processors, and will only operate Cocoa applications, ie. those designed for MacOS X, not Carbon apps such as AppleWorks which were structured to work in both MacOS 9 and X. From Apple's website:

    Since 2001, Mac OS X has delivered more than at thousand innovative new features. With Snow Leopard, the next major version of the world's most advanced operating system, Mac OS X changes more than its spots, it changes focus. Taking a break from adding new features, Snow Leopard — scheduled to ship in about a year — builds on Leopard's enormous innovations by delivering a new generation of core software technologies that will streamline Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos.

    Visit the Snow Leopard webpage for detailed information: http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/

    VISUAL HUB

    At a the May AMUG the iSquint application for downloading YouTube movies to iPods was mentioned. Hugh described its companion app Visual Hub, which performs interchanges between a variety of video formats. With the plethora of formats now in use, it's good to have a convenient interchange program available. Unlike iSquint which is freeware, Visual Hub is a shareware application ($US23.30). For further information visit Techspansion's website: http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/ for details.

    BACKUP SOLUTIONS

    Sheryl compared the uses and operations of several available back-up applications and devices - these have been more fully described in recent AMUG minutes:

    Time Machine:
    Time Machine is MacOS 10.5 Leopard's automatic backup application; it requires an external storage device such as a firewire hard disk or a USB hard disk. Cost depends on capacity: example prices of Firewire HD are (above left): 250GB, $NZ240; 500GB, $385.

    Time Capsule:
    This device which allows Leopard's Time Machine to perform wireless backups, and enables laptops (and other wireless-equipped computers) to make use of Time Machine without being plugged in. It's also a fully-featured Wi-Fi base station, and as such facilitates the use of shared printers. A 1TB Time Capsule costs $NZ706. See the Time Capsule page on Apple's website: http://www.apple..com/nz/timecapsule/


Regards to all....

Secretary: Tony Climo, Aoraki MacIntosh Users Group E-mail