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Character Viewer

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        "If you tried to use the Character Viewer in Lion to insert symbols, emoticons, etc., into email, letters and documents, you may have trouble figuring out how to do it -- I did," states Jim Hamm.
        He explains the frustration.  "In Snow Leopard all you had to do was click 'insert.' This feature is missing in Lion. In Lion there's two choices: double  click the symbol or drag and drop. Is this simpler than in Snow Leopard? No. Another example of where, seemingly, Apple designers stuck their fingers in Character Viewer, stirred the pot to make things a bit different but not better.
        "Here's how to get Character Viewer to appear in the Menu Bar: System Preferences > Language & Text > Input Sources > check Keyboard and Character Viewer. I use it frequently, for example, to put a bullet point • in front of a new paragraph. Or maybe this ☛.
        "Perhaps now you'll be pleased to use the Character Viewer...☺. . . Jim"

Known Bugs in Lion

       Those who have already upgraded to Lion have found some problems.  John Carter comments, "One thing to note, is that Picasa can no longer access iPhoto library. We’ll have to wait for an update to Picasa for that fix. There are other bumps, in particular with Parallels. If you’re using Parallels with Windows (any version) be sure to only open the guest OS in the Coherence mode. You’ll go crazy trying to figure out where the guest OS window is otherwise. And don’t even bother trying to bring up Ubuntu on the iMac under Parallels on the iMac, but it does work on the MacBook Pro. Isn’t it strange how the supposedly the same operating system works different on the different hardware? Not really."

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Lion Too Tough for Newbies?

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        This looks long, but it's worth your time.  John Carter gives a lot of info on Lion.  He starts out, "Jim Hamm brought an article to my attention wherein the author thinks that Lion might be too much for his senior parents to make the switch to from Snow Leopard.
        "Yes, and no. There are features that have change dramatically from 10.6 to 10.7. Spaces and Expose for one (or rather two into one). When I discovered that you needed either a Magic Mouse or a Magic Trackpad on an iMac to use all those complicated finger motions, I rushed right out and bought the trackpad. I was doing just fine without it.
        "In fact, for a two-finger, mouse-pushing geezer like me, a standard two-button mouse with scroll wheel is all I really need. I had trouble with the Magic Mouse when I had it, because my fingers like to tap and wiggle on the surface of things when I’m thinking about what to do next, and lo and behold if those taps and wiggles don’t mean something on a Magic Mouse - and a trackpad!
        "Okay, so now my iMac has both a standard mouse right next to my keyboard and a trackpad up above it. So far, there are very few things I’ve needed the trackpad for. Let’s see if I manage to keep the trackpad past the 30-day return period.
        "And my MacBook Pro? It also sports a two-button mouse with scroll wheel. That’s one gadget I can’t do without on any computer.
         There's more coming as John goes on, "Anyway, back to the other features of Lion.
        "If you don’t like the way Mail looks, you can switch back to the classic view.
        "If you don’t like scrolling down in order to scroll up (depending on your point of view), you can change the direction of the scroll based on the direction of the scroll wheel or the direction of the fingers on the trackpad.
        "If you don’t like swirling around on the trackpad to get from one Desktop to another looking for your apps, just ignore the fact that you have more than one Desktop and don’t bother trying to figure out which Desktop you’re in - it doesn’t matter as long as you know how to use CMD-Tab to switch between applications and CMD-Space to bring up Spotlight to then key in the name of an application you want to launch.
        "And what does it matter that you no longer need to exit from an application when all that is needed is to close the window of an app? If the window is gone, do you really care if the app is still active or not? Well, in one way it does matter. Each app that is launched uses some memory, even if there is no window open. But, if no window is open (and that means not even hidden from view), there is virtually no processor resource used - so who cares?
        "One real problem for anyone is figuring out how to get out of full screen mode so you can see that old familiar menu bar across the top of the display. Well, just press the ESC key.
        "In other words, the only thing that’s changed for me so far is that I really do like the facelift in Mail.
        And, wrapping it up John states, "And what about the author’s article? How did the readers take to it? You’ll have to read them to see what I mean by it doesn’t make any difference whether you upgrade to Lion or not. What you use and how you use it is all up to you. Don’t be afraid to venture into the unknown, because if you start out with fear, it will only lead to anger."

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You Can Block All Ad Spying

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        Here's some interesting info from Prez Art Gorski.  He writes about Ghostery, "This Safari plug-in (double-click on it after download to install) will allow you to block all ad spying services. To configure that option, go to a website like Macworld where Ghostery will show you the list of services spying on you, then right click on that to go to the Ghostery settings. In there, you can block all of them."
        Note the tiny "ghostly" icon in the heading when I bring up this PMUG Newsblog for the following screen shot.

     

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Get a Google+ Profile RSS Feed

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What?  you say as you read the title here.  Yes, we need to consider the possibilities of Google+ and RSS and Twitter.  Jim Hamm provides this article with simple instructions.  Go to MakeUseOf newsletter and scroll down to to learn the latest.  Jim explains, "I'm not much of a user of Google+ yet, but it might be interesting to see if posts to Google+ would appear via RSS in Google Reader, which I use a lot."

Mac & iPad Success

        Here’s an article Jim Hamm sends from Forbes that discusses the success of the iPad. When iOS 5 is released, this will permit the iPad to stand alone and not require a “mother’ computer to connect to for updates. This will probably help in fueling even more sales of the iPad, even as Mac continues to sell very well.
        Calling it "Surprised Acceptance to Focused Strategy" the article includes an interesting list of unexpected companies deploying iPads to their sales teams, others using iPads for internal company training, and even airline pilots using iPads.
        Jim comments, "While I certainly enjoy my iPad, it couldn’t be my only computer yet. As more capability is built-in over time, perhaps someday. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the convenience -- and novelty -- that the iPad offers."

Alphabetize/Sort with Pages

        After my complaining about Pages (7-24), let's hear from John Carter who explains how to sort lists: 
"Pages will only sort lists that are in a table. Here’s the process (gleaned from here):
     Select the paragraphs to sort.
     menu Format > Table > Convert text to table
     Select the table cells, then
     Inspector > Table >  Edit Rows and columns > Sort …
     Finally,
     menu Format > Table > Convert table to text."

Why NOT to go to Lion

Now, it's time for a smile!  Here's David Passell's take on why he will not be going to Lion until --
        1. Others have torn their hair out (I've already lost mine) and stomped on the bugs.
        2. I get another high capacity HD to totally backup my system. All the ones I have including the one in my Mini are much under the 10% free recommendation. I have lots of space on my Time Machine backup drive, but I am told I can't use it.
        3. I learn more about why I should want this Latest and Greatest System. I don't buy iTunes Movies or Tunes.
        4. I decide to be patient and keep all instruments like axes, clubs, and large mallets out of reach. I don't think it is true that older people become more patient  :)
        5. It might also help if Apple would sell install DVDs in addition to forcing people to download gigabytes. They aren't that costly.

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Changing Documents from Word to Pages

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        With a huge file of things accumulated that I wrote with Microsoft Word '97 and then Word 2004 holding up my upgrade to Lion the question is: how to change every document to Pages. More recently I’ve gone from Pages ’08 to Pages ’09, which is currently v. 4.1.
        Here’s the solution, unless you can come up with something easier that doesn’t cost $$$.  Click on the title of a document in the folder to highlight it, then Control Click on the title. On the little drop down menu choose Save As and select Pages.
        (Pages is a good writing tool for me, with one exception:  it doesn't know how to alphabetize a list, or "sort" as Word refers to the procedure under the heading Tools.)

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Password Protection

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        Wondering about passwords, we queried David Passell.  Here's his take:
        "The password method I was speaking of finally bubbled to the surface. Of course MS Word, Open Office, and Pages allows you to password protect a single document, check HELP. However, I wanted to password protect a whole folder full of stuff. Like I would put it in Dropbox, but nobody else could see it (I don't know whether they could delete it though--something I don't like about Dropbox.)
        Anyway what I did was:
1. Start Disk Utility
2. Select FILE > disk image from folder
       • Window opens
3. Find the folder full of stuff you want to protect.
4. Click on it
       • A window opens and you will see the [folder name].dmg
5. If you click on the arrows to the right of "compressed" (the default) you will have choices, but you can leave it where it is.
6. Click on arrows to the right of "encryption" and you will be able to choose 128 bit or 256 bit encryption. 128 should be adequate.
7. Click SAVE button on the lower right of the window and you will see

8. Type in a password and then again to verify it. Note that as you type in your password a graph will tell you whether it is a strong or weak password. One punctuation mark seems sufficient to raise it from Fair to Good.
9. Now you will have a [folder name].dmg folder. You could put it in dropbox and nobody but you could open it.
10. To open the folder double-click it.
11. Enter the password and OK and if you didn't make a mistake (I usually do at least once) you will see

12. Now if you click on the disk drive symbol you can access what is there.
NOTE: If you did not uncheck "save in keychain" it will open on your own machine without typing in a password.
13. When you are through EJECT the drive symbol.
        Thanks, David, for your input.