Even if you’re not using Dropbox yet here is information to read and bookmark. The Macworld staff received 250 suggestions, and pruned them down to the sixty favorites, adding two of their own. At the end of the article they outline 3 things NOT to do with Dropbox.
Our Prez Art Gorski says, "I read this article when it came out in Macworld magazine and I use many of these tips myself. Dropbox currently has some minor problems in Lion that they are working on to fix."
And, here it is! Art informs us now: "Dropbox has released a new version compatible with Lion. Tips: Use the Dropbox menu to quit Dropbox before attempting to install the new version, otherwise you will be told the file is busy. Don't forget to relaunch Dropbox after installation." Here's that link; note you can view a video to learn about it.
Previous Prez Allen Laudenslager writes,"I hadn’t even heard of Dropbox . . ."
Jim Hamm tells us, “A good article that I'll keep and read and try out the different uses. I use DropBox all the time, but basically I use it just to transfer files between my old MacBook Pro and my new MacBook Air. My MBP doesn't have AirDrop like my new Air does, otherwise I'd use AirDrop to transfer files. Other people use DropBox as a storage device, but I don't. As I experiment with the different uses if I come up with some useful comments I'll let you know.”
Dual Boot, VMWare, Parallels, or Crossover?
Here's more about applications for Lion sent from John Carter. He explains, "I’ve heard people say that they will have to have two versions of OS X in order to run some applications that are no longer supported in OS X 10.7 (Lion). Any dual boot configuration really hampers your quality up-time and turns it into down-time while waiting for your system to reboot into the other OS. Enter VMWare. Reports have it that VMWare is better than Parallels for installing multiple versions of Mac OS X. I can’t say. But this solution should only apply for those PowerPC applications that no longer run in Lion such as MS Office for Mac and Quicken.
"I’ve gotten around the need for a dual boot configuration. One method is by installing Crossover. With Crossover, I can install a number of Windows applications without having to install the complete Windows OS. For now, I have Framemaker 6, Quicken 2010, eFax Messenger 4.4, and LibreOffice 3.4 installed under Crossover - and will most likely be installing other apps in the near future, specifically MS Office 2010.
"Similarly, Parallels for Mac 6.0 will install the complete Windows OS whatever version you like - on a Mac. All the Windows applications that you install will run on a Mac without a dual boot configuration. I am currently running Windows XP and Windows 7 as guest operating systems on my Mac without any problems of compatibility that sometimes beleaguer Crossover."
Here's John's conclusion for the dilemma: "So, for any of those Windows apps that people like to have, either Parallels or Crossover should be considered as opposed to any dual boot configuration. But if you're a gamer and want things to run native, then I guess you have to dual boot."
Progress in Rosetta and Snow Leopard for Lion
From this article it sounds like some progress is being made for Rosetta and Snow Leopard for Lion. John Carter sends these comments, "I’ve seen talk on the Internet somewhere that VMWare Fusion does the best job of installing any version of OS X as a guest OS using any other version of OS X as the host. And this by more than just one very serious and credible poster. They ranted me on my preference of Parallels for Mac for that purpose, so I bow to them."
Quicken, GnuCash, or iBank
John Carter passes along his latest discovery, "I’ve been an ardent fan of Quicken for many years. Then one day I discovered GnuCash. It was painful to make the switch, but I learned to like the freedom of a free application for managing my personal and small business finances."Then came Lion. GnuCash does not run on Lion. Then I discovered iBank. But it’s not free. Darn! "Converting my GnuCash files to iBank was a whole lot less painful than converting from Quicken to GnuCash, and the same should be true for converting from Quicken to iBank. "Using iBank is not quite the same as using Quicken or GnuCash, and I imagine that I will have some gnashing of teeth before I settle in with iBank. And maybe by then GnuCash will be available for Lion. "However, there are major benefits to using iBank over GnuCash: "One is that I can do a query for an entry using keywords and actually get a non-zero result for something I know is there. "Two, I can password protect the entire iBank file. "Three, I can manually sort the registers and put the most used ones at the top of the list. "Four, I can sync iBank to my iPhone. Five, I can create a budget that is really useful. "Six, I can do a live download from almost all of my financial and trade institutions. "Seven, I can get instant stock updates. "Eight, reports are now much more useful and much easier to create. And the list goes on."
You Can Print From an iPad or iPhone
Fascinating to imagine printing from your iPhone? your iPad? Jim Hamm sends this from Small Dog TechTails newsletter. He says he's not tried the AirPrint Activator, but plans to do so. "Lack of printing capability has been one of weaknesses of the iPad -- at least for me. If this app works, it will be a step forward in making the iPad more of a free-standing computer."
Lion? Yes? No?
After reading an article about getting Lion for $70 on a thumb drive, Allen Laudenslager sent it on to us with the comment, "The way this guy wrote the article is a hoot."
My question back to him was, "Got Lion? Why or why not?" Here's Allen's reply.
"My son upgraded just because he is a technogeek and need to have the latest and 'greatest.' He hasn't found any real new features, but I did learn that if I were to upgrade my old version of MS Word for Mac would not run under Lion. Since MS changed the tool bar I much prefer the older version, and I don't want to have to switch to the newer, less efficient (from my point of view) version.
"I do tech manuals and that means a lot of formatting, with the older version the tool bar can be set up with access to the formatting tools right on the tool bar. With the new version I have to click through at least one menu, usually two or three, to get to the same control. Great for home users who don't do a lot of formatting but a pain for me.
"I want a Macbook Air so I will automatically have to upgrade an replace MS Word then. I have to run a version of Word that is one-to-one compatible with my customers or I'm out of business, so I will end up having to have a dual boot system to let me run both Lion and Snow Leopard so I can still run my old MS Word version."
What iCloud Won't Do After Transition from MobileMe
The headline reads, "Apple officially killing MobileMe sync for keychains, widgets, accounts, preferences." Jim Hamm sends this link to the AppleInsider page, with his comment, "Here's more info on what iCloud won't be doing after the transition from MobileMe."
This Looks Phishy
Always alert for scams, this comes from David Passell who writes, "This is an E-mail I received that I wouldn't think of answering. What do our other readers think??? Here is my copy/paste of the message with some [additions].
From: "test"
Date: August 14, 2011 12:12:31 AM MST
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: IMPORTANT EMAIL UPGRADE
Reply-To: techupgradearfarf@#% bitscn.net [I have deliberately messed up the address; no, I am not going to Reply-To]
Dear Email Subscriber,
This is to inform all Subscribers that our server upgrade/maintenance is scheduled for September 1st 2011. [Who dat? I have five different E-mail accounts]
You may experience login problems during this period. We are having congestion due to various anonymous account registrations and on this note, we are deactivating some accounts that are no longer active and your account may be deactivated if no action is taken. To confirm and keep your account active during and after the upgrade and maintenance, you are advised to provide the below details to confirm your account.
Email Address:
Confirm Email Address:
Password:
Confirm Password:
Date of Birth:
Your E-mail account will remain active after we have successfully upgraded our server. This is to help us serve you better. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your swift response to this notification.
Technical Support Team
Copyright ©MPI 2011 All Rights Reserved
Obsolete Software
Heads up, here. We all need to keep aware of obsolescence of computer programs we may have come to rely upon. David Passell sends this article, and comments, "Here's an article on companies abandoning old software or creating systems that won't run it.
"This one kind of bashes Apple, but I am not sure which old programs I have that may need Rosetta. Here is one suggestion for anyone who expects to have compatibility problems with Lion. (As one article pointed our "Lion may be Apple's Vista.")
1. Don't throw away that older Apple. If it has USB, Firewire, and Ethernet ports it can still be useful. Even more so if it can run old OS 9 programs.
"For example: I have a very old blue-bubble iMac. I keep it because I have 'journaled' since 1993 or so and a lot of my files arepassword-protected Word Perfect. If I want to check something out in the past I can go to the time frame and open it up. Of course, if I unprotect the file, I can copy it to a USB drive and then open it with OpenOffice on the latest machine (assuming Lion runs OpenOffice). BUT I need the old program to open Password protected files."
A Few Shortcomings of Lion
Some of Lion's features are causing discontent with early adopters. Jim Hamm sends along this article, a critique of AutoSave, Automatic Termination, and Recovery HD. The author opines that Apple might address some of these concerns when the first update to Lion is released. The forty comments following offer other discussion of several of Lion's shortcomings.
Free . . . You Just Have To . . .
There's that word "free" and so we pay attention when David Passell suggests we look at this article from ZDNet. One sentence in the article says: "All you have to do is donate 150 GB of your unused disk space on your computer." That gets you 100 GB of Cloud Storage for free.
David comments, "Here is a link to a story that I don't think I would touch, especially after reading some of the comments. Reminds me of the people who drive 50 miles to save 10 cents a gallon on gas. If I want more storage I will roll my own."
How to Create a Lion Recovery Disk Assistant
Find That Word Fast
Need a quick definition? Ruth Davis from Phoenix who spoke to PMUG awhile back gives this tip: Hold down the Command and Control keys and type the letter D. Move your mouse then on top of the word. The definition comes up as a pop-up menu. This works in Mail, Safari, Pages -- but not in Word, Firefox and other non-Apple products. Ruth sends out a "tip of the week" here.
Here's something to try. I use it with Pages, and my trusty little Belkin mouse gives other helps. Highlight a word, right-click and up comes a menu of choices: never hyphenate, cut, copy,paste, paste and match style, delete, select all, create new paragraph style from selection, spelling, proofreading, font, speech, and writing tools which lists Dictionary, Thesaurus, Search Spotlight, Google, Wikipedia, & Show Statistics.
To Lion or Not To Lion?
Still pondering the question shall I upgrade to Lion, or not? David Passell shares this information from MacLife. The writer ventures between serious and humorous, and the comments are sensible. I found the best advice from someone named Fabulo writing under Comments who advises to partition your hard drive and install Snow Leopard on one partition and upgrade to Lion on the other partition. You can continue to work with a familiar system while learning the new OS at a comfortable pace.
How to Be Unsociable on Facebook, etc.
David Passell gets our attention with info on how to be unsociable. He begins, "I don't know how many of our members are signed on to Facebook, or Twitter. I know that some use Gmail and may also have Google+. Here is an article about how to get rid of them if you feel unsociable : ) , but beware the warnings about Google+ if you have Gmail. I don't have Google+ or a Gmail address, but I understand, (dimly), that my cableone.net e-mail and spam filter are related to Gmail."
David closes by suggesting members might be interested in a SIG or meeting on using these Social Services. "Might also include Linkedin. You may not want to 'friend' or 'share' (such warm fuzzy terms :() but there are some interesting people you might want to 'like' or 'follow.'"
Lion Review: Mac Mail
Here's John Carter's instructions on using Mail in Lion. "First off, the download of Lion is about 3.7GB, and with a 7 Mbps Internet connection (which only provides about a 5 Mbps download rate) it will take a calculated 93 minutes to download. The install itself takes a little over 30 minutes, but then you have to do a software update and that may take another hour depending on what has to be updated (like iTunes, iPhoto, etc.)
"After the download is complete, you will see a new application called 'Install Mac OS X Lion' come up automatically and prompting you to click Next to start the installation. To be on the safe side, you should insert a blank DVD (standard 4.7GB capacity) and burn that application to the DVD before you click Next. (You’ll find the application in the Application folder, but if you don’t burn the DVD at this point in time, that application will be deleted during the installation of Lion. You will want to have that DVD around for safety and security reasons.)
"I’m only going to cover the new Mail application at this time, and I’m using it to create this report.
"The new appearance of Mail can be a bit disconcerting. First, you really need to view Mail in full screen to take advantage of all that it has to offer. Clicking the double-headed arrow in the upper right corner of the Mail application switches to full screen mode. To get out of full screen mode, simply press the ESC key.
"Some people will be put off by the new Mail application GUI. The default is to not show the mailboxes and to show two columns - one for the Inbox message list, which contains two lines of the message body (in Preferences you can select to show only one line), and one for the actual message that is selected from the message list (if that column is blank then no message in the left column has yet been selected). This threw me for a loop at first, and I admit that I panicked, wondering how I was supposed to see all the accounts and mailboxes I created.
"In the image that follows, the right hand column shows two messages sent by the same person with the same subject line (I'm looking at a message in my Inbox mailbox). The bottom message has the number 1 in the upper right corner and the top message has the number 2 in the upper right corner - this shows the sequence of the incoming messages.
"But, you can switch back to the classic view in Preferences:
"I think I’ll stay with the new look, for a while anyway. In the following image, the column on the far left (showing all the mailboxes) is only visible if you click on the tiny button just above it.
"If you have more than one e-mail account or if you want to see all the mailboxes you created, without that column displayed, you have to select which e-mail account Inbox you want to see by clicking on the Inbox button (yep, I have a lot of email accounts):
"Clicking on one item in the message list highlights all other messages in that list by that same sender where the subject line is also the same, hence making up a conversation. The blue highlighted message is the message being looked at and the orange highlighted messages are the related conversations.
"Overall, the text is extremely small on my 20” iMac. I tried to increase the font size of the message headers to no avail. But it does work if you don’t use the column format for the message list - use the classic (Snow Leopard) mode.
"Attempting to adjust the message font is also useless — only the header gets adjusted and not the body.
"The old Mail app had a Save button in the toolbar when writing a new message. There is no save button in the toolbar and there is no save button in the customize offerings for the toolbar. I guess Apple is trying to do us a favor by eliminating useless operations and made that function automatic when needed. But you can still click on File —> Save to save the current message as a draft. If you quit the message before sending it (red dot), you are given the option to discard the message or save it as a draft. If Mail unexpectedly quits or the computer shuts down while writing a new message, the message is saved in the Drafts folder."
In conclusion John closes with, "In other words, there’s a lot about Mail that needs a little getting used to - except for those who are new to the Mac."
Lion: Aggravations?
Reporting on his latest finds with Lion, we hear now from Jim Hamm. "Here's an interesting article on a new 'feature' in Lion: it automatically determines when to turn off an app that you've opened and left running, but haven't used recently. Per the article, apparently Lion does this when more RAM is needed, and you're using about all the RAM available. I can see the logic behind this, but I think it might have been better for Lion to send a warning that more RAM is needed, so some apps need to be closed by the user. This gives the user the decision on which app to close -- not Lion.
"I think this may only be a 'problem' if you have many apps open and need more RAM for Lion to function properly. So far I've not experienced this shutdown feature -- but I normally don't have a bunch of apps open at one time.
"Another aspect of Lion that I've commented on previously: the 'Resume' feature in Safari is aggravating to me. When I close Safari and reopen, I want it to open only with my Home page -- not all ten or so tabs I had open when I closed it. There's three ways to get around this 'feature:' turn off Restore for all apps in System Preferences; use a Terminal command; hold the shift key when clicking and opening Safari -- or another app.
Now Jim closes with a grin, "I had to laugh at the following statement the author made: 'Moreover, there’s a larger question at stake: Who, precisely, is in charge? I think it should be me, but Lion disagrees — and not in this respect alone.' An interesting question. Who knows best: you or the big Apple?"
Lion's Restore Feature in Safari
Jim Hamm delves deeper into Lion's Restore feature in Safari. After research on several forums he states, "I found there is no way in Safari settings to turn off Restore. It's all or nothing unless one does a Terminal command — which I don't like to do. For now I went ahead and turned off Restore for all apps. I just didn't like Safari to open all tabs from the previous session. You can click here for more information on Restore."
There's More Ink in There
Running low on ink in your printer? Perhaps you already take that cartridge out, give it some good shakes this way and that way, then put it back in to gain maybe over 100 more printed pages.
Keep Your Computer Safe
Here are five steps that are recommended to keep your Mac (and PC) computers safe. Find it here at ZDNet. Thanks to David Passell for sending this today.