"Here is a tip that might speed up your web browsing on an iPhone or iPad: turn off Javascript. I just did it, and will see if it impacts my web browsing one way or the other. I've disabled Javascript on all my computers and haven't missed it at all. Javascript is a great medium (access point) for malware hackers to get into your computer," declares Jim Hamm.
Your Surprise for Your Family
With your handy Mac computer you can easily make a nice surprise present for your family. Here’s three things that only YOU can do for your kids, grandkids, even the old folks!
- Make an “Old Time Favorites” cookbook from recipes handed down to you -- probably handwritten! Collect enough for 24 pages, some from each category. Write something about who originally made that yummy stuff.
- Make an “Shortcut Recipe” cookbook. This is where you’ve updated and simplified your own favorites. Instead of feeding 10, maybe change to feeding 2 or 4. Use modern ingredients, the microwave, convection oven.
- Make a “I Remember When” booklet. This is not your entire lifetime on 24 pages! Just some interesting highlights that you do recall. Describe what makes those events significant in your memory.
Jot down the first ideas that come to mind. Let it rest a few days. Reread and then rewrite.
Can you picture this as a 5 ½ x 8 ½ booklet which you’d staple? Would it work better on full size pages, 3-hole punched, in a notebook? Or, a spiral-bound booklet?
In Pages go to File > New from Template Chooser. See if you get any bright ideas after looking at these examples.
That’s the screen shot pasted here to the left side.
With Microsoft Word: Mac 2011 you can go to File > New from Templates and click to view Online Templates. There are a lot from which to choose.
If you use the Blue Squirrel program, Click Book will do the layouts for various kinds of booklets. http://www.bluesquirrel.com Here’s the link for Mac ClickBook: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/cbmac/ It’s $49.95 for OS X, compatible with Lion and Mountain Lion. Note special pricing on Print to iPad, iPhone, Android, or Kindle. They have more than 70 custom layout styles.
You might even scan and paste in some photos. Be creative! Picture the compliments!
Help us spread the PMUG info, www.pmugnews.blogspot.com And write and tell us what you’re learning and doing: edpr@commspeed.net We want our PMUG to be helpful and friendly. It’s a time to enjoy and participate.
Words, More Words, and Lots-a Words!
Yes, you use the Mac Dictionary. How handy to have it on the dock, and easily look up definitions, the Thesaurus, Apple dictionary and Wikipedia. But what about specialized dictionaries? There’s a bunch!
http://www.classicalworks.com/html/glossary.html musical terms
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary cooking terms
YourDictionary http://www.yourdictionary.com/ lists most misspelled words, how to do wild card search, brain training games, etc.
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml know the idea you want to convey but are fishing for that certain word? Describe the concept and up comes pages of suggested terms. Good for generating a list of words in some category.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ extra features make this a helpful site to check on.
Going to Apple’s webpage brings up www.Dictionary.com/ , a free app for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
http://www.freebyte.com/dictionary/#specialized_dictionaries lists some specialized dictionaries, free thesauri, translation tools, spellcheckers, games, images, reference desk.
Here’s fun with the Mac’s Apple dictionary. Open it and type in “a” and up comes a list of every entry beginning with that letter. You’ll find things you didn’t know! Explore and learn.
Today, smile at that person sitting next to you and introduce yourself. Maybe they just moved here from Last Chance, Iowa or Beanville, Vermont or Fort Necessity, Louisiana. (Yes, I found those listed in http://www.accuracyproject.org/towns.html Your birthplace listed there?)
See you next time?
(This is the handout for 11-17-12 from Elaine)
Use Time Machine with ML
"Here's a helpful article on how to use Time Machine to recover files in OS Mountain Lion," says Jim Hamm.
Greeting Cards and Mailing Labels
Time to figure out making/sending greeting cards and printing out labels for mailing. John Carter speaks up, commenting on my question about labels, "A much better way, if you intend to print mail labels, is to use Avery Label's Design Pro for Mac (there's only one version, and Avery has discontinued support for the Mac as an application that you download - they now prefer that you use their free online service). Design Pro has a feature to merge contact information from Contacts and sort them."
Bobbie Pastor offers this info, "I make the club's name tags with Design Pro. That will be over when I get ML. I have to do my business cards with Design Pro on line as well. It Sucks! I don't like it at all. Downloading the program to your computer is so much better.
"Maybe, if you make cards and do a lot of that creative stuff, look into buying a program that can do all that. Here's one I found. http://www.snowfoxsoft.com/greeting-card-maker-mac.html"
What started the conversation was my comment about ML (Mountain Lion) Contacts which used to be called Address Book. Printing out a list of names for a Christmas card list the ML no longer alphabetizes the list, but does alphabetize the labels that you print out.
Where in the World?
"Here is an interesting website if you plan to go overseas. It gives you a video look at the city before you get there. Even if you don't plan to go, it's fun to look at the various cities, peoples and cultures." This introduction is from Jim Hamm.
And it raised some questions. Where in the world have you and Zee already explored? Jim wrote again, "We've been to 50 countries, and enjoyed them all. Going to Costa Rica in January, where we've not been."
Learning More About Photography
Interested in photography? John Carter to the rescue. He's now posted to the PMUG website this informative and illustrated report, "iPhoto for iPad vs. PhotoForge2." Go to http://www.pmug.us/reviews/ and benefit from his research.
Note: John Carter will be at the PMUG Genius Bar on November 17, when Art Gorski and Bobbie Pastor will be our other "experts" for this meeting.
Set Up an eBook Library on an iPad
"Here's a helpful article on how to set up an eBook Library on an iPad," says Jim Hamm. He continues, "At the Apple store this past Friday I took a look at the new iPad Mini, and because of its small size and light weight, it might make a good eBook reader. But as I played with it, I didn't like the small font size on websites. I had to increase the font in order to comfortably read it. I didn't like doing that. On my iPad 2 I can easily read website font, without adjustment, because of the larger size of the screen.
"Before buying an iPad Mini (if you should have an interest), be sure to look at the font size first. The font size on eBooks might be larger, but I wasn't able to check this out. For easy portability, though, the new iPad Mini would be handy. And, like all the iPads, it is a beautiful device.
"At the Apple store I also compared, side by side, my iPad 2 with the new iPad 4. I couldn't tell an appreciable difference between the two. In theory, the iPad 4 has a better screen and a faster processor, but I couldn't tell a difference in performance or viewing. If there was a difference, it wasn't enough to impress me."
Here John Carter adds his opinion of the MakeUseOf newsletter earlier reviewed by Jim Hamm above, " In addition to the article, you'll find several advertisement links to free eBooks - but I would be careful about going there as you never know how much money those "free" eBooks will actually cost you.
"There are also advertisement links to help you convert PDF files to the eBook format, links to help you write your own eBook, and links to help you self-publish your eBooks. Again, click with caution on any advertisement link."
And John also mentions, "The article itself is chock full of suggestions and tips on how to find eBooks, and not just for the iPad, but for the Kindle as well. And did you know that you can read a Kindle eBook on the iPad? There's an app for that."
Messages in Mountain Lion
John Carter passes on this info from TakeControl publishers: "Communicate more effectively with 'Take Control of Messages in Mountain Lion.'
"In 10.8 Mountain Lion, Apple replaced the long-standing iChat program with Messages, which takes its interface cues from the iPad version of the program. Although Messages looks easy, many people have had trouble understanding how to integrate different chat services and Apple devices, now that messages can appear on Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
"For instance, should you use iMessage or AIM to chat with your friend? What if he's home on his Mac or out while using his iPhone? Can you add someone else to the chat? What if you want to switch to an audio chat? To video? For video, should you use Google Talk or FaceTime? And so on. The mechanics may be simple, but the setup and human interactions are anything but.
"To bring some sense to the situation, we asked networking guru Glenn Fleishman to explain how you can bend Messages to your will, and the fruits of his labor are now available in the 113-page 'Take Control of Messages in Mountain Lion.' The book normally costs $10, but the 30% MUG discount drops that to $7. Learn more about the book via the coupon-loaded link — http://tid.bl.it/tco-messages-mountain-lion-mug-discount
"With this ebook in hand, you'll discover more ways to manage and connect with friends and family than space permits to outline here. Get the ebook and find out.
"As always, thank you for your support of the Take Control series!
"Cheers... Adam & Tonya Engst, Take Control publishers."
Apple Helps You Donate for Superstorm Sandy Relief
Apple makes it easy to donate to the American Red Cross for Superstorm Sandy Relief. Look at the home page http://www.apple.com and click to go to the iTunes Store.
Apple Management Shuffle
"For those interested in management shuffles at Apple," regards: David Passell http://www.zdnet.com/apple-management-reshuffle-the-who-the-why-and-the-next-7000006561/
"Two significant senior Apple executives are out of the technology giant without an explanation. Who will win out of the management shuffle, and who could be vying for the chief's chair next?"
Free -- Only on 10-31-12
" Here's an offer of a free download of the Crossover software program from Codeweavers. The free download is good for only one day: October 31st," Jim Hamm notifies us. This program enables Mac to run Windows software without a license. Read the details.
Wallpapers Hidden in OS X Mountain Lion
Jim Hamm sends this link to 43 "amazingly gorgeous secret wallpapers hidden in OS X Mountain Lion." Thanks!
You've Noticed Google Translate?
If you've noticed the Google Translate icon at the top of this PMUG blogspot home page you've maybe wondered about it.
Our Blogger.com Stats for the last month show our PMUG newsblog has viewers in the United States, Russia, France, United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Malaysia, Australia, Poland, and the Ukraine. Our Pageviews from the U.S. last month was 539!
Interestingly, the list of Pageviews by Operating Systems shows 50% with Mac, and 42% with Windows. The remaining ones were Linux, iPad, Windows NT 6.1, iPhone, and Android.
Where's Safari's Back Arrow?
Ben, at Heresthethingblog.com answered my question. I hadn’t expected an answer, actually. But his website invited queries, and I was puzzled about the grayed out Back Arrow at the top of Safari, now that I’m using Mountain Lion. I was used to clicking that arrow to return to one of the sites I’d looked at earlier.
He wrote right back and mentioned the browser tabs at the top of the page in Safari. Yes! That solves the question. I had not been using Tabs to go back to earlier sites. When the Back Arrow is grayed out, I can click on a previous Tab.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5364 tells more.
To close a Tab click the button that appears in the left of the tab when the cursor hovers over it. The + sign means add new webpage Tab, click to open a new tab. The black box means show all tabs, click to show tabs in Tab View.
More to learn, but having fun!
Automatically Starting Up
If your computer starts itself up at 5 a.m. it will be doing what David Passell's computer does. He writes, "This looks promising. Though this blog item explains something I have known for years (my mini turns on automatically at 5:00a) There may be other things of interest. You can subscribe to it." Your PC friends will find helpful info on this site, too.
Be Careful With Chrome
This alert is just in from Jim Hamm: "If you use the Chrome browser occasionally (as I do), here is an article about carefully reading the 'permissions' question before completing the installation. I hadn't paid much attention to this previously, but will now, especially after reading the following quote in the article."
"Research scientists at Barracuda Networks recently discovered malicious extensions in the Chrome web store that fooled more than 90,000 users of the browser."
Apple News from Australia
Jim Hamm's fixed us up with the Australia Apple blog. Just now viewing the site, I noted there were 61 members and 1003 guests on line. It's Australia's largest online community for all Apple related news, podcast, forums, reviews, even a Vintage Apple forum.
Java and Security Risks
Prez Art Gorski finds info we need to read and heed. "In a recent update to Mountain Lion, Apple has removed the Java plug-in used in the Safari web browser. In the future, if you absolutely need Java in Safari, you will have to go download it yourself from the Oracle website.
"The question is: Do you REALLY need Java in Safari. For the vast majority of Mac users, the answer is NO. So this probably won't affect you.
"Why has Apple taken this step? Security! See the following interesting article.
How to Post a Blog
Up-grade, Frowns or Smiles
You’ve heard about the OS version Mountain Lion. Have you upgraded yet?
Do you remember all those names of the previous Mac operating systems? Look at Wikipedia to flash back to Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard. Maybe you have Lion? I postponed that until last month, then made the leap to Mountain Lion, two weeks later.
Maybe you have an automatic sense about these technological things and will know what to do and when and how. Others of us are still fiddling with previous challenges.
LET’S LOOK AT PAGES
After years of using Microsoft Word ‘97 it was Dan and Erica Simpson who demoed Pages at their home SIG. So, that was the time to do it. And now I‘m up to Pages ’09, version 4.2.
I heard that Lion would not accept my old Word documents, but PMUG people Allen Laudenslager and John Carter and Jim Hamm were an encouragement. It was time to see what Pages can do with those old documents saved on my Mac.
I clicked to highlight the name of one old Word ’97 document and did Command I (lower case i) which brings up Finder, Spotlight Comments and Info on that document: Kind, size, where it is, date created, date modified, preview, sharing and permissions, and Open With option to open with Word, Text Edit, Preview, Pages and several other options.
With trepidation I chose Pages and “Use this application to open all documents like this one” and Change All, hoping it could read my mind. It did OK. All the previous several hundred writings I had written since 1997 in Word 97-2004 now open up in Pages. The only disappointment is that page margins are not exactly the same. Some documents need to have margins set wider since that was the way I’d initially laid it out when I wrote it in Word ’97.
When you’re writing in Pages it lets you choose Save As Word Document when you do Option Shift Command S.
LET’S LOOK AT MICROSOFT WORD
Here’s a list of features of Word: Mac 2011 http://mac2.microsoft.com/help/office/14/en-us/word
Opening Help when you have opened Word: Mac 2011 you can go to File Formats for saving documents, and that introduces you to such abbreviations as .docx — .doc — .rtf — .htm — .docm — .xml — .xml — .mht — .dic — .thmx
Word: Mac 2011 does let you choose AutoRecovery for anytime from 1 to 120 minutes.
You can choose to Password Protect your document in Word and in Pages.
You can highlight text that you’ve written using Word:Mac 2011 and do Command + C to copy, then paste it Command + V into a Pages document. It does copy over into Pages in the same exact font you started with in Word.
MORE ON PAGES ‘09: Here’s their directions under Help: Saving a Copy of a Document.
To save a copy of a document in OS X v.10.6 (Snow Leopard) or earlier:
Choose File > Save As, and then specify a name and location.
When the document is copied in this way, the original document is closed; the document that remains open on your desktop is the new copy you created. To work with the original version, choose File > Open Recent and choose the previous version from the submenu.
To save a copy of a document in Mac OS X v.10.7 (Lion) or later:
- Choose File > Duplicate.
An untitled copy of the document is created. Both copies remain open on your desktop for you to view or edit. - Close the window of the untitled copy, type the document’s name, and then choose a location from the pop-up menu.
- Click Save.
Pages lets you email a document by choosing Share >Send via Mail. You then choose which version, Pages, Word, or PDF. The new email message opens with the document version attached to it.
HOW TO OPEN REALLY OLD DOCUMENTS:
Here’s a short article http://www.macworld.com/article/1166370/open_old_docs.html
Here’s the link to 5 pages of comments and suggestions from the Macworld Forum:
One contributor gave this quick tip: “I have even gotten old Mac write pro documents (system 9!) to open with this trick, as well as old AppleWorks files too old to go easily into Pages. Find the old document, then change the file extension at the end to .txt then right click and tell it to open in Pages. You'll hit some scribble at the top and bottom, but it's gold for opening 10 year old files you don't want to retype!”
Try this to open an Old Unix Executable file. Highlight the title of the document in the list, do Command I and under Open with choose Text Edit. It came up, so I now save it. It still is listed in my Archives as Kind: Unix E...le File, but when clicked it opens in Text Edit. I’ve made a new copy of it and saved as pdf with Adobe Reader.
YES, WE ARE HAVING FUN.
What have you discovered about Mac and your Apple products? If you have some interesting info to share on our newsblog why not drop me a line at edpr1@commspeed.net. The RSS feature was discontinued by Google, so you’ll have to be creative at checking out www.pmugnews.blogspot.com so you can benefit from our members sharing their talents and time with you.
So far this year I’ve posted 309 articles, but last year it was 339. Top contributors for 2011: 1st = Jim Hamm, 2nd = John Carter, 3rd = David Passell. Nine other members sent me articles to post last year.
Aren’t you glad you came to PMUG! Prescott Mac User Group keeps going with friendly, helpful people like you who ask questions and share answers!
This is today's handout at the PMUG meeting!