Posted by susanl
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Have Your Mac Read To You!
Did you know that you can have your computer read to you? The Speech commands are built into several Apple products and are really easy to use. Thanks, Sheila Cohn for sharing this great tip!
Try this:
Highlight this paragraph
Click on the Edit menu
Choose Speech and
Follow the triangle to the right to choose Start Speaking
To turn it off:
From the Edit menu choose Stop speaking
This works in Safari, too:
Find an article
Click on READER in the top right of the address bar so that the text is in its own window (A cool tip in itself!)
Click on the Edit menu
Choose Speech and
Follow the triangle to the right to choose Start Speaking
If you hadn’t first highlighted a particular section it will begin reading from the beginning
You can also change the voice and tone of the speaker:
Under the Apple menu choose System Preferences
Click on the Speech icon
Click on the Text to Speech tab
Next to System Voice, choose a name and click Play
Additional Speech and Voice Over features can be found under the Universal Access icon in System Preferences.
iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month
Quick Scroll to the Top
When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top:
Just double tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.
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Watching .WMV Files in Mail with Lion
1. Click here to download the VLC player.
2. Click on the top VLC choice for 32/64 bit.
3. It will download and appear wherever you have designated downloaded files to go. If it’s not on the Desktop, it’s probably in the Downloads folder.
4. To find the Downloads folder, from the Finder screen, click on the GO menu at the top.
5. Click on Downloads and find the file titled “VLC-1.1.12.dmg”.
6. Double click on the file and it will open.
7. Drag the icon of the orange cone on top of the Applications folder in that window and it will copy it.
8. When it’s done, close the window.
9. Trash the two VLC files that are still in the Downloads folder.
10. Now open an email that has a .wmv that you previously couldn’t open and it will work!
iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month
Deleting Emails
While there is still no way to Select All and Delete, there are two different ways to delete emails.
Option 1:
1. In the Inbox, tap Edit
2. Tap the circle next to each email you want to delete
3. Tap Delete
Option 2:
1. Slide across the right side of the email when it’s listed in the Inbox
2. Delete will appear as a choice
Try both options and see which one works better for you.
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Quick Look
Often, you’ll have documents in a folder or on your Desktop and you have no idea what they are. Instead of wasting the time to open each item, use the Mac’s Quick Look feature to get a Quick Look.
Click here for a short video to show you how it works.
FOR MORE GREAT VIDEO TIPS, check out the videos in The Virtual Classroom.
iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month
Add a Web Page to Your Home Screen
If you have a few favorite websites that you always go to on Safari, why not make them be icons on your home page for faster, easier access?
1. Open Safari
2. Go to the desired website
3. Click the “+” to Add a Bookmark but instead of choosing Add a Bookmark
4. Tap Add to Home Screen
5. Now that site is just a tap away.
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Safari: Zooming In and Out
Sometimes things online are just too small. Safari has an easy way to ZOOM in to see more detail.
There are several ways to zoom:
~ From the View menu, choose ZOOM IN
~ You can also hold down the Command key and type a “+”
~ You can even add an icon to the Toolbar for zooming
Under the View menu, choose Customize Toolbar.
Drag the big A little A tool into the toolbar.
Now zooming is click a click away.
Try it with this artist’s work that is more than just painting with tiny bits of paper. Look at the textures, the shadows, the kinds of papers the artist used. They are stunning.
FOR MORE GREAT SAFARI TIPS, check out the videos in The Virtual Classroom.
iPad and iPhone Tip of the Month
Portrait? Landscape? Lock It In Place
(This week’s tip works on the iPad 2 and the new iPad.)
You know that you can turn the screen sideways and the contents of the window automatically switches. Some folks like this feature, others find it annoying.
You can lock the screen so that it stays in one orientation.
1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Scroll down to below Restrictions to “Use Side Switch to:
4. and choose Lock Rotation
5. Get out of Settings by tapping the Home button
6. Tilt the screen so it’s the orientation you want
7. Slide the switch on the right side to the locked position so that you see orange
The iPad will still automatically adjust to tall if the app doesn’t work in the wide mode.
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