Getting Your Mac Ready for Mavericks, the new OS

Mavericks, Apple’s new OS for Mac is packed with a new look and lots of new features.

As with any upgrade, you may want to wait until they iron out some of the bugs before you jump in. And before you rush to upgrade, you’ll want to make sure your Mac is ready for the new OS.

1. Confirm that your Mac will work with Mavericks

For a complete list of compatible Macs and software requirements, check out Apple’s www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

2. Back up!

If you are not already using Time Machine to automatically back up your computer, now is the time to invest. Get an external hard drive, plug it in and follow the on-screen prompts.

3. Clean Up!

Mavericks requires 8GB of space on the hard drive for installation. For most computers this won’t be an issue, but MacBook Air users may be pressed for space.

Delete old files
Clear out the Downloads folder
Delete any apps that you never use
Archive your older photos to DVDs or another external drive

4. Run Disk Utility!

In the same way that you clean out your physical file drawers, throwing out old papers and then smooshing the file folders to create more space, you can have the Mac do a similar kind of cleaning up.

1. From the Desktop, click on the GO menu and choose Utilities, and then open Disk Utility
or, using Spotlight, type in Disk Utility and open in

2. In the left column, click on the icon of Macintosh HD, your internal hard drive

3. Click Repair Disk Permissions

It may take a while, even a long while, to complete the task.

If it reports errors that were fixed, Click Repair Disk Permissions again to run it again.

5. Confirm that your apps are Mavericks compatible!

While most software will still work with the new OS, you need to confirm this! Check out www.roaringapps.com for a complete compatibility list.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

In Case of Emergency

If you are in an accident and can’t communicate, officials will check your phone for an emergency contact person. To make it easy for them to find the correct person, add an entry in your Contacts for ICE (in case of emergency):
1. In Contacts, click the + to add a new person
2. Enter the person’s first and last name
3. In the Company field, type ICE
4. Click the box next to company to have Contacts list that person under the company name
5. Enter the appropriate contact information
6. Click Done
7. You’ll now have an entry in Contacts under the letter ‘I” for ICE

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Is Your Mac Running Slow?

Here are three quick remedies to increase the performance of your Mac:

1. Restart your computer at least once a week

2. Quit any Apps that are open that you don’t use regularly

3. Repair Permissions

In the same way that you clean out your physical file drawers, throwing out old papers and then smooshing the file folders to create more space, you can have the Mac do a similar kind of cleaning up.

1. From the Desktop, click on the GO menu and choose Utilities, and then open Disk Utility
or, using Spotlight, type in Disk Utility and open in

2. In the left column, click on the icon of Macintosh HD, your internal hard drive

3. Click Repair Disk Permissions

It may take a while, even a long while, to complete the task.

If it reports errors that were fixed, Click Repair Disk Permissions again to run it again.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

iCal Tip

If you are looking at your calendar in the Month mode and want to quickly see the Day view, turn your device sideways. (This may not work with iOS7 on the iPad)

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Saving Photos You Receive In An Email

There’s no need to keep an email just so that you have access to the pictures. Instead, save them right in to iPhoto.

1. Open the email.

2. In Lion and Mountain Lion Mail, first click Show Details.

3. Then click and hold down the SAVE button and choose Add to iPhoto.

4. iPhoto will open and the pictures will be added to your iPhoto Library.

5. Now you can delete the email.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Adding a Person’s Photo to Their Contact Info

It’s fun to have a person’s face appear when you are receiving an incoming call from them on your iPhone or a FaceTime call.

1. Find the person in your Contacts.

2. Tap Edit.

3. In the top left next to their name tap the circle that says Add Photo.

4. You can either take a picture of them or choose a photo from your Camera Roll.

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Facebook Security Settings

Facebook is THE social media program for connecting with friends and colleagues and meeting new people. People share photos, inspirational quotes, details about meetings. And many businesses are using Facebook to offer discounts and daily specials.

You can participate as much or as little as you want to.

But it’s important to set your privacy settings and notifications so that YOU have control over who sees what and what you you see.

Here’s a free guide to help you set up your Facebook account to ensure privacy and connection with only the people you want to connect with.

If you’d like to Friend me on Facebook, I’m RuthRDavis.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Fast Access to Drafts

Often, you may start writing an email on your mobile device, but decide to finish it later. If you tap Cancel, you get the option to Save the email as a Draft.

To quickly access the draft to finish it, tap and hold the Compose icon (pen and paper) and it will show a list of all drafts that you created on your iPhone or iPad.

Sorry, drafts written on your Mac do NOT appear in this list.

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Fast Printing

Instead of opening up a document in order to print it, you can drag the icon of the document onto the printer icon in the Dock.

To get your printer into the Dock, open any document and print it. The printer icon will appear briefly in the Dock as it is printing. Click and hold the cursor on the icon and choose Options. Choose Keep in Dock.

Now, anytime you need to print something, just drag it onto the Printer icon.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Don’t Type Periods

Instead of actually typing a period at the end of a sentence, double-tap the space bar and it will put in a period and a space so you can just start typing the next sentence.

If this feature doesn’t work:

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Tap Keyboard

4. Turn the “.” Shortcut ON

iOS 7 iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Essential Guide to iOS 7

I must admit, my first reaction to the new iOS7 was frustration and crankiness. I didn’t like the new colors and motion. I resented the change in swipe directions and the repositioning of buttons.

But then I had a change of heart.

Even though I still didn’t like the new look, my brain was learning new things, creating new neural pathways, which staves off dementia. So thanks, Apple, for giving my brain a workout!

If you have upgraded to OS7, you’ll want to check out Mac2School’s Essential Guide to iOS7.

Be sure to save it or print it for easy access–it’s packed with tips and shortcuts to help you get used to the new look and feel of the OS.

Get the Free iOS7 Guide here.

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Microsoft Office File Names

If you can no longer open documents that were created in a previous version of Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint, it’s probably because of the file name. It may be too long or, it contains a slash or other no-longer-acceptable characters.

To change the name of a file:

1. Click once on the item

2. Press the Return key to highlight the file name

3. Type a new name. If you press the left or right arrow key it will move the cursor to the beginning or end of the text

4. Press the Return key when done

Now try opening the file and it will probably work!

iPad Tip of the Week

All About Sounds

You can control what sounds play when different things happen. Maybe you don’t like the sound when you unlock your device. Maybe you prefer NOT to hear a sound every time you receive or send an email or when someone sends you a text or leaves a voicemail.

It’s easy to choose which sounds and alerts you want to hear.

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap Sounds
3. Scroll through the list, choosing which you want on and which you want off

This is also where you can choose a different ringtone and make the Vibrate feature silent.

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Latest Update for Mountain Lion

If you are running OS 10.8, Mountain Lion, Apple just released an update to fix several bugs and issues in the software. Version 10.8.5 is available as a free download in the App Store. Under the Apple menu, choose Software Update. Install the OS 10.5.8 and any other updates that are available.

iPad Tip of the Week

Getting Ready For The New iOS7

Apple’s new iOS7 for iPhones and iPads is packed with a new look and lots of new features.

As with any upgrade, you may want to wait until they iron out some of the bugs before you jump in. Andbefore you rush to upgrade, you’ll want to do a little housecleaning first.

1. Confirm that your device will work with iOS7. It is compatible with:

• iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s
• iPod touch 5th gen
• iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini

NOTE:

OSXDAILY highly recommends WAITING to update iPad2 and iPad 3,iPad4 and iPad mini as well as iPhone 4, iPhone 4S

2. Back up to iCloud:

• Tap Settings
• Tap iCloud
• Tap Storage and Backup
• Tap Backup Now

3. Delete any apps you don’t use:

• Tap and hold on any app to get them wiggling
• Tap the X to delete
• Tap the Home button when done to stop the wiggling

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Make Your Cursor Bigger

The bigger your screen, the smaller the cursor. But you can make it bigger so you can find it more easily.

In Mountain Lion

1. Under the Apple menu, open System Preferences

2. Click on Accessibility in the bottom right

3. Click on Display

4. Move the slider to adjust the Cursor Size

In Snow Leopard:

1. Under the Apple menu, open System Preferences

2. Click on Accessibility in the bottom right

3. Click on Mouse

4. Move the slider to adjust the Cursor Size

iPad Tip of the Week

Make the Text Bigger

You have a lot of control over the size of text and other items on your iPad and iPhone

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Scroll down and tap Accessibility
4. ZOOM gives you choices for finger gestures to enlarge entire screens
5. LARGER TEXT allows you to choice a more readable font size

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Importing Contacts From Excel

Mountain Lion finally allows you to easily import lists of names from an Excel spreadsheet into Contacts.

1. In the Excel spreadsheet, from the File menu, choose Save As
2. Title the document
3. From the Format menu, choose Comma Separated Values (.csv)
4. Be sure to save the document where you can easily find it
5. Quit Excel. If you get a warning that the file may not be compatible, just say OK
6. Open Contacts
7. From the File menu, choose Import
8. Locate the .csv file you just saved and Open
9. In this window, match up the fields from Excel with the Contacts fields that you want to import by clicking on each one you want to import
10. Choose to Ignore the First Card since it contains the label names of the fields
11. Use the arrows on the screen to move through your data to confirm that things are in the correct fields
12. Click OK
13. You can now delete the .csv file you saved

iPad Tip of the Week

Importing Videos From iPhone and iPad to Your Mac

Perhaps you’ve noticed that photos that you take on your mobile device appear on your Mac via Photo Stream, but videos do not.

As my Apple Genius friend reminded me, it’s called Photo Stream, not Video Stream.

The easiest way to transfer your movies from your device to your computer is to email them to yourself, then drag the attachment from the email onto the iPhoto icon on your Mac.

To email a video:

1. On your device, tap Photos
2. Tap Albums to get to the Camera Roll
3. Because videos are large files, I recommend emailing them one at a time
4. Find the video. It will have a movie camera icon and the length time of the video
5. Tap the Share icon, the forward-facing arrow
5. Choose Mail
6. Address it to yourself
7. Send