Backing Up With Time Machine

Time Machine is Apple’s free, built-in backup software. It works with all versions of the Mac OS from Leopard on up.

To use Time Machine you just need to purchase an external hard drive to connect to your computer. Depending on the model of your Mac, you can use a Firewire, USB or Thunderbolt cable connection.

External drives come in a variety of sizes, measured in GB (gigabytes) all the way up to TB (terabytes). It’s best to purchase at least a 500GB drive, more if you have a lot of photos and music. You do not need a Time Capsule unless you don’t already have a wireless network. Time Capsule is both an external hard drive AND a wireless router.

To Set Up Time Machine:

1. Connect the external drive to your computer
2. Turn it on if it has a power switch
3. A message will appear asking if you want to use your external drive as a Time Machine backup
4. Say yes
5. You may get a message that you need to completely erase the new drive to use it. Say OK
6. Confirm that you want to use the disk for backup
7. And you’re done

* It will begin backing up in a few minutes. You’ll see the Time Machine icon in the top right of your menu bar rotating as it backs up.

* The first time Time Machine backs up, it may take several hours. So you may want to stop the backup and then start at a more convenient time. You can make these choices from the Time Machine icon in the top right of the menu bar. It’s the counterclockwise arrow.

* After the initial backup, it will backup every hour, but only the files that have been changed.

Restoring Only Some Files Using Time Machine
In addition to being able to replicate your entire computer’s hard drive, Time Machine can also retrieve lost files on a daily basis.

Have you ever had a document saved someplace that you accidentally deleted and then you emptied the trash, only to realize you deleted the wrong file?

Time Machine can get that file back!

1. From the Finder, under the File menu, choose Find
2. Type in the name of the file you are wanting to restore
3. You can search the entire computer (this Mac) or limit the search by specifying certain criteria
4. Click the Time Machine icon at the top and choose Enter Time Machine
5. Your computer screen will switch to the Time Machine application
6. Use the arrows and the timeline along the right edge of your screen to browse through the Time Machine backups. Your search is performed in every window.
7. When you find the item you want to restore, select it and then click Restore.
8. The item will be returned to its original location before you deleted it.

BETTER SAVE THAN SORRY!

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Important Security Ipdate for iOS7

Apple announced a potential security issue and has released an update for iOS7 users. On your iPad or iPhone:

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Software Update
4. Follow the prompts to install the update

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Adding Your Signature to Online Contracts

These days we handle so many transactions online to make things faster and easier. But what about signing things?

Some folks think they have to print out the PDF, sign it, then either snail mail it or scan it it and email it back to the sender.

With Mountain Lion and Mavericks, there’s a much easier way!

1. Open the PDF you need to sign.

2. From the Tools menu, choose Annotate, choose Signature

3. A window open, guiding you to write your name in black ink on white paper and hold it up to the Mac’s built-in camera

4. Line up the signature with the blue line on the screen and click Accept. (That’s the hardest part–keeping the paper straight while you click the button.)

5. It saves your signature

6. Now, find the line in the PDF where your signature goes and click on the pull-down menu with a scripted S in Preview’s toolbar

7. Click on your signature and it will appear in the PDF document

8. Drag it into place, onto the signature line

9. Save the document

10. Email it to the sender!

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Even Faster Charging

Your iPhone and iPad will charge twice as fast if you put it in Airplane mode.

1. Tap Settings or swipe to reveal the Control Center

2. Turn Airplane mode on

3. Remember to turn it back off when you’re device is charged

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How To Delete Old Email Addresses That Keep Showing Up, Even After You Remove Them From Contacts

Apple Mail remembers everyone you’ve ever sent an email to. Even if you’ve updated a person’s information in Contacts, their old address may still pop up.

If an incorrect address keeps appearing as a choice:

1. In Mail from the Window menu, choose Previous Recipients

2. You’ll notice that many names in the list have an icon of an index card next to them. These people are in your Contacts

3. You can sort the list by clicking on the header for Name or Address, Last Used

4. You can go through the list and select people who don’t have the card next to their name and click to Add to Contacts

5. You can find the bad address and remove it individually

6. To clear the list completely, from the Edit menu, choose Select All, then click to Remove From List

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Seeing Only Certain Contacts on Your Phone

All of your contacts are stored in one place and are automatically synced with all of your devices. But many folks don’t want to SEE all of their contacts on their iPhone. They just want to see the people they call.

On your Mac:

1. Open Contacts and, from the File menu, choose New Group
2. Name it “phone” or something similar
3. Click on All Contacts in the left column
4. Find the people you want to see on your iPhone
5. Move them into the new “phone” group
6. You can select them one at a time and drag them on top of the group you just created or
7. Click on one name, hold down the Command key and select others
8. Drag one person on top of the phone group and they will all go

On your iPhone:

1. Tap Phone
2. Tap Contacts
3. Tap Groups in the top left
4. Tap each listed group to remove the check mark so that only the new Phone list is checked
5. Tap Done

While only these names will show, you can still use Spotlight to search for people not in this group

Another option is to put your most used people and numbers in the Favorites section.

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A Fun Way to Email Photos with iPhoto

You probably know how easy it is to email pictures from iPhoto. But with iPhoto ’11 you have a choice about how those photos appear.

You can choose to have them just be attachments right in the email. Or, try this:

1. In iPhoto, under the iPhoto menu, choose Preferences

2. Click on the General icon

3. Next to “Email Photos Using, choose iPhoto

4. Close Preferences

Next:

1. Choose some pictures you’d like to send (Click one photo, hold down the Command key and select others)

2. Click the right facing Share arrow in the bottom toolbar

3. Choose Email

4. In the right column you now have several themes to choose from

5. Each theme will suggest how many photos work best

6. Add text in the designated spaces

7. Be sure to check the box next to Attach Photos to Message so that the recipient can download the photos.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

The Fastest Way To Charge Your Device

Your iPhone and iPad will charge much faster if you plug them directly into a wall outlet instead of your computer.

Be sure to drain the battery at least once a month to maximize performance.

 

Quick Look

How much time do you waste opening up a document just to see if it’s the one you’re looking for?

Here’s a fast and easy trick:

1. Instead of double-clicking to open the document, click once on it to select it.
2. Press the space bar.
3. A window will appear, showing you a QUICK LOOK at the contents of the document.
4. Press the space bar again to close it.

This works with jpgs, too. If you need to scroll through a list of photos to find the one you’re looking for:

1. Click on the first photo.
2. Press the space bar to see what it is.
3. Press the DOWN arrow on the keyboard to move to the next one.
4. Continue pressing the DOWN arrow to see all the photos.
5. Press the space bar when you’re done.

Saving These Tips (Or any email that contains formatting)

Many of my clients ask me how they can save these tips for future reference. So today, I’m sharing not one but TWO ways to do it.

The easiest way to save any email is:

1. Select the email
2. From the File menu, choose Save As
3. Title it with a name that describes what it is so you can find it later
4. Navigate to the folder in your Documents folder where you want to keep it

(maybe you have already created a folder for Mac to School Tips. If not, in the bottom left of this window, click on New Folder and create one)

5. Click Save.

The only problem with this method is that it converts the email to Plain Text, which means all of the letters and words are there, but you lose all of the formatting: the bold, the pretty boxes, the easy-to-read appearance.

To save an email with all of its formatting, save it as a PDF.

Here’s how:

1. Select the email
2. From the File menu, Choose Print
3. Do not click the Print button. Instead, in the bottom left of the window, click PDF
4. Choose SAVE AS PDF
5. Title it with a name that describes what it is so you can find it later
6. Navigate to the folder in your Documents folder where you want to keep it
7. Click Save.

Now, when you open the saved tip, it will look exactly like it did when you received it in your email.

Seeing More Printing Options

Sometimes you don’t even know you’re missing choices until you see them.

Today’s tip addresses a question many of my clients ask me: Where are all of my printing options?

If you don’t see choices for printing, like how many copies and which pages to print, just click the triangle next to the name of your printer to reveal all of your options

Change What You Look At Everyday:

The beginning of the year is a great time to look at things with a fresh perspective.

In my creativity classes I encourage my students to change their visual environments becausewhen you see different things, you begin to see things differently.

Today’s tip offers ways to do this with your computer.

– Try typing in a new font
– Move your Dock to the left or right side of the screen
– Rearrange the things you look at on and around your working space
– Change your profile picture on Facebook
– Rearrange the icons on your Dock
– Change your desktop picture

Click here to watch a free video on how to change your desktop picture

Click here to watch a free video on how to change your Dock

Backing Up:

If something happens to your computer (loss, theft, crash, dead hard drive), you could lose everything on it: your addresses, your documents, your photos—EVERYTHING.

So why not be safe instead of sorry and start backing up your computer regularly.

I believe there are three levels of backing up, depending on what kind of user you are.

Click here to download my free HOW AND WHY TO BACK UP instruction sheet to determine which user you are and how to start backing up all of your important information.

The downloaded document “backingup.pdf” will open automatically in Preview. To save it, click on the File menu, chose Save As, and navigate to the folder you’d like to save it into.