Make Things Bigger On The Desktop

Did you know that you can make the text AND icons bigger on the Desktop?

1. From the Finder click the View menu

2. Choose Show View Options

3. You can drag the top slider to make the icons bigger or smaller

4. Change the text size

5. You can even reposition the label text from the bottom to the side

6. Click a check mark next to Show Icon Preview and you’ll see a thumbnail of all of your jpgs

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Contacts and Calendars Not Updated?

Your Contacts and Calendars will sync whenever you are connected to wifi.
If you know there have been changes and you don’t see them on your iPhone or iPad, you can manually Refresh to get the newest changes.

In Calendars
Tap Calendars at the top left
Pull the screen down (iOS7)
or tap the clockwise arrow at the bottom of the screen (pre iOS7)

In Contacts
Tap Groups in the top left
Pull down the screen

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Safari’s New Home Screen

Even if you haven’t upgraded to Mavericks, you may have notices some changes in Safari version 6.1.

If your home page now shows icons of Top Sites, you can change it to your familiar home page.

1. Under the Safari menu, choose Preferences

2. Click on the General icon

3. Next to each line, choose your preference for what opens when

4. This is also where you can set things to download to the Desktop so you can find them and file them

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Full Screen

It’s great to use the space of your entire computer screen, especially if you’re watching a movie or surfing the web.

Many of my clients activate the full screen mode without realizing it, and then wonder how to get back to seeing their menus, the Dock, etc.

To get into full screen mode, click the diagonal arrows in the top right corner of the window.

To return to your regular screen, hover your mouse at the very top of the screen where the menu bar should be, and click on the diagonal arrows again.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Navigating Windows in Safari

The iOS7 version of Safari is slightly different on the iPad and iPhone. On your iPhone, recently visited pages are stored and available by tapping the icon with two squares on the bottom right. Press the X in the left corner of each page to close it.

On the iPad, web pages open as tabs across the top. Tap the small gray X next to any page title to remove it.

Google searching is now available in any Safari window by tapping in the address bar at the top, once to activate it, then tap the small X at the right end of the address to clear it so you can type in your new search criteria.

When no page is selected and all previous pages are closed, you will see square icons of websites that are in your Mac’s Bookmark Favorites bar.

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Sending Emails to a Group of People

If you send the same email to the same group of people all the time (ie. a book club, a board of directors, your family), instead of choosing each person each time, you can create a Group.

(The steps may vary if you are running Lion or Snow Leopard)

To Create a Group:

1. From the File menu in Contacts, choose New Group

2. A new Untitled Group appears

3. Without moving or clicking your mouse, type the name of the group then press the Return key to lock it in

4. Click on All Contacts at the top of the list to see everyone in your Address Book

5. Scroll through the list to select the people who belong in the group

You can drag each person, one at a time, to the left column then up and on top of the Group name

OR

Click on one name, hold down the Command key and continue selecting others, then drag one of the selected names on top of the group and they will all go

Be sure to drag the name left first and then up, or you may accidentally highlight the entire list of people.

To Send an Email to the Group:

In the BCC field (so that everyone remains anonymous), type the name of the group
Press the TAB key and it will fill in

If you want to see the names of the people in the group, in Mail, under Preferences, click on the Viewing icon and choose it

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

iOS7 Calendar Solution

With all of the changes and new features in iOS7, there is one glaring change that has some Calendar users up in arms.

If you view your calendar in the Month mode, iOS7 has removed the helpful list at the bottom that shows all of a day’s appointments.

But you can still access the list, even though it’s not quite the same.

From the Month mode, tap the magnifying glass icon at the top right. A list of ALL events appears, separated by the day (though it’s a bit tough to see the demarcation.)

This is also how you can search for an event.

 

Folders in Mountain Lion

The old way to put similar files into a folder is to first create the folder and then drag the items into it.

Mountain Lion offers a shortcut:

1. Select the items by clicking on one, holding down the Command key and clicking on the others.

2. From the File menu choose New Folder From Selection

or

Right-Click (or hold down the Control key and click) on one of the selected items and choose New Folder From Selection from the revealed menu

3. Title the folder and you’re done.

iPad Tip of the Week

Change Your Email Signatures

Your emails don’t have to say “Sent from my iPad or iPhone. In fact, if you have several email addresses, you can now create a different signature for each account.

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Scroll down to Signature and tap

4. To set the same signature for all email accounts, tap All Accounts and then, in the box below, type what you want to appear at the bottom of every email

5. To set a different signature for each email account, tap Per Account. All addresses will be listed and you can type in each box

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Using iCloud to Share Mailboxes

 

One of my favorite features about iCloud is that I can save important emails on the cloud and am able to access them from my computer, my laptop, my phone AND my iPad, and even from someone else’s computer via the web. I find this especially helpful when I am traveling: all of my flight information, reservation confirmations and other important stuff is with me.

To set this up:

1. In Mail, click the plus sign at the bottom of the left column that shows all of your Mailboxes.

2. Chose to create a New Mailbox.

3. Title it (ie. TRAVEL)

4. Next to Location, choose iCloud

5. Now, drag any important travel emails into this Mailbox. That Mailbox will now be available on all other devices that have your iCloud/me.com/mac.com mail account

In order to use iCloud to sync your Mailboxes, you need to be running Lion or Mountain Lion. If you’re ready to upgrade, I can help with the transition. Email me for details.

iPad Tip of the Week

Sharing iCloud Mailboxes

To access the Mailboxes you created on iCloud for sharing emails,

1. In Mail, scroll down past the Inboxes to Accounts

2. Tap iCloud

3. Scroll to see all of the Mailboxes

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Tips for Printing iCal Calendars

 

Here’s a quick video lesson that will show you several ways to customize what you print from iCal. Yes, you can even print blank monthly calendars!

Here’s the link–enjoy!

iPad Tip of the Week

Hidden Volume Adjuster

Even faster than pushing the up and down button on the side of your device, you can adjust the volume right on the screen.

1. Double tap the Home button to reveal the bar that shows all of your recently opened Apps.

2. Slide that bar all the way to the right until you can’t go any further and you’ll see the volume slider.

3. You can also adjust the brightness here.

4. Double tap the Home button when you’re done.

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Google Secrets

 

With Safari’s new all-in-one address/search bar you can access some of Google’s powerful features without having to go to google’s page.

To get a quick definition of a word, type: define and the word

To check on a flight, type the airline and flight number

To check a stock price, type the stock symbol

To bring up a calculator, type in any equation

 

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Returning Recent Calls

To quickly call back the last person you spoke to, no need to tap on Recent. Instead, from the keypad, tap the Call button and the last number will appear. Tap Call again to dial.