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

————

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

————

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.

—————

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.

 

Printing Mailing Labels

Apple’s Address Book/Contacts makes printing mailing labels so easy. You first need to create a Group of only the people you want to print labels for.

Here’s are three great videos from The Virtual Classroom that will show you how easy it is to create a group and print your labels.

The steps are different, depending on the version of the OS you’re using (Mountain Lion, Lion or Snow Leopard), so choose the video for your situation.

Printing Mailing Labels with Snow Leopard
Printing Mailing Labels with Lion
Printing Mailing Labels with Mountain Lion

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Groups in Contacts

iOS6 changes how you see your Groups in you Contacts. When you tap Groups, it now shows a list of all of your Groups. But if you tap on one, all it does is remove the check mark next to it.

So how do you see who’s in a group?

1. Tap Groups and they will all be checked
2. Tap All Contacts and it will uncheck every group.
3. Then tap the Group you want to see
4. Tap Done
5. Now it shows you only the people in that Group

To see All Contacts again:

1. Tap Groups
2. Tap All Contacts
3. Tap Done

————-

Adjusting the Brightness

Does your computer screen seem dim? Does the screen get dark if you don’t touch it for a while?

One way to brighten the screen is by pressing the key on your keyboard above the number 2 with the picture of the sun on it.

To change the setting that automatically dims the screen:

1. Under the Apple menu, choose System Preferences

2. Click on Energy Saver. It looks like a light bulb

3. Adjust the time settings for the Display Sleep

4. Remove the check mark next to Automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Picture Frame

Family gatherings are a great time to share photos. And it’s fun to be able to have your photos displayed in the background.

When your iPad is asleep and locked you can still view Photos using the Picture Frame mode. It’s different than the Slide Show mode when you are in your Photos.

To set your preferences for Picture Frame:

1. Click Settings

2. Click Picture Frame

3. Choose your Transition

4. Choose how long it shows each photo, whether to Zoom in on faces, and if you want them Shuffled, in a random order

5. Choose which photos and albums to show

6. Sit back and enjoy.

—————-

Finding and Searching on the Mac

Every program on the Mac has a Search tool. Usually it’s a rounded rectangular box with a mini magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the screen. (If you don’t see it, try dragging your window wider to reveal it.)

Just type what you’re looking for in this box to save you time and aggravation.

In Mail, when you Search, you can limit where Mail looks and what it looks for by clicking on one of the choices across the top: All Mailboxes or just the one selected, whether the text is in the Entire Message, From, To or part of the Subject of the email.

To find a folder or document saved on your Mac, you can use click on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner to open up Spotlight, which gives you a list of all items.

A second way to Find documents is to choose the Find command under the File menu in the Finder. Type in what you’re looking for and a list will appear. Click once on the item and at the bottom of the window, you’ll see the path listed, so you know where to find the item.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Finding and Searching on the iPhone and iPad

Are you looking for a person’s phone number? While you might think it’s pretty easy to click on your Contacts and scroll to that person’s name, there is a much faster way.

Slide to the screen to the left of the first Home screen to reveal the built-in Spotlight program.

Begin typing the person’s name.

Not only will their name appear next to the icon of the Contacts, but you’ll also see all emails related to that person, any iCal appointments, even text messages.

Click on any entry and you’re there.

—————-

Back Up Your Contacts/Address Book

Even if you use Time Machine to backup your computer, it’s a great idea to have a separate backup of just your Address Book, just in case.

You can keep the file on your hard drive or also copy it to a flash drive or your external hard drive. Better save than sorry!

Here’s a free video lesson that will teach you how to back up your Contacts!

And, remember, deleting a person from your Contacts on your iPhone or iPad will also remove them from your Contacts on your Mac!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Signatures in Email

By default, every email you send says “Sent from my iPhone or iPad.” You can remove this and even add your own signature. And, with iOS6, you can now have a different signature for each of your email accounts.

1. From the Home screen, click on Settings

2. Scroll down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Scroll all the way down to Signature

4. Choose All Accounts if you want to use the same signature for all of your email accounts

5. Click Per Account if you want to create unique signatures for each email account

6. Delete the existing text and type what you’d like it to say

7. There is no need to Save it, just tap back to Mail and you’ll see that, next to Signature, it now shows either the text you typed or the number of how many email accounts you have

———–

 

Selecting Items

One of the fastest ways to work more efficiently is to learn how to select more than one item at a time.

For example, instead of selecting and deleting one email at a time, you can select some, or all and then delete them all at the same time.

These steps will work for selecting items on the Desktop, in a folder, as well as in Mail, iPhoto, iTunes.

To Select All:

From the Edit menu, choose Select All, or hold down the Command key and type the letter A for All.

To cherry pick, meaning selecting this one and this one, not this one and this one:

1, Click on the first item

2. Hold down the Command key

3. Click on the next and the next and the next

If you accidentally click on one by accident, keep the Command key down and click on it again and it will un-select it.

To Select a Series, meaning many in a row:

1. Click on the first item in the series

2. Hold down the Shift key

3. Click on the last item in the series and all will be highlighted.

Bonus: You can combine these tricks to select MOST:

Select All or Select a Series Hold down the Command key and click on the items you DON’T want to include.

—————

Creating Page Breaks in Word Processing Documents

Many of my clients create word processing documents that are longer than one page. They press the Return key to create enough blank lines to have certain text begin on the next page. The only problem with this is that, when you add, delete or change anything, your pages are messed up.

Whether you use Microsoft Word or Pages, there is a simple way to create the desired breaks in your pages.

1. Click your cursor where you want the new page to begin.

2. In Pages, click on the Insert menu and choose Page Break.

In Word, click on the Insert menu, choose Break and slide over to select Page Break.

3. A new page will appear.

To delete the page break, click the cursor beyond the page break and press the Delete key.

Now your pages will always be perfect, no matter how you edit.

—————

Seeing Fonts in the Font Window

We all know that you can change the fonts of text in Mail as well as most other Apple programs by highlighting the text and then clicking on the Fonts tool.

The Fonts window shows a list of grouped fonts (Collections), the family of typefaces, the possible styles of each typeface and a size to choose.

To see what the font actually looks like, you can reveal the Font Preview Pane. There is a barely noticeable circle below the word “Fonts” and above the “T” tool. If you move your mouse onto this circle, it becomes a tool with arrows.

Drag the tool down to reveal the Font Preview Pane.

You can make the entire window bigger by dragging on the the diagonal lines in the bottom right corner of the window.

Now you can see your font choice and decide if it’s the one you want to use.

Too many steps to read and follow?

The ALL ABOUT MAIL Video Training Series SHOWS you how to work with fonts and so much more. Instead of READING the steps, you can WATCH and PRACTICE on your own. Click here for more info.

—————

Add Your Signature to Emails

A signature automatically appears at the bottom of your email. It can be your name, your contact information, even a favorite quote. You can create several different signatures and choose which one you want for a particular email.

To create a signature:

1. First, create a new email message so you have a place to type
2. Type everything you want to appear, including choosing the font, size, color
3. Highlight it all
4. From the Edit menu, choose Copy
5. Then, under the Mail menu, choose Preferences
6. Click on the Signatures icon
7. Click the “+” sign at the bottom of the middle column to create a new signature
8. Title it in the middle column where it is highlighted in blue
9. In the right column, delete the text that appears there
10. From the Edit menu, choose Paste

Your typed text will appear.

To actually USE the signature, you have to now assign it to an email account.

1. Drag that named signature from the middle column to on top of the email address in the left column that you want to use it with.

2. Click on that email address and, at the bottom, under Choose Signature, decide whether you always want that signature to appear or, if you choose None, then you can select the signature when you want to use it in a particular email.

—————

Open at Login

If you turn on your computer and always open the same programs when you start, consider having the Mac open them for you.

In the Dock, click and hold down on the icon of the program, click and hold on Options and choose Open at Login.

If you have programs that mysteriously open when you turn on the computer, you probably have accidentally chosen this option.

To turn it off, click and hold on the icon in the Dock click on Options and reselect Open at Login to remove the checkmark.

 

Adding Signatures to Email

A signature automatically appears at the bottom of your email. It can be your name, your contact information, even a favorite quote. You can create several different signatures and choose which one you want for a particular email.

To create a signature:
First, create a new email message so you have a place to type
Type everything you want to appear, including choosing the font, size, color
Highlight it all
From the Edit menu, choose Copy

Then, under the Mail menu, choose Preferences
Click on the Signatures icon
Click the “+” sign at the bottom of the middle column to create a new signature
Title it
In the right column, click the cursor, then, from the Edit menu, choose Paste
Your typed text will appear
To actually USE the signature, you have to now assign it to an email account.
Drag that named signature from the middle column to on top of the email address in the left column that you want to use it with
Click on that email address and, at the bottom, under Choose Signature, decide whether you always want that signature to appear or, if you choose None, then you can select the signature when you want to use it in a particular email

Spring Cleaning in Your Inbox
So many of us receive all kinds of emails from companies, newsletters from organizations, shopping specials from our favorite stores. They can quickly clutter our Inboxes and, often, we don’t even read them.
Instead of just deleting them, take a moment to UNSUBSCRIBE. At the bottom of every business email you will find a link to change your settings, or Unsubscribe. Click the link, change your preferences and soon, your Inbox will be less cluttered with junk.

Fun with Facebook
Facebook is a free online service that allows you to find old friends, share your photos, connect with people with common interests. Facebook allows you to post public comments on your Wall and your friends then see your comments and can comment back. You can even send private notes to your Friends.

Facebook is a great way to share good news, favorite websites and stay in touch with people.

The key to using to Facebook is taking the time to set your Privacy Preferences so that the whole world doesn’t have access to your comments and posts.

To set your Privacy Preferences, log in to your Facebook account

Click on Account in the top right corner and choose Privacy Settings

Click on each of the sections and choose WHO can see your information. I recommend only Friends, not even Friends of Friends.

Also, it is recommended to limit the amount of personal information you share. To change your information, first click on Profile in the top right corner. Then, in the left column under your picture, click Edit Profile.

If you want to include your birthday, it’s best to not include the year. You can make this choice from the pull down menu below where you enter your birthday.

You may choose to include your high school if you want to be found by former classmates.

Be sure to Save Your Changes when you’re done.

FAVORITE iPHONE APP OF THE MONTH:

LOSE IT!: If you looking for a way to keep track of what you eat, Lose It! is a great, free app that tracks your meals, your exercise, your weight goals. You enter your foods and the serving size and LOSE IT! keeps a log of the calories consumed. You also enter your exercise and it calculates the calories burned. You can track nutritional values as well. Then, with a click of a button you can see where you are in your daily food and exercise budget.

And the data automatically uploads to the free LOSE IT! website so you can print spreadsheets of your weekly progress.