Turn Notes Into Stickies

The Notes app in Mountain Lion is a great tool for jotting down thoughts, lists, to-dos. If you want to keep a Note in view on the Desktop, like a Stickie, just double-click the note in the list window. Now you can move it around your Desktop and keep it in view.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Easier Reading with Reader

Have you found an interesting article to read, all of the ads on the screen are distracting?

Safari has a built in READER feature that will open most articles in a new window with just the article. No distractions.

1. Click on a new article. Most newspaper and magazines with substantial text will support this feature.

2. Click on the word READER that appears at the far right side of the page’s address (this may not be available for all articles).

3. The article will open in a new window with just the text.

4. Click READER again to get back to the full page in Safari.

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Saving Photos From Mail

A reader recently sent this question:

“If I get an email with photos attached, there is a drop down menu that invites me to save as or add to iPhoto. The iPhoto option does not work. Of course I can drag and drop or I can save as but I’d like to know why the add to iPhoto option does not work.”

There is a bug in Mountain Lion with Apple’s Mail program so this feature currently doesn’t work. So, until Apple fixes this, the easiest way to save photos you receive in Mail is to drag them, one at a time, onto the iPhoto icon in the Dock.

If you are still using Lion or Snow Leopard, this Save to iPhoto feature does still work.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Deleting Photos

A reader emailed me this question:

“I need to delete pictures from my iPad. I need more space on it for games for my grandson, but when I follow the steps below, my delete button changes to DELETE EVERYWHERE. I don’t want the pictures deleted on the MAC. How to delete from the iPad device only without losing the same picture on the MAC?”

The Delete Everywhere refers to the photos on the iPad only. You may have them in the Camera Roll and in an album. Deleting the photo from the camera roll will also delete it from any albums it is in.

It will NOT be deleted from your Mac. You can test this by deleting a single photo, then checking your Mac.

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The Power of Preview

A reader recently sent this question:

“When I open a PDF in Preview I get a list there of about 10 items (Pics). I didn’t notice these before is there a way to get them off Preview when I open it?”

Apple’s free Preview app is the easiest way to open and read PDF files. You can see the entire document in full screen and you can also see the thumbnails, miniature images in the sidebar for navigating quickly to a particular page.

To show or hide the thumbnails, from the View menu, choose what you want to see: contents only or thumbnails.

You can also make your choices from the Toolbar by clicking on the View icon all the way on the left.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Quick Definitions

If you are reading an article on Safari and need to look up a word, here’s a fast and easy tip:

1. Tap and hold your finger on the word to highlight it

2. A choice will appear

3. Tap Define

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Viewing Full Names of Files

A reader recently sent this question:

“If you put some icons on the desktop, the names on this icons get truncated and its difficult to figure out the name you picked. How would you increase the number of characters you can use in naming a desktop icon where it can be seen?”

First you should remember that, the more files and folders that you have saved onto your Desktop, the slower the Mac will be. While you can adjust the size of the icons and text (In the Finder, under the View menu, choose Show View Options) it won’t change how many letters are revealed.

If you move all of these items into a single folder on the Desktop, then you can play with the different view options of that folder (by icon, list, column, coverflow) and you’ll be able to read full titles.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

A Trick For Rearranging Icons, Creating Folders

There are several ways to move and organize your favorite Apps on your screen.

First, press and hold on one of the icons to get them wiggling.

To move an App, just drag the icon to a new position.

To move an App to a different screen, drag it all the way to the edge of the current screen to advance to the next screen.

This can be frustrating, getting the icon to easily move to the next screen. So here’s a great trick:

1. Press and hold on one of the icons to get them wiggling

2. Drag the App into the Favorites Bar at the bottom (If there is no free space, temporarily move several of your existing favorites onto a screen to create some space in the Bar)

3. Swipe to the screen where you want to put it

4. Then drag the App from the bar up to where you want it

To group similar Apps together, drag one on top of another and a Folder will be created that you can rename.

 

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ZOOMING YOUR SCREEN

Do you ever want to quickly enlarge your screen so you can see something bigger?

1. Under the Apple menu, choose System Preferences

2. Click on the Mouse icon

3. Click to put a check mark next to Screen Zoom.

4. Click the Options for more choices.

5. It is set to use the Control key but you can choose a different key if you prefer.

6. You can also change how the screen moves when you zoom. Play with the different choices to see which works best for you.

7. Click Done

Now, anytime you hold down Control key and scroll with the mouse button, you’ll be ZOOMING! Try it.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS IN SAFARI

Instead of using your mouse’s scroll wheel or dragging the blue scroll bar, you can move down the page by pressing the Space Bar. Move up the page by holding down the Shift key and pressing the Space Bar.

To go Back to the previous page, instead of clicking the Back Arrow, press the Delete key.

HIDING PICTURES IN iPHOTO

If you have your Desktop Screen Saver set to use all the pictures in iPhoto, you may have certain pictures that you don’t want to include. Instead of creating a separate album specifically for the Screen Saver, you can hide selected photos.

In iPhoto, click on any picture you want to hide from view.

From the Photos menu, choose Hide Photo. An X will appear in the top right corner, indicating it is marked as Hidden.

If you don’t want to see Hidden photos in iPhoto, under the View Menu, re-select Hidden Photos to remove the check mark.

The picture is still in your Library, you just can’t see it.

To Unhide it, first, from the View menu, choose to show Hidden Pictures

Then select the photo that has the X on it and choose Unhide from the Photos menu

For more great iPhoto tips, check out the new video training series, Maximize Your Mac.