Signatures in Mail

A signature can automatically appear 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.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Signatures in Mail

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

1. From the Home screen, tap on Settings

2. Scroll down and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars

3. Scroll all the way down and tap 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

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Too Many Emails? Unsubscribe!

I have clients with more than 3000 emails in their inbox. Yes, this can slow things down. Yes, it makes it hard to find what’s important. But more than that, it often causes some anxiety.

People think the goal is to have a Zero inbox.

Really the goal is to only receive mail from people you want to hear from.

You can start by unsubscribing from all of the newsletters you receive and do not read. You can always get the information on their website. You can re-sign up if you find that you miss it.

Take 10 or 15 minutes a day and go through all of the subscription emails you receive. When’s the last time you actually READ them? Do you even resonate with the content? Unsubscribe from anything that you haven’t opened in the last six months. goes for stores, catalogs, magazines, newsletters.

In fact, unsubscribing from unwanted emails is much easier than canceling catalogs that get delivered to your house.

1. Open an email you no longer want to receive.

2. Scroll down to the bottom and look for a link to UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE SETTINGS. Follow the prompts to remove your name from their mailing list.

3. Then delete the email from your inbox.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Emoticons: Part 2

If you tried typing those fun characters and didn’t see the globe on the keyboard, my apologies. I forgot to tell you how to set it up:

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap General
3. Tap Keyboard
4. Tap Keyboards
5. Add a Keyboard
6. Choose Emoji
7. Close Settings

Now, anytime you want to type a fun character:

1. On the keyboard, tap the world globe icon to the left of the space bar
2. Choose the characters you want
3. Tap the globe again to return to your regular keyboard

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Scroll Bar Secrets

The scroll bar, on the right side of every window, allows you to move up and down the window to see the contents.

Dragging the scroll bar moves you fast, sometimes too fast. But Dragging the scroll button is the quickest way to go all the way to the top or bottom of a window.

Clicking the up and down arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar will move you a line at a time. This is great if you are reading a document line by line or looking at individual photos.

In the System Preferences, under Appearance, you can set the Scroll Bar to either jump to the next page or to the spot that’s clicked.

This is handy when you are scanning a document or wanting to quickly navigate through a section of your photos.

This is also where you can set to Always Show Scroll Bars, instead of having to hover the cursor to reveal them.

BONUS: In Safari, pressing the Space Bar scrolls the window down a screen at a time. Shift plus Space Bar scrolls the window up a screen at a time.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Quick Scroll to the Top

When you reach the bottom of an article, or an email or the news feed in FaceBook, instead of scrolling all the way back to the top:

Just double tap in the very top black horizontal menu space where the time and battery are displayed and you’ll zip right up to the top of the screen.

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Managing Passwords

With all of the user names and passwords that you have to remember, how do you keep track of them all?

I highly recommend that you keep a Master List, on paper, in a notebook and make sure it is updated regularly.

But this isn’t convenient for travelers or users of more than one device.

There are online services that will store your passwords for you BUT, who are they? How long will they be in business? How secure is their site?

Your Mac has always stored saved passwords in Keychain Access, an app found in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. To reveal a saved password, you just need to know the master password for the computer.

Mavericks and iOS7 now give you the option of storing all of your Passwords on Apple’s iCloud Keychain.

To activate the iCloud Keychain,

1. Open System Preferences
2. Click on iCloud
3. Check the box next to Keychains
4. You will be required to create a four-digit password
5. BE SURE TO WRITE THIS PASSWORD DOWN ON YOUR MASTER LIST!
6. Activate the Keychain on your iPad and iPhone also

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

iCloud Keychain

The new iOS7 allows you to save your passwords on Apple’s iCloud. To activate this feature,

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap iCloud
3. Tap Keychain
4. Follow the prompts to set up your password

 

Comparing Pictures in iPhoto

You can compare two or more photos in iPhoto by clicking on one, holding down Command and clicking on the anothers.

Click Edit and they will appear side by side so you can decide which one is better.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Taking Pictures is Even easier

If you’ve ever wished your iPhone camera had a physical shutter button, look no further. The phone’s volume up (+) button doubles as a shutter button whenever the Camera app is opened. This hard button feels sturdier all around, plus it makes it a cinch to take self-portraits or to tell strangers how to take a photo of you and your friends.

You can also quickly access the camera even when your phone is locked.
From the locked Home Screen, slide up on the camera icon. It takes the right touch and the right slide, but once you master it, it’s the fast way to access your camera.

You can do this with anyone’s phone, regardless of whether or not you know their password because it only opens the Camera app, locking you out of all other apps-and other photos and videos-on the phone. Just the photos or videos you take at that moment will be visible to you.

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Searching in Mail

If you’re like most of my clients, you have a lot of emails in your Inbox and it can be pretty tedious to scroll up and down, looking for a particular email.

In the top right corner there is a search box. Type in what you are looking for. (If you don’t see it, make your window wider.)

A list of suggestions will appear as you type.

On the left side of the window, just below the icons of the toolbar, you’ll also see that you can limit the search to a specific folder.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Taking a Picture of Your Screen

Sometimes you have something on your screen that you want to share with someone in an email.

Maybe it’s an odd message that appears, or your high score in Words With Friends.

To take a snapshot of your screen:

Press and HOLD the Home button and also press the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.

The screen will flash and you’ll hear a click, indicating that a photo has been taken.

Your screen shots are saved automatically in your Photos gallery where you can view and then email them.

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Using DropBox Like a Backpack

Many of my clients work between several devices, maybe a laptop and an iMac, an iPad, even on their iPhone and they ask me, “What’s the best way to have my documents available to work on, no matter where I am?”

While Apple will suggest you use iCloud, I think it’s much easier to use DropBox. DropBox is also a cloud-based storage space that you can access from any computer and mobile device, and it’s easier to use and access than iCloud.

Storing your working files on a cloud-based system is like carrying them in a backpack so they are wherever you are.

Download the free DropBox app onto your Mac and onto each of the devices you want to share your documents with.

Set up your free account (you get 20GB of storage for free) and sign in with the same account on each of your devices

Drag the files you want to share with yourself into DropBox.

Make sure you have an internet connection when you do this so that the current documents go up to the cloud for universal access.

Note: When you drag the document from your computer to Dropbox, they are now ONLY on DropBox. If you copy them, the version you leave on your computer will NOT be changed when you change the one on DropBox)

Then, open the files directly from your DropBox, make your changes and the changes will appear on all devices.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Faster Charging

Your iPhone and iPad will charge 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.

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Scroll Bar Secrets

The scroll bar, on the right side of every window, allows you to move up and down the window to see the contents.

In the System Preferences, under General, you can set the Scroll Bar to either jump to the next page or to the spot that’s clicked.

This is handy when you are scanning a document or wanting to quickly navigate through a section of your photos.

If you don’t see your scroll bars all the time, this is where you can also choose to Always show them.

Dragging the scroll bar moves you fast, sometimes too fast. But dragging the scroll button is the quickest way to go all the way to the top or bottom of a window.

Clicking on the up and down arrows at the bottom of the scroll bar will move you a line at a time in that direction. This is great if you are reading a document line by line or looking at individual photos.

BONUS: In Safari, pressing the Space Bar scrolls the window a screen at a time.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Copy and Paste

Yes, of course you can copy and paste text on your iPad and iPhone.

1. Press and hold your finger at the beginning of the text you want to select. A menu appears, and the text is highlighted in light blue and there are blue circles on either end of the selection

2. Drag the blue circles to highlight all of the text you want to work with or choose Select All

3. Choose Copy

4. Press and hold your finger where you want to put the text you copied

5. Choose Paste

Editing Text

Use this same technique of pressing and holding your finger to reposition your cursor to Edit text

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Drafts in Mail with Mountain Lion

Lots of folks are asking where the Drafts Folder went in Mail after they installed Mountain Lion. It used to be that SAVE AS DRAFT was a choice. Now, just close the email you want to save and it will give you the option to Save As Draft.

Once you’ve saved something, the Drafts Folder will appear in the Mailbox list in the left column.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

A Week’s Worth of Weather

The weather widget in the Notification Center doesn’t just show you the weather for today. It can also show you the weather for the next five days.

Just swipe left or right for the full forecast.

 

Finding Words on Web Pages

Even though there is no visible Search tool, you can search any web page in Safari, even your FaceBook news feed.

1. From the Edit menu choose Find or hold down the Command key and type F

2. A search box appears in the top right of the toolbar

3. Type the text you’re looking for and press the Return key

4. It will tell you how many there are and the first match will be highlighted

5. Press the Return key again to move to the next match

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Don’t Bother Typing 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 followed by 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

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Opening Links in New Tabs in Safari

Searching on the internet usually means doing a Google search, clicking on each of the suggested sites, and clicking the back button to return to the list of Google’s suggested sites.

What if there were an easier way to see those pages without leaving the list of results?

Some folks use Tabs all of the time. Others prefer to open each new page and use the Back button to navigate. (You can set this preference under the Safari menu, Preferences.)

But Safari allows you to combine both ways to navigate.

Anytime you see a link in Safari and you want to open that link without leaving your current page:

Hold the Command key when you click it.

It won’t look like much different but if you look toward the top of that window below the Bookmarks Bar, you’ll see a new tab has been opened with the desired link.

The Back button is not active because you never left the original page. Instead, to close the current page, hover on the tab at the top of the page, below the Bookmarks Bar and click the X or to return to the original page, simply click on that Tab.

If you’re stuck and can’t get back to where you want to go, you can Quit Safari and all will return to normal.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Selecting Photos to Share or Delete

To select a single photo or more than one to share (or delete):

1. Tap the Photos icon on the Home screen

2. Tap Edit in the top right corner

3. Tap the photos you want to select and a check mark will appear on the photos

4. Tap Share (or Delete) from the bottom toolbar

5. Choose Email, FaceBook, etc

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Missing Folders in Mail

Where did all of my folders go?! Many clients are emailing me in a panic.

The triangles that used to appear next to ON MY MAC and iCLOUD and GMAIL that you could click on the reveal your folders are gone.

To see your folders, hover your mouse over ON MY MAC and iCLOUD and GMAIL where the folders used to be and you’ll see the word SHOW on the right side.

Click SHOW and all of your folders will appear.

Phew!

iPad and iPhone 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 on your iPad or iPhone.

1. Find the person in your Contacts

2. Tap Edit

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

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

5. Now, whenever they call or FaceTime, you’ll see their photo. FUN!

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Emptying the Cache in Safari

Safari’s Cache makes pages that you’ve previously loaded open faster. Often it’s because it’s opening an older version of that page. Sometimes refreshing or reloading a page will bring up the newer version, but sometimes it’s best to Empty the Cache.

In previous versions of Safari, it was easy and clear how to Empty the Cache. Under the Safari menu you choose Empty Cache.

With Lion and Mountain Lion and the newest versions of Safari, Empty Cache is no longer a choice under the Safari menu.

1. Under the Safari menu choose Preferences

2. Click on the Advanced icon

3. At the bottom of the window put a check next to Show develop menu in menu bar

4. Close Preferences

5. You’ll see you now have a new menu across the top called Develop

6. Under the Develop menu, about half way down, choose Empty Cache

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Bar Code and QR Code Scanning

A reader recently asked about bar code and Q scanning with her iPhone. There are several free apps that allow you to take a photo of a bar code or QR Code with your iPhone or iPad. Search the App Store for Bar Code Scanning to see the choices.

The codes reveal all kinds of information including:

– Prices from over 30 different online retailers including Amazon, Home Depot, Macy’s, Best Buy, Target, and more
– Local prices to find out if the product is sold near you (US only)
– Millions of customer reviews from Amazon & Best Buy
– Related deals & coupons
– Related accessories
– Nutritional information & ingredients (US only)

 

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

iPad and iPhone App of the Month

Auto-Complete Text

Do you type the same phrases all of the time on your iPad or iPhone? You can create shortcuts for these frequently used sentences.

Let’s say you often type “Love you much” in your emails.

You can create a shortcut so that, when you type LYM it will automatically type the complete phrase.

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll all the way down to Keyboard

4. Scroll down to Shortcuts

5. Tap Add New Shortcut…

6. Type in the complete phrase, ie: Love you much!

7. Next to “Shortcut” type the letters you want to use for that phrase, ie: lym

8. Tap SAVE

9. Open up Mail and try it!

You can create many different shortcuts. I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many you can create.

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Launch Pad

Lion’s Launch Pad offers you an easy way to look at your Apps. But it only shows Apple Apps and those you’ve downloaded from the App store. To see ALL the Applications on your Mac, click on the Go menu in the Finder and choose Applications.

iPad and iPhone App of the Month

Play With Friends

There are lots of fun apps that let you play with your friends, even when you’re not together. All of the games offer a free version and a paid version without ads.

Words With Friends is just like Scrabble. Play with me–my name is Ruthr

Draw Something is a combination of Pictionary and Jumble, so that you have letters to give you a hint about what your friend has drawn. No artistic skills necessary. Play with me–my name is Ruthspark

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Drafts in Mail with Lion

Lots of folks are asking where the Drafts Folder went in Mail after they installed Lion. It used to be that SAVE AS DRAFT was a choice. Now, just close the email you want to save and it will give you the option to Save As Draft.

Once you’ve saved something, the Drafts Folder will appear in the Mailbox list in the left column.

iPad and iPhone App of the Month

Weather

The weather widget in the Notification Center doesn’t just show you the weather for today. It can also show you the weather for the next five days.

Just swipe left or right for the full forecast.

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Where Are Those Missing Keys

The Apple Wireless Keyboard is sleek, compact and feels great on your fingers. But it’s missing the numeric keypad and a few other keys that some people are lost without.

Today’s tip is especially for all of you recently converted PC users who miss those special navigational keys.

Use the FN key (bottom left of your keyboard) with the following keys:

PAGE UP = FN + up arrow
PAGE DOWN= FN + down arrow
HOME = FN + left arrow
END = FN + right arrow
FORWRD DELETE = FN + delete

iPad and iPhone App of the Month

Rearranging and Grouping Apps

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, you can try dragging it all the way to the edge of the current screen. But this is aggravating and it doesn’t always work.

Instead, drag the App into the Favorites Bar at the bottom, slide to the preferred screen, then drag the App to where you want it.

The Favorites Bar can hold up to 6 items on an iPad and up to 4 items on the iPhone. You can temporarily move something off of the Favorites Bar to use the placeholder for all of this moving and rearranging.

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

 

Seeing What Fonts Really Look Like

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.

1. Click on the barely noticeable circle that is below the word “Fonts” and above the “T” tool. Your mouse becomes a tool with arrows.

2. 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.

iPad and iPhone 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

—————–

Creating Your Own Signature in Email

A signature can automatically appear 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.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

 

How To Take A Picture of What’s on the Screen

Sometimes you need to take a snapshot of what’s on your screen. Maybe to report an odd problem. Maybe to brag about a high score on Scrabble.

To take a picture of the screen, hold down the On/Off button at the same time that you press the Home button. You’ll hear a shutter sound.

To find the picture, click on Photos and look in the camera roll. Now you can email the picture or save it for future use.

 

 

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Create a Holiday Playlist in iTunes

For all of you Christmas music lovers, the easiest way to keep that holiday music playing is to create a Playlist.

Instead of manually looking for the songs you want, use the powerful SEARCH tool.

1. In the top right corner, click in the Search box and type Christmas

2. All songs/albums/artists with that word will appear

3. From the File menu choose New Playlist From Selection

4. The new playlist will appear at the bottom of the left column as Untitled Playlist

5. Without clicking anywhere, type a name for this Holiday Playlist

You can add additional songs to this playlist by dragging them from the main music window to on top of the playlist.

Watch the free video that shows you how to do this!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

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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.

Open the email.

In Lion’s Mail, first click Show Details.

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

It will look like nothing has happened but your pictures are now in your iPhoto Library.

Now you can delete the email.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Changing the Font for Notes

While the font Marker Felt might be fun, it may not be your font of choice for your Notes. Now, with iOS 5 you can change the font for your Notes.

1. Click on Settings
2. Scroll pretty far down the list and click on Notes
3. Choose one of the three font’s listed

 

Have a Little Google Fun

The Google search engine has quite a few hidden secrets, called Easter Eggs. To get the most fun out of them, go to www.google.com and type in the suggested search words. Then click the I’m Feeling Lucky button to activate the Easter Egg.

If you don’t see the I’m Feeling Lucky button, click on the gear in the upper right corner, click Search Settings, then, under Google Instant, choose Do Not Use Google Instant, then scroll down to Save Preferences in the bottom right corner.

1. Google Tilt: Search the term “askew” and you’ll get more than just the definition…

2. Google Gravity: Search “Google gravity” and then click the I’m Feeling Lucky button. Whoa!

3. Google Sphere: Search “Google sphere” then click the I’m Feeling Lucky button. Yeah.

4. Barrel Roll: Search “do a barrel roll” and hold onto your stomach!

5. Google Rainbow: Search “Google rainbow” and then click I’m Feeling Lucky. Can you see the rainbow?

6. Ask Google “where is Chuck Norris?” and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button.

7. Pig Latin Google: For some Pig Latin fun, Google “ooglegay igpay atinlay”

8. Google Pacman: View the awesome Google Pacman Doodle by searching “Google Pacman” and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button. Use your arrows to play a real game!

9. Google Guitar: Search “Google guitar” and click I’m Feeling Lucky. Strum away with the musical Google Doodle to honor Les Paul’s 96th birthday.

10. Google Pirate: Arrr! Search “Google pirate” and click I’m Feeling Lucky. (This one made me giggle.)

11. Google Hacker: Google gets hacked! Type in “Google hacker” and then click I’m feeling lucky.

12. Google Loco: Search “Google loco” and uh, it gets a little crazy. (Try searching something now!)

13. Weenie Google: Search “weenie Google,” click the I’m Feeling Lucky button, and watch it shrink away!

14. Epic Google: Or, search “epic Google,” click the I’m Feeling Lucky button, and see what you get.

15. Gothic Google: Feeling a bit dark? Search “Google gothic” and click the I’m Feeling Lucky button.

16. Google Flight Simulator: Enjoy the Flight Simulator when you go to Google Earth, click on Tools > Enter Flight Simulator and you’re off!

17. Ask Google “what is the loneliest number?”

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

This month’s apps are all about pure, simple, no experience necessary FUN!

MyPaint Free requires no artistic talent. Just pick a color, adjust the thickness of the brush and drag your finger on the blank page to create your very own masterpiece.

Taiko brings a set of Japanese Taiko drums to your iPad. The harder you hit the drums, the louder the sound. Swirl your finger for faster or slower rolls. For one or two drummers!

Songify turns speech into music, automatically. Speak into your device, choose a rhythm, then sit back and laugh.

Note: Even if an app is only available for the iPhone, you can still install it on the iPad and even enlarge it to full screen!

——————–

How to Back Up Your 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 that you can save onto a flashdrive, just in case.

Here’s a free video lesson that will teach you how to do this!

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Emailing More Than One Photo

It’s pretty simple to email one photo:

1. Tap the Photos icon on the Home screen

2. Tap the Photo

3. Tap the arrow icon in the top right corner

4. Select Email Photo

To send more than one photo at a time:

1. Tap the Photos icon on the Home screen

2. Tap the arrow icon in the top right corner

3. Now tap the photos you want to send and a check mark will appear on the photos

4. Tap Share in the top left corner

5. Choose Email

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Private Browsing with Safari

Are you doing a lot of online shopping for the holidays and don’t want your family members to see what you’ve been buying?

You can set Safari to NOT include your visited websites in the History.

From the Safari menu, choose Private Browsing

Done. No more snooping or spoiled surprises.

 

iPad Tip of the Week

Typing an Apostrophe

How often do you need to type an apostrophe. It’s such a pain to press the ?123 key to switch to the punctuation keyboard.

Here’s an easy trick:

Press and hold on the ,! key and the apostrophe key will appear. Just slide your finger on it to use it.

ATTENTION iPOD NANO USERS

Some 1st Generation iPod Nanos have Faulty Batteries

Apple is recalling a series of 1st generation iPod Nanos and replacing them, free of charge. The affected products were sold between September 2005 and December 2006 and have the risk of overheating and possibly even catching on fire.

 

Click here to determine if your iPod is one of the affected units and for all of the details on replacement.

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Changing What Appears When You Re-Open a program

Lion’s Resume feature automatically re-opens all of the windows you were working in when you Quit the program. This can be a handy, time-saving feature for some people, and an annoyance for others.

To turn off the Resume feature in only certain programs, hold down the Option key when Quitting and the choice will say “Quit and Close All Windows”.

To disable Resume for all programs, in System Preferences, choose General. Below the choices for Number of Recent items, remove the check mark next to “Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps”.

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Auto-Complete Text

Do you type the same phrases all of the time on your iPad or iPhone? The new iOS 5 has a slick new feature to help you with this.

Let’s say you often type “Love you much” in your emails. You can create a shortcut so that, when you type LYM it will automatically type the complete phrase.

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll all the way down to Keyboard

4. Scroll down to Shortcuts

5. Tap Add New Shortcut…

6. Type in the complete phrase, ie: Love you much!

7. Next to “Shortcut” type the letters you want to use for that phrase, ie: lym

8. Tap SAVE

9. Open up Mail and try it!

10. You can create many different shortcuts. I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many you can create.

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Reading Articles in Safari Just Got Easier

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

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

1. Find an article in a newspaper

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

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

iPad and iPhone Tip of the Week

Format Text in Mail with iOS5

It’s true. Now you can bold, italicize and even underline text in Mail. And you can indent paragraphs too.

1. Select the text you want to change

2. Tap the right arrow at the far right of the Cut, Copy, Paste menu

3. Tap BIU to change the format or Quote Level if you want to indent

4. Tap your desired format choice

5. Tap on the page to get out of the menu

 

 

 

Mastering the Keypad

One of the biggest changes that users are experiencing with Lion is how much you can do with the Trackpad, whether it’s the built-in trackpad on your laptop or the stand alone bluetooth Magic Trackpad that you can purchase for $69.00 from Apple.
Even with Snow Leopard, the trackpad can be set to do all kinds of things, from rotating photos to enlarging text.

To customize the Trackpad:

1. Under the Apple menu choose System Preferences

2. Click on the Trackpad icon

Depending on the age of the computer you’re using, you’ll see a variety of options. On newer Macs you’ll also see video demonstrations of each of the option.

For a complete description of all of the Trackpad options, click on the question mark in the bottom right corner of the Trackpad window.

It takes a little practice to learn where to click and how many fingers to use, but if you try one new technique at a time, you’ll soon be a trackpad master.

 

iPAD and iPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

Be Sure to Update

Even if you do all of your syncing with MobileMe, it’s important to connect your iPhone and iPad to your Mac regularly so that it can check for updates.

You always want to update to the latest versions of the software so that you can take advantage of all of the newest features. Mark it on your calendar to update once a month.

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Before Upgrading to Lion:

Apple released Lion today, the newest version of the Mac OS. But before you rush to upgrade, you’ll want to be sure that you have what you need, and that everything you use will still run with the new OS.

Lion requires an Intel Core 2 Duo processor
and recommended 4 GB RAM

You can check your system by clicking on the Apple menu in the top left corner and choosing About This Mac.

There are several popular programs that will no longer work once you upgrade, including Quicken, Appleworks, Microsoft Office X and many older games.

Click here for a great article that offers the essential steps before upgrading, including backing up and checking to see what applications you have that will no longer work.

If you’re not sure, or not ready, hold off on upgrading to Lion. But do upgrade to 10.6.8, the latest version of Snow Leopard.

If you have any questions, or need help, send me an email!

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Searching in mail

If you have a lot of emails in your Inbox, it can be pretty tedious to scroll up and down, looking for a particular email.

In the top right corner there is a search box. Type in what you are looking for. (If you don’t see it, make your window wider.)

Now, just below the icons of the toolbar, you’ll also see that you can limit the search criteria: where you are searching, and whether you are looking for that text in the Entire Message, From, To or Subject.

 

iPAD and iPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

Numbers and Punctuation

If you press the 123 key, the keyboard layout switches to numbers and punctuation. Then you have to press ABC again to get back to the letter keyboard.

Shortcut:

Tap and HOLD the 123 key and slide to the number you need. When you release, the keyboard will automatically switch back to the letters.

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A Great Way to Use Mobile Me

My favorite feature about MobileMe 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 ME.COM (or Mac.com if you’ve had the account for a while)

5. Now, drag any important travel emails into this Mailbox and those emails will be on every other device that has your MobileMe account set up.

iPAD and iPHONE TIP OF THE WEEK

Mobile me Mailboxes

See the above tip to set up Mailboxes in Mail that you can access from your iPhone or iPad.

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Changing Dates in iCal

iCal has so many great features that make it easy to schedule appointments, celebrations, meetings and more. It’s easy to color-code each entry, set it to be a recurring event every week, every month or on a customized schedule. You can even set an alarm to remind you ahead of time.

Sometimes, you’ll have an event set for a particular day but then the day is changed.

Instead of clicking on the Event, clicking Edit and changing the information, just drag it to the new date.

To duplicate an event, hold down the Option key and drag the event to the new date.

iPAD and iPHONE 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. Click on Settings.

2. Click on 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.

 

Printing In Black Only

To save ink, consider printing some of your documents in Black Only. It’s called Printing in Grayscale.

Every printer will address this differently, but here are the basic steps to help you find what you’re looking for with your particular printer.

1. From the File menu, choose Print

2. Next to the current choice under the number of pages to print (it may say Layout, or the name of the current program), click to reveal a menu of choices

3. Choose Quality and Media

4. At the bottom of the window, put a check mark next to Grayscale

Forwarding an Email Without All of the Forward Garbage with Apple Mail

When you Forward an email to someone, it includes the previous recipient information. You could highlight it all and then delete it, or,

1. Click on the email

2. From the Message menu, choose Send Again

A new email is created, ready to address, without any of the extraneous information.

If the original email was previously forwarded, it may still contain some of that unwanted text, so be sure to delete it before sending it.

The Missing Keys for Navigation

One of the hardest adjustments former PC users have to make is getting used to the Mac’s keyboard.

Today’s tip addresses the missing navigation keys on Apple’s wireless keyboard.

The Missing Keys for Navigation

The Apple Wireless Keyboard is sleek, compact and feels great on your fingers. But it’s missing the numeric keypad and a few other keys that some people are lost without.

Today’s tip is especially for all of you recently converted PC users who miss those special navigational keys.

Use the FN key (bottom left of your keyboard) with the following keys:

PAGE UP = FN + up arrow
PAGE DOWN= FN + down arrow
HOME = FN + left arrow
END = FN + right arrow
FORWARD DELETE = FN + delete

 

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.

 

Click here to get the free Mac Tip of the Week in your Inbox every Tuesday.

SAFARI: CUSTOMIZING THE TOOLBAR

Safari’s Toolbar contains the minimal tools needed to surf the internet.

To add, rearrange and remove icons from Safari’s Toolbar:
1. In Safari under the View menu choose Customize Toolbar.
2. Drag any desired icons from the window onto the Toolbar.
3. You can also rearrange the icons in the Toolbar and remove the ones that you don’t use by dragging them off the Toolbar while you have the Customize Toolbar window open.

Some Tools I like to add:
Smaller/Bigger Big A, Little A because some pages are too small to read and so, adding this tools lets me make content bigger as needed.

I also like to have a button to quickly get me back to my Home Page.

MAIL: CHANGING THE BACKGROUND COLOR OF THE PAGE

Yes, you can change the background color of your emails. With your cursor in the message area, click the Fonts button in the Toolbar. The fourth icon from the left that looks like a dog-eared page, is the tool for the Document Color. Click it and then choose a new color.

To change the way you view your color choices, click on the different icons in the Color window. I prefer the crayon box, the tool at the far right.

iPHONE RECEPTION ISSUES

Cell phones send and receive signals from cell towers. As you drive around town, the signal connects to various towers, handshaking from one to the other. If you drive through an area without a tower (along the 51 through the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, for example) your phone loses connection from the system, if only for a brief minute, and even when it reconnects to the next tower, the signal may not be a 100% handshake. You may notice more dropped calls or voicemails that show up on your phone hours after the call.

To resolve this issue, AT&T recommends turning off/on your iPhone after you drive through an area with no towers, and also turning your phone off and on at least every two weeks to re-establish full handshaking. Some people get into the habit of turning their phone off every day to ensure the best reception.

To turn your iPhone off, push and hold the sleep button on the top of the phone until you see a screen with the option “slide to power off.” If you continue to have problems with delayed voicemails and dropped calls, contact AT&T.