Calendar Trick

I tend to work with my calendar in Month view, so that I can get an overview of my work schedule and not overextend myself or overbook. But then, I want to be able to quickly go to a certain day to see the details.

To quickly switch from Month View to Day View so that I can see everything on a particular date, double click on the number of the date.

For more great ways to use Calendar, sign up for the upcoming THE ORGANIZED MAC class.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Secret Tools

Did you know that iOS 7 includes a handy compass? And a level?

The Compass app shows your current city and state next to the compass reading and it also displays full latitude and longitude coordinates below. And if you want to follow a particular bearing (for example, 17 degrees northwest), you can tap the compass face once to set it. As you move around, the compass draws a red arc on the inside of the circle, showing how far you’re deviating from your original course.

But did you know there’s also a handy level?

Open the Compass app, calibrate it as directed, then swipe to the left to reveal the level.

To use the level, place your iPad or iPhone flat on its back. Two overlapping white circles appear with a degree of measurement in the center. As you adjust the level, the circles change until they overlap perfectly for more than a few seconds. When it is level, the background will turn bright green.

Hold your device in landscape or portrait, and you access a rectangular level, dividing the screen into white and red rectangles. When the white rectangle reaches equilibrium with the red rectangle, the latter turns bright green.

If it’s not working correctly, quit the Compass app, re-open it and calibrate again.

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Safari Settings

A reader recently asked: “When I click on Safari, instead of just the Google page coming up, there is a page titled: Top Sites. How do I return to just the Google page?”

The newest version of Safari may have changed your default settings, including what shows when you first open Safari.

1. In Safari, under the Safari menu choose Preferences

2. Click the General tab

3. This is where you choose what you want to appear when you open Safari.
If you don’t use Top Sites, change to Homepage

4. This is also where you can set what the Homepage is

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Navigating in Safari

iOS 7 changed how you navigate with Safari. When a page opens, you can see the Address Bar at the top, but as you peruse the page, that bar disappears. So do the Forward and Back arrows, and the other icons at the bottom of the screen

So how do you get back to searching?

Tap the top area where you expect the Address Bar to be and it will re-appear. The tools at the bottom also return.

Tap it again to highlight the current address so you can type a new search in the box.

To return to a page you recently visited, tap the Pages icon at the bottom right.
Close any pages you’re done with by tapping the X

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Changing Passwords

Last week’s Heartbleed bug affected the security of many favorite websites. This Money Magazine article from April 11 suggests that you change your passwords on several top sites, including Gmail, Yahoo and Facebook.

You do not need to change any of your Apple passwords!

Your iCloud password and all of your passwords that are stored in Apple’s iCloud Keychain are secure.

As you visit sites where you have since changed a password, iCloud Keychain will ask if you want to save the new password. Say yes.

TIPS FOR CREATING A SECURE PASSWORD:

When choosing a new password, consider something more cryptic, even if it is hard to remember. Experts suggest choosing a sentence or phrase and taking the first letters of each word, combining capital and lowercase letters and also including some numbers.

For example, the phrase: take me to the beach this year
could be the password tM2tB14

And every time you type it, you’ll think about taking yourself to the beach.

Experts also recommend having four different user name and passwords… one for low level usage, like when you have to give an email address, one for your email accounts, one for high level things like banking and purchases, and one in the middle for everything else.

I recommend that you write everything down in a notebook. And if you need it online, at least save it in a password-protected document on a secure cloud server like iCloud.

If you’re looking for an online password solution, 1PASSWORD gets high marks from many of my clients. They’re offering a 20% off special here: https://agilebits.com/store

And remember, when you change your Gmail or Yahoo passwords on their websites, you’ll also have to change it in the Mail settings on your Mac, iPhone and iPad.

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Auto Typing with Text Expander

Users of Mavericks can now take advantage of a built-in text expander. If you type the same phrases, you can create shortcuts for this frequently uses text.

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. From the Apple menu, open System Preferences

2. Click on the Keyboard icon

3. Click on the Text tab

4. Click the + at the bottom of the left column to create a new shortcut

5. Type the shortcut keys and the full text in the appropriate spaces

6. Close System Preferences

7. Open up Mail or a word processing document and try it!

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Auto Typing With Text Expander

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!

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Cookies, Explained

When you walk into any store these days, you are giving them permission to film you on their surveillance videos, to know that you’ve been in their store. Cookies do the same thing. They give the website owners information about you as a consumer.

If you turn off all cookies, you won’t be able to access most websites. But you can control who has access to your information.

1. In Safari, under the Safari menu, choose Preferences
2. Click on the Privacy icon
3. Next to Cookies and other website data, click on the Details button
4. You’ll see a list of every website that you’ve visited
5. Click on one or hold down the Command key to select more than one
6. Click to Remove
You can choose to Remove All, but then you may have to reenter information the next time you visit that website
7. Make it a habit to clear out cookies data regularly, especially from sites your no longer visit so that they are no longer gathering information about you

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Battery Life

To get the most battery life out of your iPad and iPhone, completely cycle it once a month.

1. Charge it to 100%
2. Drain it down to 0 (until it automatically shuts off)
3. Then charge it all the way to 100% again

Plugging the device into a power outlet will charge it faster than plugging it into your computer. Also, Apple branded chargers work must faster than thitd party brands.

 

 

Stop Saving These Tips!

I am thrilled that you save these. That you see the value in the information. Some of you even print them in a notebook and reference them.

But most of you never look at them again. Yet you save them in a Mailbox in Mail, or in a separate folder in your Documents.

Thank you. I appreciate the thought.

Now delete them all.

All of the tips are archived on the mac2school/tips website.

Just use Safari’s built-in search feature to find what you’re looking for.

1. In Safari, 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

Be sure to check on all pages by scrolling to the bottom and clicking on the next page number, then searching again.

To delete the folder where you’ve been saving all of these tips:

1. Click once on the folder (Mailbox)

2. From the Mailbox menu choose Delete Mailbox

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Secrets About the Flashlight

The new iOS7 includes a flashlight in the Control Center. Swipe UP from the locked screen or the Home Screen to access it.

There are several ways to turn the flashlight OFF:

1. Use Control Center to turn the iPhone flashlight on as usual

or

2. Tap the Home button to show the lock screen, then tap the Camera icon in the bottom right (no need to slide on Camera to access it, just touch the icon

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Typing Emoticons

Emoticons are those cartoon characters that people include in emails and on FaceBook. They are those winking smiley faces and colorful hearts and random, fun images of things in our lives.

Built into the Mac since Lion, you can easily add these characters.

For Mavericks:

When you’re ready to type a character, activate the Emoji keyboard by holding the Control key and Command key and pressing the Space Bar.
The Emoji characters will appear.Click on the one you want to use

For Mountain Lion and Lion:

1. Under the Apple menu, choose System Preferences
2. Click on the Keyboard icon
3. Check the box to Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu
4. A new icon appears in the top right menu bar, next to the clock
5. Click it to show the Character Viewer
6. The left column shows the different collections of symbols, shapes and arrows that have always been available on the Mac
7. Click Emoji to access the cartoon emoticons
8. Click on People, Nature, Objects, Places and Symbols to see the choices
9. To use one simply drag it to where you are typing

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Typing Emoticons

You can easily access these same fun graphics on your iPad and iPhone wherever you have a keyboard.

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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Comparing Photos

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

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

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Downloading Apps

The other day I suggested a popular app to a client for her iPad. But it didn’t appear in the App Store.
When you are searching the App Store, it limits what you see by iPad and iPhone. Many apps are designed for iPhones, but also work on iPads.

So if you don’t see what you’re looking for, try searching in the iPhone section.

By the way, the app I was recommending is GasBuddy, great for traveling to see what the price of gas is in any town.

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Upgrading to Mavericks

Lots of folks have been asking about upgrading, whether they should, what do they need, what will they gain.

While each person’s needs may be different, there are some primary reasons why a person SHOULD upgrade:

* if you have an iPhone or iPad and you want your Contacts and Calendars and Notes to sync between all devices

* if you want to start storing your Pages/Numbers/Keynote documents on iCloud so you can work on them from any device

Be advised that you will likely have to upgrade versions of software to work with Mavericks, including the newest iPhoto and Pages. You may also need to purchase newer versions of Word and other apps to work with Mavericks.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Teaching Autocorrect a New Word

1. If you have an iPhone and iOS7 you can teach it the correct word

2. Open Safari in iOS (yes, the web browser)

3. Open a new window

4. Tap in the topmost “Search” box and type the word you want Autocorrect to stop correcting

5. Tap on “Go” to search for it

6. Now go back to Mail, Messages, etc, to type the originally intended word – no more autocorrecting it!

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Full Screen

It’s a great feature – being able to fill the screen with the window you’re working with. You just click on the diagonal arrows in the top right of the window.

Except a lot of folks are writing because they clicked it inadvertently and now don’t know how to get back to normal.

To return to your regular screen, hover your cursor in the far top right corner to reveal the menu bar and click on those same diagonal arrows, which are now blue.

Now you can consciously choose when to use Full Screen.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Quickest Way to Take a Picture

I love walking up to strangers who are using their iPhones to take a picture and sharing this tip.

Instead of swiping to unlock your iPhone or iPad and then opening the camera app, try this:

From the locked Home Screen, look for the very faint icon of the camera to the right of the Slide to Unlock. Drag the camera icon up and you’ll be right there, ready to snap a photo.

It takes a little practice to get the right pressure for the upward swipe, but once you master it, you’ll never do it the old way again.

 

 

Getting Your Mac Ready for Mavericks, the new OS

Mavericks, Apple’s new OS for Mac is packed with a new look and lots of new features.

As with any upgrade, you may want to wait until they iron out some of the bugs before you jump in. And before you rush to upgrade, you’ll want to make sure your Mac is ready for the new OS.

1. Confirm that your Mac will work with Mavericks

For a complete list of compatible Macs and software requirements, check out Apple’s www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/

2. Back up!

If you are not already using Time Machine to automatically back up your computer, now is the time to invest. Get an external hard drive, plug it in and follow the on-screen prompts.

3. Clean Up!

Mavericks requires 8GB of space on the hard drive for installation. For most computers this won’t be an issue, but MacBook Air users may be pressed for space.

Delete old files
Clear out the Downloads folder
Delete any apps that you never use
Archive your older photos to DVDs or another external drive

4. Run Disk Utility!

In the same way that you clean out your physical file drawers, throwing out old papers and then smooshing the file folders to create more space, you can have the Mac do a similar kind of cleaning up.

1. From the Desktop, click on the GO menu and choose Utilities, and then open Disk Utility
or, using Spotlight, type in Disk Utility and open in

2. In the left column, click on the icon of Macintosh HD, your internal hard drive

3. Click Repair Disk Permissions

It may take a while, even a long while, to complete the task.

If it reports errors that were fixed, Click Repair Disk Permissions again to run it again.

5. Confirm that your apps are Mavericks compatible!

While most software will still work with the new OS, you need to confirm this! Check out www.roaringapps.com for a complete compatibility list.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

In Case of Emergency

If you are in an accident and can’t communicate, officials will check your phone for an emergency contact person. To make it easy for them to find the correct person, add an entry in your Contacts for ICE (in case of emergency):
1. In Contacts, click the + to add a new person
2. Enter the person’s first and last name
3. In the Company field, type ICE
4. Click the box next to company to have Contacts list that person under the company name
5. Enter the appropriate contact information
6. Click Done
7. You’ll now have an entry in Contacts under the letter ‘I” for ICE

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Is Your Mac Running Slow?

Here are three quick remedies to increase the performance of your Mac:

1. Restart your computer at least once a week

2. Quit any Apps that are open that you don’t use regularly

3. Repair Permissions

In the same way that you clean out your physical file drawers, throwing out old papers and then smooshing the file folders to create more space, you can have the Mac do a similar kind of cleaning up.

1. From the Desktop, click on the GO menu and choose Utilities, and then open Disk Utility
or, using Spotlight, type in Disk Utility and open in

2. In the left column, click on the icon of Macintosh HD, your internal hard drive

3. Click Repair Disk Permissions

It may take a while, even a long while, to complete the task.

If it reports errors that were fixed, Click Repair Disk Permissions again to run it again.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

iCal Tip

If you are looking at your calendar in the Month mode and want to quickly see the Day view, turn your device sideways. (This may not work with iOS7 on the iPad)

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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.

1. Open the email.

2. In Lion and Mountain Lion Mail, first click Show Details.

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

4. iPhoto will open and the pictures will be added to your iPhoto Library.

5. Now you can delete the email.

iPhone and iPad 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.

1. Find the person in your Contacts.

2. Tap Edit.

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

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

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Facebook Security Settings

Facebook is THE social media program for connecting with friends and colleagues and meeting new people. People share photos, inspirational quotes, details about meetings. And many businesses are using Facebook to offer discounts and daily specials.

You can participate as much or as little as you want to.

But it’s important to set your privacy settings and notifications so that YOU have control over who sees what and what you you see.

Here’s a free guide to help you set up your Facebook account to ensure privacy and connection with only the people you want to connect with.

If you’d like to Friend me on Facebook, I’m RuthRDavis.

iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Fast Access to Drafts

Often, you may start writing an email on your mobile device, but decide to finish it later. If you tap Cancel, you get the option to Save the email as a Draft.

To quickly access the draft to finish it, tap and hold the Compose icon (pen and paper) and it will show a list of all drafts that you created on your iPhone or iPad.

Sorry, drafts written on your Mac do NOT appear in this list.

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Fast Printing

Instead of opening up a document in order to print it, you can drag the icon of the document onto the printer icon in the Dock.

To get your printer into the Dock, open any document and print it. The printer icon will appear briefly in the Dock as it is printing. Click and hold the cursor on the icon and choose Options. Choose Keep in Dock.

Now, anytime you need to print something, just drag it onto the Printer icon.

iPhone and iPad 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

iOS 7 iPhone and iPad Tip of the Week

Essential Guide to iOS 7

I must admit, my first reaction to the new iOS7 was frustration and crankiness. I didn’t like the new colors and motion. I resented the change in swipe directions and the repositioning of buttons.

But then I had a change of heart.

Even though I still didn’t like the new look, my brain was learning new things, creating new neural pathways, which staves off dementia. So thanks, Apple, for giving my brain a workout!

If you have upgraded to OS7, you’ll want to check out Mac2School’s Essential Guide to iOS7.

Be sure to save it or print it for easy access–it’s packed with tips and shortcuts to help you get used to the new look and feel of the OS.

Get the Free iOS7 Guide here.

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