Are You Missing Your Scroll Bars?

If you are using Mountain Lion, you may have noticed that your Scroll Bars have disappeared. In fact, the new default setting is to only show them when you are scrolling.

To change this, from the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, click on General and, next to Show scroll bars, chose Always.

Ahhhhhh…….

iPad Tip of the Week

Tall or Wide, How to Lock the Orientation

A helpful feature on the iPhone and iPad is that you can turn the device sideways to rotate the screen orientation. It’s a lot easier to read articles and emails in the sideways or landscape orientation. But it can also be annoying to have the screen randomly change orientation.

You can lock the orientation so that it no longer changes orientation.

On the iPhone:

Double-tap the Home button to reveal the line of open and active apps

Slide all the way to the LEFT until you see the iTunes icon and the play buttons. Also on this screen is the Rotation Lock icon

Tap it to lock the Portrait orientation so that the screen will no longer rotate to wide.

On the iPad:

Tap Settings

Tap General

Scroll down to the choice where you can use the side switch to Lock Rotation

Before you lock the switch, turn the iPad in the direction you want to use, either tall or wide, and then Lock the screen in position

NOTE: Even if you choose to lock in the wide/landscape orientation on the iPad, some apps may still open only in portrait.

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Seeing Only Certain Contacts on Your Phone

All of your contacts are stored in one place and are automatically synced with all of your devices. But many folks don’t want to SEE all of their contacts on their iPhone. They just want to see the people they call.

On your Mac:

1. Open Contacts and, from the File menu, choose New Group

2. Name it “phone” or something similar

3. Click on All Contacts in the left column

4. Find the people you want to see on your iPhone

5. Move them into the new “phone” group

You can select them one at a time and drag them on top of the group you just created or

Click on one name, hold down the Command key and select others.

Drag one person on top of the phone group and they will all go.

iPad Tip of the Week

To See Only The Contacts in the “Phone” Group You Created

1. Tap Contacts

2. In the top left, tap Groups

3. Right now, the groups that are checked are all showing in the Contacts list

4. Tap Hide All Contacts to remove all the check marks

5. Tap the “phone” group to choose ONLY those people

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Are You Missing Your Scroll Bars?

If you are using Mountain Lion, you may have noticed that your Scroll Bars have disappeared. In fact, the new default setting is to only show them when you are scrolling.

To change this, from the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, click on General and, next to Show scroll bars, chose Always.

Ahhhhhh…….

iPad Tip of the Week

Tall or Wide, How to Lock the Orientation

A helpful feature on the iPhone and iPad is that you can turn the device sideways to rotate the screen orientation. It’s a lot easier to read articles and emails in the sideways or landscape orientation. But it can also be annoying to have the screen randomly change orientation.

You can lock the orientation so that it no longer changes orientation.

On the iPhone:

1. Double-tap the Home button to reveal the line of open and active apps

2. Slide all the way to the LEFT until you see the iTunes icon and the play buttons. Also on this screen is the Rotation Lock icon

3. Tap it to lock the Portrait orientation so that the screen will no longer rotate to wide.

On the iPad:

1. Tap Settings

2. Tap General

3. Scroll down to the choice where you can use the side switch to Lock Rotation

4. Before you lock the switch, turn the iPad in the direction you want to use, either tall or wide, and then Lock the screen in position

NOTE: Even if you choose to lock in the wide/landscape orientation on the iPad, some apps may still open only in portrait.

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Seeing Only Certain Contacts on Your Phone

1. Open Contacts and, from the File menu, choose New Group
2. Name it “phone” or something similar
3. Click on All Contacts in the left column
4. Find the people you want to see on your iPhone
5. Move them into the new “phone” group

iPad Tip of the Week

A Faster Way to Scroll in iCal

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Printing those Passwords

While you can’t print the password list directly, you can take a screen shot and then print that.

1. Resize the window so that you can see as many passwords as possible

2. Hold down the Command and Shift keys and type the number 4

3. The cursor will become a crosshair

4. Starting in any corner, drag to surround everything you want to print

5. Release the mouse and you’ll hear a sound like a camera shutter

6. Click on your Desktop to find the file named “Screenshot”

7. You may have to take several shots to get your complete list

8. To print these Screenshots, just double click to open, then choose Print from the File menu

iPad Tip of the Week

A Faster Way to Scroll in iCal

Instead of tapping the forward and back buttons to go to a different month:

Tap and HOLD on that arrow to navigate faster

Remember to tap Today to quickly return to the current month

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Website Passwords

I’m a big proponent of keeping a written list of all of your passwords in a notebook so that you always have access to them.

One of the new features in Safari stores all of your website passwords, in case you forget them.

1. Under the Safari menu, choose Preferences

2. Click on the Passwords icon

3. To reveal the actual passwords, click Show Passwords

4. You will need to type the password for the computer to gain access

You can remove any saved passwords or clear the entire list.

iPad Tip of the Week

Cleaning Out Storage Space

Believe it or not, iMessage and texts take up quiet a bit of storage space on your mobile devices.

This is particularly true if you send and receive a lot of multimedia messages with photos, animations, etc.

To clear out old Messages:

1. Open Messages app

2. Tap Edit

3. Tap the red (-) button to delete an entire message thread

4. Repeat as necessary

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.