Basics4Mac

Combining Face Names in iPhoto

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Different names for the same person

Duplicated people
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When you are naming people in Faces in iPhoto, you might make a small change to how you name a certain person. For example, you might name the person "Chris" in one place and "chris" in another. This will result in two different Polaroids on the Faces cork board for the same person, one named "Chris" and one named "chris".

Here's how to fix things.

Cool Tools: Fluid

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:05:21 -0400

Turning web pages into apps

Fluid is a simple little app that turns a web page into an app that has its own icon on the Dock.

Why would you want that? The best reason that I have found is for web-based email like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. Rather than have your email in a tab in Safari that gets lost among all of the other tabs, your email has its own window and Dock icon for easy access.

(I'm not going to name names, but I know someone who usually has Yahoo! Mail open in several Safari tabs at once because he opens a new tab and reloads Yahoo! Mail every time he wants to check his mail.)

Creating a Folder from a Group of Items in Safari

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Quickly organize files into folders

New Folder with Selection
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Speaking of trying to bring order to chaos, here's a quick little trick to combine a group of files into a new folder in one easy step.

Moving a Tab to a New Window in Safari

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Another organizing tip

Pulling out a tab
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I am always looking for ways to bring at least a small amount of order to the chaos that is the open apps, windows and documents on my Mac.

One technique I use is to keep the tabs on a particular Safari window on the same topic or project and use multiple windows in Safari for my different topics or projects.

An easy way to help maintain this technique is to convert a single tab on one Safari window into its own window.

Here's how to turn a tab on the Bookmarks Bar into its own window.

Using the Safari Reading List to Hold URLs to Read Later

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

A temporary holding place

Reading Liest
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Last week, I wrote a tip about using Stickies to hold URLs (web addresses) so you can find them later. A reader said she was glad that I was giving some attention to the "lowly sticky note."

Stickies are useful and underused, but after that tip went out last week, I remembered that Safari has a built-in tool for holding temporary URLs that itself is underused.

Saving Internet Links to Stickies

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Keeping links for easy reference

Sticky with an internet link
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Stickies is an underused application in my opinion, especially since Mac screens have gotten larger and larger. I have sticky notes all over my work desk so why not all over my computer screen?

Just like regular sticky notes, Stickies (on the Mac) are great for saving tidbits of information that you want or need in the near term. Of course you can type text on them, but you can also save internet links (URLs) to Stickies and they are clickable. In other words, if you save a URL to a Sticky, you can click on the link later and it will open in Safari.

Moving URLs to a Sticky note is a simple process.

Controlling iTunes from the Keyboard

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

iTunes controls
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The Mac has iTunes control keys on the top row of the keyboard. You don't need to have iTunes as the front app to use them.

Letting Your Mac Say It For You - Updated

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Free speech

Speech Preferences
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A user told me about a text-to-speech program she had seen on the PC and wanted to know if there was any equivalent software for the Mac.

I replied that text-to-speech is built into OS X and can be used in almost every application.

Magnify a Portion of the Screen

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Easier to see

Screen magnifier
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If the text on the screen isn't quite big enough or your eyes aren't quite what they used to be or you want a quick look at the detail in a photo, Lion can put a "magnifying glass" on the screen to make a part of the screen larger.

(Snow Leopard has a similar feature so if you aren't on Lion yet, read on.)

Here's how to use the magnifying glass.

Adding and Removing Items from the Finder Sidebar

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0400

Manage your Finder shortcuts

Remove an item from the Finder sidebar
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The Finder sidebar is the light blue panel at the left of every Finder window. The sidebar is a list of shortcuts to different places on your hard drive.

The FAVORITES section (called PLACES in Snow Leopard) has some common locations in your User folder. You can add shortcuts to the FAVORITES/PLACES section and removed ones you don't need.