Adobe

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Free Photoshop course!

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Jim Hays gives us this good news: "Photoshop Mastery: Zero to Hero Course" for free!
Udemy offers Dr. Chad Neuman's Photoshop Mastery: Zero to Hero Course for $29. Coupon code "LEARN_PHOTOSHOP" makes it free. It includes 40 lectures and three hours of video covering the essentials of Adobe Photoshop. It's not clear how long this offer is valid for.
Interested? Click on this link.
John Carter thanks you, Jim. John now has one more course to take to add to the nearly hundred hours of things to do every week.
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More on Comparing Browsers

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        Jim Hamm has found more info to pass along here. "If deciding on which browser to use is important to you, here is an article comparing the various browsers. 
        "I tend to rotate among all the browsers (except Internet Explorer, which I don't use) and find that it doesn't matter much to me which I use. They all do a decent job, and are just different enough to make it interesting just to try a different browser from time to time. Vivaldi is a browser I've been recently trying, and it's fine, though perhaps a bit slower rendering web pages than the other browsers."
        Here's something to consider from Jim, "One item the article doesn't mention is Adobe's Flash Player, and which is declining in use on the web, due in part to malware vulnerabilities in past years. 
        "However, I do occasionally run across a website that requires Flash Player. Pandora Radio is one. 
        "The Chrome browser comes with Flash pre-installed, and sandboxed, which is good.  Sometimes it is difficult to get Flash installed in Safari, so switching to Chrome, for example, solves that problem."
        And Jim sums it up with, "If you'd enjoy the author's comments on browsers, then read on. If it doesn't matter, tap delete and get to something interesting...(grin)...Jim "
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Apps: Adobe and Alternatives

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        "Sometime in the past you installed software from Adobe. When you did this, it scattered a bazillion files all over the place on your Mac. Now you want to delete the Adobe software. Good luck finding all the cruft!" exclaims Past Prez Art Gorski.  
        He goes on,  "Utility programs that claim to be able to uninstall software for you fail miserably when faced with the Adobe challenge.  Here’s a good on-line discussion of the involved procedure needed to absolutely clean this stuff off your computer:"  http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/applications/topic3000-026.html#d12aug2014 

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Solving Flash Player Problem

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         Jim Hamm is on the lookout for helpful info, and today he writes, "If you're running an older version of OS X and are having a problem with Adobe's Flash Player, following is a tip from the "Tech Tails" newsletter that may be of help. The article is by Jeremy Holt."

        If you’ve purchased a computer in the last four years, this post does not apply to you, but if you’re one of many that haven’t committed to upgrading your system just yet then please continue reading.
        If you’ve upgraded to/from either Leopard (OS 10.5.8) or Snow Leopard (OS 10.6.8), you may have discovered that Safari (version 5.1.7) stubbornly refuses to play Flash-based media. This would be web content that involves motion graphics. There are a few reasons for this.
        The most simple resolution is simply navigating to Adobe’s website and installing the latest version of Flash Player.
        Another issue could have to do with your system’s software updates. Have you run all of your software updates? Mind you, this process may need to be performed a few times as more current updates do not become available until previous ones have been installed. More specifically, you’ll want to be sure to run any and all OS X Security Updates for Leopard/Snow Leopard.
        The reason for this is because Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Snow Leopard, and Leopard Security Update 2012-003 disable out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player. Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player do not include the latest security updates and will be disabled to help keep your Mac secure. If Safari 5.1.7 or Leopard Security Update 2012-003 detects an out-of-date version of Flash Player on your system, you will see a dialog informing you that Flash Player has been disabled. The dialog provides the option to go directly to Adobe’s website, where you can download and install an updated version of Flash Player.
        However, if your software is completely up to date and/or you’ve installed the latest version of Flash Player from Adobe’s site, I suggest following these instructions that might resolve your issue. Quit out of Safari before performing this task.
  • Navigate to the /Library/Internet Plug-Ins (Disabled) folder.
  • Drag “Flash Player.plugin” into /Library/Internet Plug-Ins.
  • If the browser is running, quit and restart it.
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Adobe Flash Caution

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        This is just in from Jim Hamm,  "FWIW, a few moments ago I got an alert on a web page (a music-listening site) that I needed to update to Flash 12 immediately -- important!  I looked at the website for this notice and it said -- as I recall -- "Quixter", or something like that. Anyway, I didn't click the update link but instead went to Adobe's website and had them check the Flash I had installed on the browser I was using at the time (Opera Next). Flash was up to date.

        "Interesting how creatively the hackers use Adobe Flash to try and get a hook into one's computer. I don't ever click any update link that comes in a pop-up in the browser -- I always go directly to the website."  Jim 
        ( OK, did you know what FWIW means?  Look up www.InternetSlang.com/ )   
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What About Adobe?

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        Hearing several PMUG members talking about Adobe Reader we needed clarification. John Carter stepped up to the bat, writing, "I am very much in agreement that Adobe Reader is not essential for accessing PDF files. Preview does what I need it to do. However, I am keeping my copy of Adobe Reader around because it does have features that are not available in Preview that I sometimes use. That said, I have set the default app for PDF files to Preview. It comes up quicker and displays better. I have the preferences set as follows:  

and the view options." 

        A search on Google brought up this trusted site:    http://download.cnet.com/Adobe-Reader/3000-10743_4-10000060.html   Their editors in August 2012 rated it as “spectacular,"  while average user rating was 2 ½ out of 5 stars.  Version 11.0.01 was added 1-08-13, and it’s free. 
        Any other input from PMUG members? Let us know what works for you. . . 

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Where's My Computer's Library?

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       John Carter was telling about a problem with Adobe.  "After allowing Adobe to install updates, I discovered I could no longer view a PDF file in Safari.  I found the following fix in the Apple Support Communities:  Try removing the following files:

       /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin

      /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

      OK, John, but how do you find the Library on Mac?  So, here's the info we need. 

Lion reserves will NOT display Library. Snow Leopard and below lets you see it.

Regardless of what version of OS you have, the one way that works for everyone is:
1. Open Terminal (type "terminal" in Spotlight to get it)
2. At the command line, enter the following commands, one at a time. When the first command is entered, you will be asked for your login password, but not for the second command.
When you first open Terminal, the command line may look something like this:
jcarter@JC-Mac ~
$ 
or this:
jcarter@JC-Mac ~ $
Regardless, the command line is identified by the dollar sign. You start typing after the dollar sign.
Here are the two commands:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin
sudo rm -rf /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin
You can copy and paste these two lines directly into Terminal (one at a time) and get the same results. Every command has to be followed by pressing the Return key.
        So, there we are, thanks to John.  Another question answered! 
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Learning About Lion

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        Yes, there's more to learn, but it's easy and it's fun -- so, of course, it's Mac!  Helping us learn about Lion Jim Hamm sends us some useful links, along with relating his own Lion experiences.  Read on:
        "I did another install of OS X Lion on my MacBook Air (3 1/2 years old) and the download took 50 minutes and the install took 50 minutes - an improvement from my older MacBook Pro. Again, everything seems to be working -- sometimes a bit too much. I noticed my CPU on the Air was running at nearly 100% and wondered why? Two processes -- MDWorker and MDS -- were soaking up all my CPU cycles. A little research found that Spotlight was indexing everything on my Air. Looking at the small Spotlight magnifier icon in the upper right corner of my screen showed a small dot in the center, which indicated that indexing was going on. The report I read indicated just to let this indexing continue and it would stop in about 15 minutes. I did and it did.
        "Occasionally there will be little blips in using Lion. For example, this morning my MacBook Pro, upon opening it, didn’t find my wifi network. A bit of fiddling got it going again. Zee had a problem in Safari when all of a sudden she couldn’t click a link and get it to do anything. I suggested a restart which fixed the problem. From our experience, and reading other blogs on the install of Lion, it seems the fix of the moment is to do a restart on these small blips.
        "Adobe and Lion don’t seem to play well together. Here is an article with more about this.
        "From reading various blogs and articles on Lion, most people seem to be pleased with Lion -- but not all. A couple of people have stated they want to go back to Snow Leopard. My impression of Lion? It’s fine, is probably the first thought that comes to mind -- and I’m glad we upgraded. If someone were to ask me if they should upgrade to Lion now, I’d say not necessarily unless they just want to experience the latest OS. The partial melding of OS and iOS is the way Apple is heading, so I thought we’d get on the bandwagon early-on and learn more about this new OS. Apparently the security of Lion has been improved significantly, which is a good thing. A couple of small blips -- like scrolling in a different direction than usual, and which I was accustomed to, and a missing scroll bar (which I didn’t miss, but other people did) -- were easily fixed and reverted in System Preferences.
        "Mail is quite a bit different in Lion. I’m adjusting to the new format and not sure, at this time, that I like it better than the ‘old’ format. It is basically the same format as one sees in an Apple mobile device, so my learning curve isn’t as steep as it might otherwise have been."  Jim also mentions an article about Mail.
        Now Jim goes on to say, "Walt Mossberg, tech writer for the Wall Street Journal, likes the new features in Lion and elaborates on his opinion in this review. Other tech writers report similar impressions. And the price of the upgrade at $30 is certainly reasonable -- in fact, a bargain I’d say. Just think about all the development work that went into Lion, and we’re buying all this for just $30. A lot of ‘roar’ for the buck, I’d say."  And here Jim gives us a grin.
        But wait, Jim has found more good articles to read after you've installed Lion.  First from techcrunch, and then from applegazette. (How to add your signature to a pdf caught my attention.)
        Here is the very latest from Jim. View a 19 minute FREE video tutorial on the installation of Lion from ScreenCastsonline.
        Stay tuned for more about Lion later.  Jim seems to have been the first from PMUG to make the plunge.