With your handy Mac computer you can easily make a nice surprise present for your family. Here’s three things that only YOU can do for your kids, grandkids, even the old folks!
- Make an “Old Time Favorites” cookbook from recipes handed down to you -- probably handwritten! Collect enough for 24 pages, some from each category. Write something about who originally made that yummy stuff.
- Make an “Shortcut Recipe” cookbook. This is where you’ve updated and simplified your own favorites. Instead of feeding 10, maybe change to feeding 2 or 4. Use modern ingredients, the microwave, convection oven.
- Make a “I Remember When” booklet. This is not your entire lifetime on 24 pages! Just some interesting highlights that you do recall. Describe what makes those events significant in your memory.
Jot down the first ideas that come to mind. Let it rest a few days. Reread and then rewrite.
Can you picture this as a 5 ½ x 8 ½ booklet which you’d staple? Would it work better on full size pages, 3-hole punched, in a notebook? Or, a spiral-bound booklet?
In Pages go to File > New from Template Chooser. See if you get any bright ideas after looking at these examples.
That’s the screen shot pasted here to the left side.
With Microsoft Word: Mac 2011 you can go to File > New from Templates and click to view Online Templates. There are a lot from which to choose.
If you use the Blue Squirrel program, Click Book will do the layouts for various kinds of booklets. http://www.bluesquirrel.com Here’s the link for Mac ClickBook: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/cbmac/ It’s $49.95 for OS X, compatible with Lion and Mountain Lion. Note special pricing on Print to iPad, iPhone, Android, or Kindle. They have more than 70 custom layout styles.
You might even scan and paste in some photos. Be creative! Picture the compliments!
Help us spread the PMUG info, www.pmugnews.blogspot.com And write and tell us what you’re learning and doing: edpr@commspeed.net We want our PMUG to be helpful and friendly. It’s a time to enjoy and participate.
Words, More Words, and Lots-a Words!
Yes, you use the Mac Dictionary. How handy to have it on the dock, and easily look up definitions, the Thesaurus, Apple dictionary and Wikipedia. But what about specialized dictionaries? There’s a bunch!
http://www.classicalworks.com/html/glossary.html musical terms
http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary cooking terms
YourDictionary http://www.yourdictionary.com/ lists most misspelled words, how to do wild card search, brain training games, etc.
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml know the idea you want to convey but are fishing for that certain word? Describe the concept and up comes pages of suggested terms. Good for generating a list of words in some category.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/ extra features make this a helpful site to check on.
Going to Apple’s webpage brings up www.Dictionary.com/ , a free app for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
http://www.freebyte.com/dictionary/#specialized_dictionaries lists some specialized dictionaries, free thesauri, translation tools, spellcheckers, games, images, reference desk.
Here’s fun with the Mac’s Apple dictionary. Open it and type in “a” and up comes a list of every entry beginning with that letter. You’ll find things you didn’t know! Explore and learn.
Today, smile at that person sitting next to you and introduce yourself. Maybe they just moved here from Last Chance, Iowa or Beanville, Vermont or Fort Necessity, Louisiana. (Yes, I found those listed in http://www.accuracyproject.org/towns.html Your birthplace listed there?)
See you next time?
(This is the handout for 11-17-12 from Elaine)