Widgets That Make You Say, "Wow"

        Quick little smidgeons of information, awaiting your summons. Touch that magical key F-4 and there they are, the chosen few, popping up in front of anything else you have up on your screen.  (Click on the illustrations to enlarge the screenshot.)

        Choose them from a long list of categories at http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/ There are thousands to choose from! What fun to explore the possibilities.
        You'll see that many are free, so how nifty is that!  They're simple to add, and when you change your mind, they're easy to delete.
        A Google search for Mac:widgets brings up other websites with comments and suggestions. You’d want to specify a time limit under “Any time” so that your search could have a reasonable date. Here I wanted to check Past Year, but there are other specifications at your finger tips.
                                                        What are the Top Widgets today? 

        When you’re done viewing the widgets on your screen just click anywhere on the screen off of a widget and you’re back in business with whatever.
         Even if you’re satisfied with the widgets you already have you might spend some productive moments viewing what else is available.
        Some, like Astronomy Picture of the Day (below) have a place to click (here is is D) to show you the reverse side for more info.
        Click on the X at the bottom left on your screen and bring up a wide view of your choices. Here’s just a few for my illustration.

        Here’s a view of the corner of my screen with 5 of my widgets. They can be dragged to any position on the screen. Here mine are in front of a blank Pages page. Widgets come up in front of whatever you already have open.
        The National Doppler Radar widget enlarges when it’s clicked.
        What widgets do you use?
(The above is today's PMUG handout.  If you missed the meeting we MISSED you.  If you were there now you see the color version of the screenshots.  See you later! -- Elaine)

Your Family Reunion!

        Sooner or later you’ll probably volunteer to head up your family reunion, won’t you? What a way to make memories and enjoy conversations and great food. But, yes, it involves some work. Thankfully, you will use your Mac; that makes the job easier.
        Let’s start with Address Book. A lot of preparation here, but it saves time later. You’ll be notifying the relatives, later reminding the relatives, corresponding with them, and then finally thanking them after it’s over.
        Probably you’ve already got those names and addresses of the chosen relatives under a title such as Christmas Cards. Click under File to make a Family Reunion 2011 group. Now just drag address listings under Name to add them to this group.
        If some of the relatives have email you might not want to notify them by mail. For this, just click to Edit individual cards and omit the mailing address. When you open Mail and New Message just type in the group name, Family Reunion 2011. The names of those people who do have email addresses will be the recipients.
        For relatives without email you will mail the Reunion info. When you have Address Book open click on the Group name. At the menu at the top of the screen go to File > Print. Uncheck Attributes since they don’t apply. Click on Address Book and see the selections available. Click on Style and see the selections there. You can print on the envelopes or print out address labels. Under Paper Size you have lots of possibilities.
        Under Style is where you choose the address label size. Click on Mailing Labels and note two places: Layout and Label. Specify to print in alphabetical order or postal code order. You can choose the font name and size. Lucida Grande - 12.0 comes up automatically.
        Click on Layout. I’m using Avery Standard labels, 5160. You get a little preview look to verify that’s what you want.
        Now for sharing some wonderful family photos, old and new. Call on Keynote!
        Go to Applications > iWork 9 and look at Keynote. This is the handy way to make a slideshow for the Reunion. Up comes Theme Chooser. Nifty templates are ready for your pictures to be added. On the menu at the top of the screen go to Help > Video Tutorials. Brush up on the how-to directions and then play and have fun. It’s Mac and it’s easy.

        Next to Numbers! Now to make lists, lists, and more lists. Go to iWork > Numbers and choose a format, perhaps Checklist, Budget, Expense, or Event Planner. Take a look at all the possibilities on the Event Planner template shown just above. Click on illustration to enlarge.
        Obviously, you want to delegate, delegate and delegate. Location? Menu? Assigned photographer? Name tags? Written introductions? Music?
        Map: Google > Prescott Valley AZ then click on maps.google.com. You can email the URL or go in closer to do a screen shot of the area on the map you want to print off and send to family.
        Accommodations in Prescott: Google: hotels, Prescott AZ and up comes listings with links, descriptions, prices, reviews, directions, etc.
        If you haven’t already done it, make a new folder on your desktop and put all of these items you’re working on into it.
        Going to make up a booklet of family remembrances, names & dates, etc? Go to www.bluesquirrel.com for the Mac ClickBook program. Inexpensive & easy to do.
        Plan ahead! You’ll appreciate your Mac computer all the more as you sail through the Family Reunion this year!
        (If you attended today's PMUG meeting you received the printed copy of this handout.  If you weren't there WE MISSED YOU.  See you in July?)

Screen Shots

Sounds like Hollywood to you? Actually, screen shots are a useful talent of your Mac. On the keyboard hold down Command + shift + 4 all at the same time. Your cursor turns into a target-like object. Touch the upper left of what you want to copy and bring your cursor across to the right side as far as you want to copy and then keep going down over that page or that picture. Takes a little practice. Your screen shot then comes up on your desktop with a name “Screen shot 2011-04…..” and then the time of day. How technical is that!  (Double click to enlarge these illustrations.)

For illustrations on my PMUG handouts I do screen shots of charts, illustrations, etc. from the Internet or from any other location on the computer.

When you double click on that screen shot icon on your desktop it will open up with Preview. Here you choose File > Save As. Now take your choice of format. Some of these I have not used, so you’re on your own!

For posting to the PMUG blog or my own blog I want to use JPEG, so that’s my choice. Notice that the little screen shows you the file size and you can choose levels of quality. If you choose PDF you can even choose a Quartz Filter type and also click to encrypt and require a password.

On the main Apple Menu look under Help, type “screen shot” in Search. Here you’ll find more info on how to take a picture of the whole window, and other helpful topics.

Go to Applications > Utilities and choose Grab. Open and see the choices on the menu. Preferences lets you choose Pointer Type and Enable sound. Under System Preferences you can select Keyboard Shortcuts  > Services > Pictures, then capture full screen, use timer, and capture selection from screen. Grab is another name for Screen Shot.

To see information about a screen shot you’ve taken, such as the size and depth, when you have Grab open choose Edit > Inspector.

Under Mac Help see the information on Shortcuts for taking pictures of the screen. You can take a picture of a window or the menu bar, or take a picture of the menu without its title.

Some applications, such as DVD Player, may not let you take pictures of the screen.

You can take a screen shot from a YouTube showing. In this example, I’ve shrunken it by moving the dots (little handles) inward.

In Pages go to Inspector > Metrics and you can click to Constrain proportions. You can shrink something equally, or can adjust it to what you need. When I make a booklet using ClickBook from BlueSquirrel.com I have to undo the Constrain and widen the picture out to compensate for the automatic sizing that program does to print full size pages into booklet size pages.

If it’s Mac it can be fun and easy. That’s why we’re always learning new things and in PMUG we’re happy to share what we’ve learned so far. We want to hear from you -- what puzzles you, so far? What new things have you learned to do?

This is the handout at the PMUG meeting this morning.  If you weren't there be sure to come next time so we can enjoy conversation and learning and fun!

And the latest just in from Art Gorski, "After you do Cmd-Shft-4, and before you select anything, press the space bar. As you move the mouse around the screen, entire windows and menus will highlight. Click and it will do the selection for you."

Now, an additional pointer from David Passell: "If you press CTRL along with the CMD - SHIFT- 4 the selected item will be placed on the clipboard where you can add it to any document you are writing, including email."

Ready to Blog

Ready to blog?  Why?  Why not?  It's fun, it's easy.  Take a tour, watch the video, read the Buzz.   Maybe you've noticed this PMUG newsblog and have seen the results of the new template: "Simple." You have other choices in Template Designer.
(Double click to enlarge the following illustrations.)

It's easy to post text, photos, links.  You can restrict who can view it or set it up so it is available to all on the Internet.

Note: you must allow Cookies in order to post to your blog, but you can delete them and change to "Never" when you're finished posting.

 Like other features on Mac you will have fun experimenting and learning by doing.  Take a look at other blogs and see what you like.  Type "blog sites" and explore.
This is the menu bar for our PMUG blog.

Try it -- you'll like it.  If you have a blog ready to view let us know.

(The above is the April 16, 2011 handout at the PMUG meeting from Elaine Hardt.) 

Let's Summarize

Have you used Summarize yet? It works in Pages, Safari, and Word.

        You have at your fingertips a nifty little procedure called “summarize.” If you write articles, stories, family history, reviews, or various other genre you might find several benefits. You wrote on and on, now you find the word limit needs to be cut -- in half!

        Why not see how the auto-summarize does it? It might give you some ideas, it might even suffice, thus saving you time.
        You want to send a brief overview of your piece of writing? Let auto-summarize do it; see if your main points pop out, as you wanted them to.
        You have a huge backlog of writing in various folders, and you want to get organized so you can find what you want. Consider using auto-summarize as a preview page in the folder with your notes and various versions of the writing.
        This is a handy article.
        Try it out. Go to System Preferences > keyboard > services > keyboard shortcuts. Click to put a check mark in front of Summarize. Close, and go to some document to experiment.
(You can double click on the illustrations to enlarge them.)

1. Next,  I’m looking at a story I wrote in Pages. Highlight the whole story. Go to the top menu where it says Pages and put cursor on Services. In the list under Text choose Summarize. Up comes a box with a slider so you can choose Summary Size. You can choose from 100% way, way down to one sentence.

After you've done a summary you can save it and put your summary in a Note or even in email.  Give it a title and save to your Desktop for now.

2. You can summarize in Safari.
Open a site, highlight what you want, then go to Safari > Services > Summarize. Note you can “stretch” out the box to view that summary

3.  In Microsoft Word highlight what you want in your document, then go to Tools > AutoSummarize. This is what comes up. Make your selection and proceed.

                                               Have Mac? Have Fun!
        Let us know how you’re using your Mac. Keep informed on what your PMUG friends are doing. Look us up at www. pmugnews.blogspot.com/ and better yet, subscribe to be notified when something new is posted to our newsblog.
        (This was the handout at today's March 18, 2011 PMUG meeting. If you missed the meeting we hope to see you next time!)

Spotlight Helps You Find It

Where did I file it? We’re all busy, so it’s time to get better organized.  Click on each illustration to enlarge it.

Look at Spotlight and Search.

When you highlight the title of a document do Command + I to bring up the information on it. Now write some key words in the Spotlight Comments box. See the screen shot at the left.

Let Spotlight help! Bring up Spotlight by doing the Command + space bar. Up comes the little box at the upper right hand side, top of the computer screen.

The screen shot below shows how I searched for my PMUG handout that described QR tags. When you hover your cursor over any one of the listings it shows where that document can be found. Click to open it from Spotlight or go to the folder where you filed it.

You can prescribe the parameters of Spotlight by going to System Preferences. You have 15 choices -- drag to the order you prefer. Note: you can also specify Privacy at that place in System Preferences > Spotlight.

To perform a more advanced search, you can include a Boolean search. See this:
http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit04/primer04_08.phtml

If you know the type of item you're looking for, specify it.  Add the text "kind:" at the end of your search.  For example, for email messages that mention Anne Johnson, enter "Anne Johnson kind:email."

For other helps go to the main menu and look up Spotlight.  Under Help, enter Search and choose "show all help topics."  There are 15 Help topics and 7 support articles.  (My screen shot here is cut short.)

Let us know what you’re doing these days with your Mac. Email me at edpr (and then put in that @) commspeed.net

Have Mac? Have fun!


(The above is a copy of my handout for the February 18, 2011  PMUG meeting.)  

Have a Jolly Mac Computer Christmas

Have a holly, jolly Christmas!
Lots of reasons now for cheer;
Everything just turns out better
When it’s a Mac computer year!

Keep coming to your PMUG
Every meeting that you can;
Meet new friends for show and tell:
Each a Mac computer fan.

Oh, ho, the blog you know
And the website waits for you,
Conquer new technology,
With Mac it’s easy to do.

Yes, the new year’s nearly here,
bringing opportunity,
So pay your dues and you won’t lose
PMUG congeniality.

By Elaine Hardt ©2010

Make It Easier to Read

Missed today's PMUG meeting?  Here's today's handout:

Make It Easier to Read. You Can Even Listen to It.

Do Command and + to enlarge the screen view of the page you’re looking at. You can do this 7 times to make the type REALLY big. Do Command and - (the minus sign) to reduce the size of the type.

Does some site have white lettering on a dark background? Want to make it easier to read? Do Control and Option and Command and the number 8. You don’t have to touch all four simultaneously. It toggles to the opposite. Toggle the same to go back to the original look.

You’re writing something, and you need to make it easier on your eyes. Enlarge the type as above, maybe even changing the type font. When you’re ready to print it out change the type font and size of type to the look you want in the finished product.

You can print out something from a website in larger type, but notice the preview view of the page. You may need to go to landscape mode, instead of portrait mode, to get the page from margin to margin printed. Print one sample page first and make needed adjustments.

See a nice, big Preview before you print. Do Command + P > PDF > Open PDF in Preview. Click Print at bottom of that page.  (Double click on illustrations to enlarge them.)

Using Pages 09 you can click on Inspector, go to T, and put more space between lines, not just space, space-and-a-half, and double space. You can also put additional space between paragraphs, using Inspector.

You can even put more space between the characters you’re writing.

Distracted by all that stuff in the background of your computer window? Do Option and Command and U to Enter Full Screen. Everything blacks out except the page you are writing. Do Esc to return to regular view.

Would VoiceOver help? Find this under Help on the Finder menu. VoiceOver provides an interactive Quick Start tutorial.

Hear your computer speak selected text?

Go to the main Help menu. Type in Speech and there you'll find useful directions.

Go to System Prefs > Speech.
Try the various choices.
Click on the Question Mark for a list of options and some helpful descriptions.

When you’re using Pages do control click on highlighted words to bring up Speech, Start Speaking. The voice speaks those words out loud.

Hear your mail. Go to Mail > Edit > Speech and listen to what you’ve selected.

Whatever  . . .  Mac makes it easy & fun & productive!

Ways to Find It

(If you missed PMUG meeting on 3-20 this is one of the handouts)

Trying to find something you wrote or something you filed? Several simple solutions are at your side, just see which applies for your particular needs.

When you click on Finder in your Dock notice that under Devices and Places there’s a triangle next to Search For. Click under Today, Yesterday, or Past Week.

When the window comes up notice that the tool bar gives 4 choices for View. First is by Icons.

The second choice is List view. Here you can click Date Modified and things arrange from first to last, or last to first date. Click on Name and they come up in alphabetical order, either A to Z or Z to A.

The third view shows Columns and expands to the right side as you open something from one folder to another. Note the two short lines. Double click to expand the width of the open column.

The fourth choice of View opens Cover Flow. Try it out and see what comes up!

Then click on Action and note your options here. Could be useful, yes?

Go to the menu bar at the top of your screen. Under File find Label. There are 7 colors and X which reverts back to no color at all. You could assign a certain color for documents or a folders. Here you invent a system to help find things.

You can also do Command + space bar to quickly open the Spotlight for Search. A few key words will help you automatically find that document, email, or folder you want.

To find a word inside a document do Command + F and type in the word. It will be highlighted throughout the document you have open.

With your Mac you can find things!

How To Find It

Trying to find something you wrote or something you filed? Several simple solutions are at your side, just see which applies for your particular needs.
          When you click on Finder (the smiling face icon) in your Dock notice that under Devices and Places there’s a triangle next to Search For. Click under Today, Yesterday, or Past Week.
          When the window comes up notice that the tool bar gives 4 choices:(Double click to enlarge.)
First one, left to right: items come up as icons which you can rearrange.

The second choice is List view. Here you can click Date Modified and things arrange from first to last, or last to first date. Click on Name and they come up in alphabetical order, either A to Z or Z to A.
The third view shows Columns and expands to the right side as you open something from one folder to another. Note the two short lines. Double click to expand the width of the open column.

The fourth choice of View opens Cover Flow. Try it out and see what comes up!
Then click on Action and note your options here. Could be useful, yes?
          Go to the Menu Bar at the top of your screen. Under File find Label. There are 7 colors and X which reverts back to no color at all. You could assign a certain color for documents or a folders. Here you invent a system to help find things.

          You can also do Command + space bar to quickly open the Spotlight for Search. A few key words will help you automatically find that document, email, or folder you want.
          To find a word inside a document do Command + F and type in the word. It will be highlighted throughout the document you have open.
          With your Mac you can find things!
Let us know how you’re exploring and discovering new short-cuts and tips. This is how we all help make PMUG an interesting and helpful organization.
Be sure to bookmark the PMUG site, http://www.pmug.us/index.html
Subscribe (Posts:Atom at the bottom of the home page)
to our news blog which is frequently updated:  http://pmugnews.blogspot.com/

Do You Value Your Privacy?

Here's the latest PMUG handout from today's October 2009 meeting.  Hope it's helpful.  Read on about security.

10-24-09
You have some choices to make that affect your privacy on the Internet. Here are some considerations.

A recent Internet article mentioned privacy, and the writer gave this advice. Use one Internet search engine, say, Google for looking up articles; use Firefox for your financial dealings with your bank; use Opera for ordering things from the Internet.

Open to Safari. Click on History on the main menu at the top, and go all the way down the list to click Clear History. Every website you’ve opened since the last time you cleared it, or for the last several weeks will be erased from this list. Want to save some? Click Show All History and delete just the ones you want to, at this time.

Go to Safari > Preferences > Auto Fill (or Command + ,) See what your default setting has been all this time. If “Use info from my Address Book card” has been checked, then no wonder that yesterday in your mailbox you got something from British Columbia. Just a few days earlier you saw a cute ad on the Internet when you were looking up something else, and you clicked to just read that ad. Now the company has all that info about you that you posted to your own Address Book.

Command + Shift + H takes you from wherever you are on the Internet to the Google homepage.

On Google’s homepage click under More. Then click Even More. There are lots of interesting Google Products. Decide which ones you want to know about, but keep in mind what level of privacy you want.

Got all your Cookies? Open Safari, do Command + , (comma) and chose Security. Here you can choose to accept Cookies, “always,” “never,” or “only from sites I visit.” Some sites will prompt you to set to accept Cookies, but when you’re done with that site you can go immediately back to this list and click Never, and Show Cookies. Delete what you want; I delete all every time I finish on the Internet. The next time you need a Cookie temporarily you’ll be prompted to allow Cookies. Do it, then delete after you’re done with that site.

Sign in to Google with your email address and your Google password, chosen for your Google account. Go to Web History. Here you are being tracked. To opt out choose to Pause Web History. Your previous History will be deleted and it says they will not gather this info until you allow it.

DO NOT use any social networking sites: FaceBook, MySpace, etc. Don’t post any information about yourself on the Internet, comments, forums, etc. that you don’t want the whole world to know.

On the Safari drop-down menu Private Browsing could be a good choice. # # #