Screen Capture Tip of the Day

Geeky Sunday tip: If you've ever needed to show your family or the world how to do something on the computer, try Jing, it is Free Screen Capture/Screencast software for Mac and PC.

Sync Tip of the Day

I have a computer at work and one at home, but there is always something on one machine you need on the other. It will happen, and it will be involvement when it happens. Two handy free solutions have recently made themselves know to me.

1. If you have a Mac, sync your addressbook with Yahoo! you don't even need a Yahoo! email account, Sync your address book with Yahoo!. They provide simple step by step instructions
2. For Mac or PC users, or if you use both. Dropbox is the most elegant solution for keeping files in sync on all your machines at once. It even makes sharing files and photos incredibly easy. Everything synced in the background, super quick and responsive. All its nifty features are laid out in a video over at getdropbox.com. Dropbox is in private beta right now, but we have invites. Drop us a comment and we'll invite you to join (if we still have any invites left by the time you read this)

Word Perfect Tip of the Day

If you need to open a .wpd file, the best thing to do is to download AbiWord and it should bring it up. (Though not without the joys of cross file conversions; oddly shaped paragraphs and what-not.) Also, it won't print out properly. Or so it would appear. However, I cut and pasted everything into Word and it looked about 95%. If you need things to be 95%, you got your answer. I don't and so I am going to print out 20 pages and take it over to Kinkos and mail out the document. Fun, eh what? The problem is footnotes don't convert well. They always look odd and could be confused for actual numbers. I don't like this one bit, but there is really nothing that can be done. After working on this project for the better part of two hours I can safely say that Microsoft is evil. (The views of this poster do not necessarily reflect the views of the proprietor of this site.) Microsoft Word will not read .wpd files in Word and they bailed out Corel, who conspicuously removed their Word Perfect from Mac afterwards. Or that is the word on the street.
-Phil

Mozy Tip of the Weekend

You should backup your computer files. "I know I know." It is very important that you back up for your files. "I'll get around to it." There are only two kind of computer users out there, those who have had a major hard drive failure and those who will. "Isn't there a third kind?"

For a simple and free way to keep your files backed up try Mozy, they have a Mac and Windows version. The files get backed up to their server so you don't have to worry about buying an extra hard drive or anything. Plus you get up to 2GB free! Use this link to get another 12% on top of that!

Now you don't have anymore excuses!

Open with Tip of the Day

If your Mac is anywhere near mid-life, it probably has multiple copies of the same program under the "Open With…" menu that you get when you right-(or command)-click a file. Just download this AppleScript and run it!
MacFixIt - Multiple, errant entries in the "Open With" contextual menu

Apple Tip of the Day

You know those white Apple stickers that come with any new Mac or iPod. Well the iPod shuffle comes with cute little Apple stickers. Why? Because the big ones won't fit in the tiny package the iPod shuffle is sold in

MacBook Tip of the Day

Concerned about your Mac Laptop getting stolen. Even more concerned that you wanna see the guy fry who stole if from you? Check out Undercover, it will track the IP address and take pictures of the person who is using your computer. Hah hah aha!

Found on TUAW

Quote Tip of the Weekend

The type geeks out there, know there is a difference between different quote marks, such as ", “ and ”. The latter two are proper typographically, the first is just what they invented for the type writer. Word and other programs will automatically use their “smart quote” feature to convert a boring quote into open or closed quotes. But what if the program your using isn't smart enough. On a Mac just his Option-[ for open double quotes, and Option-Shift-[ for close double quotes. Use Option-] and Option-Sift-] for single quotes. To do it in HTML use ‘ ’ “ and ” for ‘ ’ “ ” respectfully. On Windows, it is Alt+0145, Alt+0146, Alt+0147 and Alt+0148.

Thanks to P22's Tip of the Month, Mountain Dragon's HTML Entities Examples, Tip sheet on special characters Dave M. and Citizen Grim.

Resize Tip of the Weekend

This one happened by accident! Have you ever been working in a program on your Mac that has multiple columns you can sort by (like Mail, iTunes, etc.?) Sometimes you'll encounter data in one of these columns that is WAY too long for the width you have set for that column. For example, someone sends you an email where the subject contains more data than most people put in the entire message.

For example, check out this iTunes store list.



Notice how the album column isn't wide enough for the content? I used to DRAG the column header over to resize, and then I discovered, accidentally, that double clicking on the column header (directly between the columns) will elongate (I hate that word) the column to fit the content! It's amazing--give it a try!

Password Tip of the Weekend

Here is a good little article explaining how hackers crack passwords and then offers tips to make a password that is easy to remember yet hard to crack. Read the article at Baekdal.com

A couple of tips I will add to that as you create passwords.

1. Never type a password you mind loosing on an protected Wi-Fi network. It is amazingly easy to grab a password that is flying over the air unencrypted.

2. Don't use the same password for secure and unsecure sites. If it is a little, no name operation, who knows how secure his sever is. Or if the web address starts with "http://" who cares how secure their server is, cause the password could get nabbed along the way. Look for "https://" at the beginning of your web address to avoid this.

3. Beyond what they mention in the article, one of my favorite ways to create a memorable yet secure password is to use a phrase and use the first letters off of the words. Such as "I like working at Creative Group in Wilmore, Kentucky". My password might be "ilwacgiwk". Now that is fairly secure. However, mix in some special characters, numbers and caps to kick it up a notch and you could get "Ilw@8GiWilmore,KY", which is more secure, but less fun to type, then any passphrase mentioned in that article.

4. For Mac OS X users, there is a built in tool to help you come up and/or check the level of security of your passwords. Open up your "System Preferences" under the Apple menu. Click on accounts, and then click Change Password. You don't need to actually change your password, just click on the little key icon. The "Password Assistant" comes up. If you want it to make up a password for you just select "Type: Memorable" and drag the slider to how long you want the password to be. If you want to make your own password, just to check how secure it is, select "Type: Manual" Then type in your password, if the security graph is about a third of the way up you're doing pretty darn good. (Just make sure to hit cancel in the change password box to keep from changing the password to your user account.)

MacBook Tip of the Day

Even though it's not officially supported, Final Cut Pro will run on a MacBook (non-Pro). Color and Motion won't though, but who uses those anyway. Hello $1100 mobile edit bay!

File Name Tip of the Day

Depending on what operating system you're using the maximum number of characters allowed on a file name is around 250. So when sending someone a zip you can send them an email message or a flirty correspondence in the file name. Be creative.

iPod Tip of the Day

So yea have an iPod, and there is always the struggle on how to listen to it in your car. The iTrip and other FM transmitters are a popular "solution". As with many other in-quote solutions out there, it doesn't always work. The biggest trick is to find an empty station, that is surrounded by other empty stations. That gives you something to do on a boring Sunday, but its not exactly fun.

Belkin has come to the rescue with their new web tool
my best FM stations. Just punch in your zip and you've got a great starting point to finding a clear station!

Game Tip of the Day

The highly addictive game Wingnuts is now free for Mac users. They came out with a sequel, so they're giving away the old one now. Just go to Wingnuts 2 homepage and look in the right hand column for "Download WingNuts1 for FREE!"

Web Development Tip of the Day

If you've got a job making websites and have out grown the likes of Dreamweaver, and you've got a Mac. Give Coda a try. Its like the Web Development 2.0. That has what you need and not what you don't. Its a text editor, CSS editor, FTP app, Terminal and reference guide all in one window.

Mac/Windows Tip of the Weekend

You may not know this, but on all of Apple's new Mac you can run not only Mac OS X, but also Windows. You can do this with the Apple solution, using free Boot Camp software, but you have to restart your computer every time you switch OSes. Or, even cooler, you can run Windows, where in belongs, in a separate window in the Mac OS using Parrallels. Note: both solutions require that you purchase Windows separately.

Google Tip of the Day

Google, the fun loving company they are. Always has a fun "new product" on April Fools Day. This year it's free commode based Wi-Fi.

Update: Turns out Gmail had their own prank too.

Reveal Tip of the Weekend

We all love how standard-fare programs on your Mac organize your music, photos, videos, fonts, etc. But occasionally, you may need to locate an actual MP3 from your iTunes playlist to email to a friend (Note: Pete & Jay Enterprises does not condone illegal, illicit music piracy.) or locate a font and send it to a printer, etc. While Macs make it easy to store and organize such files, you don't want to have to go through countless subfolders to find that song or font. But, Mac makes it easy (if you know the shortcut) to easily locate these files in Finder. If you're in most programs, hitting "Command-R" (for REVEAL) will reveal the file in its Finder window.

Word Tip of the Day

New Mac OS X users may not have noticed that when you right click on almost any word that you are typing, in the menu that comes up there are 3 really handy dandy features. "Search in Spotlight", Spotlight is their fancy term for basically just search your computer. "Seach in Google" self explanatory and cool. And "Look Up In Dictionary". Mac OS X also has a Microsoft Word like spell checker that works in almost any program. Just right click for suggestions, they will appear above the three other commands I just mentioned.

Zooming Tip of the Weekend

Now that you're watching all sorts of TV shows online, the quality is good, but its not quite big enough for you to plop in the most comfortable chair from across the room as your computer. Well Mac users, we've got the fix for that. If you have Mac OS X 10.4.8 and a mouse with a scroll wheel, just hold down the control key and scroll up. This lets you zoom into the screen. Try it now, ain't that pretty cool!

If you don't have a scroll wheel or the latest version of Mac OS X you can still zoom in! Just go to your System Preferences (under the Apple menu) and find "Universal Access" There will be an option called "Zoom" make sure that's on. Then you just have to press "Command Option =" to zoom in or "Command Option -" to zoom out!

You'll notice the zoom follows the mouse pointer around. So if you're zooming into your TV show, you'll have the mouse pointer stuck right in the middle. Just hit a button on the keyboard and it will disappear.

LiveType Tip of the Day

This tip is for the small niche of our readers you use Apple's LiveType, a little program that ships with Final Cut that basically does all sorts of flying text effects. If your a Final Cut user and haven't tried LiveType you should, there are tons of presets in there that could save you tons of time if they match up with what your trying to do. But today's real tip is a neat little one. For those who have AfterEffects on the brain LiveType is pretty much like trying to drive a car using nothing but hand controls. The thing AfterEffects user will be in the habit of doing is exporting all your projects as .mov files before you bring them in to Final Cut. Sure, with LiveType you can export your files as .mov but the beauty is that you don't need to! You can actually just drop the native LiveType file (.ipr) right into your Final Cut timeline! Then if you were to go back and make changes in LiveType once you save the file it will be updated in Final Cut!

iChat Tip of the Day

This little tip is for the few out there who are Mac users (not just eater) and are also using iChat. As you might have noticed, some of your other iChat using friends having cool things come up under their name in the buddy list. You've got iTunes cranking all day, and you know you have the best selection of music ever. Of course you want to tell the world this. Well you can show what song your listening to that second right under you name. The most popular program to accomplish this and other nifty tricks is called iChatStatus. As a double bonus, extra geeky tip: once you get that downloaded and installed if you don't want it announcing that you currently have iTunes "Paused" here's an add on script you can install

Mac Tip of the Day

Sick and tired of time lost to mounting superfluous drives? OK, you may not realize it, but you're probably costing your company ten seconds a day. I mean it. If you regularly connect to a server on your Mac, you painstakingly have to mount it, login, put in your password--all on a daily basis. That's ten seconds every day you could be using to comment on our tips. Well, we've come up with a snazzy workaround for you. That's right...you can have a volume automatically load on restart in Mac OS X. To do it, mount the volume you want to load. (You can stop reading now if you thinking "mounting" only applies to horses.) Then, go under System Prefs > Accounts > Startup Items and drag the volume into the startup items. Everytime you restart, it'll load that volume! Take a second to brainstorm about what you can do with all this saved time. You could make sure you put on deodorant or have your shirt tucked into your underwear. :-)

iTunes Tip of the Day

This is a fairly simple, but necessary tip for iTunes users. If you need to email an MP3 to a friend, select the song you want in iTunes. Hit Command (Apple) R on your Mac (or CTRL-R on your PC) to "Reveal" the file on your computer. The file's folder will pop up and you can drag the file to your mail client. Much simpler that searching through the folder on your computer.

Mac Tip of the Day

Is your Mac running sluggishly lately? If so, it could need a good old-fashioned P-RAM zap. Restart your Mac and as soon as the screen goes black, hold down COMMAND (apple), OPTION, P, R. You will the standard Mac "GOOOOSH" sound, but keep holding the keys down until you hear this startup sound 3 or 4 times. Let go, and your computer will probably continue booting faster than it ever has.