MAC Users Group Meeting 12/17/13

Meeting

We had 12 participants who were lucky enough to experience a presentation by Marty Schwan about
iPhoto

Thanks to Marty who did a nice job especially by keeping it simple.  I think we all learned something.  I'm including a link to Macmost for an iPhoto tutorial:  http://macmost.com/tag/iphoto There are lots of tutorials included on this page.  

One of Marty's best suggestions is to use iPhoto help or Google your question.  You'll find more answers than you have time to read.  

Example

When I got home I tried to open my iPhoto and it gave me an error message saying:  "You can't open your library using this version of iPhoto." and shut down.  ????  I googled the problem and found the answer.  Hold the option key while starting iPhoto and select another library or create a new one.  

Christmas Letter

Gail Krause gave a quick and simple presentation on making a Christmas Letter with Apple's word processing program Pages.  She did a nice job even tho she was surprised by an early morning request to present.  Thanks very much to Gail.  

I couldn't find a specific link to Christmas letters but here is one for Christmas cards using Pages:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkZ47HTsk4 

Pages

Next Meeting

Will be January 7th, 1PM in the San Tan room as usual.  We will be talking about Password systems and how to minimize hacking.  

Merry Christmas

MAC Users Meeting 12/10/13

Scanning

by Tom Gottfried

Tom has given me permission to publish his notes for Tuesday lasts meeting:

Subject: Scanning There are many types of scanners but for our purpose today we will discuss the most common,

the flatbed scanner.

Most common uses for flatbed scanners:

HP 6500 A, all in one

1. Photos. Photos can be black and white or color. You can scan printed photos, slides, or even

“film” or old negatives.

2. Documents.

1. Important papers
2. 2. Recipes
3. 3. Magazine articles
4. 4. Coupons

The list is endless and only limited to your ingenuity.

3. Odd items, like leaves, flowers, coins, or other 3 dimensional objects . This is where you can

really get creative.

What should I look for when buying a scanner? If you already have a printer you may only need to buy the scanner. However, if you do not have a printer or if your printer is an older model and time it is replaced, give consideration to a multiple use printer, scanner, copier. Yes, you can buy one machine that will do all three functions.

What should I pay for a scanner? You can pay as little as $50 or as much as several thousand. It really depends on how serious you want to get in your photo scanning. For most of us a good quality combination scanner, printer, copier will cost between $100 - $200. If all you plan on scanning are documents, you can pick up a unit for about $50 or less. Go to Staples in the Promenade shopping center and ask for an associate who knows something about scanners. Tell them what you are planning to use it for and ask what machine would be good for you.

Scanners come with various software bundles. This may include photo editing tools and an important tool for documents called OCR. (Optical Character Recognition) If you scan a document, it is actually a picture, whether you save it as a .jpeg or a PDF file. OCR software will scan the document and convert it into a document that can be edited. In other words, if you scan a recipe called Martha’s Favorite Casserole and you would prefer it to be called Mom’s Favorite Casserole, using OCR will allow you to do that.

http://www.scantips.com/

Once I scan a photo or document, where do I put it so that I can easily find it? Your scanner will store your scans in a pre-determined file if you do not specify where you want to put it. In Finder, you can set up your folders and files before hand. For example, let’s say you are scanning a number of recipes and want to categorize them. Click on Finder. A box will open.Click on Documents. Go to the top left of the page and click on File and then click on “Folder”. In the next row of the box you will see “untitled folder”. Hit the return button and “untitled folder” will be highlighted. You can now rename it recipes. Go back to File and hit folder once more. In the next row you will see untitled folder again. When it is highlighted you can create a folder named desserts. Go back and highlight Recipes again and go to file and hit new folder again. You will see untitled folder again. Once again, you can call it whatever you want. In this “row” you can create as many categories as you want. Once you are ready to enter dessert recipes, click on desserts and then go to File and if you want to even further define them, go to File and create another folder and “untitled folder will appear once again and you can create various categories of desserts.

http://macmost.com/using-image-capture-with-scanners.html  The fast talking guy.  

For photos, once you’ve scanned them into a folder you can drag them into iPhoto or Aperture, or whatever photo software you are using. Or, when you are scanning, you can tell the scanning program where you want to save the file. But, you will need to make sure your photo library set up to receive the photos. In other words, if you don’t have a file system set up in your photo library it will be much like taking them and dumping them into a box just like we did with all those old pictures. And this is what we are trying to get away from.

No matter how you create or import a file, if you save it but allow your Mac decide where to put it, you may find that once you’ve created a number of files, they may be hard to find. Why not create your own file system the way you want it? Then you can tell your Mac where you want to put your precious files. Otherwise it’s like the messy old desk with piles of papers on it making what you’re looking for a real pain.

If you have any questions on scanning you can call me at house phone 7251 or my cell is 262-844-6008. Or, I’m normally at the Mac meeting around 12:30 and will stay after the meeting if you need help.

Tom Gottfried

I've inserted links to some websites which give more info.  Googling scanning will turn up more info.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfZcFtHfhoc How to use an HP all in one.  

Thanks very much Tom!

Next meeting 12/17/13.  See you then.  

Mike

MAC Meeting 12/3/13

Mike gave a presentation focused on iCloud.  Here are his notes and some links to websites for further study.  

iCloud

First, the cloud; is a collection of servers at various ground locations possibly throughout the world. Not up in the air. Most of us don't realize it but 95% are now using some form of cloud service. Consider, banking, gmail, hotmail, facebook, Apple, Dropbox, Skydrive=Microsoft.

Pros

no big programs on your device

cloud stores data

access from anywhere

share docs & photos

won't lose data

Cons

must have internet service

can be hacked

Speaking of hacking

Prisim, an NSA program has penetrated the cloud storage of various firms, Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and other data giants. Is your data secure, I don't think so but its up to you what you use the the cloud for. The other services mentioned above you're probably already using. Try to be careful. Government has so much $ there's no end to how much they can spend hacking whatever they want. I trust them to misbehave in some cases. As I mentioned don't store sensitive data on the cloud.

Safety in cloud

use and change passwords regularly. Don't store sensitive data, instead use an external backup HD and a backup program like Time Machine.

iCloud

I'm only going to speak mostly about MAC computers as that is the focus of our group although iCloud is usable by most every Apple product. The main function of iCloud is to make it simple to sync data across various compatible devices.

What is iCloud: Launched 6/6/11, Apple has secure servers at different locations where your data is encrypted and resides in many places on land (not in the sky) but they also have a key which enables Apple to read anything it likes.

On MACs

Only Lion, 10.7 and later are capable of using iCloud.

Go to system preferences; internet and wireless.

Click on iCloud and

Sign in with your Apple ID & Password

Here is a website which give a good explanation:

http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/Setting-Up-An-Icloud-Account-On-Your-Mac.htm

Select what you want to put in the cloud list.

List includes:

mail, contacts, calendar which doesn't stay on your device, notes, Safari, documents & data, Back to my mac, find my MAC ??

Still need to have backup working as iCloud doesn't save everything. Need to use Time Machine or other backup program. iCloud backs up info about your purchase history but no the actual content except for documents created with Apple programs.

Photos=1000 for 30 days

device settings

home screen and app organization

ringtones,

visual voicemail.

Cost: 5GB free, 10GM $20/yr. 20GB $40/yr, 50GB $100/yr.

Another website which has many tutorial.

Macmost: http://macmost.com/icloud-basics.html

Icloud.com: Sign on to iCloud here to see what you have stored. Www.icloud.com

Cloud computing is already here and Sky computing seems to be the next thing. Complicated large programs will and probably are now accessible which makes me wonder where the data you create will be? Can you only save it to your own machine or does it automatically get clouded?

MAC Blog

http://palmcreekmacusers.blogspot.com/

Next week will be a surprise, at least to me as I was thinking about my presentation and didn't take notes.  

Your faithful servant,

Mike

MAC Meeting 11/26/13

MAC Meeting

11/26/13

Larry started and Jack wore out his voice imparting information for the next couple of hours.  As always he did a good job.  

Time Machine

Is a program included in the MAC operating system which enables users to easily schedule and back up their machines.  It has to have an external drive attached wirelessly or directly.  It was suggested powered external drives were better as they don't us up more USB ports.  

The backup drive should be about 2x the size of the drive included in the machine as Time Machine deletes the oldest backups as the drive fills up.  Not necessarily a bad thing unless you have archival information you want to keep.  Decide what you want and schedule it appropriately.  

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427  This link will take you to an Apple explanation plus lead to other locals for more information.  

Jack mentioned two web dealers who sell memory, MacSales.com and Crucial.com.  I've used another called Directron.com in Houston.  Prices vary.

Disk Utility

Is another program included in the MAC operating system which can be used for correcting errors in hard drives, partitioning HDs, erasing HDs, restoring, and various other functions.  It is located in Applications/Utilities as shown below.  

If you experience some problems with programs working correctly using this utility to repair permissions can be helpful.  I'm including two links for further reading.  

http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/whatisdiskutillity--mac-27965        and  http://macs.about.com/od/applications/tp/usingosxdiskutility.htm   

RAM

RAM is temporary memory which is wiped away every time the machine is turned off. RAM is where the computer does its work. When you turn your computer on the operating system loads the programs necessary to perform. Then when you start a program, it loads itself into RAM and tries to do what you want. Sometimes the program will transfer data back and forth between RAM and your hard drive which will slow the work process. That's why it's generally better to have as much RAM as you can afford.

It's better to turn your computer off when through for the day as the operating system will be loaded directly from the hard drive and have no opportunity to be corrupted in RAM while in sleep mode, which is invoked by just closing the lid.

Hard Memory

Hard memory is the capacity of your hard drive which permanently stores your data and programs. The size you need depends upon what you are going to do. Lots of photos require more and maybe external units. There are at least two types of hard drives out now, conventional mechanical ones and solid state. Generally the solid state drives are more expensive but are becoming more common in the new computers. They are usually very much faster and less apt to fail because they have no moving parts. Again, a good rule is get the most you can afford.   

iCloud

Since Mike was hiking instead of being around at meeting time he's been selected to do a presentation next week.  He knows next to nothing about iCloud but will come up with something.  

Don't forget the iPad meeting in the Ocotilla room on Sunday at 1300.  

Your faithful servant,

Mike

MAC Meeting 11/19/13

MAC Club

eleven attendees who spent most of the meeting led by Jack McCleskey in discussions of the use of menus which are similar throughout the OSX system.  

Jack while growing his new look

As usual Jack did a very good job explaining the ease of use and clearly showing how to read them.  

Remember the ... and what it means.  If you see the three dots following a selection on a menu it means there will be another screen brought up which gives more options.  

iPad Meetings

Conducted by Brent each Sunday at 1PM.  Since the iPad and iPhone are so similar he talks about both.  

Tutorials

Here is a link to hundreds of informative tutorials.  The guy is a fast speaker but clearly imparts information.  It doesn't cost anything to repeat view.  http://www.macmost.com   Jack showed us a video about tagging documents so they can be found.  

Next Week

Tuesday 1PM in the SanTan room.  See you then, 

Your faithful savant, 

Mike

Meeting 11/12/13

2nd meeting

Thirteen attendees.  Larry did a fine job conducting the meeting and we all learned something.  Remembering it will be something else.  

Creating a new library in iPhoto

Hold the option key while double clicking to start iPhoto and there will appear an image where a new library can be created.  http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2505  Try this link for info straight from Apple

Backup

Here is a link to information for Time Machine, the program included with all MACs.  A good program which allows easy access to saved information:  http://www.apple.com/support/backup/  

Update

Updating applications and the operating OSX is, by default set to automatically occur.  The settings can be changed in System Preferences ; Update:  http://www.apple.com/softwareupdate/  Try this link

Apple uses the App Store to update applications and the operating system in the new Mavericks 10.9.  Reports say sometimes it hangs but surely that will be fixed.  

Tutorials

There are a host of tutorials on the web.  Here is a link to an Apple "how to site."   http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/  

Dock

We will have more info on the Dock but here is a link:  http://macduel.com/how-to-customize-mac-dock-tutorial  

Bye for now

Next meeting November 19th at 1PM or 1300 if you prefer.  Look forward to seeing everyone.  

Mike

We're Back

We're Back

First meeting took place 11/5 13 at 1PM in the San Tan room.  About a dozen people attended and learned to identify their operating system.  

Plus how to determine the size and amount of data on their internal hard drive.  

Jack M showed us how to click on the "storage" item on the About this mac to see a map of the type of data plus other.

Future Meetings

Will be at 1PM in the San Tan room each Tuesday.  Looking forward to seeing everyone.  

Last Meeting before Summer

MAC Meeting 4/23

Not the last meeting forever but until mid-October of 2013.  We had an enjoyable time listening to Gary from macmost.com  He talks fast but imparts lots of good information.  We listened to his tutorials; 12 & 23.  Check out his website.  

As usual Jack did a great job of picking the subjects and answering questions.  There were five of us in attendance and we all learned something.  d

Kay had good suggestions on passwords.  

Not Kay's suggestions

We also discussed iCloud and how to view the data you've saved there by accessing the iCloud.com.  You have to remember your Apple ID and password to view the data.  Give it a try.  It's helpful to remember that after you activate your devices for iCloud they access directly as long as there is an internet connection available.  Otherwise the data is saved in temp files on your device.  

If you let me know what's going on in your MAC lives at home I'll publish.  Just email me at:  carlos.marsters@gmail.com  I'm not sure who carlos is but I think he might be related to me.  

Hope to hear from you.  

Mike

Anticipating summer heat

MAC Users Group

No Meeting 4/16/13

Mike is stuck in Desert Hot Springs being sandblasted by high winds and unable to get back to CG.

Can't see to drive. Don't think I'm ever going to Palm Springs again.  Three days of high winds and sand being plastered everywhere at high velocity make me wonder why it's such a popular place.  The high priced shopping is interesting though and people are nice.  

Meeting 4/23/13

We'll be back in the room at 1PM on the above date.  Please come and we'll share answers.  

Your faithful, 

Mike

MAC Club 4/2/13 & 4/9/13

This Week 4/2/13

There weren't many attendees on the 2nd  and one less when Jack was called away to help his wife at the emergency room.  He reports the bite to the hand is still painful but is getting better.  

Brent and Mike bluffed their way thru some familiarization of the menus and some comments on how to recover information from backups with TimeMachine.  

Time Machine is a good program and there are excellent tutorials on the web.  Also Apple has some good explanations.  Just Google.  

Next Week 4/9/13

We are planning a meeting at the usual time and even though there may be few participants we'll learn something.  Just bring your questions.  

MAC Club 3/26 & 4/2

March 26th

Jack McCleskey and Brent Shirley spoke about Evernote, a cloud based program for storing data which may be retrieved from any type of device, phone, iPad, MAC,  PC, etc.  I felt there was a need to be aware of misuse of the data and warn not to store anything of a financial or private content.  If it's out there it can be Hacked!  

EverNote

Mike Marsters reviewed menu commands and gave some input on how to retrieve files from TimeMachine.  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427  The forgoing address is helpful.  Also he found using Finder when his backup drive was connected made it easy.  He selected the drive, clicked on the backups, picked the most recent, clicked on users, clicked on his name, then selected what file he wanted, copied it and pasted where he thought best.  There probably is a similar process with Carbon Copy Cloner and Superduper?  Also he suggested the backup drive doesn't need to be connected all the time and TimeMachine can be turned off until you want to use it.  

TimeMachine

When TimeMachine is on and the backup drive is connected your MAC saves files for later backups and takes up space on your hard drive.  If your hard drive is small this can be detrimental and TimeMachine should be turned off periodically to clear the files.  

There were lots of questions about setting browsers and other things.  Hopefully our members benefited.  

FireFox

April 2nd 2013

We are getting to the end of the season and had about 10 participants last week.  There will be a meeting on 4/2 at 1PM in the regular time & place and we'll review or ask questions and attempt to help as many as possible.  

Bring all your questions and we'll try to find an answer.  If we can't we'll fib.  

Your faithful servant, 

Mike

MAC Club 3/19/ & 3/26

Last Week 3/19

It was almost a no topic meeting since mostly questions were solicited and answers attempted by Jack McCleskey and others.  Jack did a good job as usual.  

Cleaning up the MAC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIKb4gCnQH4  Jack explained how to use Disk Utility to make your MAC run faster.  The short tutorial at the previously indicated website gives a good explanation of the process.  It's compiled by a young person so has got to be good. 

Jack also suggested increasing the RAM memory in your machine.  You can Google and find out how much your computer can handle.  

Keyboard Commands

There are many keyboard commands built into the MAC operating system which can make for faster operating.  Notice the symbols on many menu items showing the strokes necessary.  I'm including an abridged copy of keyboard shortcuts here:  

Next Week 3/26 1PM

The next meeting will be somewhat informal as it will be structured to answer questions.  Please think things up to ask about.  One of our helpers has done some research on TimeMachine and could help with advice on retrieving data.  

Please enjoy the great weather!

Your faithful servant, 

Mike

MAC Meeting Mar 12th & Mar 19th

MAC Mail 

Brad Nation

Kay Nation introduced her son Brad who spent the whole class teaching us to make use of many of the features of the Mail program.  

Especially Smart Mailboxes and how to make them filter messages for easy retrieval or elimination.  

Brad offered to answer question thru his email, nationcap@comcast.net.  You'll need to cut and paste the email address as I'm not including a link to help spammers.  Please don't overuse him although I know he's good at filtering.  

Thanks Very Much

Brad!

Does anyone remember his self admitted nickname?  It's not nearly as bad as mine.  

March 19th Projected Subjects

We had planned to review Keychain and HotCorners last week and upcoming next week data organizing programs such as Evernote, or file transfer programs such as Dropbox, Airdrop and Dropcopy.  Larry kept track of more suggestions, Upgrade to Mt. Lion, Apple TV, Retrieving from TimeMachine etc.  Stay tuned for next week.

Your faithful servant,
Mike

Mac Users 3/5/13 & next two weeks

March 5th

Larry tutored us on MindMap/FreeMind.  An information coordination tool with ease of use and lots of options.   We'll miss him but extend best wishes on his presentations at home.  Let us know how it goes and thanks again for your implementation of our meetings.  

Remember, having an objective is a desirable and beneficial thing.  

March 12th prediction

Keychain Access

We'll have a tutorial and info exchange about this program for remembering and keeping safe passwords and other data.  

HotCorners

Also the above plus other stuff.

March 19th

The following is a note from Tom regarding the idea he brought forth.  

"Good Morning everyone.  This is a follow up to yesterday's Mac meeting.  I included my message originally sent to Lary on 2/13 that list my thoughts on a DVD promoting Palm Creek.  If possible, I would like to arrange a meeting with some of those interested in this project.  We can meet at my place.  The intent would be to:  

1. Decide if this is a worthwhile project for our group
2. If so, what will its message be?
3. Lay out a basic game plan, perhaps using Freemind as demonstrated by Larry at last Tuesday's meeting
4. Throw things at the wall and see what sticks

Do Sunday afternoons work for everyone?

Larry,  I didn't write down  any other names than those addressed on this e-mail.  Please forward to those who may be interested.  

Everyone, I should add that this is intended to be a fun and worthwhile project.  As retiree's, it should not be a "drag".

Tom Gottfried  Lot 1251  Corner of Shimmering Sand Lane and Sandy Desert Drive

House phone 7251

Cell              262-844-6008 "

Some of us volunteered so should consider and let him know.  

Evernote, Dropbox, Airdrop, Dropcopy

The above are file exchange programs which will work on the MAC.  

Evernote

Will allow saving of most types of files, photos, documents and retrieve them from anywhere.  

Dropbox

Dropbox allows exchanging of files with other MAC users.  

Airdrop

Airdrop is included in Lion and Mt. Lion's OS X and is used for easy file exchange between MAC users with the latest two operating systems 10.07 & 10.08.  

DropCopy works with almost any age MAC regardless of the operating system.  

Above four programs

Airdrop is included in the OS X but has to be started by opening Finder/clicking go/Airdrop.  Other MACs nearby will show and can easily exchange files.  I wonder if there could be some problems with a large group of MACs being close to each other?  Maybe someone will know.  

The other three are add on and some versions cost while some don't.  You need to check the search engine of your choice and ask about them.  

I apologize for the delay in getting the Blog published.  Have family visiting.  I take the blame.  

Your facefull servant, 

Mike

MAC Club 2/26/13 & 3/5/13

Life Spiral

Thanks to Larry Freeborg for his uplifting presentation explaining the upside-down, in some of our minds, spiral.  Once explained quite sensible. Most important is attitude.  Be positive and remember you're in charge of how you react.  Don't let the bonus years fly by without having a rudder.  

Separate User on your MAC

Jack McCleskey explained how we can create another user account completely separate from our own.  Go to System Preferences, Users & Groups, unlock, click +, and fill in the information.  You may use the Parental Controls as well, even, or especially for adults.  

Don't forget the password you assign.  

iMovie

Irene & David Hall

Gave a very informative capsulation of iMovie.  It has so many options I was snowed under.  Their advice of making use of the Help furnished within the program is very good.  The ability of the program to use stills as well as video was a surprise to me.  Try it out and be sure to call Irene for help.  

Your iPhone can download video directly to the MAC and iMovie does a good job of stabilizing it.  

VLC 

VideoLan Player

Here is some info on a program which can play almost any type of media.  VLC Media Player is a free download which seems to be designed for video although is able to handle almost any file type.  I haven't used it so would suggest Googling and reading about it.  At our last meeting it was suggested to enable users to open almost any type of document file.  Specifically, Reno asked about .docx files as he was having difficulty with Microsofts new Word format.  

We all have Textedit on our MACs and it should be able to open the .docx Word files.  Right click on the file and select Open With.  

Another option would be to take advantage of some of the free or almost free Office programs out there.  Neo Office for MAC, Apache, Open Office, LibreOffice and others which are designed for MAC.  

Apache OpenOffice
Free

NeoOffice
$10 a year
which Mikey likes and uses.  

A split-off of Open Office
Free

Use Google

1Password

Not Free

Taking my own advice I checked the above program.  It's on the App Store for $49.95 and will surely simplify keeping track of passwords.  Google it or Yahoo it or even use Bing.  Also there are free programs on the web.  Hope this helps, Cheryl.  

Larry; are you sure you have to leave so soon.  We'll miss you.  

Next Week 3/5/13

Larry will demo FreeMind.  There were some other suggestions; Keynote, Backup, Superduper, Time Machine file retrieval.  Wait and see.  Surely will be interesting.  

Ponder this,

Why does the Muslim Brotherhood get free F16s when we can't be trusted with personal weapons?  

Your faithful servant, 

Mike

Mac Club 2/19/13 & Future, 2/26/13 & 3/5/13

Announcement

2/24/13 iPad Meeting

Will be in the Cholla Room, NOT the Ocotillo.  The meeting will be at 1PM only and will be a one on one.  

Did you know?

Do you remember what we only use 10% of?

Recognize

We don't know what we don't know.

Have resistance to change.

Sometimes unable to Shift Beliefs

Can't ask for help.

Don't like mistakes.

Know your attitudes and goals.

Thanks to Larry for helping us understand how the 10% works!

Fast User Switching

Jack McCleskey

Fast user switching allows us to designate a separate workspace which acts as a whole new computer.  This option is useful for sharing the machine with another or making a workspace for work or grandchildren.  Can be combined with Parental Controls to limit access.  

To set up:  go to System Preferences, Users, add account and then follow the prompts.  Thanks Jack!  

iCloud

Bill Edwards

Bill explained this program is a way of storing information and backup data off site.  When signing up an e-mail address is also assigned and five gigabytes of data storage is included for free.  The data is stored at multiple remote hard drive sites which are redundant.  I forgot to ask Bill if there is an iFog program.  

Bill mentioned a device which plugs into the Apple TV and allows streaming.  I wonder if Roku might also be an option as it will connect with almost any TV new or old and allow streaming from various sources.  It even includes free Angry Birds.  Google it for info.  

Keynote

Larry Freeborg

Larry demonstrated a tutor program for Keynote which should make it easy to learn how to use it quickly.  It's available at the App Store for about $5.00.  

Next Week 2/26/13

iMovie 

with Irene & David

Following Week 3/5/13

Time Machine

Is Java still scary?