2/25/14 MAC Meeting details and forecast for next meeting

Larry's presentation

Larry gave a motivational presentation which was received well my our members.  Refire Not Retire.  

iMovie

by Irene and David:

How to add music to movies, Bo's journey,  We may ask Irene and Dave to help with a separate group focused on iMovie.??? 

Irene and Dave have often suggested just trying the program.  I've done so and it can be fun.

Kay & Jack:  Facetime

What is it?  A way to communicate with folks who have Apple devices with a view of faces and, of course, dialog.  

Only for Apple products.  

Requires at least Snow Leopard 10.6.6 to function.  

How to increase the size of your cursor?

System Preferences>Universal Access>Mouse&Trackpad>Change the cursor size at the bottom.

Space on Hard Drive?

There are several ways to increase available disk space. To find out how much disk space you have, open Disk Utility, click your disk (usually named Macintosh HD), then click Info.

Delete items you don’t need

Move items you don’t need to the Trash. Then press and hold the Trash icon in the Dock and choose Empty Trash.

In Mail, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items > In All Accounts, and Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail.

In iPhoto, choose iPhoto > Empty iPhoto Trash.

In iMovie, choose File > Move to Trash or File > Move Rejected Clips to Trash to delete unwanted items. Or, choose File > Space Saver to delete all excess video from an Event.

Check the other apps you use for ways to remove or compress items.

Delete downloaded items

Items you download from the Internet are stored in the Downloads stack in the Dock. Over time, unneeded items may accumulate.

Press and hold the Downloads icon in the Dock, then choose Open in Finder.

Drag any unneeded items from Downloads to the Trash, then choose Finder > Empty Trash.

If you don’t see the Downloads icon in the Dock, click the Finder icon in the Dock, then choose Go > Downloads.

Locate large files

You can find your largest files and then compress them or move them to another disk.

Click the Finder icon in the Dock.

Choose Go > Home or press Shift-Command (⌘)–H.

Choose File > Find or press Command (⌘)–F.

Open the Kind pop-up menu, then choose Other.

Under “Select a search attribute” select the checkbox for File Size. Make sure no other checkboxes are selected, then click OK.

Change the “equals” pop-up menu to “is greater than,” then change the “KB” pop-up menu to “MB.”

Enter a minimum file size. 100 MB is a good starting point. You can change the value to see more or fewer results. Searching begins as soon as you type a file size. It may take a moment for all the search results to appear.

Compress files and folders

You can compress files and folders into an archive that takes up less space.

To compress a file or folder, Control-click it or tap it using two fingers, then choose Compress from the shortcut menu. If you compress a single item, the compressed file has the name of the original item with the .zip extension. If you compress multiple items at once, the compressed file is called Archive.zip.

To uncompress (expand) an item, double-click the .zip file.

Move files to another disk

Move files and folders you don’t often use to an external disk, such as a USB or FireWire disk, or to a disk connected to your AirPort or other network.

Burn files and folders to a CD or DVD. Burn a CD or DVD or put them on a thumb drive. Or move them to a backup drive. .jpg and .pdf files can be saved on a drive which both Windows and MAC can read. (Fat32).

After the files are copied, you can delete the copies on your Mac.

Tom's Notes for Space Management

TermsByte: Smallest piece of information a computer can read 

KB: (kilobyte) =1,000 bytes 

MB: (megabyte) = 1,000 kilobytes 

GB: (gigabyte) = 1,000 megabytes
TB: (terabyte) = 1,000 gigabytes
Examples: • This page is 106 KB 

• A 6 megapixel camera set at its largest file size will average about 2.5 MG 

• A 12 megapixel camera set at its largest size will average 4-6 MG 

• A 15 megapixel camera set at its largest size might average 8 MG 

• A photo library with 15,000 pictures at 8 MG each will be 120,000 MG or 120 GB
A CD ROM DIsk will hold 750 MB of information. Normally single use. A DVD+R Disk will hold 7 GB of information! Normally single use.

USB Flash Drives vary in size, from prox 128MB to as much as 64GB of storage! The advantage to using a Flash Drive is that it can be used over and over again. Just send the files from the flash drive to “Trash”. Or you can use a flash drive to store data. Be sure to label each one.

Or, there are a number of vendors who offer storage “in the cloud” allowing large files to be be accessed by those who you choose to do so. This might be the subject of a future Mac meeting.
Why take, or save photos in the largest format? If you plan to enlarge a photo to more than 8 X 10 and have it printed you will want to have as large a file size as possible. Another reason is if you plan on doing a lot of cropping. Or, if you plan on showing your pictures on a large screen TV. But, if all you plan to use the photo for is to be shown on a computer, the smallest size is adequate.

What is a good size to attach to an e-mail? That depends on how fast the computer or internet service is for the person you are sending the photo to, and what they will be doing with the photo. If they are just going to view it on their computer screen, 50-100 KB will be large enough to be seen the way you took the picture. It also depends on how many photos you will attach to an e-mail. If you send an entire album of photos it could quickly increase to several MG, and that will increase the time needed to complete the download.

How do I know the file size of the photo? In iPhoto on the bottom right corner, the first box is titled, Info. Click on it and a box will appear in the upper right hand corner with most of the information you will need including the file size.  You can find info on any file highlighted by pressing cmd-i. 

How do I resize the photo and attach it to an e-mail? In iPhoto while viewing thumbnails, you can hold down the command key and click on each of the thumbnails you want to send. Then, at the bottom right corner, click on Share and then click e-mail. An e-mail will appear with the photos you selected along with the Message Size of the e-mail shown at the bottom left corner. On the bottom right corner look for Photo Size and select the size you want. As you do this the Message size will change. On the right side of the e-mail you will see a selection of photo layouts. Classic is the most popular. But, be creative!

Mac Users Group Jan 29, 2013 updated Feb 25, 2014

Keep in mind that even though you resize a photo to be sent as an e-mail attachment, the original file does not change, and remains in iPhoto in the original size you imported from your camera. But, let’s say that you want to keep all your photos in their original size and they average 10 mg each. And let’s say you have a lot of pictures in your library, say 15 to 20,000. Considering that some may be older and a smaller file size, let’s estimate that they average 8 mb each. 20,000 x 8 = 160,000 or 160 gb Now, let’s say your hard drive is only 250 mb. More than half of your storage would be pictures. If your photo library is getting to be this size, it may be time for you to store them on an external hard drive.

Prices for new Mac Book Pro’s $1,199 Basic 13” Standard screen 500 GB hard drive 

$1,299 13” with Retina display 128 GB Flash drive 

$1,499 13” with Retina display 256 GB Flash drive $1,799 13” with Retina display 512 GB Flash drive

A 1 TB external hard drive from Seagate or Western Digital can be purchased from Best Buy for $80. It’s up to you as to how much you want to pay for convenience.

And, let’s keep in mind, we haven’t listed movies, another storage hog. And, yes, you can store your movies and photos on the same external hard drive.

How do I find out how much storage I have on my Mac?Click on the Apple in the upper left hand corner of your computer. Click on “About this Mac” Click on “More Info” Click on “Storage” found on the upper left
This box will tell you how much storage you have left on both your hard drive and an external drive if one is connected.

How can I find out what is taking up most of my storage?Click on Finder Most applications will provide the program size. If there are programs you never use, consider removing them. While in Finder, you can click on any folder. Then click on File, then click on Get Info. A box will appear with information on how many bytes, KB, MB, or GB of information is in that file. You will have to decide on what is important to keep and what you can discard. If you want to keep the information but not on your precious hard drive, consider exporting seldom used files onto CD’s, DVD’s, flash drives, or even an external hard drive. And keep in mind, that if you have been backing up your hard drive, all the information you remove from your computer is still on the back up drive.

Commands

For Mt. Lion 

For Mavericks

Jack's Favorite Commands

1.  Cmd-w

2.  Cmd-x, 

3.  Cmd-v

4.  Cmd-c

5.  Cmd-z  I like this one; try it.  "undo"

How to restore an icon to the doc?

Open Finder, Select Applications, click on the one you want to place on the doc and drag it to the position you desire in the doc.

How to place applications in the left frame of your Finder?

Open Finder, Select preferences, sidebar, then pick what you want to show.  Please, if you have other questions Google.

Another way is to highlight the item you want to place in the sidebar, click File and select "add to sidebar".  To remove something, hold Cmd and drag it off the sidebar and watch it blow up.  

Next Week

Larry's email says we will learn how to remove unwanted addresses which appear when Mail guesses who you want to send something to.  Also Jack will some more procedures.

 Also, I can't be there as I have family visiting so please someone email me or call me with what happens.  

Your faithful servant

Mike

Meeting 2/11/2014

Notes on the Meeting

Larry reminded us that the blog keeps getting better with more information about what we have learned at the Mac meetings as well as important park information. A case in point is “shortcuts”, using the “command key” along with a letter designation key. Command P for example is a short cut for print. A very comprehensive list of shortcuts is listed in the Mac blog. Jack pointed out another useful short cut....Command D to delete your last entry.

Jack told us of a very useful website called PC Classes on line and here is the link:  http://pcclassesonline.com/

I suggest signing up and checking what Cox has to offer.  The tutorial Jack presented was excellent regarding iPhoto.  He used this free resource to present a tutorial on iPhoto, which included information on photo stream, organizing photos including face recognition and editing. There was also information on making a book, a calendar, slide shows, sharing photos, and printing photos.

There are a number of additional topics on PC Classes.com available as videos in an easy to understand format.


A question came up regarding signing up for iCloud. Using Systems Preferences found on your dock, when you are asked for your ID, it is really asking for your e-mail address, not your password.
Larry asks that anyone who finds a useful tutorial share the information with the class and send a comment on the blog.

Many of the above comments are composed by Tom who was asked by Mike to take notes as he was late to the meeting and will miss the next one due to a Yuma trip.

Tom, I very much appreciate your help.

Also thanks to Jack for leading the discussion on iPhoto and the tutorial.  

Next Week

1.  Email issues, how to; delete old email addresses, compose group email, forward w/o excess baggage.

2.  How to determine what data to transfer to another drive when yours is getting full. 

Quickest way I know is to select the files and copy or cut and move them to another drive.  Then delete from your MAC, if you copied, after checking that they transferred OK.  Normally the data files; from word processing, and photos take up most of the space.  Moving them should be relatively easy if you've constructed folders and filled them.  

Please, remember to Google if you have a question.  

All you need to do is enter the question in the address section of your browser; this works with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox.  Up will pop more answers than you can imagine.  Not all relevant sometimes.  

Future Meeting Subjects:

A discussion on Firefox was mentioned as well as how to construct a blog.  

Blog Info

How to create a blog;

What is a blog?  A (web-log) which is a web based journal.  What do you need.  Computer, site, content, willingness to keep it up, and a little creativity.

Steps:
Pick a provider.  LiveJournal, Blogger, Wordpress.com, Xanga, Timbir or WEBS.

Rated.  1. Blogger, 2. Wordpress, 3. Livejournal and others.

To sign up, Blogger:  1. Create an account, a. email, b password, c. Display name, d. email you want to use, e. Birthday, f. Word verification, g. accept terms.  2. Name blog.  3. Choose template, looks of blog.  4. Post.

Wordpress:  1. choose an address, a. User name, b. password. c. email. d. language.  2 Pick Template, 3. add freebies, 4. explore other sites, 5. decide whether public or private.  6 post a few tests. 7. visit other blogs. 8 be careful of info in blog.

Posting can include photos, text, movies, clipart.  The help sections are very good.  Here is a Blogger help site:  https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1623800?hl=en

Important

Avoid posting anything on your blog that might be personal to other people if just anyone can read your blog (example: Your uncle might object that it's published on the Internet that he is an alcoholic). If something is personal, avoid using last names at the very least, or make up a name for that person. Be wary of unwarranted attention. Blogs are for the world to read. If you want a private blog just for friends, use Xanga or any other password-protected blogging site.
Xanga and MySpace are ok for beginners, but for more public blogs, sites like Typepad, Blogger and wordpress.com are much more "respected".
Be wary of unwarranted attention. Blog stalking is possible; don't give out too much personal information such as name, location, school, etc.
Be prepared for some nasty comments and/or e-mails if you are blogging about "touchy" items, such as bad leadership in a school system, rumors about an official or local government. As long as the messages do not threaten bodily harm, you should be safe.
Always back up your commentary with reliable sources, and keep the sources varied (i.e. wikipedia says it isn't a good source and don't just quote from one newspaper).
Read the small print. If you don't, your blog's content may be "owned" by the company that puts it on the web for you. Stick with big names, like Blogger, Wordpress, or even host your own wordpress blog on your own web hosting for complete control.


How to find mac blog?  Google Palm Creek mac blog and choose from the list.  Then can save URL to favorites.

How to Post a Blog Comment

If you carefully look at the bottom of the post you will see a word; comments or no comments which if clicked on will bring a screen with an area to enter your comment.  If you have a Google account use it or the anonymous selection to post.  I read the comments so if you suggest a site or idea I'll post it.  

Mike's

Thanks for the accolades at last meeting.  I probably don't need them but I'm happy someone other than Russians is reading the blog.  I'll keep up as well as I can for the rest of the year and again thanks Tom, Jack and Larry, as well as others for the support.  

Mike's Firefox Notes

Here's some info on Firefox vs Safari.  

Again, I can modify the blog as needed so if you have comments that can help me please post them.  

You semi-faithful servant

Mike

Meeting 2/7/2014

Notes for Meeting 2/7/2014

Discussion on web browsers

The schedule called for presentations about three browsers; Safari, Google, and Firefox.  Unfortunately, time expired before all were covered.  

What is a browser?  A software application used to view HTML documents on the world wide web.  Since sites use HTML (hyper text markup language) to construct their documents they should appear the same regardless of which browser is used.  That being said; if you're having a site built to sell a product it would be a good idea to test with different browsers.  Problems may arise due to incorrect writing of HTML or improper encoding or minor differences in the way a browser reads the HTML.  Most browsers will overcome errors though.  

Here is a site explaining how browsers work: http://browsers.about.com/od/howbrowserswork/a/whatisabrowser.htm  This site has a lot of info about the net and the WWW (world wide web).  

Here is another site focused on terms we should know.  http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/internetlanguage/tp/the-top-internet-terms-for-beginners.htm   

After spending a few hours researching browsers I've come to the conclusion that using one over another is a personal choice as most of the features are duplicated in each.  Except for Internet Explorer.  As near as I can tell there is no version for MAC. If you want it, get a PC with Windows 8.  

There are at least 20 different browsers and currently Google Chrome is by far the most used.  2.4 million customers as opposed to a little over a million for Safari.  

At this point Google is still supporting Firefox with about 2% of its advertising dollars and seems likely to continue as Firefox defaults to them with advertising inquiries.  Since I was assigned the presentation for Firefox I am including a website http://browsers.about.com/od/historylesson/a/firefoxhistory.htm which will talk about its history and development.  I don't use it on my MAC as I feel Safari is best suited to Apple programs and works fine for me.  I use Firefox exclusively on my Linux system and like it.  I personally can't tell much difference in functionality.  

Keyboard Commands

There are many commands starting with CMD+whatever.  Jack McCleskey has taught us some which are very useful and quicker than using your mouse.  

Here is a site with more keyboard shortcuts than you can imagine:  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343 

Next Meeting 2/14/2014

Projected topics are mail and iPhoto.

How to leave a comment on the blog

I've enabled comments from anyone including anonymous.  Therefore, you should see a comments link at the end of whatever post you are viewing.  If you click this link you'll be able to leave your comment.  

Larry; you said you weren't able to leave a comment but it came through.  

Geek

The word geek is a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from "an expert or enthusiast" to "a person heavily interested in a hobby", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual".^[1]

Although often considered as a pejorative, the term is also used self-referentially without malice or as a source of pride. Its meaning has evolved to connote "someone who is interested in a subject (usually intellectual or complex) for its own sake."  I think this may describe me.  

Here are a couple of sites Larry suggested.  The first from PC classes online.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblx-K2XMOU. Info for people who have recently switched to MAC.

The second for recent PC owners:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twf70Tl7piY  Thanks, Larry.  

See you next time.  

Mike