MAC Users Group Meeting 3/25/14

MAC 3/25/15

seventeen attendees.  

Larry Spent time reviewing what we worked on the past season and asked for suggestions for next fall. He spoke about many of the programs we use often such as mail, finder, zoom, iPhoto, iMovie, tutorials, contacts and more.  

Tutorials

David A. Cox's site is very good and most importantly understandable.  Here's a link:  http://pcclassesonline.com/  He requires joining and then furnishes a password each month to your email.  The tutorials are free but he gives classes and sells items to support his work.  If you haven't checked it out please do.  

Grab and Preview Screen Shots

Grab is a program included in OS-X in the applications folder under utilities.  To find it open finder, click on applications and utilities.  It's an easy way to take a screen shot of a selected area of your desktop and save it for later.  Here's Apples info:  http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6846?viewlocale=en_US  

The same thing can be accomplished by using Preview which is also included in OS-X inside the Applications folder.  It also is usually included in the Dock.  

Preview

When Preview is open click on file and choose Take Screen Shot.  Here is a site with lots of instructions on using Preview.  http://www.take-a-screenshot.org/  Preview will allow saving of files in various formats.  

Firefox Notes

Firefox is an open source program developed to improve on Windows Internet Explorer.  Here's a site giving its history and other facts:  http://browsers.about.com/od/historylesson/a/firefoxhistory.htm  Probably more than we need to know but interesting.  Also a site giving detail of usage:  http://www.newbie.org/firefox/#why  I spoke about some of the features but this Mozilla site is very detailed.  

How to Install Firefox

This link give good instructions.  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-download-and-install-firefox-mac

Someone asked about printing a list of MAC User Group Members from Address Book.  I've done some reading but haven't found an appropriate answer yet.  Check back.  

How to uninstall Firefox

Follow this link:  https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/uninstall-firefox-from-your-computer  This won't  remove your personal settings, although it will remove the program.  As near as I can tell Firefox stores personal settings, passwords, etc. in the Library file under Application support.  I assume deleting these files will purge the program's information although, resetting to factory defaults before deleting may do the same thing.  Sorry, I don't know all the answers.  

Next Week

Various backup programs.  BackBlaze, Carbonite, Crashplan.  Also some discussion of computer security.  

Your faithful servant, 

Mike

Shorter New Post

Where to find Blog Creating Info

View the post of 2/13/14, Meeting of 2/11/14.  Scan down about half way and you'll find the instructions I posted on Blog creation.  

Blogger

Jack spoke about TimeMachine 

Time Machine

And Carbon Copy Cloner.  Here's a site to check it out.  A really good program!  

http://www.bombich.com/ 

Carbon Copy Cloner

Jack also spoke about Dashboard and told us how to ad widgets.  Go to Dashboard:

Dashboard

When it opens click on the + and then on Widgets.  You'll be brought to an Apple site where an awesome amount of them can be selected and added.  Kind of fun.  

Next Week

Probably Info on FireFox from Mike and more detail stuff from Jack.  We try to help.  

See you next time.

Your Faithful Servant, 

Mike

MAC Users Group 3/11/14

Content of Meeting 3/11/14

Larry did his best to explain how FreeMind works to organize thoughts and construct a logical information format.  Here is a link with a tutorial on how to use FreeMind.  A Zen program.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grut_2cardM

Also a link to the FreeMind main page:  http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page  This program is written with JAVA which has caused some problems with our MACs in the past.  I presume updates have solved the problems.  

Cox offers tutorials free on line.  All you have to do is sign up and he will give a password to access his site where you can choose what you want to view.  He not only has MAC stuff but PC and Droid.  

Here is Cox's home site: http://pcclassesonline.com/  

The above site is where you sign up.  

Also at Cox's site there is a tutorial on eliminating duplicates in iPhoto.  He suggests buying a recommended program although the Apple store has a free download to accomplish the same thing.  Here is the location for his tutorial:  http://pcclassesonline.com/remove-duplicates-iphoto/  

Marty reported his download of Mavericks was successful and as far as he can tell everything is OK.  Also he found Radio Shack has HDMI adapter cables that will fit Thunderbolt ports and hook to his TV, also to the projector in the San Tan Room.  

Mission Control

A program included with OS-X 10.7 and forward which allows easy access to multiple windows running on a desktop.  Here's a site:  http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4689

Older versions of OS-X used Exposehttp://support.apple.com/kb/ht2503  This site is for those of us still using OS-X10.6 or earlier.  A great program which is very useful and many of it's commands work with Mission Control.  

Dashboard has been around for quite a while.  http://lifehacker.com/5904256/ways-to-make-your-macs-dashboard-more-useful  Read about some of the apps you can install on Dashboard to make life easier.  For instance saving a copy of keyboard shortcuts?  With a widget called Daskards from http://dashkards.com/widget 

Screenshot with Grab

This is a very useful tool included in Utilities in the Application folder.  It is used to select and copy, print, export something you see on your screen.  http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6846?viewlocale=en_US 

Other ways to take a screenshot:  http://www.take-a-screenshot.org/  Lots of ways, also can be saved to the clipboard.  

Clipboard

Has anyone wondered how you can look at your clipboard?  Choose Show Clipboard from the Finder's Edit menu. And select "Show Clipboard".  Why would you want to?  

Next Week

Dashboard

Firefox

Blog

Backup

Jack and Mike will do their best to keep you from being bored.  

Please check the blog regularly as editing and corrections take place.  

Additions

Larry reminded me he had spoken about a wireless remote which made manipulating a presentation easier.  

Targus Remote

I'm including a website with a short demo:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saK3WxDZvm0

Your faithful servant,

Mike

How to Remove Email Addresses

How to remove email

How to delete an email address from auto complete in Mail?   http://email.about.com/od/macosxmailtips/qt/Delete_an_Email_Address_from_Auto_Complete_in_Mac_OS_X_Mail.htm  Try this link.  It says when you start to address someone click on their address then click on the little white arrow and a selection should appear asking if you want to delete that address?  Try it out.  This website has a bunch of other topics of interest.  

See you on next Tuesday.  

Your faithful servant,

Mike