Apple Software

Using Multiple iTunes Libraries

by on April 2, 2012

Choose or create a new iTunes Library File

A handy feature of iTunes is the ability to use more than one iTunes library.  This comes in handy if several family members share the same computer.

I personally store my entire iTunes library on an external USB drive and using this feature, I can access my library from any computer.  In the case of an external drive, you will need to make sure to copy an updated version of your iTunes library to the drive.

To Create a New iTunes Library

  1. Hold down the Option (or Alt) key on your keyboard.
  2. Click the iTunes icon.
  3. Click the “Create Library” button from the dialog box that appears.
  4. Navigate to the folder where you wish to save your new library file.
  5. Click Save

To Switch to Another iTunes Library

  1. Hold down the Option (or Alt) key on your keyboard.
  2. Click the iTunes icon.
  3. Click the “Choose Library” button from the dialog box that appears.
  4. Navigate to the folder where the iTunes Library file is located.
  5. Click Open.
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Location of the iWork Templates Folder

by on March 24, 2012

Location of iWork My Templates folder

If you create your own templates for use in any of your iWork applications (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), you might want to back them up should anything ever happen to your computer.  To do this, you will need to know where they are located.  This is also important if you ever want to move your templates to a different computer.

Your iWork templates folder is located at:  [UserName]/Library/Application Support/iWork/[Application Name]/Templates/My Templates

To access your iWork User-created Templates:

  1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
  2. Click Go and then hold down the Option or Alt key to display your Library in the list.
  3. Click Library.
  4. Click the Application Support Folder
  5. Click the iWork Folder
  6. Click the folder for Pages, Numbers or Keynote.
  7. Click Templates
  8. Click My Templates. Any templates that you have created will be located in this folder.

 

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Organize your Files with Lion’s New Arrange Command

by on March 22, 2012

New in Lion is the ability to arrange items in a Finder window; that is to say, you can group your files into clumps, such as by kind, by size, by associated application and more.  The files are then separated by a heading that identifies each group.

Files arranged by application

Files arranged by application

This new feature works in any view:  icon, list, column and Cover Flow.  There are any practical uses for this new feature.  For instance, if you want to see what application opens (is associated with) any of your files, you can arrange your folder by Application, as shown in the screenshot above.

When you working with the Applications folder, there is a special category that appears in the Arrange By menu:  Applications Category. What this does, is sorts your applications by what they do:  Productivity, Games, Entertainment, Video, Utilities, Reference, etc.  This can be helpful if you have a large collection of applications to sift through.

Arrange files by application category

There are several ways that you can access the Arrange By feature.  You can choose View from the Finder menu, point to Arrange By and then choose the category you want.  You can also click the Arrange icon on the Finder toolbar and choose the desired category from the list.  You can also right-click on any blank area when in Icon view and choose Arrange By from the contextual menu.

Arrange icon on Finder toolbar

To remove the current arrangement of a folder, choose View > Arrange By from the Finder menu and then click None.

To Arrange the Contents of a Folder

  1. Select View > Arrange By from the menu, and then click on the desired arrangement
    Or
    Click the Arrangement icon on the Finder toolbar and then click the desired arrangement.
  2. To remove the arrangement of a folder, choose View > Arrange By from the Finder menu and then click None.

 

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Speed Up the Loading of Your Applications Folder

by on March 21, 2012

Appfolder

When you display your Applications folder, does it take forever for all of the icons to load or display?  This issue was plaguing me awhile back (and was a constant source of irritation) until I came across a fix.

To Speed Up Loading of Applications folder:

  1. Select Go > Utilities from the Finder menu.
  2. Click the Terminal icon to launch the Terminal application.
  3. Type:  mv /Applications/.DS_Store /Applications/.DSStoreold
  4. Press Return on your keyboard.

Your Applications folder should hopefully load much faster now.

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How to Easily Compress Files into Zip Format

by on March 15, 2012

Mac OS X Lion includes a built-in command that allows you to compress and archive files in .zip format, which can also be opened on Windows computers.  There is no longer any need to purchase a separate application to archive files in .zip format.

Note that Lion no longer includes the Stuffit Expander program, an unarchiving application for .sit files which was popular among Mac users.

Compressing files in Lion

To Compress/Archive Files

  1. Select the files you wish to archive.
  2. Right-click and choose Compress [icon’s name] from the contextual menu
    Or
    Choose File > Compress [icon’s name] from the Finder menu
    Or
    Click the Action button on the Finder toolbar and choose Compress [icon’s name] menu.
  3. To unarchive a .zip file, double-click it.

Tomorrow, I’ll look at an application that gives you a bit more control over compressing your files.

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Easily Share your Address Book Contact with Others

by on March 7, 2012

New in Lion is the ability to easily share your Address Book contacts with others via e-mail.  To do so, click the Share button on the bottom of the page in the person’s card in the Address Book application.

The Share button in the Address Book application

The contact’s vCard is then automatically added as an e-mail attachment to a new blank e-mail message.  Once you send out the e-mail, the recipient can click on the vCard attachment to add the contact to their address book.
E-mail message with vCard attached

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Finding Files from the Finder Window in Mac OS X

by on February 28, 2012

In the last post, we looked searching for files using the Spotlight feature.  Another way to search for files is using the Find Command on the Finder window.  While it may at first glance appear similar to the older versions of Mac OS X, it is in fact powered by Spotlight Technology. Using Find, you can search for an item by:

  • The file name or any part of the file name
  • The date the file was modified, created or last opened
  • Text content of the file
  • Keywords that Spotlight may have indexed
  • Size of the file
  • Type of file
  • Any combination of the above criteria
  • And much more

Searching for Files from the Finder Window

To begin searching, open any Finder window, enter your search criteria in the Search Box and, if relevant, click the suggestion such as “filename contains text” to narrow the search.  Then, press Return.  The window is then transformed into a Spotlight window.  To directly open a Spotlight window so that you can customize your search, select File > Find from the menu or press the Command +F keystroke combination.

Search box in the Finder Window

You can narrow or broaden your search to specific Servers, your Home folder, Computer (to search your entire Mac) or Others, where you can add specific folders to the list.  Select the area you want to search in a Finder window and then select File > Find from the menu to display the Spotlight window.  For example, to search only your Home folder, select your Home folder in the Sidebar and select File > Find from the menu.  You Home folder will then be displayed as a choice on the Spotlight window.  You can choose This Mac to search your entire computer.

To narrow down your search even further, use the criteria boxes.

To Search for a File or Folder using the Find Command

  1. Select File > Find from the Finder menu
    Or
    Press the Command +F keystroke combination
    Or
    Type your search criteria in the Search Box of any Finder window.
  2. To search by file name:
    a.Click the File Name box.
    b.Type the name of the file or part of the name in the Search Box.
    c.If desired, click a relevant suggestion that appears as you begin to type.
  3. To search using additional criteria, click the plus (+) sign and then choose the desired criteria from the drop-down boxes.  Click Other for a list of all available criteria.
  4. To search only a specific drive or folder:
    a.Click the desired disk or folder in any Finder window.
    b.Select File > Find from the menu (or use the Command +F keystroke combination)
    c.Select the drive or folder on top of the Spotlight window.
    d.Type in your search criteria in the Search Box.
  5. To save a search for reuse in the future, click the Save button and provide a name for your search.

 

 

 

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Finding Files on your Mac using Spotlight

by on February 26, 2012

Inevitibably, the day will come when you will forget where you placed a file or folder.  Luckily, Mac OS X includes a powerful tool to help you find lost or hidden items with ease called Spotlight.  Introduced in Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, Spotlight technology allows you to find anything on your computer so quickly that it’s amazing and has been greatly improved in Lion.  When Lion was first installed on your Macintosh, it indexed every file on your system.  Any file you add after that is automatically added to the index, allowing for lightning-fast searching.  You can add additional metadata keywords to your files and folders from the Get Info window which will then be added to the Spotlight index.

Spotlight search box

Spotlight supports the following file types (and is constantly adding more):

  • Address Book Contacts
  • Adobe PDF and Photoshop files
  • Applications
  • Calendar Events & To Do’s
  • E-mail
  • Folders
  • HTML files
  • Image files (.jpeg, .gif, .tiff, .png, .bmp)
  • iWork documents (Pages, Numbers & Keynote files)
  • Microsoft Office Documents
  • Plain Text
  • RTF
  • Video & Audio files (.mp3, .aac, .mov)

A Spotlight search can be executed in two main ways – from a Finder Window or from the menu bar on your Desktop.  Using Spotlight from the menu bar is the easiest way to conduct a search.  On the upper-right-hand corner of your screen, is a magnifying glass icon.  Click the icon to display the Spotlight search box or you can press the keystroke combination ⌘  + Spacebar.  Then, click in the search box and type in a character, a word or several words to find an item.

As you type, a menu appears displaying the top 20 matches to what you have thus far typed.  The matches are grouped in categories such as Applications, PDF’s, Documents, Messages, etc.  To see a preview of an item, move your mouse cursor over the item in the results list – a preview of the item will display in a small window to the left of the results list.

Preview Feature in Spotlight

To view an item, click its name in the list or if the desired item appears first in the list, press Return.  To view a list of all matches, click Show All in the menu.

You can even use Spotlight to perform mathematical calculations.  Simply type your calculation in the Spotlight box and the result will usually appear first in the list.  To quickly open an Application from Spotlight, type in the name of the application (Book, PhotoShop, Word, Mail, etc.).  The application will usually display first in the list.  Press Return to launch the item or click it in the list.

Performing a Spotlight search from the Spotlight window will be discussed in another post.

To Find Files using Spotlight

  1. Click the magnifying glass icon on the upper-right hand corner of the Desktop on the menu bar
    Or
    Click in the Search field on upper-right-hand corner of any Finder Window
    Or
    Press the ⌘ + Spacebar keystroke combination.
  2. Type a character, word or group of words for which you want to search.
  3. Click the item in the results list to display it or press Return if the item appears first in the list.
  4. Move your mouse pointer over an item to view it in a separate preview window.
  5. To see a list of all matches, click Show All in the menu.

 

 

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How to Hide Top Sites in Safari

by on February 25, 2012

Top Sites window in Safari

Safari identifies your favorite sites and displays them as a wall of graphical thumbnails called “Top Sites”.  You can visit any one of your top sites by clicking on the site preview.  As you browse, the Top Sites selections change, depending on how often and how recently you’ve visited certain sites.

Many folks do not find this feature useful at all and would prefer NOT to view Top Sites when opening Safari or switching to a new window.  Luckily, you can easily turn off this feature from Safari Preferences.

If you don’t wish to see Top Sites in Safari:

  1. Select Safari > Preferences from the menu.
  2. Click the General icon on top of the window.
  3. Click the “New windows open with” drop-down list and select “Empty Page” (or Homepage, if you prefer).
  4. Click the “New tabs open with” drop-down list and select “Empty Page”.
  5. Close the Preferences window.  Safari will no longer display Top Sites when launching or when opening a new tab.

General Tab of Safari Preferences

Applies to: Safari 5

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How to See a Contact’s Groups in Address Book

by on February 24, 2012

In Address Book, clicking on a contact group displays all contacts that make up that group. But did you know that you can also see all the groups that a particular contact belongs to?

Display all groups that a contact belongs to in Address Book

To do so, display your groups and ensure that the All Contacts group is the active group.  Then, click the name of the contact card whose groups you wish to see and then hold down the Option (or Alt) key on your keyboard. All of the groups that the contact belongs to will be highlighted in blue.  In the example above, we can see that the contact “Bluemound Gardens” belongs to four groups.

 

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