Apple Software

Using the Slide Show Feature in Quick Look

by on February 21, 2012

Most people who work with Macs are familiar with Quick Look, a feature introduced in Leopard that allows you to view the contents of your documents and images at nearly full size level without needing to launch the associated application.  But did you know that Quick Look has a Slide Show feature?  Using Quick Look, you can cycle through and display selected images in full screen view on our screen for about 4 minutes each.  The cycle will continue until the slide show is terminated.

To use Quick Look’s slideshow feature

  1. Highlight all of the items you want included in the Slide Show.
  2. Press the spacebar
    Or
    Press the Command + Y keystroke combination
    Or
    Select File > Quick Look from the Finder menu.
  3. Click the Full Screen Button
    Full Screen Icon in Quick Look
  4. Move your mouse pointer anywhere over the image to display the Quick Look toolbar.
  5. On the Quick Look toolbar, click the Play button.
    Quick Look toolbar during slide show
  6. Click the Pause button to stop the slideshow at any time (Play button turns to Pause button during slide show play).
  7. Press the Esc key to stop the slideshow
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Reading List – A Handy Feature in Safari 5

by on February 20, 2012

 

A handy little feature in Safari 5 is the Reading List feature.  What this does, is allows you to store links to interesting articles that you come across while browsing in a single storage location which you can then tend to at a later time.  This feature is especially helpful if you come across an article that you want to read but don’t have the time to do so at the moment.

Reading List pane in Safari

To save an article to the Reading List, click Bookmarks from the Safari menu and then click Add to Reading List.  You can also press the keyboard shortcut Shift + Command + D.

Safari Bookmarks menu

By default, the Reading List is hidden.  To display (or hide) the Reading List, press the Shift + Command + L keystroke combination or click the Reading List icon on the Safari Bookmarks Bar.

Reading List icon in Safari Bookmarks Bar

Another way to display the Reading List is to choose View > Show Reading List from the Safari menu.  The Reading List will display on the left side of your screen in the Safari window.  Click the item you wish to read in the Reading List pane – the article will then load in your browser window.

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How to See all of Safari’s Installed Plug-ins

by on February 17, 2012

Yesterday, I talked about how to delete those pesky plug-ins from Safari.  I received a e-mail after the post asking me if there is a way to see a list of all of the plug-ins that are installed in Safari.  The answer is Yes.

To see all of Safari’s installed plug-ins, select Help from the Safari menu and then click Installed Plug-ins. A page will display listing all of the currently installed Plug-ins in Safari.

Safari Help Menu

 

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How to Remove Plug-ins in Safari

by on February 16, 2012

Internet Plug-Ins Folder

Many folks use plug-ins to add to their browser’s functionality.  Plug-ins are small programs that can enhance the capabilities of your browser.  At times however, they can end up being problematic.  Some plug-ins may be incompatible with other existing plug-ins and render your Web browser unstable or may simply reduce the speed of your browser for whatever reason.  If this is  case, you may want to remove the offending plug-in from Safari.

Safari typically stores plug-ins in either in the Macintosh HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins folder or in the Plug-ins folder under your Home folder’s Library – [your user name/Library/Internet Plug-ins.  As an example, if your user name was Susan, then you would find your Plug-ins folder at:  Susan/Library/Internet Plug-ins.  Note that in Mac OS X Lion, the Library folder is hidden.  To temporarily display it, click Go on the Finder menu and hold down the Option or Alt key. The Library folder will display as along as the key is held down.

Unhide the Library Folder

Once you find the Plug-in that you want to remove, select the file and move it to the Trash.  You will then need to restart Safari in order for the changes to take effect.  If you just want to discover whether a particular plug-in is causing problems with Safari (and not necessarily delete the plug-in), you can simply move it to another folder.  This way, you can always copy it back later to the Plug-ins folder, if need be.

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Navigating Through Open Windows in Mac OS X Lion

by on February 11, 2012

Open folder list using command and tab

Scrolling through your open windows allows you to quickly jump to another open application in Lion, without having to click any icons on the dock. This comes in especially handy for those folks who prefer using the keyboard whenever possible rather than the mouse.

To scroll through all open windows, press and hold down the Command key and then tap the Tab key. This will display a horizontal list of all of your open windows. To scroll through the list, either press the Tab key (with the Command key still held down) or use your right and left arrow keys to navigate the list. You can also hover your mouse over any window in the list to select it.

Once the window that you want to open is selected, release the Command key. This will bring the window to the front. However, you will be unable to bring a window to the front using this method if the window has been minimized – only the application’s menu bar will display in this instance. If this is the case, press and hold down the Option key before you release the Command key. This will then bring the selected window to front.

Use this method to Quit an application as well. Hold down the Command key and then press the Tab key to move from one item to another. When the item you want to close is selected, press the Q key on your keyboard. I use this method every evening before I shut down my Mac to close all of my open applications in succession.

 

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Using a Burn Folder in OS X Lion

by on February 10, 2012

Select File, New Burn folder from the Finder menu

A Burn Folder is a handy type of folder that allows you to burn files to a CD or DVD more than once.  Similar to Smart Folders, any files that you add to Burn Folders do not actually reside in the folders but rather are Aliases (shortcuts) of the original files; thus, Burn Folders take up almost no disk space.

An ideal purpose for a Burn Folder is to add files and folders that you back up regularly or perhaps need to copy to a USB drive on the fly.  Any changes to a file or any new files added to a folder will automatically be updated in the Burn Folder.
To create a Burn Folder, choose File > New Burn Folder from the Finder menu.

To Use a Burn Folder

  1. Select File > New Burn Folder from the Finder menu.
  2. Type in the name for your folder and press Return.
  3. Drag any files or folders you want to add to your Burn Folder.
  4. Insert a blank CD or DVD.
  5. When you are ready to burn the folder’s contents to an external disc, select File > Burn [Burn Folder’s name] to Disc from the Finder menu
    Or
    Right-click the folder and choose Burn [Burn Folder’s name] to Disc from the contextual menu
    Or
    Double-click the Burn Folder to open it and click the Burn button on the right side of the window or the Burn icon on the toolbar.

Image of burn icon in Finder window

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Adding the Duplicate command to Keyboard Preferences in Lion

by on February 9, 2012

Duplicate command on File Menu in Pages

As many of you have no doubt noticed, Apple removed the Save As shortcut (Command + Shift + S) from Apple Apps in Lion and replaced it with the new Duplicate command.  What this command does, is creates an exact duplicate of the active document. When you save the duplicate, the application prompts you for a new file name.

This new “feature” adds several additional steps to the process of saving the active file with a different name, all needing to be accomplished with the mouse as there is not a keyboard shortcut for the Duplicate command.  Being as there is no keyboard shortcut, I created one myself, adding the Command + Shift + S command to my keyboard preferences.  Now, every time I press the shortcut, the app creates a duplicate of the file.  All I need to do then is to press Command + S to save the file with a new name.

To Create a Duplicate using a Keyboard Shortcut

  1. Select Apple > System Preferences from the menu.
  2. Click the Keyboard icon in the Hardware area.
  3. Click Application Shortcuts in the left pane.
    Keyboard preferences window
  4. Click the + (plus) symbol under the windows.
  5. From the Application drop-down list, choose “All Applications”
    Keyboard command to add Duplicate
  6. Click in the Menu title box and type Duplicate.
  7. Click in the Keyboard Shortcut box and press the Command+Shift+S keys (or whatever keyboard shortcut you want to use).
  8. Click Add.

 

 

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How to Add Custom Icons to Your Folders and Drives

by on February 8, 2012

If you want to differentiate certain items from one another or simply make a particular document or folder stand out from the others, you can apply a custom icon – or even an image – to your folder, application or document icons. Custom icons certainly can make your Desktop more interesting to look it.

Lion supports icons sizes up to 128 x 128 pixels so it is best to use an image as close to this size as possible. You can use a graphics editing program such as Photoshop to size your image to the appropriate dimensions.

To apply a custom icon, first copy the image you wish to use. Then, display the Get Info window for the item whose icon you wish to change (select the folder and press the keystroke combination Command + I). Click the current icon on top of the Info window and choose Edit > Paste from the menu.

To remove a custom icon, select the icon you wish to remove in the General area of the Get Info window and press the Delete key. The custom icon is removed and the standard icon for the item is returned.

Paste a custom icon in the Get Info window

To Apply a Custom Icon

  1. Double-click the image file to open it.
  2. Select Edit > Copy from the menu
    Or
    Press the Command + C keystroke combination.
  3. Select the folder, drive, application or document whose icon you wish to change.
  4. Select File > Get Info from the menu.
    Or
    Press the Command + I keystroke combination
  5. Click the icon under the General area.
  6. Select Edit > Paste from the menu
    Or
    Press the Command + V keystroke combination.

To Remove a Custom Icon

  1. Select the folder, drive, application or document whose custom icon you wish to remove.
  2. Select File > Get Info from the menu
    Or
    Press the Command + I keystroke combination.
  3. Click the icon under the General area.
  4. Press the Delete key.

Delete a custom icon in the Get Info window

 

 

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Using iTunes Match to Upgrade Your Library

by on February 7, 2012

Yesterday, I posted about how to set up and use the iTunes Match service.  In addition to having your music available in the cloud, there is another reason why you might consider subscribing to the iTunes Match service, if even only for a year – it’s a great way to upgrade your existing iTunes library.

Jason Snell from MacWorld posted an excellent article a couple of months back on how to upgrade your music tracks to iTunes match so I decided to give it a try.   What this does, is allows you to replace any tracks in your iTunes library with the 256 kbps version.  In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that when iTunes finds a match for a song in your library, the 256 kbps version is added to your iTunes Match cloud, regardless of the encoding of the original.  What this means is that you can delete the original and download the higher quality version that iTunes Match has provided.  Following Jason’s article, I have outlined below the steps I took to upgrade my own library.

Step 1 – Backup your iTunes library!

This process involves deleting your original files so make sure you backup your library first.

Step 2 – The Smart Playlist

The first thing I did was to create a Smart Playlist for all of my files whose encoding was less than 256 kbps, whose iTunes status was “Matched” and whose type was music.  Below is an example of the Smart Playlist that I used.

Smart Playlist <256 kps

The result was every music file in my library that was less than 256 kbps and matched by Apple.  I discovered that I had over 4,000 files that met this criteria

Step 3 – Deleting the Originals

OK, this is where things get scary.  You are now going to delete all of those < 256 kbps files that are matched by iTunes Match.  To delete the files, select them first, hold down the Option (or Alt) key and then press the Delete key on your keyboard.  Make sure that you DO NOT CHECK the box that says “Also delete these songs from iCloud”.

Delete Warning Message box

Once you delete the files, a download icon will appear next to them.

iTunes Match download icon

If you are reluctant to delete thousands of songs at once, you might want to delete only some of the items in the Smart Playlist at a time, or set your smart play list to only show 25, 50, 100, etc. items at a time.

Step 4 – Downloading the 256 kbps songs

Once you’ve deleted the originals, you are now ready to download the high quality version of your files. To download them, click the little download icon next to the song name.  Or to download multiple files, select all of the files with the download icon next to them, right-click and choose Download from the contextual menu.  Once you begin re-downloading the tracks, they will come in at 256 kbps encoding, without DRM.

Downloading files from iCloud

When you deleted your songs from the Smart Playlist, the list may have refreshed itself too quickly causing the files you just deleted to vanish from the list.  No worries – just jump to your main Music library, sort the file list by the iCloud Status icon and then download your files.  If the iCloud Status column is not visible, choose View > View Options from the menu and click the checkbox next to iCloud Status.

Sort by iCloud Status icon

You can also create another smart playlist (which I did) that displays only those music files that are on the cloud but not on your computer.  Then, select the songs, right-click and choose download.  Below is the Smart Playlist that I used:

icloud vs local unmatched playlist

I mentioned that I had over 4,000 matched files in my library that were less than 256 kbps encoding.  But rather than download all 4,000 songs at once, I downloaded a couple hundred at a time so as to not type up my computer (and bandwidth) all day.

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Guide to Using the iTunes Match Service

by on February 6, 2012

iTunes Match image

I finally broke down a couple of weeks back and signed up for Apple’s iTunes Match Service.  I like the idea of having my entire musical library available from all of my computers and my iOS devices.

In this rather lengthy post, I hope to explain what the iTunes Match service is and share my experiences in setting it up.

What it is

iTunes Match can be thought of as server-based music management.  The general idea is that you store your music on Apple’s cloud services and manage it from your various devices.   The nice thing, is that you don’t have to upload all of your music files.  If iTunes has the file in its catalog, it will “match” the file and automatically add it to your iTunes Match account.  Moreover, it will add the 255 k bit rate version of the file, even if the file you currently own is of lower quality.

Restrictions

There are a couple of restrictions to be aware of:

  • First of all, you can only add music to your match account – no movies, television shows, .pdf files, etc.  You can however, upload voice memos or other audio files as long as they are classified as music in iTunes.
  • Music can be no lower than 96k and must not be larger than 200 mg.
  • There is a limit of 25,000 songs.  At this time, I am unaware of the possibility of purchasing additional iTune Match storage if your library exceeds the maximum number of allowable songs.
  • Only one iTunes Match per computer is permitted.
  • You must be running the latest version of iTunes
  • To use iTunes match on your iOS devices, they must be running iOS 5.

Cost

The cost of the service is $24.99 per year and at this time, it is only available to subscribers living in the US.  The fee will automatically be renewed at the end of each year.  You can turn off the auto renew, sign into your account and in the “iTunes in the Cloud” area, click the “Turn Off Auto-Renew” option.

Elements of the iTunes Match service

The two main elements of the iTunes Match service are Uploading/Matching & Downloading.

Uploading/Matching -  getting your existing music to the cloud servers.

This involves three steps :

1.  Analyzes your library
2.  Matches your library against theirs
3.  Uploads the difference

First, iTunes match will scan your iTunes library and pick up the metadata of your songs.  It will then try to “match” those songs with the songs that iTune has in its existing catalog.  If it does, it will mark these songs as “Matched” and will not upload them.  Instead, the song is automatically added to your iTunes Match cloud.

If any of your songs do not exist in the iTunes catalog, they will then be physically uploaded to the iTunes Match cloud server.  Note that this can take a considerable amount of time, depending on the number of unmatched songs in your iTunes library.

iTunes Match will check your library periodically and upload any new songs that you have added (purchased elsewhere online or ripped from a CD).

Downloading – accessing your music via your computer or iOS devices.   Once the uploading/matching is complete, you will be able to access your music in iCloud from iTunes on your computer for from the Music App on your iOS 5 device.

You can stream from your iTunes Match library to your computer but not to your iOS devices.  While you do have access to your entire library from your device, the songs are not “streamable” – you will need to download the songs you want to your iOS Devices.  To download a song from the cloud to your device, open your Music app and click the song you wish to download.

Once you’re Matched…

From this point forward, any time you make a purchase from iTunes, the 256k DRM-free version of the music will be automatically added to your matched songs.  With iTunes Match, you can re-download any of your songs as long as your subscription is active.

Preparing Your Library

Before getting started, there are several things you should do to ensure that your iTunes library is in tip-top shape.  It’s a good excuse to fix those iTunes Library issues that you’ve been meaning to take care of for awhile.

  • First off before anything else, BACK UP YOUR LIBRARY.  Things can go wrong or you may end up inadvertently deleting something you hadn’t intended.
  • Make sure all of your music has the proper category.  I found that several of my rather large audio books were classified as Music and because of that,  iTunes uploaded them to the cloud.  This took quite a bit of extra time before I noticed what was going on.  I quickly changed the category of my remaining audiobooks to “Audiobook”.  You may wish to do with with any of your larger “spoken” files.
  • Make sure that all of your songs have the proper genres assigned to them.  Also, be aware of any songs that contain multiple genres.
  • Rip any CD’s to iTunes that you want included in the match.
  • Check your library for duplicate songs (using File > Find Duplicates).  Then, delete any duplicate songs you do not want or need.
  • Create any playlist you want included.

Signing Up

You will need to sign up to iTunes match from your computer and not your iOS device.

  1. Choose Store > Turn On iTunes Match and then click “Subscribe for $24.99”
  2. Enter any billing information or password credentials if prompted
  3. Agree to iTunes Match Terms and Conditions
  4. The match process will now begin!  To see the status of each of your songs (matched, uploaded, ineligible or pending), choose View > View Options from the menu and then click the box next to iCloud Status.

Once your items are uploaded to the cloud, they are then accessible on your other devices.

Turning It On

To turn on iTunes match on your iOS devices, tab “Settings”, then tap “Music” and then choose “Turn On iTunes Match.  To turn on iTunes match on other computers, simply open iTunes and choose Store > Turn On iTunes Match from the menu.  Enter in your credentials if prompted.

Troubleshooting

You may find that some of your tracks did not upload properly to iTune match.   Often, you may see a cloud with an exclamation point through it.  This tells you that the file was not uploaded due to some error.  It’s up to you to figure it out.   If the cloud icon displays two clouds with a diagonal line through one of them, this tells you that there is a duplicate of the song.

Below are some things to look at when troubleshooting:

  • the song is encoded below 96 bits
  • song is larger than 200 meg
  • tracks are poorly encoded
  • song is not categorized as music
  • physical location of song is incorrect in your library

Tomorrow, we will look at using iTunes Match to “upgrade” your music library!

 

 

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