It’s what’s on the outside that counts. In my day job (the one I’m actually paid for!) I have to deal with heartbreaking scenarios. These dramas usually unfold in the form of broken hard drives in laptops, broken USB sticks and computers that won’t switch on properly. The common factor in all of these tragedies is the lack of backups. In the last article, I discussed Dropbox as a way of keeping personal and professional documents backed up online. But this won’t work with Photos [...]

To go forward, you must backup That quote above (not by me!) reminds us of the most frustrating things about computers. Losing stuff. The number of times somebody has come to me holding a USB stick / CD ROM / Floppy Disk and asked if there was any way to rescue some files from it…. to which I always reply: “Have you got a copy of that file anywhere else?”. Usually I get a negative response. It’s heartbreaking losing something you’ve been working on for [...]

Zip it up! When you have a number of files that you need to email, it’s sometimes easier to bundle the files together into a zip file. You will no doubt have received an email that had an attachment that was a zip file (that is the file would be called something like photos.zip) Normally, you double click the file (the same is true in Windows) to “unzip” the file. But how do you make a zip file? It’s all in the right click… This [...]

Do you need to buy software? I thought we’d take a slightly different angle on Macstarter for a little while. As we’ve been delving into shortcuts, folders and organising, I thought it was time to slow down on the technicals of using a mac, and write about what tools you have to use. I’ve already put an article about Preview, the most versatile of file viewers. But your Mac comes with a number of really useful programs that can actually help you in your day [...]

Power Preview! In the last article, I outlined how you could use the program Preview (which is always found in your Applications folder (shortcut: cmd + shift + a) to do simple editing to your photos. Now is time to turn it up a notch. Colour Correction Imagine somebody sends you a picture of a loved one, but it turns out that it’s a very dark picture. You open it up in Preview and can only look at it, wishing you could do something about [...]

It’s good to be informed Another Quickie – and this time I’ll be quick! One of my most used features on my Mac is the Get Info feature. It’s a little bit like the Right Click > Properties on a windows machine, but on a Mac you can go a lot further. What to do: Find a document. Click on it once and then click cmd + i. (you can also right click and choose “Get Info”. A small window will open up with a [...]

Getting to the bottom of things I have been using Macs for over a decade now. There are a few features that Apple put into it’s systems that really changed my life. Spotlight was one. iLife was another. But the one feature I have used more than any other is Exposé. What is that, and why speak French all of a sudden? Imagine this scenario: You’re working on a Word Document. You need to refer to something else on the screen, such as your internet [...]

This is another request, about Macs and Anti-Virus software. The question is just how safe is your Mac? Well the answer is really quite safe, probably. Have you noticed that you have to enter your password when you install software? That’s your Mac’s way of making sure that you are giving permission for something important to happen on your Mac. So technically, for a virus to do damage to your Mac, you would have to download it, double click it, enter your password and press [...]

When is printing not printing? One of the most useful features found on any computer must be the ability to make PDF files without installing any extra software. Why would you need a PDF document? It’s a great back up tool. For example: you book a ticket online and you need to print off a copy. You can also save a PDF version of the ticket as a “just in case” version. Here’s how: When you need to print, press File > Print (or cmd [...]

The Mac way…. For those of you who are accustomed to the Windows side of the world, you’re in for a bit of a shock…. Installing on a Mac can be alarmingly easy. With the exception of larger software packages (Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Apple iLife) most programs on the Mac don’t really need to be installed. They just need to be copied. The steps include the following: go to an internet site and download software you want to install. Double click the zip / [...]