SPOTLIGHT - More than just a lousy Madonna song

You can change the way SPOTLIGHT finds things for you. Just head to SYSTEM PREFERENCES and click on SPOTLIGHT.



It's divided into two categories... SEARCH RESULTS and PRIVACY.



Let's start with SEARCH RESULTS. Look at this list. The numbers are important because they dictate the order in which SPOTLIGHT will search through your computer. To change the order, all you have to do is grab the categories you want into the order you want them! Think about the applications you use the most, and which ones you never use, then tackle the default order of your Spotlight Search Order and you'll find that the results Spotlight gives you will serve your specific needs faster.



Below the list are where you can change your keyboard shortcuts for the SPOTLIGHT MENU and the SPOTLIGHT WINDOW. If you don't use these shortcut keys much, you should probably just leave them where they are and start practicing with them before you decide you want to make a change.

Now let's look at the PRIVACY tab. This is where you enter in areas on your computer where you DON'T WANT SPOTLIGHT TO SEARCH. This would be if you had other people who might use your computer and you've got items or material on it you don't want to come up should they do a SPOTLIGHT search. You probably will want to use this to prevent any of your other three kids to discover how much Christmas loot you're getting your favorite child (that would be the one who writes a blog to teach you all about your Mac computer).



See you at Thanksgiving tomorrow!

2:53 PM | Permalink |

It's easy to send your iPhoto slide show to friends as long as you know that you can't send it as an IPhoto file.



Creating movies in iPhoto is fun, and you can always play it back in iPhoto at your opwn computer, but to send it to someone else, you have to export it into a Quicktime file. Here's how you do it.



First, click on your FILE drag down menu and select EXPORT.



iMovie gives your file a .mov extension, which is what it needs to be to become a Quicktime file. Give it the name and you want and make sure you remember where you are saving it.

Select the size you want your slideshow to be.



The export process happens automatically.



And when it's done, you're ready to attach your Quicktime file in an e-mail and share it with the world.

12:18 PM | Permalink |

Mom... Meet Your Dashboard. Dashboard... This is My Mom.

One of the cool newer features mac offers is the dashboard and widgets. You can access your dashboard by clicking on the dashboard icon in your dock. You can also open your dashboard with the keyboard shortcut of F12.



Once you've done that, you see that your screen darkens a little, and several new items, called widgets appear all over your screen. The shot below shows some basic default widgets, such as calendar, calculator and local time.



These widgets connect through the internet and are always loaded with the most recent information. You can select from countless widgets that will appear on your dashboard and give you all kinds of useful, or useless knowledge. For example, some of the more basic widgets will give you local weather, movie times, and gas prices. I personally have widgets that show the weekly box office grosses, overnight television ratings and the weather in my most favorite city in the world, San Francisco.

Think of widgets of little mini programs. They are simple and lightweight and give you quick information in a fun, visual way, but individually, they don't really do all that much. They're like computer versions of the little coupons, magnetic calendars and post-it notes you might put on your refrigerator door.

Since widgets are easy to design, there are a lot of different ones available, and they can be created by just about anyone!

To get a new dashboard widget, go to the lower left of your screen when dashboard is open, and click on the plus sign in the circle. This opens the WIDGETS BAR (incidentally, when you have the widgets bar open, you'll notice that the plus sign in the circle changes to an x).



Here you see numerous additional widgets that mac has already installed for you to add to your dashboard should you want them. To get one of these widgets added to your dashboard, you can simply click on it, and it will be added immediately (with a nice ripple effect to boot). Then you can move them to the space where you want them to reside. Or you can click on the widget you are choosing and HOLD THE CLICK DOWN and immediately position the widget where you would like it to go.

As long as you have the widget bar open, each widget you have on your dashboard has an "x in a circle" button in its top. left corner. Clicking that will close out that widget, and it will no longer be on your dashboard until you put it there again.

Tomorrow, I'll show you some specific widgets, and where you can go to choose from lots and lots more!

2:58 PM | Permalink |

Parking it at the Dock

Here are some cool things you can do with your dock.



Notice the dividing line on your dock and roll your mouse over it. You see your mouse turns into a different icon. If you click on that dividing line and drag up, or drag down, you can resize your dock super fast.



Now put the mouse over the dividing line again and hit the CTRL KEY and click. A mini menu pops up to give you additional options for controlling your dock.




TURN HIDING ON - This temporarily gets rid of your dock completely. This will come in handy if you want to use that space at the bottom of your screen to open an application a little bit wider. I use this trick a lot when I have multiple design applications open so I can have a little more real estate on the screen. To get your dock back, hover your mouse down where it normally is and it will pop back up. Then hit the CTRL key and click again while on the dividing line and select TURN HIDING OFF. Your dock has returned to its normal position.

TURN MAGNIFICATION ON - If you select this, then anytime you roll over an icon in the dock, it will magnify a little, standing out from the rest of the icons.

POSITION ON SCREEN - Hover over this option and you get three choices - bottom, left and right. This tells the computer where you want your dock positioned on the screen. The preference is yours entirely, based on how you work and where you will find your dock to be the least intrusive.



MINIMIZE USING - This gives you two choices - GENIE EFFECT or SCALE EFFECT. This tells your computer which way to minimize open screens. It's simply an aesthetic choice. Give it a go be selecting each, and then clicking the yellow button on any open window to see the difference. The default is the GENIE EFFECT and frankly, there's no reason I can think of to change it, but again, just knowing it will make you the coolest Mac user in Banning, California.

There's another way to select your dock preferences, and that's by clicking on apple icon at the top of the screen and scrolling down to DOCK. You'll get the exact same menu.



Finally, there's the selection of DOCK PREFERENCES and this gives you more precise control over your dock. You can scale the dock size to any preference by moving the slider between SMALL and LARGE.



You can turn on magnification, but here you can control the actual size of the magnification (you can make the icons huge). The rest of the preferences are the same as what you pulled up by CTRL clicking on the dividing line at your dock.

11:17 AM | Permalink |

Getting Around with Short Cuts: Meet Your Apple Key

Hi Mom!

Even though you sent me to school in first grade with a coke bottle, when the instructions were explicitly requiring me to bring a jar (the difference in mouth size prevented me from participating in the Christmas snowman project of Holy Family 1976), I have decieded to forgive you and help you learn all the secret tricks of your new Mac. I am happy to see how excited you are to learn, and since you taught me so much over my lifetime, here's my chance to give a little something back.

Today, we will start off with an easy one. Here are some steps on jumping between things on your Mac. They will help you get a little more comfortable with your multi-talented COMMAND KEY (also known as the key with the little picture of the apple on it).

Ready...?



To switch between the different ways you can view icons in an open window, you hold down your COMMAND KEY with other keys. For example, you can hold down the COMMAND KEY on your keyboard and touch the 1 KEY, to go directly to ICON VIEW, as seen below:



if you hold down the COMMAND KEY and touch the 2 KEY, you will go directly to LIST VIEW:



And, if you hold down the COMMAND KEY and touch the 3 KEY, you go directly to COLUMN VIEW:



You may not ever decide to use these key combinations, but knowing them can make you seem super Mac-savvy, even as you're just beginning your uphill climb. Also, you'll look a lot smarter if you refer to the COMMAND KEY by its proper name, instead of calling it the "Apple Key," which does get the point across, but with far less panache.

I know, I know. I can already hear you, "Oh, I already KNOW HOW TO DO THAT!" Yes, yes, you are quite exceptional, mom (except when it comes to knowing the difference between a jar and a bottle). But did you know this....

If you hold down the COMMAND KEY and the SHIFT KEY at the same time and then hit the A KEY, you will be taken directly to your APPLICATIONS MENU, where you can find all your applcations, including the always-exciting CALCULATOR and the never-endingly dramatic DICTIONARY!!!



That's all for today. Try these out once and you'll never forget them. How's the dog?

Love,
Gary

4:27 PM | Permalink |

Mac Tips for Mom!

Woah! Slow down, cheetah. You got here too fast. It's Tuesday, November 6. The first Mac Tip for Mom will be up later tonight. Hope you'll check back often!

1:59 PM | Permalink |