[WelMac] Welmac News & Update 12 Jun 06
Graeme Moffatt
gmoffatt at paradise.net.nz
Sun Jun 11 19:43:32 CDT 2006
CONTENTS:
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1. MEETING UPDATE
2. MAC 911: SOLUTIONS TO YOUR MOST VEXING MAC PROBLEMS
3. QUICKTIME 7.1.1 RELEASED
4. GOLIVE, FREEHAND SURVIVE RUMORS OF DEMISE
5. CHECKING FOR BAD FONTS
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1. MEETING UPDATES
The next main meeting of the society will be held on Monday 29 May
2006. This meeting will be held in the Ante Room on the Ground Level
of Turnbull House, 11 Bowen Street, Wellington from 7.10pm until
9.30pm. (parking should be available on The Terrace and further up
Bowen Street, past The Terrace intersection)
The first part of the June meeting will take a look at the increasing
use of digital still cameras and what to look for when deciding to
purchase one and how to get the photos into your computer and enhance
them once you have. Following this we will have a break for supper
then our usual Mac Help Desk session.
For those members living at or near the Paraparaumu area, our next
Kapiti meeting will be held one week later on Monday 12 June 2006
owing to Queens Birthday. It will be at the Rita King Cottage at St
Marks Church in Rosetta Road, Raumati. The topic for this meeting
will be about the Home Media Centre as in the Wellington meeting at
the end of May.
The next Speciality Group meetings are as below and each meeting is
held from 7.10pm to 9.30pm.
Mac Help Desk Monday 26 June 2006 at Turnbull House (see above)
New Media Group Check <http://nmug.welmac.org.nz/>
Digital Video Users Group Monday 19 June 2006 at Turnbull House (see
above)
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2. MAC 911: SOLUTIONS TO YOUR MOST VEXING MAC PROBLEMS
By Christopher Breen
Put together your PDFs How do I combine two or more PDF files?--
Wally Eater
You can do this with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard--and spend $299 for
the privilege--but there are less-expensive alternatives. If you're
the do-it- yourself type, you can accomplish this with Automator. If
you'd prefer a ready-made solution with more options, pick up a copy
of Monkeybread Software's free Combine PDFs 2.1. Just launch the
utility and plop the PDF files you'd like to combine onto its main
window.
You can drag the documents up or down the list to position them in
the resulting file. When you're done, click on Merge PDFs. Note that
if you mix landscape- and portrait-oriented PDFs, you're asking for
trouble-- when you print, parts of the PDFs will be cut off. If
possible, reformat your files so they all print the same way.
Dealing with duplicates How do I find out which iTunes playlists
contain a certain song?--Joe Feil
In recent versions of Apple's iTunes, control-click on a track and,
from the contextual menu that appears, select Show In Playlist. The
resulting submenu will list all the playlists that include that track.
You can use a smart playlist to help you locate songs that appear in
multiple playlists. For example, create a smart playlist (File: New
Smart Playlist), set it to Match All The Following Conditions, and
then add these conditions: Playlist Is 90's Music, Playlist Is Not
Beatles, Playlist Is 30GB 5G Selection. The resulting playlist would
display only tracks found in all three of those playlists (see "Sort
Smarter").
If you want to take a sterner approach toward duplicates, choose
Edit: Show Duplicate Songs. In the list that appears, you can then
weed through the tracks and remove any you deem unnecessary. Note
that some aren't really duplicates--one track may be a live recording
of a particular tune, while another may be the studio version. Take a
gander at the Album column to see if it's actually a different track.
Another option is Doug Adams and Charlie Strauss's Corral iTunes
Dupes 1.0 (free). It's able tell the difference between a studio and
a live track, among other things, and tosses duplicates into a Dupes
playlist for you to sort through.
Mac 911's shortest answer ever I would like to use my older, smaller
iMac keyboard with my new Power Mac because I lack desk space. The
problem is that there's no way to open the SuperDrive door because
there isn't an Eject key on the iMac numeric keypad. I know I can
click on a disc already in the SuperDrive and drag and drop it into
the Trash, hold down the mouse button when booting, and so on. But
what if there is no disc already present in the drive? Is there a
workaround?--Larry Kidd
Press and hold the F12 key.
iPhoto fixation How can I find and fix or delete corrupt image files
in my iPhoto library?--Rene Linda Lopez
Let's start by locating your files. By default, iPhoto 6 (part of
Apple's iLife '06, $79) stores your pictures here: your user folder/
Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/year/roll number. The year is the
year you imported the photos, and the roll number is the number
iPhoto assigned to the roll--Roll 143, for example. If you've edited
any images, you'll find the edited versions in your user folder/
Pictures/ iPhoto Library/Modified/year/roll number.
However, with iPhoto 6, pictures need not be stored this way. Go to
iPhoto: Preferences and click on Advanced. Here you can choose to
disable the Copy Files To iPhoto Library Folder When Adding To
Library option. Do so, and your pictures will stay where they are, in
the structure you've created.
In previous versions of iPhoto, you'll find your pictures by
following this path: your user folder/ Pictures/iPhoto Library/year/
month/day, where year/ month/day would be something along the lines
of 2006/05/28 (representing pictures created on May 28, 2006), for
example. If you've edited any images created that day, you'll find
the edited versions in the date folder and the original images in a
folder called Originals.
Now that you know where the files are, let's look at those that may
be corrupt. If luck is on your side, the corrupt image is one you've
edited. In such a case, you can select the corrupt image in iPhoto
and choose Photos: Revert To Original. If iPhoto fails, you can try
re- importing the original image from the folder that houses it.
But before tossing images that won't behave, I attempt to open them
in a different application. For example, some JPEG files I work with
refuse to open in Apple's Preview but will open in Adobe Photoshop.
If you can successfully open the image in another application, put
the Save As command to good use and create a fresh copy.
Even if the image won't open for love or money, you're not completely
out of luck. You still have a tiny copy of it--the thumbnail. In
iPhoto 6 you can find it here: your user folder/Pictures/iPhoto
Library/Data/ year/roll number. In earlier versions of iPhoto,
thumbnails are in the date folder's Thumbs folder. This picture is
small consolation, I know, but in cases where you've lost a shot that
you treasure, it may be better than nothing.
Still not satisfied? If you're a pack rat who doesn't take a lot of
pictures, check your media cards to see whether you left a copy of
the image there. Or if you've got a video iPod, perhaps you've stored
a copy on it. Count yourself blessed if you've enabled the Include
Full- Resolution Photos option in the Photos portion of the iPod
preference pane.
If you have, just rummage around in the iPod's Photos folder to find
your image. If you haven't enabled this option, you can use Echo One
Software's File Juicer ($9) to extract lower-resolution images from a
color iPod (see "Juicy Photos").
A more colorful TextEdit I use Apple's TextEdit to write long blocks
of text for e-mail messages and for forum comments. My eyes are
getting a bit older, and I find that the bright white background
makes them sore. Is there a way to change the background color to
something less glaring?--Jack Howard
Choose Format: Fonts: Show Fonts. In the resulting Font palette,
click on the fourth icon from the left at the top of the window (the
one with the small page icon). This pops up the Colors palette, where
you can then choose a new background color (see "A More Colorful
Palette").
Choosing a startup volume In the February 2006 Mac 911, under Ready
for the Worst, you speak of using a FireWire drive to boot a Mac. How
do I select that drive if I can't boot the Mac?--Dick Larson
When you start up the Mac, hold down (and keep holding down) the
option key. When you do, a mauve Startup Manager screen appears,
displaying icons of all the bootable volumes attached to your Mac.
Your FireWire drive will be one of them (assuming, of course, that
you've installed OS X on that drive).
There can then be a longish delay while the OS scours your Mac for
bootable volumes. When your Mac lets you, click on that drive and
click on the right-arrow icon; the Mac will boot from the FireWire
drive. (This feature was introduced with the iMac [slot loading],
iBook, PowerBook [FireWire], Power Mac G4 [AGP graphics], and Power
Mac G4 Cube, so this technique works only with these and later Mac
models.)
More on iPhoto libraries My iPhoto library has become overburdened
with 3,000-plus photos from my digital life documentary. What I
really want to do is remove groups of photos and put them on my
backup drive or a CD. Can you give me a safe method for doing this?--
Via the Internet
The trick to doing this is using a smart album. To begin, find some
way to identify the pictures you want to archive and then delete from
your library. If you'd like to archive older pictures, this is a
cinch. Just select File: New Smart Album, and configure the resulting
sheet to read Date Is Before X, where X is the date you've determined
as the dividing line between the photos you want to keep on your Mac
and the ones you want to archive. iPhoto will create a smart album
that contains the photos you'll archive.
If you want to archive photos by content, you'll have to find another
way to sort them. One way is to use ratings, and another is to use
keywords. To assign ratings to a group of photos, select the photos
that will be archived and then control-click and choose the rating
you want from the My Rating command in the contextual menu. (This is
not a good way to go if you routinely rate your pictures, as some you
don't want archived will likely end up in the mix.)
To assign keywords to a batch of photos, select those photos, click
on the Keyword icon (the small key icon) at the bottom left of the
iPhoto window, and drag the photos to the keyword you wish to assign.
If there's no appropriate keyword there, make one of your own by
choosing iPhoto: Preferences, clicking on the Keywords tab in the
resulting window, clicking on the plus sign (+), and then typing a
keyword.
Now create a smart album based on that keyword or rating. With the
photos in the smart album, select that album and choose Share: Burn
(called Burn Disc in versions of iPhoto prior to version 6). You'll
be prompted for a blank disc. Click on Burn when you're ready to go,
and iPhoto will burn your photos to the blank disc or discs.
If these photos are precious to you, I'd suggest backing them up more
than once--and to media other than CD-R or DVD-R. The Export command
in the Share menu allows you to save your files to a hard drive. I
don't believe CD-R and DVD-R are the "forever" media some claim.
With your photos safely archived, you can now delete them from your
iPhoto library. To do so, select all the photos in your smart folder
and choose Photos: Move To Trash. Your photos will be placed in
iPhoto's Trash. To delete them from your drive (and you're really,
really sure that you've backed them up properly, yes?), control-click
on iPhoto's Trash entry in the Source list and choose Empty Trash.
The desert island question Those of us known for our devotion to the
Mac are often asked the Desert Island question. You know what I mean:
"If you were stranded on a desert island with your PowerBook (or,
soon, MacBook Pro), which applications would you want with you?"
Seems to me that if you were truly marooned, you'd likely use your
laptop to bash in the huskier variety of coconut. So I'd like to
propose a more realistic scenario: Let's say you've just wiped your
PowerBook's drive because you're sick and tired of the way
applications abruptly quit, your hard drive is stuffed with things
you've accumulated over the past two years, and everything seems to
be moving so slooooowly. After installing Mac OS, which applications
would you install to make your laptop ready for prime time?
I was just in that position. Here are the applications and utilities
I installed to return my PowerBook to productivity.
? Apple's iLife '06 ($79): A Mac isn't a Mac without a copy of iLife.
? Microsoft Office 2004 ($399): Office is the standard for offices,
and mine is no exception. Word is what my editors demand, and until
Apple's Mail offers a more robust set of rules, I'm sticking with
Entourage.
? Apple's iWork '06 ($79): In nearly every regard, iWork is no match
for Microsoft Office. The major exception is Keynote, which makes
PowerPoint look utterly primitive.
? Bare Bones Software's BBEdit ($199): Now that I'm doing lots of Web
work, BBEdit is an essential tool for creating and formatting my stuff.
? TLA Systems' DragThing ($29): I can't recall the last time I used
Apple's Dock. There are oodles of great Dock alternatives for the
Mac, and this is the one I prefer.
? Ambrosia Software's SnapzProX (movie edition, $69; stills-only
edition, $29): There's no better tool for still and motion screen
captures.
? Mozilla's Firefox (free): Safari is a perfectly fine browser, but I
prefer Firefox with a few select extensions from the Mozilla
development community site--specifically, Greasemonkey (free;
macworld.com/1126) and Flashblock (free; macworld.com/1127).
? Panic's Transmit ($30): When I need to move files to and from my
book publisher's File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site, I do it with
Panic's Transmit. Only Apple makes a more Mac-like interface.
Tip of the month Tricked-out 'Tracker: When people visit
VersionTracker.com or MacUpdate.com in search of software updates,
they often wait for the home page to load, type the keyword, wait for
the hits page to show, click on the desired hit, and then arrive at
the update they want.
A much quicker approach is to do your search in Safari's Google
search field. Just type your keyword plus versiontracker or macupdate
--for example, handbrake versiontracker . When you press return,
Google shows you the hits. The first link is usually the one that
you're looking for. Click on it for the update.--Gabriel Dorado
If you'd like to narrow your results further, type keyword
site:www.sitename.com (replacing keyword with the thing you're
looking for and sitename with the name of the specific site you want
to search). With this formula, Google will return results from only
that site.--Ed.
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3. QUICKTIME 7.1.1 RELEASED
Apple posted a small update to QuickTime last week that is a big deal
for some Adobe customers. QuickTime 7.1.1 fixes a problem that
interfered with installation of Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2) on Intel-
based Macs. It also corrects an issue with exporting Keynote
presentations to iDVD and "addresses an issue with 3rd party start-up
items on Intel Macs." QuickTime 7.1.1 is available via Software
Update or as a 49.4 MB stand-alone download.
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4. GOLIVE, FREEHAND SURVIVE RUMORS OF DEMISE
by Glenn Fleishman <glenn at tidbits.com>
Officemate and TidBITS Managing Editor Jeff Carlson yells out, "Hey,
GoLive is dead!" I shout a long, lingering, "Nooooooooooo!" and then
say, "All-right-y then." (We wrote several editions of "Real World
GoLive" together, so it's a program we've followed closely for years.)
Following Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia last year, a cloud of
speculation has hovered over the fates of Adobe GoLive (whose
stronger competition was Macromedia Dreamweaver) and prodigal child
Macromedia FreeHand (whose stronger competition was Adobe
Illustrator). With the release of Creative Suite 3 scheduled for
sometime in 2007, it's still unclear how the two companies' product
lines will be merged. So, news that Adobe would be dropping these two
less-successful products wasn't necessarily a surprise.
But the surprise, however, wasn't that the news turned out to be
false: it was the Babelfishy route the rumor took to become news.
Following the story, it's hard to figure out whether anything was
announced purposely or not.
Chasing the Rumor's Tail
The trek began at MacUser, Macworld's forum site, which featured a
story that says the two products are dead and offers some good
analysis. It stated that no further development was planned, but
future support is promised. However, there were no Adobe sources,
just a link.
<http://www.macuser.com/software/adobe_axes_extraneous_software.php>
That link took us to Macsimum News, which reported that Robert
Raiola, an executive at Adobe Systems France, commented at the Adobe
Live conference in Europe that the two products would no longer be
developed. The article went into some analysis, but had no Adobe
sources - just a thank-you to MacGeneration, a French site.
<http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/
goodbye_to_freehand_golive/>
Fortunately, I can read some French. Winding my way to MacGeneration,
I found a report that was basically translated at the Macsimum News
site - without the note, "thanks to Frederic for the information."
That meant MacGeneration wasn't at the event, but was reporting what
a reader or colleague told them. At my count, MacUser was fourth-hand
news, no?
<http://www.macgeneration.com/mgnews/depeche.php?aIdDepeche=121149>
I used to be fluent in German, so I also read that MacGeneration
noted further that their colleagues at Macnews.de spoke to Alexander
Hopstein, the PR manager for Adobe's central and eastern Europe
operations. Hopstein, Macnews.de wrote, said that reports of
FreeHand's demise weren't correct; GoLive wasn't mentioned. He was
quoted saying, "FreeHand will continue to be offered as a stand-alone
product."
<http://www.macnews.de/news/76355>
Actually, I found that the Macnews.de people were pointing to
MacBidouille, which is apparently the original source of the news
item. That report said that Frederic wrote in from Adobe Live to tell
them about the death of FreeHand, but it didn't say GoLive was dead.
Rather, it comments that there's no doubt we'll be saying goodbye to
GoLive, which didn't sound to me like a PR quote from the event. In
an update to the item, a note says FreeHand's development is halted,
but GoLive will continue to be developed for "specific applications,"
which might be embedded modules in other software. It was all a
little vague.
<http://www.macbidouille.com/news/2006-05-30/#12856>
Adobe's Response
As the news spread, Adobe responded by saying, essentially, "No, no,
no, and the French office didn't say what they're paraphrased as
saying." Adobe's official statement reads:
"Adobe plans to continue to support GoLive and FreeHand and develop
these products based on our customer's [sic] needs. Clearly
Dreamweaver and Illustrator are market leading when it comes to Web
design/development and vector graphics/ illustration. Customers
should expect Adobe to concentrate our development efforts around
these two products - with regards to future innovation and Creative
Suite integration."
(I'll assume that the singular usage of "customer's" was a
typographical error, and not an admission that Adobe is basing its
product development plans on one person using GoLive and FreeHand.)
This episode was a fascinating (and slightly amusing) look at how
what appeared to be an offhand comment in one language turned into
news that, frankly, a lot of people had already assumed. Although
Adobe's plans to "develop these products based on customer needs"
still gives them enough wiggle room to kill or sell off GoLive or
FreeHand, the fact that Adobe is quick to stand up for them hints
that 2007 could be quite an interesting year for Adobe watchers.
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5. CHECKING FOR BAD FONTS
If there’s one thing that can bring a document (or your system) to
its knees, it’s using a corrupt font (meaning a font that accepts
bribes — sorry, that was lame). Anyway, finding out which fonts on
your system might be corrupt was no easy task, but in Tiger, it just
got a whole lot easier. Here’s how to search for rampant font
corruption: Go to your Applications folder and launch Font Book. You
can either click directly on any font that you might think is suspect
(look to see if the font is sweating), or Command-click on the fonts
you want interrogated, then go under Font Book’s File menu and choose
Validate Fonts. This brings up a Font Validation window and if your
fonts are on the up and up, you’ll get a little round checkbox beside
them. If there’s reason to believe something may be wrong, you’ll get
a yellow warning icon beside a font. If it’s corrupt, you’ll get a
round icon with an X in it, telling you not to use this font. Click
the checkbox beside that font, then click the Remove Checked button
to remove this font from your system.
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Some articles above have been reprinted with permission from TidBITS.
TidBITS has offered more than ten years of thoughtful commentary on
Macintosh and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and
access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit www.tidbits.com.
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