Sunday, February 26, 2012

20 February 2012


How to find out how much storage is being used on your Mac by all your applications, photos, music and more.

  1. Click on the Apple (top left hand corner of the screen)
  2. Then About This Mac
  3. and More Info
  4. then click on Storage and you will see how much storage is being used. 

iTunes - adding particular songs to iTunes from a CD (not the whole CD).

  1. Open iTunes.
  2. Insert your audio CD into your computer.
  3. Click on the CD name in the Source list. (This shows a list of songs on that CD).
  4. Uncheck any songs you don't want to import to iTunes.
  5. Click "Import CD".
  6. iTunes will now copy the selected songs from the CD to your iTunes library.
  7. Once all the songs are imported, click "Eject Disc".
  8. Done!

Lifehacker and Mashable are useful if you are looking for new apps, information and reviews.


iTunes gift cards on sale - stay updated on which shops have iTunes cards on sale.


World Radio - listen to AM and FM from all over the world. Well worth the $10!


Apple ID visit here for info on setting up your Apple ID which is used for iTunes and iCloud.

Friday, February 17, 2012

more on the "filter bubble"

Just a little more information on the "filter bubble".  This TED talk clearly explains how these filters work and what they mean for your information and connection with the world.  Enjoy.


(You might want to take a look at all TED, some fantastic talks about just about any subject you can think of).

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

13 February 2012 (part 2)

And we're back for part 2:


Making a collage for your Desktop Background - iPhoto doesn't "do" collages but this blog has a workaround using the book function in iPhoto.  (I will add this to the list for the week we cover iPhoto).


How to print in greyscale:






We also discussed search engines, in particular Google. DuckDuckGo is an alternative search engine which has a very clear no tracking and bubble policies (the bubble will make sense when you read the link!) and privacy policy.


And lastly, here is my suggested calendar for the rest of term 1.  It is open to change and subject to approval by SCCCC.
  • 20 February - Basics
  • 27 February - iPhoto
  • 5 March - Pages/Microsoft Word for Mac/OpenOffice
  • 12 March - Mail
  • 19 March - iTunes
  • 26 March - App Store, installing and uninstalling applications
  • 2 April - (open to suggestions or for a recap of the term).
And that is it! See you next Monday.


13 February 2012 (part 1)

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who came to the first Mac Beginners group on Monday morning and also to everyone who came to the Mac Users group in the afternoon.  I am really enjoying learning with you all and have high hopes for the rest of the term.  (And a big thanks to SCCCC, in particular Beverley who has worked hard on publicity for the group and setting up the Mac Mini and fixing the Wifi!)


We got through a lot of topics on Monday and I hope I have remembered them all.  If I have left something out, please email me and I will add the relevant information here.


In the morning sessions we spent some time going through Systems Preferences.  I hope everyone will find some time between now and next week having a bit of a play with some of the settings (Desktop & Screen Savers for example).  Practice and repetition will help you become more familiar with your Mac!


I've created a video on How to Create Smart Groups (lists) in Address Book and is the answer to Ann's question about having lists of New Zealand and Australian addresses in her Address Book.






Dropbox: for anyone interested in the security issues with saving documents to the "cloud" this article details encryption and making files in Dropbox even more secure.


iCloud (note: is only available for those Apple devices that are running the latest OSX).


Margaret had a question about her email on the Mac and iPad.  When she was deleting emails on her Macbook they were still showing as unread on her iPad.  This link gives one solution.  


This blog post has become so long I've split it into two parts.  Part 2 should be up in a couple of hours.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

6 February 2012

Hello to the new faces in our group and welcome back to the familiar ones!


How to make a list in Yahoo mail


Compound interest calculator


Bookmarks in Safari - this is a detailed yet well written explanation of how to bookmark in Safari.


Some links to information on the different "Office" programs available for Mac.
Microsoft Office for Mac
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
OpenOffice


I am working on a video for adding the right-click to your Trackpad and some information on Microsoft Word compatibility with other programs.  Stay tuned!