Mac Tips and Tricks

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5/08/2008

My New Mac - New from No Starch Press

New book shows readers how to make the most of their Macs with 52 simple projects

My New Mac was written to meet the needs of new Mac users. "This is a project-oriented book that will have newbies doing useful things with their Macs right away," said author Wallace Wang. "I know I've never enjoyed wading through menu after menu to become an expert on software I'll hardly use, and I figure I'm not the only one."

The book focuses on the sorts of entertaining and practical things people want to do with their new Macs, like surf the Internet, send email, listen to CDs, take notes, or play with digital photos. It's fun stuff, if you know how to do it.

Among the book's projects are ones that show new users how to:

View stocks, flights, and the weather
Organize files and folders by color and keyword
Set up and manage parental controls to control computer and Internet access
Play and burn CDs and DVDs
Transfer photos from a digital camera to a Mac and organize them with iPhoto
Share songs, images, and documents wirelessly between Macs
Track birthdays with iCal
Clip and save information from the Internet
Keep themselves and their computers safe online

From the smiling origami iMac on the cover (watch the video) through each of the projects, My New Mac encourages readers to treat their new computer as an opportunity for fun and exploration, not something serious and overwhelming. By diving in and learning as they go, readers will find that their Macs are as user friendly as promised it just takes a helping hand.

Editor's Note: I've read Wallace Wang's "Steal This Computer Book 4.o" and he is one of my favorite authors. This new book should be well worth it to anyone new to the Mac.

5/07/2008

Filmmaking 101: Anatomy of a Final Cut Express Project

Before you can make movie magic, it helps to understand how your editing program organizes and manipulates all of those sequences and clips you've been shooting. In this sample chapter from Final Cut Express 4 Visual QuickStart Guide, author Lisa Brenneis shows you how to manage a well-organized project in Final Cut Express.
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4/22/2008

Two new "Take Control" Publications

From O'Reilly Media-

Sebastopol, CA - With so many recent changes in Apple technology, TidBITS, publisher of the popular Take Control PDFs, has released two newly updated ebooks. A fully updated and timely version of Take Control of Switching to the Mac is now available for purchase, as well as Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08 Edition -- an ebook containing tips, advice, and insider techniques to help readers produce professional-looking Web sites.

Take Control of Switching to the Mac
The success of the iPhone, the iPod, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, all combined with the frustrations experienced by Windows Vista users, have caused many Windows users to think seriously about switching to the Macintosh. There's never been a better time to switch to the Mac, and here to help is Take Control of Switching to the Mac, a concise electronic book that can be downloaded instantly, read on a PC or Mac, and kept handy for quick browsing and searching whenever a question arises. Written by cross-platform expert and best-selling author Scott Knaster, who has worked at both Apple and Microsoft, the 100-page ebook guides readers through every step along the way: buying a Mac, setting up a Mac, moving files to a Mac, translating Windows terminology to Macintosh proficiency, figuring out what software to use on the Mac, networking, printing, and more, including a glossary of common Mac terms. The ebook may be purchased for $10 from either TidBITS or O'Reilly Media.

Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08 Edition
Apple intends iWeb '08 to help Mac users create polished-looking Web sites, but not all of iWeb's features are easily understood or fully explained by the online help. The new Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08 Edition, a 133-page book by iWeb expert Steve Sande, provides step-by-step instructions and plenty of time-saving tips for building a Web site and publishing it on either .Mac or another Web host. Readers can watch over Sande's shoulder as he enhances iWeb's templates with a designer's eye, using tools like masks, reflections, and Instant Alpha. The book explains the best ways to make all types of iWeb pages, including blog, podcast, photo, and movie pages, and readers will learn how to add special elements to a site, such as iPhoto albums and galleries, YouTube videos, Google AdSense ads, Google maps, and forms that feed into Google Docs. Sande even covers advanced topics like reducing graphic size so a site loads faster, importing podcasts and videos, and making image maps, and he offers ideas for working with CafePress, Google Checkout, or Zen Cart to create an online store. Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08 Edition is now available for $10 (PDF) from either TidBITS or O'Reilly Media.

Extending Aperture with AppleScript

Apple automation guru, Sal Soghoian talks about the scriptability of Aperture in this podcast interview with Derrick Story. Sal points to the "Aperture-InDesign Integration Demo" as a powerful example of how AppleScript can extend Aperture's capabilities.
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3/21/2008

Run Windows on Your Mac Using Parallels

By Dwight Silverman
Now you no longer have to choose between Mac OS X and Windows! Computer columnist Dwight Silverman shows you how to run Windows on your Mac using Parallels.
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3/07/2008

Using the OS X Leopard Command Line

Brian Tiemann, author of "Mac OS X Leopard Phrasebook", lays the foundation for understanding the UNIX filesystem in OS X Leopard by explaining how files and folders work in the shell.

If you're a casual Mac user, or even if you're a hard-core Linux or Unix user, there are a few things about Mac OS X and the particular flavor of Unix under its candylike shell that might catch you off guard. Files and folders behave in rather different ways when you're addressing them with textual commands than when you're shoving them around with your mouse. Not only do they look different, they act different, too. You might even say they "think different."
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Take Control of Permissions in Leopard

Press release from O'Reilly

Ithaca, NY--Mac users who have long been at the mercy of arcane permissions from Mac OS X's Unix underpinnings can now regain mastery of their Macs with "Take Control of Permissions in Leopard", the latest Leopard-specific title in the Take Control library.

Written by Unix guru and Mac aficionado Brian Tanaka, the 87-page ebook mixes practical how-to details and troubleshooting tips with just the right amount of theory as it explains permissions in relation to how you keep your files private, copy files to and from servers effectively, set the Ignore Permissions option for external disks, repair screwy permissions, and delete those files that just won't die.

For those who want to learn advanced concepts, the ebook also delves into topics like the sticky bit, symbolic versus absolute ways to set permissions, and how to work with bit masks. In particular, Tanaka looks at what's new with permissions in Leopard, including the disappearance of the NetInfo database and the increased use of access control lists. The book covers managing permissions from the Finder's Get Info and Inspector windows, with more-capable third-party utilities, and from the Unix command line.

Take Control publisher Adam Engst said, "I'm no Unix expert, but with Brian's clear explanations, I've been able to handle a wide variety of permissions-related issues on my Macs. With this information, we Mac users don't have to feel like guests on our own Macs any more."

3/04/2008

How Time Flys...

Did you that Mactipsandtricks has been around for 5 years? It's hard to believe, but it's true. In honer of the occasion we're going to dust off the cobwebs, reorganize parts of the site and bring back a new and improved forum for our readers.

And we'd like to ask your help. Send us your favorite tips, suggestions for forum categories, or and other suggestions as to how we can improve the site to my2cents@mactipsandtricks.com. We'll choose some suggestions at random and send thank you gifts.

Thanks you for your continued support

3/03/2008

Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition

Press Release from O'Reilly:

Sebastopol, CA -
Is Windows giving you pause? Ready to make the leap to the Mac instead? There has never been a better time to switch from Windows to Mac. O'Reilly Media has the incomparable guide to help you make a smooth transition--Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition ($29.99). In this indispensable and timely resource, New York Times columnist and Missing Manuals creator David Pogue gets you past the three major challenges of switching: transferring your stuff, assembling Mac programs so you can do what you did with Windows, and learning your way around Mac OS X.

Mac OS X Leopard For Dummies

Here are three tips from "Mac OS X Leopard For Dummies" (Don't sell these "Dummies" books short. I found information in some of them I haven't seen printed anywhere else.)

Legal Consequences of Co-Blogging, Part 2

Part 1 of this series discusses the law applicable to co-blogging and identifies a number of areas where default rules are unclear or may lead to unexpected results. This article discusses some possible ways to avoid those situations.
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The Apple Certified Guide to Using Mac OS X Server's Open Directory

This short, four-hour course by authors Schoun Regan and David Pugh is the only Apple-Certified instruction on how to use Mac OS X Server's Open Directory tools.
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2/28/2008

How to Embed a QuickTime Movie in a Web Page or Blog Post

So you've decided to join the video revolution in Web publishing. But instead of dealing with YouTube, you want to publish higher-quality content directly on your blog. Maria Langer shows you how.
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2/21/2008

Cool Macworld Product: VectorDesigner

Most of the features of VectorDesigner are available in higher-end vector drawing programs, but the $70 cost of VectorDesigner is hard to beat. Moreover, if you've never used a vector drawing program before, the simple features you'd end up using in a higher-end program aren't much different than the standard features in VectorDesigner -- and in VectorDesigner, they're easy to find. Adam Goldstein delves into his discovery from the Macworld
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Aperture 2.0 with Joe Schorr

Aperture 2.0 is faster, easier to use, and produces better images, says Joe Schorr, Apple Senior Product Manager. In this interview with Derrick Story, Joe explains how Aperture 2.0 meets those lofty claims. This chat covers a lot of new ground.
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