Aoraki Macintosh User Group Home Page

Snippets from Previous Meetings

June Meeting 2005



SOME INFORMATION

Ray shared several items of interest which had been sent to him by his son Paul (I.T. Director at Christ's College, Christchurch):
  • photos of Apple's headquarters building (otherwise known as ('The Mothership')
  • a photo of 'The Shroud', a case which concealed the pre-release MacMini so that people didn't know what was being developed.
  • Comic Life which may interest members who are interested in varying the graphical presentation of images:
visit: http://www.plasq.com

HANDY HINT:

Holding down the Control Key while you click on an item brings up its shortcut (contextual) menu, giving quick access to a number of functions - it's the quickest way to duplicate, copy, make aliases, or colour labels:

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

The session covered a number of topics, including some on which members were able to offer helpful advice. Some questions and suggested solutions included:

IMAGE CAPTURE

How do I download some, not all, of the images from my digital camera?

  • Don't use iPhoto (which will download all the images), but use Image Capture (open it from the Applications folder), and select Download Some
iSYNCH

What is iSynch, and how does it work?

  • iSynch is an application which enables data on one device (eg palm computer, laptop, iPod) to be synchronised with another. An example would be information that is entered into a Palm Pilot during the day, then later downloaded into a data file on a computer. To take full advantage of iSynch, membership of Dot.Mac is needed.


OFFICE ASSISTANTS

How can I change the character which appears in (Microsoft) Office Assistants?

  • Download other characters from the Microsoft Office install CD.


WORLD BOOK

The World Book application came with my computer, but does not appear to be installed.

  • The World Book CD supplied contains only additional media, not the application itself. This is included with the computer's Software Install disks, and a Custom Install is needed to install the application. Further information on how to do this is on http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61802


REWRITABLE CDs

How do I erase a Rewritable CD before re-using it?

  • Use Disk Utilities (in Applications/Utilities). Be sure to click on the disk's icon first, then click Erase.


POWERPOINT ATTACHMENTS

How do I view Powerpoint attachments which are sent to me, when I do not have the Powerpoint Application?

  • Download the free Powerpoint Viewer: go : http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx Go down to Office 98 and click on Microsoft PowerPoint 98 Viewer (NB. some of the more recent Powerpoint features may not play through this viewer version).


SESSIONS



MacBASICS ~ TAKING CONTROL

MacOS X DOCK


Jenny gave an overview of the Dock - the MacOS X equivalent of the Applications Menu in earlier operating systems. The Dock, which may be positioned at either the bottom or sides of the screen, contains a row of aliases ('signpost' icons) which enable to user to access applications readily. Each actual application is usually stored in the Applications Folder on the Hard Drive, but can be opened by clicking on the Dock icon. A small black triangle under an icon indicates that the application is open. A vertical line on the Dock separates icons for applications from those for folders:

Dragging up or down with the cursor on this line will resize the Dock. Holding the mouse button down on a folder icon will cause a menu to appear of the files contained in the folder, with sub-menus if available. Various options for the Dock are available in the Dock Preferences, which can be accessed through both the Apple Menu and the System Preferences.

MacOS 8,9 LAUNCHER

Sheryl showed the Launcher feature, which performed a similar function to the Dock in earlier operating systems. Items (applications, folders, files, etc) can be added to the Launcher either by dragging icons into the open Launcher panel, or into the Launcher Items folder, which is located on the Hard Drive in the System Folder. Buttons can be removed by option-dragging.

Launcher can contain separate panels for various topics, as desired. These are created by placing folders in the Launcher Items Folder, and naming them with a filename beginning with a bullet point: • (type Option 8). Items within the folders then appear as buttons on the respective panel.

If desired, MacOS X users can take advantage of Launcher's button/folder facilities by making it available through the Dock. To do this:
  1. Find Launcher: go to Hard Drive/System Folder/Control Panels/Launcher.
  2. Open Launcher: double-click on its icon. This will cause an alias to appear in the Dock.
  3. Keep Launcher Alias: click and hold on the Launcher Alias in the Dock. On the sub-menu which appears, go up to Keep in Dock, then let the mouse button go. The Launcher icon will now stay in the Dock.


AMNESTY
Following last month's demonstration of MacOS 10.4 (Tiger) Dashboard Widget mini-applications, Tony showed a further recent development: the Amnesty application, which enables Widget windows to remain on the desktop even when Dashboard is not being used. Widget windows remain at front level, appearing in front of any application windows which are being used. This enables utilities such as calculator, dictionary and screen-capture to be instantly available - accessible even more quickly than through Dashboard.

WIDGET HINT

To configure the Weather Widget to give local readings, type "Timaru, New Zealand" into the City field.

MAC MINI
Sheryl displayed and explained about the latest Mac computer, the mighty Mac Mini. This compact machine is aimed at users (often PC switchers) who already have a separate monitor screen, keyboard and mouse, and who want to have a Mac computer. The unit is compact and small (total size has been likened to a stack of 5 CD cases), although difficult to service - Sheryl commented that it was not easy to get into the casing to install more RAM. Apart from that, itÕs an impressive, powerful machine.

Note that the lower price of a MacMini is of little advantage over the slightly higher price of an eMac computer unless you already have the peripherals mentioned Š the eMac, of course, has them included.

PAGES
Les presented the first session of a two-part talk on Pages, Apple's latest publishing application. Les gave an outline of Pages' capabilities, including text wrapping, text boxes, shapes, inspector screens, object shadows and image scaling. Pages is a specialist application with particular facilities, but it is worth noting that a high proportion of its features are also available in AppleWorks, although not necessarily with the same degree of accessibility.

Les will continue his presentation on Pages at a future meeting. The full text of his session is attached to these minutes in both Word (.doc) and AppleWorks (.cwk) formats.

REMINDERS

Next AMUG Evening meeting will be on Friday July 29, 7.30pm.

Next AMUG Daytime Meeting Monday August 22

Committee Meeting on Mactropolis:  Tuesday July 19, 9.00pm
Regards to all....

Secretary: Tony Climo, Aoraki MacIntosh Users Group