Aoraki Macintosh User Group Home Page

Snippets from Previous Meetings

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Several computing queries and suggested solutions included:

PHOTO FILES WON'T OPEN

I have a disk with image files (photos) on it - some of them will open, but others won't - why?

• It's likely the files are in different formats, and your computer may not be able to handle them. Check which format the files are in by looking at the suffix. Commonly-used formats such as JPEG (.jpg suffix), TIFF (.tif) and PNG (.png) will open readily, but you may not have an application to open Photoshop files (.psd) or some PC-type formats.

IMPORTING PHOTOS INTO WORD

How can insert images into a Word document and wrap the text around them?

• Just drag them from your desktop (or wherever they're stored) into the Word document. As you do so, note carefully where the insert point marker (the vertical black line just near to the tip of the cursor arrow) is situated, for when you release the mouse button the image will be inserted where the marker is placed. It will be an inline graphic, which means that it is locked into position by the text beside it - if you insert more text above it, it will move down the page accordingly.
• When the image is placed you can drag it to a new position if required, or single-click on it to make its resizing 'handles' appear.
• Double-click to make the Format Picture dialog box appear, and click on the Layout button to select the type of text wrap.

INTERNET RADIO

How do I use my computer to listen to radio via Internet?

Several ways: you can listed to American radio through iTunes, or hear local radio from websites:

• In iTunes, click on the Radio icon in the Source List/Library column:

This will display a playlist which contains a variety of listening types. Click the triangle next to your chosen type and the available broadcast streams will appear. Double-click on one to tune in to it.

Notes: If the Radio icon does not appear on your iTunes source list, it is probably because:

1. it isn't turned on in: go to iTunes/Preferences/General and check the Show Radio box.
2. you have an older version of iTunes which doesn't include Radio. Download the latest version (free) from http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ Your computers needs to be using MacOS X 10.3 (or later) for this version.

If you are using a dial-up modem, go to the iTunes Help page Listening to Internet Radio Stations for information.

Via Radio Websites: Sites such as Radio New Zealand offer several ways of listening, such as live streaming and podcasts. Visit their website to see available choices: http://www.radionz.co.nz

.DMG FILES

What does a .dmg suffix mean on a file, and what do I do with it!

The .dmg suffix indicates that it is a disk image file. Some explanation concerning these files may help:
When you download applications or other files from the Internet, they are often appear on your desktop in Disk Image format, eg. when you download the OnyX maintenance application (see below) its .dmg file will appear:

Your computer will probably automatically 'mount' this file onto your Desktop as a Volume, ie. a 'disk' that is attached to your computer, in the same way that a Hard Drive, CD or removable flash-drive would appear:

When you open the Volume (disk) icon by double-clicking on it, you will probably see an Installer Package icon with a .pkg suffix:

This package contains one or more files which will install the application on your computer. If you want to see the files contained in the package, control-click (or right-click) on its icon and select Show Package Contents from the contextual menu which appears. Double-clicking on the Package icon will run the installer, and the icon for the application itself should appear:

Usually you will move this to your Applications folder. You can then trash the .dmg file. To get rid of the Volume icon, when you drag it to the Trash you'll see that (because it acts like a disk) the Trash basket has changed to the Eject symbol, so you can eject it.

Note: If your computer doesn't mount the .dmg file as a Volume, either automatically or when you double-click on it, then you may need to repair you computer's Disk Permissions (see session below).

COMPUTER SLOWDOWN

My computer has started operating slowly. What can I do!

Several things you can try:

• Reduce the number of items on your Desktop - put them into a single 'current files' (or similar) folder.
• Repair the computer's Disk Permissions (see session below), as some may have become corrupt.
• Use a maintenance application such as OnyX to clean out caches and optimise the system - OnyX is a free download from the Apple website: go to http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/onyx.html

LAPTOP BATTERY PRICES

How much does it cost to replace a laptop battery!

$180 for a non-Apple brand replacement battery, and somewhat more for an Apple product.

SESSIONS

MacBASICS

MENU BAR

Tony explained the composition of the main Menu Bar at the top of the Desktop, and described its use and how to customise it:
Contained in the Menu Bar (from L-R) are:

• The Apple Menu icon which gives you access to the way your computer works.
• The Current Application menus the name of the current application appears in bold, and is followed by other menu items relating to that application, including the Help menu. (NB. If you want to access the Help menu relating to the computer instead of the application, click on either the Desktop or the Finder icon in the Dock, so that Finder becomes the current application, then click on the Help menu.)
• The Status menu icons toward the right end of the menu bar show the status of your computer or give you quick access to certain features. If you click an icon, you can view a menu or perform an action. For example, you can click the volume icon and drag the slider to quickly adjust your computer's volume.. Icons are available to show the status of your battery, AirPort connection, modem connection, etc. For available Mac OS X features, use the System Preferences panes to select to display the icon:

To rearrange the Status Menu icons, press the Command key and drag the icons. You cannot rearrange the Application menus.
To remove Status Menus icons, hold down the Command key and drag the icon out of the menu bar.

• The Spotlight icon which gives access to MacOS X's quick-search facility.

HANDY HINT

It sounds obvious, but if you're not sure of how to do something, the first place to look is usually in the Help Menu - it's easy to forget this ready reference which clearly explains most of the things we need to know - or have forgotten!

Thank you Tony for this Basics session.

APPLICATIONS

IPOD RANGE

Sheryl gave an overview of the current range of iPods - which started as music players, but some of which are now also capable of displaying photos/video, and of wirelessly giving access to the Internet, which enables both browsing and downloading directly from the iTunes Music Store.

Four models of iPod are now available (or 5 if you include the iPhone, which is both a phone and an iPod), and each model comes in a variety of colours and/or capacities, with prices to match. Which model you opt for will depend on the use you wish to make of the iPod.

A brief comparison of the models:

• iPod Shuffle: 1GB capacity, 5 colours. The smallest and cheapest ($NZ129 incGST).
• iPod Nano: 4GB ($NZ239) or 8GB ($NZ329) capacities, 5 colours.
• iPod Classic (the original iPod): 80GB ($NZ399) and 160GB ($NZ549) capacities, 2 colours.
• iPod Touch: touch screen, 8GB ($NZ479) and 16 GB ($NZ649) capacities.

If you buy one of the red Shuffle and Nano models, named [PRODUCT] RED, Apple gives part of the purchase price to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

For further details and 'guided tours' visit:

http://www.apple.com/nz/itunes/
http://www.apple.com/nz/ipod/whichipod/
http://www.apple.com/nz/ipod/red/

Thank you Sheryl for presenting the details about these products.

iDVD

Tony gave an introduction to the iDVD application, which is one of the iLife suite of creativity applications which comes with Mac computers.

iDVD enables you create customised DVDs of your movies and digital photos. You do this through a process in which you bring together the media which you wish to record, build menus for it, then (if you have a SuperDrive equipped Mac) burn the disc:

1. Choose a Theme: iDVD provides themes and menus to give your disc a polished look. These supply titles and chapter-headings, complete with drop zones into which you can place either photos or movie-clippings to illustrate the menus which will display the contents of your DVD. Some of the newer themes are animated, and the movie-clippings within them play to give a preview of the the content.
2. Add the Content, the media which your DVD is to contain: IDVD is integrated with the other iLife applications (iPhoto, iTunes, Garage Band, and iMovie), and its built-in media browser gives you access to your photos (in iPhoto), movies (in iMovie), song playlists (in iTunes) and musical or audio creations (in Garage Band). You can preview items from these applications in the browser, anddrag-and-drop them into your DVD project.
3. Finally Render and Burn the DVD: when you're ready, iDVD brings everything together, renders it into DV format and burns it onto a DVD. As this is a time-consuming process, this is when you leave your Mac to get on with it while you go and do something else!

To learn more, see the iDVD website at http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/.
If you already have iDVD on your computer, open it and choose Help > iDVD Help.

Thank you Tony for the information on this application.

SAFARI v.3

Sheryl gave some information on Safari v.3, which is the latest version of Apple's web browser. This is a Beta version, which means that it is still a 'trial' version in its final stages of development, but has been released for public use on the understanding that it may contain 'glitches' which need to be resolved.

This version incorporates several new features - some being:

• it is available for Windows XP and Vista editions.
• the Inline Find simultaneously highlights all found text on a webpage, obviating the 'ind next' procedure.
• text fields can be resized by dragging their corners.
• private browsing is available if the computer has multiple users.

MacOS 10.4.9 is needed to run Safari 3, which is available on the Apple website as a 14MB download: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Thank you Sheryl for describing this new version.

PREVIEW

Tony described Apple's Preview application, which is available on all computers with MacOS X. Originally used mainly for viewing image files, the updated versions of Preview have been considerably expanded and can be used for a variety of additional tasks. You can:

• View images in a number of formats: you can open images either separately, or as a group in the same window - the slide-out drawer gives access to the otherimages:

Having a group of images open in the same window (as above) enables you to quickly change from one to another, and also to display a slideshow of the group.

• Edit images by rotating, resizing and cropping, and by performing basic colour correction.
• Convert images by saving them as different file types.
• View PDF files, as well as searching, annotating and bookmarking them.
• Convert files to PDF
• Take screen shots, edit them and save them if various formats.

For further information, and instructions on how to do the above tasks, go to Preview's Help menu and select Learn About Preview.
Preview can also be used to combine two or more PDF files, which is not easily performed otherwise.

Another useful application which can now do considerably more than it used to! Thank you for this presentation.

STOP PRESS: When MacOS X v.5 (Leopard) is released, the new version of Preview (v..4) will include a number of new features, one of which being the Sidebar which will replace the the drawer for group openings and PDF page display. Visit AppleInsider for info: http://tinyurl.com/2ey9ta

Thank you Robin for this information.

APPLE DOWNLOADS & SUPPORT

Sheryl discussed the Apple website in general, and its Downloads and Support sections in particular:

The main Apple website, http://www.apple.com/ and its local counterpart, http://www.apple.com/nz/ are the Internet gateway to all official information on Apple computers, software and other products. The principal difference between the two sites is that apple.com/nz provides prices in $NZ, and supplies local phone numbers for locations such as the NZ Apple Store.

The Downloads page has available a variety of System/ Disk Utilities, Widgets, Icons, Screensavers, updates for Apple applications, and also many non-Apple applications, both freeware and shareware. Some are demo versions, and others are fully-featured.

Although your computer's Software Update facility automatically finds and installs necessary updates for your computer, you may want to obtain such updates manually, eg. when you want to install the same update on more than one computer, but only want to download once. This is when you would use the Apple Downloads page to get the update, as you'll receive it as a .dmg file (see Q&A Session, above) on your desktop, rather than have an automatic installation performed.

The Support page gives help on individual Apple applications, provides 'how to' tutorials, gives information on known issues (such as laptop battery replacements), and enables searches of discussion documents on a huge range of help topics. As Apple computers are increasingly designed for users to do their own maintenance and make adjustments (such as replacing RAM), the instruction pages supplied are clear and non-technical.

MacMAINTENANCE

RESETTING LAPTOP POWER MANAGEMENT UNIT (PMU)

Sheryl brought to the attention of members who have PowerBook or iBook laptops the need of sometimes having to reset the Power Management Unit. If the computer is not responding as it should, it is possible that the PMU may have become unstable, and this will result in some operational anomalies.

If your laptop is showing symptoms such as not turning on, not waking from sleep, not charging the battery, or not seeing the AC Adapter, then it's possible that the PMU needs resetting. However, this should only be done after other steps, such as Force Quit, Restart and Force Shut Down, have been taken. For detailed information on these steps, as well as PMU reset, see http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449 and its related documents on the Apple Support website.

Thank you Sheryl for this information.

REPAIRING PERMISSIONS

[Reprinted from AMUG Minutes February 2007]

Sheryl described the need to repair disk permissions, and how to do it:

If your computer is not behaving properly, especially after you have installed new software, it's likely that the disk permissions need to be repaired. This is a basic 'housekeeping' task which fixes file or application user permissions which may have been damaged, and it is advisable to do this regularly. To repair:

1. 1. Open the Disk Utility application: it's in Applications/Utilities. A shortcut from Finder to get to the Utilities folder is to type Shift+Apple+U.
2. Click on your Hard Disk icon (not the computer's drive icon):
   
3. In the First Aid panel, click Repair Disk Permissions:
   

If it is your system software that needs attention, you can use a System Disk as it will also contain Repair Permissions. Restart the computer with the System Disk inserted and hold the C key while restarting. Choose the language to use, then go through the on-screen menus until you get a choice to Run Disk Utility.

If a System Disk is not available, but another computer is, then system software can be repaired by connecting the two computers together using a double-ended firewire cable and restarting the computer to be repaired in Target Disk Mode by holding down its T key while restarting. The other computer's Disk Utility can then be used to perform the repairs.

Thank you Kim for the information in the original February session.

HANDY HINT

Not sure which version you have of an application? There's several ways you can find out:

• With the application open, click on its name in the Menu bar and go to 'About...' and an information window containing the version will open:
• In a Finder window (in Column View) click on the application name, and the version will be shown in the information in the next column to the right.
• In the Finder (any view) click on the application name and type Command+I to open its information pane. The General Information will show the version.