Saginaw Macintosh Users Group

Use right-click instead of menu in order to get single album artwork
~MacOSXHints
Want to Get Album Artwork for just one album in iTunes? Don’t use the Advanced menu.

If you select Get Album Artwork from the Advanced menu, iTunes will search your entire Music Library for songs with missing artwork (and will sometimes overwrite your artwork with mistaken album covers).

If you want to get a single album’s artwork, you might think that selecting a single track from that album and then choosing Get Album Artwork from the Advanced menu would accomplish that task. Unfortunately, iTunes still searches your entire Music Library no matter what tracks are selected.

In order to Get Album Artwork for a limited group of songs, right-click on the selected song(s) and choose Get Album Artwork from the contextual menu that pops up.

Another Timesaver for Entering URLs in Mobile Safari
~MacOSXHints
When viewing a web page, we all know to tap on the address field so we can enter a new URL. In mobile Safari, however, there’s no need to first tap the X to clear the existing URL in the address field. Instead, just tap the address field and begin typing when the keyboard appears. Mobile Safari will automatically overwrite the existing address.

Clearing your iPad’s memory
~MacWorld
Reader Tony Moon has been having occasional problems with the Netflix app on his iPad. He writes:I get inconsistent performance from the Netflix app on my iPad. Sometimes it works great, other times I try to launch a movie, the Netflix play screen appears for a second, and then the video window disappears. I have a strong Wi-Fi connection so I don’t think that’s it. Any ideas?

I’ve experienced the same thing and you’re right, it’s not a Wi-Fi issue—I’ve had Netflix play perfectly when I have just a couple of bars and quit when I have a full complement of bars.

I threw the question out to Twitter and the general consensus is that this is a memory issue. If you clear out the inactive cruft in the iPad’s memory, Netflix should perform as expected.
There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to simply restart the iPad. Doing so flushes the iPad’s memory and cleans things up nicely.

Optionally, you can use an app to free up memory. That app is XZone Software’s $2 XSysInfo. Launch it and you see a lot of information about your device arranged in categories including Usage, Processes, Estimated Work Time, Network, Device Identity, and Tech Specs. We’re interested in the Usage pane where you tap an arrow icon to clear out memory. If you tap the Settings icon you have the option to clean memory when you launch the app.

If Netflix is misbehaving and you don’t care to restart your iPad to flush its memory, it’s worth a shot.

Adding Additional Files to an iDVD Project
~MacOSXHints
When creating a DVD in iDVD something you would like to add additional content or files to the DVD that you distribute. Maybe some pictures, a link to your website, or maybe a iPod/iPhone/iPad sized version of the movie. I distribute highlight DVDs of my son’s football games and I add a HD version of the video to the disc.

• Open your iDVD Project.Select the Advanced » Edit DVD-ROM Contents menu item.
• Click ‘New Folder’ (this will add an ‘untitled folder’ to the window).
• Double click the ‘untitled folder’ to edit the name.
• Select your the folder you just re-named, and click ‘Add Files.’
• Browse to the folder to select you files.
• When done adding files close the window.
• Remember you are limited on the total amount of space on your DVD.
• To view the amount of spaced used on your disc. Select Project » Project Info.

Quickly confirming or rejecting Faces in iPhoto
~MacOSXHints.com
When confirming wether faces recognized by iPhoto ‘11 are actually correct, some will be wrong and need to be rejected.

iPhoto gives the hint to ‘Click to confirm or Option-click to reject,’ yet the easier and faster way to reject would be to simply double click the image, after which it will be marked as ‘Not (name).’

Easy Finder links to open websites at login ~MacOSXHints
It can be useful to have a clickable file on your Desktop or in the Dock that takes you straight to a specified website. It can be even more useful to have websites open automatically when you log in to your computer.

From either Safari, Chrome, or Firefox, you can make one of these files (it will have a .webloc extension) easily. Just click and drag from any website ele- ment that gives you a hand cursor to your desktop or a Finder window. You’ll get a file takes you straight to the website that the link lead to. Opening this file will open your default web browser to this website.

You can keep this in a folder, put it on your Desktop or in your Dock, or set it to open at login. To put it in your dock, just drag it there like any other file. To open it at login, go to the Login Items tab of the Accounts pane of System Preferences. Click the plus button and navigate to and select your file.

Mac Hints & Tips~Mac Hints & Tips
This is a handy trick for taking photos and other files from your iPod to your computer for sorting, editing, etc.

Connect your iPod to your comput- er and go to iTunes. When iTunes launches, your iPod will be listed in the Source list on the left side of the iTunes window. In the “Options” sec- tion of the iPod Preferences window, turn on the checkbox for “Enable Disk Use,” and your iPod will appear on your computer as a mounted disk (like a hard disk or USB device).

On your computer’s desktop, double- click the now-visible iPod, and you’ll see a folder with your stored files. (Don’t disturb the folder named Pho- tos.) Now you can select these files and drag them onto your computer.

Save PDF Graphic Elements using Preview~MacOSXHints
It is easy to create a PDF file with scalable vector graphics, which can be later included elsewhere (LaTeX users will appreciate this).

You will need some application to pre- pare the graphics — Keynote works well (I also tried PowerPoint). Select the graphic. Copy it to the clipboard (using Command+C or Edit » Copy).

Then go into Preview, and type Command+N ( or File » Create From Clipboard). Save the new file as a PDF. Notice that, no matter how much you zoom, the image does not pixellate.

How many times a day do you say that while on your computer? ~MacGroup, Chita Hunter
Wow that many.

Well, I for one usually say that after I accidentally close a Safari browser window. It is not unusual for me to have a minimum of 15 browser win- dows open at any given time. And those windows usually contain mul- tiple tabs that I click back and forth through. So, I do try to close those that may no longer be relevant. But, when I accidentally close the wrong one…

Though, when I quit Safari to end a browser session for the night, or whatever reason for quitting, it’s great to get right back to where I left off by using the “Reopen All Windows from Last Session” command under Safari’s History Menu.

So, I find the “Reopen” commands very, very helpful. But there are times when I may accidentally close one of those browser tabs, and until now there was no recourse to quickly res- urrect it, like I could after closing a browser window.

Hence, added to Safari 5, is the abil- ity to restore that accidentally closed browser tab. Simply select Edit > Undo or use the shortcut keys, Com- mand-Z. An additional safety net.

Avoid crossfade between select songs in iTunes ~MacOSXHints
By default, iTunes will crossfade be- tween songs, blending the end of the current song with the beginning of the next song. You may already know that you can disable this for classical mu- sic or other albums by selecting all the songs in the album and checking the ‘Part of a gapless album’ option in the track info (Command+I).

But you can also disable the crossfade on individual tracks (such as an Intro that fades into the rest of the song). Just make sure you set this option on both tracks.

iTunes will then skip the crossfade whenever both tracks have this op- tion set, effectively disabling the fade when you play the album in order, but not when shuffled or separated in a playlist.

Play songs from multiple playlists in iTunes ~MacOSXHints
This may be well known to many, or it may seem incredibly obvious, since folders have been allowed in iTunes’ playlists since iTunes 5 was released four years ago, but I just figured this one out…

If you have a bunch of playlists in a single folder, you can play all of those playlists as if they were a single play- list by selecting the folder and play- ing it. Anything you can do with an ordinary playlist — shuffling, sorting, etc. — you can also do when playing a playlist folder. The hint works with folders that contain ordinary playlists or smart playlists.

Print personalized Mailing Labels in Address Book
~MacOSXHints
While Address Book can print labels quite well, it’s not so easy to address the label to a family such as, ‘The Smith Family,’ when the Contact’s name field shows ‘John Smith,’ or even, ‘John and Jane Smith.’

But if you want to use Address Book to generate a personalized holiday card, baby announcement or other address label list, there is a way to ensure it prints the way you want. For addressing families, simply edit the contact by adding a company name such as, ‘The Smith Family.’

Format Mail.app messages with Tables or Lists
~MacOSXHints
When I send messages to my students, I frequently need to have a table with borders, etc. included in the body of the message. Mail doesn’t seem to offer the ability to create and format tables, so I use the following multistep process.

I create my message in TextEdit or Bean, including any tables with the formatting I desire.

Select the message

Copy and Paste it into Mail

The resulting email can still be edited. Both the source document and the mail message must be in Rich Text Format for this to work.

Change the Notes font in iOS 4.2
~MacOSXHints
For a while, it’s bothered people that you couldn’t change the fonts in the Notes app in iOS. Now you can, if you have iOS 4.2.

Simply go to Settings app » Notes » Font. Choices are Chalkboard, Helvetica and the default Marker Felt.

Using QuickTime 10 as a mirror
~MacOSXHints
Here’s how to use your iSight camera as a *full-screen* mirror.

If you select the File » New Movie Recording menu item in Quicktime 10, you get a window of your iSight camera that can be made full screen. Photo Booth has always been constrained to a small window.

Get Rid of Duplicate Songs in iTunes
~Mac Hints & Tips
In iTunes, it’s very easy to end up with duplicate songs. There are many ways this happens, but recently many people are ending up with duplicate songs as they upgrade their old iTunes Store purchases for new iTunes Plus tracks. There are several ways to permanently remove duplicate songs from iTunes. This will save hard drive space, and can make it easier to browse your iTunes library.

It’s worth noting that some tracks appearing to be duplicates may actually be different songs; for example, a “live” version versus a “studio” version. Be careful not to delete these. Otherwise, it’s very easy to remove duplicate items in iTunes with built-in management tools. Apple has a knowledge base article about this:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1417.

Some people use third party apps or AppleScripts to weed out duplicate tracks. Take a look at Tidy Up! (http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/TidyUp.html) and Dupin (http://dougscripts. com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php).

Also, here’s a virtually unknown keyboard short cut: in iTunes, hold down the Option key and click “File.” This will change the menu entry to “Show Exact Duplicates.” Show duplicates only displays tracks with identical titles, but selecting “exact” will only display tracks where ALL fields are identical.

iTunes 10 Album Art controller always on top

~MacOSXHints

I love the new feature of iTunes 10 to use album art as a mini-player (if you click on the album art preview in the bottom left, the album art that pops up now has hover controls to change tracks); but what if you want this to always be visible when working in other applications?

In iTunes, go to Preferences » Advanced and check the box ‘Keep movie window on top of all other windows.’ Now the album art controller will always be visible. I like to make it super small and tuck it into a corner. Works great!

Another way to make a new tab in Safari

~MacOSXHints

I accidentally stumbled on this one to- day when I mis-clicked a tab in Safari 5.

Double-clicking the empty space in the Tab Bar just to the right of an open tab in Safari will create and open a new tab. Not sure how new this is, but I can’t believe I have never thought to try this method before!

This is an addition to the other well-known ways of opening new tabs:

Command + T.

Control + Click (or Right Clicking) the empty space to the right of your tab(s) and selecting ‘New Tab.’

Clicking the small ‘+’ sign on the far right of the Tab Bar.

Control + Click (or Right Clicking) a URL, and selecting the ‘Open in New Tab’ option.

Command + Click a URL.

I’m sure there are probably a couple more ways to do this, but my most common are by far the first and last methods.

Keyboard shortcuts for Safari Reader

~MacOSXHints

Safari Reader is a new feature with Safari 5. There are several keyboard shortcuts you can use to bring up, navigate and close Reader.

When you see the Reader icon in the address bar, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

Command+Shift+R to enter Reader mode

Arrow keys up and down to navigate page

Spacebar or Page Down to page forward

Shift+Spacebar or Page Up to page back

Home (or Command+Up arrow) to go to the top of the page

End (or Command+Down arrow) to go to the end

Escape to dismiss Reader

Making ZIP Files (Compressed Files) in One Click

~ Scott Kelby’s Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips

One of my favorite Mac OS X features is the ability to create ZIP compressed files from within the OS (basically, this shrinks the file size, ideal for files you’re going to email — smaller file sizes mean faster file transfers).

To create a compressed file, either Control/click on the file and choose “Create Archive” (which is Apple-speak for “make a compressed ZIP file”). Or you can click on a file, then go to the Action menu (the button that looks like a gear up in the Finder window’s toolbar), and choose “Create Archive” from there. Either way, it quickly creates a new file, with the file extension “.zip.” By the way, if someone sends you a ZIP file, don’t sweat it — just double-click it and Tiger will automatically decompress it.