Beginners Mac Blog

olloclip – A Photo Attachment For Your iPhone

macnancy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:31:56 +0000

If you are a casual photographer and primarily use your iPhone 4 or 4s you should check out the olloclip. I was introduced to it at this year’s Macworld and am quite pleased with it.

olloclip

olloclip attached to phone

This tiny attachment includes fisheye, wide-angle and macro lens. It simply slides over the camera lens on your phone. The MSRP is UD$69.99. The package includes a carry bag that doubles as a lens cloth. Home page is: http://olloclip.com/index.html

I like it because it is so very easy to use and I get clean pictures from it. Someone asked me about the pixels, and I assume the pixels are whatever is available through the camera. The olloclip is not going to affect that one way or the other.

Following are two quick snapshots I made, one with my camera without the attachment and one using the olloclip on wide-angle. It is easy to see what a difference it made.

Without olloclip

With olloclip

How To Get The URL Of An iTunes or App Store App

macnancy — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:02:28 +0000

It is actually very easy to send someone directly to an app in either the iTunes or App store. The secret is to right click on the apps icon. When you do you will get an option to “copy link”. Select it and you will have the link saved. You can then paste it in an email.

Sticky Notes (The Stickies Application) Fast and Easy

macnancy — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:53:06 +0000

Don’t know about you, but I use sticky notes all the time. I currently have 37. I have URL’s that I frequently need to copy, attachment code that I frequently have to add, things I need to remember (like our Mac Users Groups PO Box number), and other odds and ends.

Stickies comes with your operating system. You will find it in the Applications Folder. If you want to save it to your Dock, grab it from the Applications Folder and drag and drop it to your Dock. If you just want to open it occasionally, get it from Spotlight by entering the first few letters of the word and then selecting it when it shows up.

To create a Stickies note the normal way, you open the app and select File > New Note. A blank notes opens and you enter whatever you want, as much as you want.

A blank sticky note

Enter your info and double click the dark portion at the top to “roll it up”. You don’t have to “save it”. It saves automatically. There are six color options found under the Color option in the menu.

That’s the usual method. Here is a shortcut.

Highlight text that you want to add to a Sticky. Can be from the web or a document or an email. If photos are included as part of the block of selected text, they will be included in the note you create, but the layout probably will not.

Hit Shift + Command + Y and your highlighted info will automatically create a new sticky.

Another Way To Control Your Desktop

macnancy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:17:01 +0000

This tip won’t appeal to everyone, but some will think it is just jim dandy fine, so here it is. And this is not just a Lion tip, it works in previous versions of the OS as well.

If you have lots of apps on your Mac but find you primarily use the same few on a daily basis you may want to keep them at the ready without relying on the Dock. Many people with small screens don’t like the amount of real estate that the Dock consumes. So here is another choice for you.

Create a folder on your desktop. Move an alias of each of those important apps to that folder and use that folder to quickly access your apps.

To create the alias do this:

Go to the source of the application, i.e., the Applications Folder. Click and drag the application to the folder you created, but before you release the mouse button, hold down Option and Command.

You now have an alias in the folder. It is identified as such in list view when you open the folder.

Alias Folder in List View

You can use this same technique to create an alias of other folders, documents, etc.

Use Safari and Google to Search Without Opening Either One

macnancy — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:28:09 +0000

This tip will let you double check your facts using Safari and Google without ever opening either Safari or Google.

Do I have your attention?

Say you are working on a report for school or work and you include information that you are fairly sure is correct – say when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. You know it was 1969 and you think it was June because you were out camping when it happened. But your report has to be accurate.

You can pull up Google and do a search or open Ask.com and ask the question. Both of which take you away from your primary task of finishing your report. Or, you can try this.

Enter your information in your report. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in June, 1969. Then highlight Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in June, 1969 and hold down Shift and Command and then hit the “L” key. When you do, Safari will open and Google will have searched your topic, and provided links.

Sample Search Results

Now all you have to do, in this case, is correct your mistake and keep going. This trick will even look up misspelled words if you need to look on the net for a correct spelling.

Copying The Content of Email Messages When Using Lion

macnancy — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:49:55 +0000

This is a totally cool tip.

If you use Mail you can click to highlight any message within the Inbox, hit Command + C and then hit Command + V to paste the message contents into a text editor such as TextEdit. Open a blank page in your text editor so the computer knows where to paste and click inside the text editor before you hit Command + V. This doesn’t work with Microsoft Word but it worked with other Mac compatible word processing apps I tried.

By clicking to highlight a message I mean just click on the message in the list. You don’t have to open it.

Highlight The Message You Want To Save

If it is a multi-part message as in my example (the arrow to the left of the message so indicates) the contents of all of the messages will be pasted at the same time, in order.

By highlighting multiple emails in the Inbox, then hitting Command + C followed by Command + V, you can paste the content of all of them into a new single document within the editor and they will appear one after the other.

Selecting Multiple Email Messages to Copy

In my example I have copied the receipts I have received from the App store. Now I can delete them from my email and still have a record should I need it.

I hope you like this tip as much as I do.

Working With Downloaded Images

macnancy — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:10:38 +0000

This is a cool time saver if you frequently download images from the web or get images from iPhoto that you want to modify. In this case I mean modify the size or format.

Instead of saving to your desktop choose copy. Now the image will be held on your clipboard. Open Preview > New from Clipboard.

Your selected image will open and you can modify the size (Tools > Adjust Size).

When you are ready to save it select File > Save and you can save it in any of the formats listed below.

In a number of cases this will let you bypass the need to use the duplicate feature in Lion.

Use iChat To Send A Text Message To A Cell Phone

macnancy — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:37:11 +0000

This tip assumes you have an iChat account with an AIM screen name.

If you don’t have cell phone with texting capabilities, or choose not to use those capabilities, there still may be a time when you wish you could text. Did you know you can use iChat to send a text message to a cell phone?

This works with any cellphone in the U.S. that has texting capabilities. It’s not limited to Apple products. Here is how it works.

With iChat open, go to the File menu and choose New SMS. In the box that pops up type in the 10 digit cellphone number without spaces or punctuation.

Press return to return to the Chat window. and type a very short message. Messages like: Call me. Or, turn on channel 4 right now!, or running late, but on the way. When you finish typing your message press return and your message will be sent.

How To Generate QR Code

macnancy — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:11:46 +0000

This is your chance to be sorta cutting edge – amaze your friends. No – amaze your kids. That’s always better. More and more people are printing QR code generated information boxes on their business cards, marketing, and organizational materials. The information boxes look like this:

Beginners Mac Blog Information Box

Chances are you have seen one by now. These are similar to the bar codes that we all are familiar with.

You make one that contains all the information you want to share, such as your name, email address, phone number, business name, whatever. Then anyone who has a mobile phone with a camera and Internet connectivity along with a QR code reader app can read and save the embedded information. The reader apps and the code generators are free.

There is more than one code creator web site, but I will recommend the one I use since I know it is reliable and easy to use. You can find it at: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Kaywa Code Creation Page

Open the page and enter the information you want included in your information box. If you want to include several pieces of information just click on the Text button. If you include a web address or an email address, the system will recognize it and format it properly. Then choose the Size and hit create. Your information box will appear in the white area and you can copy and save it.

Readers Readers for iPhones and iPads are found in the iTunes store. ConnectMe QR Reader is one option. Another is QR Reader for iPhone. And a third is Red Laser. All of these are free. QR Code Reader HD is $.99 To use them just open the app, read the code using your phone camera, and the information will become visible and be stored.

So far I haven’t found any readers that will automatically save read info directly into your address book, but I hope to find something like that. Experiment and have fun.

iChat Text Tip

macnancy — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:10:19 +0000

Here is another iChat tip. This one for texting.

When texting, you can make the text in your chats bold or italic or change your font or font color.

For bold press ⌘B and for italic press ⌘I. To change fonts choose Format → Show Fonts and for colors choose Format → Show Colors. If you use a far out font that your chat buddy doesn’t have installed on their machine, they will see something different.

Add Interest To Your iChat Text Messages