Ejecting CDs/DVDs – So Many Options

Here are some hints for dealing with CDs or DVDs that won’t eject from your Mac.

First rule:  Make sure the CD or DVD disc is not in use. Quit all applications that are using files on the disc.

If you use a Mac keyboard you have a media eject button at your fingertips and can use that to eject.

Eject Button Location on a Standard Mac Keyboard

Or you can use the eject icon next to the CD/DVD entry in Finder.

Eject Icon in Finder

If that doesn’t work, drag the disc’s icon to the Trash.

If that doesn’t work, restart the computer, then hold down the mouse button or trackpad button while the computer is starting up, until the disc is ejected.

A whole other option is to add an eject icon to your Menu Bar.  You may like this one best of all.

• While you are in Finder, hit Shift+Command+G
• Then type /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras
• Double-click Eject.menu

The new icon will instantly appear at the top right of the menu bar near the clock and will stay until you decide to remove it.  (Hold down Command and click and drag it away from the menu.)

Eject Icon on Menu Bar

A nice extra with this method is that you can hold down the Option key while click the icon and it will force the CD/DVD drive to eject, even if it doesn’t believe it has a disk in it.  A bit less radical than restarting your computer to remove a stuck disk.

 

 

Correct Saved Spelling Errors

It is easy to save a word in your private spelling directory. When a word is underlined in red, right-click the mouse and select learn spelling. Your word is added to your private spell directory.

But what can you do if you save an incorrect word?  It is a few more steps, but it is easy to do as well.

The first step is to make sure you are in the Finder window.  Then select Shift+ Command+G.  When the window opens type in ~/Library/Spelling.

Hit Go and that will take you to your actual Spelling Dictionary File.

Check over your words and delete any that need to be removed.  Be sure to delete the blank spaces that are left as well.

Now you are safe from your own foibles. Until you do it again.  Doesn’t hurt to check it once and a while.  After all, I managed to save the incorrect spelling of my great grandson’s name.  That is absolutely a no-no.

 

Need A 6 Foot iPad Cord?

Anyone with an iPad knows they can’t be charged by connecting them to a computer.  They have to be connected directly to a regular electrical outlet.  It is not difficult to find a plug that allows you to do that, one comes with each iPad, but sometimes you would really like to have a longer cord.

When I ordered my new iPad last week I discovered that Apple now offers a 6 foot cord that will charge an iPad (or any of the other “i” products as well).  I jumped on it because I needed the extra length to protect my iPad from my curious kitty.

The image on the web site is really tiny, but here are a couple of images from the product box.  It costs US$29.00 and can be found at any Apple store or ordered from the on-line Apple store.

 

Determine The Size Multiple Files

I think this is a handy thing to know.  I hope you find it to be so.

We don’t all have servers to save stuff to.  I know I don’t.  Sometimes I just want to free up space on my hard drive, but I don’t necessarily want to throw something away completely.  As an example, I have folders of time sheets from 2008 – 2011.  I need to keep them awhile longer.  There is an easy way to find out if they will all fit on a single thumb drive or DVD.

For this example, I just used 2008.  I highlighted all the time sheets (hold down the command key as you click on each one) in the 2008 folder and then hit Command + Option + I.  When I did that I got an information sheet that gave me composite information about all those forms.

Multiple Files Information Sheet

So now I know that combined they consume 4.4 MB of space and can plan accordingly.  The “open with” option says Not Applicable because all the forms are not the same platform.  Some are Numbers and some are Microsoft Word.

How To Hard Restart an iPhone

If your iPhone or iPod touch starts acting weird here is a quick trick you can try before you do anything more drastic.

A hard restart will sometimes help a phone or a touch just like it sometimes helps a Mac.  All you have to do to hard restart a phone or touch is push the off button at the same time you push the Home button.  If you do it properly, your phone or touch should restart for you.

Why Is Safari Doing That?

I’m using Lion and I started having this weird problem with Safari.  I like for Safari to open with a clean page.  It’s the same reason I want a plain, simple background on my desktop.  I don’t want to be distracted.

Suddenly Safari would insist on opening on the last page I had visited.  I would have to wait for it to open and then replace that URL with the one I wanted.  I checked the Safari preferences and they were set correctly to open to a blank page.

Homepage Field Is Blank

I actually put up with this for a couple of months because I was too busy to try and figure it out.  Then someone had the same problem and asked me for help.  Oops.  I had to solve it.  Fortunately the first thing I tried worked.

I reset Safari.

Select Reset Safari From The Safari Menu

When you choose Reset Safari this window will open.  Before you hit the Reset button stop and think.  Reset does indeed mean “everything back to the beginning”.  You can pick and choose the items you do not want to be reset.

In my case, I certainly do not want my Top Sites to be reset.  I do not want to have to set them up again.  Same for the other things I unchecked.

So uncheck anything you want to keep as is and then hit the Reset button.  It is not a bad idea to do this periodically anyhow.  It gets rid of junk and keeps your Safari running smoothly and, probably, faster.

olloclip – A Photo Attachment For Your iPhone

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