Creating Keynote presentations for iPad
Apple has posted this document which provides tips for creating a Keynote presentation on your Mac that will work well with the iPad’s version of Keynote. Among the tips are to use certain custom themes, certain fonts available on both platforms, and to choose the 1024×768 slide template. Happy presenting!
Posted by Mike Bass on April 25, 2010.
Access Alternative Time Machine Backups
Macworld recently posted this tidbit about accessing an alternative Time Machine backup, very useful for pulling files from an older drive..
Posted by Mike Bass on March 19, 2010.
MacBreak Weekly Podcast
If you are a Mac or iPhone user and interested in learning more, check out the excellent MacBreak Weekly podcast, available on iTunes. Each week, Leo Laporte hosts a panel discussion of Apple News, speculation, reviews and tips. Regular guests include Andy Ihnatko, Alex Lindsay, Scott Bourne, and Merlin Mann. Always entertaining and informative, the group end each podcast with their picks-of-the-week. I’ve been turned on to many, many new Mac and iPhone apps by the guys at MacBreak. Start listening now.
Posted by Mike Bass on March 15, 2010.
Twitter Apps for iPhone
I recently set my wife up with a new iPhone and had a chance to once again tryout all the various Twitter apps for the iPhone. Maybe it is just the stripped down interface, but I still prefer Tweetie.
Posted by Mike Bass on March 1, 2010.
A Few iPhone Tips
Predictive text can be annoying sometimes. You can turn it off for one word by simply capitalizing the first letter. Unless the word is the first letter of a sentence, the iPhone will assume your word is a proper noun and will not attempt to correct your spelling.
If you want to see where a web link goes without actually going there, simply tap and hold. An information bar will pop up. This works in both the Mail app and Safari.
You can’t create mail folders on the iPhone, but if you have an IMAP account (like MobileMe or GMail) you can create folders on the server. Head back over to your iPhone and you can access the folders.
In any application, Safari included, you can automatically scroll to the top of the page by tapping on the “top bar” which has the time and battery indicator.
When typing a URL, hold down the “.com” button and you’ll receive a pop-up with a few other domain suffixes: .net, .edu, and .org.
When your iPhone is locked (showing the “Slide to Unlock” screen), press the home button three times to bring up the iPod controls, all without unlocking your phone.
Posted by Mike Bass on August 4, 2009.
Missing Battery Menu options
After upgrading to 10.5.6, you may have noticed that the option to quickly change your MacBook’s energy settings to “Better Performance” and “Better Battery Life” disappeared. To make these changes you were required to visit the Energy Saver preference panel. What a pain! I can confirm that this was a “bug” with 10.5.6 that has been resolved with 10.5.7. After installing the latest Mac OS update, the battery options are back in all their original splendor.
Posted by Mike Bass on June 1, 2009.
Find Menu Commands
If you still haven’t upgraded to Leopard (a.k.a. Mac OS X 10.5), it’s time. Incompatibilities with Adobe CS3 and minor network glitches that plagued the 10.5.0 release have been squashed. Once you start using Leopard, you’ll find features like Spaces and Quicklook to be indispensable. This week’s tip, however, has to do with Leopard’s Help system. Did you forget where the Scripts command resides in Indesign? Quickly find any menu command in any app by clicking on Help and typing what you remember. Leopard’s Help system will display any matching menu items and point them out to you. Never search for a menu item again.
Posted by Mike Bass on September 1, 2008.
