National Office Manager Appreciation Month

June is loaded with holidays: there's Flag Day and Fathers Day, of course, but there's also National Donut Day (on the 4th-- free donut at Dunkin' Donuts if you follow that link), Donald Duck Day (on the 9th), and Waffle Iron Day (on the 29th). To that, add National Accordion Awareness Month and National Turkey Lovers Month, and you might think that June is all holiday-ed out. But no. It turns out that June is National Office Manager Appreciation Month, and in recognition of National Office Manager Appreciation Month all Amazon referral fees earned by The Boyce Blog during the month of June will be gift-certificated to my Office Manager.

If you don't have an Office Manager you can show your appreciation for mine by clicking this Amazon link when you want to do some shopping. You don't have to wait until June either. Just click the Amazon link and buy something (anything!) from Amazon. I'll track the referral income from this article and see that it goes to my Office Manager.

2014 World Cup Soccer Calendar for Mac, iPhone, and iPad

Listen to this blog post!

The World Cup is fast approaching. Wouldn't it be nice to have the World Cup schedule on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad? Or maybe all three? Turns out it's just a couple of clicks away.

This website (worldcupbrazilcalendar.com) has just what you need: an iCal calendar subscription with every game, for every group, and the Round of 16 too. The great thing about it being a subscription is it will be updated as the games are played, so in a few weeks "Winner of Group C vs Runner-Up of Group D" (which is what the calendar says today) will be replaced by "Greece vs England" or whoever it turns out to be. The game times are shown in your local time, not in Brazil-time (four hours ahead of us on the West Coast), and not in ESPN's default Eastern Time.

(Here's a nice clock showing you the time in Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, and Austin. Amazing what can be done with a web page these days.)

If you do it right, you'll subscribe to the calendar on one device, and like magic the calendar will appear on all of your other devices too. The key is to choose the "iCloud" option when you initially subscribe. On a Mac "doing it right" will look like this.



The website has good instructions but you probably won't need them. Go check it out.

(They also have a Google Calendars version for those who don't use iCloud. Your PC and Android "friends" aren't left out here.)

UPDATE: the server at worldcupbrazilcalendar.com has been down-up-down the last couple of days. I hope they get it fixed. As an alternative-- and maybe it's even a better alternative-- try this excellent FREE iPhone and iPad app.


It's called USA- World Cup 2014 and you can get it by tapping the app's icon (or by clicking here or by going to the App Store and searching for it-- but why bother, I've done all the work already). It has the schedule, it has the results, it has the standings-- it has it all. My only suggestion is to NOT choose the option to add the schedule to your iPhone's (or iPad's) calendar, as it does not create its own calendar. Instead, it add the game schedule to your default calendar on the iPhone and that makes things a little messy. Better to put them in their own calendar, so you can easily toggle their visibility.

UPDATE NUMBER TWO: the calendar from worldcupbrazilcalendar.com seems to be abandoned. It doesn't update. But here's one that does:

http://icalshare.com/calendars/6675

This calendar already shows that Friday's 1 PM Pacific time game is Brazil and Colombia. I don't know what happened to the calendar from worldcupbrazilcalendar.com but this icalshare.com one is the one you want. The directions are the same as above-- use the iCloud option.

Apple Security Update 2011-003 and the Mac Defender Malware

There's this bad thing called Mac Defender. It comes from bad guys (Russians, just like in the movies). Then there's this good thing called Apple Security Update 2011-003. It comes from good guys (Apple, Inc.). You want the Security Update 2011-003 because you DON'T want Mac Defender. So, Step One: go to your Apple menu, choose "Software Update...", and install Apple Security Update 2011-003. You can read about it by clicking here but this is a case where you can take my word for it. Get the update and read about it later if you want. For Mac OS X 10.6.7 only. Sorry, Mom.

Mac Defender has gotten a lot of press. It's a scam, pure and simple: a fake anti-virus program that does nothing other than put your credit card info into the wrong hands. It works like this: you're reading a web page when all of a sudden a message appears telling you that your computer is infected with viruses and other malware, and that you need to take care of this problem right away, and Mac Defender offers to do it for you, for a fee. In fact, the warning message is faked; the Mac Defender virus warning is canned, and when "they" say they can clean up the problem they mean that if you give them your credit card info they'll quit with the phony "you're infected!" messages. Pretty easy money-- but that's not the end of it, because now they have your credit card info and you can bet they'll use it.

You know better than to give your credit card info to some total stranger, even if they have a trustworthy-sounding name like Mac Defender. Right? Right. And you know the internet is not locked down nice and tight-- websites are hacked all the time, so malicious code can be put onto a site that you thought you could trust. (It's happened even to Google, believe it or not.) So, it's not going to work to say "Well I never go to those bad websites, I only use Google and PBS.org and ioperating.blogspot.com"-- the bad guys can stick their nasty code into any site if they try hard enough. Passwords are learned, weaknesses are exploited. Bad things happen. Just don't let them happen to you.

If you get a message on your Mac (or your iPhone, or your iPad) and it says "pay me, quick" it's probably a scam. Take a picture of the screen (Command-Shift-3) and email it to me and I'll help you figure out what's going on.

The really good news here is that Apple has figured out how to stop scams like this in their tracks. Get the Security Update 2011-003 and you're all set. If you are on Mac OS X 10.5, you're somewhat on your own, but just keep being smart and somewhat suspicious and you'll be fine. And of course send me those screenshots (Command-Shift-3).

Here's a nice write-up about the Mac Defender phony anti-virus thing, though it's a little out of date now that Apple's come up with the Security Update. Good reading anyway. Thanks to PCWorld.com for this.

My Favorite Shopping Site

(Note: last week one of my customers-- Tom Nevermann, AKA "The Moving Doctor"-- asked me to help him find a good deal on USB-powered speakers for his Mac. I took him to www.dealnews.com and set up an email alert for him, and now every time a good deal on USB-powered speakers comes along, Tom gets notified by email. That experience inspired me to write this blog entry as I know DealNews can save you some money too.)

I get a lot of questions that start with "Where's the best place to buy..."? Generally speaking I refer the asker to DealNews, the best website for finding great deals on tech stuff like Macs, software, printers, and networking equipment-- and a whole lot more. Here's a picture of the DealNews site, with their categories across the top. I never use the categories-- I just leave it on "Everything"-- but the categories give you an idea of the kinds of things that DealNews tracks.

Here's that same page, scrolled down a bit so you can see the deals (the top of the site isn't where the action is):

DealNews doesn't sell anything (except for advertising space). Their business revolves around getting people to come to the site, which they do by scouring the web for great deals and presenting the deals in an easy-to-navigate webpage. They don't care which store offers the deal- it might be Sears, it might be Buy.com, it might be Dunkin' Donuts. Doesn't matter to DealNews (although, if the store gets complaints, DealNews will quit showing their deals).

The more people come to DealNews the more they can charge for their advertisements, so DealNews does what they can to make you want to come back. One way they do it is by updating constantly, and that's a good reason for YOU to sort the deals in chronological order (look for a "sort by" pop-up toward the right), and also a good reason for you to check in on the site more than once a day. Deals don't last forever and sometimes they don't even last an hour. Keep that in mind when you find something you like on the site-- my advice is "buy it right now."

You can search DealNews (see the box at the top right). That's a good start, but a lot of the time the stuff you'll find has already expired. That's a drag, but DealNews has a "Get Deals via Email" feature (right above the search box) and with email alerts you'll know about deals as quickly as they're put on the site. You do have to sign up, but it's free, and they promise not to sell your email address or use it for anything else, so I think you can go ahead with this.

Setting up a DealNews email alert is easy-- you pick a store, or a product, or a category (or some combination), and DealNews will send you an email when something that matches comes along. You can set up as many alerts as you'd like, and with Christmas coming up (only 7 months away) you can sit back and cherry-pick the very best deals and save a bunch of money on your presents. I already have three presents stashed away in my secret present place, all purchased via a DealNews email alert.

Note to Suspicious Minds: you may be thinking "I'll bet they just post the deals of the people who pay the most! That's how they make their money!" Well, that might be true, but their Editorial Guarantee says they will never do that. I think they're telling the truth. If they took payola we'd find out soon enough, and when that happened we'd all go somewhere else for deals. They know that. It's in their best interests long-term to be honest, and that's what I think they are.

Of course they do take ads-- that's how they make their money-- but the ads are clearly labeled and they're not mixed in with the rest of the deals.

I check DealNews at least once a day. Recent deals that I've taken advantage of include free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's, 10-foot USB cables for $1.97 shipped, and a 42-inch 120 Hz Philips LCD TV (not for me, for a friend-- and he saved about $300). Go check it out.

In Case You Wondered
No, we do not get anything for recommending DealNews. We do get something for recommending products on Amazon.com, so if you can't find what you want via DealNews please feel free to use the Amazon link at the top of the page here. When you go to Amazon via that link they'll know we sent you, and a tiny referral fee comes our way when you buy something. It comes out of Amazon's pocket, not out of yours, so you have nothing to lose and the great feeling of supporting this blog to gain.

iWork '09 Missing Manual

After months of hard work the iWork ’09 Missing Manual is now available.
Here’s the cover (enhanced):



Frankly, I think it’s fantastic, and not just because I was involved in it. Josh Clark has written a superb book and you are going to want to read it cover to cover. Click here to read all about it on the publisher’s website (note: they have a “buy two books, get one free” promotion going on if you buy it there-- $39.99). Click here to buy it from Amazon ($26.39 as of this blog entry).

iWork ’09 includes Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, and you can read all about it here. In a nutshell, iWork is Apple’s software for writing letters and reports, laying out brochures and flyers and posters, making presentations, working with figures, and making graphs. If that sounds like Microsoft Office to you, you’re right-- but there’s no comparison. You’ll love using iWork. I already know that you only use Word and Excel because you have to.

Take my advice and download a 30-day demo of iWork ’09 here. Watch the video tutorials (under the Help menu in each iWork component program). And buy the book, even though I’ve already been paid and won’t get any royalties even if you tell them you’re buying it because of me. Wouldn’t hurt to try though.

The Easy Way to Fix CAPITALIZATION ERRORS

Listen to this blog post!

Ever type something in ALL CAPS by mistake? Most people delete it, turn off the Caps Lock, and type the whole thing again. But, as I showed one of my customers last week, you can fix this sort of mistake in a couple of clicks.

Click the image below to watch my video tutorial.


Thanks to Patti D for asking "Why didn't you tell me this a long time ago?"

Written by +Christian Boyce

Support The Boyce Blog by starting your Amazon shopping here.
Shortcut to Amazon's Mac page-- desktops, laptops, software, accessories.

How to Make Your iPhone and iPad Read Out Loud to You

Listen to this blog post!

The iPhone and iPad will read out loud to you. This is more than a party trick; it's very handy to let your iPhone or iPad read a news article or a long email to you while you drive home, or while you pour yourself a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal (for example). It's also sort of fun, and perhaps a learning tool, to highlight a page in an iBooks book and have your iPhone or iPad read that page to you. It's all very easy though you have to be on iOS 5 or higher (Mom, you are).

Here's how you do it. (Screen shots are from an iPhone but it's almost exactly the same on the iPad.)

UPDATED September 2nd, 2014: see end of this post for additional info.

UPDATED September 18th, 2014: iOS 8 gives us new capabilities! Details at the end of this post.

First, go to the Settings. Tap General, then Accessibility, then Speak Selection.



Speak Selection is off by default. You'll be turning it on here. Set the Speaking Rate closer to the turtle and further from the rabbit. It's hard to understand what's being said if it's said too rapidly. When you drag the Speaking Rate knob your device will speak some standard text to you, giving you a good idea of how things will sound.



Now find something that you'd like to have read out loud. Here, I've gone to the Mail app and found an email that is pretty long. Tap and hold anywhere in the text to create an initial selection, then tap Select All.



Remember, the reading feature is called "Speak Selection" so you could drag the selection to include any or all of the text. If you want all, the Select All button is the easier way to go. That's what I did here, and you can see the result.



Tap the Speak button, then sit back and listen. Or pour yourself a bowl of Captain Crunch. Actually it works with any cereal.

I used Mail as an example here but it works similarly with iBooks and Safari. In every case it's tap, hold, drag the selection knobs (or do Select All where available), then "Speak."

Hey! Want more tips like this, delivered to your email inbox? Add your name and email to the mailing list and never miss a post.

There are a few shortcomings (you can't choose the voice, you can't do Select All in iBooks or Safari, and you can't trigger it from Siri), but even so, Speak Selection is worth exploring.

Up next: I'll show you how to do the same thing on your Mac.

UPDATE September 2nd, 2014: I've just learned about the SoundGecko website. It will read a web page to you. For example, this one! Try it now by clicking below:

Listen to this blog post

It isn't instant, but it's close (about a minute's delay). And, there are lots of cool options (in a nice iOS app, and also on the SoundGecko website), and it's free for the basic service. I'll write a separate blog post on it someday soon.

Here's a SoundGecko feature I could not resist telling you about: it has the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed, giving you an updating set of articles for a particular blog... such as this one! It's easy as pie.

1. If you don't have a SoundGecko account yet, create one by clicking here and following the directions. Do it from your Mac (or even a PC)-- it makes the next steps easier.


2. Click the tab that says "Service Settings & Feeds."


3. Scroll down and click the button that says "Add Custom RSS." Type in ioperating.blogspot.com, click the Add RSS Feed button, and you're done.

You'll want to get the SoundGecko iOS app (free), of course. With it, in addition to being able to listen to blog posts, you can have SoundGecko read a web page to you on the fly. Here's how it looks.

One advantage of having SoundGecko read a web page for you instead of doing it by selecting and clicking "Play" is that there's no selecting! The selecting is the hardest part as there's no "Select All" in Safari for iOS. Anyhow, give it a try. You don't even need an account to do that. But you'll want a SoundGecko account because you can manage things from your Mac, and have the ready-to-listen-to files show up on your iPhone or iPad. There are other reasons too.

Give it a try and let me know what you think, in the comments section below.

UPDATE September 18th, 2014:
iOS 8 gives us a new read-out-loud capability!

It works in iBooks (hooray!) and in Safari and probably a lot of other places. First, you have to turn it on: Settings/General/Accessibility/Speech/Speak Screen (turn ON).



It is off by default. Now, go to a book, or a web page, and do a TWO-FINGER down-swipe, starting above the screen. You'll get some controls, which can be collapsed, and by golly it reads and reads and reads!





It does NOT stop at the end of the screen in iBooks-- it just keeps going. It does NOT stop at the end of the screen in Safari-- it just keeps going. This is just what we've always wanted.

See my September 22nd, 2014 post about this here. There are links at the bottom of that article to seven other iOS 8 tips, part of my "Eight for 8" series of tips for iOS 8.

FREE job-hunting AppleScript

You might not have heard but there’s a recession on. People are looking for work. Even I, the great and powerful Christian Boyce, am being a little more proactive about being gainfully employed.

I had the brilliant idea of searching the job postings on www.craigslist.org every day for Mac-related stuff, but quickly found that craigslist is sort of picky about search terms, and if you aren’t careful, you’ll miss stuff. For example, if you’re looking for AppleScript jobs, and someone’s posted one that says “Wanted: AppleScripter” you WON’T find the job if you search for “AppleScript.” Don’t ask me why-- that’s just the way it is. Search for AppleScripter, and you find it. Search for AppleScript, and you don’t. (Search for “Apple” and you do. Search for “Apples” and you don’t.)

Frankly, I don’t quite understand it. But, understanding it is not our job here, and while it is tempting to try to figure out why craigslist works the way it does, it would be tangential to my original goal, which is to search for jobs on craigslist. Related, but off on a tangent.

I determined that if I searched for these terms I’d find what I wanted:

• Apple
• AppleScript
• AppleScripter
• Scripter
• Mac
• Macintosh
• iPhone

That’s seven searches. Doable, but then I decided it would be nice to search craigslist in Austin, TX (austin.craigslist.org) as well as craigslist in Los Angeles, CA (losangeles.craigslist.org). Twice as many cities means twice as many searches-- now up to 14, and I could see that this would not be a lot of fun after the first day or two. And remember, I wanted to do this every day.

So, what do we do when we have a repetitive task? One option: pass it to someone else. That gets it out of my hands, but it’s not reasonable to expect anyone to do 14 searches perfectly every day. Mistakes get made when you have so much to do.

The correct answer, of course, is to make an AppleScript. Talk about practicing what you preach!

Here’s what I wrote, word for word. You can copy this script, paste it into Script Editor (you have it-- look in the AppleScript folder inside your Applications folder), and run it. You can change the cities and the search terms as you wish. (You can even change it to look for things other than jobs. I can help you with that.)

The script:

-- AppleScript by Christian Boyce, to search craigslist.org for jobs
-- Original version written May 21st, 2009.
-- May be copied and modified as desired. Let me know if you find it handy.
-- Write me at macman@ioperating.com
--
set the_cities to {"losangeles", "austin"}
set the_search_terms to {"apple", "applescript", "applescripter", "scripter", "mac", "macintosh", "iPhone"}
--
tell application "Safari"
activate
repeat with a_city in the_cities
repeat with a_search_term in the_search_terms
make new document at end of documents
-- the next two lines belong together-- from “set” to “a_search_term”
set URL of document 1 to "http://" & a_city & ".craigslist.org/search/jjj?query=" & a_search_term
end repeat
end repeat
end tell



You can almost read it like a book. The gray italicized stuff is just comments, notes for us so that down the road we remember what we were doing. We set up a list of cities, using the terms craigslist uses in its URLs. Then we set up a list of search terms. Then, starting with the first city, we tell Safari to open a new window (document) and put a certain URL into it. (The first URL is “http://losangeles.craigslist.org/search/jjj?query=apple”.) And then we make another window for the next search term, then another etc. until we’ve done all the search terms for the first city. Then we go back and do it all for the second city (in this case, Austin).

The whole thing takes about 8 seconds to load 14 pages here. Plenty fast-- a lot faster than doing it by hand, and of course there are no typos.

The nice thing about this script is it’s easily modified. If I decide to search San Francisco, or Dallas, or San Diego, or Sacramento, all I have to do is add those cities to my city list (“the_cities”). If I want to search for other kinds of jobs (“snake handler”, “exotic dancer”) I can easily add those to my search terms (“the_search_terms”).

It’s going to save us a lot of time over here. Copy it and modify it for your own purposes (and if we apply for the same job remember who wrote the script for you).

How to Use iPhoto to Fix a Bad Photo (Episode 3)

Episode 3 of a three-part series on using iPhoto on a Mac to fix bad photos.

This installment: removing blemishes (and lamp posts).

Click the image below to watch my video tutorial.

Handy iPhone App: Gorillacam

I've been experimenting with a free iPhone app called "Gorillacam." It comes from the people who make the GorillaMobile iPhone tripod but you don't have to have the tripod to use it. Gorillacam improves upon the standard iPhone Camera app in several ways, including the handy features shown in the picture below:

Of these, I like "Press Anywhere" (lets you take a picture by touching anywhere on the screen-- especially handy if you're taking a picture of yourself at arm's length), Self-timer (especially handy if you've put your iPhone in a GorillaMobile for taking a picture of yourself from further away than arm's length), and Grid (especially handy if you're into the "Rule of Thirds" for composing pleasing pictures-- not of yourself this time).

Here's an example showing the Grid and the Bubble Level (you can turn on more than one feature at a time, depending on which feature you've chosen.)

Here's how it (might have) looked without using the Grid and the Bubble Level. What a difference! Heh.


One feature not shown above is "Digital Zoom." You can zoom in 4x-- and though it's digital (and not optical), it looks pretty good. Yes, you could just take the picture without the zoom and then "zoom in" in Photoshop... but Photoshop's a pain, and expensive. This thing's easy, and free. Zoom in, take the picture, and send it to a friend, without coming home to connect to your computer. Couldn't be easier than that.

Here are three pictures, the first at regular magnification, the second zoomed half-way, and the third zoomed all the way. They all look pretty good to me. I held the iPhone in the same location for each picture.


Zooming is as easy as dragging a slider to zoom in or out. You'll get it on the first try.

Gorillacam works with all iPhones, including the original, as long as the iPhone is on version 3.1 or better of the iPhone OS software. Your iPhone ought to be on 3.1 for other reasons, and that's free too, so there's really no reason NOT to give Gorillacam a try. There's more to Gorillacam than I've mentioned here, and all of it's good, so go get it and have some fun. In case you missed it, here's the link.

How to Use iPhoto to Fix a Bad Photo (Episode 2)

Episode 2 of a three-part series on using iPhoto on a Mac to fix bad photos.

This installment: fixing pictures that are washed out.

Click the image below to watch my video tutorial.

About That Stolen iPhone...

It sounds like a joke-- "Guy walks into a bar..."-- but it's pretty serious stuff: Apple engineer loses prototype iPhone in a bar, someone finds it, leaves the bar with it, and sells it to tech/rumor/news site Gizmodo.com for a cool 5 G's. Gizmodo takes it apart, writes about it, gets lots of attention. Apple wants its phone back, police get involved, search warrants are presented, Gizmodo reporter and the guy who "found" the iPhone are both in big trouble.

That's the short story. Until now, that's all we had. Until now.

The longer story is very nicely told in the Affidavit for Search Warrant as published by Wired.com tonight. Have a look. It's a little slow to get started but when you hit the half-way point it starts getting interesting (and it gets better after that).

Looks like crime doesn't pay after all. Good.

10.5.7 update

Apple released the 10.5.7 update yesterday, and while it has worked fine for me on two Macs (iMac Intel 1.83 GHz, and MacBook 2.2 GHz) I have read about quite a few issues that others are having with it. As usual, it’s impossible to make sense of it all because the people who have problems are the ones more likely to write to websites such as Macintouch and MacRumors to tell about their experiences, but just to be on the safe side why not have me do the update for you. That way, if anything goes wrong, you’ll have someone there (me) to make it right.

There are benefits to 10.5.7. The most important one to me is it fixes a bug in Apple’s Mail program-- a bug that gradually slows your Mac way, way down when Mail is left running for a long time. I have not seen any new or different features in 10.5.7 and Apple is not advertising any, so maybe it really is all bug fixes. Anyhow, I’m glad I did the update.

If you want to apply the update on your own be sure that your machine is in good shape before you apply the update. Restart your machine, quit any programs that launched as startup, then run Disk Utility and repair permissions. If you have problems with Disk Utility it would not be wise to do the 10.5.7 update. If you don’t have trouble, go ahead and update.

The best way to do the update is to get the so-called “Combo” update. It’s bigger than the update that comes when you do Software Update under the Apple Menu, which means it takes longer to download and install, but I’d use the Combo update anyway. Applying a Combo update will reinstall system pieces that have somehow gotten lost, in addition to updating the machine to 10.5.7, and generally speaking the Combo update is the way to go. Takes a little longer, but worth it.

Here’s the link to the 10.5.7 Combo update. Remember to quit all of your programs before you do the installation.

Call me if you’re stuck-- preferably, before you’re stuck.

How to Use iPhoto to Fix a Bad Photo (Episode 1)

Episode 1 of a three-part series on using iPhoto on a Mac to fix bad photos.

This installment: fixing pictures that are too dark.

Click the image below to watch my video tutorial.

How to Type Perfectly, Part II

If there's something you type all the time, and it's more than a few characters, why not have your Mac type it for you? This tip will show you how.

Let's say, hypothetically, that your name is "Christian Boyce." Now, let's say you stay up late doing blog entries and AppleScripts and kitchen cleaning (I did say "hypothetically"). Wouldn't it be a drag if staying up late made you tired and you accidentally made a typo while typing your own name? It Could Happen.

Actually, it probably did happen. I don't remember. I'm tired from being up late doing blog entries and AppleScripts. But it's not going to happen anymore, because I've gone into the Language & Text preference pane and set up my own little short-hand substitution. All I have to do now is type "cb" and it's magically expanded to the full "Christian Boyce." You should try it (but use your own name).

Here's the Language & Text preference pane (start by going to the Apple menu, then System Preferences). We're interested in the "Text" part. Yes, I know the name doesn't make a lot of sense.

You can see that Apple provides a few substitutions for you already-- (r) becomes ® and so on. Neat, but not as neat as turning your initials into your name. To do that, click the + at bottom left of the preference pane, and type your shortcut on the left and what it expands to on the right. See below.

Close up the preference pane and start enjoying your shortcut. Ah, but where? Turns out that these substitutions don't work everywhere. Here's a list of applications where the text substitutions definitely work:

• Mail
• Text Edit
• iChat

If it doesn't work for you in those applications, put your cursor somewhere that allows you to enter text, then control-click to reveal a menu. Choose Substitutions/Text Replacement. Then it will work. (To trigger the expansion, type the shortcut, then a space or a return or punctuation.)

You can even make a shortcut that expands to more than one line. For example, you could put your entire mailing address into a shortcut. Imagine typing "hadd" and having your entire home address get typed for you. Neat.

The same sort of thing works in Pages '09 except you turn it on in Pages' own Preferences, and it does not read the list of custom substitutions that you made in System Preferences/Language & Text. Instead it has its own list. Word 2011 has a similar feature but it's under Tools/AutoCorrect.

Hint: don't use a real word for your shortcut. You'll be triggering it all the time. For example, "had" would be a poor choice for the Home Address shortcut. You'd try to type "I had the fish" and it would come out with your address in the middle. Ooopsy.

This is not the end-all, be-all text expansion/substitution method, but it's built into OS X 10.6, so you may as well use it. If you want to do something a little fancier, and you want it to work in practically every application, you should look into TypeIt4Me, TextExpander, and Typinator. Of these, I am leaning toward Typinator. Watch this movie and see how it could work for you.

Type Faster on iPhones and iPads with Text Shortcuts

If you're an iPhone or iPad user, and you type the same things over and over, this tip is for you. This technique saves me a lot of time, all the time, as it works every place that text can be entered on an iOS device. That includes Mail, Messages, Notepad, Safari, and many, many more.

Before I show you how, let me give you an example.

I often need to enter my email address into a web-based form (in Safari). On a Mac it's no big deal to type it and there are several ways to automatically fill in that info anyway. On my iPhone it's a bit of a pain. At least it used to be. Now, instead of typing "macman@ioperating.com," I type "em" (short for "email") and presto, it expands into "macman@ioperating.com." Two characters instead of twenty-five. That's my kind of efficiency. I have another one that expands "ty" into "thank you" and another one that expands "cb" into "Christian Boyce."

Here's how I did it.

1. Go to Settings, then tap General. (I'm using an iPhone in these screen-shots but it's almost exactly the same on an iPad.)



2. In General, scroll down and tap Keyboard.



3. In Keyboard, scroll down and look at the existing shortcuts. You'll probably see one: "omw" for "On my way!" Mine looks a little better, with a couple of additional shortcuts. Tap the Add New Shortcut... button.



4. Figure out what you want to make a shortcut for, and enter it in the "Phrase" section. Create a short shortcut for it. The shortcut will be triggered automatically after you type your shortcut and then a space, or punctuation. So, you don't want to use a shortcut that is a real word, because you'll trigger the shortcut when you don't want to.



5. Tap Save and you're done.

From now on, anywhere you can enter text, you can use your shortcut. Here's what it looks like when you do. If you think it looks a lot like the auto-correct that's built into iOS you're right. That's exactly what it looks like, and it works in an identical manner. Here I've typed "em" and the iPhone has suggested "macman@ioperating.com" and that's exactly what I want.



A few parting thoughts:

1. Shortcuts pay attention to capitalization. If you invoke a shortcut at the beginning of a sentence it will be capitalized. If you capitalize the phrase it will be expanded that way. I took advantage of this and made "iphone" a shortcut for "iPhone." (Yes, the "phrase" can be a single word.)
2. You can use the emoji keyboard to create phrases that are triggered by plain text shortcuts.
3. Don't get the shortcut and the phrase mixed up! I've done it and wondered why the shortcut didn't work.

Stuff I Like, part 2

It’s taken nine months but here, finally, is Stuff I Like, part 2. (Stuff I Like, part 1 was about PowerSupport Anti-Glare Film-- and I still like it.)

You can read all about these programs at their websites, so I’m not going to go into great detail here. I will give you a short summary and some special features I especially like.

First up: 1Password. Remembers your passwords for logging into various websites. Works with Safari, Firefox, and a couple of other browsers and you can switch back and forth between them and 1Password works regardless. Generates strong passwords if you want it to. Lets you create “Identities” such as Home and Work for filling in web forms with one click. Lets you create secure notes. Synchronizes across machines and with the iPhone. Price: $39.95 (iPhone app is free). Free trial download.

Next up: RapidWeaver. Web-site creation tool. Lots of pretty templates, fairly easy to use (much easier than DreamWeaver, about the same as iWeb). Something like Apple’s iWeb but a little more expandable. Used to create this very site. Price: $79.00, free trial download.

Last but not least: VMware Fusion. Allows you to install Windows on your Mac. Much more stable and trouble-free than Parallels. Does not require a reboot like Apple’s Boot Camp. Easy installation procedure. Price: $79.99, free trial download.

More to come, as I find more Stuff I Like.

iPhoto: Edit Using Full Screen

I'll bet you use iPhoto a lot-- not just for storing and organizing your photos, but for editing them too. The usual method of editing starts with you choosing a photo to edit by viewing thumbnails, as shown below.

Then you double-click a thumbnail and get the editing window shown below. The picture you chose is highlighted in the thumbnails across the top of the window, and the image itself is enlarged in the center of the window, ready for you to crop or straighten or whatever. That's not a bad way to do it but it's not the best way.

Next time, try this: hold the Control key and click and hold on a thumbnail. You'll get this nifty "contextual menu" and you can choose "Edit Using Full Screen" from it.

Your picture will zoom to take up the entire screen. Move the mouse to the top of the screen and you'll see thumbnails again-- that makes it easy to choose another picture. Heres' what that looks like.

Move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and you'll see these buttons-- same as in the normal "double-click-to-edit" view, but with two more buttons: Info, and Compare. "Info" is pretty obvious, but Compare is worth a little explanation.

Here's what happens when you click on "Compare"-- it shows you the picture you were editing, AND it shows you the next picture, side-by-side. You can quickly scan through your photos using the left and right arrow keys (that will load the next picture into the frame with the border) and when you find one you like, you can edit using the tools across the bottom.


You can also choose photos to compare by clicking them in the thumbnail bar across the top of the screen. And, if you want to compare more than two, hold the Command key down and click on as many more as you'd like.

Even if you never make use of Info and Compare it's always nicer to work on a larger image. Give the Control-click-Edit-Using-Full-Screen method a try. You're going to like it.

Get Faster Internet Just by Asking

Listen to this blog post!

I get my internet service through Time Warner Cable. I think the speed originally was 5 Mbps. Somewhere along the line I upgraded to Time Warner's "Turbo" internet and got it up to 20 Mbps. I thought that was pretty fast. (I test the speed at www.speedtest.net. Avoid clicking the links that install MacKeeper.)

A few weeks ago I set up a new Time Capsule for one of my customers. When I ran the speed test at his place he got 100 Mbps. Holy cow-- 100! I couldn't believe it. I didn't even know it was possible. But once I knew it was possible, I wanted it. So I called Time Warner.

UPDATE September 1st, 2014: I have seen multiple instances of Time Warner's internet service simply stop working until the Arris DG1670 modem/router is reset. After some period of time (less than a day) web sites quit loading, but if you restart the modem/router it works again, for a little while. I believe I have traced the problem to Time Warner's DNS servers. I recommend overriding the standard Time Warner DNS servers and using something more reliable, such as the servers at OpenDNS. It costs you nothing and it solves the problem. Highly recommended, even if you're not having a problem. If you don't know what DNS is send me an email and I'll either send you the answer or make a blog post about it.

Changing the DNS in the Time Warner modem starts with you typing 192.168.0.1 into a web browser, hitting Return, and signing into the modem using "admin" for the user name and "password" for the password. Click on the tab labeled "LAN Setup" across the top. In there, override the DNS numbers. Use these: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. You can leave the third server blank. Remember to click the Apply button when you're done, and remember to restart the modem (pull the power cord, then plug back in) or else the changes will be ignored. Restart everything else on the network also (Airports, computers, etc.). This should work forever-- no need to restart the Arris every day or so.

The conversation went something like this:

C Boyce: "Hi, I hear you can deliver 100 Mbps internet these days. How much is that going to cost me? All I need is internet and phone-- no TV."
Time Warner Cable: "Let's see... $123. That's $10 less than you're paying now and it would be 100 Mbps."

CB: "What am I getting now?"
TWC: "You're getting 20 Mbps internet and two phone lines."

(One phone line was for the fax, which we are officially turning off as of right NOW. You can take the fax number out of your address book.)

CB: "I thought I had the best internet speeds that Time Warner offered."
TWC: "You did have the best internet speeds-- when you started the service. But now we do 100 Mbps."

CB: "So wait a second. You updated the speeds, so all of the new people get the good stuff, but no one told ME about it? That's an outrage! But listen, I don't really need 100 Mbps. How much for 50?"
TW: "We don't offer 50 any more. Now we offer 100. And I can do it for $100.97 per month for the first 12 months."

I took them up on the offer. The new modem came in a box three days later, and though it was NOT as smooth a set-up as it should have been, one phone call to Time Warner got things up and running. Check out these before-and-afters:

Before the upgrade

Decent speed, and fairly steady (see the graph above).

After the upgrade

Great speed, and also fairly steady. No, I don't know where the other 18.96 Mbps went.

If I were you I would call up my internet service provider and see whether they can give you better speeds for the same money (or less). Can't hurt.

One thing I learned: a fast internet service (100 Mbps) can be throttled by the networking equipment in your office. For me, it was an old Airport that slowed things down. I was getting something like 30 Mbps when that old Airport was turned on. When I unplugged it the speed went to 81 Mbps. If you do upgrade your internet service be prepared to make some changes in your network as your internet service may outpace it.

UPDATE: Time Warner can now do 170 Mbps, at least according to www.speedtest.net. I've seen it with my own eyes. Astounding. Tell 'em you want it.

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BONUS: The pros call 10 Mbps (megabits per second) Ethernet "10Base-T." 100Base-T is 100 megabits per second. 1000 megabits per second is referred to as "Gigabit." Used to be that even 10Base-T was much faster than the internet service coming into the house, so 10Base-T was more than good enough for the wired network. If you're installing new networking equipment think ahead a little and install cabling, routers, and switches that are better than you need today. It doesn't cost much more and you'll be repaid down the road.

Written by +Christian Boyce
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