Past Meetings

February 9, 2007

Seven people attended the meeting: Tom B, John R, Jack H, Jim P, Bob S, Bob G and Joe Y.

The main topic was Time Savers using Mac computers. Many of the items discussed had been presented in previous meetings at one time or another.

Some great time-saving KeyBoard shortcuts:

Command Shift 4 (the best reason to own a mac) allows you to instantly capture any part of any picture or text on your desktop or website - it is saved to the Desktop in OSX as a PNG file (or as a PICT file to your hard drive with OS9 and earlier).

Command Shift 4 then Space then Click to capture a picture of an active window

Command + (no shift) increase size of font on webpage; Command - decrease font size

Spacebar causes webpage to scroll down exactly one full page

Option Command D hides or unhides Dock

Control Command D while holding cursor over a word will pop up Dictionary meaning

Option and any Key produces various special accents ( å é ñ ö etc) and symbols (Ø ¿ € ∏ etc) - see Accents Charts)

Option Command hold down, then click, hold and drag an original icon to make quick alias

Command Delete sends a selected icon directly to trash

Power button, then Enter is the fastest way to properly shut down your mac

Some great Organizational and Navigational shortcuts:

Drag and drop a website URL directly onto any browser icon to go to that site

Set time and date automatically by checking box in System Prefs > Date & Time

Ubiquitous Stickies Memo - launches on boot up - go to System Prefs > Accounts > Login Items > Add apps to launch at startup

Dictionary - quickly look up tough words (like ubiquitous) with the great Apple Dictionary found in the Applications folder - drag a shortcut to the dock for easier access

Fast Alias - while holding down Option Command, click, hold and drag an original icon

Some great Hardware, Software and Peripherals to save time:

Freeware Apimac Timer - a stopwatch, countdown and alarm clock to remind you to turn off the oven

mail2web - check your mail securely at this site from any computer or location

AppDelete - handy shareware to uninstall OSX applications and all the hidden parts - older free version 1.1.1 here

Miscellaneous topics of interest mentioned at the meeting:

World Wide Web and first web browser invented by Tim Berners-Lee - 1990 (screenshot)

I Hate Macs! - good to know how the other side thinks - probably some truth in this rant

How Safe Is WiFi? - amusing (and scary) commentary by expert at wiFi conference

Weather Stone - how to determine the weather if your computer breaks down

USB Turntable - to record your old platters to digital for burning to a CD

Apple icons - some cool old school apples

Sandisk Cruzer Mini - 1 GB Thumbdrive - selling recently for $19.95 (prices change daily, so do a Google search for best current price). Note: keep the original MS-DOS format for best cross-compatbility with Mac/PC

CD Cardboard Mailers - best price under 20¢ each here

OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) - M.I.T. visionary's endeavor to equip world's poorest children with a $100 computer (originally called the 2B1) - latest news updates here

Next meeting planned for March 9, 2007

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