Keywords in iPhoto

by Dave Caolo

It’s easy to fill your iPhoto library with pictures. However, the task of finding the ones you’re after isn’t. The Events feature of iPhoto ‘08 is helpful, and you can improve it with Keywords.

Think of keywords as tags. You can assign any keyword(s) to any photo, like “Suzie,” “Summer” or “Beach.” Then, simply search “Suzie” to find relevant photos, sorted by event. Here’s how to do it.

From the “View” menu, select “Keywords” (or hit Shift-Apple-K). Next, click beneath your photos to reveal the keyword text field. Enter as many comma-separated keywords as you like; previously used keywords will auto-complete.

Here’s an added bonus. You can also search by keyword via the Image Browser in Pages (see above).

How to Protect Your Battery

We all love portable devices because they provide flexibility. Ironically most of the time they are being used as desktop devices and are plugged in all the time.

This is potentially a problem because batteries wear off much more faster if they are not being used enough.

To protect your battery in your MacBook, MBP, iPod or iPhone let it completely go empty until the device switches off. Then, charge it to 100% again. This cycle will “format” your battery and allows it operate more efficiently on the long term. Format your battery this way at least once in two weeks. The more you do it the better.

Using Address Book

Mac 101: Address Book A-Z

by Dave Caolo

Address Book is the contact management software bundled with every new Mac. It’s easy to use and well integrated with Mail and iCal. Let’s explore some of its capabilities.

Creating a new record

There are three ways to do this. The first is to select “New Card” from the “File” menu. The second is to click the “+” icon below the “Name” column. Finally, you can press Command – N on your keyboard.

Next, fill in the fields. Some have drop-down titles. For example, you can label a phone number as “work”, “home” or “mobile”. Finally, you can add a note to the notes field.

Adding a photo is fun. Just click the photo box next to a contact’s name and a new window appears. From there, you can browse to a photo on your computer or take a snapshot with your iSight camera. You can even apply some filters to the photo by clicking the Filters button on the right hand side of the window. That photo will appear on that person’s record, on email messages retreived with Apple’s Mail and on a synchronized iPhone or iPod.

Active Screen Corners

Mac 101: Active Screen Corners

by Robert Palmer

If you’ve ever had a panicked moment at work when you need to clear your screen quickly (because you’re working on a colleague’s birthday card, of course!), Active Screen Corners are for you. They can also activate your screen saver, and help you manage Spaces and Exposé.

To use Active Screen Corners, first open System Preferences (by selecting it from the Apple Menu). Then, click the “Exposé & Spaces” icon.

In the Exposé tab, you’ll see there are four corners that you can activate. To use an Active Screen Corner, just move your mouse all the way into that corner. To reverse the action, just move your mouse out of, and then back into, the same corner.

For each corner, there are several handy options. Read on to see what you can do with your Active Screen Corners.

Continue reading “Mac 101: Active Screen Corners”

Talking Text

Mac 101: Make any text speak to you

by Cory Bohon

Have you ever wished your Mac could read a long text document to you? Well, with the speech service, you can easily have your Mac read as much or as little text as you want.

While in Safari, TextEdit, Pages, and other applications; select the text you want to be read, then click the application name in the menu bar. Go to Services > Speech > Start Speaking Text. Your Mac will then use the default voice to read the text. It will continue reading until it reaches the end of the selected text, or you can select Services > Speech > Stop Speaking to end it immediately.

Mac Malware Sighting

Computer security company Trend Micro is reporting that a new Mac OS X malware application is making the rounds. The application, called OSX_LAMZEV.A, gives hackers a way to take control of infected Macs. This is the second report of Mac OS X malware this week.

This is not a virus, and users must actually launch the app for it to install its payload. Once running, the app also asks which firewall port it can use. Trend Micro reports that “Mac users may be infected when they access remote websites hosting this backdoor. The backdoor may also be disguised as a legitimate application and may be installed and executed on systems.”

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