8:36
AM on 8/27/56?
Q: I hope you can help me with a problem that just cropped up with
my iMac (333MHz). A few weeks ago I turned on the computer and
found
that the time was set to 8:36 AM and the date was 8/27/56. I entered
the correct information in the Date & Time Control Panel, but
the next time I turned on the computer, the date and time had once
reset to 8:36 AM on 8/27/56. I can’t seem to make the computer
keep the right time anymore. Do you have any idea what is causing
this?
A: It appears that your computer’s backup battery has died.
Every Macintosh has a small battery inside of it that powers the
internal clock while the computer is off. (In some systems, it also
provides power to specialized memory known as PRAM, which stores
several important system preferences.) You can either replace the
battery yourself (you can often times find the right battery for
as little $12), or you can take the computer to your local Apple
Service Provider — they will happily replace the battery for
a small fee.
Another thing to consider is that on some of the newer Macs the
battery charge is being maintained by power trickling from the power
plug, even when the machine is turned off. So turning off the power
strip or unplugging the machine can shorten the life of the battery.
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Before
You Update...
Before you run the Apple software
update, move any applications you may have sent to other folders
back to their default locations. The update may not work on all
applications if they have been moved. Once the update is done, you
can certainly move them back.
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Busy
Menu Bar
In Mac OS X 10.1 and later, users can now add icons to the menu
bar for modem connections, AirPort, monitor settings, sound volume,
and clock settings. PowerBooks and iBooks also include the battery
time or percent of time remaining. Head to each respective system
preference and locate the check box to “show item in menu
bar.”
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Calculator
Conversions
The calculator in Jaguar can convert from Euro (€) to US
$, from Celsius to Fahrenheit, from square yards to square miles
and
so forth. You can keep a handful of often used conversions in a
drop down menu under Convert in the Calculator menu. Notice that
you can update the Currency Rates to get the latest figures.
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Capturing
and Printing Screen Shots using OS X 10.2.x
Create a screen shot of the ENTIRE desktop as you see it by holding
down the Command (Open-Apple) and Shift keys and pressing the 3
key.
Create a screen shot of your own selected area via cross hair by
holding down the Command (Open-Apple) and Shift keys and pressing
the 4 key. This will turn the the cursor into a cross hair you click
and drag with to create a box around the area you wish to save as
a screen shot. As soon as you stop dragging to create the selected
area, it takes a snapshot of the area selected.
Create a screen shot of an open window as displayed on your desktop
by holding down the Command (Open-Apple) and Shift keys and pressing
the 4 key. Then, press the Space Bar once. This turns the cursor
a 'camera' icon. As you move the mouse over windows, it will highlight
each window. Just click once and it will make the highlighted window
a saved screen shot. OS X these screen shots as PDF Files titled
Picture 1, Picture 2, and onward sequentially. These screen shot
pictures are saved to the desktop.
To print (and view), just double-click on the Picture file to open,
and then Print from the file menu (or command-P). Easy as that!
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Capturing
and Printing Screen Shots using OS 9.x 
Create a screen shot of the ENTIRE desktop as you see it by holding
down the Command (Open-Apple) and Shift keys and pressing the 3
key.
Create a screen shot of your own selected area via cross hair by
holding down the Command (Open-Apple) and Shift keys and pressing
the 4 key. This will turn the the cursor into a cross hair you click
and drag with to create a box around the area you wish to save as
a screen shot. As soon as you stop dragging to create the box, it
takes the snapshot of what is in the selected
area.
Create a screen shot of an open window as displayed on your desktop
by first turning the Caps Lock 'on' and with Caps Lock on by holding
down the Command (Open-Apple) and Shift keys and pressing the 4
key. This turns the cursor into a bulls eye. When you click the
window you want a screen shot of, it creates a perfect shot of just
that window and its contents as displayed. These images are saved
as PICT files and to the 'root' or main directory on your boot drive.
They are automatically named Picture 1, Picture 2, the
number assigned one higher each time than prior pictures saved.
To print (and view), just double-click on the Picture file to open,
and then Print from the file menu (or command-P). Easy as that!
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Deleting
Print Jobs
It’s fairly easy to stop a print job under Mac OS 9.2 and
earlier. Just double-click on the desktop printer icon, select the
document you want to delete, and click the Trash icon. OS X doesn’t
support desktop printers, so this procedure won’t work. To
delete print jobs in OS X you must do the following:
Open Print Center (inside the Utilities folder inside the Applications
folder)
Select “Show Queue” from the Printers menu
Select the print job from the list, and
Click Delete.
To
delete multiple jobs, Command/click on the jobs you want to delete
and click Delete.
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Duplicating
Files
An easy way to make a copy of a file is to select the file by clicking
on it once in any Finder window and pressing Command/D to
duplicate the file. You might wish to do this if you have a critically
important file. Duplicate it first.
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Extension
Chords
Under your Control Panels lurks the Extension Manager. If you’re
looking for a lockup problem, make sure you duplicate the current
set of extensions so you don’t mess up your good set. If you’re
not sure what each one does, I suggest you turn everything off
and
restart, take a look at your control panels. See what’s left.
What can you do and what can’t you do? Reactivate them in
groups. Knowing what extensions do is half the battle.
For example, your Mac may have come with fax software. If you never
fax from your Mac, use Extensions Manager to turn them off. From
Extensions Manager, head to the view menu and choose “by Package”.
Then scroll down until you see the fax package. Remove the check
mark for the entire package and restart.
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Faster
Finds
When you use its built-in Find function, Mac OS X v10.2 searches
by default in over a dozen languages besides English. To speed
up
your search, choose Preferences in the Finder menu and click the “Select” button at the very bottom of the dialog. In
the ensuing dialog, turn off the languages that you don’t
need searched, and it will speed up the indexing of your content,
helping you ‘Find’ even
faster. (Thanks Scott Kelby’ in “Mac OS X Killer Tips.”)
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Favorites
as a Time Saver
Click once on a folder where you often store certain files. Go to
the File menu and select Add to Favorites (Command/T). From now
on when you Save a file, under the pop-down Where: window, that
folder will always appear under Favorite places.
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Folders that Open in a New Window
One of the most glaring differences between OS 9 and OS X is the
way folders are opened. In OS 9, doubleclicking a folder opens a
new window that displays the contents of that folder. In OS X, double-clicking
a folder displays the contents of that folder within the same window,
eliminating the previous contents. This can take some adjustment.
There are several work-arounds, however. You can hold down the command
key when double-clicking a folder to force a new window to open.
Those of your who genuinely prefer OS 9’s folder behavior
can make a more permanent change: Select Preferences from the Finder
menu, check the option to “Always open folders in a new window,”
and close the window. Things will now be back to normal.
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Hide
the Dock
To hide the Dock in Jaguar, click Command/Option/D. It is a toggle,
so pressing it again hides the Dock. Remember, a hidden dock can
be accessed by dragging the cursor to the bottom of the screen.
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Hot
Switch Between Apps
You can jump from one application to another by pressing Command/Tab.
Doing so allows cycling between any open applications. It works
in both older Mac operating systems and OS X.
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How
to Restore a Home Directory after Archive & Install
With OS X “Jaguar,” it is possible to do a Clean Install.
However, if you neglected to select Preserve Users and Network
Settings
prior to using the Archive and Install option, you will need to
do these steps to get your Home Directory back. (The Archive and
Install feature is not available in Mac OS X 10.2 Upgrade CDs.
It
is only available on retail CDs and those included with new computers.)
To
restore a user’s home directory after an Archive and Install:
1. Log in as an Admin user.
2. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
3. Choose Computer from the Go menu.
4. In the Finder window, open the disk that is the Mac OS X startup
volume.
5. Open the Previous System folder.
6. Open the Users folder that is found inside Previous System
(/ PreviousSystem/Users/).
7. Choose New Finder Window from the File menu.
8. In the New window, open the disk that is the Mac OS X startup
volume.
9. Open the Users folder (/Users/).
10. For each user you wish to restore, drag the folder bearing
her name from the Users folder in the first window (/PreviousSystem/Users/
into the Users folder in the second window (/Users/.
11. If you are prompted to replace any item, replace it.
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How
to Restore Software without Erasing HD
If you need an item that is only available from the Restore CD set,
you may install it without erasing the hard disk by following these
steps:
1. Ensure there is approximately 2 GB of free hard disk space
on your computer.
2. Make a new folder.
3. Insert the Software Restore discs one by one and copy the disk
image (.dmg) files in the Configurations folder from each disc
to the folder you created on the hard disk. There may be up to
five images depending on the restore set.
4. Open the Disk Copy application program.
5. Drag the first .dmg file from the folder you created to the
Disk Copy window. The disk image appears as a hard disk on the
desktop. This disk image volume contains all the software that
your computer did when it was first purchased.
6. Open the disk image volume and locate the software you want
to reinstall.
7. Copy the software from the disk image volume to the hard disk.
8. If you are using Mac OS X, use the Repair Privileges Utility.
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iDisk
from IP
Users of older Macs circa 8.0 and later can connect to their iDisk
by going to the Chooser and typing in the IP address “idisk.mac.com” which
should resolve and ask you for your username and password. Entering
the data will allow you to mount the iDisk on the desktop
of an older Mac.
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Indexing
a Folder
If you have a folder where you keep all of your files, you may
wish to index that folder so you can search the contents of the
files
at a later date. To index such a folder, hold down the Control
key while clicking on the folder you wish to index. Choose “Index
Item” from the contextual menu. Now you can use Sherlock
to look for words INSIDE the files in that folder.
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Instant
Column Resizing
If you’re in Column View, you can get tired of resizing columns
to accommodate long filenames. But Mac OS X can do this for you.
Just doubleclick on any resizing tab they’re the two little
vertical lines at the bottom of each column, and that will automatically
expand all the columns. In earlier versions of Mac OS X, the columns
would expand to accommodate the longest filename, but in Jaguar
it only expands a fixed distance, so you may have to double-click
a couple of times for really long filenames.
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Keyboard
Tricks
“t” at startup will boot newer Macs into FireWire Target
disk mode. All Macs that have FireWire will work EXCEPT blue and
white G3s, first generation G4s, and third party FireWire cards.
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Make
A Copy
It might be a good idea to make a backup copy of certain preference
files in case of a virus or hard drive failure. Three of the most
important preferences are: TCP/IP preferences, Remote Access folder,
and Internet preferences. These hold the critical passwords and
phone numbers you typed in and forgot long ago. Save these files
in case you need to use them. You can find these items lurking in
your Preferences folder inside your System Folder.
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Miss
the old Trash Can on the Desktop?
A lot of people tell me that the one thing that totally freaked
them out when moving to Mac OS X was not having the Trash Can in
the bottom right hand corner of the Desktop. Well, if you miss that
old stalwart, you can get it back if you follow these steps:
Step
One: Create a New Folder on your desktop.
Step Two: Make an Alias of this folder and name it Trash (you
can delete the original folder now).
Step Three: Press Command/I, and in the Info Window that appears,
and in the Info Window click on the button marked “Select
New Original.”
Step Four: Now, you’re going to locate your real trash —
here’s how: In the Go To field, type in /users/yourname/.trash
(of course, don’t type the words “yourname,”
instead type in your user name where “yourname” appears.
Step Five: Now press the Go button, and it will find the Trash
for you (even though it will appeared grayed out in the list).
The Go button then changes into the Choose button. Click the Choose
button (while your grayed-out trash is still selected in the list)
and you’ve done the hard part.
Step Six: Now all you have to do is switch the icon. Here’s
how: Click on the Trash icon in the Dock, which will open its
window. Then Press Command/I to bring up its Info window. Click
once directly on the Trash Can icon, then press Command/C to copy
that icon into memory.
Step Seven: Then go to the Alias folder named “Trash”
on your desktop, click on it, press Command/I to bring up its
Info window. Click on the folder icon to select it, then press
Command/V to paste the Trash Can icon onto your folder. There
you have it — a trash can on your desktop.
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Network Utility
Network Utility is located in the Utilities folder of the Applications
folder. Use this utility when you believe you may be having network
problems. Check out the Info tab. It tells you how you are connected: “en0” for your regular Ethernet plug and “en1” for
your Airport card if you have one. Use this tab to check your
network speed and if you have data packets coming in and going
out
of your Mac.
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Optimizing
a Drive
If you’ve been adding, moving, deleting, and changing all
kinds of things on your hard drive, your drive may be fragmented.
This means that a file may not be in one physical location but pieces
of that file are scattered all over your drive. Time to clean it
up! You can use Norton Utilities, Tech Tool Pro, Alsoft’s
Plus Optimizer, or various other applications to optimize a drive.
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Password
Protect That Mac
The OS X screensaver can have password protection, which is great
when users need to leave their Macs for an hour or so and don’t
wish to quit all running applications and log out. Open your System
Preferences and choose Screensaver. Click on the Activation tab.
Click the “Use my user account” button and then choose
the Hot Corners tab. Click in any of the corners to place a checkmark
for instant screensaver action. Click twice to get a minus sign
so moving to that corner never activates the screen savers.
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Pop
Up Windows
Drag any open window to the bottom of your screen and it creates
a pop up window. Take your recent documents folder and place it
at the bottom. Now you can quickly access all your recent documents
at the click of a mouse. To make things even better, change the
view in the folder to buttons. Now one click will launch your documents
AND close the window.
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Previous
System Folders?
Some of you needed to reinstall your systems because of a bad crash,
lost files, or a virus. If you did something called a “clean
install,” then you may have two System Folders on your hard
drive. Take a look at your hard drive, and if you have a folder
called System Folder and a folder called Previous System Folder,
then you’re seeing double! If this is the case, you need
to remove the Previous System Folder in order to stabilize your
hard drive. Check inside it first for third party extensions
and old
preferences you may want to save. Once you have everything out
of it you need, get rid of it. If you are not sure what to save,
then
at least trash the old Finder and System suitcase. Doing so will
give your new System Folder a little more confidence.
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Printer
care
If you occasionally have continuous misfeeds with a laser printer
- especially with smaller stuff, like envelopes, or heavier papers
- open the cover and remove the ink cartridges; use a Q-tip (lintless
is preferable, but not necessary) that has been dampened with rubbing
alcohol, and gently clean all the rubber
rollers that you can see.
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Removing
custom icons
Some of us use those cute little custom icons we find on the Web.
We locate them and then paste them over our older icons in the Get
Info (OS 9 and earlier) and Show Info (OS X) windows. If you wish
to rid yourself of custom icons, click once on the icon, press Command/I
on your keyboard, click again on the icon in the upper-left corner,
and then press Command/X for cut. Then close the window. This will
return the icon to its default icon.
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The
Return of Jaguar Spring-Loaded Folders
One of the favorite finder enhancements to return to OS X.2 (Jaguar)
has been Spring-Loaded folders — the ability of holding the
cursor over a folder, then after a two-second delay, having that
folder open and close automatically. But if you hate waiting
for the folders to spring open, click on the Space bar to open the
folder immediately
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Save
Files to Other Desktops
Have you noticed that when you save a file to the Desktop, it “belongs”
to the startup drive? If you want to Save a file to the Desktop
of a different volume (drive), do the following while in the Save
dialog box: press Command/D to select the Desktop as the destination,
then in the list of Desktop items that appears click once on the
drive you want. You’ll notice that in the upper right of
the dialog box, the destination volume will change to your selected
volume.
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SShush
SSH stands for Secure Shell and is used in OS X to allow a remote
user to login to your Mac. This is not done via Connect to Server
but done via the command line. Most people won’t need this
turned on and it can be a potential security risk if turned on
over a network such as a cable modem or DSL due to the number of potential
attacks. If you wish to turn it on, open the Sharing Preference
Pane and click on the Application tab and place a check mark in
Remote Login. Users can now access your Mac via the Terminal.
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Storing passwords
If you use OS 8.5 or later, you can store your passwords in Keychain.
Open it from the Control Strip or go to the Control Panels. You
only need to remember one password to open Keychain and all of your
other passwords can be stored within it, safe from prying eyes.
Make a backup of the Keychain folder in the preferences folder located
in your System Folder.
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Trash
Talk
Command/Delete will send items to trash.
Command/Option/Delete will empty the trash.
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UNIX
File System Check
One test you can run yourself if your OS X Mac is acting funny
is the UNIX file system check. Start your Mac and hold down the
Command
and S keys. This will boot you into single user mode. When the
command prompt comes up, type “fsck -y” and hit return.
This will check your hard drive aka Disk First Aid style. It is
best to run Disk First Aid from your OS X CD but if you can’t,
this will do.
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Where
is System Profiler?
Go to Apple Menu and select “About this Mac” and click
the “More Info” button at the bottom of the dialog
box.
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Window Shading
In pre OS X systems, every window had a small button in the upper
right corner called the window shade button. Clicking on this button
scrunched the window up to its title bar. Try opening and rearranging
windows while their window shade feature is up. You’ll find
when you open these windows again and again, you’ll take
advantage of the window shade option and really put it to use for
you.
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Zoom
In with Universal Preference
Universal Preference in Jaguar System Preferences lets you turn
on Zoom to enlarge items for the physically challenged. You can
also reverse black and white in that Preference panel. Apple wants
everyone to have as positive an experience with Mac OS X
Jaguar as possible, especially Macintosh customers who have impaired
vision, have difficulty hearing, or who experience difficulty using
a mouse or keyboard. That’s why they have incorporated such
aids as Mouse Keys (allowing customers to use the numeric
keypad instead of the mouse), Sticky Keys, and Slow Keys, being
able to flash the screen as an alternative to playing an alert sound,
setting the display to grayscale, switching to white text on black
(for greater contrast), text to speech (which will speak alerts
for you), and the new Zoom feature, which is quite impressive. To
experiment with these features, open System Preferences and click
the Universal Access icon.
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