Screen snapshots are pictures of a portion of the screen. Being able to take a screen snapshot can be very useful. I typically use this feature several times each day. Here are some reasons why I commonly take a screen snapshot:

• To capture the exact text of an error message that appears on my screen.
• To be able to print something that is not easily printed.
• To capture a part of the screen so I can send it as an email attachment, often in a set of step-by-step instructions. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I’m going to highlight the two most common ways that I take a screen snapshot. For a complete list of ways read this page. Simultaneously, hold down the Command key (aka Apple key), Shift key and the 4 key. The cursor will change from the arrow to an icon of a crosshair. Position the crosshair in the upper left corner of what you want to capture. Then click and drag to the lower right corner. Release when the entire desired area of the screen is selected. When you release the snapshot will be taken and automatically saved to the Desktop. In Mac OS X version 10.6 the file will be named “Snapshot” followed by a date and time stamp. In older versions of Mac OS X the file will be named Picture 1. Subsequent snapshots will be named Picture 2, Picture 3 and so forth.

You can rename the snapshots. You can double-click it to open it and print it. You can move yours snapshots into folders to keep them organized.

Sometimes, I don’t want to save a copy of the snapshot as a file on my Mac. Instead, I just want to capture something on my screen and immediately paste it into an email or some other document. In this case, I simultaneously hold down the Control key as well as Command, Shift and 4. I then position the crosshair the same way to capture the snapshot. However, in this situation the snapshot is saved to the Mac’s invisible “clipboard”. Now, I can go to an email message or a Word file and use the Paste command to paste the snapshot.

Apple’s search tool, named Spotlight, does not search every folder on your Mac’s hard drive. Apple configures it to skip some folders that it thinks you won’t want to search. For example, Spotlight doesn’t search inside the various Library folders on your Mac. So, if you’re looking for a font, such as Helvetica, Spotlight won’t find it for you.

I supplement Spotlight with a handy application named Find Any File which truly does search inside of all folders on your Mac. It’s not a fast as Spotlight, but that’s a worthwhile trade-off in my mind. Find Any File’s interface is based on Apple’s Find File which was part of older versions of the Mac operating system from the mid-90s. So FindAnyFile’s interface might look familar to long-time Mac users. It’s interface is easy to use, regardless.

It’s important to know that due to Mac OS X’s permission structure when you first open Find Any File it’s only able to search files that you own. If you want to search all files on the hard drive then hold down the Option key while clicking on its Find button. You’ll be asked for an administrator password and then Find Any File will restart with root permissions. This means that it’ll then be able to really find any file on your Mac’s hard drive.

Do you access your email account from multiple computers? Have you added a smartphone into the mix as well? If so, you should be aware of IMAP. IMAP-enabled email accounts offers better email handling than old-fashioned POP email accounts.

Both POP and IMAP are communication methods used between email programs, like Apple’s Mail or Microsoft’s Entourage, and an email server. POP has been around for many many years. It works just fine but it’s model is out-dated. IMAP was developed around the realization that people increasingly want to check their mail from multiple computers (or cell phones or whatever). Thus, some or all of your email is stored on the server, not on just one computer. Then you can setup say, a home computer, a work computer and a smart phone to all access (view) that email (using IMAP). What you’ll see in your Inbox on each of those computers is the same. You’ll see the same list of messages on each computer plus you’ll see which messages are “new” or have the “replied to” mark next to them. If you delete a message from one computer, it’ll be deleted from the server then subsequently from each of the other computers when those computers next talk to the mail server.  In other words your Inbox stays synchronized across mulitple computers. This same type of synchronization can be setup for other mail folders like Drafts, Sent, Trash as well as saved messages. IMAP is very useful. Personally, I think everybody should be using IMAP, even if you’re only using one computer currently. If you’re interested in using IMAP you could contact your email provider. Not all email providers offer IMAP service. Or, if they do offer it they sometimes charge more since IMAP requires increased storage space on the server and increases the server’s workload.

There is a common myth that if one uses IMAP that email messages ONLY reside on the mail server. This is not true. Each computer will store it’s own local copy of email messages on its hard drive. This way, you can read or review email messages even if you don’t have Internet access such as while on a train or plane.

This recent article in TidBITS gives some more detail about IMAP and its features. You don’t have to read the entire article which covers other topics as well; just a few paragraphs about how IMAP works.

MsgFiler(read “Message Filer”) is critical to me. Recently, I held off on upgrading my Mac to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) until MsgFiler had been updated to be compatible with the new version of Mail in Snow Leopard. I should note that Mail uses the term Mailbox instead of mail folder but in this context they are synonymous.

MsgFiler is a plug-in for Apple’s Mail application. It lets me quickly file email messages into mail folders which I have already created using only keystrokes.  This way I don’t have to waste time moving my hand onto the mouse and then use it to open a folder or sub-folder.Here’s how it works. I select one or more messages in my Inbox. I then press Command-9 which brings up the MsgFiler window. I then type the first few characters of a folder name. MsgFiler displays a list of folders whose names match the characters I’ve typed. I can either type a couple more characters until the list of matches is only one folder or I can use the arrow key to select the folder from the matches. Pressing the Return key then moves the email message into the selected folder. MsgFiler gives me the option of copying the message if I prefer that to moving it.

MsgFiler can also be used to quickly open a mail folder using only keystrokes. This is a fast way to open a folder that is buried inside several levels of folders.

You can watch a short video on the developer’s web site to see how MsgFiler works. You can download and give it a try before you pay ($8) for it.

It seems pretty likely that Apple will be releasing a tablet computer in 2010 since there has been a wide range of articles in the past few months that speculate about such a device. Tablet computers can be thought of as small, lightweight laptops without a traditional keyboard. Instead the user typically interacts with the computer via a touchscreen or a stylus. Tablet computers have been around, in the world of Windows-based computers, for the past half dozen years but they have never experienced wide-appeal.

Apple has scheduled a media event for January 26th. It is widely suspected that Apple will announce their new tablet computer though it won’t likely start to ship until a few months from then. Here’s a link to a story that summarizes the breadth of speculation written in the past months about Apple’s tablet computer. I’m more interested in knowing what Apple’s tablet will be able to do and how Apple intends to innovate tablet computers to make them mainstream devices. This article has some interesting thoughts about this. Check it out.