Do you want to remotely access your Mac so you can open applications and edit files on it? This is an increasingly common request. Here’s a quick overview of a few ways to remotely access your Mac.

Back To My Mac

Apple’s iCloud service includes a feature named Back To My Mac. While Back to My Mac doesn’t work in all circumstances, it’s a powerful and free option that lets you remotely access your Mac. MacLife has written a succinct overview of Back To My Mac. Apple has written articles about troubleshooting Back To My Mac and related security considerations. I should note that Back To My Mac requires that you use a Mac to remotely access another Mac. In other words, you can’t use an iPad, iPhone or PC to remotely access your Mac with this feature.

LogMeIn

LogMeIn is one of many products which offers remote access services for both Macs and PCs. LogMeIn offers a free version as well as a paid version called LogMeIn Pro that offers more features. This MacFormat article gives a good overview of LogMeIn Free and LogMeIn Pro. LogMeIn supports remote access of Macs from a PC and vice versa. Additionally, there is a LogMeIn iOS application which works on both iPads and iPhones, though I can’t imagine using it on the iPhone’s tiny screen. The iOS application lets one remotely access either Macs or PCs.

I use LogMeIn to provide remote support to many of my clients. One can download and install the free LogMeIn client software from my web site to give me remote access to their computer.

Apple Remote Desktop and  VPN

Small business clients often prefer to setup their own VPN (Virtual Private Network) and use Apple Remote Desktop or Apple’s free Screen Sharing application to remotely view and manipulate Macs on their office network. Setting up a VPN requires purchasing a router which supports VPN capabilities. Screen Sharing is a free tool built into the Mac operating system starting with OS X 10.5. Apple Remote Desktop costs $80 and provides advanced features to install upgrades and created detailed reports.

Messages’ Screen Sharing

The first three methods listed above require the remote Mac to be awake, but nobody needs physically to be at the remote Mac. If, however, you have a friend or family member at your remote Mac then you could use Messages’ Screen Sharing application. Messages used to be named iChat, which offered this feature for a number of years. Messages was introduced in OS X Lion and works in OS X Mountain Lion. If both of your Macs are using Lion or Mountain Lion then this Apple article gives you an introduction on how to initiate screen sharing.

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When was the last time you looked at your Downloads folder? More importantly, when was the last time you cleaned it out? Unless you have reconfigured settings in both Mail and Safari, as well as some other applications, any file that you download gets put into the Downloads folder. I recommend that all users regularly review the contents of their Downloads folder. Move files that you want to keep into another folder and delete files you no longer need.

As a Mac consultant, I regularly find Download folders with hundreds and sometimes thousands of files in them. When an email attachment arrives in Mail it is connected to a specific email message. Each time you double-click that file to open it, a new copy is added to your Downloads folder. Thus, I often see 3, 4, 5 or more copies of the same file in a person’s Downloads folder. Many people also get confused when trying to install applications such as Adobe Flash. They manage to download the installer, but they don’t know that they need to go to the Downloads folder, open the installer and follow its prompts to actually install the application. Then, a few days later they are again notified that Flash still needs to be updated and they dutifully download yet another copy of the installer. Consequently, it’s easy to understand how and why the Downloads folder accumulates large numbers of files. (Note: Once an application or application update has been installed then the installer located in the Downloads folder can be deleted.)

I try to keep my Downloads folder or close to empty. I just checked and there are 29 items in it currently, most of those from the past few weeks. So the next time you are procrastinating on an important work project, go clean out your Downloads folder. At least you can feel good about doing that task!

How to find your Downloads folder

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Would you like to quickly reduce the size of a PDF file so it’s small enough to send as an email attachment? Here are some easy step-by-step instructions to do this on your Mac.

• Open the PDF file using Apple’s Preview application. (If Preview isn’t the default application, then you’ll first have to go to your Applications folder and open Preview, then drag your PDF file onto Preview’s icon on your Dock.)
• Go to the File menu and select Export, if your Mac is using OS X 10.7 or 10.8. (If your Mac is using OS X 10.6 or earlier then go to the File menu and select Save As)
• From the pop-up list next to Quartz Filter, select Reduce File Size. Use the image below as a guide.
• Click the Save button.

The file size reduction is primarily achieved by reducing the quality of images in the PDF file. Please review the resulting file to make sure the image quality is satisfactory.

It turns out that one can make their own custom “Reduce File Size” filters to control the amount of image quality reduction. This helpful tutorial explains how and also indicates subtle changes that apply to older and newer versions of Mac OS X.

If your PDF file is still not small enough to send as an email attachment or if you have a handful of PDFs, which collectively are too large to send as attachments, then you should consider using DropBox. I have a tech tip about using DropBox this way.

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Would you like to create a questionnaire, sign-up form, quiz or other type of form that people can fill out on their computer? If so, here are some general instructions on how to create a form using Microsoft Word 2011 on your Mac. Once you’ve created the form you can distribute it as an email attachment or via a web site. The recipient could then complete the form on his or her computer and return it to you. Microsoft has instructions about how to create interactive forms in Word 2008, Word 2004 and Word X. Here are some pointers to how to create a form using Word 2011.

By default Word 2011′s Form Control features are hidden. To make them visible you have to enable the Developer tab on the Ribbon. Here’s how to do this:

• Open a new document in Word 2011.
• Click on the Word menu and select Preferences.
• Click the Ribbon button on the bottom row on the right-hand side.
• In the Customize section, scroll through the list and insert a check mark next to Developer.
• Click the OK button.
• Click on the Developer tab on the Ribbon and you’ll see the Form Controls as depicted below.

You can now use these controls in a document. Let’s look at how to use the Text Box, Combo Box and Check Box.

The Text Box lets the form-filler type in their own answer. Click the Text Box option to insert a Text Box into your Word document. Double-click on this Text Box to control its options. For example, you could set a Maximum Length for the recipient’s answer.

The Check Box lets you create a box that can be checked by the form-filler.

The Combo Box lets you enter a list of choices that will appear in a drop-down list. The form-filler can select only one choice. After adding a Combo Box to your Word document, double-click it to be able to enter the choices that you want to offer.

The Protect Form button is very important. After you’ve finished your document click the Protect Form button. This button locks the document so it can’t be edited. In other words, it turns the document into a fillable form. Once you’ve protected the form you’re ready to distribute it to others.

Below is a picture of a sample document which demonstrates the Text Box, Combo Box and Check Box.

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Would you like  to turn a word in an email message into a web page hyperlink? If you use Apple’s Mail, use these simple instructions.

• Open Mail and compose a new email message.

• Address the message and start to type the message.

• Select one or more words in your message.

• Go to the Edit menu and select Add Link.

• In the box that appears paste the web page address (aka hyperlink) and click OK. Use the picture below as a guide.

Pasting a web page address directly into your email is possible, but long addresses can really break up the flow of an email. If the web page address gets divided onto two lines then it can even break and not work when the recipient clicks on it. For example, imagine that you want to send a friend a link to a book available on Amazon’s web site. You could list the address, but it can be long and ugly. For example:

<http://www.amazon.com/The-Mac-Not-Typewriter-Edition/dp/0201782634/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361854496&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mac+is+not+a+typewriter+by+robin+williams>

Using the technique I list above, you’ll be able to hide that entire address by making it a link, like this.

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Hard drives are the component of a computer that fail most often. Every hard drive will eventually fail. This is why it’s so important to backup your Mac’s hard drive. It’s also prudent to periodically check the health of your Mac’s internal hard drive. I recommend two applications for this purpose: Onyx (free) and SMARTUtility (free trial, then $25).

For about the past decade, most internal hard drives have been equipped with a system that lets them monitor their own health and tries to predict failures. This technology is called S.M.A.R.T., which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. Onyx and SMARTUtility rely on this monitoring system to help you to check on your hard drive’s health. It’s important to note that external hard drives do not include SMART technology.

Using Onyx is easy. Download the appropriate version of Onyx for your Mac. There is a different version for each version of Mac OS X from version 10.2 to the current version, 10.8. After downloading Onyx, open it and enter an administrative user name and password. This is typically your user name and password.

Onyx will then automatically present a window indicating that it will check your Mac’s internal hard drive if you click Continue. See the picture below.

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Would you like to quickly delete files from your Mac using a few keystrokes on your keyboard? Here’s how to do it.

1. Click on the icon of the file or folder to select it.

2. Simultaneously press the Command key and the Delete key.

That’s it. The file is moved to the Trash Can.

I use this keyboard shortcut daily to throw away files on my Mac. Clients that see me using this keyboard shortcut ask me what I just did, and I’m happy to share. Give it a try. I’m sure you’ll find it increases your productivity by saving you a bit of time.

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Do you have children? Would you like to configure your home network to easily block adult content? Here’s an easy and affordable way to setup adult content filtering for all Macs, PCs, iPhones and iPads on your network. Sign-up for OpenDNS’ free FamilyShield service.

In recent years, when I’ve been asked to setup adult content filtering, I’ve recommended applications like Intego’s ContentBarrier which now appears to be part of Intego’s Family Protector product. This application gets installed on each computer on which protection is needed. This solution is no longer affective if you have iPhones, iPads or iPod Touches on your home network since ContentBarrier or comparable applications do not exist for the iPhones and other iOS devices. This is where FamilyShield comes in handy.

FamilyShield works by modifying the configuration of your wireless router. All network traffic in and out of your home network travels through your wireless router. Thus, by reconfiguring your wireless router, you affect all devices on your network, including computers, mobile devices and gaming consoles like XBoxes.

I should mention the protection offered by FamilyShield can be pretty easily defeated by somebody who understands how networks work. So it’s not a perfect solution if you have a savvy teenager who wants to get around it. However, FamilyShield could be an appropriate solution for younger children. OpenDNS also offers a paid service named OpenDNS Home VIP which might be more difficult to defeat, but because OpenDNS’ site doesn’t do a good job of highlighting the additional features included with this paid service, the degree of increased protection is unclear. It’s also possible that over time FamilyShield might become more robust.

I’m also watching a couple of other products that provide content filtering for your entire network. They included two wireless routers, the iBoss Home Parental Control Router/Firewall and Pandora’s Hope. iBoss has a range of other network products for home and business users so they appear to be a well-established company, but reviews of the iBoss are mixed, like this one and this other one. I couldn’t learn much about the Pandora’s Hope router or the company that makes it. This PR article indicates that the company started selling products in 2009 and that the current model was released in 2011. I couldn’t find any reviews by computer industry reviewers. The iBoss and Pandora’s Hope cost $40 and $160 respectively and then have recurring annual costs of $60 and $20 respectively. I’m not convinced that this money is well spent in comparison to the free FamilyShield service.

None of the solutions that I could find are perfect, but, for the time being, if you want to prevent children using computers, mobile devices and gaming consoles in your home from accidentally or intentionally finding adult content, I would check out OpenDNS’ free FamilyShield service. If I find a more robust solution, I’ll update this article.

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It’s helpful to know how to truly quit an app on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Some times apps stop working properly. When this occurs you can force the app to quit or close. In iOS version 4 and higher, here’s how to force an app to quit:

• Rapidly press the Home button twice in a row. The Home button is the round button on the lower part of the face of the iPhone.
• The multitasking bar appears at the bottom of the screen and shows you the most recently used apps. Tap and hold one of these app icons. (Note when the multtasking bar appears you can swipe from right to left to see more apps.)
• When the app icons start to jiggle tap the red and white icon that appears in the upper left corner of the app icon to force that app to close.
• Press the Home button again. Tap on the misbehaving app’s icon to open it and see if it now works properly.
• If your app continues to misbehave then I recommend restarting your device.

Apple has an article which describes this same process and will be updated more often than this web page if the process changes over time.

On a related note, a widely-held misconception is that the applications listed in the multitasking bar are using some of your device’s memory and processor, thus slowing it down. This isn’t exactly correct. Read this excellent article to learn more about iOS multitasking features and how non-active apps are handled.

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Do you know how to turn off your iPhone or iPad? People often think they are turning off the iPhone when, in fact, they are only putting it to sleep. The same button is used for both functions. The On/Off/Sleep button is circled in red in the image below.

It’s important to know how to turn off your iPhone since it’s a fundamental troubleshooting technique. If your iPhone is acting oddly, one of the first suggestions I have is to turn it off then back on and see if now behaves correctly. Here’s how to use the On/Off/Sleep button:

1. Press and release the button to turn off the iPhone’s screen and put the iPhone to sleep. (To wake up the iPhone press the Home button which is the round button on the lower part of the face of the iPhone.)

2. To fully turn off the iPhone, press and hold the button until the screen displays the “Slide to Power Off” message, then slide your finder across the area displaying those words. If you’ve swiped properly then the message will disappear and you’ll see a small white spinning icon in the middle of the screen. Wait about 20 seconds for the screen to go fully black and the iPhone or iPad to turn off.

To turn on the device again, press and hold the button for a second or two and then release. If you’ve turned on the device, a white Apple logo will appear in the middle of the screen.

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Have you noticed how dirty the screen of your iPhone or iPad gets? Finger smudges and other stuff accumulates quickly. Even though we don’t touch our Macintosh laptop screens as much as an iPhone, the screen still gets dirty. I recommend using a microfiber cleaning cloth for quick cleanings. Additionally, use a cleaning spray like OmniCleanz or iKlear for more thorough cleanings.

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch screens have an oleophobic (oil-resistant) coating on them. This is supposed to make it easy to wipe off smudges. Thus a quick rub with a microfiber cloth can make the screen look pretty good. I clean my iPhone and iPad screens this way a couple of times each week. For a more thorough cleaning I use cleaning spray on a microfiber cloth. Apple Stores currently sell a Bausch + Lomb Cleaning Kit. iKlear is one of the most widely sold cleaning sprays. I tend to use OmniCleanz.

Product descriptions for these cleaners tend to tell you more about what the product doesn’t contain rather than what it does. None of the products list their ingredients, so I can’t compare them. Product descriptions tend to indicate that they are alcohol-free, ammonia-free and detergent-free. Based on this dearth of information, I tend to buy OmniCleanz because it’s the least expensive and works well for me. If you’d like to clean the screen on your Mac laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, try one of these products. Also, please follow the cleaning guidelines Apple provides. Their most important guidelines are to turn off your device and unplug all peripherals. Then avoid getting any moisture into any openings and don’t use detergents, alcohol or harsh cleaners.

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Do you store thousands and thousands of email messages? Do you infrequently access many of these messages? If so, you could archive these email messages using EagleFiler. Once the messages have been archived you can delete them from Mail. Depending upon how many total messages you store in Mail, this might improve Mail’s performance.

Because email is so central to my business, I like to hold onto just about every message I send or receive. This means I have mail messages that I sent between the late 1990s and the present. Rather than storing years of these email messages in Mail, I archive them and store them in EagleFiler. In EagleFiler I can view the individual email messages including all of the header (to, from, date and subject) information and the message itself. I can also search for words contained in the messages. EagleFiler stores both the email message and the attachment. You can open the attachments by simply double-clicking them in EagleFiler. This triggers Mail to display the email message and the attachment.

You can download a trial version of EagleFiler if you’d like to test it. If you continue to use the program after the trial period has expired you’ll need to buy it for $40. Archiving messages into EagleFiler couldn’t be easier. Select one or more email messages in Mail and then press EagleFiler’s Capture Key, which is F1 by default. That’s it. Just sit back and wait for the messages to be copied into EagleFiler which happens pretty quickly. Once you’ve confirmed that the messages are in EagleFiler then you can delete them from Mail.

EagleFiler can actually do a lot more than store your email messages. You could think of it as a digital filing cabinet. EagleFiler can import too many file types to list here, but it includes web pages, PDF files, Word files and jpeg images. You can read the entire list. EagleFiler has a very user-friendly interface and many more features listed here. There are other mail archiving products on the market. Adam Engst of Tidbits wrote brief descriptions of  some of the better known mail archiving products, Mail Steward, Mail Archiver and DevonThink Pro Office. Since I already was using EagleFiler to store, tag and organize other documents, it made sense for me to start to use it to archive my infrequently used mail messages also. I hope you check out EagleFiler.

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Do you use your Macintosh computer for hours at a time without taking a break? Do you end up with sore muscles or headaches? If so, you might want to consider taking rest breaks more often. Time Out is a free application that can automatically remind you to take breaks, even dim your screen to force you to take a break.

Time Out is easy to configure and every situation seems to have been taken into consideration. Time Out’s default settings will prompt you to take 15 second Micro Breaks every 15 minutes and a 10 minute Normal Break every hour. You can adjust the duration and frequency of both types of breaks or time outs. You also have the choice to postpone or skip a break. When a break occurs, your screen will begin to fade and become darker. If you take a break on your own, by not using your computer, then Time Out‘s built-in timer will reset itself. You can also configure Time Out to never initiate time outs when you’re using a specified application. For example, by default, Time Out will not perform time outs if you’re using DVD Player or Face Time. This makes sense since you wouldn’t want to interrupt your movie or a video conference. Lastly, you can manually start a Micro Break or a Normal Break using keyboard shortcuts.

If you decide to check out Time Out be aware that there are two versions. The older version requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The current version requires Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. Dejal Systems, the developer, indicates that they are working on a new version, Time Out 2, which will add more features and will require OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion). There will be both free and paid versions. Currently Time Out is distributed as freeware, and donations are welcomed and appreciated.

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Do you find the iPhone’s keyboard too small for typing? Do you want to record a conversation, interview or reminders for yourself? If so, use the iPhone’s Voice Memo app. It’s a great way to make recordings that can be transferred to your Mac or sent as email attachments.

The Voice Memo app is available to almost all iPhone owners. Apple added the Voice Memo app to the second version of the iPhone which they introduced in 2008, the iPhone 3G. The Voice Memo app is not as capable as Siri, the intelligent personal assistant who can find you information and lets you control your iPhone with voice commands, but Siri requires an iPhone 4S or newer.

Here are a few ways I use the Voice Memo app. Hopefully, you’ll be able to adapt these uses to your own situation and needs.

1. When I leave a client appointment, I’ll record the date, duration and description of the work I did for them while the information is fresh in my mind. I can later transcribe this recording to enter the information into my billing system or send the memo as an email attachment to another person who can do the transcription instead.

2. When I meet with a client, I might record all or part of our conversation as we discuss a project and put together a game plan. This is especially useful if we’re walking around an office when writing notes is not easily done.

3. I’ll record short reminders about what I need to do, then email the recording to myself. This can be much faster than trying to type out this information. Of course, a recording could be emailed to anybody. I could record an email reply to a client and then send it to them.

Here are some quick instructions on how to use Voice Memos:

• Click on the Voice Memo icon to open it.

• Click the red dot in the lower left corner to start a recording. While recording, the iPhone displays the word “Recording,” followed by a timer, at the top of the screen.

• You can press the same button in the lower left corner to pause the recording. The status message then reads “Recording Paused” followed by the timer, as depicted in the photo to the right.

• To stop the recording press the round button in the lower right corner of the screen. The iPhone will then immediately take you to a screen which lists all of your recordings. Your newest recording will appear at the top of the list and the iPhone will start to play it back to you.

• To share the recording with others, press the Share button in the lower-left corner. Then choose Email or Message to send it as an attachment to either an email message or SMS text message.

When you sync your iPhone to your Mac, your voice recordings will be transferred to your Mac. They’ll appear in an iTunes Playlist named Voice Memos.

I hope this article has helped you to think of some ways you could benefit from using the Voice Memo app. Next week’s article will be the next installment in our series about setting email and web hosting for small businesses.

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Update Jan 2013: Apple released the iPad mini last fall. Of course, this smaller iPad requires smaller keyboards. GadgetReview has a comparison of 11 of these diminutive keyboards.

Would you prefer to type on your iPad using a real keyboard instead of the on-screen, virtual keyboard? This week’s tech tip gives you an overview of some iPad cases that include keyboards.

The iPad is a great device for reading information such as email messages, web pages and ebooks; listening to music or podcasts; and watching movies. However, it’s not the best device if you’re trying to type an email, take notes during a meeting or work on your novel. While some people may think it’s anathema to add weight and bulkiness to the lithe iPad, I think there’s a time and place for connecting a wireless, bluetooth keyboard to an iPad. Thus, I’ve been keeping an eye on iPad cases that let you easily connect an iPad to a keyboard when you want it, but also easily detach the iPad when you don’t need the keyboard or the added bulk. Here are a list of iPad cases with keyboards that caught my eye. This is by no means a complete list of all iPad cases with keyboards.

• Logitech makes a couple of appealing keyboard cases including the solar keyboard folio and the ultrathin keyboard cover. The solar keyboard folio has a solar-charged keyboard, feels solid and let’s you pick from a couple of viewing angles. The ultrathin keyboard cover is diminutive and is not a protective case, but it’s stylish.

• Zagg makes an appealing iPad holder with keyboard. It doesn’t protect the back of the iPad, but its aluminum design feels sturdy. It holds the iPad but lets one easily detach it.

• Another choice is Adonit’s Writer Plus. It looks sturdy, stylish, well designed and is available in a few colors. It can be adjusted to any viewing angle.

• Another case on the market is the Clamcase. It appears to have a versatile design, including a hinge that can be adjusted to any viewing angle, easy release of the iPad and other cool features.

Be aware that some keyboard cases will work with any version of the iPad while others only work with one or two of the three iPad models that Apple has released to date.

You may also like to read an April 2012 CNet review of stand-alone keyboards and assorted iPad cases.

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Do you dislike the keyboard that came with your Mac? For the past few years, Apple’s primary keyboard has been the Apple Wireless Keyboard. It’s a good keyboard, but it’s not perfect for everybody. Some people lament the lack of a keypad. Others dislike having to replace the batteries that power the keyboard. Some folks don’t like the very flat nature of the keyboard and limited up-down movement of the keys. Last week’s tip listed ways to add a keypad. This week I describe some alternative keyboards.

Solar-powered – Logitech makes the Wireless Solar K750 keyboard. Indoor or outdoor lighting will keep this keyboard charged, so you won’t have to replace batteries. This keyboard is very thin, just like Apple’s current models. A couple of my clients bought it and like it.

Wired, backlit keyboard – Logitech makes the Illuminated Keyboard. It’s also a very thin keyboard but is not wireless. Its distinctive feature is backlit keys. A sensor measures the ambient light and illuminates the keys in low light situations. If you like to type in the dark or have a keyboard shoved in a dark closet, this is for you. I use this one in my office. It’s great for early morning work when I only turn on the desk lamp that is pointed at my monitor.

Wired keyboard with big keys – Matias’ Tactile Pro 3 Keyboard appeals to people who prefer a wired keyboard with more key motion than Apple’s current flat keyboards. The Tactile Pro is based on Apple’s design of their Apple Extended Keyboard. The Extended keyboard was beloved by many Mac users during its reign in the late 80s and early 90s. The Tactile Pro keyboard is a solidly built keyboard with large keys, large key motion, space between the keys and curved tops of some keys to help keep your fingers on the home row. Another keyboard which has some similarities in its design is the Das Keyboard Professional.

Wired ergonomic keyboards – If you’re looking for a more ergonomic keyboard then check out Kinesis’ 3 ergonomic keyboards, the Contoured, Maxim and Freestyle 2. I have one client who uses the Maxim and likes it. The change in arm and wrist angle or motion reduced the pain he used to feel in his arm.

Wireless mini keyboard with touchpad – SMK Link’s Wireless Ultra-Mini Touchpad Keyboard is a very compact keyboard that could be used to remotely control a Mac from across the room. It has an integrated trackpad (aka touchpad) which can be used to move the cursor on your Mac. If you give PowerPoint or Keynote presentations you might find it useful to manipulate your Mac from afar. Maybe you’re at the front of the room and your Mac is not within arm’s reach. Similarly, if you have a Mac mini setup in a your living room as a media center, this keyboard would let you control your Mac from a comfortable seat across the room.

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Do you wish your Mac had a 10-key numeric keypad? Yes, some people actually use them! For the past couple of years, Apple’s primary keyboard has been the Apple Wireless Keyboard. It’s a very nice keyboard, but it’s not perfect for everybody. Some people lament the lack of a numeric keypad. Others dislike having to replace the batteries that power the keyboard. Some folks don’t like the very flat nature of the keyboard and limited up-down movement of the keys. In a series of tech tips, I’ll offer products that address these criticisms.

If you’d like to add a keypad consider these options:

Cropmark’s LMP Bluetooth keypad is a keypad that is designed to connect to Apple’s wireless keyboard to give you one integrated keyboard.

SMK-Link’s VP6273 Bluetooth keypad lets you switch between using it as a standalone calculator or a keypad for your Mac.

Apple sells their own keyboard which includes a keypad. It has an elegant and clever name, Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad.

Adding a keypad can really increase your productivity if you enter numbers regularly. Check out the options above. I think you’ll find one that you like.

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Spring-loaded folders is one of the Mac’s best features since it’s convenient and it can save you time when you’re putting files into folders. Interestingly, this feature is not widely known or used. Clients are always amazed when I show them. Below are some simple written instructions on how to use spring-loaded folders, but a video demonstration is the best way to understand how it works. Woopid, a web site full of free training videos, has a great video demonstrating spring-loaded folders. Be sure to watch this video.

Spring-loaded folders lets you drag a file from one folder through another folder and into a sub-folder. Here are some step-by-step instructions.

1. Click on the icon for a file and drag it on top of a folder, but don’t release the file’s icon. Instead, simply continue to hold this icon as though you were hovering it over the folder.

2. After a second or two the folder will automatically open and display all the files and folders inside. Now, continue dragging your file’s icon on top of one of these sub-folders. Again, hover the file’s icon on top of this sub-folder. This sub-folder will automatically open.

3. Finally, release the file.

You have just dragged a file through one folder and into a sub-folder. If the words aren’t clear or meaningful to you, please watch the video mentioned above.

It’s convenient that the folder or folders one traverses, as you move a file into a sub-folder or sub-sub-folder, automatically close themselves. This is very nice and reduces screen clutter.

If you try to use spring-loaded folders and they don’t work for you, the feature could be turned off on your Mac. Here’s how to check:

• Click on the Finder icon on your Dock.

• Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences.

• Click on General then make sure there is a checkmark in the box labeled Spring-loaded folders and windows. Note that you can also adjust the amount of time or delay, that you need to wait before a folder automatically opens. Refer to the image to the right which depicts these preferences.

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Would you like your iPhone to give you audible driving directions? If so, you should check out MapQuest. It is a free, turn-by-turn GPS navigation app for the iPhone and iPad. MacWorld wrote an extensive review of GPS apps in 2011. After reading the article, I purchased Navigon for $40. (It price has now risen to $60.) I used Navigon for a few months and liked it, but found the interface cumbersome. After a client praised it for its easy-to-use design, I tried MapQuest. It had also been highly rated in MacWorld’s review of GPS apps. While MapQuest doesn’t have all of the features offered by Navigon, I prefer it for its relative ease of use.

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Here are a couple of keyboard shortcuts that let you adjust your Mac’s volume in small increments or silently.

Many of you probably already know that you can adjust the volume of your Mac’s speakers by pressing the volume keys on your Apple keyboard. The volume keys appear in the picture below. On my keyboard the volume keys are the F10, F11 and F12 key, but this is not the same on all Apple keyboards.

The three keys let you mute, decrease and increase your Mac’s volume. When you press either the increase volume or decrease volume key your Mac gives you both audio and visual feedback. The audio feedback is a short quack-like noise that I find difficult to describe in words. The visual feedback is an on-screen icon like the one that appears below – a speaker icon with 16 squares beneath it.

Here are the two keyboard shortcuts:

1. If you hold down the Shift key on your keyboard as you press either the volume increase or volume decrease keys, your Mac’s volume adjusts silently; there isn’t any audio feedback.

2. If you hold down both the Shift and Option keys on your keyboard as you press either the volume increase or volume decrease keys, you’re able to adjust your Mac’s volume in smaller increments. The on-screen icon displays partially filled-in squares as shown in the image below.

It’s not possible to combine these shortcuts, sorry.

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Are there occasions when you’d like to print just part of an email message or web page? Here’s a technique you can use to print selected text from just about any application on your Mac. I’ll use an email message in Apple’s Mail application as an example.

• Open Mail and select a bit of text in an email message.
• Go to the Mail menu and select Services. From the sub-menu select Make New Sticky Note. (If you’re using an application other than Mail you won’t have a Mail menu. Instead, go to the menu named after your application. For example, if you’re using Firefox, select the text and go to the Firefox menu.)
• The application named Stickies will open and you’ll see a new sticky note on your screen that contains the text you selected in your email message.
• Go to the File menu and select Print.
• Click the Print button to print that sticky note.

That’s it! (You can delete the sticky note by clicking the small square in its upper left corner.)

You can use this same technique in Safari, Firefox, Word 2011 and most other Mac OS X applications. This technique will not work in some older Mac applications such as Word 2004 and Quicken 2005.

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Do you have a lot of apps on your iPhone? Do you find it difficult to locate the one you need? By grouping related apps into folders you can find your apps more easily. By setting up folders you can reduce the number of screens that you have to flip through to locate your apps. For example, the iPhone can typically display 36 apps on two screens. I have 90 apps on my iPhone, and they fill less than 2 screens.

You might want to create a folder to store apps that you rarely use. Apple doesn’t allow you to remove the core apps they install on the phone. It’s likely that you don’t use all of these apps, so you could create a folder to store these apps together.

Here are instructions on how to create folders on your iPhone or iPad:

Tap and hold the icon of any one app on your device. After a couple of seconds all of the icons on your iPhone or iPad will start to jiggle side-to-side.

Tap and drag the icon of one app on top of the icon of a second, related app, then release the first app’s icon. (You need to have just the right touch. Otherwise, your iPhone or iPad will think that you’re just re-arranging your apps and it’ll just move the second app to the left or right.)

This first app’s icon will fall onto the second app’s icon and a folder will automatically be created. In the image below you can see that I’ve dragged the KOMO News app onto the SeattleCrime app. My iPhone automatically created a folder and proposed a folder name of News. I can either accept this name or tap on the name to edit it.

That’s it! You’ve created a folder. Press the Home button on the lower section of the iPhone’s face to stop the icon jiggling and indicate that you’re done organizing apps into folders.

You’ll now see the folder icon, which is a square with teeny-tiny icons of the apps that it contains inside the square. The image to the right shows the many folders that I’ve created on my iPhone.

It’s useful to know that a folder can hold a maximum of 12 apps. A folder can not be put inside of another folder.

Chances are good that you’ll want to add many apps to a given folder or create many folders all at once. If this is the case, after you’ve dragged one app icon onto another to create the folder, you can simply tap anywhere outside the folder to return to viewing all of your apps. At this point, you can then drag additional apps into the folder you created. You could also drag another app on top of yet another app to create a second folder. You get the idea.

At some point, you’ll want to remove an app from a folder. Guess how you do it? You tap on the folder’s icon, it opens, then tap and hold on any of the app icons to get them to jiggle. Then, simply drag the app’s icon out of the folder. You’ll see an animation of the app icon jumping out of the folder and back onto the iPhone’s main screen. When you remove the last app from a folder, the folder automatically deletes itself.

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I’m surprised how often I’m asked how to remove an app from an iPhone or iPad. Consequently, I decided to write this short tech tip since there are, no doubt, many other people out there wondering the same thing.

There are numerous ways to remove an app, but here’s one simple method:

Tap and hold on the icon of the app that you want to remove. After a couple of seconds all the icons on your iPhone or iPad will start to jiggle side-to-side.

Tap the X that appears in the upper-left corner of the app. The X is a delete button. It will remove the app from your iPhone or iPad.

For example, let’s imagine that I want to remove the app named Navigon from my iPhone. I would press my finger on the Navigon app (see picture below) icon and hold it there. After a second or so, all icons on my iPhone start to jiggle. I can then tap the X button to remove Navigon.

Note: This technique only works for third-party apps that you’ve added to your iPhone or iPad. Apple doesn’t let you remove the core set of apps that come with the iPhone or iPad. If there are some Apple-provided apps which you don’t use often, the best you can do is to put these apps into a folder. What? You don’t know how to create a folder for your apps? I guess that’ll be next week’s Tech Tip.

Update: A reader asked how to remove an iPhone or iPad app when it’s listed in iTunes on your Mac. Here are two methods. The first method is remove the app from your iPhone or iPad as described above. Then, sync your iPhone or iPad to your Mac by connecting the USB sync cable to connect the two devices. As long as app synching is enabled the app will be removed from your Mac since you deleted it from the iPhone or iPad.

If this first method doesn’t work, here’s another option. Open iTunes, on the left-hand list click on Apps. Select the app you want to delete by clicking on it. Go to the Edit menu and select Delete. Click the “Move to Trash” button to fully remove the app from your Mac.

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Update: December 2012. JCD Repair has opened a Bellevue store which is located near the intersection of I-405 and I-90.

Does your iPhone have a cracked screen, a broken camera or need to have its battery replaced? If so, you might want to consider JCD Repair. JCD Repair offers affordable, quality repairs for iPhones, iPad and iPod Touches as well as some Verizon Droid phones.

If your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch is under warranty, you should obviously take it to an Apple Store. However, if your device is out of warranty or the damage wouldn’t be covered by warranty, then you should consider JCD Repair. In recent months, I’ve had a couple of clients get their iPhone 4s repaired by JCD Repair and they were very pleased with the service and results.

JCD Repair  has 3 stores in Seattle, WA; Chicago, IL and Madison, WI. The Seattle store is in the Wallingford neighborhood. If you don’t live in Seattle or these other two cities, JCD Repair also offers mail-in repair service. Most in-person repairs can be done in about 45 minutes. Schedule an appointment via their web site or by phone. They prefer that you schedule an appointment but apparently walk-in visits are allowed. Their web site lists all of the repair services that they offer as well as the cost including parts and labor. They are open 7 days a week. Their repairs are covered by a 90 day warranty.

Check out JCD Repair and post your comments about your experience.

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Do you send links to web pages in emails? Are you surprised at the length of some web page addresses? If so, you can use TinyURL to create shorter web page addresses. The technical term for a web page address is URL (Uniform Resource Locator). I’ll use this term throughout the remainder of this article. TinyURL is a free service that lets you enter a long URL and get a shorter URL that you can use in its place.

For example, the following URL (web page address) should take you to a Amazon web page for a Netgear ethernet switch.

http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-ProSafe-Ethernet-Switch-GS116NA/dp/B00023DRLO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339453773&sr=8-1&keywords=gs116

TinyURL shortened this URL from 131 characters to 26.

http://tinyurl.com/6qrc5ek

Using TinyURL is easy.

• Go to the TinyURL web site and paste a long URL in the field labeled, “Enter a long URL to make tiny”.
• Then click the button named “Make TinyURL”.
• A moment later you’ll see the shorter URL listed on the screen. Copy this shorter URL and then paste it into an email or any place else that you’d like to use it.

Tip – When you put a URL into an email message, I always recommend putting angle brackets at the beginning and end. For example, here I’ve put angled brackets around a URL for Apple’s web site: <http://www.apple.com>  Using these brackets will eliminate problems at line breaks. To elaborate, if you put a long URL in an email, there is a chance that the URL might be split onto two different lines. Many email applications get confused if this happens and won’t see the part of the URL that appears on the second line. Putting brackets around the URL helps the email application to find the entire URL. Tidbits has an article that gives a bit more detail about this topic if you’re interested.

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Would you like to be able to have your iPhone automatically dial an extension? The iPhone originally wasn’t able to do this, but Apple added the feature a few years ago. Here are some helpful instructions on how to use it. You can enter a person’s extension number whether you’re adding this person directly on your iPhone or adding them in Address Book on your Mac. It’s also possible to have your iPhone store the person’s extension number and then give you a way to  quickly dial it by pushing one button. I typically use this method since it lets me control exactly when the extension is dialed. This can be helpful when dealing with complex voicemail menu systems.

How to enter a person’s extension number when you add a person directly on your iPhone.

When you’re adding a person’s phone number on your iPhone, you’ll be typing their phone number using the keypad. When you’re ready to add an extension click the key labeled *+# (asterisk, plus sign, pound symbol). This key is located below the number 7 as depicted in the photo below.

After pressing this key, you’ll see some new keys available to you. This includes keys labeled Pause and Wait. (See photo below.) If you click the Pause button this will insert a comma into the phone number. This comma translates into a 1 second pause. (Note: It may be necessary to enter a handful of pauses to make sure that your iPhone waits long enough for the phone call to be answered and for the callee’s phone system to be ready to receive the extension.)

Next, press the key labeled 123 to return to the main keypad. From there you can type the person’s extension. Finally, click the Done button.

When you call this person’s number, your iPhone will automatically dial their number, pause for the indicated number of seconds and then automatically enter the extension number.

Pause vs. Wait

While the above method works in many situations, it doesn’t work in all situations. Consequently, I often use the Wait key instead of the Pause key. When you press the Wait key you’ll see that a semi-colon is inserted into the phone number. Then, when you dial the person’s phone number, your iPhone will NOT automatically send the extension number. Instead, the iPhone will wait an indefinite amount of time after dialing the phone number. It then gives you a “Dial…” button that you press for the iPhone to send the extension number listed. This is illustrated in the photo below. This feature is helpful when dealing with complex voicemail menu systems or lengthy voicemail messages.

How to enter a person’s extension number when you add a person in Address Book on your Mac.

If you are adding a person’s phone number using your Mac’s keyboard and the Address Book application. You can easily enter Pauses or a Wait by simply typing commas or semi-colons in the number.

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After owning an iPhone for several years, I was pleasantly surprised when I recently learned a new iPhone shortcut that I now use everyday. You can jump to the top of your Contacts list by simply touching the “top bar” which is where the time and battery level indicator are. See the picture on the right to understand this more easily. Simply touch where I put the red mark in the photo.

I use this feature to jump to the top of my Contacts list so I can easily get to the Search field. I have a lot of contacts ,so I find the fastest way to locate the individual record that I need is to use the Search function. I can now easily get to it by tapping the menu bar.

This feature is available on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. It works on any long list. If you have many email messages in your Inbox, for example, you could tap the menu bar to jump to the most recently received email message.

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Would you like to stream a movie from Netflix to your computer and watch it on your TV? Would you like to show iPhoto pictures on your TV? If so, you’ll want to read about how to connect your Mac to your flat panel TV to send both audio and video to it.

Don’t be intimidated by the length of this article. You’ll only need to read part of it. All you need to do to connect your Mac is this:

1. Determine your Mac’s Model Identifier, which lets you figure out if you should follow Method 1 or Method 2.
2. Buy one or two cables and maybe an adapter as specified in Method 1 or Method 2.
3. Be aware of idiosyncrasies and variations for various Mac models that I list within each Method.

Important Note About Cables and TV Ports - The types of ports on flat-panel TVs vary from model to model. I’m only going to address VGA, DVI and HDMI ports since they are the most common types. VGA and DVI cables only carry video signals while HDMI cables can carry both audio and video. For this reason, I recommend using a TV’s HDMI port whenever possible.

Most Macs made between 2006 and the end of 2008 will need two cables, one for video and a second for audio. Because Apple switched to Mini DisplayPort connectors in 2009, most Macs can now use just one cable to carry both audio and video from the Mac’s MiniDisplay Port to the TV’s HDMI port. One idiosyncrasy to be aware of: when using HDMI or DVI to connect your Mac to your TV, you might have to change your TV’s display settings to turn off overscan.

Determine your Mac’s Model Identifier - If you don’t know how to determine your Mac’s Model Identifier please read this previous Tech Tip. Then, find your Mac listed in either the Method 1 or Method 2 sections below.

Method 1 – Buy a DVI to HDMI cable and a 3.5 mm analog stereo audio cable.

The DVI cable will carry the video output from your Mac and connect to the HDMI port on your TV. The 3.5 mm (aka 1/8″) stereo audio cable will carry the audio from your Mac to the audio in port on your TV.

Use this method if your Mac’s Model Identifier is in this list: Macmini 1,1; Macmini 2,1; MacPro 1,1; MacPro 2,1; MacPro 3,1;  MacBookPro 1,1; MacBookPro 1,2; MacBookPro 2,1; MacBookPro 2,2; MacBookPro 3,1; MacBookPro 4,1; MacBook 1,1; MacBook 2,1; MacBook 3,1; MacBook 4,1; MacBook 5,2; iMac 4,1; iMac 4,2; iMac 5,1; iMac 5,2; iMac 6,1; iMac 7,1; iMac 8,1; MacBook Air 1,1.

Variation 1 – If your TV has a digital audio input port, sometimes called Digital Optical audio or Toslink, you could substitute a digital audio cable for the 3.5 mm analog stereo cable. Recently I’ve encountered some TVs that only have digital audio input ports, so you may have to use this digital audio cable instead.

Idiosyncrasy: All of the Mac minis, MacBooks and MacBook Pros have a combo audio output port that can accept either an analog 3.5 mm audio cable or a digital Toslink audio cable. The MacPros have separate analog and digital analog ports, so make sure you use the correct one.

Variation 2 – If your TV’s HDMI port(s) are already in use then you could use a DVI to DVI cable in place of the DVI to HDMI cable as long as your TV has an unused DVI port.

Variation 3 – If you have one of the MacBook or iMac models listed below then you can use the two cables listed in Method 1 and just add a Mini DVI to DVI adapter in order to connect the DVI cable to your MacBook. Model Identifier: MacBook 1,1; MacBook 2,1; MacBook 3,1; MacBook 4,1; MacBook 5,2; iMac 4,1; iMac 4,2; iMac 5,1; iMac 5,2; iMac 6,1; iMac 7,1; iMac 8,1.

Variation 4 – If you have a MacBook Air, model identifier MacBook Air 1,1, then you can use the two cables listed in Method 1 and just add a Micro DVI to DVI adapter to connect the DVI cable to your MacBook Air.

Method 2 – Buy an HDMI cable and a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter.

The MiniDisplayPort adapter plugs into the Mini DisplayPort port on your Mac, then you connect the HDMI cable to it. The other end of the HDMI cable connects to an unused HDMI port on your TV. Apples current Macs currently have Thunderbolt ports which are identical to Mini DisplayPorts, but with extra features.

Use this method if your Mac’s Model Identifier is in this list: Macmini 3,1; Macmini 4,1; Macmini 5,1; Macmini 5,2; Macmini 5,3; MacPro 4,1; MacPro 5,1; iMac 9,1; iMac 10,1; iMac 11,1; iMac 11,2; iMac 11,3; iMac 12,1; iMac 12,2; MacBook 5,1; MacBook 6,1; MacBook Air 2,1; MacBook Air 3,1; MacBook Air 3,2; MacBook Air 4,1; MacBook Air 4,2; MacBook Pro 5,1; MacBook Pro 5,2; MacBook Pro 5,3; MacBook Pro 5,4; MacBook Pro 5,5; MacBook Pro 6,1; MacBook Pro 6,2; MacBook Pro 7,1; MacBook Pro 8,1; MacBook Pro 8,2; MacBook Pro 8,3.

Idiosyncrasy: Typically this configuration will carry both audio and video from your Mac to your TV. However, the first few Mac models with Mini DisplayPorts port do not carry audio signals. They only carry video signals. I’m not sure why Apple designed these Macs this way since Mini DisplayPort ports can carry both audio and video, as evidenced by subsequent models. Apple doesn’t clearly list which Mac models with Mini DisplayPort ports only carry video so if you find that your Mac is one of them then you’ll need to use either a 3.5 mm analog stereo audio cable or digital audio cable to carry audio from your Mac to your TV.

Note: MacBook Pro models 8,1; 8,2 and 8,3; iMac models 12,1 and 12,2, as well as Mac Minis model 5, 1; 5,2 and 5, 3 all have Thunderbolt ports instead of regular Mini DisplayPort ports. Thunderbolt ports look and act the same as regular Mini DisplayPort ports, but they offer additional features as well.

Variation 1 - Macmini models 4,1; 5,1; 5,2 and 5,3 have HDMI ports (as well as MiniDisplay Port ports) built-in so you don’t need to buy the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. All you need is the HDMI cable.

Variation 2 - If your TV has a digital audio input port, sometimes called Digital Optical audio or Toslink, then you could substitute a digital audio cable for the 3.5 mm analog stereo cable. Recently, I’ve encountered some TVs that only have digital audio input ports and no longer have a headphone port so you may have to use this digital audio cable instead.

Idiosyncrasy: Using a digital audio cable is not an option for MacBook Airs 2,1; 3,1 and 3,2 since their audio output port is analog only.

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Do you receive a lot of packages in the mail and want to have one place where you can easily monitor their status? Then you need Delivery Status by JuneCloud.

I frequently order products on behalf of my clients and I want to be notified of their shipping progress and when they are delivered. Delivery Status lets me do this easily. Initially, I used the free Delivery Status widget. When I received a vendor’s email with a tracking number, I’d add this item to the Delivery Status widget. It can track packages from USPS, DHL, Fedex, OnTrac and many other shippers. Delivery Status would then send me status updates via Growl every time the package made progress towards my door. This was great, but I realized I only got updates when my Mac laptop was awake and connected to the Internet. Sometimes I wanted to be notified in the middle of the day as I was moving between client appointments. Consequently, I decided to buy the iPhone/iPad Delivery Status app ($5). Now I get notifications on my iPhone since this app can sync with the widget if one sets up a free account at the JuneCloud web site.

I’ve been using DeliveryStatus for about a year and have been very pleased with its performance. Check it out.

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Here are some products which can make it easier to sync your iPhone or connect it to other accessories.

iStubz are short iPhone syncing cables - The white sync cable which Apple includes with all iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches is about 3.5 feet long. I find it too long and cumbersome at times. Instead of using this long cable, I now carry an iStubz cable which doesn’t get tangled. iStubz are available in two sizes 7cm and 22 cm which are about 3 inches and 9 inches, respectively.

Apple iPhone Dock –  I like to have my phone standing upright when my phone is sitting on my desk so I can easily see and read the screen. One way to keep the phone upright, while also charging and syncing the phone is to use an iPhone Dock. Apple sells the Universal Dock which works with all iPhones and iPods, but they also only sell the iPhone 3G/3GS dock and an iPhone 4/4S dock.

If you want to learn more about the features and capabilities of these Docks, please read this Universal Dock review and this iPhone 4 Dock review from iLounge.

dockStubz and dockXtender – If you keep your iPhone in a case, you may find that the case makes the phone too thick to fit into a Dock. Alternatively, the iPhone’s 30-pin Dock connector might be too recessed inside the case for some iPhone accessories, like a car charger, to be able to reach it. dockStubz is a short extender which would let you connect the car charger or other accessory. The dockXtender is a short cable which would let you connect your thick iPhone to connect to an Apple Dock or other accessories.

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Do you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro? Have you noticed that its keyboard doesn’t have a “Forward Delete” (aka delete to the right) key like the one that exists on an iMac’s keyboard? This tip tells you how to perform a forward delete. Simply hold down the Function key, which is labeled “fn” while pressing the delete key. The fn key is located in the lower left corner of the keyboard.

In case the phrase “forward delete” is confusing, let me elaborate. We all know that the delete key (aka the backspace key) deletes the character to the left of the insertion point. The forward delete button does the opposite. It deletes the character to the right of the insertion point.

Forward delete is not a new feature for Macintosh laptops. All Macs laptops have supported this feature for many years, but this feature isn’t obvious or well-documented, so many users don’t know about this feature.

If you would like to learn about more keyboard shortcuts you might find this Apple web page helpful.

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There are a few ways to enlarge the text displayed on the iPhone. Each method is useful in different situations. You may already be aware of some of these options, but I’ll bet you don’t know all of them.

• When viewing web pages using Safari or email messages, you can spread your fingers to enlarge the text size. The “Pinch Apart” gesture entails placing two fingers on the iPhone screen and then sliding them apart from each other. To reduce the size of text, you pinch your two fingers back together. For more details on how to execute these gestures check out this helpful web page on gestures.

The next two options require an iPhone 3GS or newer.

• Turn on the Zoom function. You can enable this feature by opening the Settings app, selecting General, then Accessibility.  Finally, tap on Zoom and turn it on. Zoom magnifies the entire screen whenever you double-tap the screen with three fingers. Double-taping with three fingers a second time turns off the zoom function. You can move around the screen by pressing three fingers on the screen and dragging them around.

• Turn on the Large Text function. You can enable this feature by opening the Settings app, selecting General, then Accessibility.  Finally, tap on Large Text and select a text size. This feature makes text larger in the following applications:  Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages and Notes.

I should mention that the iPhone actually includes a great number of features that enhance usability and accessibility for people with limited vision, hearing or other impairments. Apple describes them all on their web site.

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Do you use Apple’s Mail application on your Mac? It’s a capable email application. One of its best features the ability to extended its functionality using plug-ins. These plug-ins let you customize Mail so it can better meet your preferences and needs. Here’s a list of 10 plug-ins for Mail that’ll let you increase your productivity.

MsgFiler lets you quickly file email messages into one of your existing Mailboxes (aka folders). Using either a menu command or a keyboard shortcut you can file a message into a folder. Simply type the first few characters of the mailbox’s name and select the desired mailbox from the list of matches.

GrowlMail temporarily displays a small notification window on your screen every time a new email message arrives. By glancing at this notification you can monitor your Inbox while you’re working in another application. [Update March 2013: This functionality has now been included in Mountain Lion, OS X version 10.8, as a part of the Notifications feature.]

SpamSieve offers better spam protection than Mail’s built-in junk mail filter. It accomplishes this by using Bayesian filtering methods. It requires some initial training, but it’s very effective.

MailAct-On is an incredibly robust plug-in which lets you use keyboard shortcuts to quickly file, label or flag incoming or outgoing mail messages. That is an over-simplified description of its capabilities. This video introduction and video review will give you a more complete understanding of it’s capabilities.

MailTags let’s you assign keywords, priorities, categories and due dates to actions mentioned in an email. It lets you escape the constraints of folders by allowing you to organize and find your messages by keyword or other metadata that you’ve assigned. Made by the same developers, Mail Act-On and MailTags can be used together or separately.

WideMail reconfigures Mail’s layout. It moves the message preview area from below the list of messages to the right of it. This layout uses your screen’s space more efficiently. Apple realized this layout was very popular, so they made it the standard layout in Mail 5.0, which comes with Lion, Mac OS X 10.7.

Attachment Tamer gives you control over Mail’s handling of attachments that you send. Be default, Mail will display an attachment, such as an image, in the body of the email that you’re composing. Attachment Tamer lets you change this behavior and send the image as a regular attachment instead.

MessageFont lets you set Mail’s default font when you reply to or compose a new email message. Mail’s preferences appears to let you set the default font, but this affects only what you see, not what the recipient sees. MessageFont changes which font is seen by the recipient.

MissingAttachments scans an email message and notifies you if you have referred to an attachment, but forgotten to attach a file. Unfortunately this plug in hasn’t been updated to work with recent versions of Mail.

MailUnreadStatusBar displays an icon to the upper right corner of your screen which lists the number of unread email messages you have. You can customize it to track multiple folders. Its icon then displays a menu listing the unread message count for each selected folder and lets you go directly to any of the listed folders.

In my opinion, these are some of the best plug-ins for Mail, but you can read about many more in this Macworld article.

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This week’s Tech Tip is written by our guest blogger, Elizabeth Bowman, President of Innovatively Organized.

Are tasks slipping through the cracks? Feeling overwhelmed by all the responsibilities on your plate?  There are lots of tools to help you manage your to-do list, but how do you know which tools are best?  You’re in luck!  At Innovatively Organized we have put together a list of 4 tools to help you manage your to-do list electronically.  Now, you will be able to access your tasks from home, the office, or on the go from an Internet browser or your mobile device!

Keep in mind, it’s not about having the perfect to-do list, it is about picking a tool that will work for you and using it consistently.

1. TeuxDeux

Compatible with:

• iPhone or iPad

• Internet

• Mac or PC

Highlights:

• Simple design

• Basic list tracker

• Cross out tasks when complete

• Moves un-finished items to the next day automatically

Toodle Do's Interface

2. Toodledo

Compatible with:

• iPhone, iPad, Palm, Blackberry, Droid

• Internet

• Ability to sync with Outlook & TaskAngel

• Has ability to print to-do list neatly

Highlights:

• Comprehensive and robust features

• Offers ability to delegate and email tasks directly

• Can filter and run reports on tasks

• Includes a timer to help you stay on task

3. TaskAngel

Compatible with:

• Native PC software download

• Ability to sync with Toodledo

Highlights:

• Matches Toodledo’s comprehensive task tracking details

• Runs fast on your PC helping you stay productive easily

• Can export your to-do list to Excel

4. 2Do

Compatible with:

• iPhone & iPad

• Ability to sync with Toodledo

Highlights:

• Option to color-code tasks by category

• Provides tabs in the interface on an iPhone and iPad

• Has lots of fields to enter your tasks easily from a mobile device

For more organizing and productivity tips, check out the Innovatively Organized blog!

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Safari version 5 introduced a new feature named Top Sites which automatically displays your most frequently visited web sites. Top Sites displays thumbnail depictions of each web site in a grid of several rows and columns. This tech tip tells you how you can customize Top Sites.

You can permanently add a web site to Top Sites by going to the Bookmarks menu and selecting Add Bookmark. Then select Top Sites from the pop-up menu near the top of the small window that appears. Click the Add button, as depicted below.

By default, Safari 5 displays Top Sites when you open a new window. You can manually display Top Sites by clicking the grid icon located near the upper left-corner of the Safari window. This grid icon is highlighted by the red circle in the picture below.

When the Top Sites grid is being displayed, you can click the Edit button in the lower left corner. Then, in the lower right corner you’ll see that you can switch between Small, Medium and Large. These choices will cause Top Sites to display 24, 12 or 6 thumbnails respectively.

You can also drag the thumbnails around in the grid so they appear in the order that you prefer. Additionally, you can click the Push Pin icon or the X icon located in the upper left corner of a thumbnail to permanently add or remove a web site from your top sites. When the Push Pin icon turns blue, you’ve permanently added the web site.

When viewing Top Sites, look for a star icon to appear in the upper right corner of a thumbnail. The star indicates that the web site has added content since you last visited the site.

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There are a number of easy ways to convert an .mp3 song file to a ringtone for your iPhone. I typically use Garageband since the method is quick and easy. I realize that not everybody owns Garageband, so I’m pleased to share this other free method. Compared to using GarageBand there are more steps, but it’s not difficult to do.

Important: This process doesn’t work for copyright-protected songs (.mp4) purchased from the iTunes store.

• Open iTunes, go to the iTunes menu and select Preferences.
• Click on the General button, then click the Import Settings button.
• From the pick-list next to “Import Using” select AAC Encoder. Click the OK button. Click the OK button a second time to exit out of Preferences.
• Play the .mp3 song file you want to convert to identify the 20-30 section of the song you’d like to use for the ringtone. Specifically, you’ll need to write down the start and end time of your desired section. You can do this by watching the timer that iTunes displays near the top of its window.
• Click once on the mp3 song file. Go to the File menu and select Get Info.
• Click on the Options button so you can enter the Start and Stop times to set the 20-30 section that you want to become your ringtone.
• Go to the Advanced menu and select Create AAC version. [Update March 2013: In iTunes 11, instead of using the Advanced menu, right-click or  control-click the song and choose Create AAC Version from there.] This will cause a duplicate copy of the song file to be created. This duplicate copy will only be the length you selected when you set the Start and Stop times.
• Before you forget, return to the original mp3 song file and clear the Start and Stop times. You don’t need to re-enter the original times. I simply leave these fields blank and iTunes automatically knows to play the entire song.
• Click on the newly created AAC song file to select it.
• Go to the File menu and select Reveal in Finder. It may be listed as Show in Finder instead. This will open a Finder window showing you this AAC song file. Leave this window open. We’ll return to it in just a minute.
• Go to iTunes and make sure your AAC song file is selected.
• Go to the Edit menu and select Delete.
• You may be asked if you’re sure you want to remove this file from your iTunes Library. You’re sure, so click the Remove button.
• Next, you’ll be asked, “Do you want to move the selected song to the Trash or keep it in the iTunes Media folder?” Click the Keep File button.
• Return to the Finder window that you left open. You’ll see the AAC version of the song file. You can identify it since its filename ends with .m4a file.
• Change .m4a to .m4r
• Drag this .m4r file onto the iTunes on the Dock. This will import this .m4r file into iTunes and it’ll show up in the ringtones section.
• Sync your iPhone and make sure that you’ve selected to sync all Ringtones. This will add the ringtone to your iPhone. Then you can assign it to a particular person listed in Contacts.

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Sometimes an application stops behaving properly and doesn’t respond to menu commands or keyboard commands. When this happens, you’ll often want to use the Force Quit command to force the application to quit. There are several ways to issue the Force Quit command.

1. The easiest way is to click on the Apple menu and select Force Quit. A window will pop up listing all of the applications which are currently open. Click on the one that you want to force quit, then click the Force Quit button in the lower right corner. You’ll be asked if you’re sure that you want to do this. Click the button to indicate that you’re sure.

If the Apple menu is not responsive, you may not be able to use this method. In this case, try the next method.

2. Hold down the Option key while simultaneously clicking on the Dock icon for the application which you want to force quit. A menu should pop up after a couple of seconds. Select Force Quit from this menu.

If the Dock is not responsive, you may not be able to use this method either. In this case, try the next method.

3. Simultaneously press the following 3 keys: Command, Option and Escape. The Escape key is labeled “esc” and is above the “1″ key. A window will pop up listing all of the applications currently open. Click on the one that you want to force quit, then click the Force Quit button in the lower right corner. You’ll be asked if you’re sure that you want to do this. Click the button to indicate that you’re sure.

If none of these methods work then you aren’t able to force quit applications. Typically, the only option at this point is to force the computer to turn itself off. This is accomplished by pressing and holding the Power button for 5 seconds. The power button is the round button used to turn the computer on. Hold this button for 5 seconds. The entire computer will turn off and the screen will go dark. Press and release the power button to start up the Mac again normally.

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Firefox and Safari for Mac are the two most popular web browsers for Mac users. At times, both of them can act up and not perform properly. When this happens, here are a couple of basic troubleshooting steps you can take.

In Safari, go to the menu named Safari and select “Empty Cache”. This will remove the local (cached) copy of recently visited web sites. This might be all you need to do to fix your problem. If not, you can continue by going to the Safari menu and selecting ”Reset Safari.” This is a very handy feature that lets you easily remove some of the saved information which can get damaged and cause Safari to misbehave. By default, all of the options are checked in the Reset Safari window. Typically, I recommend that you only select and reset the following since they seem to cause the most problems:

• Remove all webpage preview images
• Remove all website icons

If your Safari problem is not resolved, you can go ahead and select other items to reset. Be aware that removing saved names, passwords and AutoFill data can mean that you’ll be prompted to re-enter this information down the road. Consequently, I try to reset these items last.

Firefox doesn’t have a handy reset feature the same way as Safari. However, you can empty its cache by doing the following. Open Firefox and go to the Firefox menu. Select Preferences, click on Advanced, then click on Network. Click the “Clear Now” button in the Offline Storage section. To do more advanced troubleshooting in Firefox, I recommend checking out this helpful troubleshooting article written by the makers of Firefox.

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Do you ever want to do any of the following tasks?

• View two Word documents side-by-side so you can compare them or more content between them.
• View two Finder windows side-by-side so you can move files from one folder to another
• Make a window fill your entire screen

If so, Cinch ($7) is an easy to use application that lets you accomplish these tasks. I regularly need to file documents that have accumulated either in my Downloads folder or on my Desktop into a folder elsewhere on my Mac. In order to do this easily, I’ll open two Finder windows, then move them to one of the edges of my screen which triggers Cinch to automatically resizes them to fill half of my screen. With the two windows sitting side-by-side, I can easily file my documents. If my description isn’t sufficient, please check out the brief but excellent video demonstration.

You can download Cinch from the Irradiated Software web site and try it for free. Irradiated Software also makes a slightly fancier window management utility named SizeUp ($13) that lets you accomplish the same tasks using keyboard shortcuts, along with additional features.

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Do you give a lot of computer-based presentations or training? Do you need you audience members to be able to easily view and track your mouse, see when you click the mouse and see the keyboard shortcuts that you press? If so, Mousepose, could be your best friend. In previous Tech Tips I’ve talked about other ways to highlight the mouse and its clicks using MouseLocator and display keyboard shortcuts using KeyCastr. Unlike Mouse Locator and KeyCastr which are both free, Mousepose costs money ($17), but offers additional features. For example, it can be controlled and customized using AppleScript and it can dim the screen to put a spotlight on the area around the mouse pointer. If you give computer-based training you might really like Mousepose.

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Do you use multiple web browsers on your Mac? Do you use only one browser but multiple Macs? Do you want all of your browsers to have the same set of bookmarks? If so, you should checkout Xmarks, a free bookmark syncing tool that works with the most common web browsers on both Macs and PCs.

Setting up Xmarks is fairly straight-forward. Specific setup is beyond the scope of this article, as there are many combinations to consider since Xmarks works on both Macs and PCs and supports Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. In general, the setup process includes creating a free Xmarks account and then installing the Xmarks plug-in for each web browser you use on each computer you use. When you next open your web browser, you’ll typically be greeted by the Xmarks setup assistant which will give you guidance in configuring and using this tool.

Before you start the install process, it’s always prudent to have a backup copy of the bookmarks from each of your web browsers since it’s possible to over-write your bookmarks if you click the wrong button. If you use Time Machine to backup your Mac then the Time Machine backup will contain backup copies of all of your web browser bookmarks, but they aren’t readily accessible since they are tucked in the ~/Library folder.

Once Xmarks is installed, it can be setup to automatically sync your bookmarks. You can view your bookmarks via the Xmarks web site. There you have access to tools that will help you find and delete duplicate bookmarks as well as empty bookmark folders. By default, Xmarks only encrypts the login process, so your bookmark data is being sent in an unencrypted manner to and from Xmarks’ servers. Thus, in theory, somebody could capture and view your bookmark data. This likely isn’t a big security threat, but it’s something to be aware of. You can change Xmarks’ configuration to have it encrypt the transmission of your bookmark data. The basic version of Xmarks is free, but the developers offer paid versions that offer more features.

I looked at other bookmark sync tools including BookIt, URL ManagerPro and BookMacSter, but found that I liked Xmarks the best. URLManagerPro and BookIt have not been updated to work with current web browsers. BookMacSter is current, but I found the interface un-intuitive and jargon laden. It’s definitely powerful, but I don’t need all of it’s features and I don’t want to learn a lot just to use the basic features. I also didn’t want to use a separate application to manage my bookmark syncing. I just want the syncing to happen automatically in the background. Thus, Xmarks was the best choice for my needs.

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I regularly provide small group training and I want audience members to be able to know when I use keyboard shortcuts. This way they can see how I made something happen. For example, I might press the Command key and the P key to tell an application to print a document. Since the audience can see my screen but not my hands, it’s very useful to have an application display my keystrokes on screen. KeyCastr lets me do this easily. KeyCastr is a free application, but donations are welcomed via PayPal. The developer of KeyCastr has not released a final version of the application. In other words, it’s still in beta-testing, but it’s been this way for a couple of years. In my use of it, I haven’t encountered any problems.

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Do you listen to either music or audio books on your iPhone or iPad as you fall asleep? If so, you could set the iPhone or iPad’s timer to stop playing music, then let the device go to sleep on its own a minute or two later. Here are the instructions:

• Open the Clock app on your iPhone or iPad. (These instructions should work on an iPod Touch, but I don’t have one so I can’t test it.)
• Tap on the Timer button.
• Spin the hour and minute dials to the desired time, such as 30 minutes or 1 hour.
• Tap on the “When Timer Ends” button if you have an iPhone or the “Sounds” button if you have an iPad. Then scroll to the bottom of the list of options and select “Sleep iPod.” (Note: In newer versions of the iOS software, Apple renamed this option to “Stop Playing.”)
• Tap the Start button to begin the timer.
• Press the Home button to exit the Clock app.
• Open the iPod app and listen to your music or audiobook.When the timer ends, your device will stop playing your music or audiobook. Then, based on your device’s Auto-Lock settings, it will go to sleep a few minutes later. (Note: In newer versions of the iOS software, Apple renamed the iPod app to Music. Furthermore, in iOS 6 they added a separate app named Podcast. This Timer function works in both the Music and Podcast apps.)

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Here are some simple instructions on how to enlarge the size of text on a web page when you’re using Safari, Firefox or Chrome on a Macintosh computer. I use this feature on a daily basis since web sites use a variety of font sizes. This is especially handy in low-light settings or if one typically needs glasses but they aren’t handy.

All three of these web browsers support the same keyboard shortcut. While viewing a web page, press Command + (plus sign) to enlarge the text size and Command – (minus sign) to reduce the text size. If you prefer to use menu commands then go to the View menu and select Zoom In to make the text size larger or Zoom Out to reduce the text size.

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Would you like to change Safari’s Home Page? Apple typically sets Safari to open to this page on their own web site.

You can easily configure Safari to show you any web page you’d like. Here’s how:

• Open Safari
• Go to the Safari menu and select Preferences
• Click on the “General” button
• In the box next to “Home page” type in the address of the page that you’d like. See examples at the bottom of this tip.
• Click the red dot to close that window.
• Go to the Safari menu and select Quit.
• Go to your Dock and re-open Safari. You should now see the start page you just set.

Web pages you might like:

In the past people often set Safari to open to Google, but this is no longer necessary since there is now a Google search field in the upper right corner of Safari’s window. Instead, you might like to configure Safari to take you to a news web site like the New York Times or Google News. Their addresses are http://www.nytimes.com and http://news.google.com, respectively.

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On July 20, 2011, Apple released Lion, their newest version of Mac OS X. One should plan their upgrade to Lion and not rush into it. Lion, Mac OS X 10.7, costs less then many previous updates to Mac OS X. If you purchase Lion from the Mac App Store it costs only $30. Apple doesn’t sell it on disc any longer, but they indicated that they’ll make it available on USB flash drives in mid-August for $69.

Lion introduces a number of new features and changes, some of which are confusing when you first encounter them. Thus, the first step in planing the upgrade is to read about these new features either on Apple’s web site or in this excellent PDF-book Take Control of Using Lion ($15).

Next, wait for Mac OS X 10.7.1 or 10.7.2. Inevitably, all new products contain bugs. Some minor, some major. If your Mac is currently pretty stable then I would hate to see you lose productivity by upgrading to Lion and then encountering bugs, so let Apple release one or two minor releases which’ll address the most significant bugs. If the past is any indicator of the future, I would expect 10.7.1 to be released about a month after 10.7.0 was released.

Before upgrading your Mac it’s typically best to do some research to make sure that all of the applications and peripherals you use throughout the week are compatible with Lion.

Roaring Apps is building a list of application compatibility information based on submissions from users like you and me. Apple has an article listing printer and scanner compatibility information. Additional research for applications or peripherals can be conducted at the manufacturer’s web site.

Once you’ve read about Lion’s new features, waited for Apple to release some bug fixes and determined that all of your applications and peripherals are compatible then you’re ready to upgrade to Lion.

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RSS is a convenient way to stay abreast of news stories or articles added to a particular web site. Rather then needing to visit your favorite web site over and over, you can use RSS to be notified when a new story or article has been added as well as read some or all of that article. I like to read my RSS feeds in my email application, Mail.

Below are instructions on how to add an RSS feed to Apple’s Mail application.

1. Open a web browser, like Safari, and go to a web site that offers an RSS feed. I’ll use Tidbits.com as my example. Go to http://www.tidbits.com .

2. In the right-hand end of the address field you’ll see an RSS icon as depicted in this picture. Click on the RSS icon.

3. If the web site offers ONLY 1 feed then the address of the feed will be listed. In this case, Tidbits.com offers 3 feeds so I choose the “Full Text Feed.” Then you’ll see a window like this one:

4. Copy the feed address, feed://tidbits.com/feeds/tidbits.rss by highlighting it and selecting Copy from the Edit menu.

5. Open Mail and select “Add RSS Feeds” from the File menu.

6. In the Add RSS Feeds window select “Specify the URL for a feed” and select Paste from the Edit menu to paste the feed address (aka the URL) into the field. Use the picture below as a guide.

7. Click the Add button.

8. In a few seconds, you’ll see the Tidbits feed listed on the left-hand window of the Mail window under the “RSS section” as depicted below. The number to the right of the RSS feed’s name is an indication of the number of unread articles.

9. If you have added a number of RSS feeds, you may want to rename them so they sort in a particular order as I’ve done by adding number prefixes.

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Adding memory (RAM) to a computer is one of the most common upgrades made to a computer. Many people think that this will speed up a computer. Adding memory to a computer can slightly improve its performance if the computer didn’t previously have sufficient memory installed to accommodate the applications running simultaneously. Let me elaborate to add some clarifying detail.

A computer’s processor (CPU) is a chip which carries out the instructions of an application. The faster the processor, the faster tasks can be completed. Currently, common processor chips are the Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and Core i3, i5 and i7. These processors typically run at speeds around 2.0 to 3.0 Gigahertz (GHz). The speed of a computer’s processor is generally the largest factor in the computer’s performance. Typically, it’s not possible to either speed up or replace a processor in today’s desktop or laptop computers. Thus, people have to make other changes to improve a computer’s performance.

Applications such as Microsoft Word are permanently stored on the hard drive. When one opens Microsoft Word, large parts of it are copied into memory (RAM). As one opens more and more applications, one uses up all of the available memory in a computer. Eventually, the computer will start to use virtual memory. It’s beyond the scope of this article to explain virtual memory, but trust me when I indicate that it’s slower then regular memory.

If one were to add more memory to a computer, the computer would need to rely on virtual memory less when a lot of applications are open simultaneously. Consequently, the computer’s performance would be improved. It’s common to need to add memory to a computer a few years after it was purchased, especially if one has installed updated versions of applications like Word or the Mac operating system, Mac OS X. This is because new versions typically require more memory than their predecessors and thus utilize the computer’s memory faster, causing it to begin using virtual memory sooner.

Here are a few Wikipedia articles which could be useful if you want to dig deeper to try to understand some of the terms that I mentioned above: RAM (random access memory), CPU (central processing unit), GHz (gigahertz), virtual memory.

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Are you looking for an iPhone holder which will move with you between cars and work with various iPhone models? If so, you should take a look at Tetrax’s XWAY.

This holder clips to the louvers on one of your car’s vents by spinning the knob at the center of the XWAY. At the center of this x-shaped knob is a strong magnet with a concave center. The XWAY comes with several thin magnetic discs which each have a central bulge. After affixing one of these disks to the back of your iPhone or its case, you can easily connect it to the magnet at the center of the XWAY. The bulge on the back of your iPhone will fit snugly into the concave center of the magnet on the XWAY. When you want to detach your iPhone it’s best to slide the phone to the left or right. If you attempt to pull it straight off the XWAY, you run the risk of pulling the XWAY off the vent’s louvre.

I like this clip because you can unscrew it and easily move it from one car to another. Additionally, since it holds an iPhone in place via magnets, it can work with any model. In fact, it could be used to hold other small electronic devices like GPS units too.

In my car, I attached the XWAY to a vent that is near the middle of the steering wheel. This way, I can easily glance down to see the caller ID information displayed on the iPhone’s screen. Additionally, the vent is within reach of my car’s cigarette lighter and the Belkin iPhone charger which I keep plugged into the cigarette lighter. This way, I can recharge my iPhone as needed. The magnets on the iPhone are strong, so they hold the it firmly in place, which I appreciate. I don’t want a loose iPhone to sliding around on me.

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Have you ever wanted to report a bug or request a feature for an application made by Apple, Adobe or Microsoft? Each company offers you the opportunity to do just that. Use the following web page addresses to submit your bug reports or feature request.

Apple Product Feedback and Feature Request

Microsoft Product Feedback and Feature Request

Adobe Product Feedback and Feature Request

I should mention that you shouldn’t expect to receive any feedback when you fill out one of these forms. I had a conversation with an Apple Store manager who mentioned that when he visited Apple’s headquarters, he saw a room full of people who were reading and processing all of the feedback they received.

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Are you unable to install Office 2008 Update 12.2.9 because you’re told you have to quit Sync Services, but you can’t find SyncServices? Use this work around.

In order to get the 12.2.9 update install, I had to stop using Microsoft’s built-in auto-update feature and install do this installation by hand using these steps.

• Download the Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 update from Microsoft’s web site by clicking the Download button. The update should be placed in your Downloads folder if your Mac uses Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. It’ll be named Office2008-1229UpdateEN.dmg
• Close and save all open documents and quit all applications.
• Shut down the Mac.
• Safe Boot by holding down the shift key while you start the Mac up. Keep holding the shift key until the gray Apple logo appears on the screen. We’re using Safe Boot to ensure that Sync Services is not running. A Safe Boot takes longer than a normal startup, so please be patient.
• When your Mac has finished starting up double-click the Office2008-1229UpdateEN.dmg file located in your Downloads folder. (Or wherever it is located.)
• Double-click the Office 2008 12.2.9 Update.mpkg to start the installer.
• Follow the on-screen instructions which are displayed. Mostly you just need to click on the Continue and Agree buttons a few times. Eventually you’ll be asked to enter your Mac account’s username and password.
• The 12.2.9 update will be installed. Quit the installer after it has finished.
• Restart your Mac normally. In other words do not do another Safe Boot.

Congratulations. You’re done. The update is installed. You can confirm this by opening Word and then selecting “About Word” from the Word menu. You’ll see version 12.2.9 listed.

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Do you want to clean up your Mac hard drive? Is your hard drive nearly full and you don’t know why? OmniDiskSweeper (free) can help with both of these situations. OmniDiskSweeper will scan all files and folders on your Mac and list them by size, starting with the folders taking up the most space. This helps you to focus your clean-up efforts on the folders that are taking up the most room on your Mac’s hard drive.

People often erroneously think that their Mac is running slowly because the Mac’s internal hard drive has so much stuff on it. This is rarely the case. Unless the hard drive is over 90% full, the computer’s performance is not affected by the amount of information stored there. I should be clear to mention that when the hard drive is nearly full, typically starting around 90%, the computer’s performance is significantly affected. If your hard drive is this full, please download and use OmniDiskSweeper to help you clean it up.

OmniDiskSweeper conveniently shows all the invisible files and folders on your Mac. Over the years, I’ve seen several hard drives that were filled with spurious log files or errant backup copies of data — all of which happened to be invisible. These invisible files and folders are part of the Mac operating system, Mac OS X. Some of them are critical files, so don’t throw away any invisible file without being sure that you have a full, bootable backup of your Mac and you know what you’re doing. If you’re unsure check with a Mac expert or hire a Mac consultant.

Using OmniDiskSweeper is easy.

• Download OmniDiskSweeper and install it in your Applications folder. Double-click it to open.
• From the list, select the hard drive you want to scan. OmniDiskSweeper uses the term sweep to imply scan. The scan can take 10-15 minutes or longer, depending upon how much data you have.
• When the scan is complete you’ll see a columned window (see below) listing all folders sorted by size.
• If you’ve identified a file that you want to delete, you can select it in the column browser window then click the “Delete” button in the lower left corner.
• If you want to look at a file or folder, select it in the column browser and double-click the icon in the lower-right corner. This will reveal the file or folder in the Finder so you can look at it more closely.

Happy hunting. I use OmniDiskSweeper regularly and find it an indispensable tool for cleaning hard drives.

OmniDiskSweeper File Browser

If your friends who own a Windows-PC would like to clean-up their hard drive you could direct them to Extensoft’s free Disk Analyzer.

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