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.

Is your external backup hard drive full of Time Machine backup data? In last week’s Tech Tip, we talked about how Time Machine automatically deletes your oldest backups to make room for new backups. Time Machine typically does this, but I’ve seen it misbehave also. Alternatively, you might want to manually delete some of your old Time Machine backups to free up space on the external hard drive for some other use. In any case, here are instructions on how to manually delete some Time Machine backups.

On your Mac’s Desktop, double-click the icon of the external hard drive that stores your Time Machine backup data.

You’ll see a folder with the curious name of Backups.backupdb. Open this folder.

Inside you’ll see  a separate folder for each Macintosh computer that is backed up to this drive. If you only backup one Mac, then you’ll only see one folder. The folder is typically named something like Susan’s iMac. Open the folder containing the backups you want to delete.

Wait for the contents to be displayed. It could take a minute. Eventually, you’ll see a list of folders whose names are comprised of date and time stamps. Each of these folders contains backup data created by Time Machine.

Select one of more of these folders, typically the oldest ones, and drag them to the Trash icon on your Dock.

Empty the Trash by going to the Finder menu and selecting Empty Trash.

Sit back and wait while the Trash is emptied. You’ll be surprised how long this process takes. An even bigger surprise is that the status messages will indicate that the number of items to be deleted is a negative number. Of course this is illogical, but it will be displayed. Don’t worry about it. The deletion will eventually finish.

Would you like to secure your Internet connection when you’re using a public wireless network at a hotel, coffee shop or airport? If so, you should consider using a personal VPN service like Cloak or TunnelBear.

In a previous tech tip, I talked about reasons why you might want to sign-up for a personal VPN service such as securing all of the data that goes to or from your laptop while you’re using a public wireless network.

In this article we’ll briefly compare two personal VPN services including Cloak and TunnelBear. I’ve used both of these services over the past few months. Both are affordable, easy to setup and capable, but I prefer Cloak for its unobtrusiveness and helpfulness.

You can try both services for free. Tunnelbear offers a service plan which lets you send up to 500 MB of data over your Tunnelbear VPN connection for free. If 500 MB isn’t adequate then they offer two paid plans that permit you to send unlimited data. You can either pay $5/month or $50/year. Cloak offers a 30-day free trial. After that, you have to choose from one of 3 monthly data plans: 5 GB for $2/month, 25 GB for $8/month or 60 GB for $15/month. In my experience, a 5 GB monthly cap is sufficient, so I would pay $24/year for a year’s worth of service from Cloak.

Both applications have very simple interfaces. Tunnelbear is an application. When you open it you see two buttons. One is the on/off button used to start or stop your VPN connection. The other button lets you indicate if you’re in the US or the UK. Additionally, the application displays the amount of data remaining if you’re using the free account. Cloak installs a menu bar icon whose menu provides a Connect/Disconnect command, a status indicator, preferences and a way to quit Cloak. I prefer Cloak’s interface since its menu bar icon is out of the way while Tunnelbear’s application seems much larger than it needs to be. Additionally, Cloak displays information notifications when it has connected or disconnected as well as when the public wireless network requires you to sign-in using your web browser.

Both applications reportedly work in many countries, but Cloak’s coverage might be more wide-spread. Cloak claims to work in most countries since they piggyback on data centers around the globe. While I don’t travel internationally much, I know many of my clients do, so this is an important feature. It’s unclear how wide-spread Tunnelbear’s coverage is. I assume they only have servers in the US and the UK and thus, I presume it’ll work in North American and European countries and maybe others. Both applications indicate that they don’t work in China.

Both services support Mac OS X and Windows-based computers as well as iOS devices like iPhones and iPads and Android-based phones and tablets.

It’s important to be aware that using a VPN connection will slow down the speed of your Internet connection. VPN connections encrypt all network traffic that is transmitted across them. This encrypting and decrypting of data takes time and thus slows down your connection. Cloak estimates that you’ll see a loss of about 20% of your network throughput.

I hope you find this comparison helpful. Security is increasingly important. Both Tunnelbear and Cloak offer affordable, user-friendly ways to secure your network traffic when you’re on public networks, so try these services and start to use one.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Do you get your Internet service from Comcast? If so, do you know if you’re renting your cable modem or own it out-right? If a Comcast tech set it up then there’s a good chance that you’re paying a monthly rental fee of about $7. If this is the case, you might want to buy your own cable modem and return the one you are renting. A new cable modem costs between $60-$130 depending upon which model you buy. You recover the cost of this new modem in 9-18 months through eliminating the rental fee.

Here are instructions on how to set up and register a new cable modem. These instructions are also helpful if you’re replacing a cable modem which has stopped working.

1. Disconnect your current cable modem. Specifically, unplug the ethernet cable that connects it to your router or Macintosh computer. Also, unplug the coax cable that connects it to the wall jack and finally, disconnect its power cord.

2. Plug in your new cable modem. Specifically, plug in the coax cable coming from the wall, then run the ethernet cable from the cable modem directly to your Mac (even if you have a router). Lastly, plug in its power cord. The cable modem will start up and try to connect to Comcast, but it won’t be able to do so since it’s not yet registered with Comcast.

3. Call Comcast Tech Support. Their phone number should be on a recent invoice. Have a copy of your invoice handy because you’ll likely be prompted for either your Comcast account number or the phone number associated with your account. Once you get a person on the line, tell him or her that you’re setting up a new cable modem and you’d like him or her to guide you through it. The tech will ask you to read the MAC address which is printed on a sticker on the cable modem. The tech might also want the make and model of cable modem. Note: A MAC address has nothing to do with Macintosh computers. MAC stands for Media Access Control and is a unique identifying number.

The tech will then register the cable modem on their end and soon more and more lights on the cable modem will come on. This is a good thing, it’s progress. Soon your laptop will be connected to the Internet. Yay, things are working!

Note: I’ve had you bypass the your router temporarily because Comcast won’t support the configuring of routers. They only support cable modems and 1 computer.  Now that you have your new cable modem working, you can hang up with Comcast and do the following.

A. Unplug the power cord from the Comcast cable modem. This is very important: make sure that all lights on the cable modem are off. If they aren’t off then your cable modem also provides your home with phone service. If this is the case then your cable modem has a battery in it and you’ll have to find the door and open it to pop out the battery. Once you have all of the lights off, then you’re good. Now proceed to the next step.

B. Move the ethernet cable from your laptop back to your router.

C. Re-insert the battery and power cord into the cable modem. The cable modem will start up, then it will see the router and pair with it. This is very important to understand. The cable modem can only pair with one device at a time. When it pairs it then permits that device to connect to the Internet. When the cable modem is off (i.e. has no lights lit up), it forgets the device that it last paired with and it’s ready to pair with a new device on start up.

D. Wait about two minutes for the cable modem to startup and all of its lights to turn on.

E. Make sure your laptop is connected to your router either wirelessly or using an ethernet cable. Open Safari and you should be able to view web sites. Yay, you’re done!

If you have problems getting all of this to work then you can go back to having your laptop plugged directly into the cable modem. However, to get this to work you’ll need to turn off the cable modem so it forgets its pairing with the router and will thus be ready to pair with your laptop when you connect your laptop using the ethernet cable to the cable modem.

Over the past couple of days there have been news stories about a vulnerability in Java which is apparently being exploited in an effort to steal identities. The situation isn’t entirely clear to me and details change rapidly, but currently the Department of Homeland Security recommends that people disable the Java web browser plug-in, for each of their web browsers.

According to this article from ZDNet, Apple has already sent out an automatic update which effectively disables the Java web browser plug-in for Macs running OS X Lion (10.7) and OS X Mountain Lion (10.8). That said, it can’t hurt to follow the instructions below to double-check your Mac’s configuration.

Important Note – Please don’t confuse Java and Javascript. These are two entirely different technologies despite the very similar names. This current security vulnerability only affects Java, not Javascript. More specifically, this vulnerability targets Java web browser plug-ins. In other words, you don’t need to fully remove or disable Java or Java-based applications, like OpenOffice or CrashPlan. Reportedly, Java applications have a very low chance be being exploited by this bug.

This OS X Daily article from August 2012 provides instructions on how to disable the Java plug-in in Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Please follow these instructions to ensure that Java is disabled in your web browser.

The start of a new year is the season of resolutions. I propose that you make a resolution to organize your passwords. Build a list of your accounts and their passwords. Also, make sure those passwords are strong. In a previous tech tip I talked about how to test your passwords’ strength and how to select strong passwords. I’ll reiterate some of that tech tip’s suggestions and add some recommendations on creating and maintaining your password list.

You often hear the recommendation that you should use a long, complex and unique password for each system and change each of these passwords every month. From a security viewpoint, I agree with this recommendation completely, but I don’t think it is at all practical or realistic for most people. Instead, I think it’s more reasonable to make this recommendation: Use very long passwords and maintain a written list.

Some day in the future we might login to our accounts using a thumb print or an iris scan. When this day comes then security will be easy. We simply press our thumb on a device or look into a camera and wait for a few seconds. Gone will be the days of remembering a myriad of passwords, typing in passwords and resetting forgotten passwords! However, our current reality is that we all have many, many password-protected accounts. So what’s the best way to handle this?

In this current paradigm, security and convenience are inversely related. The more secure things are, the less convenient they are. Or, stating the converse, the more convenient things are the less secure they are. Let me illustrate this. It’s very convenient for you to use one password on many or all of your accounts, but this is very insecure. If one account is compromised then they are all effectively compromised. If one account is compromised you obviously have to select a new password for that account and really, you should change the password for all of the accounts for which you use that same password. What a headache. How inconvenient!

Thus, I recommend a more balanced approach. Use at least a handful of passwords, select long passwords and maintain a password list. One of the easiest ways to make a password secure is to make it long. If your password is currently cactus. Simply change your password to cactuscactuscactus. (It would be better if you made it complex like this: c@ctuSc@ctuSc@ctuS, but I won’t push my luck.) However, even if you do your best to pledge to use a really long or complex password, your efforts could be thwarted by systems that put a cap on the maximum length of a password or don’t allow the use of punctuation marks in a password. Thus, you’ll end up with a greater variety of versions of your passwords than you’d like. Thus, it’s important to maintain a password list.

Let’s focus on this list. It could be handwritten on paper, but clearly this isn’t very secure. If you do put it on paper then securely store it in a locked drawer or a safe. However, locking up your list makes it less convenient to grab and to update. So if you’re going to maintain your list on paper I recommend that don’t write the password itself. Instead, write a hint. For example, if your password is your childhood street address then you could simply write old address as the hint. This way you could keep the password list close to your computer and even if a burglar found it he wouldn’t immediately have all of your passwords.

An even more secure way to store your password list on a computer is in an encrypted disk image. I think this solution offers a great combination of security and convenience. A previous tech tip describes how to setup an encrypted disk image. Since the disk image is on your computer, you’ll always have this information conveniently at your fingertips, but it’ll be stored in a secure, encrypted manner. Of course, you’ll have to remember your password for your disk image. If you forget it then you’ve lost access to your entire list!

Another option that some of my colleagues use and recommend is a password manager like 1Password or mSecure. This blog article covers 8 password managers for the Mac and iOS devices. 1Password and mSecure are the two that I’ve personally worked with.

Whichever method you choose, I hope you compile a list of your current accounts and passwords and hopefully take some time to select longer, more secure passwords for these accounts.

While viruses are not  a major risk for Mac users, it’s still prudent to have an anti-virus application installed on your Mac. Sophos offers a free Macintosh anti-virus application for use on home computers. Give it a try.

Why would you need an anti-virus application on your Mac? I can think of a couple of reasons.

1. While there aren’t many Mac viruses, there are some Mac OS X Trojan Horse viruses. I still occasionally come across some Word Macro viruses also, which were common on Macs in the late 1990s.

2. You might receive an email attachment which contains a PC virus. While this virus can’t do any harm to your Mac, would you want to pass this virus on to a friend or family member who has a PC? Sure, that person should have their own anti-virus protection, but it still doesn’t look good that you’re passing on viruses.

If you have business computers you can also use Sophos, but you’d have to buy an initial license. Sophos requires the purchase of a minimum of 3 licenses for about $34 per license. Volume discounts kick in at 10 licenses.

Check out Sophos Anti-Virus. It’s free for home users. It can detect if your Mac already has any infected files and can prevent you from getting infected in the future.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Do you have duplicate or triplicate photos in your iPhoto Library? I recommend using Duplicate Annihilator to remove them.  The developer’s web site has a short movie that shows you how to use the program. It is reasonably priced at $8 for a single license or $13 if you want a Family Pack which lets you install it on as many as 5 Macs. While I trust Duplicate Annihilator, you should always make sure that you have a complete backup of your iPhoto Library before you use Duplicate Annihilator. Its default settings will not delete any photos from your iPhoto Library. Instead, it assigns the word duplicate as a comment for each duplicate photo that it identifies. By default, it uses an MD5 checksum to compare photos. This is a very effective and accurate way to compare digital fingerprints of two files to see if they are the same. Duplicate Annihilator can take several hours to scan a library with tens of thousands of photos, so be prepared for this. It displays some status indicators such as a running total of duplicates found, how many photos it has scanned, how many photos remain to be scanned and estimates how much longer the scan will take. Once the scan is complete, you can enter the word duplicate in iPhoto’s search field to locate all of the duplicates. Then you can go to the Edit menu and choose Select All to select the duplicate photos, then press the Delete key on your keyboard to put these photos into iPhotos’ Trash. Then you would need to empty iPhoto’s trash to completely delete the photos.

Important Note: Before I delete the duplicates, I like to do some random double-checking. After I’ve used iPhoto’s search feature to locate the duplicates, I write down the date of a handful of the photos. Then I clear out the search field so I can see all of my photos. After that I locate these selected photos by date to verify the photos are, indeed, duplicated. Finally, I repeat the search to locate all duplicates and delete them.

Check out Duplicate Annihilator. It can save you a lot of time when you need to eliminate duplicates in iPhoto on your Mac.

Do you use GMail, Google Docs, Dropbox, Facebook, CrashPlan or iCloud? If so, then you use cloud computing. It’s not essential that you have an in-depth understanding of cloud computing, but here’s a brief overview.

Cloud Computing is often misused as a synonym for the Internet itself.  This is an incorrect use of the term. However, the term was inspired by the common use of a picture of a cloud to represent the complex infrastructure of the Internet in diagrams. Consequently, this incorrect use is somewhat understandable.

Broadly, cloud computing refers to computing resources that are offered as a service rather then a product. More specifically, these cloud computing services also need to meet certain characteristics including wide access, measured service, as well as pooling of storage space and computing horsepower.

Let me illustrate this with an example. In the past, if you wanted to use a word processor you would typically buy a product, like Microsoft Word, and install it on your Mac. In a cloud computing world you might, instead, sign up for a free (or paid) service, like Google Docs, and use its word processor. Google Docs is broadly available and behind the scenes Google’s system can bring more computers online to handle surges in customer use of  the service.

Cloud computing has become possible because it’s cost-effective for companies to build huge data centers where computing and software can be provided remotely at massive scale and rented out, like a utility service. Other factors include the lower prices of computers and smartphones and the growing pervasiveness of fast Internet connections.

For those interested in a more in-depth description and definition of cloud computer I direct you to this excellent Tidbits article on cloud computing. It covers the essential characteristics, service models, and deployment models for cloud computing in more detail. With this basic understanding of cloud computing, we’re ready to look at Apple’s iCloud service. We’ll address the question, What is iCloud? Look for this in a future Tech Tip.

Do you want to create a network in your home or office without having to pull wires through the walls? Do you want to improve the coverage of your wireless network easily? Then you should know about Netgear’s Powerline Network Adapters.

Power line adapters let you create an network using the electrical wiring in the walls of your home or office. Yes, this may sound odd. I was skeptical at first, but this technology has been through several generations and works well now. You can read about the history and how this works in this Wikipedia article. Netgear is not the only company that makes such products. A bunch of companies make products that are, supposedly, interoperable and all comply with the HomePlug standards.

I use power line adapters most commonly in large homes where I need to extend the coverage of the wireless network. If the home has ethernet wiring in the walls then I can simply plug a wireless access point into one of the ethernet jacks in an appropriate part of the house. However, if the home does not have ethernet wiring, I’ll use a pair of power line adapters. One connected to the wireless router, the other to a wireless access point in an appropriate part of the house. Here’s a bit more detail.

To get started, you just need to buy a pair of power line adapters, like the ones found in this XAVB2501 kit. Take one of the adapters and connect it to your existing network router using the included ethernet cable. Then plug the adapter into a wall outlet — avoid plugging it into a power strip since this will greatly diminish performance. Plug the second adapter into an electrical outlet elsewhere in your home and then run an ethernet cable from it to your computer, printer or wireless access point. That’s it. The two adapters will find each other and setup communication. Various LEDs on the adapters will tell you if they are connected and at approximately what speed. These adapters can communicate at speeds up to 200 Mbps. You can setup more than two adapters if you’d like. You can read about the maximum number of adapters and other details at the Netgear FAQ page. Reviewing the Troubleshooting page could also be helpful. If you’d like to setup encryption or rename the adapters, use the Netgear Powerline Utility for Mac or PCs.

Here are instructions on how to share a file or folder inside your Dropbox folder with another person. In previous Tech Tips, I gave an overview of Dropbox and give instructions on how to share files that are too large to send as an email attachment, even with people who don’t have Dropbox accounts, using the Public folder in your Dropbox folder. This week, I cover two more features of Dropbox:

Feature 1. How to share any file, in any folder, inside your Dropbox folder, with another person even if that person doesn’t have their own Dropbox account.

Feature 2. How to setup a shared folder with another person so the two of you can easily exchange files on an on-going basis.

The instructions below assume that you’ve already signed up for your Dropbox account and have installed the Dropbox application on your Mac.

Feature 1 – If you have a one-time need to share a file with a person who doesn’t have their own Dropbox account then you can use Dropbox’s Copy Public Link feature. Here’s how:

• Click once on a file in your Dropbox folder to select it. Then right-click (or control-click) on this file. A menu will appear, select Dropbox and then select Copy Public Link from the sub-menu. (See photo below as a reference.)
• Your web browser will open and a preview of your document will appear. Copy the address which appears in the address field, (https://www.dropbox.com/….)
• Go to your email application, compose a new email message and then paste this address (aka link) into the email message and send the message.
• The recipient can click on the link to be taken to a web page which will let them download the file. Here’s a sample link to one of my files in my Dropbox folder. https://www.dropbox.com/s/skifcwwnajlzn77/Darts-Practice.rtf

I want to emphasize that the recipient is able to download and then edit the file, but this feature doesn’t give them a way to easily send the file back to you. So, this is more of a file distribution capability. It doesn’t offer two-way file exchange. This feature is very similar to sharing a file using the Public folder. In fact, I see only one primary difference. This Copy Public Link feature allows you to leave a file inside of a shared folder while also sharing it with a person who typically can’t access files in that shared folder. Additionally, the

Dropbox has their own article about using this feature.

Feature 2 – If you regularly want to be able to do two-way file exchanges with another person then you’ll want to setup a dedicated shared folder with that person in your Dropbox account. Here’s how:

• Create a folder in your Dropbox folder. For this example, I want to share a folder with a friend named Tom so I created a new folder named Tim-Tom
• Right-click (or control-click) on this folder. A menu will appear, select Dropbox and then Share This Folder… from the sub-menu. (See photo below as a reference.)
• Your web browser will open and you’ll be taken to the Dropbox web site. Login to your Dropbox account if you aren’t already logged in.
• In the field named “Invite collaborators to this folder” type in the email address of another person. I entered Tom’s email address.
• Type in an optional personal invitation message and then click the “Share Folder” button. This will send an email that includes the invite.
• The email recipient can click on a link in the invite email to accept the invitation which grants them access to this folder. If the recipient doesn’t already have their own Dropbox account then they’ll be prompted to create a free account.
• If your invitee accepts your invite then you’re notified via email.

At this point, you’re ready to easily share files with your invitee via this folder. Every time a file is adding, edited or deleted then a notification will pop-up on your screen. This invitee can’t see any other folders that you have in your Dropbox account. Happy file sharing.

Dropbox has their own article about this feature.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about this folder sharing feature. This information is taken from Dropbox’s help article.

• You can’t share a folder from within your Public folder. You can share a folder within the Photos folder
• You can’t share a folder inside another shared folder. Attempting to share a folder within a shared folder will automatically send you to the sharing options of the top level shared folder
• Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can then add, delete or change files within that folder
• Anyone you’ve invited to a folder can also invite others to join the folder
• Only the creator of the shared folder can remove people from the folder
• If two people both open and edit a file in a shared folder at the same time, Dropbox will save both of their changes, but in separate files. It does not try to automatically combine or merge changes. Read our help article on conflicting copies to learn more about how this works

If you chose to sign-up for Dropbox please consider using this link to do so, since I’ll earn a referral bonus. Thanks.

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.

There are a number of instances when it could be really useful to know exactly which model of Macintosh computer you own. Here are instructions to identify which model you have.

Did you know that Apple has made Macintosh computers named iMac since 1998? That’s 14 years and counting of various iMac models. Do you know which specific iMac model you own? You may know that you have an 20″ Intel iMac, for example, but there are actually 4 different versions of the 20″ Intel iMac.

To distinguish your Mac from all of the similarly named Macs you need to know its Model Identifier, which can be found by doing the following.

• Click on the Apple menu, then select About This Mac.
• In the window that appears click either the More Info or System Report button. (You’ll see More Info if you’re Mac is using Mac OS X 10.1-10.6. If your Mac is using Mac OS X Lion then you’ll see the System Report button.)
• In either case, you’ll be taken to the Hardware Overview which will list your Model Identifier.

The Model Identifier lets you or others determine the nitty gritty details of your model. The Model Identifier is useful so the proper accessories or cables for your Mac can be provided. It lets you know specifically what type of memory (RAM) you need to buy for your Mac. It also helps you determine the age of a Mac in case you’re looking at a used Mac. I don’t have all of the nitty gritty details memorized for each model. Instead, I use either the MacTracker Mac or iOS app or the EveryMac web site to lookup the details once I know the Model Identifier. In March 25′s Tech Tip it will be important to know your Mac’s Model Identifier so you can buy the correct cables to connect your Mac to your TV.

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.

Would you like to free up some desk space by retiring either your stand-alone fax machine or multi-fuction printer which has faxing capabilities? Or, if you’re paying for a dedicated fax line, would you like to reduce you phone bill by dropping that line? If so, here are a few alternatives you could consider. I’m surprised that faxes haven’t faded away completely. I’m convinced that it’s because many people don’t know how easy scanning can be. Personally, I find that I only need to receive or send at most a handful of faxes each year, but in some fields, especially healthcare, faxes seem to be going strong. One reason faxing is so strong in the healthcare field is the need to comply with HIPAA or other laws. I highlight HIPAA-compliant Internet fax options below. Whether your faxing needs are light or heavy, here are some alternatives for you to consider.

Option 1 – This is the easiest option to setup but not necessarily the most cost-effective or convenient. You could out-source your faxing needs and use a FedEx Office store or, if you live in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, a business like Sip and Ship. Both of these businesses will let you send or receive faxes and charge you a fee per page.

Option 2 – Sign up for an Internet fax service like Faxaway or RingCentral. I have experience using both of these services. When you sign-up for a Faxaway account you’re assigned a fax number in the 206 (Seattle-area) area code. For a monthly fee of $1 you can receive unlimited incoming faxes and send faxes at a cost of about 10 cents per page. Faxes sent to your fax number are forwarded to you as email attachments. You can then save the attachment and open it on your Mac. Print a copy if you’d like. I like to receive my faxes via email since I can then save them or forward them easily. You also send faxes via email by using the fax number as part of  the email address, for example, 12065551212@faxaway.com. Faxaway is a good option if you’re a one person business with very light faxing needs.

If your business has a few employees or you have heavier faxing needs, then one of RingCentral’s plans might be a better fit. You can sign-up for a free trial account to test RingCentral. Their entry-level plan costs $8/month which gives you a local or toll-free fax number and 500 pages of inbound or out bound faxes. RingCentral provides a Macintosh application which you install on your Mac. You use this app to both send and receive faxes. This application also makes it easy to send documents as part of your fax, but it unfortunately doesn’t tie into your Mac’s Address Book application. Therefore, you’ll need to either enter your fax numbers by hand or by using “copy and paste”. Your RingCentral fax service can easily be shared by several people. In a future Tech Tip I’ll write about how you could use RingCentral to replace your existing phone system.

If you’re in a business that needs to comply with HIPAA regulations or other security or privacy regulations then you could check out Sfax, InterFAX or FaxSolutions. These companies fax services cost more then the previous Internet fax services I mentioned. I haven’t personally worked with this companies to know how user-friendly they are.

Option 3 – This is my favorite and most commonly used solution. When a person asks me to sign a document and fax it back to them, I simply ask if I could scan it and return it to them as an email attachment. With rare exception, the person is perfectly happy to receive the document as an email attachment. In a previous Tech Tip, I talked about how I much I love my Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner. It turns a pile of pages into a PDF which I can then easily attach and send via email. I like this method since I then have a digital copy of the document on my computer if I need to refer to it later on. Also, I have a more detailed paper trail than if I’d sent a fax since my sent mail folder will have a record of when I sent a document and to whom.

Hopefully, one of these options will be a good fit for your faxing needs.

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.

[Update: Intuit released a Lion-compatible update of Quicken 2007. You can buy it here. Quicken 2007 can import data files from Quicken 2005-2007 as well as Quicken Essentials. They have a helpful FAQ page.]

Intuit recently announced that it plans to release an update to Quicken 2007 that will make it compatible with Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion. This news is a big relief to a number of my clients who have intentionally held off on updating to Lion. Those clients use Quicken 2007 and migrating to another application is not a simple task. iBank and Quicken Essentials are two applications that users could consider as a replacement, but an update to Quicken 2007 simplifies the entire situation.

When Lion was released in July 2011, Tidbits had an article talking about finding a replacement for Quicken. One colleague switched to iBank but due to differences in how iBank handles investment accounts, he spent many hours cleaning up his Quicken data after it was imported into iBank and needed assistance repeatedly from iBank’s tech support staff. A few of my clients who used only the account registers and reporting features in Quicken were able to use Quicken Essentials. Quicken Essentials for Mac was released in 2010. It is not really an update for Quicken 2007 users. Instead, you could think of it as a successor to Quicken 2007, but one that lacks some of Quicken 2007′s features. As its name implies, it is a bare-bones financial management application. It is enough for some, but not for all, Quicken 2007 users. Thus, the announcement of this Quicken 2007 update is welcome news.

Intuit indicates that this Lion-compatible update will be available “soon.” Elsewhere, I’ve read that it’ll be early-spring 2012. Users will be able to update their Quicken 2005, 2006 and 2007 data files into this updated version of Quicken 2007. Please read Intuit’s note about this update as well as Tidbit’s article about this Quicken update if you’d like more information.

Do you send out annual updates about your family around the holiday season? If so, MacWorld has written a good article about how to create a newsletter using Pages. Pages is Apple’s word processor which competes with Microsoft Word. It comes bundled with some Macs, so you may already have a copy. If not, you can buy it as part of iWork. Or, if you have Mac OS X 10.6.6 or higher on your Mac, you can use the App Store to buy it stand-alone for about $20. I used the MacWorld article as a guide to design our holiday newsletter this year. Here’s a brief overview.

Start by opening iPhoto and identifying which photos you want to include in your newsletter. I found it easiest to put my photos into an album so I would be able to find them again easily when using Pages.

Next, I opened Pages and selected the “Informal Newsletter” template. I clicked on the Media button in Pages’ toolbar. I clicked on Photos and selected the iPhoto Album containing my selected photos. I then dragged the images on top of the placeholder images that appear in the template.

I clicked on the text box on the first page, selected all of the text and deleted it. Then I typed in our content.

We wanted to add a second page so I went to the Insert menu, selected Pages and added a “Back Page” since it has pre-defined locations for text and photos. I linked the text boxes on page 1 and page 2 so the text would automatically flow between them. I replaced the placeholder photos, of course, as well.

Finally, I realized that I needed more room to fit all of the text so I had to adjust the template’s layout some. I removed one of the photos on page 1 and added a new text box then linked it to the other box on page 1. After that, I changed the font and font size a bit to get everything to fit. Finally, I was satisfied with the layout. Pages is a pretty elegant program to use for tasks like this and the templates are really professional, so it made this task easy to do.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A few months ago a representative of Stellar Data Recovery contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in reviewing their product Stellar Phoenix Macintosh, a data recovery application. I was happy to oblige. At long last, here’s my assessment.

If you’ve read many of my tech tip articles, you know that I’m a staunch advocate for setting up robust, redundant and automated data backup systems. If one has such systems in place then one’s likelihood of actually needing a tool like Stellar Phoenix Macintosh should be slim. However, the need for such tools can still arise for a myriad of reasons. Maybe one hasn’t yet copied photos from their camera’s SD storage card to their computer. Maybe one uses a USB flash drive to move files around and doesn’t backup this drive. Maybe one’s backup is misconfigured and it isn’t actually backing up an important folder. Any such drive could fail or a user could accidentally delete a file. Anybody could end up needing a data recovery tool such as Stellar Phoenix Macintosh.

Stellar Phoenix Macintosh has a simple user interface which includes buttons to recover data from various types of drives, including iPods. It also has a button dedicated to photo recovery. Within the main Drive Recovery section it provides options to try to recover deleted files, files from re-formatted drives and from drives which don’t mount. I happened to have two non-mounting drives sitting around. One was an external firewire hard drive and the other was a USB flash drive. Both were personal drives I’d used for years, but had stopped working properly in the past six months. Nothing critical was on either drive, so I had only made half-hearted attempts to figure out what was wrong with them previously. I’d been unable to get either drive to mount. Not surprisingly, Stellar Phoenix Macintosh wasn’t able to see them or recover any data from them. I didn’t really expect that it would since I suspect that there were physical problems with the drives. If I had really needed to get data from these drives I would have sent them to a professional data recovery company, like Drive Savers, which has a strong track record of being able to recover data.

Next, I took a fully-functioning external firewire drive that contained a backup copy of some of my music and movies. I put all of my files into the Trash and emptied it. Then I asked Stellar Phoenix Macintosh to try to restore the files. I used it’s Deleted File Recovery feature. I showed it the external drive and let it scan the entire 60 GB drive. Understandably, this was a time consuming process since it needed to scan every block. I don’t know how long it took since I went to bed, but I’m sure it took more than an hour. By morning it had finished, but I didn’t have time to finish restoring my files, so it conveniently let me save the scan file, presumably some sort of directory of the drive. Subsequently, I used Stellar Phoenix Macintosh’s Resume Recovery feature. This let me pick up where I left off.

Stellar Phoenix correctly listed the folders I had deleted. I started to navigate through this folder list and it correctly listed the names of sub-folders and sub-sub-folders. What annoyed me was that Stellar Phoenix’s window could not be resized. Additionally, the 3 sections within it’s window could not be resized either. This made it cumbersome to navigate through the folder hierarchy. This is a significant shortcoming of the application’s user interface. Up to this point, I had liked the interface. The buttons had been simple, well-labeled and explanations of their functions were frequently listed on screen, so it was quite jarring and annoying to suddenly realize that I couldn’t resize the window at all. However, I continued with the data restore. I selected about 10 mp3 files as well as a number of PDF documents and Microsoft Word files. I clicked the Recover button, waited a few seconds and the files were saved to a new folder on my Mac’s Desktop. I was then very disappointed when I tried to open these files and not a single one could be opened properly. I’m not sure why. Stellar Phoenix had done an admirable job of seeing the deleted files, as well as their file names and folder structure. All of this is important, but it failed in the final and most important step of successfully recovering the files.

I wanted to give Stellar Phoenix another chance so I took a healthy 1 GB USB flash drive, formatted it, copied a few files onto it and then deleted them a few minutes later. I then had Stellar Phoenix scan the drive, which took about 10 minutes. It was not able to recover the folder structure or the file names, but it did create folders for each type of file it found. In other words, it created folders for PDFs, JPEGs, Word and RTF files, for example. I then asked Stellar Phoenix to recover the files. It did so and all of the files opened properly. I was pleased with the results of this simple test. I should mention, however, that in a real world situation of recovering a few files from a hard drive that has been used for years, the inability of data recovery software to recover filenames and folder structures can mean that one could have to spend a fair amount of time locating the few desired files from a larger pile of recovered files.

In conclusion, Stellar Phoenix could be useful as a data recovery tool, certainly for recently deleted files and possibly in other situations. However, the lesson that I take away from these experiments is that data recovery is not always possible. Even when it is possible, it can be time consuming to conduct drive scans and locate the particular files you need. If you need to employ a professional data recovery service, it can be very expensive. Thus, I think it’s more prudent to setup, monitor and test robust, redundant and automated backup systems so you can hopefully avoid having to rely on data recovery products at all.

Are you wondering how long your Mac will last or how frequently you’ll need to replace it? This is a very difficult question to answer, since many factors can affect the durability, longevity and compatibility of a computer. I’ll do my best to provide some concise and useful guidance.

My shortest answer is that many of my clients replace their computer about every 5 years. Some clients who have high-end needs might replace their computer every 3-4 years, and it’s worthwhile for them to migrate to Apple’s latest and fastest hardware more often. I have many clients who have been able to stretch their computers to last 7 years or more.

Often customers will replace their computers because their previous computer’s compatibility or performance is no longer adequate. Macs will typically function for many more than 5 years, but if it breaks after 5 years it’s not always cost-effective to repair. The need to make significant upgrades to a Mac’s hardware can also be cause for replacement. The most common upgrades needed are adding memory, installing a larger hard drive or installing a newer version of Mac OS X. These upgrades can be cost-effective if you are able to do the work yourself. If you have to hire somebody to do the work, the labor charge alone can negate cost-effectiveness.

In recent years, I’ve found that web browser compatibility often drives customers to replace their computer. The two most common uses of a computer are sending emails and viewing web sites. The people who make web sites, like banks, often employ ever newer web site technologies to keep their web sites current and secure. These changes often require ever newer versions of web browsers like Safari, Firefox and Chrome. As these web browsers get upgraded, it becomes necessary for their developers to occasionally drop support for older versions of Mac OS X as well as older or slower processors. For example, Macs using older PowerPC processors like the PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 can no longer run current versions of Safari, Firefox or Chrome. This means users might not be able to properly view or access some web sites. Thus, these computers increasingly will need to be replaced since they are becoming become less and less useful. Interestingly, PowerMac G5 ands iMac G5s were made between 2003 and the end of 2005 and are more then 5 years old, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that they need to be replaced.

I don’t have any specific data to support the following claim, but I think the rate of replacing computers is increasing. I think that customers used to replace their computers less frequently then every 5 years. These days, a new Mac has a minimum cost of about $1000, so it’s not easy for many people to replace their computer that often. With the recent advent of the less expensive tablet computers like the iPad, I find some hope. These devices and their capabilities are rapidly evolving. I think that in the coming years many casual computer users will be able to use an iPad for their email and web browsing needs. Thus, when you next replace your Mac, it is reasonable to consider if the computer could be replaced with an iPad. If you were to need to replace your iPad every 4-5 years, it would be a less expensive proposition.

I strongly recommend the AppleCare Protection Plan (APP) for all MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and MacPro purchases under most circumstances. I know that extended warranties have a poor reputation in general, but I think AppleCare is a good value for most Mac models. For the rest of this article I’ll simply refer to the AppleCare Protection Plan as AppleCare.

Every Mac computer comes with 90 days of free telephone tech support and a 1 year hardware warranty. By purchasing AppleCare, both the telephone support and hardware warranty are extended to 3 years. AppleCare covers the cost of parts as well as labor in the event of a repair.

It’s very useful to know that you can buy AppleCare as long as the original 1 year hardware warranty is still in place. Additionally, AppleCare is transferrable. If you sell your Mac within 3 years of initial purchase, AppleCare coverage transfers with the computer. This can slightly increase your Mac’s resale value, but it also gives the buyer some reassurance should they detect a hardware issue after they purchase it. AppleCare is available for all new Macs or refurbished Macs bought from Apple. It does not cover accidental damage.

MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs – The price for AppleCare is currently $249 for every laptop model except the 17″ MacBook Pro. For this model the price is $349. Apple has tiered flat-rate pricing for all laptop repairs. The last time I checked the lowest price was about $300. If your laptop is outside of it’s one-year hardware warranty and it breaks, one repair would have paid for the cost of AppleCare. Since laptops are typically carried around, they can sustain a lot of wear and tear. One repair within 3 years is not at all uncommon, thus I think it’s worthwhile to purchase AppleCare for MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. Over a dozen years, I have owned 4 Mac laptops. I know that I’ve bought AppleCare for at least the last 3 and used it on each of them. One had the CD/DVD drive and a fan replaced. On two of them the motherboard was replaced. All of these repairs were fully covered by AppleCare.

iMacs and MacPros – AppleCare for iMacs costs $169. AppleCare for MacPros costs $249. iMacs and MacPros repairs are not tied to tiered, flat-rate pricing. Each replacement part is priced individually. While fans and other small components may be inexpensive, Apple’s labor rate is around $90-100 per hour. So again, AppleCare quickly pays for itself. AppleCare covers the monitor built-into the iMac. In addition to the computer itself, AppleCare also covers an external monitor purchased at the same time as the Mac.

Since AppleCare can be purchased at any time within the first year of initial purchase, I have some clients who don’t purchase AppleCare initially for their iMacs or Mac Pros. Instead, they wait 6 to 9 months to see how the Mac performs and then make a decision. The first 6 months of a computer’s life is not necessarily a good indication of how it’ll perform after 2.5 years of use, but if the Mac has problems in the first 6 months then it seems prudent to buy the insurance of AppleCare in case other problems develop.

I typically don’t recommend AppleCare protection for Mac minis as strongly since AppleCare costs $149 but the price of the mini might be as little as $600. If a business were buying a Mac mini server or if a person were purchasing an Apple laptop at the same time as the Mac mini, then I would recommend it more strongly.

I don’t recommend AppleCare for iPhones, iPods, iPads or AppleTV either due to the relatively low price or the fact that the devices are more likely to be dropped or stolen than require a repair due to a part defect.

[Update March 2013: AppleCare for iPhones and iPads is now AppleCare+. These plans now cover up to two incidents of accidental damage for a service fee of $49 each incident. Coverage may be purchased within the first 30 days of ownership, but purchased at a different time than the device, the device will require a Genius Bar appointment prior to AppleCare purchase to verify that it is in undamaged condition before being covered. For more details you can visit the AppleCare page for iPhone or iPad.]

Another option for iPhone and iPad repair in the Seattle area is JCD Repair. They let you schedule an appointment and tell you the full repair price up front.

If you buy your Mac using a major credit card, the credit card company might double the manufacturer’s warranty. Please call your credit card company to verify and get the details. One client was able to get their iMac’s replacement motherboard covered by their credit card company due to this coverage. The client had to pay for the repair up front, then they were subsequently reimbursed after submitting the requisite paperwork. Utilizing this coverage is not as quick and easy as AppleCare, but this protection could help you if you didn’t buy AppleCare within the first year.

Some homeowners insurance policies or specific riders might be a reason to not buy AppleCare. Some insurance policies even cover accidental cover that is not covered by AppleCare.

I recently discovered a bug in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. If you insert a movie file into a PowerPoint presentation and you’re using the older .ppt file format, the link to the movie breaks when you close the file. I’ve confirmed that this problem occurs with .wmv and .mov movie files, and I assume it occurs with any other type of movie file. I’ve had a couple of clients encounter this bug. I reported this problem to Microsoft, but it hasn’t been fixed as of the time of this writing. There is an easy solution to this problem. Use PowerPoint 2011′s native .pptx file format instead of the older .ppt file format.

Here’s what I did to fix the problem:

1. Open the .ppt PowerPoint file.
2. Go to the File menu and select Save As
3. In the Format section, select PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx)
4. Click the Save button. This will convert the presentation from .ppt format to the newer .pptx format
5. Go to the slide where you’d like to place a movie.
6. Go to the Insert menu and select Movie and then Movie From File
7. Navigate to the folder on your Mac which contains the movie file you want to insert into your presentation.
8. Select the movie file and click the Insert button.
9. Go to the File menu and select Save.

The movie has now been imported to your presentation and will be saved within your PowerPoint file. You can check the size of your PowerPoint .pptx file to see that it has grown significantly now that the movie is saved inside it. When I was figuring out what the problem was I noticed that the file size of the .ppt file didn’t grow after I inserted the movie and saved the file. This told me that it wasn’t working properly. I also knew that I’d seen this feature work in other PowerPoint 2011 presentations. I then realized that the difference was that some files were .ppt files while others were .pptx files. That’s when I realized that this insert movie feature failed to work whenever I used the .ppt file format.

Here are instructions on how to restore one or more files from your CrashPlan online backup archive. The instructions work for both CrashPlan and CrashPlan Pro. In my opinion, an untested backup system is next to useless. Only by testing it do you know for sure that your backup system is working properly. By testing it, you also learn how to restore a file, which will enable you to be a bit more calm in the event of an actual disaster.

If you’re a visual learner, you might like to watch my video demonstration of how to preform a restore from CrashPlan.

• Open the CrashPlan (or CrashPlan Pro) application by clicking on its icon on your Dock or in your Applications folder.
• On the left-hand side you’ll see five sections. Click on Restore.
• You’ll see the CrashPlan Central Destination listed at the top, as well as the time of the most recent backup. If you want to restore from a backup other than the most recent backup, click the words “most recent” which appear at the bottom of the window. From the calendar that appears, select a previous date and time then click “Ok.”
• Next, select the files or folders you want to restore by inserting a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the file’s name. You can either use the search field to locate your file or you can click the arrows to the left of folder names to see the contents of the folder. Using these arrows, you can navigate down several layers of folders to locate the files or folders that you want to see.
• The files will be restored to the Desktop by default. If you prefer, you can click on the word “Desktop” near the bottom of the window to select another location.
• Finally, click the “Restore” button.
• “Restore Status” information will be listed at the bottom of the CrashPlan window. Depending upon how many Kilobytes of data you select, it can take a while for CrashPlan to retrieve the files and send them to your computer. When the restoration is complete the status message will list the time at which that the files were restored to the destination on your Mac.

It’s also possible to restore files from CrashPlan’s web site. This option could be useful if your laptop was stolen or if you’re traveling without your laptop, but need a file. Restoring files from the CrashPlan web site limits you to a maximum of 500 MB.

Zamzar, an online file conversion service, is an easy way to save a copy of a YouTube video on your Mac. To do this you enter the YouTube video’s address at Zamzar’s web site and it will convert the YouTube video into a file type which you choose, then send you an email containing a link to download the  converted file.

Zamzar is actually a very versatile file conversion service. I’ve used it to convert Microsoft Visio drawings, Microsoft Works files and Microsoft Publisher files. To read Zamzar’s huge list of supported file types visit this web page.  Zamzar offers several levels of service. Their free accounts are ad-supported. Free accounts are limited to processing upto 20 files per day which add up to not more than 500 MB. Paid accounts let you overcome these limitations as well as offering additional features.

Update: Here’s another possible option. Jaksta is a commercial application which claims to let you save a copy of any audio or video file that you stream in your web browser.

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.

You can use Apple’s infrared (IR) remote control to control slideshows in PowePoint 2004, PowerPoint 2008 and PowerPoint 2011. Here are some instructions for getting this setup. PowerPoint 2008 and PowerPoint 2011 both include support for Apple’s remote. PowerPoint 2004 does not natively have this capability. Instead, you need to use one of the third party applications described in this other article. Personally, I’ve used the free iRed Lite.

First, here’s a little background. Starting in 2005, Apple started to ship remote controls with their iMac G5 computers. They then included it with MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Mac mini. Apple’s intended users to use them to control FrontRow which lets user view movies (DVDs), photos and music. I think Apple must have realized that few people actually used the remote controls so they stopped including them with new Macs but they continue to sell the remotely separately for about $20. In 2009 they replaced the original white plastic remote and with a taller, thinner aluminum version. The remotes do have some uses beyond controlling FrontRow. Most commonly, I see them used to control PowerPoint slideshows. For a more thorough history of the Apple Remote check out this Wikipedia article. To learn about third-party products that allow the remote to control more applications and extend its capabilities in other ways, check out this article.

Here are instructions on how to setup the Apple Remote to control PowerPoint 2008:

• Hold your remote control a few inches from your Mac.
• Simultaneously, press the Menu and Next (right-point arrow) buttons for 5-10 seconds.
• Open your PowerPoint presentation and click the Slideshow button to put it into slideshow mode.
• Press the Forward and Back buttons to move through the slideshow. Pressing the Pause/Play button will also advance to the next slide.

If you ever want to unpair your Mac from a given remote you can go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and then Security and click the Unpair button.

I should also mention that the IR receiver is on by default in all Macs. This means that other people could walk up to your Mac, pair a remote with it and start to control it. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it could cause confusion. What really causes confusion is when there are multiple Macs in the same room and one person suddenly starts to use one of Apple’s IR remotes. The remote starts to control all of the Macs simultaneously. I assume this only happens if the Macs have previously been paired with another Apple remote. In these situations it’s useful to know that the Security System Preference pane mentioned above lets you check a box to disable the IR receiver in your Mac.

Do you need to recover files that were deleted from a Mac’s hard drive? Here’s a quick overview of three options.

Option 1 – By far the easiest way to recover a file is to restore it from the most recent backup. This is why I’m such a strong proponent of setting up a comprehensive backup system including automated TimeMachine or CrashPlan backups. By default, TimeMachine runs every hour and CrashPlan runs every 15 minutes. Here are the tech tips I wrote about how to restore files from Time Machine and CrashPlan backups.

This option is appropriate for a wide range of situations including: accidentally deleting a file and realizing it a minute or a month later, suffering from a malfunctioning hard drive, losing your computer or having it stolen. Assuming that you make multiple and frequent backup copies of your data, this option has a very high recovery success rate.

This is the last of the good options. The two remaining options are either expensive, time consuming or have a much lower chance of success — or some combination thereof.

Option 2 – Use data recovery software such as ProSoft Engineering’s Data Rescue. Data Rescue and comparable applications can search a hard drive for deleted files and it can try to search a malfunctioning hard drive for files. Both of these processes can take hours to run and their success is far from guaranteed. When a file has is deleted it’s not really removed from the hard drive. Instead, the entry for that file is removed from an invisible list of all files and the space where the file resides on the hard drive is marked as available for re-use. Depending upon how much time has elapsed since the file was deleted, it may or may not have been over-written. If a hard drive is failing who knows if you’ll be able to recovery any files from it.

Option 3 – Use a professional data recovery company like DriveSavers. DriveSavers has been around since the mid 1980s. They have a stellar reputation and success rate. In the rare cases that I’ve had a client who needed professional data recovery, I’ve often used DriveSavers. They have fortunately been able to recover most of the needed data. The downside of professional data recovery companies is the relatively high cost.

In the past decade, I’ve only sent two hard drives to DriveSavers. One hard drive was from an Mac made in the mid-1990s. It hadn’t been used in years and my client suddenly realized that she needed some data from it. The hard drive no longer worked properly. She spent about $2500 to recover a few dozen files which she needed.

In the other instance, a woman phoned me after most of her iPhoto Library suddenly vanished before her eyes. She didn’t have any backup of the hard drive so we sent the hard drive to DriveSavers. She paid about $1500 for the recovery work. DriveSavers recovered thousands of jpeg photos, but some of them were random clip art files so my client then had to spend countless hours weeding through the recovered files.

In my opinion, options 2 and 3 aren’t really attractive options. They are expensive, time-consuming and the odds of getting all of the files needed are not as high as I’d like. In comparison the cost to buy a couple of backup hard drives or to pay for CrashPlan’s online backup storage system is much less. Please setup an automated, redundant and reliable backup system for your Mac.

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.

Update May 2012: If you need to open win mail.dat files on your iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) try Winmail File Viewer which currently costs 99 cents in the iTunes Store.

Did you receive an email attachment named winmail.dat or winmail? Here’s a brief explanation of what this file is and instructions for opening it.

Winmail.dat files are sent by people using Microsoft Outlook as their email application. Under certain circumstances Outlook will encode attached files, like Word or PDF files, in this winmail.dat format.

Mac users can open the winmail.dat file using a free application (donations accepted) and extract the files hiding inside. Unfortunately, this application has a goofy name which is TNEF’s Enough. I won’t bore you with an explanation of this name, but if you are interested you can read about it on the developer’s web site.

Here are instructions on how to open the winmail.dat file:

• Save your winmail.dat file on your Desktop.
• If you use Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.6 then download the most current update of TNEF’s Enough version 3. If you use Mac OS X 10.5 then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.2. If you use OS X 10.4 or earlier then download TNEF’s Enough ver 2.0
• By clicking on one of these links, you’ll download a .zip file which contains TNEF’s Enough inside. Your Mac should automatically open the .zip file so you should see TNEF’s Enough sitting in your Downloads folder.
• Move TNEF Enough into your Applications folder.
• Double-click it to open, then go to the File menu and select Open…
• Select the winmail.dat file which you previously put on the Desktop.
• You’ll then see a window listing the embedded files which are the files that you actually want.
• Click on each file, one at a time, and click the Save button.
• Save these files to your Desktop or any other desired location.
• Quit TNEF’s Enough.

You’re done. You can now throw away the winmail.dat file since you’ve extracted all of the files from inside it.

If you’d like to read more about how and why this happens please read this Microsoft Support article or this other article. These articles also provide instructions that you can pass on to the Outlook user who sent you the winmail.dat file so he or she can make changes to no longer send you winmail.dat files. Essentially, they have to edit their record for you in their Contact list to indicate that you should only receive plain-text emails.

Do you want to know how to perform some routine preventive maintenance on your Mac? Here’s my recommendation of helpful preventive maintenance tasks as well as instructions on how to perform these tasks. You don’t need to have advanced knowledge to perform these tasks. These recommendations assume you are using Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) or newer.

Overview

• Daily – backup your data files.
• Weekly – update your bootable backup.
• Monthly – check your hard drive to make sure it’s not getting too full.
• Monthly – perform the following tasks using Maintenance (free): Verify your hard drive’s SMART status and its file structure (the invisible directories), repair your hard drive’s permissions, run the Daily, Weekly and Monthly maintenance scripts and delete the System, Application and Font caches.

More Detail

Daily Backup – I strongly believe everybody should have an automated backup system and, ideally, a comprehensive backup system. In other Tech Tips I provided detailed instructions on how to setup Time Machine. Time Machine is Apple’s backup application that comes with Mac OS X 10.5 (and newer). Time Machine will automatically perform hourly backups of one’s data, assuming the Mac is on and the backup hard drive is connected.

Weekly Bootable Backup Update - It’s useful to be able to boot (start) your Mac from another hard drive if your Mac is not able to start from its own internal hard drive. This could happen if the internal drive is starting to fail, an OS X update didn’t install properly or for a myriad of other reasons. In other Tech Tips I provided detailed instructions on how to setup Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable backup of your Mac’s hard drive.

Monthly Check Hard Drive’s Fullness – A Macintosh computer’s performance will slow noticeably if it’s hard drive is more than approximately 90% full. It’s easy to make sure the drive is not getting too full by doing the following steps: Click on the hard drive’s icon on the Desktop, typically named Macintosh HD. Go to the File menu and select Get Info. Compare the values listed next to “Capacity” and “Used.” If the number of gigabytes of data listed in the “Used” section is 90% or more of the hard drive’s capacity then you need to free up some hard drive space. You can use Omni DiskSweeper (free) to help you determine which files are using the most storage space on your hard drive. Then you can either move some data to another hard drive, archive it to a DVD or delete it.

Monthly Maintenance Tasks – You can perform all of the maintenance tasks that I recommend using a free application aptly named Maintenance. Download the Maintenance disk image (Maintenance.dmg), double-click it to open and then drag the Maintenance application to your Applications folder to install it. Double-click the application to open it.

When you open Maintenance, it’ll display a message indicating that it’s checking your hard drive’s SMART status. SMART is an acronym which stands for Self Monitoring And Reporting Technology. It’s a simply diagnostic tool built in to most current hard drives. Next, Maintenance will ask if you want to Verify your startup volume (hard drive). Before you start this process please save and close all open documents and then quit all applications. Once the verification process is complete you’ll be prompted to enter an adminitrative-level account name and password. You’ll then be presented with a list of available tasks. I recommend inserting checkmarks into the first 5 items (see below). Click the Execute button to have Maintenance do the following: Repair Permissions, Execute Maintenance Scripts and empty the System, Application and Font caches. Wait while these tasks are completed. This could take 10-15 minutes.

Maintenance Task List

No harm should come if you were to perform the other tasks, but I find that they are more troubleshooting than preventive maintenance.

If you want to learn more about maintaining your Mac, I encourage you to read the $10 PDF book Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac.

Titanium Software makes Maintenance as well as Onyx which can do everything that Maintenance can do plus a whole lot more.