Are you having problems accessing your Gmail account from Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook? Over the past 6 months I’ve encountered a number of clients who have had problems reliably accessing their Gmail account via these apps. Here’s a list of symptoms my clients experienced and how I fixed the problems. Read More from “Fixing Access To Google Accounts From Your Mac”
Why Is My Mac Ringing?
If you have a relatively new Mac running OS X Yosemite (OS X version 10.10) and an iPhone running iOS 8 you may have noticed that your Mac rings when you receive a call on your iPhone and the two devices are close to each other. This feature is part of Continuity, which is a collection of features that integrate your Mac and iPhone. You can read more about all of Continuity’s features (and how to turn them off) in this article. While it sounds handy, a number of clients don’t like it and have asked me to help them turn it off. Here’s how:
Dropbox’s Selective Sync Feature
If you use Dropbox, you might want to know about its Selective Sync feature. Dropbox is a file sharing system. I gave a brief overview of Dropbox previously. The Selective Sync feature lets you select which files you want to download and store on a given computer. This can be handy if you have a laptop with a relatively small hard drive or if you store completed projects in Dropbox, but do not need to regularly access these files. Dropbox has written instructions about how to use the Selective Sync feature so I won’t provide step-by-step instructions. Just remember, if you want to access the files that you have deselected in Selective Sync, you have two options. You can visit the Dropbox website and login to your account or you could re-visit the Selective Sync settings and set the folders to sync, then wait for their contents to be downloaded to your Mac.
A word of caution. While you may choose to employ Selective Sync on one of your Macs, please make sure that you have at least one Mac that does not use Selective Sync. This way you’ll have at least one mac that has a full local copy of all of the data that you store in Dropbox. Also, make sure that this particular Mac is backed up so you have your own backup of all of the data you store in Dropbox.
Use XtraFinder To Get Back Colorful Labels
Do you miss how Labels used to work? Do you miss having colorful shortcuts in your Sidebar? If so, then consider using XtraFinder. Starting with OS X Mavericks (OS X 10.9) Apple changed how Labels work. In fact, they renamed the feature from Labels to Tags. Labels used to add a background color to a file or folder’s entire name. Now Tags only adds a small colored dot next to the filename. Many clients have told me that they don’t like this new style of Tags. Read More from “Use XtraFinder To Get Back Colorful Labels”
Revert To Using iPhoto Instead Of Photos
Did you recently upgrade your Mac to OS X version 10.10.3 and find that iPhoto stopped working? Have you tried Apple’s new Photos application and decided that you didn’t like it? If so, you can revert to using iPhoto if, before you installed OS X 10.10.3, you had been running iPhoto version 9.6 and a previous version of OS X Yosemite (aka version 10.10.x). Read More from “Revert To Using iPhoto Instead Of Photos”
Consider A Dymo Label Printer
Do you print a lot of mailing labels so you can send envelopes to clients? Do you have all of your client’s and friend’s street addresses stored in Apple’s Contacts application? If so, you might want to consider a label printer like the ones made by Dymo. Read More from “Consider A Dymo Label Printer”
An Easy Way To Print Selected Text
Do you sometimes want to print a paragraph of an email message, Word document or web page? If so, here’s an incredibly fast and easy way to do this on your Mac.
- Select the text that you want to print
- Press Command-Shift-Y. This will create a new Sticky Note and paste the selected text on it. Text formatting will be retained.
- Press Command-P to bring up the print window. Click the Print button to send the sticky note to your printer.
That’s it. If you’d like to delete the Sticky Note click the tiny square in the note’s upper left corner. If you’d like to keep the Stick Note simply quit the Stickies application.
Use A Link Checker to Test Your Business’ Website
Are you a small business owner with a website? Does your website link to other websites? If so, you might want to use a link checker to make sure all the links to other sites are working.
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USB Hub Considerations and Recommendations
Do you frequently run out of USB ports on your Mac? If so, then you might want to consider purchasing a USB hub. A USB hub is a splitter. The hub plugs into 1 of the USB ports on your Mac and then gives you a handful of additional USB ports. Hubs typically come with 4, 7 or sometimes 10 USB ports. Read More from “USB Hub Considerations and Recommendations”
Tara Gimmer Offers Professional Affordable Headshots
Do you need an affordable, professional photo of yourself for your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook profile or your own web site? Do you hate having your picture taken? If so, you should consider working with Tara Gimmer. Tara recently created an updated headshot for me and I’m pleased with the results, but judge for yourself. Read More from “Tara Gimmer Offers Professional Affordable Headshots”
Put Your Commonly Used Wireless Networks At The Top Of The List
Do you know that your Mac automatically builds a list of every wireless network to which it has been connected? When your Mac wakes up, it scans the airwaves to see which networks are available and then runs through this list of known networks trying to find a match. For this reason, you should make sure that networks that you frequently use, such as your home and work networks are at the top of this list. By putting frequently used networks at the top, your Mac will find them and connect to them a bit more quickly. Read More from “Put Your Commonly Used Wireless Networks At The Top Of The List”
Equip Your Next Mac With Enough Memory
If you’re going to be buying a Mac soon, please make sure you equip it with enough memory (RAM) when you buy it. Increasingly, Apple is soldering memory into the computer. The advantage of doing this is that computer cases can be thinner and one can get a bit better performance. The disadvantage is that it will no longer be possible to add more memory at a later date, which used to be a very common upgrade. Consequently, I increasingly recommend buying a custom-configured Mac that has enough storage space and memory instead of a pre-configured, off-the-shelf Mac. Read More from “Equip Your Next Mac With Enough Memory”
How To Recycle Styrofoam In Seattle
Do you have styrofoam peanuts or large blocks of styrofoam that you’d like to recycle? I order a lot of computer products online and unbox a lot of new computers that clients have bought. For many years, I’ve dropped off styrofoam peanuts at my neighborhood shipping company, Sip and Ship in Ballard. Many neighborhoods have private shipping stores or a FedexOffice store that I would assume would be happy to receive this material. It’s been tough to find options for recycling large blocks of styrofoam, but I’ve found some. Read More from “How To Recycle Styrofoam In Seattle”
Apple Starts MacBook Pro Video Repair Program
Do you own a 15″ or 17″ MacBook Pro? Does it suffer from distorted video, no video or random reboots? If so, the cause might be a defective video card. If this is the cause, Apple may repair it for free. Read More from “Apple Starts MacBook Pro Video Repair Program”
Use Malwarebytes To Remove Genieo and Other Malware
Is your web browser acting oddly all of the sudden? Do funny windows pop-up showing you ads? Do your Google searches look weird? If so, you might have inadvertently installed some adware on your Mac. Starting in late 2014 I noticed a rash of Macs infected with adware. Adware is software that makes ads pop-up in your web browser. The good news is Malwarebytes for Mac, can be used to remove most adware as well as other types of malware from your Mac. Use these instructions to download a copy of Malwarebytes and scan your Mac. Read More from “Use Malwarebytes To Remove Genieo and Other Malware”
5 Tips To Avoid Common DNS Problems
Last week’s Tech Tip explained how the DNS system works and introduced you to the most common DNS records: NS, MX and A records. This week’s Tech Tip lists 5 DNS management tips for small business owners to avoid common problems. If you follow these tips you’ll reduce the chances that your company’s web site or email will ever stop working. Read More from “5 Tips To Avoid Common DNS Problems”
Understanding DNS Basics
Understanding DNS (Domain Name System) is important because it determines if your business can send and receive emails and if your business’ website is visible to the world. This Tech Tip explains basic DNS terminology like domain names, name servers, DNS lookup and common DNS records like NS, A and MX. I believe that most small business owners should understand the basics of how DNS works. Any time you ask an employee or contractor to make changes that will affect your DNS records, you should be sure that this person knows what they are doing. Even if you aren’t a small business owner, I think you’ll find this overview of the DNS system useful. Read More from “Understanding DNS Basics”
Comcast Now Offers IMAP Email Accounts
Do you use a Comcast email account? If so, you might be interested to know that Comcast email accounts are now IMAP-enabled. IMAP refers to the way your email application, such as Apple Mail, interacts with the mail server. IMAP offers more sophisticated email management if you access your email account using multiple computers, tablets or smartphones. (Read this previous Tech Tip about IMAP if you’d like to learn a bit more.) Comcast started to support IMAP around the end of 2013.
Tips For Taming Your Email Inbox
Do you struggle to stay on top of the high volume of email messages that arrive in your Inbox every day? Many people struggle with this, including me. Here are some suggestions on how you can start to tame your Inbox. You don’t need to implement all of these suggestions. Instead, just pick a few that sound like they would be effective for you and use them. If you have your own suggestions, please send them to me and I’ll update this list. Read More from “Tips For Taming Your Email Inbox”
Options For Archiving Email From Entourage Or Outlook
Do you use either Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Entourage as your email application? Do you store thousands and thousands of email messages? Do you infrequently access many of these messages? If so, you could consider archiving these messages. Once the message has been archived then you can delete them from Outlook which will remove them from Outlook’s or Entourage’s mail database. This makes the database smaller, faster and less prone to having problems. The messages can still be accessed, typically from within the archiving application.
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