Update March 2013: Added instructions for OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion.
Update October 2014: Added OS X 10.9, Mavericks, to the instructions for Mountain Lion.
Did you know that Mac OS X has a built-in zoom feature? This feature lets you zoom in on your screen so everything on the screen is larger. Of course, when you zoom in you can only see part of the screen on your monitor. You’ll need to scroll around to see the other parts of the screen. Read More from “How to Zoom In on Your Mac’s Screen”
Did you know that you can take pictures of what’s on your iPhone’s screen? For example, you can take pictures of a text message, a web page or an email configuration screen. Read More from “How to Take Screen Snapshots on Your iPhone”
[October 2022. See Sound Support’s updated post on Find Your Cursor Using Simple Mouse Locator]
If you ever struggle to find your Mac’s cursor then I recommend that you use MouseLocator. This free application puts a halo around the cursor to help your eyes locate it. You can configure how long the halo is displayed. It can be displayed for as little as half of a second, permanently or somewhere in between. You can also control how long the cursor must be idle before the halo will re-appear. Read More from “Do you need help finding your Mac’s cursor?”
I’ve been a long-time customer of Sip & Ship. It is a friendly one-stop shop that is a great resource for my one-person business. They offer a long list of business-related services which are available a la carte. They also offer coffee, muffins, sandwiches, greeting cards and personal gifts. It’s run by a husband and wife team, Diana and Steve, and their staff. I use their Ballard location. A few years ago they expanded and opened a second store in Greenwood. Read More from “Sip & Ship offers private mailbox, shipping, shredding and notary services”
Here are some safety tips on protecting digital images. The tips come from one of DriveSavers’s recent newsletters. DriveSavers is a top tier data recovery company. Read More from “How to Protect Your Digital Images”
If you need to recover digital photos from your camera’s compact flash (CF) or secure digital (SD) card you should know about Glazer’s Camera’s data recovery services. Read More from “Recovering digital photos from corrupt or erased compact flash or SD cards”
All batteries will eventually experience diminished efficiency, storage capacity and will need to be replaced. However, regularly recalibrating your Lithium-ion battery will help to prolong your battery’s life and health, which will help reduce the frequency with which you’ll have to buy a new battery. Read More from “How To Calibrate Your Macintosh Laptop’s Battery”
Do you want to check to see if your Mac is still under warranty from Apple? The technical support section of Apple’s web site lets you easily check to see if your Apple device is protected by either its built-in or the extended hardware warranty. Here are simple instructions on how to do so. Read More from “How to Check Your Mac’s Hardware Warranty Coverage”
Do you want to give your computer to another person, but before giving it away you want to remove all of your data? If so, here’s an easy way to accomplish this. We’ll create a user account for the person who’ll be using the Mac, then delete your user account. Read More from “How to Delete a User Account in Mac OS X”
Here are instructions on how to use Disk Utility to securely erase a hard drive connected internally or externally to your Mac. These instructions were written for Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.6. The process is very similar on older versions of Mac OS X, but the screens will look a bit different. Read More from “How To Securely Erase A Mac’s Hard Drive”
Testing your backup system is a critical, but often over-looked task. You need to monitor and test your backup system not only so you know that it’s properly copying your files, but more importantly so you learn how to use your backup system to retrieve a file. By practicing, you’ll be confident and ready when disaster strikes and you need to restore a file. Read More from “How to Restore a File from Your Time Machine Backup”
How big is a kilobyte? How big is a gigabyte? Relative to each other, how big are any two files? Here’s some information which can help you get your head around file sizes and comparing them. Read More from “How Big is a Kilobyte?”
You can use these instructions to retrieve any saved password from your keychain, such as the password to your wireless network. The keychain is a secure place to store passwords. Read More from “Retrieve an Airport Password From Your Keychain”
Monitoring and testing a backup system are two critically important steps which many people skip. If you don’t consistently monitor and periodically test your backup system, you could be in for a big surprise when disaster strikes and you try to retrieve files from your backup system. Monitoring and testing gives you confidence that your backup is running properly. Read More from “Testing Your Carbon Copy Cloner Full Backup”
Here are instructions on how to have Time Machine switch between two backup hard drives.
My recommendations for setting up a comprehensive backup system for your Mac include swapping between two external hard drives. While one hard drive is being used to backup your Mac the other drive is kept off-site in a secure location. Using multiple drives provides protection against fire, floods and burglars, which could affect both your Mac and the backup drive sitting next to it. Read More from “Setting Up Time Machine To Use Multiple Hard Drives”
Did you know that Apple’s Mail application automatically builds a list of all recipients to whom you’ve sent email? I think it’s very useful to review this list a few times each year. By reviewing this list you can easily add useful email addresses to your Contacts and delete outdated email addresses or ones that contain typos. Read More from “How to Use Mail’s Previous Recipients List”
Here are instructions on how to remove and re-add a print queue. I commonly do this to fix printer issues. Somehow the old queue gets “damaged” and stops working properly. As long as you don’t mind losing any of the print jobs which may be sitting in the queue, go ahead and do the following: Read More from “How to Remove and Re-Add a Printer’s Print Queue in Mac OS X 10.6”
Here are some examples of how I use QuickLook. I often have a Word or Excel file I need to reference. I don’t need to make a change to the document I just want to read some information from it or remind myself of some details. Read More from “QuickLook is a Fast Way to View a File”
Are you considering an online backup system? Here’s an overview of the pros and cons of such systems. Read More from “What are the Pros and Cons of Online Backup Systems?”
Here are instructions on how to reindex your Quicken Data File.
Read More from “How to Reindex Your Macintosh Quicken Data File”