How to Hide and Switch Macintosh Applications

Is your Mac’s screen cluttered with too many windows? Do you drag windows left and right, up and down, trying to find the window that you’re looking for? There is a better way to manage window clutter on your Mac. Apple offers a number of tools and techniques including Spaces, Expose, Minimize Window and others. This article talks about my preferred method. Read More from “How to Hide and Switch Macintosh Applications”

Replacement Applications for PageMaker

Are you looking for a replacement for PageMaker? Did you like the easy of use that PageMaker offered? It was a basic page layout application. Adobe realized that PageMaker wasn’t capable enough for professional designers so they replaced it with InDesign. However, InDesign is overkill for many small business owners who just want to create simple flyers or newsletters. Here’s a list of applications that you mind find as a suitable replacement for PageMaker. In a future blog post I will compare the best of this list. Read More from “Replacement Applications for PageMaker”

How To Reduce The Amount Of Spam In Your Inbox

Dealing with spam or junk email in your Inbox is a waste of time. If you run a small business, the time wasted identifying and deleting email can add up over weeks or months. This is true whether you are one person or a multi-person team. Here are a couple of ways to reduce the amount of spam that you receive in your email Inbox. Read More from “How To Reduce The Amount Of Spam In Your Inbox”

What Shredding Options Are Available For Small Businesses And Residences In Seattle And Bellevue?

Do you have occasional shredding needs that are too much for the shredder that you have in your office or at home? If so, you might like to know about Datasite’s residential shredding services This is an excellent service for Puget Sound small office and home office customers. Read More from “What Shredding Options Are Available For Small Businesses And Residences In Seattle And Bellevue?”

How To Create An Encrypted Disk Image

This post builds upon the information that I presented in my last blog entry about how to securely store personal information on your Mac. A disk image is a special kind of file. When a disk image file is opened, it makes the computer think that an actual disk, like a CD, has been physically inserted into the computer. Thus, a disk image file, or more simply a disk image, can be thought of as a virtual disk. Read More from “How To Create An Encrypted Disk Image”

How Can I Securely Store Passwords On My Mac?

Do you have personal or sensitive information about yourself or your clients on your Mac? Things such as credit card numbers or passwords? If so, I recommend storing this information in a special kind of file known as an encrypted disk image. I store a list of my own passwords and other sensitive information in such a file on my Mac laptop. This file is always readily available while still being inaccessible to others, even if my laptop were stolen. Read More from “How Can I Securely Store Passwords On My Mac?”

Have You Had Problems Finding A File On Your Mac?

Apple’s search tool, Spotlight, does not search every folder on your Mac’s hard drive. Apple configures it to skip some folders that it thinks you won’t want to search. For example, Spotlight doesn’t search inside the various Library folders on your Mac. If you’re looking for a font, such as Helvetica, Spotlight won’t find it for you. Read More from “Have You Had Problems Finding A File On Your Mac?”

Do You Have A Lot Of Email Messages To File? Use MsgFiler

Would you like to spend less time filing your email messages? If so, you should try MsgFiler. It is a keyboard-based filing system for Apple Mail. MsgFiler (read “Message Filer”) is critical to me. I should note that Mail uses the term Mailbox instead of mail folder, but in this context they are synonymous. Read More from “Do You Have A Lot Of Email Messages To File? Use MsgFiler”

Use Google’s Advanced Search Features

Here are a couple of tips to help you use Google more productively. Google supports many advanced search criteria to refine a search. This Google page gives you an overview of the available criteria. The two criteria that I use most frequently are “this exact phrase” and “search within a site”. Let me give you examples of how I use these features. Read More from “Use Google’s Advanced Search Features”

Did You Know That You Can Dictate Email Messages On Your iPhone?

It’s possible to have your iPhone transcribe your speech. Last week, Dragon Dictation, a temporarily free application, was added to the iTunes App Store. This application records your voice, transcribes it, and lets you paste the text into a new email message, text message or any other iPhone application. I tested it last week. It’s not perfect, but works surprisingly well. Read More from “Did You Know That You Can Dictate Email Messages On Your iPhone?”