The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

I try to use a unique password for different websites. Sometimes I have trouble remembering them all. Fortunately, I don’t have to. I can use Keychain to remember them for me. And if I really need to know a password, I can use Keychain Access to look it up!

Start by opening Keychain Access. You’ll find it by looking in your Applications folder, then inside the Utilities folder. Use the search field in the upper-right corner to find a website. Double-click on the result to open a dialog box and turn on the Show Password checkbox. You may be prompted to type in your administrative password.

I was working on a calendar in InDesign recently. I pasted my text into a text frame and wanted to fill the frame with a swatch color. To do that, I needed to switch from the Type tool to the Selection tool. But there’s a problem using the keyboard shortcuts.

Since I had been using the Type tool, pressing V (the keyboard shortcut for the Selection tool) added an extra letter to my text. The trick: press the command key and click on the frame. Now press V to switch to the Selection tool.

Playlist , a website focusing on digital music across both platforms, has a great feature article on how to coax a few more minutes of Tom Waits out of your prescious iPod. In addition to basic tips, he provides links to a few accessories that will give extra energy to the device. Given that the article was written by Christopher Breen (who wrote a few books about iPods for Peachpit Press), I’ll put my money on the fact that he’s a reliable source.

During the course of my workday, I find myself constantly having to switch between applications. Sure, I could use the Dock or Expose. But there’s a handy keyboard shortcut that I like that lets me quickly switch applications.

Hold down the command and tab keys to bring up the application switcher. Use the tab key to cycle forward through the open applications. Use the tilde key to cycle backward through the open applications.

But that’s not all, folks. If you want to quit an application, while still holding down the command key, press the letter Q.

Idiosyncrasies.org offers up a delightfully comprehensive guide for those making the leap from Windows XP to Apple’s OS X. The article gives a great list of comparable features, keyboard shortcuts, and websites where you can nab useful free software. All in all, an easy and informative read even for those well versed in OS X.

OK, I admit it. I still carry around an old-fashioned address book. Well, I recently discovered that I could transfer my contacts from Address Book, plus info from iCal, to my iPod.

If you are using a Mac and iSync, it’s as easy.

To import all information using a Mac and iSync:

1. Connect iPod to your computer.
2. Open iSync and choose Devices > Add Device.
3. Select iPod and click Sync Now.

iSync transfers the data from iCal and Mac OS X Address Book to your iPod.

I love the People and Yellow Pages widgets to track down addresses and phone numbers. I also love the fact that I can instantly add the info that I find in these widgets to Address Book with just one (well, two) clicks.

Once you’ve found the listing you want to keep, just click the little plus sign that appears next to the address. In the confirmation dialog box that appears, click the Yes button and the info immediately appears in Address Book.Could it be any easier?

The often-correct rumor mongers at AppleInsider are speculating about what Apple has to offer at the upcoming National Association of Broadcasters conference this Sunday. Keeping with Apple’s flair for stepping ahead of deadlines, it looks like the 17-inch MacBook Pro might be early as well. Originally talked about with a June debut, it looks like Apple may be showing off the 17-inch powerhouse at this weekend’s Las Vegas conference. Also in the rumor mill, attendees may get a peek at the Intel native version of Final Cut Pro, which should support Blu-ray and HD-DVD burning.

Full article from AppleInsider can be found here .

Say that you work in an application like Microsoft Word every day, all day. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the application open every time you start or log in to your Mac?

No problemo. Find the application alias in your dock, then either Control-click (or right-click if you happen to have a two-button mouse like I do) and choose Open at Login from the contextual menu.

If you need to take a screen shot — and in my 10 years as a trainer I’ve had to take LOTS of them — here’s a nifty keyboard shortcut.

Press Shift-Command-Spacebar-4, which is a bit ackward (I had to use both hands) and your cursor changes into a crosshair (sometimes it changes into a camera icon). Just click and drag a bounding box around what you want to capture and release the mouse button to take the picture, which shows up on your dekstop as Picture 1 (or 2 or 3 depending on how many pictures you take).