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

Thought your Mac was immune to a computer virus? Think again. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald reported that two Mac users were the victims of the what security experts call the first-ever virus for Mac OS X.

The Mac’s vulnerability could also increase as Apple transitions to a product line that uses microprocessors made by Intel, security experts said.

Read the entire article at Macs Becoming Virus Targets .

The Web can be a scarey place, especially for kids. As a repsonsible parent, you want to do all you can to protect them from the unsavory sites. One of the first things that you can do is to activate Parental Controls in Safari.

The first step is to create a separate account for your child (or children). Next, turn on parental controls by choosing System Preferences, clicking on the Accounts icon, and selecting your kid’s account. In account preferences click on the Parental Controls tab and click on the checkbox next to Safari.

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?

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.