My MacBook - Battery Maintenance

The battery calibration for my MacBook was achieved via these steps:

1. Plugged in the power adapter and fully charged my battery until the LED on the power adapter plug changed to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar showed "charged."
2. Used my MacBook while the adapter was plugged in for a couple of hours.
3. Disconnected the power adapter while my MacBook was still on and worked on battery power until the battery got low, and the low battery warning dialog appeared on screen.
4. Saved my work but went on "using" my MacBook until it automatically went to sleep.
5. Turned off the MacBook (I could also have allowed it to sleep) for a minimum of five hours.
6. Connected the power adapter and used my MacBook until the battery was fully charged again.

Hope this helps others maintain their batteries for a long, trouble-free life!

Updated to Snow Leopard today!

So I finally took the plunge and asked somebody to buy for me the latest available CD of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. And he did! Although not strictly "the latest" it was the latest "available" at his point of purchase -- 10.6.3. I thought I'd share for posterity my experience in installing the OS ... So, here goes ... my version of a step-by-step ...

1) Ensured that I backed up my old OS X Leopard files FIRST! Quite quick (about an hour) because I didn't have that many files on my hard disk, being one of those people who backup and delete unused dox, etc., quite regularly. I used the tried-and-trusted Disk Utility method rather than Time Machine.

2) Disconnected ALL peripherals and then bunged in the installation CD and began to follow the prompts ... quite simple and the only worry I had was when, 10 minutes into the install (again -- the whole thing took me just a little bit over an hour because I don't have a huge lot of data) it rebooted without warning. Fortunately I have had experience with other OSs doing this *by design*, so I didn't touch anything and waited patiently for about 30-40 seconds and, right enough, my disk-drive made a slight noise and the install process seamlessly resumed from where it left off.

 

 3) When the installation completed (again, me waiting patiently without touching a single key), I got back my very own desktop with a changed menu.

4) The system then rebooted for the second and last time during the installation (don't remember if it was before I got the Setup Assistant menu or after) and I then received a "Welcome" flash-like presentation in various languages which ended with this pic ...

Quite attractive, I thought!

After it verified for itself that I didn't need any further set-up tweaks, it said ...

 5) I pressed "Continue" and that was it! I got back my own Leopard-personalized desktop, short-cuts and everything! So familiar and comforting! Everything had gone smoothly, I thought -- "Praise be ...!" and thanks to Apple for a painless operation.

6) I remembered to click through my Apple -> Software Update sequence and ...

... the system proceeded to check for new software, which it found and, after I confirmed it, downloaded and installed the first set of updates ...

7) Once that was over and the system restarted, it automatically checked again and found some more updates which were necessary -- including some updated fonts, an update to the DVD utility and other stuff which I allowed it to download and install.

8) And that was it ... a truly painless experience. Everything just worked! I'm now posting this entry from my new 10.6.7 Mac OS X Snow Leopard!

9) All my old, trusted Apple-compliant software worked; my email and docs were intact; my network passwords and settings remained; my Firefox and Safari bookmarks were intact and even some 'older' non-Apple apps worked. I had to download the updated Gimp and Onyx software but that was child's play.

10) Guess I may need to download some more stuff once I operate the system some more; but for now I'm truly happy with this experience! Thanks again, Apple!

Ensure that Google search always defaults to google.com and not to google.co.xx

Ever experience a wee bit of irritation when you type google.com and the search page redirects itself to google.co.xx (xx being the country you are currently in?)

If you DON'T want this to happen, simply type /ncr after google.com

(http://www.google.com/ncr)

and you'll get the familiar google.com search page.

Find-my-iPhone now free!

If your iPhone's iOS is 4.2 or later, you can setup FindMyiPhone for free. (First-time free accounts need iPhone 4.) Here goes ...

1) On your iPhone, tap "Settings" and then "Mail, Contacts, Calendars."

2) Tap "Add Account" and then "MobileMe."

3) Type in your Apple ID and password.
(Already have an iTunes Store account?
* You already know your Apple ID.
No Apple ID?
* "Create Free Apple ID" and follow instructions.
Already a MobileMe subscriber?
* Enter your me.com or mac.com email address and password.)

4) Verify your account.
(MobileMe account says “Not Verified?”
* Check your email for a new Apple message.
* Click "Verify Now" and sign in with your Apple ID.

No verification email yet (even after a while?)
* Select your MobileMe account
* Tap "Resend Verification Email.")

5) Go back to the MobileMe screen on your iPhone. Ensure "Find My iPhone" is set to "ON."

6) When you see a "Find My iPhone" message, tap "Allow."

That's it! You can now check it out from Safari (or any other browser.)

Pix and other details available online at http://www.apple.com/iphone/find-my-iphone-setup/

Set up MS Outlook 2003 e-mail in Windows

Open MS Outlook, Go to E-mail Accounts - Tools.

In the E-mail Accounts wizard window - Add a new e-mail account - Next.

Server type - choose POP3 or IMAP - Next.

In Internet E-mail Settings (POP3/IMAP), type:

Your Name - Your First Name, Last Name.
E-mail Address - Yours.
User Name - Yours (your IT dept, may have fixed your email address as your User Name.)
Password - Yours.
Incoming mail server (POP3) - your POP server details.
Outgoing mail server (SMTP) - your SMTP server details.

In Internet E-mail Settings window - Outgoing Server tab - select My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication (if so set up by your IT dept.)

Use same settings as my incoming mail server (if so set up by your IT dept.)

In the Advanced tab, check whether the Outgoing server (SMTP) port is as set up by your IT dept. If not, change appropriately.

OK - Next - Finish.

Delete files/folders, bypassing your Mac's trashcan

One of the "missing" features on a Mac (according to me) is the absence of the Windows equivalent of Shift-Del to directly delete unwanted files without having to move them to the Trash and then deleting them from there.

Careful, though! You don't want to delete your entire hard disk by mistake. Check everything before you press Return!

Hope this workaround helps...

Launch your Terminal app and type

rm -rf
(note: press the spacebar after you've typed -rf)

Highlight files/folders you want to delete.

Drag them to your Terminal window (and you should see details of the files/folders you just dragged).

Again ... pl be Careful! You don't want to delete your entire hard disk by mistake. Check everything before you press Return!

Press Return to enter the command.

This will bypass the trash.
(note: you will not get any audio paper-crush feedback)

MS Outlook Command-line Options

Here's something for our Office on Windows users ...

MS Outlook command-line options … in case of outlook not behaving correctly. Use with caution, ONE AFTER ANOTHER and, after each one, check to see if your problem has gone away before trying the next...

Click Start - Run (and optionally key in the complete path to your Outlook.exe file) followed by a / and then ...

outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy
outlook.exe /Cleanfinders
outlook.exe /CleanReminders
outlook.exe /CleanViews
outlook.exe /CheckClient
outlook.exe /Recycle
outlook.exe /ResetFolders
outlook.exe /ResetOutlookBar
outlook.exe /Nopreview
outlook.exe /CleanSchedPlus

Regret I don't know the Mac 2011 equivalent commands ... :(

PDFs and your Mac

Thought I'd begin the year 2011 with a new (and hopefully helpful) series of notes; mostly to do with Apple Mac facilities ...

How to Create a PDF on your Mac
In Preview --

Step 1
Open a document in any program (Word documents work fine, as do text files, RTFs or any other documents).
Step 2
Select "File" > "Print."
Step 3
Click on "PDF" in the lower-left corner of the Print screen.
Step 4
Select "Save as PDF," type in the name of the file and click "Save."

How to Highlight Your Text

Step 1
Open the PDF in Preview.
Step 2
Select a line of text in the PDF.
Step 3
Click "Tools" in the top menu.
Step 4
Scroll down to "Mark Up" and click on "Highlight Text."
Step 5
Your text should be highlighted in yellow. You can also underline and strike through (will place a line through your text) with the "Underline Text" and "Strike Through Text" options.

How to Annotate Your PDF

Step 1
Open the PDF in Mac OSX's Preview.
Step 2
Click "Tools" in the top menu.
Step 3
Scroll down to "Annotate" and click on "Add Oval" (you can also add a rectangle).
Step 4
Drag your mouse to create an oval around some text.
Step 5
Double-click on the gray square in the bottom-right corner.
Step 6
Click on the "Color" box to change the color of your oval and you can change the thickness of the line by typing in a different number in the "Thickness" box. You can also check the "Dashed" check box to make a dashed outline.
Step 7
Click "Tools," scroll down to "Annotate" and select "Add Note."
Step 8
Click on the PDF where you want to add the note.
Step 9
Double-click the note.
Step 10
Select what kind of note you want to add in the "Annotations" window by clicking on the "Icon" drop-down. This will change the icon next to the note window. You can also alter the color of the note and icon.
Step 11
Type your note in the note box.

How to Move, Add Pages and Combine PDFs

Step 1
Open up one of the PDFs in Preview.
Step 2
Select a page in the sidebar and click-drag that page to move it to another spot in the document.
Step 3
Go to the Finder and locate an image you want to add to the PDF.
Step 4
Drag the image into the sidebar, between two pages. You have now added a page to the PDF.
Step 5
Use the Finder to find another PDF you want to add to the end of your current PDF.
Step 6
Drag the entire PDF into the sidebar, below the last page of the current PDF. You have now combined two PDF files into one.

Tips & Warnings

Save your work!