iLifeZone Episode 26 - The Tip Monster Again

Run Time: 34:47

Scott Bourne www.podcastingtricks.com and www.podcastgearguy.com

Derrick Story www.thedigitalstory.com

Colleen Wheeler digitalmedia.oreilly.com

John Foster pixelcorps.tv

Kenji Kato Pixelcorps.com

Craig Syverson Grunt Media

Well folks, it's that time again! Our third Tip Monster show! Be prepared... We pack a lot of tips into a 34 minute show, but luckily we also take notes for you...

Here we go...

Scott: If you're finally getting around to getting an Intel-based Mac, you might be using the migration assistant. The one thing it won't do is copy your Safari or Firefox plugins because they may not necessarily be compatible. The advice? Remove them before you do the migration and then reinstall Intel versions of the plugins. This will stop your browser from running in Rosetta and you'll see a big performance bump. Firefox plugins can be removed by going to the Add Ins menu and uninstalling each one one at a time. In Safari, you can remove plugins by deleting them from the ../Library/Internet Plugins folder off your root HD folder.

John: If you hold down the Command Key and click on a file's name in the title bar, it will show you exactly where that file is stored on your hard drive. If you select the final layer of the hierarchy, a Finder window will pop up with the file in it. This won't work with all apps, but it should work with most newer apps.

Derrick: You can customize your toolbar in Finder to include a button that will show you the path for something. Go to View, Customize Toolbar, and drag the Path button onto your Finder toolbar. You can then see exactly where you are at any point inside Finder. John's prior tip also works in Finder. If you want to send the path to someone, use Shift-Command-4 to do a custom screenshot and send it along.

Kenji: For people doing presentations using Keynote: If you want to be careful about the amount of time you're using on your presentation, you can enable the Presenter's Display in Keynote, and in it you can include a countdown timer that only you'll see.

Craig: When you create a new page in iWeb, you no longer have to use a default template and clear it out to start with a blank. (Vincent: I'm using version 1.1.2 and it has this blank template)

Scott: If you do create iWeb custom templates, or Aperture templates, etc., be sure you make backups of your templates. In some cases, an update will wipe out your templates. KEEP A BACKUP COPY!

Kenji: If you want to modify the default iWeb templates, you can do it inside the package for iWeb. Select iWeb in your Applications folder, click the Control Key, and click Show Package Contents. Click the Contents folder, then the Resources folder. In it, there's a folder called English.Iproj. Inside that folder is all the templates!

John: If you want to make your YouTube videos bigger, you can go into the System Preferences menu and select Keyboard and Mouse, then Mouse then enable Zoom Scroll Wheel While Holding and pick a key (on portable Macs, it's under the Trackpad menu) and you can use your mouse wheel to increase the zoom in on anything on your screen.

Derrick: In Preview, you can make a slideshow very quickly. Go to your Pictures folder and grab some JPEGS. Circle all of them and drop them on the Preview icon on your dock (you do have it on your dock, don't you?). Preview will open them all up and put thumbnails in the side drawer. Go to View, Slideshow, and BAM. If you move the mouse below the pictures, you get a nice control bar that you can use to advance, rewind, pause, or see thumbnails of the included images. Colleen points out that this is probably the same code that runs Slideshows from Mail.app (it is).

John: If you name your files 01filename 02filename 03filename 04filename and you open them in Preview, they'll open in that order. This is a good hack when tied in with Derrick's tip as a replacement for Keynote (henceforth known as Cheapnote).

Scott (Unofficial tip): Use Preview instead of Acrobat. It's infinitely faster.

Kenji: Tip for switchers: If you want to navigate Mac OS using only the keyboard, you can hold down the Control Key and F2. You'll see the Apple menu icon turn reverse (white Apple logo on a blue background). You can now navigate the menu using only your keyboard. It simulates the ALT key functionality in Windows!

Craig: SpyME is an app that allows you to remotely control other Macs on your network or remotely. It also includes drag and drop file transfer from machine to machine, but it's only $15 for 3 licenses!

Derrick: In iChat, you can fileshare. All you have to do is take the file you want to share and drop it on the person's name in the buddy window, and they click on the link to the filename, it works 99% of the time (except for the occasions where you're on a controlled corporate network).

And that's going to be it for this week, but have no fear... Part two of the Tip Monster show will be available in our next episode, so don't miss it if you want even more outstanding and amazing Mac tip goodness! This episode was sponsored by The Invisible Shield and Rogue Amoeba.

The next show lands on March 10, 2007. For more information email us at info@ilifezone.com.

Thanks to Pixelcorps for production assistance with the iLifeZone and Libsyn for hosting services.

Thanks also to Vincent Ferrari for the shownotes!

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