This is the second installment in a series of articles for new Mac users. Part 1 focused on the Menu Bar and the Dock. Most of the information presented in each is intended to be a detailed explanation of just a few basic elements that may be helpful during those first few days. Welcome to the Mac.

The Apple Menu and the Start Menu
While the Apple Menu and the Start Menu are similar they have a few differences worth noting. The Windows Start Menu offers a shortcut to applications, Search, and the system control panel as well as buttons to shutdown or logout.

The Apple Menu offers About this Mac which provides an informative window that offers a quick overview of your current operating system version, the processor and amount of ram installed as well as a button to open up the System Profiler that provides you with all the details of your system. The Apple Menu also offers a shortcut to Software Update, Apple's OS X downloads page, System Preferences, Dock and Location preferences, Recent Items (Applications, Documents, and Servers), Force Quit (for frozen applications), Sleep, Restart, Shut Down, and Logout for the current user.

System Preferences
Assessable via the Apple Menu, open it up and get to know your system. There are lots of options to explore. By default there are four categories: Personal, Hardware, Internet & Network, and System. My suggestion is that you go through one by one within the first few hours of use. Here's a tip and an example of the importance of knowing what's in System Prefs. One complaint many Windows to Mac switchers have is that they have to relearn the shortcuts, specifically shortcuts that involve the Control key such as Copy, Cut, and Paste. On Macs the default modifier key for those shortcuts is Command key (has the Apple and ⌘, next to the spacebar). Well, rather than relearn that shortcut just open the Keyboard and Mouse prefs. On the Keyboard tab, click the Modifier Keys button. Set the Control Key to Command, and Command Key to Control, then hit OK.
Now your shortcuts will work exactly as they did on your PC.

One last thing I'll mention regarding System Prefs is the nice touch of the integrated Spotlight searching which includes keywords that include Windows terms. For example, type "Wallpaper" and the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane will highlight.

The Finder
Need to open a document or application? Unless you've placed a shortcut in the Dock you will use the Finder to navigate your hard drive or Spotlight to search (covered in more detail below). Similar to Windows Explorer, the Finder is both a file browser as well as a searching tool. You can open a Finder window by clicking the blue happy face in the far left side of the dock. By default you'll see a nifty side pane in every Finder window that includes various shortcuts. In the top half you'll see Network and Macintosh HD as well as any mounted external drives or mounted optical media such as cds or dvds. In the bottom half of this pane you'll see shortcuts to your Desktop, Home directory, Applications, Documents, Movies, Music, and Pictures. Similar to the Dock at the bottom of your screen, you can add a shortcut to any folder or file to this pane in the Finder by simply dragging and dropping it. You can also remove any shortcut by dragging it from the pane and releasing it.

To learn more of the details check out Apple's Tour of Mac OS X. Part 1 of that tour is dedicated to the Finder.

Searching with Spotlight
Spotlight is your best friend. While the Finder makes managing files fairly easy, Spotlight makes finding files and nearly anything else on your Mac an effortless process with nearly instant results. Searching from the Spotlight menu in the top right of the screen is perhaps the quickest and most powerful technique. From the Spotlight menu you can find documents, images, contacts, tasks, events, email, system preferences and more. To give you just a hint of how great Spotlight searching is, it will find not just contacts by name, but will also search the text you have put into a contact's notes. The same goes for the notes in all iCal tasks and events. Spotlight looks into the content of pdf files and most text files as well. You'll also discover that Spotlight is integrated into every Finder window and most Apple apps such as the already mentioned System Preferences as well as Address Book, Mail, iCal, and Preview. Many of these applications allow you to create Smart Groups that are saved searches, updated real-time, based on Spotlight. While the search field in each specific application will only find content within that app they are all tied together by the same technology.

It's easy to get started with Spotlight but if you'll spend some time with it you'll find that there is a great deal of power buried within it. For more details on using this technology to the fullest, check out my post on project management with Spotlight.

Next up, Part 3: Keyboard Shortcuts, Installing Apps, The Help System

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh, Mac, Switchers, Switch to Mac

In the past year it seems clear that the number of Mac users is on the rise and many of these new Mac folk are likely coming from Windows. Welcome! This post is for anyone new to the Mac. Let me start by saying that while using a Mac is a bit different it is, in many ways, very similar to using any other graphical operating system.

The Menu Bar
Getting to know what's on screen. Let's start with the Menu Bar (top of the screen) and the Dock bottom of the screen). If you are used to windows you are used to seeing a menu at the top of each application window with menu items such as File, Edit, View, etc. On a Mac there is only one menu bar and it is at the top of the screen. When you first start your Mac the open application is the Finder so you will see, at the top left an Apple and then the word Finder with it's associated menu items: File, Edit, View, Go, Window, and Help. You'll also notice the Dock at the bottom will show various application icons which are shortcuts to the actual applications that reside in your Applications folder. Any open application will have a black triangle underneath as an indicator that it is running. When you first start only the Finder is open because it's always open as long as your Mac is running. To access a Finder browser window click its icon, a smily blue face at the far left of the dock. To open any application that has a shortcut in the dock just click once and you'll see the icon begin to bounce as it opens up. As you open applications you'll notice that they will initially take control of the menu at the top and their name will appear next to the Apple.

The Dock
Adding application shortcuts to the dock is easy. Click the Finder icon in the dock and in the new window you'll see that the left side contains a series of shortcuts to your Applications, Home, Desktop, Documents, etc... just click the Applications shortcut and you'll be taken to your Applications folder. Do add an application to the dock simply click its icon, hold, and drag it to the Dock, anyplace left of the little divider line. The right side of the divider line is for shortcuts to files and folders which are also easily added by dragging them and dropping them into any place to the right of the divider. To remove any shortcut from the Dock simply click, hold, and drag it from dock and release. You'll see it poof away though the actual file is still safely tucked away on your drive.

The Dock serves other functions besides opening applications. You can also use it to switch between applications that are already open by clicking on it's icon. When you do this you'll notice that the application's windows come to the front and the application name appears at the top left next to the Apple Menu. You can accomplish the same task of application switching by holding the Command (Apple) key and then click but release the tab key. You'll see a semi-transparent bar of enlarged icons of currently running applications appear in the middle of the screen. With each click of the tab key you'll see a highlight progress to the right across each icon. To perform the switch release the Command key when the highlight is over the application you want. Once you practice this trick you'll find it very useful for quickly switching between apps.

A few more dock tidbits. Click and hold almost any icon in the dock and you'll see a menu consisting of Open, Show in Finder, Open at Login, Remove from Dock. If you click and hold on a running application you'll also see other items such as Quit and Hide. Many applications have other functions built into their Dock menu. For example, click and hold the iTunes icon while it is running and you'll see Play, Pause, Next, Previous, the currently playing track, Shuffle, Repeat, and My Rating. This is great because it means that you can perform these functions in iTunes without actually switching to iTunes thus allowing you to keep focus on the task at hand. The Dock menu for the OS X Mail application offers items such as Get New Mail and Compose New Message. If you have placed a folder, perhaps your Home folder or your Applications folder in the Dock you can click and hold which will produce a nice pop-up menu allowing you to select items to open or even navigate into other folders.

Next up, Part 2: The Apple Menu, System Preferences, The Finder, and Spotlight Searching

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh, Mac, Switchers, Switch to Mac

Great timing. A few month ago I was hired by some folks to help with a form that would create a Vcard from the web. From there it has evolved into a regular web maintenance and content update gig. Early on in the process I suggested that we move the code over to valid xhtml and possibly refresh the design in the process. Well this past week I've been updating the code to valid xhtml and wouldn't you know it just as I was preparing to convert a large and messy table I came across this hint at MacOSX Hints which details using TextEdit for converting text to valid html or xhtml. I code most of my sites by hand using Smultron so this caught my eyes as a great potential time saver and particularly helpful for converting this table.

From the hint:

...if you work in a native Cocoa application like TextEdit using only the tools Apple provides for word processing (which admittedly take some getting used to, and handle only basic formatting needs -- much like basic HTML itself), you can easily work in a WYSIWYG mode and then convert the file to clean HTML that you won't be embarrassed to call your own.

Until yesterday, I thought TextEdit's HTML conversion ability was on a par with that of Word and Pages. That's probably because in its default mode, it is. However, unlike those apps, the surprisingly powerful TextEdit provides some very handy, simple options to produce clean HTML when you need that. Here's a brief set of steps to take advantage of this capability:

1. Copy and paste your Cocoa-formatted text into a new TextEdit document. (Hint: TextEdit provides an Application Service (New Window Containing Selection) in the Services menu for this once you select the text in the originating app.)

2. Open TextEdit's Preferences and select the Open and Save tab.

3. Change Document Type to either HTML 4.01 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Strict, depending on whether you want your code to be XHTML compliant or not.

4. Change Styling to No CSS. Note that this will strip all font and style information from the file, except for the basics like bold and italics.

5. From the TextEdit menubar, select File/Save As.

6. In the Save As dialog box, give your file a name and hard disk location. Then, change the File Format selection to HTML, and click Save.

7. Now, when you click on your new HTML file in the Finder, it will open with your default web browser. If you examine the source code, you'll see nothing but simple, pure HTML (or XHTML).

I set TextEdit's prefs to export with no css and copied the table in question directly from the page and pasted it into a new TextEdit document and sure enough after export to html I had a lean and mean valid table with all of the garbage stripped out. Wowza! Saved me oodles of time and I have a hunch it will be a handy trick I'll use again for other quick edits.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, TextEdit, Web Development

I've blogged before about the power of Spotlight as a project manager. The longer I use this method the happier I am with it. Today I created a nifty little Automator Plugin that makes it even easier. Before I get to the plugin let me emphasize that in order for this method of Spotlight-based project organization to work it requires constant tagging of any new project object. Contacts get tags in their notes, iCal events and todos get tags in the notes field, email in Mail gets a project tag via MailTags and all folders and files get a tag in the Spotlight Comment field. If I am consistent in the tagging I never have to worry about missing a relevant object in any project Spotlight search.

Before we get to the creating the Automator plugin, make sure you have enabled folder actions. You can do this from the Finder's contextual menu, "Enable Folder Actions." Another way, go to your Applications > Applescript > Folder Actions Setup . Run that script and click the box in the top left to enable folder actions then close it.

Now, about that Automator Plugin. It is so simple I can't believe I have not thought of it before. Open a new document in Automator and drag the "Add Spotlight Comment" into the work area. Leave the field blank and open the Options disclosure, check the "Show Action When Run" box. Save it as a Plugin and choose Folder Actions from the drop down. You'll be prompted to attach this action to a current folder. Go ahead and choose any current project folder.

Whenever I start a new project my first step is to create a new folder in my Current Projects folder in my Documents folder. From now on, my second step will be adding a new folder action to this project folder immediately after I create it. Select the folder, control click, navigate to the "Attach a Folder Action" in the contextual menu. This will bring up a dialog that should go straight to the "Folder Action Scripts" folder (Home>Library>Scripts>Folder Action Scripts) which contains my new Automator Plugin which I attach to the folder. After that I never have to remember to add the project keyword to the Spotlight Comments field for any new file I add to the folder! Any time I drag and drop or save I'll get a handy little window that prompts me to add the comment right then.

I remember that within the first week of Tiger's release I had created a Finder Plugin using the "Add Spotlight Comment" and it has come in handy. I've also been adding Spotlight Comments using a plugin for Quicksilver. But both of those methods require that I remember to add the tag after I've saved it. I almost always do but I forget sometimes. With this Folder Action method I don't have to remember or even initiate the action.

In the time since Tiger's release I've seen various folks mention their desire to have the option to add Spotlight Comments at the time that they save a new file so I know I'm not alone. It seems likely that Leopard will bring this and other Spotlight enhancements to OS X. Until then we can have this feature now thanks to Automator!

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Automator, Spotlight, Folder Actions, Project Management

Apple has posted a page covering ten basic steps for Mac Maintenance. Generally good advice as you would expect given the source.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Mac Maintenance

Wow. One of the best tips ever. If you use Tiger and iPhoto you can use Automator to create a contextual menu plugin that will bring up a mini iPhoto photo browser anywhere, anytime. No need to open iPhoto to use your photos!

1. Open Automator, and click iPhoto.
2. From the list of actions, select Ask for Photos, and drag it to the right-hand pane.
3. Save this as a plug-in, and optionally select Script Menu (the script menu that displays in the menu bar) so it is accessible anywhere. (If this menu is not visible, launch the AppleScript Utility in /Applications/Applescript, and check 'Show Script Menu in menu bar.')

Next time you need a picture from your iPhoto library, use your contextual menu or select this action from the AppleScript menu.

Via MacOSX Hints

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, iPhoto, Automator

For over a year I've been seeking a way to host QuickTime movies on my iMac which I could view, via the network, on my PowerBook. Seems simple but the problem is that encoding at high quality results in a file too choppy to play back via QuickTime. With iTunes 6.02 Apple finally included the ability to share the files via iTunes which is what I wanted in the first place. The great benefit of iTunes enabled movie sharing is that the movie is buffered as it is played which means that playback is smooth. No stuttering playback!

But not all is rosey just yet. We're now at iTunes 6.04 and there are still a few bugs in the process.

The first problem I ran into was seeing videos that had been imported into iTunes previous to version 6.02. After reimporting them I was able to see them in the shared videos in the iMac shared library but not able to play most of them. Upon double clicking I was treated to the spinning beach ball and had to force quit iTunes. Dealing with this second problem requires a program called Lostify which "is a metadata tagger for MP4 videos. It runs on Mac OS X, and the tags it produces aim to be compatible with iTunes." It is beta software and only works with MP4 files but it seems to work. The developer warns that it is beta software so be careful.

Here's the process. Again, from within iTunes delete the movie from the host Mac's iTunes library but do not delete the file(When you select the movie in iTunes and hit the delete key you'll get an iTunes dialog box that will ask if you "want to move the selected items to the Trash, or keep them in the iTunes Music Folder", choose the button labeled "Keep Files"). Open Lostify and drag the MPEG-4 file (from within the Finder) to the Lostify icon in the dock which should bring up a window with all sorts of metadata options. Once you've entered your data Lostify will produce a second copy of your movie in the original directory which will have "temp" in the filename. My suggestion is to rename the original file or trash it (but don't empty the trash yet!) and then rename the temp file to the original name. Then hop into iTunes and reimport the new file. Play the movie in iTunes to confirm that everything is good (you chould compare the files in the finder too and confirm that the sizes are the same or very similar). After you've confirmed the file is good you can safely empty the trash. This new version of the movie should work on any Mac that is accessing the shared movie via iTunes.

Make some popcorn and enjoy your movies!

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, iTunes, iTunes Video, iTunes Sharing

I recently wiped my drive and reinstalled OS 10.4 as well as all my apps. I keep an up-to-date back-up so putting all my files (This included my fully intact iPhoto library) back in place was fairly easy. However, after reinstalling iPhoto and using it I happened to notice that my photos no longer showed up in Spotlight keyword searches. The keywords are still there in my iPhoto library as were all my smart albums. So, within iPhoto everything seemed fine. The problem seemed to be that the Spotlight indexing process was not seeing the iPhoto data.

I tried several different "fixes" such as assigning a new keyword to all the photos in my library, closing iPhoto, re-opening it and then deleting that keyword. The idea is that it would force a re-index of the iPhoto Spotlight index. This seems to work for some users though it did not work for me. Also, assigning a new keyword to 2000+ photos takes a few minutes as does removing it. The whole process had my computer's processor pegged at 100% for 20 minutes and during that time it was unusable.

What did work was similar in concept but much easier, faster, and did not make the computer unresponsive: Open iPhoto, select the main Library, select all photos in that library, control click on a photo to get the contextual menu, navigate to the rating for the photo and assign it a rating. Wait a few seconds to let iPhoto do it's thing and then shut it down. Within the few seconds of iPhoto shutting down and writing changes to your iPhoto library Spotlight indexed the changes. Fixed! Optional step, open iPhoto back up and select all your photos and remove the rating.

The downside of this is that if you use the iPhoto rating system and you have already rated your photos this will void that. I do not use this rating system at all so it was not a problem.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, iPhoto, iPhoto Keywords, Spotlight

If you have downloaded and are using Camino (You have, haven't you?) you may be interested in adding a few new features. Enter CamiTools which will add:

- a toolbar search engine editor for Camino
- an image and script blocker for Camino
- Flashblock for Camino
- configure many aspects of Camino
- it lets you switch the appearance style (Aqua, Unified or Metal) and hide the status bar
- open your existing Camino profile or create a new one
- define your own styles for the pages you're visiting
- sync your bookmarks with a ftp server

All very nice additions. In particular I wanted to mention the ability to easily add new search engines to the default drop down. After you've installed CamiTools proceed to the NadaMac search engine page where you can download cepfiles for 1300 search engines. My favorite thus far is Flickr keyword searching closely followed by the imdb search. Very cool and easy to do. Interested? First, lets jump to the search engine list.

Next you'll want to browse the list and download the cepfiles:

- Download the .cepfile: Control click on the search engine you need and select 'Download Link Target...'
- Open CamiSearch or the search tab of Camino ExtraPrefs and click on 'Configure'
- Click on 'Load' and select the downloaded .cepfile
- Restart Camino

Enjoy.

I've been using Camino since it's early days and for he past 8 months it has been my default browser. My primary reason: speed and resource usage. On my 1 GHZ PowerBook Camino seems to use the least amount of memory and processor of all the OS X browsers and this helps keep my laptop a little cooler. Another benefit is the speed at which Camino backs through my previous pages. I'm on dial-up and the backwards browsing through my history is much faster in Camino then any other browser because it loads from cache... it is instant. Safari and others seem to want to reload every revisited page.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Camino, OS X Browsers

Not too long ago I discussed the lack of development for Bonjour. One aspect of what I've been looking for is the ability to share calendars easily via Bonjour. Finally, someone has done it! Check out: CalTalk 0.9 - VersionTracker

Set up in less than 10 seconds. Sweet. Of course I'd still like to see this integrated into iCal but this will do for now!

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, iCal, Bonjour

Do you use iPhoto to organize your digital images? Do you tag your iPhoto images with keywords? If you're not you should and here's a tool that makes it easier: Keyword Assistant. Give it a try and you'll discover a totally new power within iPhoto that also leverages the power of OS X Tiger. Keyword Assistant installed you'll discover a new menu and shortcut in iPhoto that brings forth a small simple window that greatly speeds and simplifies the process of adding keywords to your images. You can also create new keywords right from this new mini-window.

With iPhoto keywords you'll discover a whole new level of organization within iPhoto and a powerful way to use Smart Albums that also tie into Tiger's Spotlight technology. Very cool. Making iPhoto Smart Albums is quick, easy, and an amazingly powerful tool assuming keywords have been assigned to photos. Just control click in the left pane of iPhoto (where your albums reside) and choose "new smart album" or choose it from the iPhoto File menu. This will bring up a dialog box. In the first drop down menu choose keyword leave the second menu as contains and then in the empty field add your keyword. I now have smart albums for each keyword I've created and assigned to my photos. If I want to see all my ocean pictures I just select that smart album and there they are. Instantly. No searching.

Of course it goes without saying that Tiger's Spotlight also picks up iPhoto keyword assignments right from the Finder so you can keep track of particular photos via Finder Smart Folders too. The process is almost identical to what we did in iPhoto. From the Finder choose the File menu and then New Smart Folder. This will bring up a Finder window with search options. In the first options row set the kind to images. In the second row set the keywords to your keyword. Click the save button on the top right of the window. But wait, there's more! You can also do this search from the Spotlight menu in the top right of your Mac's menu bar. Activate the menu and type in the following: kind:image keyword (in this example I'm searching for all images with the keyword of ocean).


Similarly, if you use Quicksilver or LaunchBar search using a term that matches one of your iPhoto keywords and you'll get a list of all photos thus tagged or even jump to a Smart Album in iPhoto.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Keyword Assistant, Spotlight, iPhoto, Quicksilver

Here's a tip for using Quicksilver and Transmit for easy ftp uploading right from Quicksilver. First you'll need to edit your Transmit bookmarks. For each bookmark you'll need to set the path to the local files. Once you do this you can click the checkbox to enable docksend. That's it, you're set to go! The final step:

[cmd-space] filename [tab] openwith [tab] transmit [return]

A side benefit of using this method is that you now have the option to use this new docksend feature. Any file from the directory specified in the bookmark can now be dropped onto the the Transmit 3 dock icon and boom, away it goes. You'll also note that using the docksend feature results in a nice little pop-up window with a progress indicator. Sweet.

Found via the excellent forums over at Blacktree. Lots of Quicksilver users over there with tips aplenty.

Technorati tags: Mac, Apple, Quicksilver, Transmit, Web

While I don't expect to use it often I've finally succeeded in taking my Powerbook online using the built-in Bluetooth via Cingular GSM and my Sony Ericsson t616. I don't pay for Cingular's unlimited Internet service so I won't use this unless I have to because it is quite pricey. Still, it will like come in handy now and then. The following instructions were found here. I've edited this just a little. It may be a little confusing if you are working with 10.3 there are slight variations. Also, I paired my laptop and phone long ago so those steps were unnecessary for me. I just needed the provider information as well as the Bluetooth Modem selection. Also, I set up a new location called "Bluetooth" in my Network Preferences before I started the first step.

System Requirements:Mac OSX: 10.2.8 or higherLatest version of Bluetooth

First step is to setup the bluetooth modem (cell phone)System Prefrences > Network > Show > Network Port ConfigurationsCheck "USB Bluetooth Modem Adaptor"Show > USB Bluetooth Modem Adaptor > Bluetooth Modemnow you need to click "Show Bluetooth modem status in menu bar"Click the PPP tab.

Enter the following:
SERVICE PROVIDER: CINGULARACCOUNT NAME: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COMPASSWORD: CINGULAR1TELEPHONE NUMBER: *99***2# Then click "Apply Now"

Click the "Bluetooth Modem" tab. In the Modem drop-down select Ericsson Infared Then click "Apply Now" and close the window.

If Bluetooth on your phone is not already on go ahead and turn it on now.More > Turn On Bluetooth

Now go back to System PrefrencesSystem Prefrences > Bluetooth > Pair New DeviceIt will automatically search for your phone, when your phone has been discovered select it and click the "Pair" button. You will get a popup window asking for a passkey, just enter the number 1, click "OK"

Now you will get a popup asking you to choose the services to use with this phone.Check Internet Access, the others are optional!

If you have another provider look here. Another description of setting up the T616 with OSX 10.3 (and 10.2?) is here.

TextMate's project feature is the key to the universe. Seriously. For years I've been playing with all sorts of apps and schemes in an effort to efficiently organize my files and my projects. Not long ago I mentioned this quest. I think I've finally got an answer. It is only a tentative conclusion but it is more solid than its predecessors. Here's the scoop.

I'm a big fan of the simple, clean, and powerful three pane interface used by Apple for its Mail application. I'm obviously not alone because plenty of apps are adopting that general design. The problem though is that many apps that attempt to help you track information via a unified notes database will not work very well with the fantastic new search technology that Apple is developing for it's next major upgrade to OS X, 10.4. Dubbed Spotlight, the technology will rely upon the meta data of each file. Not only will you be able to find files based upon their file name, but also by the content. Given this, I'm making the decision to avoid programs that will tie my data up in a single unified database. TextMate empowers me to get the interface I like while keeping the separate file structure that will work well with Spotlight. As an added bonus this method works perfectly with apps such as LaunchBar or Quicksilver that can be used to find and open the files on your Mac. In fact using them now gives you an idea of what Spotlight will do and allows you to insert a new efficiency into your workflow.

Here's what I'm doing. First, I've organized all of my currently used text files into a single folder with sub-folders. I've labled this folder __THE HUB. The current subfolders are accounts, GTD, Notes, and Websites. Using TextMate I've created a new project (File > New Project) and dropped the primary folder, __THE HUB, onto the project. I save the project file onto my desktop. and I am now one click away from all of my most important and current text documents. Once I've opened the project I can open the individual files, create new files, rename, delete, and create groupings. I can easily add whole new folders or individual files. The resulting project file is very small, 4 KB at the moment.

Until Spotlight is released searching the content of the text files will fall into TextMate's incredibly fast project wide searching. When Apple releases 10.4 (Tiger) my files will be neatly organized and each will be indexed for Spotlight's searching. As it is now the file names are indexed by Quicksilver so at any moment from any app I can hit the Command-Space combo that activates Quicksilver to find any of these files to open or email them, copy or move them, all with Quicksilver. I could never do this with an app that locks my data into a single database.

This story starts around five years ago on the day that I was visited by the gods of broadband internet. The year was 1999 and Time Warner's Road Runner service was installed in my home. Three years later I purchased my first Airport Card for my iBook as well as a wireless router. This was the beginning of wireless browsing and I would never go back... or so I thought. Flash forward to February 15, 2004. I'm out in the woods far away from the possibility of affordable broadband and I'm now tethered to a phone cord! A double whammy! Okay, fine, I can adapt. I deal with the slowness of dial-up and the requirement of a phone cord.

This past summer I purchased Apple's Airport Express and it has worked very well for streaming music and wireless printing. This was no cure for my internet problems but at least I had a use for my Airport Extreme card. In the fall Apple released the new G5 iMac and I now had a plan. I wanted an iMac to use for video editing projects and relieve the strain on my nearly full PowerBook drive. It also occurred to me that while I could not have highspeed I could use the iMac to dial up and share the connection to my PowerBook via the Airport Express. There was a problem though: it didn't work!

My mistake? I tried to share the modem connection via Airport. This method does not allow the iMac to share via Airport thru the Airport Express. Instead it requires that I bypass the Airport Express by joining a network created by the iMac. Well, the problem with that method is that neither computer has access to the Airport Express speakers or printer because they are connected together via there own self created peer-to-peer network.

How to do it properly? Connect the iMac to the Airport Express with an ethernet cable! Open the Sharing preference pane and turn on sharing, select Ethernet not Airport. Select the option to share the modem connection. Now the iMac shares the modem connection via ethernet to the Airport Express and then to my PowerBook. Works perfectly. I'm online and both computers continue to have full access to the Airport Express, printer, and speakers!

My only complaint with the Airport Express is the lack of documentation for this basic functionality. I spent hours searching through google and the Apple support forums for the answer.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Internet Sharing, Airport Express

If you have Tiger and a Bluetooth phone that you sometimes like to send images to... say for attachment to one of your contacts, here's a handy Automator Action: Scale and Send via Bluetooth. You will also need to download and install Bluetooth Object Push 1.0 which is available via Apple (Download).

Open it in Automator and save it as a Finder Plugin. Now when use your Finder to select an image of any size and Control Click to bring up your contextual menu. Navigate to Automator and select your new plugin. After Scaling it will ask you to select the file you want to send to your device. Note: this will not copy or duplicate your current image but will replace it with the smaller, scaled image! Your original will be replaced with an image 150 pixels wide so duplicate it before using this script if you want to keep the original intact.

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, Automator, Bluetooth

Russell Beattie writes about Spotlight Comments as tags:

I originally thought the ability to add arbitrary meta data to any file or folder was an interesting capability, albeit not particularly useful in day-to-day activities. But then I was just playing around and saw the Spotlight Comments field that's now included at the very top of a file or folder's Info box and I grokked it! Now that there's actually an easy way to both add and to search for meta-data on files and folders, then there's actually a reason to put it in! But not just any meta-data... What's the newest and coolest type of meta-data out there? Yep, tags! And the comments fields is perfect for this!Obviously nothing has changed in terms of the UI or search functionality, just the way I think about meta data. Before I may have ignored an arbitray field like "comments" even if I could search on it (haven't I been able to do something similar in Windows?). But now that I "get" tagging, I know that this isn't the place for long-winded description of the file or folder, just keywords that I can use to refer to it later. Or if those files are shared on the network, others can use these tags to find the files as well. Fantastic!

To this I responded with a comment that I thought I'd also post here because I think it might prove useful to folks:

Automator is your friend!! Use Apple's new Tiger utility Automator to create a simple workflow that you can save as a plugin. I did this very thing 2 days ago to add Spotlight comments. Now I select multiple files and control or right click... choose Automator>Spotlight comments and I get a dialog where I add my keywords.

Creating this action in Automator was easy. Look in the Finder actions and choose "Add Spotlight comments" and be sure to save it as a plugin.

Then, open up a find window in Finder (command-f). Now, in the first dropdown choose "Other" for the criteria. In the dialog box choose Spotlight comments (there are many cool options in this dialog box!!) next enter your tags and there it is! Save as a smart folder in your sidebar.

Technorati tags: OS X, Mac OS 10.4, Apple, Tiger, Automator, Spotlight