The Mac Admin's Blog

Basic Shortcuts This is a list of shortcuts that should be hardwired into your brain. These are usually the most commonly used. Most of the shortcuts on the list are for Finder, although a lot will work in other applications. If I wrote a list for every single application out there I would be here for ever. ⌘ + Q = Quit ⌘ + W = Close window ⌘ + O = Open a file in your application ⌘ + P = Print ⌘ + C = Copy ⌘ + V = Paste ⌘ + X = Cut ⌘ + S = Save ⌘ + Z = Undo ⌘ + A = Select All ⌘ + Y or Space = Quicklook ⌘ + Tab = Cycle through windows Personally I use all of those shortcuts all of the time. It helps to remember them and use them. Most will come naturally over time. Other Shortcuts This is the list where every other shortcut resides. Have a look through and see if there is anything which is of interest to you. ⌘ + ⇧+ 3 = Take fullscreen picture ⌘ + ⇧ + 4 = Take selected area screenshot ⌘ + ⇧ + 4 + Space = Take screenshot of window or menu ⌥ + ⌘ + Escape = Bring up Force Quit window ⌘ + S

World's best Skype has released ver 2.8 for Mac OS X loaded with many new features. Now you can also share your screen with somene you are on call with and experience better sound and image quality. If you are wondering what Skype is or have never heard or used Skype before, let me describe in one line. It's a program used for communicating with others via chat or a telephone-like system that allows users to talk or make video calls to each other for free. This application has recently gained much populatiry since they have launched new version for mobile devices. New features included in the latest ver 2.8 for Mac OS X are: Now insted of instructing how to work, you can share the screen & show. A really simple screen share tool. Experience better audio and video. The image resolution is better than ever. You will love it on your iMac. Download Skype for Mac OS X from here .

iPhone topping the chart, followed by iPad and Mac subsequently No doubt, iPad has become today’s trend. In spite of many drawbacks and limitations of iPad, it continues to rock European countries. It has left sale of Macs far behind. People have started believing it as the best travel companion and they are replacing  their laptops while they are on the move. According to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky , Apple is currently floating about 200,000 iPads per week, where Macs being moved are just 110,000. However, both of those Apple products stay far behind iPhone, which is apparently racking up sales of 246,000 per week. Lets have a look at graphical presentation.   Analyzing the graph, the present looks good and no doubt, Apple has planned to make some major changes in iPad and enhance the features, which will ultimately increase the sale in near future.  One of the most demanding requirement by iPad uses are a USB hub and a hi-resolution webcam. More info

Here is what Apple has promised about the new MacBook. On Tuesday, as expected the Leaked MacBook Refresh was made official.  The machine has 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo refresh with NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics and longer 10-hour battery life which is really appealing, specially for the sales guys and others who, quite often are on move.  Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, US and some other locations were chosen to display MacBooks in Apple stores. With all those features and an Apple logo, it costs you only $999.00.  They claim to deliver in 24 hrs within US if you order it from here and also have offered attractive EMI options of 6, 12 or 18 month special financing options .  Wait, there is more for you, if you select Apple Education Discount, you can save big on all Apple products and this offer is available here . Before you plan to buy this one, I would rather suggest you to compare all the MacBooks and chose the best one for you. Global launch of this great battery ba

Download full version, they are 100% free. 100% Safe. Virus & adware scanned   Download for free | Mac OS X Software | Web Applications 1. HTML Purifier Categories: Internet Freeware Posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 HTML Purifier is an open source standards-compliant HTML filter library developed using PHP. HTML Purifier will not only remove all malicious code (better known as XSS) with a thoroughly audited, secure yet permissive whitelist, it will also make sure your documents are standards compliant, something only achievable with a comprehensive knowledge of W3C’s specifications. Visit the developer's website   2. Slink Categories: Internet Freeware Posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 Slink represents a very easy method to remotely connect to your home network in order to use iPhoto, iTunes, screen, file and print sharing. Slink is the easy way to remotely connect to your

When you download an application from internet, it gives a prompt to open or go to the website once the downloading is complete. Following this post you can get rid of annoying prompt. Before I start I would rather recommend that if you are new to Mac don’t disable it unless you are well versed with the behavior of Mac Operating system and its functionality. If you are smart enough to manage, then lets move ahead. All you have to do is type the following command on terminal screen. defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool NO This command stops the quarantine message that you get after downloading is complete. Activation and deactivation of this feature is almost same. All you have to do is change the last section of this command from ‘NO’ to ‘YES’, as mentioned below: defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool YES I have tested this on two iMacs, please let me know if you face any issue is executing it. Tweet me on: @MacMaste

Here are some additional features which are not so popular while typing text in Mac. Character substitution In OS X Snow Leopard, Apple introduced text substitution. While for the most part it is used for symbols, it can also be used for word substitution. Apple includes a number of default options, such as copyright and trademark symbols, but provides the option to add customized words and other substitutions of your choosing. To set this up, go to the "Language & Text" system preferences, and in the "Text" tab, use the plus button to add new substitution options. In order to use symbols, glyphs, or other nonstandard characters in the substitution, when you are entering the replacement text it might be useful to have the system's "Character Viewer" panel open (available from the input menu) so you can insert desired symbols. Autocompletion One additional composition aid that is available in Snow Leopard is word suggestion, which can be use

Whenever you launch VPN with multiple connection entries, you have to select the one of your choice every time when you try to login. There is an option where, using VPN you can set up default connection entry so that you don’t have to bother about selecting it every time when you login to VPN. This change in your VPN setting is surely going to increase your productivity.  Click on the option ‘Set as Default Connection Entry’

While writing Email if you want to compose it in colorful format, you can try following those steps: Go to ‘Entourage’ menu and select ‘Preferences’ On the left column select ‘Compose’ and it will bring the ‘General’ window Change to HTML/Plain text from the option Mail format.

There are multiple issue that can be fixed just by removing the cache We all are aware of the fact that majority of Mac apps run from a cache. If this cache gets corrupted and isn’t updated it can produce many unexpected errors. If this happens you can delete the cache and then re-launch the application. To delete the cache relating to a program go to /Users/[name]/Library/Caches , find the folder relating to the application and delete it. Make sure the app you want to solve is closed before hand. When you restart the app it should have cleared any problems. Some cache files may also be stored in /Library/Caches , of any hard drive, though you might see such cases once a while. If deleting the app results in any adverse effects (it shouldn’t do), simply close the program and move the cache files back from the Trash into there original location.

The company has released a firmware update for their 27-inch iMacs which is an update for the display hardware itself, which is going to resolved display problems on the new machines. By this update they have reduced blank displays, yellow-tinted LCD colors and display flickering. So far there are more of positive feedbacks on this launch. Despite these instances, for others the update has worked as expected. In the knowledgebase about the update, Apple suggests if you continue to experience display flickering issues after the firmware update has been applied, you should check to ensure you have applied the previously released "27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0," which updated the graphics cards on the new systems. So it seems this is a sequel of the old release. Since these updates and the problems they address have to do with firmware, you might try resetting the system's PRAM and SMC after you have applied the update. Doing this should reset firmware

In the scenario where you are able to receive mails but unable to send it because the Send button is grayed out or is completely inactive. Try those steps out, this has worked many of my home users. Launch Mail. Go to the Mail menu & choose Preferences . Click on Accounts in the Preferences window.  Open the Account Information pane. Here could be the first reason, that the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" pop-up menu could be set to "None". Change it and select your server from the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" pop-up menu. These steps should work, so run a test & see if you are able to send the mails. If this did not work then the problem should be in the settings of your SMTP server. Go to the Mail menu & choose Preferences once again.  Click on Accounts in the Preferences window & select your account from the left side. Click the Account Information pane. Here in the "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" pop-up

One of the fact of life is we keep losing and getting things. If unfortunately you ever miss your iPhone somewhere you can lock it using your MobileMe account. This is one of the safest investment that you can make. Just to remind you about MobileMe , this is not just a security application, but it is perfect combination of office and personal tools. It has push Email, push contact, push calendar and inbuilt photo Gallery for iPhone and iPod touch. Also, it has many more features, visit Apple official website for more information. Lock your iPhone remotely Once you realize you haven’t simply misplaced your iPhone at home under a pile of laundry, you may want to protect its contents until your iPhone is safely back in your hands. Just sign in to your MobileMe account and remotely set a four-digit passcode lock to prevent people from using your iPhone, accessing your personal information, or tampering with your settings.

Here are some applications that might increase value in your work. Get a trial version and see if you like it. Most of them are for official purpose.   Slices Slices is an application that allows you to split and combine files. With Slices you can email large documents, as well as fit very large files onto CDs, memory sticks and other writable media. And, like SlidePad, Slices is free! Learn more | Download SlidePad SlidePad is a powerful, convenient note-taking application that allows you to unobtrusively take notes without ever leaving your keyboard. And SlidePad is free! Learn more | Download Parachute This is a versatile, powerful backup tool that allows you make automated backups of your files. With Parachute you can select files individually, set your own schedule and backup to both local disks and remote servers. Learn more | Download | Buy Now Renamer Renamer gives you to option to rename and number many files at once. If you've

How to delete cache in Entourage? The steps mentioned here will work for all types of mail i.e. POP3 , IMAP and Exchange . To clear the cache, open Entourage (make sure you log off from any other instances of Exchange on your iPhone or Smart phone or Blackberry ). Before you follow the steps further you should make sure that you are connected to the network. Within Entourage, on the left, mouse over the name of your Exchange account and press the ‘Control+mouse click’ simultaneously to get the contextual menu. In case you have activated secondary button in mouse then just ‘right click’ on it. Select Folder Properties. Under the General tab, which opens by default, click on the Empty button to empty the cache.

How to stop auto complete address suggestion in Entourage? If you want you Entourage to stop giving you suggestions of old Email addresses while typing the name, then you can follow the steps mentioned below. This is really useful when someone who is in your address list and you have sent him/her mail earlier but now their Email address is changed. In this case Entourage will keep suggesting you the old address which is cached in the memory. You can clear the address cache by following this small step: Go to Preferences under Entourage menu.     Select Compose and under Recent Addresses , click on the button “ Clear List ”. Doing this will make Entourage forget all the addresses saved in cache.  If you want to disable this feature entirely and have Entourage only offer auto-complete for addresses in your address book, simply uncheck the option "Display a list of recently used addresses when address messages".