In addition to the numerous refinements that Snow Leopard brings, among the first you’ll notice is an easier installation experience. Some options that experienced Apple users have come to know and love have been changed or relocated, resulting in an experience that is far less intimidating than installing Microsoft Windows.

Traditional OS X users may be familiar with some of the more advanced installation options beyond the usual “Upgrade Mac OS X.” Options such as “Erase and Install” and “Archive and Install” have been changed for Snow Leopard. To prevent users from accidentally erasing their hard drive, the erase and install functionality has been relegated to manual formatting via Disk Utility.

Should one need to archive and install (which is where your previous system files are archived in a separate location and a new system is installed in their place), the installer will it automatically when it detects an attempt to install the same operating system as is currently found on the Mac. When installation is complete, Snow Leopard cleans up after itself and doesn’t leave users with an ugly “Previous System” folder as before.

Trickery With Versions

With Snow Leopard’s “behind the scenes” archive and install process, it now automatically installs the current OS version number. For example, if someone is running 10.6.3 and reinstalls, when installation is complete they will still be using 10.6.3 instead of 10.6. This removes the need to run an hour of software updates, but it does present a potential problem. When “dot releases” come out, compatibility is sometimes affected, and users archive and install to revert back to a previous system version. Beyond erasing and installing, this doesn’t seem possible with Snow Leopard.

Wither Rosetta?

By default, when you install Snow Leopard, it will not install Rosetta, Apple’s technology to allow older PowerPC apps to run on Intel processors. As most applications are Universal and Snow Leopard itself requires an Intel processor, Apple is finally making big strides to leave behind the world of PowerPC. Should users still need Rosetta, it is available as an optional install.

QuickTime X vs QuickTime 7

Snow Leopard introduces Apple’s redesigned version of QuickTime, dubbed QuickTime X. Though several of the more popular third party plugins will work with QuickTime X out of the box, users may need to resort to QuickTime 7 and any plugins they’ve used with it for playing more specialized content (or you could just turn to the much more robust VLC).

Snow Leopard will include QuickTime 7 as an option, but will not install it by default unless users already have QuickTime 7 Pro on their system. Should you try to open a file in QuickTime X that requires QuickTime 7, Software Update will automatically download it for you if it’s not already present on the system.

Unanswered Questions

As mentioned earlier, it remains unclear whether Apple has a solution in place in case users install a “dot release” like 10.6.4 and wish to revert back. What we’ve heard about the archive and install seems to infer you would end up with 10.6.4 upon completion.

There’s also still some question as to how Snow Leopard will behave with fresh installs and with older operating systems. Will users need to install Leopard first when swapping in a new hard drive, for example? Recent evidence points to no, but we won’t know for sure until tomorrow.

I’m sure many of you are going to have questions about the installation process, upgrade requirements, and the like. Feel free to use with the comments below to help the process along as the Apple faithful adopt yet another new operating system.

When Apple changed its One to One policy, I had no idea it would eventually affect me personally. As a consumer who recently upgraded to a high-end digital camera, I am also looking to upgrade my digital photo editing and organizing software.

Naturally, as a contributor to this blog, my first thought was to upgrade from iPhoto to Aperture. The problem is, where do I turn to learn how to use all of Aperture’s features? The One to One program would be perfect for me, but that’s no longer an option unless I purchase a new computer from Apple.

For those of you who may have forgotten, the old One to One program cost $99 and included weekly one hour (read: one academic hour, which actually means 50 minutes) sessions for an entire year. Customers could learn about a wide variety of topics, from how to use a Mac, to uploading photos to MobileMe, to editing images in Aperture.

In order to provide an alternative for those like me who’ve been hung out to dry, I’ve done my best gathering resources for people who like a little guidance when learning new software. Fortunately, Aperture is designed so that newcomers can easily figure out how to import photos from a memory card and organize them into projects, but anything more advanced may require additional patience and resources.

• Apple tutorials podcast
• Quick Tips with Richard Harrington podcast
• Apple’s Aperture forum
• Apple’s Exploring Aperture book
• Amazon’s Aperture 4+ star books
• Retail workshops – Don’t expect much unless you live close to a major store. Those in Northern California have two options: San Francisco and Corte Madera.

Let us know about any other good resources you’ve come across for learning Aperture.

Whenever a friend who’s new to Apple picks up a new Mac of their own, I’m sure to tell them about the great educational and support services Cupertino offers as well. In-store group Workshops, Genius Bar and One to One are all great offerings. One I’ve not paid close attention until now is the opportunity for kids to attend summer ‘camp’ at retail stores.

If you’ve got a child who’s between the ages of 8 and 12, they’re eligible learn about digital photography, and making movies, music or presentations. Follow this link to sign your little one(s) up for a 3-hour session at the retail location of your choice. They’re operating on a first come, first served basis, so hurry over if you’re interested. Apple does ask that you only sign a child up for a maximum of two sessions, to allow space for others to attend, but otherwise, there’s no restrictions, and they’re free.

You’ll also need to be present for the duration of the class — but that’s not so bad is it? Worst case, maybe you pick up a tip or trick you weren’t aware of before. Equipment in the store will be available for use, but you’re encouraged to bring your own machines and media if you or your child have personal projects they’d rather work on. I’m thinking this is a great opportunity for them to bring in a ‘What I did this summer’ video or slide show, which has been the first back-to-school assignment since time immemorial.

Clearly this is a great way to establish brand buy-in from the next generation of consumers at an early age. But it’s also a fantastic way to help them learn some skills that they may find they would like to pursue as a career well down the road. Either way, if you’ve got a small geek at home (as I do), hurry and sign them up now!

Apple prides itself on creating products that are simple and easy to use. A prime example of this philosophy can be seen in Mail, the default email application included with Mac OS X. Mail is not an all-encompassing “collaboration” tool, and it is not “groupware;” it does email (and a little bit of note-taking and RSS feed-reading), and does it exceedingly well.

Getting Started

The first thing you’ll want to do is set up your account. If you use MobileMe, your account is probably already set up for you. If you use another popular email service like Gmail or Yahoo Premium, Mail can automatically set up your account. If not, you will need to know the name of your incoming mail server (something like mail.me.com), your outgoing mail server (something like smtp.me.com), and your username/password combination. After setting up your account, Mail will download all of your email, and spotlight will index it for easy searching.

Stationary

Apple includes several stationary templates that are highly touted, but rarely used. Most of the people I email could care less about how pretty my email is, and many would prefer not to receive HTML email at all, and that is what these stationary templates are. However, from time to time I like to send one out, because, well…because they’re there. My Mom is normally the lucky recipient, and as far as I can tell, she likes them just fine. When you begin typing a name or an address in the “To” field, Mail searches Address Book for matches, and makes suggestions based on what it finds. Select a name, or type in a new one, type in a subject, type your email, and click send. That’s all there is to it.

Smart Mailboxes

Once you’ve downloaded all of your email, it’s very likely that you will be tempted to organize it. Don’t worry, I used to do it, too. That was before the power of full text search and Smart Mailboxes became a reality. Now, what I do, and what I recommend for anything close to “organizing” email, is to create Smart Mailboxes for keeping things of importance in easy reach. For example, I have a Smart Mailbox set up for emails from family, which simply takes all of the contacts in the “Family” group in Address Book and creates a smart group from them. You can find lots of other examples of Smart Mailboxes with a quick Google search, but I recommend starting here.

There are two ways to create a Smart Mailbox. The first, and most effective, way is to simply enter your search criteria in the search box at the top of Mail. As you type, Mail will display the results of your search, and will also give you the option to save the search as a Smart Mailbox. This allows you to preview and refine your search as needed before creating the Smart Mailbox. When you click “Save” you’ll be offered the chance to add criteria to the Smart Mailbox, and save it as whatever name you choose. The second way is to select “Mailbox,” and then “New Smart Mailbox,” and then enter your search criteria in the drop-down sheet.

Rules

Mail has the ability to perform certain actions on email as it arrives, according to predefined rules. These are defined in the “Rules” section in the Mail preferences panel (Mail > Preferences…). There are many options available both as search functions and as actions to take that can further help organize your email.

Notes and To-Do Lists

Leopard Mail includes the ability to take notes and create to-do lists. Creating notes containing to-do lists is really easy, and very handy. Simply create a new note and at the top, create a context for the list — say, phone calls you want to make — and type the name of the note on the first line. I named mine in classic GTD contexts like @Next, @Phone, @Desk, etc.

Next, click the “To Do” button, and the current line will become highlighted and add a check box on the left of it. All to-do’s that you add to any of your notes will also be seen in the “To Do” group under Reminders in the left-hand pane. In your note, clicking on the red arrow icon to the left of each to-do will bring up a pane where you can add a due date, assign a priority, and integrate the task with iCal.

RSS

Finally, Mail can act as a decent RSS reader to keep current on new posts from your favorite sites. While not nearly as powerful as specialized RSS readers like NetNewsWire or Google Reader, it does a decent job of keeping track of a small number of feeds. It treats each incoming feed item the same as an email, allowing you to move them around to different folders. It will also let you create Smart Mailboxes that apply specifically to feeds, like one that groups all unread feeds together in one place. Depending on how many feeds you subscribe too, Mail’s RSS reader might be a great choice for you.

This article is a very brief introduction to a very powerful application. Apple Mail is almost deceptively simple in appearance, hiding a sophisticated information management application that integrates perfectly into the Mac. For more information, including how to sign and encrypt messages, adding additional criteria into spotlight searches, and a ton of other information, check out the included Mail Help, available in the menu bar.

A wide range of different applications and protocols exist for communicating via voice and instant messaging, with some being far more popular than others. OS X comes bundled with iChat, a client offering a number of great features. While not perfect for everyone, it does a good job of providing a ready-to-go instant messaging app, complete with powerful support for audio, video and screen/application sharing.

This overview will walk you through setting up various accounts through iChat, using the basic features, and even dabbling with some high quality video conferencing!

Getting Started & Adding Accounts

When opening iChat for the first time, you’ll be asked to set up your profile. If you already have an account with MobileMe, Mac.com, AIM, Jabber, or Google Talk, you can integrate it with iChat. It’s possible to use other protocols through iChat, but the solution is a little more complicated. For more information, this tutorial is useful.

Certain advanced features are only available when using an AIM or MobileMe/.Mac account, so if possible using either of these is preferable. After adding your account, you’ll be given the option to encrypt your messaging which is advisable if possible. When done, you’ll be presented with a concluding screen which encourages to get started using the app.

Basic Messaging

The basic screen for iChat is very simple, just showing a list of your “buddies” along with their audio/video capabilities. Double clicking a contact will initiate a text conversation with them. If you haven’t yet added any contacts, doing so is a simple process — all you need is their MobileMe or AIM email address. Click Buddies > Add Buddy from the menu bar and follow the simple instructions that follow.

Conducting an IM conversation is simple and effective, with each response taking the form of a speech bubble:

Multiple people can easily be added to a conversation through clicking Buddies > Invite to Chat, and each individual has their own colour scheme and icon to easily differentiate between participants. If you’d like to keep copies of all your conversations, a preference setting can automatically save chat transcripts to a designated folder on your hard drive — worth doing if you plan on holding an important conversation or meeting through the app.

If you’re holding multiple chat sessions, these can be organized into tabs to save having several windows open at a time. Transferring files is also simple, supporting drag and drop from anywhere in OS X.

Audio & Video Conferencing

Obviously instant messaging is great for certain scenarios, but in the age of ubiquitous broadband and in-built iSights it seems a little dated! iChat has evolved rapidly in recent releases to offer a comprehensive set of audio and video conferencing features. Initiating a video call is as simple as clicking the video icon next to a buddies name (providing you both have a working microphone and webcam). If a webcam isn’t installed, the system will fall back to audio only.

Just as with instant messaging, multiple chat participants are supported through clicking Buddies > Invite to Video Chat. In typical Mac style, the display changes to create a dynamic video ‘room’ complete with reflections and visual effects.

The fun doesn’t end there, however. The latest version of iChat has a feature called ‘video backdrops,’ making it easy (supposedly…) to convince people you’re chatting from the Eiffel Tower, under the sea, or from the moon. You can also create your own custom backdrops with your own photographs. It can lead to some really fun effects — I don’t think this guy was actually sitting in front of a waterfall:

As with chat transcript logging, it’s also simple to save a copy of an audio or video chat. iChat will automatically notify buddies that you’ll be recording the session and ask for their permission. Chats are saved in an iTunes compatible format for later viewing on your Mac or iPod.

Sharing Content

The ability to transmit video and high quality images also leads to other uses. iChat in OS X Leopard introduced functionality for conducting presentations remotely via Keynote, sharing a photo slideshow with a buddy, or even a full screen movie. Any file which can be viewed through Quick Look on OS X is able to be broadcast and shared via iChat.

Sharing your screen is also possible, enabling remote desktop control through iChat while simultaneously chatting to each other through an audio link. Great for helping out your technically-challenged uncle without needing to be physically present — perfect!

Alternative Applications

As with most OS X features, there are a number of other applications capable of performing similar functions. While none have quite the same level of integration with Leopard itself, they excel in other areas. A few others to consider are:

• Skype – Great for video, audio and IM with other Skype users, and also allows you to make low cost international calls. No integration with other protocols, however, and multiple video chatting isn’t supported.
• Adium – A great tool for basic instant messaging, supporting every different protocol under the sun. The interface is highly customizable and a number of useful plugins extend its functionality.
• AOL Instant Messenger / MSN Messenger for Mac – Both of these are the official releases from the relevant protocol. Great for supporting more features of that particular system, but fairly incompatible with other users.
• There are far too many more to mention. A full list can be found here with other notable apps including Proteus, Fire and Colloquy for IRC.

Conclusion

Instant messaging has come a long, long way since the early days of IRC. iChat does a great job of offering powerful and innovative functionality, but may not fully support the network which many of your colleagues or friends use. However, for a free application bundled with OS X, the sharing and collaboration features are impressive.

If you have any further questions (or use a different app I haven’t mentioned) do let me know. Also, if you somehow manage to convince a family member that you’re chatting to them from the Eiffel Tower I’d be fascinated to hear about it!

When the Mac operating system OS X 10.4 (aka “Tiger”) was first announced, there were two things that I instantly fell in love with: Automator and Dashboard. While Automator is great when you really want to geek out, Dashboard is a great companion for new and veteran users of the Mac.

Dashboard is a semi-transparent “layer” of the operating system that contains small, self-contained applications called “widgets.” These widgets allow you to do everything from convert currency to check the local weather. With thousands of widgets available — and even the ability to create your own — Dashboard can be a very useful (and powerful) tool for a new Mac owner.

How to View Dashboard

One of the best features of Dashboard is how it sits quietly in the background until you ask for it — and there are multiple ways to ask. The easiest way is the keyboard shortcut, which depends on your keyboard configuration. For my iMac the shortcut is F12 (there’s a small picture of a speedometer). For the new unibody MacBook it’s Fn+F12 (the function key bypasses the default volume controls). Of course, these default keyboard shortcuts can be customized in System Preferences.

You can also access Dashboard by creating a “hot corner” that will activate Dashboard when you hover your mouse over the corner of your choice. You can set up a hot corner by going to Preferences and navigating to the Desktop and Screen Saver pane.

And finally, you can access Dashboard by clicking on the icon in your dock. If you’ve removed it then you can easily find Dashboard in your Applications folder where you can drag it back into the dock for easy access.

How to Use Dashboard

Once you’ve activated Dashboard, the real fun begins. If you’re looking at Dashboard for the first time, you’ll most likely notice a handful of the 20 widgets that are included with Dashboard (if I counted correctly). Luckily, with each update to the operating system Apple adds a few new widgets (most recently Movies and Web Clip) so the true Mac fans don’t get bored.

But the widgets you see on the screen are only a few of these built-in widgets. In order to see the rest, click on the small “plus” button in the lower left-hand corner.

A small toolbar will pop out containing all the widgets installed on your computer and available for use.

To add a widget to Dashboard simply single-click or drag the widget onto the screen. This will add an instance of the widget to Dashboard. I say “instance” because each widget is self contained — meaning you can run multiple copies of your favorite widgets at the same time. This is especially useful when placing multiple sticky notes or for tracking multiple time zones.

Done with a widget? While the Dashboard toolbar is open you’ll see each widget has a small ‘X’ in the upper left-hand corner. Simply click and the widget will vanish. You can also use Dashboard’s “Manage Widgets” feature, but I find it easier to simply click and disable the ones you don’t want.

Now when you first add the World Clock widget you may not be too impressed that it only shows the local time in Cupertino, California. The World Clock, along with most widgets, are customizable. When you hover over a widget you’ll see a small ‘i‘ appear (see above screenshot). Clicking on that icon will bring up additional information about the widget, as well as any options that you can tweak.

Dashboard Widget Resources

If you like the functionality of Dashboard you’re in luck… there are hundreds if not thousands of Dashboard widgets available. New ones are being developed every day too — in fact many popular applications include a Dashboard widget version of their program in the installation package and many websites have created specialized widgets for their RSS feeds and other information.

One of the largest sources of widgets is Apple’s own download page. There you will find more widgets than you’ll know what to do with. In addition to browsing the various categories (games, sports, news) you can see the Top 50 list or the most recently added widgets.

Dashboardwidgets.com also has a strong collection of widgets in addition to forums and development guides (if you’re inclined to begin creating your own widgets). The site allows you to sort by date, downloads, or rating which is very helpful in finding the most popular widgets.

How to Install or Remove Widgets

Once you’ve downloaded your favorite widgets, the next step is to install them. And in true Apple fashion, installation is the easiest part. After downloading your widget, simply double-click on the icon and you’ll see a prompt asking you if you’d like to install the widget. Click install and Dashboard will open and place your widget in temporary “test drive” mode where you can use the widget before actually keeping it on your Dashboard. If you click delete while in “test drive” mode then the widget is moved to the trash never to be heard from again.

As mentioned above, if you don’t want to use a widget anymore, simply click the small ‘X’ in the upper corner and it will be out of sight. But if you want to remove the widget from even coming up as an option in your Dashboard toolbar, then navigate to to /Library/Widgets for Apple original widgets or ~/Library/Widgets for your own user folder. Then simply drag the widget into the trash.

Just Getting Started

If you enjoyed this introduction to Dashboard then check back soon for a future post on more advanced features and tricks — like moving widgets to your desktop and syncing your widgets with Mobile Me.

Backing up your computer is an essential task that many of us neglect until something goes horribly wrong. With OS X Leopard, Apple has made it much easier to ensure that your data is always backed up and protected through a feature called Time Machine.

Time Machine is an application that automatically synchronizes your computer hard drive with another storage device every hour. Reverting to an older version of a file is simple, facilitated through an interesting ’space-like’ interface.

This article will provide an introduction to Time Machine, explain how best to set your computer up, and the process of restoring a backup if you accidentally delete data or suffer a hard drive failure.

What You’ll Need

There are two main requirements for using Time Machine. First is a copy of OS X Leopard — older versions of the operation system don’t include the backup software. Second is an external hard drive.

I’d generally recommend buying the largest hard drive you can afford. The more capacity, the more room there is to store older files (and the further back in time you can go to restore a file). At the minimum, the drive should be bigger than the internal drive in your Mac.

Apple does offer a dedicated router/hard drive combination called Time Capsule, coming in either 500GB or 1TB varieties. If you’d like a all-in-one network router and backup drive, it’s a great option — if you plan on using it solely as a hard drive, it does work out expensively.

Setting Up Time Machine

The quickest way to get started with setting up Time Machine is simply to plug in your new hard drive. OS X will recognize that you haven’t used the drive before, and ask whether you’d like it to function as a Time Machine backup. Alternatively, head into System Preferences, select Time Machine, and choose your new hard drive from the list of options that appear.

Once set up, Time Machine will begin to back up your drive for the first time. The initial process will copy every single file from your computer’s hard drive to your backup drive. This could involve copying many thousands of files, and will likely take a couple of hours. Be patient, and choose a time when you won’t need to unplug your laptop or power down the machine.

The speed will also depend upon how the hard drive you are using is connected. If plugged in directly via USB (as most will be), the process will be relatively quick. If you’re using a Time Capsule or other networked hard drive you may need to be prepared for a slightly longer wait.

After the initial process Time Machine will only copy files that have been added or changed in the past hour, making future backups far quicker. You’ll find that the following backups are kept:

• Hourly backups for the past 24 hours
• Daily backups for the past month
• Weekly backups until your backup hard drive is full

Changing Options

There are very few options to tinker with when setting up Time Machine, but those that do exist are worth noting.

Firstly, you are able to specify a number of files or folders which you’d like Time Machine to refrain from backing up. This isn’t usually necessary, but can be handy for large files which you don’t need to keep safe.

In addition, you can tell Time Machine not to back up when your laptop is running on battery power to conserve energy, and specify whether you’d like to receive a warning when older backups are deleted.

Restoring Individual Files

Should you lose a file or accidentally delete it, open the folder which used to contain the file, and launch Time Machine. You’ll be presented with a window similar to the following:

Clicking the arrows to the right of the screen will go forward or backward in time, scanning through the various backup dates. It’s possible to take a closer look at a file through Quick Look, by selecting a file and pressing the Spacebar.

When you’ve found the file to restore, select it and press the ‘Restore’ button in the lower right corner. Time Machine will exit and copy the file back to its original location. If it would involve overwriting an existing file, it will ask you what action you’d like to take. Easy!

Restoring an Entire Backup

If the worst happens and you suffer a hard drive failure (or, on a more optimistic note, buy a new Mac!) you may need to copy everything back across from your Time Machine disk. Again, this is a fairly simple process.

If you’ve purchased a new Mac, you’ll be asked when setting it up whether you would like to ‘Migrate’ from a Time Machine backup — simply agree, and follow the instructions to proceed.

If you are booting from an installation CD (after suffering a hard drive failure), select the ‘Utilities’ option from the menu bar, then “Restore from Time Machine Backup.” You then select the Time Machine drive you wish to restore from and follow the simple instructions. Your Mac should be back up and running in no time!

Other Solutions

If you’d prefer not to use Time Machine, there are a couple of other options available:

• Use a utility to create an entire “clone” of your hard drive onto another on a regular basis, such as SuperDuper!
• Use an online service such as Dropbox or Syncplicity to backup important files and documents to your online storage space

Conclusion

Time Machine provides a simple, ’set it and forget’ backup solution. You’ll need to spend some money to pick up an external hard drive, but I guarantee it will seem worth it when you accidentally delete a set of family photos, an important business document, or your music collection.

Restoring is simple, and it even makes the process of swapping to a new computer almost seamless. Remember to pay attention to any error messages which may pop up occasionally, and regularly try to restore a file (just to check that your backup is functioning as it should)!

Hopefully you’re now all set up and ready to sit back and relax while your Mac keep itself well protected.

Calendars have come a long way from the days of a pocket diary, with software able to manage your schedule and information much more reliable and accessible. iCal for OS X is the bundled calendar application, and works surprisingly well. It appears simple on the surface, but packs a wide range of different features and functionality.

This article will walk you through iCal from first opening the app, to having a diary filled with important events, recurring appointments, alarms, attachments, and attendees.

Getting Started

The first step is to open iCal for the first time from your applications folder. You’ll be presented with a window which looks something like this:

Before getting started, you might want to change a few preferences to match the way in which you work. Click iCal > Preferences in the menu bar to review the options available. You’re able to change the days per week, starting day of a week, default alarms for events and a whole range of other options. Once you’re happy with the settings chosen, close the preferences window and we’ll get started adding a few calendars and events.

iCal Views

There are three main viewing modes which can be used within iCal; Day, Week and Month. The month view can be seen above, here’s what to expect when viewing by day or week.

Week view shows you a clearer breakdown of each day:

And viewing by day makes a complicated schedule much easier to make sense of:

Dealing With Calendars

Within iCal, you are able to run several ‘Calendars’. These would commonly represent different projects or areas of your life. These are a few of the calendars I have running:

You can have as many or as few as needed, and adding a new calendar is simple. Click the ‘plus’ icon towards the lower left of the iCal window to add a new calendar (or hold Shift whilst pressing it to add a new group/folder). Once added, right click the new calendar and select ‘Get Info’ to bring up an options window:

Here, you can alter the color of the calendar, or ‘publish’ the calendar through MobileMe — this is a more complicated step, which you probably won’t need to explore at first.

Dealing With Events

Once a few calendars are in place, you’ll need to enter your events/appointments. To do so, right click on the appropriate day, then select ‘New Event’. Type a name, then double click the event. This will bring up a window similar to the following:

A number of options are available within the new event window:

• Location: Enter the place where you’ll be meeting
• All-day: If it’s an all day event, select this option to let iCal know
• From/To: You can enter the start and end time (or days, for an all-day event)
• Repeat: This allows you to schedule an event to re-occur at a set interval (every day, week, month, year, or a custom schedule). It works brilliant for birthdays, or regular bill payments etc
• Calendar: Here, select the appropriate calendar for the event
• Alarm: I’ve covered these various options below
• Attendees: Again, these are covered below
• Attachments: You can add files and documents to a calendar event so you have all the information you need at hand

Alarms

There are several different ways to be notified of an event:

All the different notification methods can be set to occur either at the time of the event, or a set period before. The first two cause a reminder to pop up on your screen with the details of the event, or you can perform more complex actions such as automatically sending an email, or running a file/script.

Attendees

iCal has fairly robust built-in support for dealing with attendees. Integration with Address Book means that sending invitations to attend is simple. Emails are sent to request the person’s attendance, to which they can reply in the way which best suits them. iCal will show a question mark next to the invitee’s name until they respond:

To Do Lists

If you have a list of tasks which need completing, but don’t have a set day or time, you can use iCal’s To Do feature. Clicking the ‘Push Pin’ icon in the lower right corner of the window will display the list of current To Do lists. Adding a new one is as simple as right clicking and selecting ‘New To Do’.

In the same way as calendar events, To Dos are assigned to a particular calendar. Priorities of High, Medium and Low can be assigned to automatically rank tasks in their order of importance:

Time Zones

The final feature to be mentioned is that of automatic time zone support. Clicking ‘Enable Time Zone Support’ in the preference window as outlined at the beginning will add the following text to the upper right of the iCal window (obviously varying depending upon your time zone):

Now, when scheduling meetings you are able to note the time zone in which it will occur. iCal will factor in the difference between your current location and automatically ensure that you’re notified about the meeting at the right time.

If you’d like to add an event which is independent of any time zone, you can select the ‘Floating’ option when adding a new entry.

Conclusion

When first opening iCal, it doesn’t seem like a particularly powerful or complicated application. However, as you start to enter calendars, events and to dos, it becomes clear that it can offer a comprehensive solution to managing your schedule.

I hope that this article has provided a good overview of the iCal basics. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment!

With the release of the new MacBooks and Macbook Pros, I suspect there are many of you that have been holding out waiting to buy a new computer, and now that you have your shiny new notebooks, you need to get everything set up just how you like it. One of the most important things you can do is have a screen that you like to look at. This guide will walk you through calibrating your display to show color the way you’d like.

The first thing you want to do is set your screen brightness to the level that you think you will use the most. While the brightness won’t change much with the color, you will notice that certain color adjustments will look different when you change the brightness. Also, you can create different profiles that fit the way you use the computer. You may want to have a setting for watching movies, or editing pictures or typing documents. For this example, I will have the brightness all the way up, and I will be calibrating it for what looks good to me as I write.

Open up System Preferences and choose Displays. Your computer is probably open to “Display” but you want to select “Color.” you will notice that there are probably three profiles there already (Adobe RGB, Generic RGB, and sRGB). You can click on each to get an idea of how different the profiles are from each other. Also, if you like one more than the others, you will know what to shoot for as you calibrate your display yourself. If you want to get started from scratch, then click on “Calibrate…”

Once you get the screen calibration assistant open, you can choose to enable advanced features or leave the basic features as your defaults. The advanced features will take a little longer, but it is all worth it in the name of a beautiful display, right?

The main difference in basic and advanced is shown in the two screenshots below. The first screenshot shows the basic and allows you to choose between different white points. The advanced feature allows you to slide along a continuum of white points and choose the one best for you. The advanced route also offers a few more calibration options.

In the advanced section, you are presented with a five part test which will help you determine your display’s native response. The test reminds me of going to the eye doctor because it will ask you to move sliders until the Apple logo looks a certain way. The first test’s changes are much more drastic than the fifth test’s changes, but each test makes minor changes as you go along, which results in a much different look…that is if your screen wasn’t already suited to your tastes already.

You will need to set gamma and white points after the five-part test. According to colormatters.com, Gamma determines how your computer generates images. W3C defines it as the brightness of mid-level tones in an image. It basically affects the contrast of your display.

The white point calibration will allow you adjust the tint of your display. It basically ranges between yellow and blue. The yellow is typically used by graphic designers, and the blue is more similar to what you’d find on a television. The neutral white is the native white point of your display.

Once you are done calibrating, you will be ready to save your work of art. You can save as many profiles as you would like, though once you get used to one, you will probably stick with it.

Do you change profiles regularly or do you have any better suggestions for setting up your screen to display perfectly?

My very frustrated wife called me today to ask how to send a photo that she had imported to iPhoto ‘08. She was frustrated that she couldn’t find the actual file so she could attach it to an email. The iPhoto Library sits on our external drive (you can choose where your library is located by holding down alt/option while opening iPhoto). This is what she got when she tried to find the photo she wanted to send:

She understood that her photos were in the iPhoto Library because it was such a large file. I told her to right-click the iPhoto library and select “Show Package Contents,” which is what you could do if you were just in Finder. But you can’t do that when you are trying to attach a photo to your Gmail message.

The easiest way to do it is also the most intuitive. When you have the “Open” dialogue box open, simply drag the photo from your iPhoto library to that box, and it will guide you to that event’s folder, and select the image that you dragged to the dialogue box.

After you do this, you can click “Open” and it will attach to your message.

If you are using Mail.app, you can just drag a photo to the application icon and it will create a new message with that picture attached. If the message is already open, you simply drag the pictures you want to attach to the message window, and it will attach them.

When I first switched from Windows to OSX one thing that I initially didn’t really understand was how to install/uninstall applications. Obviously it is second nature now, but hopefully the information below will help a new switcher.

Installation

On Windows when you download an application it is generally a .exe file. It is sometimes compressed in to a .zip file.

On OS X, a large majority of applications that you download will be in .dmg format. .dmg stands for “disk image” and it basically functions like a hard drive. DMG files can be mounted and ejected just like a regular hard drive. The purpose of the .dmg file is for compression. It can greatly reduce the size of the file you are downloading.

When you download this DMG file you simply double-click on it to mount/open it. Generally you will just see the application that you’d like to install. You then drag the application to your Applications folder.

After you’ve moved the application file to your Applications folder you then eject the “drive” the DMG created from your desktop to the trash can in the dock. This does not delete the DMG file, it just un-mounts it. Since you have installed the application, you no longer need the DMG file. Drag the DMG file to the trash to delete the DMG file itself.

And that’s it! It’s really less complicated that it may seem and after you’ve done it a couple of times you won’t even think twice about it. To launch the application you installed, just go to your Application folder and double-click on it.

Uninstall

So that snazzy application that you installed a few days ago has lost its luster and you realized you just don’t need it.

Uninstalling an application on OS X is even easier than installing it.

Simply go to your Applications folder, find the application you no longer need and drag it to your trash can in the dock. And that’s it!

Advanced Uninstall

Some purists here will argue that isn’t really “it” when it comes to uninstall an application and to an extent, they are correct. The majority of applications install small preference and configuration files elsewhere on your Mac. The files are so small that they don’t really have an impact on computer performance or your storage space, but should you want to keep your computer as clean as possible there are applications you can use to completely rid your computer of all traces of an application.

Here are a couple worth checking out:

• AppZapper – $12.95
• AppCleaner – Free

Screencast

Checkout the screencast below that covers the basics of installing and uninstalling an application.

There are many different ways to organize files. From the classic folder structure to the more “experimental” metadata/tagging format. There’s no right or wrong way to do it…just what works best for you.

As a new Mac users it’s easy to get caught up in the “old” way of doing things (ie. how you organized items in Windows). I encourage you to step outside that box for a bit to give something else a try.

The OS X Finder has a “Label” feature where you can color code your files with 7 different colors. Color coding your files and folders does not change anything about them. It’s simply a tool for organization.

One step further

Using the color labeling feature of Finder works fine as is. It helps you visually separate a folder full of files with a simple glance.

But we can take things one step further and use the labels as an actual organizational tool.

By using the OS X Smart Folder feature, we can group files by the color of the label you chose. So for example, say you decided to mark all of your documents that revolved around insurance (car, health, life, etc etc), you can then create a Smart Folder to automatically group all of those documents in one place. It then automatically updates whenever you label a new file with that color.

In our original label example above, I’ve marked financial documents with the green label. Now we’ll create a Smart Folder to group all of files labeled with green into one folder.

1. Go to the Finder. In the menu bar at the very top of your screen, select File > New Smart Folder. A new Finder window will popup with no files inside.
2. Next we’ll be creating the “rule” that finds all the green-labeled files. In the upper-right corner of the new Finder window you will see a plus sign. Click on the plus sign to create a new rule.
3. You’ll see a couple of new drop-down items. Click on the first one that says “Kind” and select “Other…” from the bottom of the menu. You’ll be presented with numerous additional attributes you can use. We want to find the attribute called “File label” and select it. The select Okay.
4. The rule has now changed to let you pick the color label of your choice. In our example, we’ll select the green label. After selecting your label, your Mac will search all the files on your computer for any labeled with green and will then show you the results.
5. If you’d like, you can now save this Smart Folder by clicking on the Save button.

If all goes as planned, you should see something similar to this.

Homework

You now know the basics of organizing and labeling your files with color labels. Your homework is to develop a basic system of organization on just your documents. Don’t worry about trying to do this to all your files. Just use this as a way to organize documents spread across different folders.

Be sure to check out the video below that walks through this entire lesson.