Friday, October 7, 2011

Now's the Time to Create Your Personalized iPhoto Calendars - Here's How

As 2012 approaches, now is the time to create your own personalized calendar using iPhoto. This simple process is a big part of the iPhoto experience and can result in some beautiful, professional-looking calendars that use your own photographs and images to create a unique keepsake or gift that will keep on giving throughout the year. The skills will also apply to creating hardcover books and cards for all occasions.

The first step is to choose the photos you will use. Using the Command ⌘ key, click on the individual photos you want to include and then click the create icon on the bottom right of the iPhoto window. From there, choose calendar, and then choose one of the themes or designs available. If you want to use other images (art, cartoons, scans) that are not photos you must first import them into your iPhoto library.

After choosing the theme, you're greeted with a dialogue where you can specify what month the calendar will start, how many months to create, whether or not you want to include National holidays and even calendar events from your own iCal application, such as birthdays, anniversaries etc.

Each individual page gives you the option to include one photo or two, three, or even up to seven, and which photos to include for which month. There are layout, option and photos dialogues available in the lower right corner. You can always include more photos than originally selected in your project by dragging them from your complete photos list onto the calendar icon on your left sidebar. Many of the themes allow you to add a description to the photo. You can continue to edit, crop, or enhance individual photos by double-clicking the photo on the page.

Once you've arranged the photos in the order you prefer, click the 'buy' button and log in with your Apple ID. You can have the calendar shipped to yourself or shipped to the recipient. You can even have it gift-wrapped. Note, there is no volume discount, and your calendar will cost $19.99 whether you buy 1, 50, or 1000.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Troubleshooting a Troublesome Mac Video Tutorial

The following contains a series of troubleshooting steps to resolve boot and performance issues on Apple Mac notebook and desktop computers. Includes chapters on Disk Utility, resetting the SMC, resetting the PRAM, blue and grey screen issues, video and power issues, target disk mode and preventive maintenance.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

How to Change the Iphoto Event KeyFrame

To customize the keyframe (poster frame) in your iPhoto events, start by choosing an event in the iPhoto Library. Scroll through the pictures using your mouse or trackpad by hovering over the event and slowly moving the cursor from left to right. Stop at the photo you've selected to be the keyframe of the event. Click the control key on your keyboard and choose the 'make key photo' option. Bada Bing

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Changing Your Computer's Name and User Names

Now and again I meet clients who have bought a used computer, pre-installed with an operating system and user accounts that become disconcerting for them because it's somebody else's name.

It's simple to personalize your computer by changing the computer's name as well as the user name.

To change the computer name, simply navigate to the System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name.

Changing the user name and password is just as simple, navigate to the System Preferences > Accounts, click the lock and login to make changes and change your name and password there.

That won't change the home folder name, however. To do that, you must hold the Control key and click on the account name who's home folder you'd like to change, that will take you to advanced options where you can change the account name and home folder.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Up Your Media's Quick Tips Newsletter Volume III

Here are some issues I've come across over the past month or so, thanks to inquisitive clients who offered me the chance to answer their questions.

Floating Dictionary. This one is fun and useful, bring up instant definitions right on your screen. To activate the floating dictionary, simultaneously click command, control and the letter 'D' while hovering over any word on your display.

How To Copy A CD

To copy a music or data CD

1.) Insert the CD, open Disk Utility (Go Menu - Utilities)
2.) Select the CD and click New Image - for image format choose DVD/CD Master
3.) Once that's created, insert Blank CD
4.) Select the new image you created and click Burn


Use Your Portable In Closed Clamshell Mode.

Perhaps you've cracked your screen and need to use your MacBook while you wait for a replacement part, or maybe you just want to use a larger screen than the 13" built-in.

First, connect a USB keyboard and mouse to your computer. With the computer turned on, connect the Apple portable (using the appropriate Apple adapter if necessary) to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the display or projector on. Once your computer's Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer's lid. Once the lid is closed, wake the computer up by either clicking your mouse button or by pressing a key on your external keyboard.

Find the Source File in iPhoto

Where does the jpg go once you've imported it into iPhoto? You can find the root file by holding down the Control Key while you click on the iPhoto application icon, choose "Show Package contents." Browse through the folder until you find your Originals folder.


Return To Zero

To return to zero or go to beginning of your clip in Garage Band or iMovie, you have three choices, click either Return or Z or Home.

To arrange your iPhone or iPad apps

You can press and hold on the device's screen until you activate the feature and move your apps by hand OR you can open the apps interface in iTunes when it's plugged in and move them from there.

Control Display Resolution.

Many of us are better off using a display resolution that makes text and pictures easier to read on our screens. To change your display resolution, open the Display dialogue in your System Preferences and choose from the list until you find one you like. Lower numbers (800 by 600) will result in larger text and icons, higher numbers (1280 by 800) will result in smaller text and icons.


And that't it for this month, if you want your specific Apple computer question answered just email it to me and I'll do my best to find out for you.




Monday, March 14, 2011

Up Your Media's Quick Tips Newsletter Volume II

Hi, and welcome to another edition of our Quick Mac Tips newsletter. These are some issues that have come up with my Apple cpmputer clients around Parksville, Qualicum, Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island in the past weeks.

In iPhoto 9 you can now choose to send mail via iphoto or your mac mail application I suggest choosing the Mac Mail program. Choose this option in the iPhoto General Preferences pane.

Hot Corners, is one of my favourite navigation features. If you're like me, you tend to have a lot of windows and applications open at once. In your System Preferences pane, go to Expose and Spaces, and pick Active Screen Corners, I like my top right corner to tile all open windows and my lower right corner to clear all windows and expose the Desktop.

You can add a photo or logo to your email signature by opening up the signature dialogue in your mail program and simply dragging the image directly onto that particular signature from either the finder or the iPhoto application.

Change your Safari homepage from the default Apple store to a page more suitable to you. In the Safari preferences pane, simply type in the url to your favourite page where it says 'home page'.

Need to translate text or full webpages, use the Google translator at http://translate.google.com/ . This free tool will allow you to translate over 50 languages

iTunes Radio contains access to hundreds of radio stations worldwide in every genre.

To save a PDF for the best emailing and sharing compatibility, choose print in your Pages, MS Word, Safari or Mail program, at the bottom left of that window you'll see the PDF tab, from there you can save the PDF or mail it directly

To type fractions go into the keyboard language drop down menu near the top right of your screen (the flag beside the clock) and choose to "show character viewer". From there you choose symbols, then number and number symbols, pick the fraction you want and click insert.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Quick Tips For Your Mac Computer from Up Your Media

Here are some quick solutions to problems and issues I've come across in my work over the last 2 weeks, and thank you to those clients who gave me the opportunity to discover the solutions in the first place. If you don't wish to receive these regular informative emails please let me know and I'll remove you from the list immediately.

Lost your tool bar at the top of your browser or mail window? Look in the View menu of the particular application for the Show Toolbar function.

Looking for a specific link on a busy webpage (ie., contact, archives, faq)? Type command (⌘) f to Find that particular word and save your time and eyes.

Need info on a file or folder on your computer? Highlight the item, type command (⌘) I to Get Info, which will display many details including kind, size, date modified, sharing and permissions and more, depending on the item.

Need to type French Accents? Here are the steps to adding French Accents to your documents, type the option and listed key simultaneously, then the appropriate letter key.
Grave (è) – option + ~
Aigu (é) – option + e
Cédille (ç) – option + c
Circonflexe (ê) – option + i
Tréma (ö) – option + u

Syncing calendars from your Blackberry, PC, iCal and iPhone? It can be tricky, but the best bet is to export your calendars to a Google calendar and sync them to your devices from there.

Don't forget my MacBook and iMac upgrade hard drive special, 1 TB for the iMac for $199.00 or 500 Mb for a Macbook or Macbook Pro for $175.00, data transfer not included.