If I were still working with kids in scouts or teaching I would consider this as a great tool for making learning fun. The app does most of the work. You have to come up with the words and the definitions.
The app is called Crossword Forge and it is kinda expensive at $49.95, but there is a lot of programming in the background that allows it to present the finished product that it gives. You can download a trial version that lets you check it out, but you can't print any completed puzzles until you purchase the product.
The web site is http://www.solrobots.com/.
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( 2.4 / 28 )If you have time to investigate some new software here is a recommendation. I saw it demonstrated at Macworld and have since purchased and tried it. It is easy to use and, at least from my perspective, a great asset.
It is BusyCal from BusyMac. It works with iCal but offers more options. For instance the weather report for your area for the next 7 days is included in the form of weather icons. You can get information about or edit events in a box just by clicking on the name of the event. Even better, for beginners, there are very good movie tutorials included in the download that show you just what to do. Oh, and if you are on a network, you can share calendars between users. It requires OS 10.5 or 10.6 and costs $49 for a single user license or $79 for a family license. Check it out at http://www.busymac.com/.
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( 2.8 / 63 )Here is one of the primary reasons that I love being part of a Macintosh User Group. I am always learning cool things. At a meeting tonight one of the participants walked in and stated that she needed to plug in her laptop because she thought her battery was dying. She asked if anyone knew how to test it.
Within three minutes we all had a working solution that one member of the group knew about and shared with the rest of us. The solution is a little application called CoconutBattery. The most current version is 2.6.3. The app is free although donations are accepted. It works with both Intel and non-Intel based Macs.
You can get information about the application and download it here. Like any new application you should move it to your Applications folder for storage. Then just click on the application icon and the battery monitoring window will open.
As you can tell from looking at the information about my machine my battery is starting to wear out, it no longer works at full capacity and does not hold a charge very long. The information also tells me the age of my Mac.
I well remember being at MacWorld back in 2003 when the battery of my Pismo died on me. Buying a new battery in that setting was time consuming and expensive. Had I been more knowledgeable and had something like this, I could have taken care of the problem ahead of time.
By-the-way, it is good practice to occasionally let your battery run all the way down and then recharge back to full capacity.
Nancy
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( 2.9 / 63 )One of my all time favorite utilities is Grab. It comes with OS X and it is free. It lets you quickly take pictures of all or part of your computer screen.
The really nice feature is Timed Screen. You can actually select a portion of your application that you want to point to, set the timer, and move your cursor to point to that specific item before the picture snaps.
I use Grab so often that I keep the icon for it on my Dock.
To use it, Open Grab (located in the Utilities folder which you should find in your Applications folder).
Choose a command from the Capture menu. (selection, Window, Screen, or Timed Screen).
Follow the directions for the task you have selected and save your finished product. This is a great tool for training and/or for asking questions.
One note, if you use Timed Screen you will get an image of your entire desk top. You may want to do a second Grab action and narrow your image to just the area you are interested in, as I did in the example above.
Nancy
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( 3 / 83 )Somewhat of an unsung hero in the arsenal of tools included with OS X
is the DigitalColor Meter which allows you to precisely determine the color
specifications of any image displayed on the Macintosh screen.
In the following example, I used the DigitalColor Meter to determine the exact color of the nose of the rag doll to obtain the RGB (red, green, and blue) color levels. I point the pointer to the exact area that I want the color meter to measure as exemplified in the example.
The DigitalColor Meter panel contains a large square which shows the area
being considered, the center of that area being marked by the cursor and a small
square which shows the color obtained by averaging the colors shown in the large
square. The large square can be set to cover an area of varying number of pixels
and this can help to determine an appropriate color to represent an area which
is multi-colored. If you look closely at the screenshot you can see that there is
a variance, albeit subtle, in the included colors.
DigitalColor Meter gives the user the option of choosing from a number of
commonly used color specifications including the ubiquitous RGB and CMYK.
Once you becomes a user of Digital Color Meter you will truly wonder how you got along without it. Especially if you make your own gift cards, brochures, web pages, newsletters, etc. and are a stickler for matching things perfectly.
Oh yeah, you will find it in the Applications folder. Choose Utilities > Digital Color Meter. If you are running OS X you will have it. I keep it on my Dock because it use it frequently.
Nancy
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