You think you will never forget that all important password. But what happens if you do. Or if your spouse dies suddenly and all your financial records are on his or her Mac and you don't know how to access them. Or you purchased a second-hand Mac and can't get into it.
Well, you can very easily create a new admin password if you have the installer OS X disc that came with your Mac. If you don't you can try and borrow a set, or look on ebay for a set. They have to match perfectly. Disks for a PowerBook G4 will not work on an iBook G4.
Just to make it harder for thieves, don't store your system disks with your Mac.
Important note: Your Keychain entries will be lost following this procedure. If you are able to do so, open each entry, make sure the password info shows, and print out a copy so that you don't lose that precious information while you are creating a new password.
Here are the steps:
Get your original Mac OS X Installer disc and insert in the CD-ROM drive.
Restart your Mac, holding down the "C" key.
Go to the Installer menu and choose "Reset Password". When the dialog window opens, choose which disk you want to access and type in a new user name and password. Make sure you choose the account you need to rescue, not the root account. Depending on your current operating system, you may only be asked to enter the password. Click the Save button.
Quit the Reset Password dialog and quit the Installer program. Your computer will restart and you should be all set.
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( 2.9 / 40 )This is a two-fer. Or even a three-fer depending on what equipment you have. While making one change you get to make others for free.
I find the little AOL running man to be annoying. If a person doesn't select an image for their iChat ID, iChat defaults to that little AOL icon. Depending on how many iChat contacts you have, you can have a bunch of them. Ah, but you don't have to. You are in charge. You can put your own images in. They will only be in place on your machine so you can be as "selective" as you want to be.
Open iChat, and open your Buddy List (Command +1) if it doesn't open automatically. Control-click on the name you want to work with. They don't have to be on line. When the window opens, click on Show Profile > Address Card Tab.
Drag and drop the picture or icon you want to use and click the box next to "Always Use This Picture" checkbox. Here is the card for my friend Craig.
Oh yeah, and that two-fer? Click the button that says "Show in Address Book" and that same picture will be added to the person's V-card in your address book, and if you use Bento, it will be added there as well. And, if you have an iPhone, it will be added there as well.
This only works from this direction. You can't add an image in Address Book and have it automatically show up in iChat.
Nancy
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( 2.9 / 58 )Sometimes you want to search for something based on the kind of document it is. For instance, recently I needed to find all the Keynote documents I had on my Mac because I needed a specific slide show I had made and I couldn't find it anywhere. (Couldn't remember what I had named it either, but that is a tale for another day.)
Here is a quick way to do it. Open Spotlight and enter kind: followed by the application you are interested in. For my recent search I entered kind:keynote. When I did so, all the slide shows I had saved on my computer popped up on the Spotlight list and I found the one I needed, stored in a sub folder where it did not belong. You can use the kind: feature to search other kinds of things as well.
Nancy
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( 3 / 56 )Fonts can become corrupted. When a font doesn't behave in a rational manner and there doesn't seem to be any logical reason, consider the fact that the reason could be as simple as a corrupted font. Don't automatically assume that you have made a mistake. I already did that. I wasted hours for you so you don't have to. LOL
It is so very easy to check and see if the font is bad before you go looking for more serious problems. You might as well take the easy route first.
First open the Font Book. Either select Applications > Font Book or, if you have an application open, select Command + T and click on the cog wheel in the bottom left corner and select Manage Fonts. See the previous two blog entries on Font Book.
When the window opens, you will see three columns. The middle one is named Font. Click on one of the fonts in the list and then select them all by choosing Command + A.
The whole list will be highlighted. Go to the File Menu and Choose "Validate Fonts". You will get this window.
All of your fonts will be examined and any problems will be noted. (You can, of course, choose to evaluate just one font if you are concerned about a specific font and don't have time to evaluate them all. In that case, just click on that font and skip the "select all" step.)
When the validation is complete each font set is graded. Anything marked with red should be deleted. To delete, put an X in the box to the left of the font name and click on the "Remove Checked" button. Those with yellow caution buttons can be left in your font set. Although "minor problems" are noted, you should be able to continue using your fonts without any concerns.
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( 2.7 / 54 )Your OS X operating system contains a wonderful little gem called Font Book. Software companies are always trying to sell you applications to manage your fonts, but before you decide to spend money on font applications, you should take the time to become thoroughly familiar with Font Book. You may well decide you already have the best of the best.
Here is one cool thing you can do utilizing the Font Book capabilities. You can quickly see what the different type fonts really look like. Try this.
With an application open, select Command + T. The Font Book will open for you. It looks like this. Notice the little cog wheel in the bottom left corner where my arrow is pointing. Click on that, and select "Show Preview
"
When you do, you get a pop-up window at the top of the Font Book window that shows you what the selected font looks like and tells you the font size. If you change the font size, the font changes accordingly. You can adjust the size by dragging the tiny dot located just to the left of my arrow in this second image.
To look at a different font, just click on it.
To close the pop-up window, go back to the cog wheel and choose "Hide Preview".
I have another great tip related to Font Book that will be in my next entry.
Nancy
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( 3.3 / 37 )
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