Well...turns out there is another, easier way to do it. I don't know how long this has been around, but I suspect it is new with Leopard. I have to thank a friend for passing it on to me and I am most pleased to be able to share it. Here it is in a nutshell.
If you would like to send a file, which could be a folder full of stuff, to someone, you can select that file and then control-click on it and then select "Compress Media" from the options presented. The result will be a ZIP file which can be significantly smaller. (You can also accomplish this task by clicking on the folder and then selecting Compress name of file from the File menu.)
This ZIP file can then be attached to an email. The recipient just opens the zip file and moves forward from there.
I tried it with a file containing 25.6 MB of data. The resulting Zip file was 10.6 MB. The original file was not changed in any way.
Now, obviously you are still going to be limited as to how much data you can send by how much the receiving mail program will allow, but this is another help when you are sending information.
Nancy
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( 2.9 / 52 )Organizing your files can be the most frustrating aspect of new computer use for some users. Others, those who are organized by nature, don't understand what the big deal is. We all have our own skill sets.
For those who need to keep all their stuff on their desktop where they can find it, color coordinating their folders, or otherwise marking them can help. I am a fairly organized person, but I also usually have half a dozen projects going at once, and I like to have color coordinated folders to help me find things.
It is easy and fun to be able to change the dull blue folders into anything you jolly well please. You can retain the normal folder-looking designs, or use any other icon structure you want. Once you learn how to do this, you can even change the standard icons for all your Apply apps such as Safari, Mail, etc. using an application called Candybar.
This tip works in all the OS X versions. Have your icon(s) ready. You can find all you need as free downloads, (search for Mac OS X icons on the Internet) or you can use your own photo images. You don't have to adjust the size. Click on your icon or image of choice and copy it.
Repeat the process as desired for other folders. To go back to the default design go back into the Get Info panel and click on the same little image and hit delete. The default design will return.
Nancy
Click once on the icon you want to change.
Then hit Command + i (or right click) to get the “Get Info” window. When the Get Info window opens, find the folder icon image in the top left corner. In this example it is next to the words “Desktop”.
Click on it once, hit paste, and the new image should appear.
Close the Get Info window.
This particular icon is part of a set created by Christopher Ferris and can be found at http://interfacelift.com/icons-mac/artists.php?id=989.
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( 2.9 / 54 )Click on the file or the folder once to highlight it and then hold down the Command key + the D key and your folder or file will be duplicated. This works on any kind of file, including graphics.
Another quick way to do this is to hold down the Option Key, click on the file and drag yourself a copy.
Nancy
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( 3 / 55 )I have a part-time job that involves Internet research and recently I had to look at the web sites of a couple of hundred municipalities, looking for the names of their engineers. This frequently involved reading through meeting minutes. Some of them could be quite fascinating, but I was not getting paid to read them for my pleasure. I just needed a quick way to find names. As usual, my Mac (or I should really say my Apple operating system) had the answer.
Safari has a great built-in search feature that allows you to search for words on web pages. All I had to to was access the feature and enter the word engineer and frequently I could find what I was looking for in a matter of seconds.
Select Command + F and a little search field appears in the top right corner of Safari's main window. Type in a word and as soon as you start typing it starts searching. You don't have to hit return to make it work.
If it finds your search term on the page, it highlights the first place it finds it in bright yellow (and lists how many times that term appears on the page). If the word appears on the page more than once, you can press the right arrow button the left of the search field and it will jump to the next instance where the word appears. When you are finished searching. either click the Done button to the right of the search field or hit the ESC key on your keyboard.
Nancy
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( 3 / 82 )WIdgets showed up in OS X and they can be quite helpful. Some people use them constantly while some people never get into them at all. Some people, like me, use them occasionally. Where ever you fall, there is a Widget fact that will help you use them more effectively.
Like most things on my Mac I learned this the hard way. That means I had to ask one of my kids.
One of the Widgets is for the weather and it is one I find quite useful. However, the first time I opened it the weather report said the temperature was something like 12 degrees and it was snowing. i live in Austin, Texas. I really doesn't get down to 12 degrees here, even in January and unfortunately, we don't any snow that lasts more than an hour.
I fiddled around. (My usual attempt to fix things.) Then I called the expert who said "did you check the little i?" Turns out I was looking at the weather report for Austin, MN.
Many of the Widgets include the ability to customize and the little i in the bottom right corner is your clue.
As you can see from these two examples I need to change Austin, MN to Austin, TX, and click done to see an accurate report for Austin. (It is 90 here).
If you are going to fiddle, at least make it productive. LOL
Nancy
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