Ongoing New Apple Owner Questions

[jadex]

Thanks mkrishnan and 20rogersc for the advice!

Right after I posted, i downloaded aol for mac os x onto another computer and burned the disc. I put it into the PB...but it says there's no application to read them (i found two versions, one's in .hpx and the other in .bin format)! Apparently i need something like stuffit extreme (which i'm assuming is a tool, does it come with the computer?) to convert it...right now they look like documents and not installers.

88And I would get rid of AOL in a minute...I was livid when we switched from their crappy dial-up to their broadband...but unfortunately it wasn't *my* decision.

 

[mkrishnan]

Right after I posted, i downloaded aol for mac os x onto another computer and burned the disc. I put it into the PB...but it says there's no application to read them (i found two versions, one's in .hpx and the other in .bin format)! Apparently i need something like stuffit extreme (which i'm assuming is a tool, does it come with the computer?) to convert it...right now they look like documents and not installers.

Ahhh, yes. The deal is that, as disk images and zip files became the standard way to distribute mac stuff, Stuffit has become slightly less popular, but is still widely used. For some reason, Apple bundled the software up through Panther, but did not include it with Tiger, which has been a nuisance for a lot of us.

Here is the link:

http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/download3.html

I guess, burn it onto the CDR too...

 

[Advance The Man]

With Windows I can right click on the mouse to save a pix or a video or any file. How do I do this while using the Apple on the internet.

 

[killmoms]

With Windows I can right click on the mouse to save a pix or a video or any file. How do I do this while using the Apple on the internet.

Well, if you have a two button mouse, you can right-click and save just like on the Windows machine. If you're using the one-button Apple mouse... stop and get a two-button one. Just kidding, you can hold Ctrl and click to replicate right-click functionality. I really do recommend getting a two-button mouse though.

 

[devilot]

With Windows I can right click on the mouse to save a pix or a video or any file. How do I do this while using the Apple on the internet.

Many times, you can literally just drag the image from the site onto your desktop.

 

[Advance The Man]

I have a membership to .mac. I need to list a rental property to craigs list and I want to add photos. I have to have a site 'host' the pixs I want to insert. Can I use photos added to .mac to do this? How?

 

[The_Man]

I Have three questions.

1. I was using my iBook, and the battery got down to 9 percent, I thought it was supposed to automatically go to sleep at 10 percent

2. How long does the iBook take to charge

3. Will media players like VLC play video files from the internet that normally using WMP?

(this was also posted in iBook Newbie, Some questions.)

Thanks.

 

[andylane]

Show all windows

Someone mentioned using fn+F7 to show all open windows. Try using F9 or fn+F9 (one or the other should work) for the same thing to happen. That's the default Exposé shortcut for All Windows.

 

[mkrishnan]

I Have three questions.

1. I was using my iBook, and the battery got down to 9 percent, I thought it was supposed to automatically go to sleep at 10 percent

2. How long does the iBook take to charge

3. Will media players like VLC play video files from the internet that normally using WMP?

(this was also posted in iBook Newbie, Some questions.)

Thanks.

1) It should warn you around 5% and automatically go to sleep around 0-1%. It's like the E marker on a fuel gauge in a car. It's not really empty. It can last for several hours, asleep, at the 0% point, before you plug it in.

2) My experience, a full charge from 0 -> 100 takes about 3 hours, but I've never timed it?

3) VLC and MPlayer will play most WMP files, but there are sometimes WMV, esp WMV3 files, that will pretty much only play in WMP9. WMP9 doesn't really clog up your system, so I would just get it. Also, there's a tool called Flip4Mac that lets you view pretty much the same set of WMVs that other non-WMP players can read, in Quicktime. It's not free, but if you get that, you can pretty much just let QT do its thing. And this topic is worth a forum search, because it's a major FAQ.

Heh... I just noticed, I don't remember seeing a "Upgrade now" message from QT in quite a while.... But then, I guess I've mostly been watching embedded stuff.

 

[andylane]

1. I was using my iBook, and the battery got down to 9 percent, I thought it was supposed to automatically go to sleep at 10 percent

It's usually 7% that produces a warning on 10.4.2 (I think it's 6% with earlier versions, but I could be wrong) and, well, at 0% it goes to sleep. I reckon it should sleep for several hours or more before dying. Mine has never lost power completely.

2. How long does the iBook take to charge

I think my iBook G3 takes around two hours. But it's a couple of years old, so the capacity (and thus charging time) is reduced. Like the iPod, it charges to 80% quite quickly. I get around two to two and a half hours out of mine, still.

3. Will media players like VLC play video files from the internet that normally using WMP?

Yeah, they'll play some files. But Windows Media Player also exists for the Mac, surprising as it may sound. You can download it from Microsoft's website or find it by a Google search. It's OK for looking at files that need it if they're embedded in a web page, though they tend to open in the external player either way (in my experience).

 

[Advance The Man]

I have a membership to .mac. I need to list a rental property to craigs list and I want to add photos. I have to have a site 'host' the pixs I want to insert. Can I use photos added to .mac to do this? How?

bump

 

[Claudia]

Shuffle- Can I drag songs off and put them on my harddrive?

is it possible to take drag the songs off the shuffle onto the computer harddrive? because i let a friend borrow my shuffle, he put all these songs on it, adn now i would like to keep those songs. Should i just enable disk use and then drag the songs onto my harddrive?

If you have a non-Shuffle iPod, it must be formatted in the Windows format. AFAIK, iPod Shuffles always use the same format, so that they can work as USB drives.

To Advance -- yes, I don't think the size of the iPod has anything to do with anything. You just, obviously, cannot drag more songs onto it than it can hold. And of course there's no easy way to do a random fill that includes songs from both computers.

 

[manzanaloca]

Ok I have a question and sorry if I overlooked something similar in this thread.

I have some media files that are .wmv's (TV episodes) that are on my old laptop. I want to copy them over to my iBook and watch.

Once I get them moved over will hooking up the iBook to a tv with a S-Video output device work? This one I'm guessing: Apple video adapter

Has anyone tried that, what are the results?

I know I can copy them to dvd, but I really don't want to mess with that at the moment. I've had issues with my dvd player working with burned dvds.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Has anyone tried that, what are the results?

I have one of those and used it with my iBook G4 for a while when my regular DVD player died for good. It works just great.

Just remember to pick up a sound cable, too. It's not fun watching video on a regular TV with sound coming out of the (rather poor quality) iBook speakers.

 

[killmoms]

is it possible to take drag the songs off the shuffle onto the computer harddrive? because i let a friend borrow my shuffle, he put all these songs on it, adn now i would like to keep those songs. Should i just enable disk use and then drag the songs onto my harddrive?

Not without extra software. Apple tries to keep the iPod from being used as a fast piracy device by hiding the music on the iPod even when you enable disk usage, so it's harder for people to quickly steal a lot of music.

That said, I'm sure you'd find a piece of third-party software like iPodRip useful.

 

[Claudia]

Not without extra software. Apple tries to keep the iPod from being used as a fast piracy device by hiding the music on the iPod even when you enable disk usage, so it's harder for people to quickly steal a lot of music.

That said, I'm sure you'd find a piece of third-party software like iPodRip useful.

Thank you SO much, it should work with the Shuffle too though right?

 

[manzanaloca]

Ok so I want to reload the OS on my new iBook. Is this very difficult to do? This should get rid of any of my personal info I have on it, right?

I have not installed any additional software or apps so I'm not worried about losing anything.

 

[mad jew]

Ok so I want to reload the OS on my new iBook. Is this very difficult to do? This should get rid of any of my personal info I have on it, right?

I have not installed any additional software or apps so I'm not worried about losing anything.

Start from the OSX install disks by holding down C as you boot up with it already in the drive. Then merely follow the prompts, it's easy. Remember that you'll lose all your files too, not just the apps. It'll get rid of all personal information too.

I reckon if you start a new thread with these questions rather than jumping on the back of an old one you'll get a broader range of better replies in future.

 

[manzanaloca]

Start from the OSX install disks by holding down C as you boot up with it already in the drive. Then merely follow the prompts, it's easy. Remember that you'll lose all your files too, not just the apps. It'll get rid of all personal information too.

I reckon if you start a new thread with these questions rather than jumping on the back of an old one you'll get a broader range of better replies in future.

Thanks!

I don't mind losing all my files and personal info, I hadn't really put anything I needed on it.

Next time I'll make sure to start a new thread too...

 

[xmatthew]

Shift-Tab problem

I'm using Mac OSX 10.4.3 on an iBook I just got 3 weeks ago. I've been using the Tab and Shift-Tab shortcuts to navigate between fields, mostly in Safari, until I started having a problem with Shift-Tab today. The Tab key will work, and will move between fields, but when I try to press Shift-Tab to move to the previous field, it doesn't Reverse Tab anymore. Instead, if I'm in a password field, when I press Shift-Tab, it will appear as an entry (another * character). I don't get how this happened and tried resetting Safari and all the keyboard shortcuts. The numlock key isn't on, and shift-tab will reverse tab in other situations like in Expose. Any suggestions?

 

[CowboyTurbo]

Moving question to new thread. btw is there a "delete post" option on this forum?

 

[mkrishnan]

When using MS-Word on a PC, I can press Alt, F, A to go to file and then "save as". Is there a combination of keys I can press on my PB to do the same? I know apple+S will auto save, but not the same thing as the "save as"

You have a couple of major options, which may or may not satisfy you. This is something that it took me a while to stop missing from Windows.

1) In System Preferences -> KB & Mouse -> KB Shortcuts, you can add customization of keyboard shortcuts for most any program. I believe this applies to Office. You can set Save As to be whatever you want (perhaps Alt-Option-S), if it isn't already used by that program.

2) Also there, if you turn on Full Keyboard Access, there is a shortcut for shifting focus to the menu bar. This will allow you to navigate the menu bar with the keyboard. The arrow keys work like you expect, but the way that shortcut keys work is not very straightforward or useful.

I think this is something that you will probably slowly miss less, but it will take a while. It doesn't honestly bother me anymore. Intelligent software design makes it less necessary too. Like Office now has that sweet floating tool for paste, which lets you choose "Paste Special" options post hoc. Which obviates a lot of need for the Paste Special, which was something I activated by kb like you describe. But I think in general, this is sort of a casualty area, where you have to give in that it isn't a "Mac way" and that you won't be easily able to get this in OS X.

 

[mkrishnan]

Weird double post. Sorry.

 

[CowboyTurbo]

You have a couple of major options, which may or may not satisfy you. This is something that it took me a while to stop missing from Windows.

1) In System Preferences -> KB & Mouse -> KB Shortcuts, you can add customization of keyboard shortcuts for most any program. I believe this applies to Office. You can set Save As to be whatever you want (perhaps Alt-Option-S), if it isn't already used by that program.

2) Also there, if you turn on Full Keyboard Access, there is a shortcut for shifting focus to the menu bar. This will allow you to navigate the menu bar with the keyboard. The arrow keys work like you expect, but the way that shortcut keys work is not very straightforward or useful.

I think this is something that you will probably slowly miss less, but it will take a while. It doesn't honestly bother me anymore. Intelligent software design makes it less necessary too. Like Office now has that sweet floating tool for paste, which lets you choose "Paste Special" options post hoc. Which obviates a lot of need for the Paste Special, which was something I activated by kb like you describe. But I think in general, this is sort of a casualty area, where you have to give in that it isn't a "Mac way" and that you won't be easily able to get this in OS X.

ok, thanks for the info.

 

[Claudia]

Saving a desktop that you didnt really save

I figured my question would fit right in here. I have a desktop from August and I havent saved the image file, i just pulled the picture from somwhere and applied it as a desktop. So, how can I save the picture im using as my desktop so i can FINALLY get a nice new background without losing my current background forever?

Thanks a bunch!