Inside: Smart Playlists, iTunes
Happy Mother’s Day!
Everyone just left our family Mother’s Day get-together and now I’m trying to write this newsletter while fighting off an impending food coma. Huge thanks go to my girlfriend Saundra, who not only prepared an amazing array of drinks, hors d’oeuvres, entrees, and dessert, but is also now cleaning up so that I can get out a Mother’s Day newsletter while it’s still Mother’s Day!
My minor contributions to the party included vacuuming, grilling, and making a song list for ambiance, which brings me to my new article and video… [click to continue…]
Inside: Bookmarks, Safari Reading List, Links, Web Archives, tooltips
There’s not enough room in this newsletter for me to adequately apologize for going silent for so long. In January I had a good excuse as I spent most of the month with a sore throat that made my voice very unworthy of recording new videos. But February just got away from me with other work and was over before I knew it. The important thing is I’m back in the groove and have FOUR new articles and videos to announce.
I did have a brief scare when the hard drive in my MacBook Pro got corrupted recently. Fortunately I can’t use that as an excuse because I was able to swap in a bigger drive and then restore everything from backup. Time Machine worked just how it’s supposed to and I was back running in a few hours, with nothing missing. If you still aren’t backing up your Mac, please use me as a cautionary tale. Drives can fail at any time. Mine gave me no warning. They ALL ultimately fail. My October article on setting up Time Machine inspired a few readers to finally start backing up their Macs, so if you still aren’t backing up, hopefully you’ll be inspired by my quick recovery from what could have easily been a tragedy. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Lion,
Quicken,
Safari,
Time Machine
Inside: Web pages on your Dashboard, Big Quicken/Lion news, New shortcuts
I’m not really sure where the last four weeks went. Like my Grandma does, many readers wrote to ask why I wasn’t writing more. Well, as with my Grandma, I feel guilty I haven’t. I promise I’ll do better in the New Year.
But, with Christmas tomorrow and Hanukkah half over, I figured it was better to send this little stocking stuffer now than to wait until I had even more new videos to tell you about. [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Dashboard,
keyboard,
Lion,
widgets
Inside: Moving pages, installing Pages, Preview
Is November really over in just a week? I started the month with a leisurely trip to my grandmother’s 94th birthday party in Oregon, where I observed that everything is leisurely in Oregon! I’ve never seen so many people drive under the speed limit, with no traffic to blame. But by the end of the trip I too was driving at a more relaxed pace, taking in all the gorgeous scenery.
Upon returning home, the normal hectic pace reappeared as my son worked feverishly on numerous college application essays, and I filled out a 20-page college financial aid form. That led to this article and video… [click to continue…]
Inside: Fast form filling, tab, tabs, windows (but not Windows)
Like the last newsletter, I’m running off again right after I finish writing this. Last time I was heading to the Apple Store to get my MacBook Pro repaired. If you “like” Mac Help For Mom’s Facebook page, then you probably saw me raving about how they not only fixed my DVD drive but even replaced the four rubber feet that had long since gone missing from my laptop. Big style points for the Genius Bar.
This time I’m off to my grandmother’s 94th birthday party! Yep, that’s getting up there but at least now she’s only double my age. 
I just phoned her the other day and she is still in fine form, which reminds me of a video and article I just finished… [click to continue…]
Inside: Time Machine, backups
I have an appointment at my local Apple Store’s Genius Bar in just over an hour and they’ll almost certainly keep my computer to replace my dying DVD drive. So this week’s newsletter will be brief, but, for some of you, it will be the most important one I’ve ever written.
Backing up is like flossing? Yep.
When I was a kid I read on a dentist’s wall a cutesy sign that I’ve remembered ever since:
“You don’t have to floss all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep!” [click to continue…]