MacMousecalls

Do you back up your external drives?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-06-29T13:13:39-04:00

I participated in a presentation for Washington Apple Pi last Saturday. I was a part of a panel on tips and troubleshooting. In preparing for the session, I packed a bag of my favorite computer hardware.

Along with a few other pieces of hardware, I took my favorite portable hard drive and my favorite drive gadget, the NewerTech Voyager Q.

The Voyager sits on my desktop, ready to accept the next bare drive I want to mount. I have quite a collection of external hard drives. They connect to my iMac and they share their files with the other computers we own.

These drives are not my primary backup. Those duties are handled by an Apple Time Capsule. Instead, they are filled with other files that are too large to keep on my internal hard drives. One is filled with the graphics used to do digital scrapbooking and copies of the pages I have made. Another contains the archives of articles, projects, presentations and CDs that I have made over the years. Still another drive is the archive of all the digital photographs and videos that I have taken. In fact, there is a separate library for each year. Another contains the iTunes library that feeds our AppleTV.

Notice the NewerTechVoyager. Inside it and to its left are four additional hard drives. These contain backups of the four drives to the right. Missing from the photo are two additional drives that are stored in our safety deposit box. They are larger capacity drives that also contain a backup of these drives.

If you have outgrown the internal hard drive of your computer, you need to have a system similar to mine. For each external drive, you also need to have a backup drive. If that backup is stored in your home, you also need to have a separate backup that is stored away from your home. It could be in a drawer at the office, in a safety deposit box or at the home of a friend or relative, but it needs to be in a different location than you desk. It protects your data in case of a theft, fire, flood or other natural disaster.

Backing up is expensive. To cut down on the expense, a device like the NewerTech Voyager that allows you to easily mount and use bare drives can save you lots of money--I calculate it at about $70 per case. So, this $99.00 device has saved me over $360 already.

Because I am a consultant, the Voyager is also helpful when I upgrade the drives of local clients. I had a client last week who wanted to put a larger hard drive in his MacBook. He brought me his new, larger hard drive. I attached the Voyager to his computer and I used SuperDuper! to clone his old drive to the new one. Then I swapped the drives. I suggested that he use is old drive to store extra files. To do that, he would either need a case for the drive (notice the two drives to the far left in the photo above) or he would need a Voyager.

No matter how large they make internal drives, eventually, we all need more space. A combination of external drives in cases and a hard drive dock like the Voyager help you keep your data backed up and safe.

If you need some help in planning your external storage and its backups, give us a call at Dr. Mac Consulting. We can help you with plans and purchases to protect all of your valuable data.

Safe computing --

Pat

New gear for my new iPhone

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-06-25T07:04:56-04:00

I have to admit it! For the third summer in a row, I found myself in line last Friday to buy the new iPhone 3GS. Since Apple did not change the form between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, and since my husband also bought one, we will be needing another external battery pack at our house! Join me as I explore the different type of battery packs and and their features.

I got a Mophie Juice Pack for the original iPhone, and I bought one for my iPhone 3G, but the differences in size and form of the newer iPhone mean we will want another external battery.

While external batteries for the iPhone can take many different forms, I have determined that I prefer batteries that can be attached to the iPhone without adding a lot of extra size. Although it is relatively inexpensive, I find that the Richard Solo backup battery adds too much bulk to my iPhone. It adds too much length for me to easily carry the iPhone with the battery attached in the side pocket of my purses. I also think the connection might not be sturdy enough for me to leave the battery attached to my iPhone

The Griffin TuneJuice has similar problems. I want to be able to leave the battery attached to my iPhone without having it hang off the iPhone.

While I have really enjoyed my two Mophie JuicePacks (and my husband will continue to use my older one), I want to take some time to compare the prices, structure and battery capacity of several other possible choices.

When you are comparing devices that accept standard batteries, it is pretty easy to compare AAA and AA batteries. However, when the device is the battery, it would be difficult to compare battery volume. Fortunately, the industry has taken care of the problem by adopting a common measurement, the battery capacity which is expressed in mAh. The higher the mAh, the more power the battery holds. While we often see cell phone battery capacity expressed as talk time and standby time, those numbers can be misleading.

Since I am looking for an external battery that will also act as a case for my iPhone, I am looking at three different options:

the Power Slider by inCase
the juice pack air by Mophie
the iV by FastMac

Let’s take a look at their features:

At the end of this exercise, I have ruled out the inCase PowerSlider. I have a white iPhone and I really don’t want another black case. The difference in mAh is not enough to give it a clear advantage over the mophie juice pack air and I like the idea that I could buy a replacement for the top case if I lost it.

However, the FastMac iV has several good features. It has a clear advantage in battery power. The integrated light is interesting and the extra USB port might be nice. I guess I won’t be making a final decision today and I might consider eventually buying both units.

Photos of the various products were taken from their web sites.

Good luck in making decisions for your iPhone accessories!

Pat

Printing from blogs and other long pages

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-06-24T09:07:26-04:00

I gave our old PowerBook to my 90 year old aunt several months ago. This has been a true adventure for her as she had never really used a computer before. Actually, I gave her the computer, an older AirPort Extreme, a printer and even an iSight camera. Aunt Lee lives in California--and I am in Virginia, so we have used iChat screen sharing many times as I teach her more about her computer.

The other day I sent her a link to one of my favorite blogs, Bakerella. If you have not seen it and you enjoy baking or cake decorating, this is a wonderful site. Aunt Lee discovered a recipe for Lemon Bars. Of course, she needed a printout to use while she cooked.

Being a new computer user, Aunt Lee did not know much about blogs. She did not realize that blogs often show several different articles on one page. To see each article or post on a separate page, just click on the title for an article. Your browser will then load just that page.

In the case of Bakerella, there are often lots of photos along with a recipe, so we have only fixed half of the problem. Printing out all of the photos along with the recipe would just be a waste of ink, so now we need to isolate the text.

One way to do that would be to use the preview function of Safari. Go to the Safari File menu and select Print…:

The Print dialog box will open. It may appear like this one:

This is called a simplified dialog box--and I detest them! The little arrow button that I have circled is a called a disclosure triangle. Whenever you see a button like this that points downward, click it and you will have a more detailed and much more useful dialog box:

In this one, you can scroll through the web page using the arrows under the preview to find just the part that you will want to print. Then enter those numbers in the right side of the dialog box using the “From” choice instead of All. Enter the number of the first page you would like to print. Then move to the second or “to:” box. The number that you typed into the first box will automatically appear. If you would like to print more than one page, simply erase the number in the “to:” box and enter the desired page number.

There is no way to skip a few pages. If you wanted to print page five and page seven, you would have to first print page five, then use the “Print…” command to choose page seven. Using this method you can print out just the pages you want.

If you would like to save the pages, click the PDF button at the left bottom of the dialog box:

Choose a location for the file. You may also want to give it a specific name:

While there are many other ways to print and save specific parts of a web page, this is probably the easiest method. If you would like to learn other ways of working with web pages, consider booking a tutorial session with us at Dr. Mac Consulting! The cost is $60 per hour and we will tailor the session to meet your needs and interests. We use our special screen-sharing software to see your screen and we can even control your keyboard and mouse if you need an extra hand!

Happy recipe hunting!

Pat

Interesting links 2009-06-17

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-06-17T07:39:56-04:00

If you ask that question to a friend, most people will say that they want to be able to surf the web to find information and do email.

I have noticed that several of the authors of blogs that I follow occasionally post interesting or useful links. I have decided to adopt the practice. The links I provide will generally be to technical sites or to sites that I think will be of interest to a wide audience of readers.

My husband had a heart attack last summer. It caused quite a scare since he did not seem to be a heart attack candidate. He eats sensibly, watches his weight, exercises regularly and his medical tests were in the normal or very slightly elevated range. On the advice of his cardiologist, we invested in a blood pressure machine. I have been looking for a good blood pressure chart, and I have found one! Check this link out:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/medicine/blood-pressure.htm

I bought my first iPhone the day it was released. I stood in line and had a lot of fun visiting with other early adopters. Last year, I stood in line and bought my iPhone on day 1 again. This year, have to wait! When I went to the Apple page to check my status and possibly order my iPhone instead of waiting in line, was disappointed to learn that I will need to wait until July 12 to buy my new iPhone without paying a penalty to replace my phone early. Use this link to check your iPhone status:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/buy/

If you have a first or second generation iPhone, you probably want to upgrade it soon after the iPhone 3.0 software is released. I plan to be an early adopter and download it as soon as it becomes available. There are some things that you probably should do before beginning the upgrade. I suggest reading this upgrade guide written by the people over at The Mac Observer:

http://www.ipodobserver.com/ipo/article/iphone_os_3.0_upgrade_guide/

Check back soon for more interesting links!

Pat

Is your Internet connection down? Part 2

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-05-28T06:58:13-04:00

Did you read Part 1?

There can be lots of other problems with Internet connections besides those listed in Part 1. While that article dealt with problems that affect both wired and wireless connections, today we will focus on wireless problems.

Years ago when I bought my first Apple AirPort, no one else around me had a wireless Internet connection. My PC neighbors were amazed that I was able to be on the Internet without having a cable connected. Some of them eventually bought wireless set-ups of their own and they were stunned by the difficulties in setting up their new routers while my AirPort made the task so easy.

After a time things began to get ugly. Instead of being able to “see” one wireless network, I had several to choose from in my AirPort menu item. Soon I began having problems with drops in my AirPort signal strength and sometimes I could not even “see” my own network!

Is your Internet connection down? Part 1

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-05-25T07:53:56-04:00

You know the drill.

You launch Safari and all you see is a spinning beach ball. Or you’ve been away from your computer and then you come back to go to a web page. All that you get is a spinning beach ball.

So what is going on?

Why can’t you get that web page?

Did your computer mess up--again?

Capturing YouTube Videos

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-04-18T06:25:53-04:00

The emergence of a new star in the Britan’s Got Talent show last weekend has captured the imagination of the entire world. Susan Boyle has won the hearts of fans everywhere and many of us want to share her story with friends and family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&fmt=18

There are several ways to capture YouTube videos. While some are geeky and complicated, CosmoPod, an inexpesive software package, makes the task quick and easy.

Keep your MacBook and MacBook Pro batteries happy and healthy

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-04-29T06:47:04-04:00

The latest sales figures from Apple show that more and more people are using a portable computer as their primary machine.

My last four “main” computers have been Apple laptops. I bought a G3 iBook in May of 2001. It was replaced with a 15” PowerBook G4 in the fall of 2003. Then I bought a Core 2 Duo 17” MacBook Pro in late 2006. I recently purchased the new unibody 17” MacBook Pro.

During my years of ownership I have changed from a computer lab environment to being on the road every day and now to working from home.

Each setting required spending at least some time running my computer from the battery instead of from the power adapter. During some days I found myself eeking the last bits of energy out of my battery, so I have learned ways to stretch battery life to its fullest potential.

So how do you make a battery charge last longer?

Taking iPhone Screenshots

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-25T08:40:31-04:00

There are lots of iPhone screenshots appearing on the web these days! It seems as though everyone wants to know about the changes coming in the iPhone 3.0 software.

Carl, one of our Dr. Mac Consulting clients sent me a tweet :

The ability to make screenshots was added in the iPhone 2.0 software. To make a screenshot:

Creating and editing PDF files

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-22T21:59:44-04:00

There is some great information available on the web! Do you to save it for future reference and further study?

I do! I often use that information to learn a new technique. I also use it to prepare presentations for my user group, teach a class, ore even write a blog post.

Most of the information that I save will never be printed out. I will read it on my computer screen. I will want to be able to search the information. I will want the option to add comments or highlighting and I want to preserve the links in the article. I might also want to be able to combine several articles into a single document.

Windows switcher or Mac virgin?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-18T08:17:17-04:00

One of the effects of my being a consultant with Bob LeVitus Consulting is that I get a window into the habits of Mac users that most writers never see.

Today brought an interesting email from one of our clients:

Pat, I have made this mistake over and over. When visually looking at your iCal in monthly view, the appointments hug the left side of the date box and (it) is confusing as the date next to the text is the previous day. I can't begin to count the mistakes I had made by looking at appointment and seeing the date next to it (date is right justified). Is there some setting that can either move date to right or appointments to the left. It is visually wrong and quite unlike Apple.

When I take a look at my calendar, it is difficult to see the problem:

New MacBook Pro - Two Week Report

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-10T16:48:49-04:00

It’s hard to believe that I have owned my new MacBook Pro 17” for over two weeks now. I had planned to write this update last week, but I had too much going on and I got involved in writing the post about File Sharing.

So what do I think? Was it a wise purchase? Did I choose the right options?

Removing False Invaders

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-09T17:58:03-04:00

In my previous blog post I answered a question from a Doctor Mac client regarding strange icons that appear in the Sharing section of the sidebar in Finder windows.

I explained what the icons were--but I did not explain how to get rid of them. I thought about it, but I had spent several days on that post and it was time to get it online. When I publish a post, I usually mention it on Twitter. As I was getting ready to write, this message came up in my Twitter Stream:

What a coincidence! I tweeted this back:

How to change the highlight color for text

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-02T14:36:23-05:00

Nicole asked a good question in her recent comment:

Hi Pat,

This is an older post but hopefully you may get this: I see in this post you say that the default for TextEdit's highlighting color for the Find function is yellow.

Well, when I restore to default the color I get is this almost invisible pale blue-gray. Which makes "finding" tend to involve lots of squinting and hunching and glaring at my page. Why won't the default color yellow work as my Find default? I'm on a MacBook 10.4, if that helps.

Who is invading my computer?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-03-07T19:28:35-05:00

The subjects for new posts on MacMousecalls come from many sources. Carl, one of our clients at Bob LeVitus Consulting sent me a screen shot of the sidebar on his Mac, wondering about an odd icon that appeared in the Sharing area:

I have a similar icon:

New MacBook Pro 17" First Thoughts

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-24T09:09:57-05:00

At about this time yesterday morning I was delighted when I heard a knock on my door and saw the FedEx truck in front of my home.

My new 17” MacBook Pro had arrived! It was time to begin my new adventure.

Time for a new Mac?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-20T06:38:21-05:00

It wasn’t that many years ago when a computer was a nicety instead of a necessity. Of course, that was before the Internet became the center of communications for us.

Think of the changes!

Need an Editor? You Have One - Part 2

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-12T21:12:50-05:00

In the last blog post I discussed Services, a technology that allows applications to interact to share common dictionaries and tasks. While that post dealt with grammar and spell checking turned on through the Preferences in TextEdit, there are far more Services that can be shared between applications.

Under each application’s menu is a sub-menu called Services.

Need an Editor? You Have One - Part 1

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-12T19:43:25-05:00

There have been lots of Twitter tweets in the past two days about editing writings. While some of the comments have been about correct word usage, other comments have been wishes for someone to be an instant editor--always available to do a quick check of what has been written.

As the mother of five children I had built-in readers for many years. Now, they are all off on their own and I can’t for them to come home to read my writings. My husband is usually available in the evening, but that is seldom convenient. I need an in-home editor – and I have one!

Is Your Mac Slow? - Old Programs?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-12T09:29:21-05:00

While there are many things that can cause your Mac to run slowly, this blog entry is aimed at users who have migrated from earlier Macs.

At Bob LeVitus Consulting, we work with many customers. More than a few have been using Macintosh computers for many years. They may have owned four or even more earlier Macs. When they purchase a new computer, they use the Migration Assistant that appears as a part of the set-up process to move their older files and applications to their new computer.

Do You Know about the Control Key in iPhoto?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-10T11:11:25-05:00

When a new version of software comes out, it is a good time to learn about its new features. However, it is also a great time to review features that you may have missed or forgotten about.

This has certainly been the case with iPhoto ‘09. I really love the Faces and Places additions. I am excited by the updates to the Edit features and because I am looking through photos that I may not have viewed in a long time, I am finding photos that I want to print out, edit, and even add to my web pages.

One of the iPhoto features that many users may not be aware of is the ability to edit photos in different picture editing program simply by selecting the photo and then clicking the Edit button in the toolbar at the bottom of the iPhoto window.

Did They Tell You About the Option Key?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-02-03T13:50:58-05:00

There is a “magic” key on your Macintosh keyboard. Have you ever seen it? It sits in the bottom row of keys, but it doesn’t say Magic. Instead, it is labeled Option.

While this little key sits quitely between the Control and Command keys, you may not have discovered its hidden powers.

Finding things near you with Google

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-01-31T22:31:27-05:00

Do you know where the nearest Starbucks is? I don’t -- I am not a coffee drinker, but when out of town friends arrive, that is a frequent question.

To find out where a particular store or restaurant is located near you, type in its name and your zip code. Google will return a map the addresses of locations near you, and even telephone numbers.

Paragraphs, Tabs and Lists

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-01-31T09:54:57-05:00

I wrote a blog entry back in November in which I talked about formatting documents. For that entry I used TextEdit. That entry focuses on the differences between word processing and using a typewriter. I worked with a client this week who uses Pages, a part of Apple’s iWork suite. Since the tools for paragraph setup in Pages are a bit different from those in TextEdit, let’s take a look at the tools in Pages. In the coming weeks I will try to do blog entries about the process in Microsoft Word and even AppleWorks.

When is it time to reformat a hard drive?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-01-30T13:28:19-05:00

I was listening to a recent episode of a friend’s podcast earlier this morning. He was discussing Macworld and his experiences there. Unfortunately he had a bit of trouble with his hard drive. I still have not finished listening to the podcast, but I just had to stop to write this blog post.

Griffin Technology 25% Discount

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-01-07T16:06:54-05:00

My favorite company for iPod and iPhone accessories is Griffin Technology. Since I am not at Macworld this year, I am really missing my annual trip to their booth to look for new items and to take advantage of their special show pricing. I received a Twitter Tweet from a friend who is a product engineer there.

Bee Docs timline 3D sale

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-01-07T10:15:10-05:00

I am a real fan of timelines. I frequently find myself making them to keep track of all sorts of things.

Right now, I have one for our family. I have recorded the dates of significant events in our lives. I find this very useful in my project of getting all of our family photos and mementos in order. Many of our early family photos have no dates on them and most are in boxes instead of albums, so as I sort new ones, I find myself adding lots of dates to my timeline.

Macworld Bargains

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2009-01-07T09:36:24-05:00

After ten years and 14 Macworlds, I am sitting this one out. I am at home, cuddled in warm clothes, recovering from the first cold I have had in two years. I seldom get them, but when I do, I seem to get every possible effect. I lost my voice yesterday and today I can barely squeak.

Missing a Macworld is difficult on many levels. It’s not just about missing the keynote and the Apple booth--in fact in the scope of Macworld, those are pretty minor. Macworld is really about fourthings, the people, the training, the products and the networking.

Big Words and the Mac Community

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-12-20T06:42:57-05:00

Are we a community? As I look around the world of Apple users, it is very apparent we are not just people who use Macintosh computers, iPods and iPhones.

We are a group of people who share a common interest in products produced by a company, Apple Inc. We read many of the same magazines, books and web sites. We listen to podcasts featuring the authors of those items. We also use software produced, created and inspired by them. Some of us even attend events such as Macworld, MacMania cruises, and even user group meetings that feature the works of that group.

Email Returned? Need to send the same message to multiple people?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-12-03T18:55:44-05:00

You know the drill. You compose an email and send it out--and then suddenly you get a message like this one in your mailbox:

Christmas Cards Addressed?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-12-02T16:41:23-05:00

December 2???

Where did the year go? Have you started your Christmas card list? Would you like to print the envelopes out easily?

Getting ready to send out the cards can be a lot easier if you spend some time getting ready, then use your computer and printer to streamline the process.

The first task is to clean up your address book a bit.

How to indent paragraphs

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-11-06T03:16:54-05:00

Far too many of us learned to format our writing using paper and a pencil. Remember learning to write in kindergarten – or maybe first grade? My teacher taught us to put our index finger at the left border of the paper, then to start writing beside it.

When I took typing in high school, my teacher told us it press the space bar 5 times, and then begin typing. If we were using one of the fancier typewriters, there might be a tab key. It automatically skipped forward five spaces…

Where, oh where did my icons go? - Part 1

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-10-23T07:19:25-04:00

I do my best and most consistent blogging if I write my entry before I begin my day. This morning I was reading the latest TidBITS Talk messages and today’s topic was the question posed in the first message I read:

I have been asked that same question several times in the past few days, so I know some of you probably have had the same problem. And even if you knew the answer, it is pretty easy to forget some of the tiniest details of the Mac OS X interface.

Do you see that tiny little “jellybean” in the upper right corner of the window above? That little tiny icon is the source of the problem! Click it and the toolbar is gone – just gone! Click it again and the missing icons will quickly reappear. But if it has been a while since you accidentally clicked that jelly bean, it can sure make simple tasks difficult!

Of course, not every window has a toolbar at the top. If there is no toolbar, there is no jellybean:

Here are some other windows with toolbars and jelly beans. This one is Pages:

This is Word 2008:

Even more interesting is the Finder window. When you click the jellybean, the left sidebar also disappears:

Next time the icons are “just gone,” remember the jellybean!

Pat

Did you know iCal could do this?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-10-22T10:42:53-04:00

There has been a search function in iCal since it was released. It works by typing in a few letters that are in the title of the event into the search area at the top of the iCal window. You will then see a list of events with those letters in their title at the bottom of the window.

But, how can you make a list of events from one or more calendars?

First you need to select the specific calendar (or multiple calendars) by selecting them. You can show or hide calendars events by checking or unchecking the box by the calendar’s name.

Now, if you want a list of events, how do you get that?…

Making sense out of SMS or text messages

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-10-21T08:16:29-04:00

Okay – I will admit it – I am not a member of the under 20 crowd, I am not a member of the under 30 crowd, I am not a member of the under 40 crowd. But that is as far as I will go.

My five children fall into some of those age groups, and they are much more likely to embrace new technologies a bit more quickly than I do. However, being a technologist means that I have to stay current to help you.

One of the newer things is text messaging. Everyone under 30 seems to just get it, and those over 50 probably need a little help in figuring this one out.

Three of my children don’t have land line telephones. Their cell phone is the only way to reach them. They also attend lots of meetings and appointments when having their telephone ring is not appropriate…

iPhone Battery - Getting the most out of a charge

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-11-07T10:16:33-05:00

When I got my new iPhone back in July, I was amazed how quickly I could run the battery down! Just talking to a few people, watching a video, playing a game and checking my calendar left a dent in my battery. A day of heavy use meant I had to go running for my charger.

It was time to get energy smart! Although each successive version of the iPhone software has caused the battery to go longer between charges, I quickly found that some power management techniques would go a long way in assuring I had enough battery life to not worry about my iPhone going dead.

Here are some things you can do to increase the battery life of your iPhone. While doing all of these things will give you the longest running time for your iPhone, just implementing one or two will help. For each technique, I will list all the steps, so some pictures, particularly those of the home screen and settings window will be repeated several times.

What do you keep under your MacBook?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-09-22T20:15:59-04:00

Recently I have taken part in several online discussions about MacBooks and MacBook Pros and just what to set them on.

In each discussion, various objects and surfaces have been suggested as the perfect thing to keep under a portable computer. Notice I did not call them laptops. These days Apple and most other manufacturers call them portables. They get to hot to comfortably rest them on your lap!

There were lots of suggestions for different articles to place under the computer. One gentleman suggested placing the computer directly on a wooden desk and rationalized that the desktop would act as a heat sink. Another woman said she uses her MacBook sleeve, made out of wetsuit material, to protect her legs from the heat. Another person said they use a thick coffee table book. All of these suggestions are BAD ones!…

iPhone and iPod Touch - How to update an application

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-09-22T21:33:20-04:00

There is a bug, either in the software for the iPhone or in iTunes that may cause applications on the iPhone not to update properly. I started to write this post several weeks ago, but decided to wait until the iPhone 2.1 software update was released to see if it fixed the problem. The new software has been released – and I am still having issues, so I suspect some of you are too.

This is the easiest way I have found to get iPhone and iPod Touch applications to update properly…

Just where have I been?????

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-09-10T13:49:15-04:00

Wow! it has ben a long time since I posted anything on MacMousecalls. Let’s see if I can come up with a few excuses.

My dog died -- nope, that won’t work -- I don’t have a dog.
The cat ate my homework -- no cat and no homework, but lots of home work!
I went on a great cruise -- that’s not till the end of October!

Actually, I went out to California to spend a week with my husband who was on a long assignment for work. We had a great time, visited family and old friends and did a little sight-seeing…

Taking notes from the web

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-07-29T09:14:47-04:00

Isn’t the web wonderful? What did we do without it? I know that I spend far less time in the library looking for information--and I spend far less money and use far less space since I don’t have to rely on photocopies to keep information.

There are many ways to capture and store information from the web. For example, if I go to a recipe site on the web I can use their tools to store my flies on their website. However, I vist too may sites to find this an effective method of storing recipes!…

How to add custom paper sizes

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-07-29T08:54:41-04:00

In my last blog post, I explained where paper sizes are stored and gave you an exhaustive list of papers and envelopes along with their sizes. That post took forever to write since I had to make sure that all of the sizes were expressed in decimals.

I hope you checked out a few print dialog boxes. If you did, you probably found that there are lots of papers and sizes that were listed, but your applications did not have them in their list…

Just what size is it?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-07-28T07:21:23-04:00

Paper and envelope sizes confuse me! While I know that US letter paper is 8.5 x 11”, and US Legal paper is 8.5 x 14”, that is only the start of the sizes that can appear in a print dialog box.

Of course, just where to select a paper size in a Macintosh application is also undergoing changes. In TextEdit, paper size is selected in File -> Page Setup. The size choice will look similar to this if you have not selected a specific printer:…

Computer Troubles or Power Problems?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-06-19T07:55:50-04:00

Just what is the problem? You’d think Apple Inc. could make a program for the Mac without any bugs! What are those coders up to! Yeah, yeah, yeah – its all Apple’s fault!

Now, wait just a darn minute! Are you sure some of the blame isn’t yours?

I have been getting lots of calls about Macs not working as they should. These are the same kinds of problems that I saw at about the same time last year – and the year before – and the year before.

I am hearing about Time Machine backups that fail, computers that are having hard drive catalog errors, and programs that suddenly quit. When I run Disk Utility First Aid on the drives, I am seeing lots of errors. I haven’t seen this many hard drive errors since early last fall. In fact, I have even had trouble with my own computers.

Training, Training, Training

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-06-24T08:57:00-04:00

I am always looking for ways to learn about new programs for my Macintosh, but I want the training to be reasonably priced. While Apple provides training on Apple products in the stores and Lynda.com provides training on Apple and Adobe products, where do you go to find training on software and web services such as Evernote, TextExpander, and Fluid. Even more difficult, were can you find information about how to expand the capabilities of your AppleTV with ATV Flash?

Don McAllister creates weekly videos on these programs and a lot more at ScreenCastsOnline. His programs are well-done and easy to follow. While there is a free edition of his programs, the videos offered with a membership to ScreenCastsOnline offers so much more! The videos are larger in size, sometimes offer extra content, and there are members-only shows.

Rethinking Periodic Maintenance.

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-06-11T08:25:43-04:00

There are lot of good sources of Mac information and there are some people who you come to trust and respect. The crew over at Macworld produce an outstanding web site and magazine and Dan Frakes, who joined the staff in recent years, is one of the people I regard as a true Mac expert.

The July issue of Macworld magazine has a series of very good troubleshooting articles. Much of the content has also been made available on the web site. Dan Frake’s article, Five Mac maintenance myths has brought quite a few comments. In reading them, I was compelled to add my own. This is what I wrote:

The case for using TextEdit as your word processor, Part 1

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-06-05T23:18:09-04:00

We have a new client. He bought a new iMac and somehow, the person who helped him install his new computer managed not to move any of his files or old applications such as AppleWorks.

That technician should be drawn and quartered! There are always things that need to be moved to a new computer and leaving a client without his "past" is cruel and heartless!

One of the things this gentleman is missing are his templates as they were called in AppleWorks or his stationary pads, as they are called in Mac OS X.

Are you still using AppleWorks? It will run in Mac OS X Leopard, but it is so ancient that it is probably past time to put it out to pasture. It must be run in Rosetta these days, and that makes your newer computer work much harder. Newer products take advantage of the features built into Mac OS X such as the ability to search a document using Spotlight and to view a document in the finder without opening the application itself. Applications that run natively in Mac OS X use common interface elements such as FontBook and the ColorPicker as well as Inspectors which make it much simpler to use advanced commands and features.

Aging eyes and tiny type on the web and in Safari

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-05-23T08:10:05-04:00

Darn, this getting older is not much fun! Back when I turned 40, I began to notice that small type was getting harder and harder to read. That was just a few years ago, but sometimes I land on a web page that must have been produced by someone with unbelievable visual acuity!

Sometimes it is not the whole site, but just a particular section:

Does your computer do strange things?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-05-17T11:03:42-04:00

One of the listservs that I read each day is the MacRogues On-Line Mac User Group and OS X DISCUSSION LIST. I while occasionally provide an answer, I am often frustrated that the all-text listserv format does not make it easy to "show" someone how to fix a problem. The topic that caused me to want to "show" the answer this time is the problem of screen flashing on Macs.

The message writer said "The screen will freeze before flashing a solid blue and then return to normal." Several people responded, most suggesting a hardware problem.

Bob LeVitus is presenting seminars in metro Washingtion DC

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-05-06T10:36:24-04:00

It is always fun when Bob LeVitus comes to Washington DC. This year he will be doing two days of seminars for my user group, Washington Apple Pi.

These seminars will be much like attending his seminars at Macworld Expo, except the price is MUCH cheaper!

Know when to fold 'em!

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-04-22T11:31:16-04:00

Running a consulting business with my friend, Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus, can lead to a few strange nights! Since I live in the eastern time zone, our friends in the Pacific time zone are just getting to their personal computers about the time that I am getting ready for bed! Of course, since our Skype telephone number has a 408 area code, it can really confuse everyone!

The truth is that I may head up the stairs around 10 in the evening, but that does not mean that I put away my computer till a few hours later. I just love the convenience of a MacBook Pro, a good wireless network and Skype! I do some of my best reading and writing curled up in my bed. Of course, my husband is totally tied to paper, but who needs to hold paper to read and write these days!

ScreenCastOnline Tutorial for Vector Designer

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-04-16T09:18:17-04:00

Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline stays very busy producing his weekly screencast. Last week's episode was a tutorial on VectorDesigner, a piece of software included in the January MacHeist bundle. I bought the bundle, downloaded the software and filed away my new serial numbers, then got busy with all of my current projects.

I own Adobe Illustrator. I can't say I use it much, but I occasionally work with a client who needs help and I can usually figure out what is wrong or I can point them to a good resource for help. The learning curve for Illustrator is so steep, that I just never use it for my own projects.

MacLevelTen - Just What is it?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-04-15T19:58:51-04:00

Have you ever noticed that any time a group of people get together with common interests and needs, they tend to form a group or association or club -- or something that brings people with like interests or problems together? Just think about it. We have networks of television and radio stations, newspaper groups, trade associations, and even Macintosh User Groups.

In this New Media era, there are many formal and informal groups forming. There are now many podcasting and blogging networks. Groups of New Media content producers work together to promote their products, learn from each other and share tips and success stories.

Back in the fall, Chuck Joiner contacted some of his blogging and podcasting friends and suggested that we form a media group, MacLevelTen.

The jury is in - That is the MacJury

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-04-08T09:33:49-04:00

It's always fun to be a part of a new project!

Chuck Joiner ( MacNotables, MacVoices, The MUG Center, etc.) has just started a new podcast, MacJury, and I was honored to be a guest on the first show. Along with several of the other members of MacLevelTen, we discussed lots of topics. Most notable were BlueRay, Apple TV and Twitter.

iWork '08 vs Microsoft Office 2008

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-03-28T21:51:28-04:00

Tomorrow morning I will be half of the presenting team that will do a presentation comparing Microsoft Office 2008 and iWork '08. I will be needing to share a lot of links with my friends from Washington Apple Pi, a Macintosh User Group that serves Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.

In looking for ways to present a lot of material in a very short time, I finally decided to let some others do the work for me!

First, let's take a look at the two applications and what they provide.

No none can speak better for office than the Microsoft Mac Business Unit. Head on over to view a comparison of the three versions of Office 2008:

The best tool for Mail is back!

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-03-26T09:19:47-04:00

The day I installed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was a bittersweet one for me. I had come to rely on a little tool, Mail.appetizer, to make sure that I immediately saw any messages coming into my Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus Consulting email mailbox. Unfortunately, the old version broke in Leopard.

Because Mail.appetizer was a beta application and it had not been updated since July 2005, I held out little hope of seeing a new version coming soon.

This morning I received a message from Stefan Schüßler of Bronson Beta, the developer of Mail.appetizer. He has just released a new version that works with Leopard Mail! It is still a beta, but it seems to be very stable.

Fragmentation - Do I need to De-frag my Mac?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-03-06T10:37:22-05:00

There is nothing that causes more debate in a roomful of Macintosh geeks that the topic of hard drive defragmentation!

The most interesting part is that you can almost divide the room into the anti-defragging group vs. the "you must defrag" group based on the color of their hair!

Now just wait a minute--before you begin thinking age discrimination, you need to know that not all of us gray-haired people people are in the defrag camp, it is just that there are way too many of us there.

Saving files to the right folder, easily

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-03-01T07:03:23-05:00

Has this ever happened to you?

You are making a document on your computer and now it is time to save it. You know where you want the file to be placed, and in fact, you have that folder open. But when you go to the Save command, the application you are using takes you to the last folder that you used. For example, this:

Getting Your Digtial Images to Look Like What You Saw

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-02-21T09:07:01-05:00

Do you share my frustration that your camera just can't see to capture what your eye can see. Think about that beautiful sunrise or sunset. You can see all the detail in the foreground, but the camera produces an image where the sky is great but the foreground is lost in the shadows or the foreground looks great, but the sky is all washed out.

The type of image you are visualizing has a "High Dynamic Range." While it is possible to produce HDR images with Photoshop, the $649 pricetag and the steep learning curve prevents amateur photographers from producing what they saw.

Internet Access in Rural Areas and on the Road

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-02-20T07:05:24-05:00

Glenn Fleishman wrote a very interesting article, The portable hotspot for Macworld. The article discusses the use of Verizon, Sprint Netxtel, and ATT for cellular data access and then continues with the topic of cellular routers to provide a network for multiple users. This article should also be of interest to people who must consider satellite access to the Internet as cellular data service is in the same general price range and is often faster.

Moving Forward

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-02-09T20:37:40-05:00

I have been blogging here at MacMousecalls for several months now. The process has been far from smooth.

I began the blog using WordPress with encouragement from several of my fellow members of the MacLevelTen media group. I also secured an account at DreamHost to have a home for it. DreamHost is one of the best web hosts out there for WordPress bloggers, but I am not using WordPress right now.

This is far from my first web page. In fact, I helped set up a web site for my children's elementary school back in 1992, and ours was one of the first school web sites out there. In those days I used a text editor and wrote all my own tags. Since the purpose of the web site was to enable the students and teachers to make their own web pages, I used the Mac OS Notepad to hold the common tags used in writing HTML. The kids and teachers would copy and paste the tags into SimpleText and then fill in the content in the middle.

Where is that darn Quick Look button?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-01-30T17:06:45-05:00

Eventually, in the life of every Mac user, that "something" disappears. In the case of Terry, a recent potential Bob LeVitus Consulting customer, it was the loss of the Quick Look Button in the toolbar of each window.

Now, while we are in the business of making money by fixing people's computers, answering question and giving tutoring sessions, there are many questions that are so easy to answer that we simply cannot charge for them.

Bob answered this one, using a great new program, Skitch, to take a screen shot and annotate it. These were his instructions:

What is this SUID thing?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2008-01-04T11:12:46-05:00

We get questions – lots and lots of questions over at Bob LeVitus Consulting. While many people really need help (and that's why we exist), there are some questions for which the answer is so simple, that I put up an entry here on my MacMousecalls blog.

In the case of SUID warnings, just what they are and how to fix them would require a LOOOONNNNGGGG explanation, but Apple Inc. provides an easy answer in its Technical Information Library article #306935 – just ignore them!

How to write a date

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-12-29T07:46:49-05:00

Back in elementary school, we learned to write dates by putting the month, then the day, then the year. That date form works just fine for things like letters, and although it was a little inconvenient, it works just fine for hand-sorting things like checks. But it is terrible for sorting things by date on a computer.

While many things can best be sorted by a title, many items that we store on our computer work best by date. For example, each time I buy something on the Internet, pay a bill, or receive a password, I make a pdf of the document and store them is a folder that I call Passwords and Receipts.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks - Part 2: Aligning Paragraphs

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-12-13T07:06:37-05:00

I recently helped a newcomer to the world of word processing. Her techniques were definitely rooted in the days of the typewriter and applying the rules for document layout that she had learned so many years ago definitely made editing her documents difficult!

The first problem was centering a title. In typewriter days students were taught to position the carriage in the center of the platen and then to spell out their title in their head, pressing the space bar once for every two letters in the title. Gosh, that sounds like a bunch of techno-babble. I am not even going to try to explain it. Instead, lets take a look at the modern universal sign for line placement. This screen shot is from TextEdit.

Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks – Part 1: Fonts and Spacing

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-12-07T07:20:06-05:00

I am so old that back when I was in high school learning to type, a computer took up a whole room. To type a school paper you used a typewriter, a device that many of today's children may never have seen).

Much of a typing class was spent learning how to lay out a document. Students learned the rules for spacing, paragraph format and page layout. Times have changed with the use of computers and word processing software, but many of the old-time rules are still used. Unfortunately those rules help to produce documents that are impossible to correctly format in a modern word processor. I will take a look at some of those old rules over the next few blog entries and show you the current way to handle text in a wide variety of applications.

We will begin with spacing after punctuation marks such as periods, colons and semicolons.

Back in the days of typewriters, most had a "well" of bars that contained the letters. Click here for a picture. Each of these bars were the same width and so all letters produced by the typewriter were the same width. The font produced by using the typewriter is called a monospace font today. Here is a example of what type would have look like along with the same line in a proportional font

Checking your spelling

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-11-30T22:33:00-05:00

One of the really nice features of Mac OS X is the system-wide dictionary that is available in all applications that are written in Cocoa, Apple Inc.'s programming environment for programming.

For you, the end user it means that when you make a spelling error, the same database is used to check the spelling of a word. This means when you add a word to your user dictionary in an application such as Mail, that same user dictionary is used to check the spelling of the same word in TextEdit, Pages, Keynote and a wide variety of third party applications.

For example, each time I type my last name, Fauquet, it is underlined with red dots as shown in the illustration below.

Quick Look - Making it Easier

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-11-26T11:50:23-05:00

After I installed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, I spent some time learning my way around the new operating system and assessing its features. One thing that really did not impress me is Quick Look. My daily working computer is a 17" MacBook Pro.

I make use of every inch of my screen real estate. I keep several application windows open and position them carefully so that I have instant access to the tools I need. While some users enlarge every window to fill their screen, I keep windows large enough to be useful, but small enough that I can move between applications by simply clicking in their window.

Links in my emails won't work

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-10-19T13:17:34-04:00

Don't you just hate it – you get an email with a link – maybe lots of links. You decide to visit them, but some of them just don't work.

There are several things that can cause a link to break:

Desktop, Sidebar and Toolbar Printers

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-10-14T08:19:07-04:00

Do you remember back to the days of Mac OS 9 – and probably 8.5 – when we could have a printer icon sitting on our desktop?

Now, that was a pretty cool trick. If you had a document to print, you could just drag its icon over the desktop printer. The document would print without opening the application and choosing the Print command in the File Menu.

The feature is back in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and it is even more useful! It is a great way to deal with documents that you print on a regular basis. For example, directions to your home or office, a favorite recipe, or perhaps some sort of form like a cover sheet for your fax.

Unfortunately, if you are trying to adopt that clean desktop look for your Mac, it is one more thing to clutter it up. There are several alternate things you can do to give you the functionality of desktop printing while keeping the clutter down and we will discuss those after we have made a desktop printer to try out.

Fancy Type

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-10-09T16:54:43-04:00

As a long-time Macintosh user, I have used AppleWorks for years. For those who are not familiar with it, in addition to word processing, Appleworks also contains several other modules including both draw and paint.

Now that Apple has issued an End-of-Life for AppleWorks, it is time to learn how to do some of those special projects in the iWork suite.

My project for today is to make a decorative heading for MacMousecalls.

I lost my arrow!

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-10-05T10:41:00-04:00

Remember the good old days? Computer screens were no bigger than 640 x 480 pixels, we generally had only one window open, our eyes were better!

NOT!

I couldn't do without my 17'" MacBook Pro with a screen resolution of 1680 x 1050. I love having that 20 HDTV that connects to my computer and functions as a second monitor. I don't know how I could work if I could only use one program at a time, but I hate not being able to find that little tiny arrow that is my cursor. It gets lost among the windows and among photos of the grandchildren that are my frequent finder backgrounds.

I give lots of presentations from my computer and being able to locate my cursor needs to be easy and effortless. My favorite cursor locator is a freeware application, Mouse Locator from 2Point5Fish.com. Whenever Mouse Locator pops up during a presentation I am sure to get several questions regarding exactly what that neat "thing" is that appeared on my screen.

All the wrong information

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-10-03T21:33:15-04:00

I had an interesting call recently. The client complained that whenever she tried to fill out a form on the Internet, Safari seemed to have all the wrong information.

So, where does Safari get its information? It uses your entry in the Address Book:

Too many fonts!

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-10-02T11:46:56-04:00

Font lists that are too long case frequent call from Macintosh users who like to keep things simple. While designers and graphic artists love having lots of fonts to choose from, many Mac users are dismayed at the length of their font list.

Over the years we have received many calls from clients who decided to take the matter into their own hand and suddenly their computer or their favorite application will no longer work. This is not a good situation. It requires doing an archive and install of the operating system to correct the problem. If an application such is Microsoft word begins acting strangely, you will need to re-install it.

So just which fonts are needed?

Labels and how they work

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-09-13T09:20:23-04:00

We are back to the email that we received at Bob LeVitus Consulting over the weekend. John asked how to change the label on an icon. In the previous entry, I explained all about changing icon names. But, perhaps, that was not the real question.

Back in the days of Mac OS 9, there was a feature that allowed the user to add a color label to icons of folders, documents, and even applications. While they make your screen more colorful, they can also be very useful in making items stand out. While this feature was missing in the earliest versions of Mac OS X, it was eventually re-introduced.

How to change names on drives, icons and folders

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-09-10T21:36:07-04:00

Over the weekend we received an interesting inquiry at Bob LeVitus Consulting. John (not his real name) asked how to change the label on the icon for a flash drive.

The question is an interesting one. It is not totally clear to me exactly what is being asked. While icons can have labels, I suspect John was asking how to change the name of the drive. Just in case, I will also talk about icon labels at the end of this entry.

If you want to change the name of a drive or a folder or even a file, there are several ways to do this. The most obvious is to click and hold on the name with your mouse. Of course there are several "states" that the icon name could be in.

Hooray for Expose!

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-09-03T11:23:50-04:00

As a Macintosh user, it is not uncommon for me to have dozens of windows open on my computer. I usually have several Finder windows open so that I can copy files between different folders and hard drives. I probably have two or three different Safari windows, at least a couple in Mail, my Address Book, iCal, and at least a couple of windows open for any application that I am using.

Trying to get to the desktop can be a daunting task. With the advent of Mac OS 10.3, Apple Inc. introduced Expose´. Suddenly pressing one key (F11) cleared away all the window and let me get to the files on my desktop!

How full is too full?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-08-28T11:55:21-04:00

We have had several calls in the past week in which the client cannot boot their computer after a crash. When they use their System CD to restart their computer and run Disk Utility, they are met with the message that their disk catalog is corrupted and it cannot be repaired. So what is going on? How can a drive that was working suddenly just stop working?

When they call and we begin unraveling their problem, some will tell us that they were downloading a huge file from the Internet. Others will recount that they had been seeing a message that indicated that their startup drive was almost full, but they did not know what to do, so they ignored it or they were waiting to call us in the morning. What should they have done? When is a hard drive too full?

Advanced Google Searching

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-08-03T11:30:09-04:00

Have you ever wanted to find a particular file on the Internet? You might be looking for a specific music file, pdf, or photo. Normal Google searches show you web pages. This tip will allow you to search for directories with specific files.

The type of search we are going to perform is one using the "intitle:" query. And for our example, we are going to search for the song "Happy Birthday."

Our search query will look like this:

intitle:"index.of" (mp3|aac|mp4)happy.birthday -html -htm -php

Of course, each space or lack of space is VERY important, so let's take it apart.

Got some time to waste?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-08-02T14:16:00-04:00

Are you a gamer?

I am NOT -- except, sometimes. We bought our first Atari game system around 1979. That was definitely not my thing, though my husband and children loved it! It has been followed over the years by many other game systems, few of which ever caught my attention. Somehow, I am not into first person shooters and the other styles of games that are on most gaming consoles don't do much for me.

However, on my computer, I do have a folder of games. They tend to be be puzzle, word and card games. Over the years, I have learned the importance of games in working with computer users, particularly older users. We must train our eyes to see details such as links and buttons on web pages, icons and words in application menus and small details in general on the computer screen.

Can't Get on the Internet?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-08-02T09:29:43-04:00

It happens to all of us -- and all to frequently to those of us who live in thunderstorm country where surges, spikes and brownouts cause electrical disrutptions.

You were on the Internet yesterday (maybe even earlier today) and now you can't get online. So what in the heck is going on?

Our first reaction is to call our ISP (Internet Service Provider). And their first reaction is to make changes to your computer settings. DON'T!

I have a favorite motto: If you were on the Internet yesterday, you will probably be able to get there tomorrow, but today may be a problem. But if you start messing around with settings, you probably will not be on today or tomorrow!

Printer won't work?

pat@macmousecalls.com — 2007-08-01T15:11:19-04:00

Printing problems are the source of many calls we receive from clients. Somehow, their printer has stopped working.

This first thing I ask is "Is the printer turned on?" This is sometimes the problem for clients who have ink jet printers. All ink jet printers should be turned off when they are not in use to prevent the ink from drying out and clogging the printer heads. However, in our days of wireless computing, this means you need to go to the printer to turn it on and off each time you print. If you dislike having to turn your printer on and off, consider a laser printer. These are now very reasonably priced.

If the printer is on, and you still cannot print, the printer may have been "stopped" in the printer utility. Each time you press the command to print, a file is sent to the printer. You can check the status of your printer after choosing Command-P by looking in your dock. You will see an icon that probably looks like your printer. As the file is sent, you will see a picture of a sheet of paper: