iWork ‘09 Announced at MacWorld (part 1)

Posted by Clayton Lewis on January 11, 2009 under Blog Articles, Mac Tips, News, Announcments & Rumors | 2 Comments to Read

As expected, Apple released the latest and greatest version if iWork this year at MacWorld, iWork ‘09. This collection of apps is the perfect replacement for those of you who are tired of shelling out big bucks for Microsoft’s Office suite and best of all.. iWork ‘09 is completely compatible with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Today we’ll look at Pages ‘09

Pages ‘09 is iWork’s page layout program. A very simple and intuitive program that lets you design your own newsletters, brochures, flyers or type simple letters. What’s new in this update?

• Full Screen View – Clear the clutter and view your document without all the distractions. With a click, distractions instantly disappear and your words become the most important thing on the screen.
• Dynamic Outline Creation – It’s easier to write when your ideas are structured. The new Outline mode helps you organize your thoughts so your writing stays on track.
• Mail Merge with Numbers – Now it’s even easier to address invitations, create invoices, personalize letters, and build mailing lists. Mail merge works directly with a Numbers table or Address Book
• Enhanced Template Chooser – Find inspiration for your writing or design project even faster. Over 180 Apple-designed templates are included — professional letters, detailed lab reports, beautiful cards, modern flyer layouts, and more.
• Math Type and EndNote - In Pages ’09, you can now create sophisticated equations for research papers, lab reports, and journal articles using MathType 6.¹ Compose your equations with the MathType point-and-click equation editor and instantly add them to your Pages document. Pages also works with EndNote X2.¹ Choose from over 3800 bibliographic styles supported by EndNote X2 and easily insert citations into your Pages document.
• More Ways to Share – Share your Pages documents with anyone on a Mac or PC. You can open Microsoft Word files in Pages and save your Pages documents as Word files. Thanks to powerful graphics tools in Pages, it’s easy to make Word documents look great. Pages also lets you export your documents as PDF files.

To learn more, there are some great tutorials about Pages ‘09 on Apple’s website.

Save Money on Tech with David Pogue

Posted by Clayton Lewis on January 8, 2009 under Blog Articles | Be the First to Comment

These days, we’re all trying our best to tighten our belts and cutting costs where we can. I was considering dropping my cable and opting for just watching TV shows online and renting movies from time to time.

David Pogue’s article, “Many Ways to Plug In to Tech Savings” made me realize that I was on to something. My cable bill is over $60 some months… with movie rentals from On Demand and such. I can save a bundle by dropping the cable, watching TV for FREE online and signing up for Netflix for $9 a month. Check out his article and find out other ways you can save some serious dough.

iPhone: Track your Mileage

Posted by Clayton Lewis on January 5, 2009 under Blog Articles, Mac Tips | Be the First to Comment

I love my iPhone so much that I want to marry it. Ok, that was a bit much but for the most part it’s true. I’ve been able to accomplish SO much with just my iPhone while traveling and working in the city. And when a new iPhone app comes out and makes my life easier, I’m going to shout its praises.

MileBug is an application that tracks your mileage for tax purposes. If you travel for your job and need to track miles as you go from one location to another, then give this application a try.

There is a LITE version for those who want to give it a test run.

• Use the iPhone mileage tracker for multiple businesses and multiple vehicles with a simple choice
• Setup frequent destinations and purposes for easy use later
• Choose kilometers vs. miles
• Define custom rates for business, charity, medical, and other
• Watch the money add up with each addition to your trip log
• See totals by business and vehicle
• Email HTML and Excel-friendly reports to your home computer
• Presets allow for trip recording with simple finger taps—no typing necessary
• Now supports Spanish, too!

Quick Tip: Save Some Battery Life

Posted by Clayton Lewis on under Blog Articles, Mac Tips | Be the First to Comment

When running a laptop off its battery, switching off the Airport and Bluetooth will save power if you’re not using them. Also dimming your screen to a lower setting will save oodles of run time on your battery.

• Turn Airport on and off by clicking on the Airport icon in the Menu Bar.
• Turn Bluetooth on and off  by cicking on the Bluetooth icon in the Menu Bar.
• Lower your Screen Brightness by pressing the F1 (dimmer) and F2 (brighter) keys to dim the screen until the brightness is as low as possible and the screen is still comfortable to look at.

Here are a few other tips.

Quick Tip: Disable Automatic Login

Posted by Clayton Lewis on under Blog Articles, Mac Tips | Be the First to Comment

Change Automatic login: to Disabled

When you first set up your Mac and create an account, it assumes you are using it at home and makes you an Administrator. It also sets itself up to log you in automatically to save time. For some people this isn’t suitable as the Mac may be in a public area or contain important information that you want to keep away from prying eyes.

Go to Apple Menu >> System Preferences >> Accounts and choose your account. Then select Login Options and change Automatically login: to Disabled. Now when you start up you are presented with a login screen you to enter your details, which is much more secure.

source – Mac Format: 200 Mac Tips

New Years Tech Resolutions

Posted by Clayton Lewis on January 1, 2009 under Blog Articles, Mac Tips | Be the First to Comment

Happy New Year to everyone and as most folks tend to commit to making changes in their lives, allow me to toss in a few “geek” resolutions to add to your list.

1. Check your backup. Make sure the files you’re backing up are easily and reliably recoverable. And if you don’t have a backup solution, run out and purchase an external drive and start copying your important files TODAY!!

2. Change your password(s). I try to update my passwords that I use on my computers and my online banking each year. It’s never a good idea to use the same password for everything. So I have 3 or 4 that I tend to use. Remember that a good password consists of a combination of at least 6 letters and numbers.

3. Perform some maintenance on your computer. Like your car, your Mac/PC needs some regular loving. Have your hard drive and files checked. Inspect the hardware and RAM. Update your software, anti-virus, and OS as needed and blow out all the dust bunnies inside the case.

4. Maybe it’s time to replace your machine with something new and spiffy. Sometimes keeping that old Mac G3 or Pentium isn’t worth it any longer. You’ll get more accomplished with a newer, faster machine.

So along with thar resolution to lose weight, quit smoking or save money, add these to your list as well. Your Mac or PC will love you for it.

Three Items to Keep your PC Clean

Posted by Clayton Lewis on December 29, 2008 under Blog Articles | Be the First to Comment

Not that I’ve switched to the dark side or anything but since I’ve been helping my relatives clean up their PCs, I’d thought I’d summarize the process. This was posted on AskMeHelpDesk.com by the user Vingogly

Here’s what you need to get and keep your PC clean:

AVG Free antivirus (viruses and trojans)
Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free (adware and spyware)
Spybot Search & Destroy (adware and spyware)

Make sure you get the right version of Spybot – there’s an imposter out there (I’ve provided the link to the correct one). Note that you want the Ad-Aware free version on the left, unless you want to complete an offer to get the Plus version on the right. I recommend both Ad-Aware and Spybot since in my experience they can find different things.

In addition to running the above weekly, make sure you never open an attachment in an email without scanning it first; turn off HTML display in your email client; and use Firefox for everyday browsing rather than Internet Explorer (only use Internet Explorer for Windows updates and those few sites that require it). Turn on your Windows firewall in XP or Vista.

Do all the above and chances are you’ll be a happy camper.