Mac 911

Locating and dispensing with old applications

Christopher Breen — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:00:00 -0700

If you've had the same Mac for a long time and tend toward pack-ratness, it's possible that your Applications folder is full of items you no longer use. Chris Breen shows you how to find them.

Sync services gone crazy!

Christopher Breen — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:00:00 -0700

If your Mac is being bogged down by syncing and you're using Microsoft's Entourage or Outlook, Chris Breen has a way to stop the bogging.

Gifting Mac App Store apps, emailing videos, and more

Christopher Breen — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:00:00 -0700

Time again to flush out the old mailbag with short hits from Mac 911.

Empty the #$&@! trash already!

Christopher Breen — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:30:00 -0700

You say attempts to empty your Mac's trash fail with an arcane error? Chris Breen has a solution.

Automatically zoom Safari pages on launch

Christopher Breen — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:00 -0700

Find Safari web pages too difficult to read on a high-resolution display? Chris Breen offers two solutions for making the text on those pages larger.

Bugs & Fixes: When Outlook searches fail… and more

Ted Landau — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:45:00 -0700

Do you find that Outlook is unable to find messages you seek? Ted Landau offers a solution to this and other issues.

Pinpoint your location

Christopher Breen — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:00:00 -0700

Need to mark multiple locations in the Maps app? Chris Breen explains how.

Remotely transfer iPhoto images to iPhone

Christopher Breen — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:15:00 -0700

You're on the road and you need some images in your Mac's iPhoto library on your iPhone, tout suite. Chris Breen explains how to do it.

Restarting a remote Mac

Christopher Breen — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:30:00 -0700

You have two Macs and you'd like to restart one from the other. Chris Breen offers two solutions for doing just that.

Using FTP with an iPad

Christopher Breen — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:45:00 -0700

Need a way to access files on an FTP server from your iOS device? Chris Breen offers three solutions.

Bugs & Fixes: From Mail crashes to HTML5 video failures

Ted Landau — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:00:00 -0700

Ted Landau offers a trio of tips and troubles in this week's Bugs & Fixes.

Microsoft issues working Office 2011 SP2 update

Christopher Breen — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:40:00 -0700

Microsoft missed the mark with its initial SP2 upgrade to Office 2011. It's since issued a new version that works.

Automatically encrypt files for your Google Drive

Christopher Breen — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:51:00 -0700

You now have the ability to share files with others via Google Drive. If you're a little concerned about Google having your files, here's a simple way to encrypt and upload them.

SpamSieve no longer sieves with Outlook SP2

Christopher Breen — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:30:00 -0700

If you installed the Microsoft Office 2011 SP2 update before it was pulled, SpamSieve likely no longer works with Outlook. Here's the fix.

Undoing the damage wrought by Microsoft's Outlook update

Christopher Breen — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:30:00 -0700

A recent Microsoft Office 2011 update has made it impossible for some Outlook users to use Microsoft's email client. Chris Breen relates the fix.

How to capture video from an iOS device

Christopher Breen — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:00:00 -0700

Interested in making a screencast based on actions taking place on an iOS device? It used to be a pain in the neck. Thanks to AirPlay that pain has eased significantly.

Bugs & Fixes: Opening (very) old AppleWorks and Word documents

Ted Landau — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:40:00 -0700

Have old Microsoft Word or AppleWorks spreadsheet, word processing, presentation, or draw documents that won't open under Lion? Ted Landau offers some advice.

Cures for an uncooperative CD/DVD drive

Christopher Breen — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:20:00 -0700

Is your Mac's media drive picky about the kinds of discs it will play or burn? Chris Breen offers tips for setting things right.

Quickly print files from within the Finder

Christopher Breen — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:00:00 -0700

If you find trips to the Print dialog box tedious, you can skirt that dialog box by printing from within the Finder. Chris Breen explains how.

How to make Lion's desktop spaces stick

Christopher Breen — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:45:00 -0700

Disconcerted that your carefully laid out desktop spaces move about as you switch to different applications? A system preference option will set things straight.

Bugs & Fixes: Problems pairing iPhones to Bluetooth audio systems

Ted Landau — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:15:00 -0700

Ted Landau reports that some people are having difficulties pairing their iPhones with their Bluetooth car audio systems. Here are your options.

How to securely delete files

Christopher Breen — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:45:00 -0700

If you want your deleted files to be really, completely, totally gone, emptying the trash isn't enough. Chris Breen provides other options.

Converting CDs to Windows-compatible ISO images

Christopher Breen — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -0700

Problem: You have a hybrid CD that contains software drivers you need for your Windows PC. But the Windows PC doesn't have a media drive. Solution: Create a Windows-compatible disk image on your Mac.

Skirting auto-login in Lion

Christopher Breen — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:00:00 -0700

You've configured your Mac to automatically login to a particular account but now you'd like to switch to a different account. Are there any shortcuts? Perhaps not as many as you'd like.

Is the new iPad too hot to handle?

Christopher Breen — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0700

A reader has a warm iPad. Is he alone? No. Is it something to worry about? Probably not.

Understanding Apple TV, mirroring, and aspect ratio

Christopher Breen — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:45:00 -0700

Although the new iPad and Apple TV support 1080p video, nothing changes about the iPad's native 4:3 aspect ratio.

Bugs & Fixes: Troubleshoot Journals in iPhoto for iOS

Ted Landau — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:30:00 -0700

Ted Landau likes iPhoto for iOS a lot, but finds some issues with its Journals feature.

Tweaking Lion's firewall

Christopher Breen — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0700

Like versions of OS X's firewall before it, Lion limits what you can do with the firewall from within the Security & Privacy system preference. Thankfully there's a terrific tool for digging deeper.

Cure for an incomplete iOS update

Christopher Breen — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:00:00 -0700

When your iOS device demands that it be plugged into iTunes, things aren't right. Time to start over with a fresh iOS install.

Dealing with spam when Mail won't cut it

Christopher Breen — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:00:00 -0800

Mail has a decent spam filtering feature but if you've found it not nearly effective enough, you have a couple of options. Chris Breen explains what they are.

Changing your Apple ID's email address

Christopher Breen — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:45:00 -0800

You say you've decided to leave Gmail and want to associate your Apple ID with a different email address? Chris Breen shows you how.

Bugs & Fixes: Troubleshoot Messages Beta on a Mac

Ted Landau — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:45:00 -0800

Ted Landau discusses some of the most significant and common problems that have cropped up thus far in the OS X Messages beta application.

Make more elbow room on the desktop

Christopher Breen — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0800

Do you find more icons on your desktop than room to place them? Modifying your desktop settings can help.

Mountain Lion, Rosetta, and breath holding

Christopher Breen — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:45:00 -0800

Is there any hope for Quicken 2007 users who plan to move to Mountain Lion? Yes, but not in the form of a Rosetta return.