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PowerMax sends out a monthly newsletter, informing our subscribers about upcoming workshops, a featured new product, and handy Mac Tips to help you make the most of your Mac.

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December 07

My first Mac tip is both simple and powerful at the same time... How to right click when there is no right click button. This is handy for laptop users, and everyone with an older mouse. Simply hold 'control' on the keyboard then click. Right click is invaluable for correcting spelling mistakes, and a whole swag of other stuff.

January 08

For those of us who know we ought to back up but don't do it enough, the Time Machine application in Leopard is a godsend in that it does all the work for you. Just plug in an external hard drive and let the automated backups begin. You do however need to set things up correctly before you switch on Time Machine for the first time.

How To: Using Disk Utility select the external back up drive then in Partition click on Options and choose GUID from the formats. Make sure you do this before you backup or store data on the drive as it is wiped when it is formatted. For those wanting back up options can partition the disk and only format part of it as GUID, leaving space for manual drag & drop. Note; Older Macs (with PowerPC chips) do not need to format GUID to use Time Machine.

February 08

This months Mac Tip is a collection of info about the energy saver settings and shutting down the computer.

Energy Saver

In System Preferences / Energy Saver, use the sliders to set when the screen & computer go to sleep. This is a great feature that helps us reduce our computers energy consumption. Set it just right for your style of use and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.

Shutting Down

Choose 'Shut Down' from the Apple menu, rather than holding down the power button for 6 seconds (can be useful in an emergency or if frozen).

Before shutting down you don't need to quit applications, or eject a hard drive/USB stick, the computer will do all of that itself. Once the screen is black, it is safe to unplug stuff or close the lid if it's a lappy.

It seems simple once you know, but took me ages to figure out this shortcut for shutting down a laptop;

1. press the power button
2. it will ask "are you sure you want to shut down?"

press the Enter/Return key instead of clicking 'Shut Down'

April 08

Software Update; you've probably seen it pop up and inform you there are updates for your computer every week or month.

Some people always do updates, others never do them- but what does it all mean? It's Apple doing its best to keep your computer working smoothly. Programs are written by humans and can have glitches, when they do Apple writes a fix and makes it available (for free) via Software Update. If a program is misbehaving go to Software Update (in the Apple menu) and get the update for it. You need broadband to download updates, it's a good idea to get only the programs you use and also ones for the system, eg 10.5.2. Be very careful when installing an EFI update, it can fix a number of problems but if done incorrectly can break your whole computer- permanently! If this all sounds too hard or you are on dial-up, you can drop your computer into us and we'll update everything for you for the basic service fee of $44.

Also if you don't wish to be automatically reminded about updates go into System Preferences and un-tick 'Check for Updates'.

May 08

(Sorry to those still on Tiger, this months tip is for those of us using Leopard - Mac OS X 10.5 and up.)

RSS (really simple syndication) is the hot new way to skim through the volumes of information available online.

You used to need a RSS Reader (like NetNewsWire) but Mail in Leopard has an RSS reader built in. By default it is set to check Apple news, but you can add (or remove) as many sites as you like. Having an RSS subscription to a site will show you a excerpt from each new article on that site, with a link to the full story. For example to subscribe to the Sydney Morning Herald got to feed://feeds.smh.com.au/rssheadlines/top.xml & chose the section you want then click 'Subscribe in Mail'.

Not all websites have an RSS option, look out for the RSS logo in the far right of the address.

June 08

Did you know you can customise the sidebar of your Finder Window? It is a handy way to find that file, or folder, that you need regularly. For those of you thinking "what is she talking about?" the Finder Window is the one that's opened when you click on the smiley faced icon at the far left of the Dock. It's what you use to file, and open, your documents. The Sidebar is the section down the left hand side of each Finder Window, and you can drag any file or folder to the sidebar for easy access later on.

July 08

PDF is the standard & safe format to send any file that has graphics and writing. With Mac it's really easy to make one, simply go to File/Print, at the bottom left of the print dialogue is the PDF button. 'Email PDF' puts the document straight onto a new email, how nifty!

Aug 08

This months tip is a keyboard shortcut for shutting down. Rather than going to the Apple in the top left of the screen and selecting 'Shut Down', try the quick and easy shortcut of holding the control key and pressing eject. This will open the Shutdown dialogue box, press return to select 'shut down'. For a superfast shutdown (no dialogue) use Control, Command, Option + Eject.

September 08

This months tip is how to get your pics onto a memory stick for printing. Select the photos you want to have printed, you can do this in a number of ways; 1. click on the event to select all pics in that event, 2. make an album then Select All (Command-A), or 3. individually clicking each photo (while holding Command). Then go up the the File menu and choose Export. Keep the file type the same (unless you want to convert to .jpg) then click EXPORT, and in the next dialogue box you select where you want the pics to go, i.e. your memory/USB stick. It will show up on the left, click to select then OK.

October 08

When you are surfin the web, explore more at once using Tabs. It's really easy, just hold the command key and click on a link, and it will open it a separate Tab. You can have many tabs open at once, which allows you to browse one site while another is still loading. Click on a Tab (just under the address bar) to look at that site, then use the X to close it. Perfect for exploring the options when you are doing a Google search.