Category: Mac & OS X

Still using an old version of Quark XPress?

Quark XPress 9If you’re still using an old version of Quark XPress, and flat-out refuse to move to Adobe InDesign (why?), you’re in luck. You can upgrade to the latest version of Quark XPress 9, no matter what version you currently own, for only $299. A smoking deal, really. There are a few stipulations of course. You must be able to provide a valid serial number for a full version of XPress (non-profit and education versions are not accepted), and the offer ends on December 31, 2011.

Quark XPress 9 features new tools to help make publishing to the iPad and other tablets easy. At least, that’s what they claim. I haven’t used XPress since the late 90s, so I can’t comment on its feature set.

Raven: Site-specific browsing on the Mac

Raven is a site-specific web browser that allows you to be more productive by creating a dedicated browsing instance for each one of your web apps, such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, CNN, YouTube, and many more.

Raven

Raven offers site-specific browsing, putting the features of the
sites you interact with the most easy to access and use

Raven is not a standard web browser to replace Safari, Chrome or Firefox, though you easily could if you wished. Instead it focuses on improving the experience on the sites you interact with the most. For instance, clicking on the Twitter icon in the left sidebar slides open the controls for Tweets, DMs, @Replies and Search for easy access. The controls available depend on what each site offers.

Think of Raven as the Mac OS X Twitter app, only for a plethora of social and news sites. Raven offers bookmarking to Instapaper, a smart bar, history, and even a toolbar icon that loads the mobile version of the site right in the Raven browser window – so you can view the site just as you would on your iPhone.

Some of the sites that take advantage of Raven’s site-specific browsing are: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, MySpace, Quora, Linkedin, Digg, TechCrunch, Daring Fireball, CNN, New York Times, AllThingsD, The Next Web, Dribble, Instapaper, Dropbox, Hulu Plus, Flickr, Vimeo, and more.

Raven isn’t for everyone, but it’s definitely a cool piece of technology worth checking out.

Adobe Reader for iPhone and iPad

Adobe Reader for iOSJust like Adobe Reader on the desktop, now you can use your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to quickly view and interact with the widest range of PDF file types – including PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDF documents and even Adobe LiveCycle rights-managed PDF files with Adobe Reader for iOS.

Using Adobe Reader for iOS, you can open and view PDF files from email, on the Web or from any application that supports the “Open In” function. Through its highly intuitive user interface, Adobe Reader provides you with an efficient PDF viewing experience regardless of the iOS device you happen to be using.

But that’s not all. You can also interact with PDF files in a number of ways including searching for specific text in the PDF or using bookmarks and page thumbnails to quickly navigate to different sections in the PDF file. And should you need a hard copy, you can also print the PDF wirelessly using iOS AirPrint.

I’ve been using Adobe Reader on my iPhone 4 for the last week or so, and found it to work extremely well. Previously I was using a 3rd party app, but it wasn’t nearly as fluid or easy to use as Adobe’s own solution.

Run Lion’s AirDrop on older and unsupported Macs also running Lion

OS X Lion's AirDrop

OS X Lion's AirDrop can work on older Macs with just a few Terminal commands

When Apple released OS X 10.7 Lion, they introduced a small but extremely useful feature for anyone with more than one Mac on the same network called AirDrop. While we’ve always had the ability to connect to other Macs with File Sharing turned on, it’s never been as easy as it is with AirDrop. The only problem: AirDrop only works with newer Macs. I have a 2006 MacPro, and was extremely disappointed when I found out AirDrop wouldn’t work. Thankfully, there is a simple work-around that got it working for me.

The first thing you need to know is that the unsupported Mac must be on the same WiFi or ethernet network, and also that you must run the commands below on ALL the Macs you wish to use AirDrop with, even if one or more of them already support AirDrop.

To get AirDrop running, type the following in the Terminal application:

  • defaults write com.apple.NetworkBrowser BrowseAllInterfaces 1
  • Hit the Enter key
  • killall Finder
  • Hit the Enter key

After you perform these commands on each Mac on your network, you should be able to see your Macs when you click on the AirDrop icon in the Finder window sidebar.

Look up words with Lion’s Dictionary shortcut

Dictionary look-upI actually own a paperback dictionary, it’s sitting on my bookshelf where it has been collecting dust for quite a long time. The reason is that OS X offers a dictionary application, a Dashboard Widget to help you without flipping through pages of tiny text.

OS X Lion offers you the ability to look up the definition of any word you can select in native applications like Safari, Mail or TextEdit. Simply select the word you wish to look-up by double-clicking it, right-click and choose “Look up…” from the contextual menu.

The resulting pop-up displays results from Dictionary and Wikipedia, and clicking the results allows you to view more about the definition.

Lion’s Mission Control keyboard shortcuts

Mission ControlMac OS X Lion brought us Mission Control, which brings together Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces, and full-screen apps to give you one place to see and navigate everything running on your Mac.

I was never a fan of Exposé, Dashboard or Space in previous OS X releases, but when full-screen apps came to Lion, I found it to be a dramatically different experience. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend you give it a chance. To make working with Mission Control easier, Apple have included a few keyboard shortcuts.

Invoke Mission Control

Control + Up Arrow or F3

Return to Desktop from within Mission Control

Control + Down Arrow or F3

Switch between Spaces

Control + Right or Left Arrow

Use Web Fonts in your Photoshop website mock-ups

The Extensis Web Font Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop allows you to use WebINK fonts in the creation of website mock-ups in Photoshop. Extensis offers the WebINK service which allows you to easily use high-quality fonts on your website through their Suitcase Fusion font manager. The significance of this free plug-in is that you don’t have to already own or have installed the fonts during the design process.

Extensis Web Font Plug-in makes using Web Fontss in your mock-ups easy

Most of the Foundries available in the WebINK service have made their fonts available for use in the Photoshop plug-in, and more are being added. The fonts are available in an easy to use Photoshop panel after signing-in to the service right in the panel.

To use the free Web Font Plug-in, you need to download and install the Suitcase Fusion font manager demo, and set up a free WebINK account. If you already own Suitcase Fusion, you can simply update the app. If you don’t want to use the Suitcase Fusion app to manage your fonts, the plug-in will continue to work after the demo expires.

How to quickly delete emails on your iPhone

iPhone 4My first problem is that I get a lot of email. My second problem is that I check my email throughout the day on my iPhone. And my third problem is that I often wish to delete emails without even reading them (thanks to spammers with no grasp of the English language, and horrible PR firms who can’t target the proper sites for their stories in the subject line).

Thankfully Apple has made a simple-to-use email app for the iPhone that works wonderfully for most users, and provides a simple solution to my third problem.

In fact, it may be a little too simple. I’ve yet to run into a single iPhone user that realized you could quickly delete emails without actually opening the email simply by swiping your finger across the email in the list. This will summon a Delete button for just that email.

If you check your Gmail account from within the built-in email app, you can set this swiping action to delete or archive emails.

Steve Jobs: “That day has come.”

Steve Jobs

Health issues aside, it really was time for Steve to step down

When I think back on the entire length of my career, I find that it has been tied (for good or for bad) to Steve Jobs. From the Apple II, to the Mac, to NeXT, back to the Mac again, iPods, to my current iPhone, I’ve been using Steve Jobs’ devices and software virtually every day. It’s kind of weird to think about, really.

We all knew Steve Jobs would be retiring soon, and after the last keynote speech, most of us knew it was going to be much sooner than people thought; due to the obvious health issues. With Apple announcing Steve Jobs’ resignation today, I (like many of you) enter a new Apple era. Unlike the last time Steve left Apple, this time it’s in great hands and on top of the world. When you think about it, he really couldn’t have chosen a better time to retire as CEO of the company he founded.

I’m not going to repeat the hundreds of articles that popped up yesterday after the announcement. Instead I’ll just say this: Thanks, Steve. Thanks for the vision, courage and leadership. Thanks for making our lives easier, and better.

About The Graphic Mac

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