On My Mac

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

Web Browsers (Part III)
2008-02-17 00:56:00
We could always customize our web browser via its preferences, but did you know that there is more you can do? Firefox is probably the most customizable browser. Have a look at this add-on page, which offers themes to change its appearance, extensions to expand its functionality, additional search engines for its toolbar, and dictionaries for spellchecking. I could say more, but why don't you just head over and have a look for yourself? If you are not reading this blog in Firefox, but have it installed, switch over to it first so that it can install any add-ons you wish to try. If you decide you want to disable, delete, or set the preferences for one of your extensions, select "Add-ons" from the "Tools" menu of Firefox. You will see a new window with two choices at the top, "Extensions" and "Themes". The rest should be self-explanatory, at least after you start pointing, clicking, and seeing what happens. Firefox is not the only browser that is customizable though. Opera will allow...
More About: Browsers , Web Browsers , Part

The Ubiquity of Google
2008-01-17 14:05:00
Yesterday's post on Google Docs got me thinking about my other Google posts. Besides those on this blog, I have written about Google on four other blogs. It seems that no matter what niche I choose, Google becomes relevant. Perhaps that is inevitable for anyone in the business of information, knowledge, and scholarship. I'm sure more will follow, because I have only begun to scratch the surface. Back Up Your Work (History Survey, 7/23/2007) Google Maps and Cell Phones (On My Mac, 9/3/2007) Evaluating the Reliability of Web Sites (History Survey, 9/20/2007) Google News Archive Search (History Survey Links, 11/21/2007)When Google Gets it Wrong (Clio and Me, 1/9/2008) Google Alternative to Wikipedia (Stoneman's Corner, 1/14/2008) Collaborate with Google Docs (On My Mac, 1/16/2008) If you blog and have written about Google, please provide a link to your thoughts in a comment here.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman

Collaborate with Google Docs
2008-01-16 20:12:00
I am going to have a teaching assistant this semester, so I need a way to share student records with him. I think I have found the answer with Google Docs, which offers word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. If we only work with the online copies, not files on our own computers, coordination should be possible. The following tutorial by the Common Craft Show explains the basic principles. I still have one concern, though. I can control who has access to which document, and I can say who can view the document and who can edit it. That sounds good, but I notice that Google is not serving the documents via a secure connection. It does not do this for Gmail either, though, and I have never heard any problems about that. For more information, see Google's Privacy and Security statement.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Collaborate , Google Docs

NetNewsWire Now Free
2008-01-09 23:57:00
Ars Technica reports that NetNewsWire, my favorite desktop RSS reader, is now free. So is syncing it with Newsgator's excellent online service. The company also offers free products for Windows and mobile phone users.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Free

Mellel Review on ATPM
2008-01-05 03:56:00
In October I published a post here about Mellel, a good word processor. I have now written a much fuller review of Mellel for About This Particular Macintosh. Please have a look and let me know what you think.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Review

Holiday Break
2007-12-19 04:03:00
I've decided to take a little break over the holidays. I will not be reading and moderating comments during that time either. See you in 2008! Happy holidays everyone! Happy New Year!© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Holiday , Break

Wikispaces Update for Teachers
2007-12-10 20:35:00
[This post is a follow-up piece to an earlier one in which I explain what Wikispaces is and how I have used it.] If you use Wikispaces for teaching, you might want to close the wiki to everyone but members of your class. If you do that, the problem of setting up accounts arises. Sure, everyone could set up her own account, but some will have trouble, some will take forever to do it, and others will use names you don't recognize. And once they've signed up, you still have to add them to the wiki. Fortunately, with Wikispaces it is possible to set your students usernames and passwords yourself with the help of the friendly folks at Wikispaces. (I say friendly, because they answer email queries in a prompt and helpful manner.) Here are the directions. Wikispaces customer service explained to me that I can also delete accounts if I have the passwords. I doubt I would do that, though, because the students might end up signing up for other wikis or even creating one of their own, and I...
More About: Update , Teachers

Commenting on this Blog
2007-12-03 18:13:00
Blogger (aka Blogspot) has eliminated the optional URL field from the comments form. If you have a blog and want to enter a URL, you now have to do it another way. Either you can use the wider variety of login options available, which include OpenID, AOL/AIM, Wordpress, TypeKey and LiveJournal, or you can simply enter a nickname and then hard code your URL into your comment. If you just enter the link by itself in your comment, it will not be clickable. If you are not a blogger, the new change means nothing in terms of leaving comments. You can still leave a comment without signing in to this blog. But the change can hurt in terms of following up on comments you liked. It might become harder to find a blogger who leaves comments you like, unless that blogger adapts to these changes that Blogger has made. I am not happy about the changes this Google -owned company has made, because many of my readers are bloggers themselves. I have written about the problem here and here. I have also ...
More About: Blog , Commenting

Advertisements
2007-12-03 18:01:00
If you have been here before, you might have noticed that I was running advertisements in November. It was an experiment of sorts. I earned nothing from them, and I also found myself wasting time thinking about them instead of the content of this blog. That was counterproductive, so I have decided to remove them. I do not think they were adding value for my readers either, so the change away from them should be welcome. Now if I suddenly get thousands and thousands of readers, you will see me slap up ads again. The temptation would just be too great. But the numbers involved here are small, and this is a personal computing blog anyway. No need to try and make it something that it is not, which I was doing by using the ads. What is your take on the matter? What do you think of my use or non-use of advertisements? © 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Advertisements , Vert

1984
2007-11-30 03:03:00
We are looking at Stalinism in my history class right now, which reminds me of George Orwell's 1984. What does this have to do with the Mac? Well, there is personal computing history and popular culture. Have I said enough yet? Here's Apple's first commercial.I didn't see this ad in 1984, because I was in the army and stationed in Germany. I discovered the Mac in 1987 when I returned to Dartmouth College, which at the time was a Mac-only campus. Happy days.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman

Rename Files in Batches with File List
2007-11-19 15:22:00
It is easy to rename one or two files on the Mac, but what if you have dozens or even hundreds of photos or other files that you want to rename? You could spend time creating a specialized tool with AppleScript or Automator, but that takes time and skills you might not have. An easier way to go is with a utility that renames files in batches. The best of its kind is File List by Peter Maurer of Many Tricks. After you download File List, put it in your Applications or Utilities folder. Then drag it into the toolbar of the Finder so it is available whenever you need it. Next, click on it and choose the Preferences icon in its toolbar. There you can tell it what it is supposed to do when you open it. Choose "Populate with current Finder selection" to have it choose the files you have already highlighted in the Finder. Now any time you are in the Finder, you can select files and click on File List in the Finder toolbar to begin renaming. (File List also works with the paid Finder altern...
More About: Rename , Files

Social Networking in Plain English
2007-11-16 04:00:00
Another useful tutorial by the Common Craft Show: © 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking , English , Plain

My Mac: G4 iBook
2007-11-11 20:05:00
I have been using a 12" iBook with a 1.2 GHz PowerPC G4 Processor and 1.25 GB RAM for about three years. My current operating system is 10.4.10 (Tiger). I am tempted to switch to Leopard, but I'm still sitting on the fence. Before this computer I had a G3 iBook, but that only lasted two years. It had too many repair problems and at one point AppleCare decided it would be better to give me a new computer, my current iBook. I bought the iBook in order to write my dissertation. My family already had—and still has—a G3 iMac, but that was community property in community space. I needed to be able to write in a quiet place, which was frequently somewhere other than home, usually the library. I also needed a computer that was easy to carry and affordable. The 12" iBook met both requirements. Since buying one I have also found the iBook useful for teaching, because I can run PowerPoint or Keynote presentations in the classroom from it. Many of my other teaching duties, such as ...

Mac Gems at Macworld
2007-11-08 13:43:00
One of my favorite online columns about the Mac is the Mac Gems webblog at Macworld , an expanded version of a regular feature by the same name in the magazine. It describes itself as "The best Mac stuff you?ve never heard of," and covers both gadgets and software. I read it for the software, which is free or inexpensive. It taught me about Carbon Copy Cloner, a utility that clones your hard drive onto a external drive. (It's called a clone instead of a copy, because it is bootable. You can start up—or boot—your computer with it.) I also learned about a handy envelope printing application called Addressix. To get a feeling for the column's style, check out this 2004 list of applications for personal organization. See especially MyMind and VoodooPad Lite. Right now the topic is Leopard. I don't have this operating system yet, but I enjoy Mac Gems' posts, because they are concise and informative without being overly complicated.(Subscribe to Macworld.)© 2007 Mark R...

Web Applications: Wikispaces
2007-11-02 04:23:00
I have begun to experiment with applications on the web that I can access through my web browser. The most useful one for me at this point is a wiki that I share with my wife and son to keep track of our family projects. I began it in August when they were in Europe, I was in Washington, DC, and we had an unexpected big change in our lives: my son won a scholarship to a leading arts school in Massachusetts. We were in different time zones, and the number of issues to resolve and details to consider were too complicated to handle through email. I drew inspiration from an excellent wiki tutorial I had seen earlier and gave it a try. I chose Wikispaces, which has free and paid options. The cheapest paid option was necessary for us in order to insure our privacy with a secure login. The paid version was also attractive because it had no ads, and it was cheaper than the other main contender, pbwiki. The fact that I could try the paid version without providing any credit card information ...
More About: Applications

Without My Mac
2007-10-30 05:00:00
My iBook was down for several days this month. It was the second time this year. Both instances reminded me to back up my data more frequently, but they also brought up another issue. How can I ensure that I will have access to my data when I do not have my Mac? It would be easy if all my data was in plain text, RTF or Word files. I would merely hook up a flash drive or external hard drive to an available computer and begin work. But what if my data was in files that only work with a Mac application? Worse, what about applications that do not work on older Macs, such as the iMac running Panther that I have at home? This problem need only concern me for the few days repair time, at least for now. But my maintenance contract with AppleCare runs out in May, and I cannot afford to buy a new computer anytime soon. What would happen if my computer died in June? (Knock on wood!) Besides backing up my files, I need to export their contents into file formats that almost any computer can hand...

Which version of the Mac OS?
2007-10-29 14:49:00
I would love to install Leopard (OS 10.5) on my Mac, but I think I will pass for now. Tiger (OS 10.4) works just fine on my old G4 iBook, and I am concerned about giving up more of its processing power to the operating system. A small part of me is also skeptical. How much of the new release is just eye candy? How much would Leopard really increase my productivity? I am also reluctant to say goodbye to the classic option on my Mac, the ability to run programs from the pre-OS X days. I don't use that much, but I still have a lot of files from that time that I have yet to convert. If I had an Intel Mac, my reservations would make less sense. First, the classic option is no longer available on Intel Macs anyway. Second, they offer much more processing power. Third, Leopard is the first Mac OS designed to take advantage of the new Intel Macs' processing power.Which Mac OS do you use? Or perhaps you use more than one version? Besides Tiger on my iBook, I use Panther (OS 10.3) on the fa...
More About: Version

del.icio.us Spotlight
2007-10-29 14:22:00
If you have OS 10.4 or higher, you are probably familiar with Spotlight , the Mac's powerful search engine for finding the many files, emails, bookmarks, archives, and applications on your computer. And perhaps you know del.icio.us, a so-called "social bookmarking site." Its purpose is to allow you to save and share bookmarks online with people who have similar interests. While I have yet to do much bookmark sharing, I have found this site's organizational features helpful. When I save a bookmark, I give it a name and description. I also add tags to each bookmark, that is, keywords that describe the core contents of the site. The tags offer a way to search for related bookmarks. Click on a tag and all bookmarks with that tag will appear. But how about using Spotlight to find your del.icio.us bookmarks? I found out last week that it is possible. Just download and install delimport, a plugin that allows Spotlight to index your del.icio.us bookmarks and include them in its search res...

More Word Processors for the Mac
2007-10-24 13:47:00
In previous posts I have written about Mellel, Nisus Writer Express, and Microsoft Word . My favorite for academic writing is Mellel, though I often use Nisus for smaller documents. Here are some other options to consider. If you have a new Mac, Pages is probably already in the iWork folder in your Applications folder. This Apple product is not only a word processor, but also a page layout program. Its focus is not only on writing, but making text look good. So far I have only used it to create a syllabus, because I wanted more control over the layout than a traditional word processor gave me. Pages was overkill for the project, but it could be perfect for newsletters and brochures. See its built-in templates for ideas. If you want a full-featured suite of applications like Microsoft Office, but do not want to deal with the high price tag, check out OpenOffice, a free open source suite that includes word processing, drawing, data bases, spreadsheets, and presentations. Unfortunately,...
More About: Processors

Word Processors: Mellel
2007-10-06 22:44:00
I wrote my dissertation on Mellel. This application might annoy a user who expects it to work like Word , or at least like all other Mac applications, because Mellel does neither. It is endearing for these same reasons—and because it is stable, fast, and equipped with a robust set of features for academic writing. I also am happy about its integration with Bookends, a powerful bibliography database application. Below is a screenshot of the application with my dissertation. I usually keep the toolbar and ruler closed, in order to make more space for text on my small computer, but I think the typewriter-like interface might interest some readers. You can also open a set a palettes to control the appearance of individual elements of the document. I usually keep those closed and work with Mellel's powerful tools for presetting the styles of characters and paragraphs instead. My dissertation has 322 pages, yet it opens instantly on my G4 iBook. Note too the outline on the left. I ...
More About: Processors

Word Processors: Nisus Writer Express
2007-10-03 02:57:00
I began writing my dissertation on Word , but I grew to hate that application. Although it had all the bells and whistles that an academic writer could possibly want, it acquired the annoying habit of crashing once or twice a day. My Word documents also became corrupt once every several weeks. There had to be a better way. Unfortunately, I encountered these problems shortly after Apple had switched to OS X, so there were not any robust alternatives out there. Word Perfect had abandoned the Mac, and the great Nisus Writer had been recreated as a pale shadow of its former self, Nisus Writer Express (NWE). This program was attractive, easy to use, and received good reviews; however, it also suffered from stability issues: one or more crashes a day. Nor was NWE built for a dissertation-length project. For starters, it could not create a table of contents or display the hierarchy of chapters and sections as an outline. It also offered no other way to navigate than scrolling. It was good f...
More About: Processors

Backing up Blog Articles
2007-09-21 06:28:00
All my blogs are on Blog ger, and I also have a tumblelog on Tumblr. That means my blog posts are on someone else's server, and I cannot back up the database structure of my blogs. Still, I can back up each entry, and I should. What if even the almighty Google (which owns Blogger) had a bad day sometime? I learned a simple way to archive my blog entries from bnullivan at BlogCatalog a few months ago, and it seems to be working out nicely. I simply activated an email subscription option for each blog using Feedburner. I enabled the full feed, so each email contains the full post. Then I subscribed to my own feeds. I like this method, because I already archive and back up my email. Hence, I do not need to create a new habit. Any work that I can fit into an already existing work flow is good by me.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Articles , Backing , Artic

Groups at BlogCatalog
2007-09-21 02:44:00
BlogCatalog has added a group feature so that bloggers with common interests can meet and share information in one place. I just started a group called Life on the Mac. If you blog and have a Mac, please join. If you have a blog and are not listed at BlogCatalog, you should be. If you do not have a blog, you can find a variety of interesting blogs there. The site has come a long way since I first mentioned it. The thing that impresses me most are actually the community features combined with BlogCatalog's responsiveness to input from its users. By the way, here is my profile page on BlogCatalog.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Groups

Google Maps and Cell Phones
2007-09-03 21:09:00
Google Maps is pretty helpful, but I have been using it in a new and unexpected way this afternoon. My wife is in New York looking for the station for the Chinatown bus back to Washington. I asked where she was and then Google Maps told me how to do it. Now she's calling in on her cell phone for step-by-step directions. Yes, one could do this with a really expensive phone with a browser, like the iPhone, but our method is working out okay too. The reason this feels like such a novelty is we only recently got cell phones. We had never needed them before, but our son's move to another state to go to school has made them a necessity. And now I'm learning new ways to become dependent on electronics. Yikes! I still prefer email for most things, but the cell phone can be handy, which, by the way, is what they call the thing in German.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman
More About: Google , Cell Phones , Phones , Cell , Google Maps

Word Processors: Microsoft Word
2007-09-02 21:15:00
Which word processor should you use? I know many people who use Microsoft Word and never think about the alternatives. If you are happy and productive in Word, good for you, but I have run into enough problems with it over the years to make me look around for other options. I will discuss these alternatives in future posts, but let me begin this series with Word. After all, it occupies a prominent position in in the academic world, not least because Microsoft sells its Office suite to students and educators at a substantially reduced price. The current version for the Mac is Word 2004. My problem with this and other versions of Word is that it has too many features and sometimes it crashes under its own weight. I have customized my menus, set the myriad preferences to my liking, and then watched Word crash. The only thing that helped me to get it going again was to throw away the preference files and start over. Not fun. Nonetheless, sometimes I use Word for article-length m...
More About: Processors , Microsoft Word

On Software Updates and Upgrades
2007-08-24 22:31:00
An inescapable fact of life in computing is that software developers constantly tinker with their products. They make changes under the hood and in the user interface. You can often find out about these changes by checking an option in the application's preferences to have it automatically check for new versions when it starts up. You can also learn about updates by subscribing to the RSS feed of MacUpdate or VersionTracker.Minor changes are usually called "updates." An update should not cost you anything. Major changes are usually called "upgrades," and developers often charge money for these. Some upgrades are worth it, and others are not. In fact, some upgrades actually hurt the program, because they add too many new features or introduce new bugs. Nonetheless, it is usually a good idea to try the updates and upgrades, unless you are talking about beta versions of software, which are test releases to help the developer uncover bugs.Before you update or upgrade an application, th...
More About: Software , Updates , Upgrades

Web Browsers (Part II)
2007-08-24 02:19:00
In an earlier post, I described the main web browsers for the Mac and how to choose the one that is right for you. For the more adventurous among you, and for those who desire something closer to complete coverage, here are some more browsers you can look at.OmniWeb is a nice browser that costs money (currently $14.95). At the beginning of the decade it made sense to spend this money, because OmniWeb was the coolest thing out there, at least I thought so. It keeps track of tabs with thumbnails on the side of the browser window, and navigating among windows and tabs can be accomplished with keyboard shortcuts. In fact, most things can be done with keyboard shortcuts. Omniweb can also save workspaces, that is, a collection of open websites, though I have never had much use for that function. Another feature that I do not use, but some might, is its ability to set different preferences for different web sites.Over the years, free browsers have improved greatly, while the pace of OmniWe...
More About: Browsers , Web Browsers , Part , Web Browser , Browse

Changing Default Internet Applications
2007-08-14 00:57:00
Do you sometimes click on a link in your email program and Safari opens up the web page, but you wanted to use Firefox? Or perhaps you are browsing the internet and click on an email link. You want Entourage to open, but instead Apple Mail opens. What to do? You can change your default internet applications with More Internet , which is freeware.Unlike a standard application, More Internet is a preference pane. Hence, you install it in the folder called PreferencePanes in the Library of your home folder, the place where you keep all your documents, photos, music, and other stuff. In other words, you put it in ~/Library/PreferencePanes. If you have more than one person using the computer, and you want everyone to be able to access this preference pane, you can put it in the main library of your computer instead, which is at the same level as the computer's main Applications folder. In other words, you can put the preference pane in /Library/PreferencePanes.Once you install the prefer...
More About: Changing , Chang , Chan

Web Browsers (Part I)
2007-08-12 21:27:00
I sometimes run into people who do not know which web browser they are using on their computer. Indeed, sometimes they do not know what web browser means. All they know is which icon to click on if they want to get on the internet. Such indifference towards the web browser is difficult for me to understand. Given the amount of time we spend on the internet, why not choose the browser that offers the best possible combination of functionality and comfort?It is not a question of which browser is best for everyone, but which feels right to you on the sites you visit most often. You might even find that you prefer one browser for certain kinds of web sites and a different one for others. Indeed, keeping more than one browser on hand is a good idea, in case a site does not work properly with your default browser.For Mac OS X, I recommend that you try each of the following browsers, all of which are free: Safari, Firefox, Camino, and Opera. (I will mention a few other browsers in a future...
More About: Browsers , Web Browsers , Part , Web Browser , Browse

The Common Craft Show
2007-08-10 16:35:00
The Common Craft Show offers helpful short video clips that explain various new web tools in everyday English. So far they explain RSS, wikis, and social bookmarking. After you learn RSS, you can also subscribe to their show.The video below is on wikis.© 2007 Mark R. Stoneman