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Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar David Chaplin
Just like to say how helpful & useful I found reading all the advice and comments on keeping our "systems reliable". Thank you Derek for suggesting it & all the contributors .
David Chaplin

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Some members with older machines may have been disappointed to see that some useful functions on later machines are not available to them. Here are a few tips on how some of these functions can be enabled on older machines.

AirPrint This is useful for printing from iPads, IPhones etc. to an AirPrint enabled printer. But if you do not have such a printer an application called Handy Print will do the job using your existing printer. This used to be called AirPrint Activator.
For printing from a distance or from Android phones and tablets, try Google CloudPrint. You enable this through the Google Chrome browser.

Both of these Applications work through your computer so obviously the computer needs to be on for the printer to work.

AirPlay This utility enables you to play material from your Mac to your TV via an Apple TV. For those without this facility on their machine there is AirParrot, This is a cheap application which enables the airplay on older machines. Newer machines can also use it if they wish to use the extra facilities offered by AirParrot. There is also a PC version of AirParrot.

AirDrop This enables you to transfer files etc. locally between computers e.g between your laptop and desktop or between members at a WAMUG meeting. For those without this facility there is an article in Macworld which explains what to do; see the following url.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1162407/airdrop_any_mac.html

Although this works well between computers that have been modified by this means, when you are in a group such as a meeting, you can see the other Airdrop enabled computers but they cannot see you until you transfer a file to one of them; at which point you become visible while the file is transferring, but then become invisible again. Later machines which have AirDrop originally enabled can still use the terminal instruction as mentioned in the article and then they can see both original and modified airdrop users. This is handy if you have machines of different ages where one may be enabled and the other not.

I have tried all of these modifications and, find them very handy

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Mark Ford
Thank you for this Lionel I was trying to thank you for the Useful tips ....

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Mark Ford
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Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Using Address Book/ Contacts to print Mailing Labels

It is the time of year when the idea of printing Christmas Card labels comes to mind and here is a way to do it on a Mac without buying any additional software.

You can print address labels in Address Book/Contacts as follows, but first you need to do a little preparation.

1. Ensure first of all that all the people to whom you wish to send a card are actually in your contacts list and that they have a full postal address entered. Also check that the name and title are as you would wish to see them printed on an envelope.

2. In the Note section on each address card of those on your Christmas Card list enter a note such as CARD.

3. In the All Contact List at the beginning of Address Book/Contacts create a new Smart Group. From the File Menu choose New Smart Group and then in the smart group dialogue box from the Card drop down list choose Note. Then in the second box choose Contains and in the third box enter CARD. then click OK

When you now open the new Smart Group you should see all your friends listed

You can now print your labels

4. First obtain a supply of Avery A4 labels I use J8160 these give seven rows of three labels (21 labels to a page)

5. Now open your new Smart Group again and select all the members

6. From the File Menu select Print. This should show your addresses as labels, but not necessarily how you wish to see them.

7. On the Page drop down list select Avery A4 and then J8160 and your labels should now appear as seven rows of three.

8. Now you can print your labels. However for the first time it may be wise to do a print on plain paper so that you can check how the labels appear. If all seems well you can then load your labels in the printer and off you go.

This may seem a bit involved, but remember you only have to do this once. In subsequent years all you need to do is edit your contacts list for changes and the Smart Group will update itself.

When you are used to printing labels this way you can perhaps create a separate list for husband and wife. First of all go to your contacts and edit the notes for example CARD JOHN or CARD MARY and then make two new Smart Groups one for Husband and one for Wife using the new Note reference.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Drew McFarlane
Hi Lionel,

Thank you for your guide in how to create and print labels, I have been successful in creating label lists, however I have never been able to print them successfully. The default font size is too large, I believe size 12?

Is it possible to alter the font size and to customise the label size? I have 2 boxes of Niceday labels that are little different from your Avery J8160 and I cannot find a way to alter the settings.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Hi Drew
I think you will find the customization you need as follows.
Under the Layout tab, click Page List and select define custom. Here after choosing a name for your labels, you can set all the necessary size parameters and when you are done, this label layout will be saved under the name you gave it for use whenever you need it again. Most of the information you will need should be on the packaging of your labels.

For font size adjustment, under the Label tab at the bottom where it gives you the current font (Lucida Grande 12 in my case) you can click the Set button and this will give you access to the fonts available on your Mac.

However I have found that when printing the labels, Address book automatically adjusts the size to fit on the label.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Drew McFarlane
Thank you Lionel.

It is so easy when you know how.

I can finally discard my old Sony laptop with Microsoft Office 2000.

Drew

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Using a Powerline Network to bring my Superfast Broadband up to the Office

Recently, Rural Superfast Broadband came to our village and I decided to join. The process with my ISP was simple enough, but one snag was that the Cable router had to be installed by the master socket in the living room and our computers and networked printer are in a bedroom/office at the other side of the house with no convenient route for a wired connection.

I decided that the simple solution was to use a pair of Solwise home plugs which had pass through connectors. These connectors use the mains wiring of the house to act as the network wiring, all very clever.

These were installed a few days before the fibre installation and so I was able to test them using my ADSL router. The connection initially was simple but one or two problems emerged. Apparently power line networks are susceptible to degradation from interference caused by noisy phone and modem connectors and this was the case with my system and was cured by connecting the local phone and modem power supply connectors to a mains multi connector and then plugging them into the nearby passthrough socket on the Home Plug which is designed to filter out mains noise. I did this at both ends of the network, but still the red light indicating a poor network signal was showing. However, when I logged into the router to see if there was some other indication I found that I had logged in to my neighbour's router instead. We live in a semi detached house and though there is no direct connection between the houses the ring mains of both houses run close in some places and his power line network was interfering with mine. This was cured by giving my network a new name. So then all was sweetness and light for the installation of the fibre connection which works well.

An update to this post.
When in use I found that the losses on the power line network were similar to using wi-fi, namely that a 72 megabit signal at the router rarely registered more than 30 mbps at my computer up in the office. So with some time and a little bit of ingenuity I managed to connect the router to my upstairs office by cable and with an ethernet switch at the office end I was able to link in my printer and both computers and the signal was now 72 mbps at both ends.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Tony Still
Here's a useful Apple Support page about getting rid of adware.
The old Windows trick of surreptitiously downloading adware and other "crapware" along with something you really wanted is appearing on the Mac. If you are getting ads or other pop-ups appearing unexpectedly, you may have inadvertently installed something unwanted.

Apple has a support page (here) that helps in removing some of the more common culprits. Even if you just want to check your system, it doesn't take long to work through the first part of the document (if you're not finding anything, breathe a sigh of relief and stop where it says "optionally").

Note that most of things are not viruses as such, they're social engineering tricks that make you load something without realising what you're getting. Mac OS X (and any other software) can't protect you against this 'cos you said you wanted to do it! Fortunately they don't usually do any more damage than slug the computer's performance and annoy the user.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Synchro - Sun

The recent presentation by Peter at the `Bournemouth meeting on creating pictures brought to mind a technique we used over 50 years ago when I was briefly involved in wedding photography. The problem often occurred when the bridal couple were lit from the front that they tended to screw up their eyes which did not give a good image. Backlighting solved this to some extent but the necessity to open up one or two stops often exceeded the exposure range of the film stock we used. One solution was to use fill in flash, but this left the background dark making it look as though the photos were taken at night. So a compromise which we called Synchro - sun was used. Here an overall exposure reading was taken and the camera set to that exposure. then a calculation was made on the aperture needed for a perfect flash exposure at the required distance (manual flash gun of course). The camera shutter speed was then adjusted to give the same aperture setting and then the photo was taken. As the flash was about a thousandth of a second the shutter speed was irrelevant to the flash exposure. This sounds laborious but when you got used to it it took seconds. Is this technique still used? I suppose nowadays the problem can be solved using Photoshop or similar.

The equipment used for those interested . the cameras were an Agfa ambi- silette interchangeable lens and coupled rangefinder camera with Synchro Compur shutter and later a Minolta single lens reflex and a Mecablitz electronic flash.

And we still managed to get our proofs back to the reception.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Tony Still
Lionel,

If I said that my Canon DSLR does that automatically (presumably other makes too), would it count as the technique still being used today? ;-)

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Rick Churchill
Lionel, tried your printing from a smart group within Contacts but like most mailing programmes it can only print the first line as it appears in the list i.e. Fred & Mable Bloggs not Mr. & Mrs. F. Bloggs.
In the days you could actually programme computers I wrote a small routine that if it found an "&" after the first space in the first line took the initial letter of the first word (the Christian name), added "Mr. and Mrs. " in front of it, or if it did not, just "Mr. ". It then added the last word of the first line (the surname). I coped with female contacts but can't remember how. Until mailing programmes get more intelligent I have resorted to a separate word document that I have to remember to update if my friends change their address.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
In my version of contacts I was able to enter Mr & Mrs in the Title field and this is how they print out on the labels. This is why I mention in the post above that before preparing your smart group you have to make sure your addresses are how you want them to appear. I am still using address book but I don't think this ability has been changed in later versions.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Tony Still
Rick, I don't think it's adequate for your needs but Automator is worth a look, it has some text handling functions. It's an easy tool to use when it can do what you want. Otherwise, you can insert pieces of Applescript into Automator programs (if you know Applescript, big learning curve otherwise).

What language was your original program written in?

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Although it worked well I was not too happy with the wireless keyboard that came with my Mac as it did not have a separate number keypad to which I had become accustomed. I looked at the Apple extended keyboard but apart from it being expensive it had poor reviews referring to its habit of bending after some use. So I bought a cheaper bluetooth Keyboard which seems fine and has not bent yet. Unfortunately it does not have a UK pound symbol. However before I sent it back I realised that the character palette can be accessed with a few key presses namely ,control/ command/ space. Frequently used characters are shown at the top so now it is simple to print the UK ï¿¡.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Tony Still
Lionel - it's possible that typing Option-Hash (ie option-Shift-3) will give you a Pound sign.

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Eric Jervis
Hmm, most curious; I've got the same problem, my keyboard having a $ symbol,so I mucked about a bit with these different methods and lo and behold, shift hash, which should give me a hash symbol, actually gives me this: £. If I want a hash symbol, which I never do, I have to type option hash: #

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Lionel Ogden
Thanks, yes it does. Now how do I print a euro symbol?

Re: Useful tips to maximise system reliability.

Avatar Tony Still
Possibly Option-@ (ie Option-Shift-2)?
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