Al Lustie's Tips and Tricks

Each of our Mac computers (iMac, MacBook) has a copy of VMWare Fusion on it so we can run Windows and Windows programs.  Until Mountain Lion OS X it worked well.

I have support questions in to VMWare but don't really expect any useful answers.  Here's the deal:

my wife tries to print in Windows or OS X when VMWare Fusion is open.  Best case scenario she cannot do it automatically.  Rather, she has to use a setting in VMWare Fusion to connect or disconnect the printer.  Otherwise the whole computer, Windows side and Mac side, spontaneously reboots, wasting time and losing any files she has not saved.

Not good.

I upgraded Fusion so I could upgrade to Windows 8.  Their web site says the new upgrade, version 5, supports Windows 8.  But they give me a message that Windows 8 cannot be installed on this computer.

Hmmm.  I am looking into Parallels. 

Sadly, until Mountain Lion, Fusion 3 and 4 worked just fine. 

Tip:  just because they say you can do something doesn't mean it will really work.  Check out the support options in any software package before paying for the software.  Even "reputable' companies will bilk you if they get a chance.

Use this link:

http://www.infopackets.com/news/software/windows_tips/2012/20121203_windows_8_how_to_shut_down_in_one_click.htm

Infopackets gives detailed instructions for creating a one-click shortcut to shut down Windows 8. 

Does this work for you?  Leave a comment and let us know.

I am learning Windows 8 slowly.  Awhile back I mentioned the Alt + F4 combination for shutting down Windows 8.  Here is another way.  Go up to the upper right corner, or down to the lower right corner, to bring up the Charm screen shown here.

Notice the bottom row of icons.  IN the center is the POWER icon.  Click that, and select from Shut Down or Restart. 

What are you learning that we could learn from?  Leave a comment and let us know. 

Hold the Sleep/Reset button down at the same time as the Home button -- just for a short time.  The screen will 'flash' and the screen shot is saved to the Camera Roll. 

I learned that people who are trying to do a reset and don't hold both the Sleep/Reset and Home buttons down for long enough so the screen goes black may accidentally take a screen shot, and then wonder where that picture came from when they look at their Photos. 

What tip or trick have you learned?  Share by leaving a comment. 

This is not an obvious chore to perform.  I recommend this link for a fuller explanation:
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/139960-how-to-shut-down-windows-8-easily-and-how-to-boot-to-the-desktop

You might want to take their advice about making a shortcut, but if you don't, use the Alt + F4 combination, and select Shut Down, Restart, or Sleep.  Although Microsoft doesn't seem to want you to shut down or restart, you probably want to from time to time. 

As I experience these little oddities in Windows 8 I will write about them here.  If you have a comment, please let us know.  We want to hear from you. 

I began on my iMac, using the VMWare Fusion version 5 virtual machine.  Windows 8 checked, said it could upgrade my Windows XP just fine, downloaded, began installing and then notified me that it could not install on VMWare fusion. 

Darn!  I moved to my Sony laptop but, wait!!  I had paid for what I downloaded to the iMac.  How could I get it over to my Sony PC laptop?  Finally I found a support number and talked with a very pleasant lady in the Philippines.  She "took over" my machine and found the right web site, checked my receipt and all that, and got me downloading Windows 8 all over again, but on my XP partition on the laptop.

All told, even with my very fast Comcast connection, it took three hours to get Windows 8 installed.  I thanked the nice lady, and we disconnected.  It is installed.  I used Internet Explorer to download Firefox and Chrome, messed with it a bit, and stopped. 

Since then I have read more about Windows 8, and experimented.  I downloaded Open Office, and it works very well.  The networking took a bit of time to get working, even hard-wired, but it finds other machines on the network.  I am getting the hand of the new interface, and finding places to go to tweak the settings.  In a PDF I downloaded (for $9.95) I found the list of keyboard shortcuts.  Everyone should have these who uses Windows 8, but I won't plagiarize and print them here.  Find them somewhere on the web, pay for them as you need to, and learn at least the ones you use the most.  Control+C, Control+X, Control+V and Control+S work the same as in previous versions of Windows. 

I am concerned.  My older clients may be buying a new computer and will have serious adjusting to do in order to use this well.  They are all up to it, but may be turned off by the learning curve. 

More in a few days.  Meanwhile, share your experiences or responses.  My next project will be finding out how to install it on my iMac.  Let me know if you have figured out a workaround.

How will you back up your apps, pictures and music from an IOS device (iPad, iPod, iPhone, iPad Mini)?

Some will back up to their iMac, a PC, a MacBook, or other computers.  Still others will back up to iCloud.  There is a problem with backing up to the iCloud.

Simply, the free space on iCloud can be used up quickly.  You only get 5GB of storage on iCloud at no charge.  This link takes you to a useful discussion of space:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20090887-248/how-much-icloud-storage-will-you-need/.  Check out Josh Lowensohn's discussion from August 14, 2011.  Or try this link:  http://mp3.about.com/od/digitalmusicfaq/f/iCloud-FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-About-iCloud.htm.


If you have 8 gigabytes of music, for instance, on your iPod, you will need to spend another $20 to back up to iCloud.  Songs purchased from iTunes, and apps purchased from the App Store and books purchases from iBooks don't count towards your 5BG.  For most of us it will be pictures we haven't offloaded and music we downloaded from our CD collection (or LP Vinyl collection) that will use up space. 

I have chosen, for the most part, to back up to my iMac.  My wife is backed up to a PC on the main floor that is easy to use (via iTunes) and has plenty of space.  I back her iPad up when she is reading, or off teaching. 

There is no "right" answer -- you may need to try one or another of these possibilities until you find the one that works best for you.  Remember, however, that any app you have purchased you can reload at no charge. 

One thing you should use iCloud for is the "Find me. . . " app.  Find My iPad, Find My iPhone, and Find my iPod work well and are especially useful if your device is stolen, or it slips out of a pocket and is left somewhere like your favorite coffee shop. 



What do you do?  What thoughts cross your mind, what experiences are you having?  Leave a comment and let us in on your wisdom.

Remember -- your comment is valued.  Leave a comment, and sign up for an email notification when a new entry is posted. 

 As life unfolds I am being asked more and more to help clients with iPads (I have two), iPods (I have the 5th generation Touch) and iPhones (I don't have one but I have friends who do).  All use IOS (the Operating System, or OS) and most are using IOS5 or IOS6.  IOS6 is the latest on 10/18/2012.

I find I have decisions to make about these devices, no matter which I own or use.  Let me share them here.

• Will I keep the apps and IOS updated?  Yes, or no.  (The best answer is usually "Yes".)
• What will I use the device for?  (I just received the iPod for my 75th BD, and use the reminders and notes feature.  I take it with me most places, and can jot down ideas, to-dos, etc. wherever I am, for instance. On the other hand, my seven-year old grandchild loves to play games.)
• When will I put the darned thin away?  I received an email from my friend Dave recently with pictures of people in various settings using their electronic devices.  At coffee with others, dinner with others, an art museum, the beach, a sports event, a date, etc.  It ends with this quotre:  Albert Einstein:
  "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of IDIOTS." 
• Will I allow others to use it? 

That's a good start. 

What do you think?  Share your ideas by leaving a comment.  We want to hear from you. 

My wife uses Windows on her Mac.  It's a virtual machine running well and she can switch from Windows to OS X easily, and does.  The university where she works requires Windows for some of what she does, but the Mac is so much better built, in our experience.  She has done well with this for quite awhile.

Recently, however, if she printed something in Windows, the printer would not work for programs on the Mac.  If she printed something from the Mac, the printer would not connect in Windows.  I found a workaround (Go to "Virtual Machine" up on the menu bar, scroll down to "USB and Bluetooth" and either connect or disconnect the printer to which you want to print.)

Painful.  Mountain Lion did not help.  Oh, well.  I think it might have started happening when VMWARE upgraded her Fusion 4. 

Anyway, VMWARE helped me by installing Bonjour, and making the printer for Windows a Bonjour Printer.  All of a sudden she can switch from Windows to Mac, printing seamlessly from either.  You have to be a geek or a tech to get there, but she isn't and doesn't want the hassle.  She just wants it to work.

If you have that issue, try Bonjour.  It worked for us.

Leave a comment if you have another solution, or something to add. 

Today, August 23, 2012, Apple came out with an update to Mountain Lion (OS X 8.1).  I downloaded and installed it.  Most of the things fixed do not, and have not, affected me.  They did not fix. . .

• the need to press keys (I use the arrow keys) to wake the computer up, then move the mouse, and then w a i t
• the other annoyances relating to speed I mentioned in the last blog

However, it seems quite stable.  As it is usually a good idea to update operating systems if they don't add problems, I will upgrade my wife's iMac tomorrow, or maybe later tonight.

The guys at Windows Secrets are not too impressed so far with the new Windows 8.  I'm waiting to try it, but the download (free) they offered won't install on my Windows laptop.  So, as I said, I'm waiting.

What are you experiencing along these lines?  Leave a comment. 

I installed OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) on both our iMacs in the past ten days.  Here is a modest report of what I found.

• Most things are slower and take more keystrokes.
• It seems to be pretty solid.
• We don't use gestures, so that is meaningless (so far) for me or my wife.
• Apple says it will be fixing the terrible response time to 'waking up' after the computer has been asleep for awhile, but gives no timeline.
• The Launchpad is O.K., but not necessary.
• I think Spotlight might be a bit faster than in Snow Leopard, from whence I came.
• My Scrabble game loads, but does not work.
• MySolitaire XL will work for one game, then lock up.
• Solitaire 3D works fine, but is not as good looking as Solitaire XL.

I have not tried dictation, so I cannot comment on that.  Probably in a week or so.

iCloud works fine, but I don't use it much.

Connecting Bento for the Mac wirelessly to Bento for the iPad works well.

Notes for the iPad automatically sends me an email when I add to it.  It did not do that before installing Mountain Lion, but that might have been an IOS upgrade feature I missed.

Lil' Snitch no longer works.  I am hoping for an upgrade soon.

More when I know more.

At least, at this time.  Here's what infopackets.com says:

Microsoft is warning its customers that a newly discovered flaw in its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser could allow hackers to execute malicious code and take control of an unsuspecting user's computer. That would give a cyber-criminal the ability to use the computer and all its resources for unknown, possibly illegal, purposes. Microsoft has indicated that users of every recent version of the Windows operating system (OS), including Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, are vulnerable to such an attack.

Use Chrome, Firefox or Opera as your default browser.  Links in email that open IE make you most vulnerable to this nasty malware.  OK?

It happened again.  A client lost her data when her hard drive died.  Died Dead.

I recommend to you and to all my clients and friends, to all strangers and slight acquaintences:  purchase an external hard disk (they are less than $100 at Office Depot), connect to your computer (PC or Mac) and set up a regular back up schedule.  On PCs you can use the built in Backup program.  On Macs it is the Time Machine program.  You don't have to purchase anything but the hard disk.  It's easy.

Or hire me or someone like me to help you set up the backup program.  For most people, backing up once a week is adequate.  You lose no more than a week's worth of work.

Oh, if you use Thunderbird for an email client, search for MozBackup and run it regularly.  Have the program put the backkup file in your Library or Documents so that it get's backed up to the external hard disk as well.

If you use Outlook, plan on backing it up regularly and having the backup go to the external hard drive.  Be sure your contacts as well as your emails get backed up.  Calendar, too, if you use it.

Although this is boring and tedious, it really beats pounding your head against the sidewalk when you need a backup and you didn't provide for one.

So simple, but easy to miss.  When your computer, particularly a laptop, cannot connect to your wireless network, check for one of the following:

• A function key that turns the ability of the machine to connect on or off
• A switch on the front edge or side edge of the laptop.

If that fails, reboot the modem first by unplugging it for 15 seconds, plugging it in and then waiting 2 minutes.
Then reboot the wireless router by unplugging it for 15 seconds, plugging it in and then waiting 2 minutes. 

1. First, memory size:  16GB, 32 GB, 64GB.  Apps don’t take much room, but pictures and videos do.  If you plan to do much with the camera, I would get the 32GB or 64GB model and skip the lower end all together.  That excludes the good price on the iPad 2 which is only being sold as a 16GB model.  But if you only check email and use the web, plus Solitaire and Srabble, the 16GB is just fine.
2. Second, WiFi only, or WiFi plus 3G.   With WiFi only you have to find a WiFi location.  Hmmm.  Starbucks, MacDonalds, most public libraries, most airports and lots of other places offer free connection to the web via WiFi.  My wife and I have gotten along just fine with WiFi only.  But now I have 3G as well on my third generation iPad.  I go to client locations where they do not have WiFi, or don’t want to give me the password to their network, and the 3G let’s me make notes, email invoices, and look up parts wherever I am.  I only turn it on when I need it, and Verizon charges me $20 for a modest amount of use.  Only the month I turn it on.  
3. Third, what apps should I get?  
1. Readers, if you like to read.  Kindle, Nook, the iBooks one from Apple, and a good PDF reader.  Don’t forget -- your public library probably has ebooks to loan.  Check at overdrive.com.
2. Productivity apps if you will use it for writing, invoicing, presenting.  I suggest spending the money for the Apple apps Pages, Numbers, and Keystone to get a decent word processing app, decent spreadsheet app, and a decent presentation app.  But there are others.  
3. Utilitiy apps include Printopia or Print or Print Central so you can print to a printer.  Check these out on the web before you buy so you KNOW whether they will work with your computer and printer setup, or purchase an “AirPrint” printer.

When you save a document in Word 2010 or Word 2011 you save a file type called ".docx".  These are the four letters after the period that follows the name you give it.  But what if you want to save in a different file type.  Commonly we have friends or colleagues that use the ".doc" file type.  And Word will help you do this. 

Look at this






 
You will select the "File" heading from the menu at the top of the Word Program, or in the menu bar of the Mac. 

You will scroll down to the Save As (not the Save) selection and click it.  You will get a window something like this:

 

See where the Green Arrows point.  the one points to the format bar.  The one to the right points to the selector.  You can click on it and a list of formats it can save to will drop down.  The include the .doc format, the .pdf format and a bunch of others.  Choose the format to which you want to save, and click the Save or OK button.  You have done it. 

In Pages, the iWork word processing program, do much the same thing.  Click File in the Menu Bar, scroll down to "Save As" and you will get this screen:

 

Actually you get a screen that let's you choose where you want to save and what you want to save it as.  If you click the box (left green arrow) to Save copy as: and then the selector up/down triangles  you can choose what other format you want to save as, usually either an earlier version of Pages (iWork) or the Word .doc format. 

It's cool, it's easy and it's fast.  What do you think?