macmend.com - the home of mac troubleshooting

macmend.com is growing, now using XOOPS

2008-08-20T05:30:00.001-07:00

macmend.com is growing and now ported back to the excellent XOOPS CMS, find us at:

www.macmend.com/machelp

macmend.com is growing, now using XOOPS

2008-08-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

macmend.com is growing and now ported back to the excellent XOOPS CMS, find us at:

www.macmend.com/machelp

Top 5 Mac OSX widgets

2008-04-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

I hardly used widgets at all because they dont appear on the desktop, then I got into yahoo widgets and wondered why i was using them and not the inbuilt OSX ones.

There are 3 ways of using widgets, via the dash board, using a bit of terminal and F12 to make an individual widget appear on your desktop or using Amnesty Now with OSX 10.5 you can make your own widgets by using safari to clip parts of web pages, this is especially usefull if you dont want to both with RSS and can get headlines and updates via your clipped widgets instead.

My top 5 widgets besides the ones I clip are:

To Do Widget

Links with iCal and list things I need to remember and do

iCal Events
Its a sort of desktop ical, listing calnedar events and more

ViewmyTV
does exactly what it says allows you to view umpteen TV channels on a widget.

Easy envelopes

Back in OS9 there were some useful envelope printing tools, It may sound boring but its very useful

iStat Pro
The ultimate tool to tell you what goes on in a mac, I have been using it lately for an old G5 imac that overheats to tell me what the temp is.

see what you think

Mac Accounts package

2008-02-27T11:28:00.000-08:00

So I was searching all over the web for a decent mac accounts package, i have used MYOB and Access before and they are OK but I wanted something small business specific, and no where could I find the answer I needed until I came across a thread in which the MacAttorney.com owber Randy Singer said he had collected a record of nearly 50 Mac Accounts packages, he did this becuase he saw someones writing elsewhere saying there were no mac accounts applications, and i guess Randy is a mac evangelist. I thought its worth sharing these with all you mac business people out there with thanks again to Randy B. Singer.

"Business Accountz (PC/Mac)" (Accountz.com Ltd)

GENERAL ACCOUNTING PROGRAMS

courtesy of:

Randy B. Singer

Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance

http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

- Accounted

$60

http://www.oranged.net/accounted/

- T_ACCOUNTING

$175

http://www.double-entry-accounting-software.com/

- Vision X

http://www.logisoftinc.com/products.html

- PowerEasy ERP (for Mac OS X Server)

<</div >

http://www.effigent.com/html/product_powereasy_enterprise.htm

>

- Connected Accounting

<</div >

http://www.goconnected.com/

>

- FileClerk

http://www.landrumsoftware.com/

- Genesis Accounting

<</div >

http://www.newmillennium.com/index.php?src=gendocs&link=Business_Software_GA_Overview&category=Business_Software

>

- MultiLedger from CheckMark Software, Inc.

<</div >

http://www.checkmark.com

>

- MoneyWorks (4 different versions are available for different sizes and types of organizations)

<</div >

http://cognito.co.nz/product.range.php

>

- Aatrix Accounting

<</div >

http://www.aatrix.com/

>

- MacMoney and InvoicIt

<</div >

http://www.survivorsoftware.com/

>

- Big Business

<</div >

http://www.bigbusiness.com/

>

- FlexWare Accounting

<</div >

http://www.flexware.com/

>

- Accounts from Nano Software

<</div >

http://www.nano.com.au

>

- AcctVantage

<</div >

http://www.acctvantage.com/

>

- 4th QuarterAccounting.

<</div >

http://www.4thquarter.com

>

- JobOrder.

<</div >

http://www.JobOrder.com

>

- MYOB's AccountEdge

<</div >

http://www.myob.com/us/

>

- Appgen's MyBooks.

<</div >

http://www.unrealstudio.com/appgen/index.html

>

- Microphage/TRT (in French)

<</div >

http://www.microphage.qc.ca/

>

- Intuit's Quickbooks Pro for the Macintosh

<</div >

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting_software/pro_mac_financial_management_software.jhtml

>

- Hold-up

http://www.pol-online.net/hold_up/

made in Switzerland.

- TinyBooks is a simple, flexible, non-bloated, single-entry bookkeeping and accounting system for the Macintosh. TinyBooks is designed for Sole Proprietors, home and other small businesses, and family finances.

http://www.winograd.com

- Corona $65

http://www.designersdomain.com/corona/

- Clients & Profits X agency management software

job production and accounting software designed especially for creative

businesses such as ad agencies, graphic design firms, and corporate marketing departments

http://www.cnp-x.com

- FinanceToGo $45

http://www.fastforwardsw.com/products/financetogo/

- MoneyWorks

cross platform multi-user system

http://www.cognito.co.nz/index.php

PERSONAL FINANCE PROGRAMS

EasyMoney $20

http://www.ttpsoftware.com/Products/easymoney.html

iBank $40

http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/

Quicken

http://quicken.intuit.com/quicken-products-services.jhtml?priorityCode=3948500000

MoneyDance $30

http://www.moneydance.com/

BudgetfM $15

http://www.budget-software.de/

Budget $30

http://www.snowmintcs.com/

Budget $30

http://www.belightsoft.com/products/companion/budget/budget.php

Finance $20

http://www.yenco.com/

http://www.yenco.com/finance/index.html

iCash $24.90

http://www.maxprog.com

http://www.maxprog.com/iCash.html

Money $25

http://www.jumsoft.com/money/

My Money Minder $12.50

http://www.geocities.com/ben_blake1/index.html

http://www.geocities.com/ben_blake1/mymoneyminder.html

MYOB FirstEdge $99

http://www.myob.com/us/products/firstedge/

QuickFinance $24

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/4959

http://quickfinance-mac.com/

Liquid Ledger $45

http://www.liquidledger.com/

Checkbook Rec $9

http://www.cornerstonedesigns.biz/

Finance 101 (part of Small Business Software) - Business & Personal Finance Software $199

http://www.programs101.com/finance-101.html

CheckBook $18

http://www.splasm.com/products/productcheckbook.html

Cocoa Account and Cocoa Account Plus FREE

http://homepage.mac.com/tonyswu/tonyswu/computer/cocoa.html

http://homepage.mac.com/tonyswu/tonyswu/computer/works/cocoa/caccount/index.html

http://homepage.mac.com/tonyswu/tonyswu/computer/works/cocoa/cap/

Conto FREE

http://www.dimi.uniud.it/~vitacolo/macosx.html

GnuCash (via Fink and X11) FREE and open source

http://homepage.mac.com/elliottmce/gnucash_guide/

http://www.gnucash.org/

SpendThrift FREE

http://blackllamafaction.org/spendthrift/

http://blackllamafaction.org/archives/cat_software.html

Hold-Up FREE, open source

http://www.pol-online.net/hold_up/us_home.html

QuickFinance $24

http://www.tucows.com/get/204805_87575

Cha-Ching $40

http://www.chachingapp.com/

http://www.midnightapps.com/

Horizon $30

http://lucernesys.com/

iCompta (free,donations welcome)

http://angeman7.free.fr/iCompta/?language=en

"FirstEdge 2008 (Mac)" (MYOB UK Ltd)

___________________________________________

Randy B. Singer

Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance

http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

___________________________________________

Mac Internet software

2008-02-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

Browsers:
Safari -- Apple's Web browser with every mac and is now available for Windows.
FireFox -- Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.com)

Email:
Mail -- Apple's Email client comes with every Mac (Note: It is not called Mac Mail, if anything Apple's Mail)
Thunderbird -- Mozilla
(http://www.mozilla.com)
Entourage -- part of microsofts new Office 2008 package
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/entourage2008/default.mspx#/interacting_entourage/)
Mailsmith -- Barebones Software the makers of BBEdit
(http://barebones.com/products/mailsmith/index.shtml)

FTP Clients:
CyberDuck -- CyberDuck
(http://cyberduck.ch/)...FREE
Transmit -- Panic Software
(http://www.panic.com/transmit/)

Web design - Advanced:
Dreamweaver -- Adobe bought this from Macromedia although many web designers code it straight into a text editor, like barebones BBedit
(http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/?promoid=BINR)

Web Creation - by Template:
RapidWeaver -- Real Mac Software, this is an excellent product and this blog was made with it
(http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/index.php)
Sandvox -- Karelia Software
(http://www.karelia.com/)
iWeb -- Apple-Part of iLife
(http://www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/)

A Mac for christmas

2008-02-05T07:22:00.000-08:00

So its probably about this time if you got a mac, an iPod or a iPhone for Christmas that you might start to get a few problems, or perhaps are wanting to do more with your mac. Maybe you have an issue that needs troubleshoting or want to know where to get certain software, or what is the best hardware to get? Well you have come to the right place....just go to our forums register on the site and choose the right forum and ask your question, sit back and wait for the answer and you are done.

Which mac should I buy

2008-02-05T03:03:00.000-08:00

I came across this great little webpage that I wanted to share,as its such a fantastic idea. I often get people asking me, "macmend, which mac should I get" I always ask theme what they want to do and spend ages humming and hahhing over what their main use is going to be and what they can afford

Then I found this:

http://whichmacforyou.com/?page_id=18

Why not try it out if you are thinking of buying a mac.

The 7 best Mac back up applications

2008-01-18T06:51:00.001-08:00

You would be surprised how few mac users back up their macs, according to Apple its only 4% of mac users, perhaps thats why they introduced time machine of Leopard. We know of SMEs that don't do it or don't do it properly.Please back up and try to back up regularly

There are different ways of doing this but if you don't back up think about doing it NOW.

Try one of the cloning utilities that will back up the whole of your mac to an external disk and make that disk bootable, our best of are:

1. CARBON COPY CLONER: (its FREE) Download version 3 now! (Tiger and Leopard) Clone, synchronize, backup. Schedule and forget it. Try it 'til you trust it. The key to a successful backup plan is to actually do the backups regularly. When left to a human, the task often gets tacked on to the end of a very long list of other things to do. When you eventually have a catastrophe, the data is simply gone. You know that feeling -- you just lost six years of family photos. Your kids being born, their first birthdays, their first everything. The answer to this is consistent and regular backups, placed on a schedule and handled automatically by your computer.

2.SUPERDUPER: (about £11)

is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper'sbuilt-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically. And it runs beautifully on both Intel and Power PC Macs!SuperDuper's interface confirms all your actions in simple, clear language to ensure that the end result is exactly what you intended.

Then there are the seemingly more professional back up tools that have a degree of sophistication, reflected in the price.

RETROSPECT DESKTOP

(current version 6.1, also comes in workstation and server version for enterprise users)
Retrospect is specifically designed for use in small and midsize businesses, workgroups in large enterprises, and home and small offices. Retrospect provides complete protection for files, folders, and application settings on servers, desktops, and notebooks. Retrospect is easy to install and use, and it performs fast backups with 100% percent accurate restores. It utilizes automated technology to provide easy administration that allows small businesses and home users to protect their data without requiring extensive IT resources or unnecessary expenditures to train employees in complicated backup and restore procedures. Retrospect can be seen as complicated but our opinion has an efficent user interface, so beginners may struggle with having to write scripts for scheduled backups.

INTEGO PERSONAL BACKUP:

Personal Backup's multiple backups protect all your files from unexpected problems. To keep all your files safe, you need different kinds of backups. Back up files to external disks or optical media, create bootable backups of your entire Mac, and synchronize files from one folder or volume to another.Back up to hard disks, CDs, DVDs, network volumes, iPods, iDisks...Fast and reliable restorationsCreate bootable backups of your startup volumeSynchronize folders and volumesCreate encrypted archivesSchedule automatic backupsCreate custom backup scripts

 "Personal Backup X4 (Mac)" (Intego)

PROSOFT DATA BACKUP:

From the people who bought you

Data Rescue

and the excellent

Drive Genius

(as used on Apples Guru desk instore) Data Backup 3 is a powerful utility that allows you to backup, restore and synchronize your valuable data with minimal effort. Whether you are a new computer user or a seasoned professional, Data Backup 3 offers you just the right amount of power, flexibility and ease-of-use to help you protect your files fast.

  "Data Backup 3.0 (Mac)" (ProSoft Engineering)

Tri-BACKUP 4:

Offers standard backup, restore and synchronization features, with a wide range of back-up options and flexible scheduling. However, Tri-Backup is let down by a confusing interface and offers only limited support for optical media- like CD and DVD. Costs around £25 and a trial mode for 30 days is also available.

BOUNCEBACK PRO

BounceBack is easy to use. It is the perfect solution for home users who do not want to waste time dealing with complicated, hard to use software. It's also perfect for business users who don't want to waste IT resources deploying a large, complicated backup solution. Although we found its interface a bit clunky and confusing at times, CMS who make this product have produced some great autobackup disks in their time.

Font Problems in OSX Leopard

2008-01-14T12:10:00.001-08:00

Have you got font problems since you installed leopard? Do websites display in an odd font?

Try running the Font Book application, highlight all the fonts and then go to the menu bar and

File > Validate Fonts.

This may reveal a number of warnings both minor and serious but I would imagine mainly for for duplicate fonts I had nearly 70. Many of them seem to be fonts installed by MS Office, and may have been migrated when I upgraded or perhaps when I got my new macbook pro.

Tick and all the font boxes for your problem or duplicate fonts and then click on remove

After removing the duplicate fonts see if its made a difference?!

Fonts are something we take for granted but I think are worth knowing more about.
  "Type Idea Index: The Ultimate Designer's Tool for Choosing and Using Fonts Creatively" (Jim Krause)

Selling your mac on ebay

2008-01-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

How to sell your mac on eBay

ask questions here : http://www.macmend.com/forum

Of course first you must register your details at www.ebay.com or the ebay site in your country (for me its www.ebay.co.uk) The choose an eBay User ID and password so you’ve got a trading identity on the site. If its just mac stuff you intend to sell its a good idea to make it a mac style identity. MacSeller or Mac bargain, like mine is macmend because I run the troubleshooting site at www.macmend.com.
Once you’ve found a good name and checked its available, you complete the sign on process and confirm your registration by clicking on the link ebay emails to you. Done all that? Well now you’ll now be signed in. Click on "Sell" at the top right of of your screen, enter your debit or credit card details and click "Continue." Its definitely worth registering with PayPal,( a basic personal account will do) as you get secure payments.
Go to My eBay and click "Related Links"> PayPal. Now you are ready to begin selling your mac Click on the Sell tab, choose a relevant category and sub-category for your item, usually something like Computing>Apple/Macintosh>(your type of mac here) then click Save and Continue. Enter details of your item on the ’Create your listing’ page. Include words likely to be used by buyers searching eBay for macs such as emac, G4, imac, mac mini, iPod etc.
The next step is to add a photo. You can include one image per sale item for free, and further images for a fee. Use an image editor to crop the pic to eBay’s standard 300x400 pixels, dont let eBay automatically resize it. Note you should save it as a Jpeg or GIF, then click Add Pictures to upload your photo.
State really clearly what the items condition is and enter a detailed description in the given field.
Now proceed to the Selling Format box and enter a Starting Price for bids. You can also set a Reserve price –very useful when selling decent kit you dont want to go to a low bid.
If the reserve price option isn’t visible, click Show/Hide Options at the top of the page. Specify the item’s condition and enter a detailed description in the appropriate field. Now proceed to the Selling Format box and enter a Starting Price for bids. You can also set a Reserve price – a useful fallback if bidding is slow. If the reserve price option isn’t visible, click Show/Hide Options at the top of the page.

Of course if all this is a bit complex and you want to sell your mac in an intuitive mac way i recommend two pieces of software:  "Garage Sale (Mac)" and "iSale 4.0 Personal Pro (Mac)" (Equinux)

They do it all for you. Dont let that old mac sit in a cupboard, sell it on ebay.

NB before selling any storage media or mac including internal storage media ensure you do not leave data on which you would not want others to see....initialise your disk and zero all data or secure erase. Good luck

The Mac Vs PC thing

2008-01-09T07:04:00.000-08:00

I have found a number of interesting articles on the net about Mac use and PC use that are worth reading

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=874257&ign=1

and

http://sikanrong.com/blog_entries/view/12

but this one I have commented on:

http://openswitch.org/2008/01/08/why-i-like-my-ubuntu-box-more-than-my-imac/#comment-544

because there are some interesting points here about free software and open source software that Linux users prefer

see what you think.

Web apps - Fluid

2008-01-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

You want to know why Mac is on the rise, its because the PC wars are over, the internet is where all the action is. From Facebook to Googles version of the office applications, it doesn't matter which computer you have. So people are free to choose the computer they like the look of and like the feel of and invariably its been a mac. As a recent Open University response to why they don't use mac software, they said it didn't matter anymore as their new software was developed for the web and was not platform specific. Before users might have thought they would be limited by available software or price or compatibility. Now the latest Macs and Mac OSX can run Windows Vista and Linux as well as the Mac OS, they are good value and online and offline software is plentiful.

So here's a recommendation

Give your favorite webapps a home on your Mac OS X Leopard Desktop.
OS X Leopard Dock with an icon for Facebook.app right along normal apps like Dashboard, Mail, and TextMate.

Are you a Gmail, Facebook, Campfire or (Insert Your Favorite Webapp Here) fanatic? Do you have 20 or more browser tabs open at all times? Are you tired of some random site or Flash ad crashing your browser and causing you to lose your (say) Google Spreadsheets data in another tab?

If so, Site Specific Browsers (SSBs) provide a great solution for your webapp woes. Using Fluid, you can create SSBs to run each of your favorite webapps as a separate desktop application. Fluid gives any webapp a home on your Mac OS X desktop complete with Dock icon, standard menu bar, and logical separation from your other web browsing activity.

Download it here

Word, Excel, ...Office for the mac...get NeoOffice it costs less

2008-01-03T02:16:00.000-08:00

I often hear...I can't afford Microsoft Office, its too much, even the student version is too much. Well these days you dont have to worry, you don't have to pirate and you dont have to use microsoft.

NeoOffice is where its at

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

Try it out and tell us what you think, its better than MS bloatware.

PDF edit and alter - Freeware

2008-01-03T02:15:00.000-08:00

I wanted to try and do some more articles on mac freeware so i thought I'd start with Skim as someone was asking me about editing PDFs

Skim is a free PDF editor (adobe acrobat is the main one you would pay for) and note taking application for Mac OS X that is designed to make reading and editing PDF files much easier.

FEATURES

* Search, Scan & Zoom PDF Files
* Add Circles & Boxes
* Strike Thru & Underline Text
* Add Or Edit Notes
* Highlight Important Text
* Make Snapshots For Easy Reference
* Read In Full Screen Mode
* Give Presentations
* Hide All Notes & Highlights
* Remember Last Exported Type
* Keyboard shortcut for Export.
* Saves The File Type & Creator Code
* Reading Bar Is Shown On The Thumbnails
* New Preferences For Line Styles & Interior Colors
* New Color Swatch Toolbar Control
try it out and tell us what you think we would like to know how you got on.

http://skim-app.sourceforge.net

Keep your mac applications up to date

2008-01-03T02:12:00.001-08:00

Auto Update

AppFresh

Keeps all of your Mac applications up-to-date, automatically. Still in beta, but if you use alot of apps its the essential app.

Download Page

Are Macs more expensive than PCs

2008-01-03T02:12:00.000-08:00

For years i have heard this bandied about, that PCs were cheaper than Macs, however recent research shows the opposite.

Want to know the arguments, wonder why your business continues with PCs and their expense, especially their upkeep then read this:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/06/08/mac-vs-pc-prices

Getting Things Done

2008-01-03T02:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of GTD? GTD® is the popular shorthand for "Getting Things Done®", the groundbreaking work-life management system and book by David Allen that transforms personal overwhelm and overload into an integrated system of stress-free productivity.

iGTD is a fantastic piece of software. iGTD takes some concepts from Getting Things Done methodology and makes them easy to understand and use in your every day life. But it's definitely not limited to the GTD concept - you can really use it the way you want.

ITS FREE...and it syncs with iCal and .Mac, Quicksilver and Journler often giving integration on the press of an F key.

iGTD

Mac services - the services menu

2008-01-03T02:08:00.000-08:00

So do you ever use the services menu, or perhaps you dont know what it is anyhow.Services are a technology for Mac OS X that allow applications to communicate data easily between one another, via the 'Services' submenu in the application menu, thats the one to the right of the Apple menu, so if you are browsing this with Safari and you look at the menu bar, you will find the services menu by Clicking on the word "Safari".For most of us perhaps we dont use it because its cluttered up with stuff we have no idea what it is or what it will do, perhaps if it was simpler it would be clearer to us if there were items we might use given the chance.Along comes SERVICE SCRUBBER.With Service Scrubber, you can:• restructure the services menu• change service keyboard shortcuts• disable servicesYou will find it here:http://www.manytricks.com/servicescrubber/

Technorati

2008-01-03T02:07:00.000-08:00

There are so many competing search engines and directories now for your blog or website, technorati is always worth a try.

Technorati Profile

Compression and compressed files on mac

2008-01-03T02:06:00.000-08:00

I get a bit fed up with things I download or are sent that are zipped, as i can't see them before I unzip them. Stuffit deluxe allows you some of this but its expensive then I found

ZIPEG

This is an app that allows the creation of complex zip files but more especially a preview before the the decompression of files so you can decompress the bits you want where you want.

If your mac is stolen

2008-01-03T02:05:00.000-08:00

This is a superb article for a script that deletes data from your mac, by remote control, if your mac gets stolen

You do have to trust in terminal and a bit of PERL but it looks a treat.

find the article HERE

The Apple Remote- Whats it for

2008-01-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

So the apple remote its great fro getting itunes to gether from your armchair if not at your mac, but other than that whats it for?

These apps are all FREE and extend the use and abilities of your apple remote:

1. iRed Lite - your Apple Remote for power users...
http://www.filewell.com/iRedLite/

2. iTheater - this is like front row, but opensource
http://www.itheaterproject.com/

3. iAlertU - great...it uses the sudden motion sensor in your laptop to be a macbook burglar alarm.
http://tinyurl.com/ysk7y3

4. Aurora - turns your mac into an alarm clock with remote support.
http://metaquark.de/aurora/

5. Pandora Boy - Pandora.com with apple remote support
http://www.frozensilicon.net/

There are more and more uses and expansions for that little remote that comes with a new mac, go search em out and tell us about them.

Mac software

2008-01-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Books for mac users

2008-01-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

Like stickies but better for notes - sidenote

2008-01-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

Sidenote ...go on try it...its what stickes could have been if someone had more proaction and forethought

Check it out here

http://www.chatelp.org/?page_id=5

Sidenote tries to catch the “Stickies” spirit but in the form of a multi-document drawer that will hide in the corner of your screen (left or right). You can use it to take all your daily notes, include images and easily modify text color and font. Sidenote will automatically expand so that you will be able to drag into it any picture, text clipping or pdf file from the finder or your favorite application. Sporting notes auto-saving, you’ll never have to save your notes. Sidenote will handle that for you. You can also print them or export them to rtf.