Burning Pics to a Disc; Toast to the Rescue

Q: I returned from a trip with lots of photos I’d like to share in slideshow form. But I really don’t want to spend time fooling around creating a slideshow. What’s the quickest way to create a slideshow without a lot of editing or a learning curve?

A: If you have the time, iPhoto is the best choice. It does require a small learning curve, but its results are most impressive. If you would like to learn how, go here:

http://www.apple.com/support/ilife/tutorials/iphoto/ip4-1.html

However it sounds to me like you want a quick drag and drop, quickie method.

You’re best bet is the application Roxio’s Toast. Toast has been the preferred CD/DVD app for many years. It has a little known feature called “Photo Disc”.

First, make a new folder with all the pics you want in your slideshow. Make sure the pics are NOT nested in other folders. Review all the pics and confirm they are the correct orientation, that is, rotated right side up. (Use Apple’s Preview application to correct the orientation.)

Open Toast 9 or later. 

To make a Photo disc:

1. At the left side of the Toast window, click Data and choose Photo Disc.

2. Choose optional disc settings.

3. Add pictures to the disc by dragging and dropping them into the Content Area from your hard disk or the Photos section of the Media Browser.

4. Insert a blank, recordable CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc.

Note: The Media Browser provides immediate access to photos in your iPhoto and Aperture libraries.

5. Click the red Record button, choose a recorder from the list, and configure recording options, such as Number of Copies.

5. Click Record to continue.

Toast displays a progress bar and status information as it records your disc.

To play back your images as a slideshow (using Mac OS X v10.4 or higher):

1. Insert your Photo disc into a Macintosh computer.

The disc folder opens.

2. Double-click the Slideshow icon to begin the slideshow.

Always Back Up and have your Mac maintained,

Steve

A Hard Drive Divided; Partitioning

Q: Steve, I’m having a new hard drive installed in my MacBook Pro. Since it’s a larger drive, a friend said I should partition the drive into two volumes. One volume would be for my normal system, applications and documents and another volume for a spare system to boot from should I have problems with my main volume. Someone else I consulted thought that was a bad idea but couldn’t explain why, at least in a way that made sense to me...

Can you shed some light on this?

A: In my opinion, taking a new drive and partitioning it is a bad idea. 

For those who don’t know what a partition is, it’s when you take a new drive (or wipe out a hard drive and restore it “data free” to its original state), then cut it up into virtual pieces. For example, you buy a 500Mb hard drive. Most of the time it’s partitioned as one drive; 500Mb. But you could cut it up in to two or more drives, a 250Mb partition, a 125Mb partition and a 125Mb partition. All three parts equal 500Mb. You would see 3 Hard drives on your desktop although you only have one hard drive inside your machine. You could do this, but why?

Note: Many PC’s are sold this way with a hidden “D”, “E” or “F” drive. It’s called a “recovery partition”, but note that a lot of computers today are sold with a smaller partition that has the operating system recovery on it.  Often this is in place of providing the recovery on another media like CD or DVD.  Often you are given the opportunity to make at least one copy of that media on CD or DVD as well.  These recovery partitions sometime show as another drive, or are sometimes hidden, and are usually four to eight gigabytes in size.

In my view, making another partition is another potential problem that can go wrong. Backing up to the same drive also is not a good idea. If the drive dies, then all the partitions are gone. You lose everything. Having a divided drive now requires double the maintenance and double the risk something could go wrong. Also you won’t have the full size of the drive you’ve bought.

So unless you’ve got a unique reason to partition a drive, I say “no”.

When Your Laptop Gets Soaked!

When Your Laptop Gets Soaked!

Turn it off. If need be, do a hard shutdown.

Blot up excess liquid with a soft cloth. Don't use a wiping motion, that just pushes the liquid around.

Remove any cables, external drives, removable bays and external Network Cards.

Blot up the liquid that may have gotten on the removable media.

Do not take apart the casing. This can void your warranty and you could damage internal components.

Tilt the laptop from side to side to allow the liquid to drain out. Do this gently and do not shake the laptop.

Place upside down so that any excess liquid that you couldn't reach will drain out.

Use a blow dryer if you have one and set it on the coolest setting. Carefully dry the laptop, paying attention to the keyboard and the parts you removed. Keep the blow dryer moving over all parts.

The minimum recommended drying time is one hour but it leaving the laptop to dry for at least 24 hours is preferred.

Once your laptop has had time to dry, reattach the removable components and start up the laptop. If it starts up with no problems, then run some programs and try using the external media.

If the laptop does not start up or there are other problems, it is time to take your laptop to a certified repair service. If your laptop is still under Warranty - follow those procedures.

Tips:

Water is the easiest liquid to clean up on a laptop. It is a case of moving quickly to ensure water doesn’t get into the internal casing.  Other liquids, especially those that are sugar based will makes things sticky and is harder to clean up. Use a slightly damp warm cloth to clean up sugar based liquids.

What You Need:

Clean soft cloth, Blow dryer

Time - to let the laptop dry out.

Always Back Up and have your Mac maintained,

Steve

Computer Disaster: Spills

Spills

If you have kids, you're worried about spills. If it happens, immediately turn off your computer, disconnect the keyboard, and flip it over. While the keyboard is upside down, blot the top with a paper towel, blow compressed air between the keys and leave it to air dry overnight. For laptops, liquid can easily penetrate the hard drive so turn the computer over immediately and then leave it to air dry overnight.

Laptop spills need more attention because liquid can easily penetrate the keyboard and damage internal parts. For laptop spills, immediately turn off the computer and remove any external power source and other items plugged into it. Turn the laptop over, remove the battery, and then bring it to your nearest repair center to check for internal damage. Simply blowing compressed air into the keyboard and letting your computer air dry upside down overnight aren't enough because liquids can sit inside a laptop for days.

For all spills, be aware that anything other than plain water may cause severe damage, and never attempt to dry a keyboard or laptop in a microwave or conventional oven.

Dirty Apple Keyboards

Q: My keyboard is filthy from dust, airborne particles and fingerprints from over the years. Is there anyway to clean it and not buy a new one? It’s pretty dirty...

A: Actually there is. The best bet is to get a can of compressed air and turn the keyboard upside down (obviously not attached to the mac) and blow in between the keys with the compressed air. You might want to do this outside or over a sink as lots of “stuff” comes out.

(Compressed air can be purchased at camera stores or bigger department stores in the electronics section. Best Buy and larger computer stores should sell them too.)

Next, take a cotton swab and dip it in rubbing alcohol. It should be damp, but not wet. Run the cotton swab around the outside of the keys. Rub the tops of the keys. If you have a laptop, follow the same procedure but take extra care with your machine. Do this monthly.

Note: I thought I was the only one to try this but several times I’ve put different Apple keyboards in the dishwasher and I just read it was suggested in a copy of Mac World. So if your keyboard is beyond gunky and sticky, go ahead, put it in the top rack of the dishwasher. Set the washer to rinse only with NO soap. Afterwards let it drain with keys facing down. It could take days to dry but I’ve saved a couple keyboards from spills and just plain wear this way...

How to Cut Microsoft Office Loose and Never Miss it! Option 4

Option Number 4: TextEdit

Ignoring the power and convenience of TextEdit would be a big mistake. TextEdit is a highly versatile word processor, including tools to format and layout your page, edit and stylize text, check spelling, create tables and lists, import graphics, work with HTML, and even add music and movie files. TextEdit is a Jack-of-all-trades app that few people use enough.

 It’s a distilled version of Word without all the bells and whistles that most people don’t even use anyway... 

TextEdit used to be called SimpleText in the OS 9 days.  It loads instantly and of course TextEdit is free on every Mac. 

Pros: Free, loads very fast, included on every Mac; Cons: Slightly under-featured

How to Cut Microsoft Office Loose and Never Miss it! Option 3

Option Number 3: OpenOffice

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. 

It is basically Office created for free on Mac or PC with 100% compatibility by a team of programmers sick of Microsoft. Pros: Free, powerful, for PC and Mac new and old; Cons: None