Moodszine

I recently received an e-mail from someone who seemed rather frustrated with his new MacBook. He wasn’t happy because he couldn’t right click and he couldn’t open links and applications by tapping the track pad.

He’d been a Windows user for some time and he wanted the track pad on his MacBook to be the same as his Toshiba laptop running Windows Vista.

As standard, the track pad on a MacBook behaves slightly differently than a Windows Laptop. Where a windows laptop has two buttons on the track pad a MacBook only has one. The standard way of right clicking on a MacBook is to hold down the control key and press the track pad button. To open applications and links as standard you have to press the track pad button.

However, this can be changed very easily by checking two boxes.

1. Open the system ‘preferences‘ and click the ‘keyboard & mouse’ icon.
   
2. Click the ‘trackpad’ tab.
   
3. Put a check mark (tick) in the box next to ‘clicking’ and next to ‘tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click’.
   
4. If you’re like me and you use a mouse on your MacBook Pro then you could put a check next to the box titled ‘ignore trackpad when mouse is present’. This just disables the trackpad when you plug in a mouse.

When you’ve applied the above changes you’ll be able to right click on your MacBook by tapping two fingers on the trackpad. Or if you prefer, you can still hold down the control key and press the trackpad button, both will work fine.

You’ll also be able to open applications and links by tapping the trackpad with one finger — just like you would on a Windows laptop.

I don’t know if you need me to tell you this but I’ll write it anyway. For vertical scrolling on a MacBook you just move two fingers up and down on the trackpad. For horizontal scrolling you move two fingers left and right on the trackpad.

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Tagged with: Leopard, Mac, OS X

Do you find it annoying when you’re working on a document in iWork pages and the damn thing always tries to correct your spellings into American English? I guess it’s fine if you’re an American but if you’re trying to write your document in British English then it’s very annoying.

To fix this problem you can do one of two things — that I know of –, but I’d recommend the first if you want your default setting to be British English.

1. Go to ‘preferences’ and click the ‘international’ icon.
   
2. The language at the top of the list (left hand side) is the default language for the system. In my case it just says English.
   
3. Click the ‘edit list…’ button and a drop down window appears with a large list of optional languages. The ones with a check mark (tick) next to them are already in the main list.
4. Scroll down the window until you find ‘British English’ and put a check mark (tick) into the box next to that item and click ‘ok’ at the bottom of that window.
   
5. Now the language I just selected appears at the top of the main list. As you can see, my new default language setting is now British English.
   
6. The changes won’t become effective until the next time you log in. For the changes to work immediately you must log out of your current session and log back in.
7. Now the default language for iWork will be set to British English. To test that it worked correctly type ‘colour’ and ‘color’ into a new pages document. If ‘color’ is underlined in red then it worked. My sources tell me that even when you’ve set your default language to British English, pages still has a tendency to americanise certain words.

While you still have the ‘international’ window open you may wish to click the ‘formats’ tab at the top of the screen and check that your region setting is for United Kingdom. This may sound a little crazy but if you’re setting your default language to British English then I assume you are British and in the United Kingdom.

Here’s another way to spell check iWork Pages documents in British English.

1. Click the ‘inspector’ icon at the top of the pages document.
   
2. When the ‘inspector’ window opens click the ‘T’ (for text) tab at the top.
   
3. Once you have the text inspector open click the tab that says ‘more’.
   
4. At the bottom of that window is the language section and a drop down menu. Highlight the text you want to check in the document and from the drop down menu under the language section choose the language you wish to use.
   

In my first example we set the default language to British English, iWork will always use British English as the default language now unless I change it.

In my second example we just used British English to spell check a document, this method won’t make British English the default language for iWork. To set your default language you’ll have to follow the steps in my first example.

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Tagged with: Leopard, Mac, OS X

Once you’ve performed a clean installation of Leopard on your Mac there may be additional software that you wish to install.

One program I use quite often on the Mac is iMovie 08; this isn’t installed by default when you perform a clean installation. To re-install iMovie follow the instructions below.

1. Insert the first Leopard DVD and wait a few seconds for the window to open.
2. Once the window has opened there will be four choices to select from. Double click option 2 ‘install bundled software only’.
   
3. On the window that opens click ‘continue’ at the bottom.
   
4. You’ll be brought to the license agreement, click ‘continue’ and when the drop down box appears click ‘agree’ to accept the license agreement.
   
5. Now we are on the ‘installation type’ screen, at the bottom of the screen click the ‘customize’ button.
   
6. Click the small arrow next to ‘bundled applications’ to collapse the menu. As you can see, all the programs in the list are selected, click the small blue minus symbol at the top of the tree and it changes into a check mark (tick), now click it again to deselect all the programs in the list.
   
7. Now that all the programs are deselected, put a check mark (tick) into the box for iMovie and take the check mark (tick) out of the box for Aperture Trial (for some reason when you select iMovie it automatically selects Aperture trial, we don’t need that because it will already be installed on the system). Click ‘install’ at the bottom of the window and a drop down box appears at the top of the screen informing you that the software you are installing requires additional discs. This just means that you’ll be required to insert the second Leopard DVD. Click ‘continue installation’ to proceed and you’ll be prompted for your password.
   
8. As soon as you input your password and proceed with the install the first Leopard DVD will be ejected and you’ll be prompted to insert the second DVD. Insert the second DVD and the installation will continue automatically.
9. Another window will appear with an icon in the centre titled ‘installing Mac OS X and applications’ and there will be a blue progress bar in the installation window showing how much time is remaining.
10. Once the install has completed (about 2 minutes) the install screen will show a message saying ‘install succeeded’. Click ‘close’ at the bottom of the window.
    

Aside from installing iMovie there may be other additional software you wish to install, such as certain printer drivers and extra language packs. For those packages do the following.

1. Insert the first Leopard DVD and wait for the window to open.
2. Double click option 3 ‘optional installs’ from the four choices.
   
3. A smaller window will open with two icons, click the first icon ‘optional installs.mpkg’
4. On the window that opens up click ‘continue’ at the bottom.
   
5. We are presented with the license agreement, click ‘continue’ at the bottom and when the drop down box appears click ‘agree’ to accept the license agreement.
   
6. Now we are on the ‘installation type’ window we have a list of five additional packages we can install. You’ll also notice 3 items in the list are collapsible, this is indicated by the small triangle pointing right, next to the item in the list. To collapse the list for those particular items just click the triangle. In this small demonstration I’m going to install iPod support.
7. Select the package(s) you wish to install by putting a check mark (tick) in the box next to that item and click ‘continue’ at the bottom of the window.
   
8. The next screen just tells you where the item will be installed and how much disc space it will use up. Click ‘install’ at the bottom of the screen to proceed and you’ll be prompted for your password.
   
9. Then the installation runs showing you a blue progress bar and the time remaining.
10. Once the install has finished the screen will display a message saying ‘install succeeded’, click ‘close’ at the bottom of the window.

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Tagged with: Leopard, Mac, OS X

A couple of months back I received an e-mail asking me how to do a clean installation of Mac OS X, Leopard. Yeah, I get asked some odd questions on times but if I can answer them I will.

Recently I seem to have accumulated a lot of junk on my MacBook Pro, so yesterday I decided to do a clean install of Leopard on my Mac. Installing Leopard on your Mac is really easy and below you’ll find the instructions and the different stages throughout the install.

1. Make sure your Mac is turned on and if you’re using a MacBook make sure the power adapter is connected to the machine and it’s turned on. Also make sure that you have both the Leopard installation DVDs.
2. Insert the first Leopard installation DVD and restart the machine.
3. Hold down the ‘C’ key until you see the apple logo appear on the screen (holding down the ‘C’ key makes the machine boot from the DVD drive). The apple logo screen will be there for some time and you’ll hear activity from the DVD drive, this is normal and can last a minute or more.
4. The first screen you’ll see once the apple logo disappears asks you to input your main language, in my case that’s English and it’s at the top of the list. Select your language and click the next button at the bottom of the window (a blue circle with an arrow pointing right).
5. The next screen is a welcome screen informing us that if we want to install the additional applications that came with the computer we should click continue. Click ‘continue’ and proceed to the next screen.
6. We are now presented with a license agreement, to proceed we have to click agree. Go ahead and click ‘Agree’.
7. This screen is titled ‘select a destination’. Now we are asked where we want to install Mac OS X. In my case there’s only one destination showing up (Macintosh HD), I only have one hard drive and I erased all my partitions a few weeks back.

   Select the drive where you want to install Mac OS X by clicking it. Once clicked the selected drive/destination becomes circled in gray. At this point I’m unable to click continue because it’s informing me that I need to change my installation settings. To change the installation settings click ‘options’.

8. A drop down box appears with three options. The first option is ‘upgrade Mac OS X’, this isn’t an available option for me because I’m already using the latest version of OS X.

   The second option is ‘archive and install’. This option saves your files and folders, performs a clean installation of Mac OS X and imports your old data into a folder named ‘previous system’. You can also select ‘preserve users and network settings’, this option will import existing user accounts, their home folders, and your network settings into the new system.

   The third option is ‘erase and install’. This option completely erases the destination volume and then installs a new copy of Mac OS X. Because we want to do a clean install this is the option we want. Under this option we are given a choice of how to format the disk. Because this is going to be a boot volume, make sure ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’ is selected and click ‘ok’.

9. After making my selection in the installation settings I’m taken back to the ‘select a destination’ screen. The continue button at the bottom of the window is now clickable. Click ‘continue’ and proceed to the next screen.
10. This screen is titled ‘install summary’. This is just highlighting where Mac OS X will be installed. To begin installing Mac OS X click the ‘install’ button.
11. After clicking ‘install’ a drop down box appears informing you that the software you are installing requires additional installation discs. This is just asking you to make sure that you have the second Mac OS X installation DVD (Disc 2). I’m assuming you have the second DVD so click the ‘continue installation’ button.
12. You’ll be shown a screen titled ‘installing’. A drop down box will appear titled ‘checking installation DVD’. You can skip this option but if this is your first clean install using your Leopard installation DVDs I would highly recommend you allow this process to fully run.
13. After the disc check the installation process begins. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see a blue progress bar and after a minute or two the time remaining will be displayed.

    At first, the remaining time can be calculated at about 1hr 40 minutes, it really doesn’t take that long and you’ll soon notice how that time jumps down to 56 minutes, then 26 minutes et cetera. I’d estimate it takes about 30-40 minutes once the initial installation process begins before you’re asked to insert disc 2.

14. A screen appears titled ‘finished installing first disc’. You’re asked to have the second disc to hand and the machine reboots after 30 seconds.
15. Once the machine has booted back up the installation screen appears once again. The first DVD is ejected and a drop down box appears asking you to insert ‘Mac OS X install disc 2’.
16. After inserting disc 2 the installation continues automatically. The time remaining is then estimated at around 20 minutes; again this time jumps down fairly fast to 12 minutes in no time.
17. Once the installation has completed click ‘continue’ at the bottom of the window to proceed.
18. The second DVD ejects automatically and the short Leopard introduction video runs.
19. Now you’re asked to fill in the basic information in order to set up your Mac — just like you did when you first turned the machine on after getting it out of the box.
20. After following all the onscreen instructions for setting up your Mac I highly recommend you do an update right away. No doubt there will be lots of software that needs downloading and many of the updates available are for security purposes. Once you’ve downloaded all the necessary updates/patches you can then start the tedious job of setting everything up just how you want it.

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Tagged with: Leopard, Mac, OS X

This afternoon we were privileged enough to watch a show by the red arrows directly over our house. We must have been directly under one of their flight paths or something but it was absolutely awesome.

The pilots who fly those planes must be so highly trained because they do some truly unbelievable manoeuvres. At times they were so low we could see directly in the cockpits when they banked the aircraft. At one point they were so low we though they were going to knock our chimney pot off…

I loved the fact that one minute they’re in the clouds and the next they’re flying really low over our house — the G-force must be unbelievable. One of the planes kept doing a steep decent directly towards our garden and we could see the light on the front of the aircraft coming towards us and getting closer and then it levelled out.

I can’t say anymore other than…WOW!

The last time I watched a display by the red arrows I was 10 years old. My brother, my mum, and my gran all went to Llandudno on a day out to see the display — my gran mother loved the red arrows.

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Tagged with: Fantastic, Madness, Wales

I know it’s been a while since I posted here but you’ll have to bear with me for the moment. I’m making the most of the weather we’re having in the U.K. — which isn’t that good considering its summer. When the weather starts to break and the nights start closing in I’ll resume posting as normal.

I don’t go out of my way to kill innocent creatures but the damn wasps are getting on my nerves. For the last month we’ve killed about 10 wasps a day coming into our kitchen, I’m sure there’s a nest nearby. Facing our kitchen door is a hedge and the side of next doors extension; I’ve seen quite a lot of wasp activity under the guttering on their extension.

If we don’t kill the little tykes they go out of their way to sting us and our dogs. I’ve been finding dead wasps in the kitchen sink and on the lounge carpet.

I was searching online for D.I.Y. wasp traps and based on some of the ideas I came across I made my own trap. It’s nothing spectacular but below is a few pictures:

For the bait I’m using some homemade lemon and lime marmalade mixed with a little water. So far I haven’t caught any wasps but it’s still early days, the trap has only been out for about three or four hours. If anyone has any good recommendations for wasp bait then please drop me a line or leave a comment.

During the spring wasps like protein because they’re building nests, however, during the summer they tend to go for sugary foods. I’m willing to experiment with different bait in order to trap the evil little buggers.

One of our dogs is petrified of wasps due to something that happened about 12 years ago. My brother and I were walking our dog in the woods and the dog disturbed a wasp nest and got stung multiple times. I had to pick the dog up and run to my mum’s place of work to get the car and drive him to the vet; in the process I was stung a few times myself.

Talking of sugary foods, yesterday I made a homemade carrot cake using one of my grandmother’s old recipes. I’m sure it will taste good but I haven’t tried it yet. I don’t have a very sweet tooth to be honest, but occasionally I get a craving for something sweet — maybe I will use some of that as wasp bait instead.

I love this time of year because it’s when all our vegetables are ready to eat. In our garden we’re growing tomatoes, green beans, broad beans, beetroot, parsnips, salad onions, cooking onions, cooking apples, and lots of herbs. In the greenhouse we have more tomatoes and green bell peppers growing.

Yesterday I also made green tomato chutney. While the tomatoes in the green house ripen fairly quickly, the ones in the garden are still green and nowhere near to ripe. I made eight jars of the chutney — the jars varying in size — , but looking at the rest of the crop of green tomatoes I think I’ll be making much more of the stuff. I think I will make enough to last through winter and into next spring.

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Tagged with: British Cooking, Chutney, Evil, Viciousness