Tip 1
How to Avoid Problems
Updating Mac OS X
Most of Apple’s system
and security updates work
as advertised and don’t
cause problems, but it’s a
good idea to be prepared
in case something does go
wrong. Here’s the procedure
we follow:
Wait a few days before
downloading the update in
case there are any widespread
problems. (check
www.macfixit.com for reports)
Back up anything you
can’t afford to lose.
If your system has been
performing oddly or
crashing, use Alsoft’s
DiskWarrior to repair directory
problems.
Disconnect any external
disk drives, including
iPods, and disconnect
from all servers and iDisks.
Repair permissions using
Disk Utility (in Applications/
Utilities/Disk Utility).
Run Software Update (Apple
Menu> Software Update).
Repair permissions again.
Jeff Gamet
www.alsoft.com
Tip
2
How To Archive
Huge Files
You’ve made a movie. The
files are enormous. How
do you archive them? One
easy way is to use the feature
in Allume’s StuffIt
Deluxe ($80) to segment
any file into smaller
chunks, perhaps DVDsized
or CD-sized. Another
tool for this is ZipIt ($20),
available at www.maczipit.
com. Both these formats
are likely to be supported
for a long, long time.
www.allume.com
Tip 3
Test Your
Internet Speed
ZDNet will test your Internet
connection speed and
compare it to theoretical
standards for modem, ISDN,
DSL and cable connections.
Each time you
run the test, the speed
varies, so run it several
times and take an average.
http://webservices.cnet.com/
zdnet/bandwidth/
Tip 4
Save Illustrator
Appearances
In Illustrator, you can drag
one object’s fill and stroke
to another object. Select
the first object and look in
the Appearance palette.
Click and drag the thumbnail
that appears to the left
of the object’s name directly
onto the second object.
The first object’s appearance
will then be applied to
the second object.
If you create an Appearance
that you really like,
drag it from the Appearances
palette into the Styles
palette and give it a name.
Then, you can drag that
Appearance from the Styles
palette onto other objects.
Tip 5
Efficient Zooming
in InDesign
In InDesign, pressing Command-
plus increases the
zoom level, while pressing
Command-minus decreases
the zoom level. If an
item is selected first, InDesign
centers that item when
it zooms. Here’s a clever
technique: zoom into a selected
item by pressing
Command-plus repeatedly,
then press Option-Com-mand-plus one time to
zoom back out to your
original zoom percentage.
Tip 6
Print Sizes vs. Pixel Count
These are the standard photo print sizes you can make
from various digital camera megapixel counts:
