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Tips and Tricks Archive - April 2004
Tip
1
Mac OS X
Keyboard Shortcuts
Apple provides a list of all
known keyboard shortcuts
in Mac OS X at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459
Tip
2
Tips for Archiving on CD-Rs
www.MacInTouch.com has
an ongoing discussion of
how to ensure the longterm
reliability of your
recorded CDs (CD-Rs).
Many readers agree that
name brand makes a difference.
The best archival
brands we know of are
Verbatim, Maxell, TDK,
Mitsui, and Taiyo Yuden.
Verbatim’s DataLifePlus
CD-R media is particularly
worthy of trust: it has a
100-year life expectancy,
which has been confirmed
by accelerated aging tests.
One source of good advice
is The 7 Fatal Mistakes
People Make When Burning
Data, Music or Photos
to CDs, a free, 91-page
white paper in PDF format,
available at www.cdsleeves.com/7fatalmistakes.html.
Some highlights:
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Sunlight can ruin a CD-R in as little as 2 hours; UV
light damages the dye. |
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Sharpie markers may ruin a CD over time. Use TDK’s
CD Mark marker instead ($5 for four). |
| • |
Paper labels are not proven to last, the adhesives
MAY eat into the CD over time, may partially come off,
and may jam slot-loading CD drives. |
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The TOP of a CD is more vulnerable to scratches than
the bottom. |
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Hard cardboard mailers provide the best protection
for a CD, but cost more to mail. More tips area available
at www.itl.nist.gov |
More info: many “brands”
are simply CDs bought
from a variety of manufacturers,
then “branded”
with the name of the company
you buy them from.
The least expensive discs
are most certainly this
way. If you want to check
your CDs to see if they are
beginning to fail, try using
the free CDR Scanner utility,
available at
www.SacraSoft.com and
to our subscribers in our
February Software Closet.
Tip 3
About Epson
Inkjet Cartridges
Epson’s inkjet cartridges
report that they’re “empty”
and refuse to print
even though they still have
some ink left in them. One
reason is that unlike HP
inkjet cartridges, which include
a fresh print head,
Epson printers’ print
heads are permanently installed
in the printer. So,
while this makes the cartridges
less expensive (and
easier to clone), it means
that if the printer’s head
clogs, you’ve got a problem
on your hands. So,
they make sure that you
never use the final bit of
ink in the cartridge (just
like how you should never
run your car’s gas tank
down to the end... all the
sediment and gunk goes
into your fuel line).
Tip 4
Editing Small Type
in FreeHand
When editing small or reversed
type in FreeHand,
you can invoke the Text
Editor by holding down
the Option key as you
double-click the Pointer
tool on the page. (The Text
Editor lets you edit type in
a window similar to a
word processor.) You can
also invoke the Text Editor
when you create a text
block by holding down the
Option key as you click the
Text tool on the page.
Tip 5
Illustrator CS
Text Updating Tip
Illustrator CS has a completely
new text engine
(the same one that’s in In-
Design CS), so when you
open legacy Illustrator
documents, it asks you if
you want to convert your
text using the new engine.
If you click Update, much
of your text will rewrap,
but if you click OK, you
won’t be able to edit your
text — however, you can
convert one text block in
the document at a time by selecting the block of type
(use the direct-select tool),
and then choosing Type>
Legacy Text> Update Selected
Legacy Text. Or,
you can be even more
clever by using the Type
tool, clicking on the text,
then choosing Copy Text
Object from the dialog
that appears. This will put
an editable copy of the
text on top of the original
text, which changes to
gray. This way you can see
how the new text engine
has affected your text.
PC Graphics Report
Tip 6
Clean Up Imported
Text in InDesign
InDesign CS has a not-soobvious
feature that really
helps when importing
text. Click the Show Import
Options button in
the Place dialog box, and
choose a text file to Place.
The resulting Text Import
Options dialog lets you
choose to “Remove Extra
Carriage Returns”, either
at the end of every line or
between paragraphs, or
both. It also lets you replace
multiple spaces with
a Tab character.
Tip 7
Preview How
Colors Will Print
in QuarkXPress
In QuarkXPress 6, you can
see an on-screen simulation
of how your colors
will look when printed to
different devices. Choose
Preferences> Quark CMS
and (at least temporarily)
enable the Color Management
Active checkbox.
Choose profiles for your
display, composite output
device and color separation
(press) output. Then, you
can choose from the bottom
popup menu named
Display Simulation:
“Monitor Color Space”,
“Composite Output Color
Space” or “Separation
Output Color Space”.
When you close Preferences,
your document will
display its colors as they
will look on the device you
chose in the Display Simulation:
popup menu.
Chris Murphy www.colorremedies.com
Tip
8
Searching the System Folder
Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) doesn’t include its System folder when you use
its “Find” function. If you think the file you want is inside the
System folder, you must choose Specific Places in the Find window and then
drag it into the Find window to add it to
the Specific Places to be searched.
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