Ask TUAW: middle button paste, screen lock, previewing pictures, Mac 101 questions

Last week happened to be the start of our Mac 101 series and we had a lot of questions posted in the comments to the inaugural post. So this week in Ask TUAW, in addition to our normal questions, I've decided that to tackle some of those questions as well. I want to emphasize that new Mac users and Switchers should feel very welcome to post questions for Ask TUAW. We're happy to take questions from all levels. As always, please submit your questions by commenting to this post or using our tip form. This week we'll be addressing questions about pasting with the middle mouse button a la X11, previewing pictures in the Finder, locking the screen to preclude mischief, and much more. Let's get to it.

David asks

Coming from a unix (X11) world the one thing i miss more than any other is middle click paste. is there anything that does this on a OSX?

To my knowledge there isn't a built-in way to do this, but it's easily accomplished with third-party software. If you have a Logitech mouse, for instance, you can use the Logitech Control Center Preference Pane to do. My MX1000 doesn't have a middle button, but click-wheel has a button so I've simply set that to keystroke: ⌘V.

I believe that Microsoft's IntelliPoint will allow you to do something similar with a Microsoft mouse. You should first check here at VersionTracker to see if your specific mouse manufacturer offers a Mac-specific that will let you do this. If not, there are a couple of third-part USB mouse drivers that will let you do this: SteerMouse and USB Overdrive, both of which are $20. SteerMouse seems to be in much more active development, so if I were going with a third party driver I'd probably choose that one, though I have used neither of these products.

Goobimama asks

I recently installed 2GB of RAM in my iMac but I bought the modules from different dealers at different times. How do I know if the RAM is running in dual channel or not?

From my research (and as well as this Apple support doc) there is no easy way to determine this in OS X. I hate to say this, but I found a Windows utility that will apparently tell you if you happen to have Boot Camp installed and would like to boot into Windows for this test. That said, differing vendors should not be a problem if the SODIMMs are exactly the same size and speed (including the same number of chips on each module). You should be able to visually inspect them to determine this.

mkernan asks

Is there any way that I can enable a keyboard lock on my computer? Apple suggests setting a password on my screensaver and having a hot corner activate a screensaver, but then the problem is that every time I return from a screensaver, I have to authenticate myself. I live in a dorm with 250 guys who are fans of pranking so I'm just thinking of something like a quick keystroke (maybe in Quicksilver?) or something that I can hit whenever I leave Macky in the study area.

Fortunately, Macworld has the solution to your problem. Just launch the Keychain Access.app (/Applications/Utilities), go to the preferences and in the General tab, choose "Show Status in Menu Bar." That will then give you a little lock in the menu bar and when you select "Lock Screen" it will start your Screen Saver, and require a password to unlock. The great thing is that normal Screen Saver operation will not activate the password protection.

Jordan asks

Lets say I'm opening several pictures at a time in preview and i want to be able to view them all at once. Instead of highlighting them all and opening them i open them individually but every time i open one, preview becomes the active application. Is there any way to open files one at a time from the finder and keep the finder the active application?

The short answer is: no. Basically, by definition the foremost application has to be the active one, so if you're using Preview to open the files then it must become the active application. However, there are some ways to do something like what I suspect you want, i.e. previewing the image files in the Finder. If you have an older PPC Mac you'll love QuickImageCM, which has not been updated, alas, since 2004. It's probably the single thing I miss most having gone all Intel. If you are on a Mactel you may find some comfort in PicturePopPro or MilkyWay, though I don't think either of them is as quick and convenient as QuickImageCM.

Now let's quickly look at some of those Mac 101 questions:

Jaime asks

Hope this qualifies - How do I get rich text to format consistently in mail, primarily so that it looks good on my client's windows systems. I've seen a few mails I've sent out to windows user clients and while they looked fine on my screen they look all over the place in outlook/outlook express. All I want is to type in a consistent serif font (Ariel 12pt). I'd use plain text but inserting links takes longer. I've tried this over and over and I'm still none the wiser.

The solution to your problem is likely found in this post from macOSXhints.

ji3000 asks

I'm about to switch and just wonder if (cheaper) software bought in the US will work on a UK iMac ?

Yes. :)

Karl asks

How about how to create ISO images from CDs?

One question: are you actually sure you want to create an ISO. The standard disc image format on the Mac is DMG. Creating a DMG is super easy with the Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities). Just mount the CD, select it in Disc Utility, then click on "New Image"

Select where you want to save it and this will create a DMG. If you really want an ISO, it's pretty easy to use the Disk Utility to convert the DMG to an ISO. You'll find complete instructions here. If you happen to be command line savvy, you can do it very easily as described here.

All right, that'll do it for this week. Keep those questions coming!

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