This time in Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about backing up a Boot Camp partition, using OS X with other languages besides English, syncing an iPhone to a work Outlook account, customizing input devices and much more.

As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!

Eric asks

I have a MacBook with a Windows/Boot Camp/Parallels partition. Currently, I use Retrospect to back-up the two partitions to an external drive. But, I'm interested in others ways I might back-up: I'm considering using Time Machine (and possibly getting Time Capsule), but I can't figure out if this backs up my Windows partition or not. And what about SuperDuper? What are my options?

There is an application we posted on a while back that will let you back up your Boot Camp partition called WinClone (donations requested). But if what you're doing now with Retrospect works, I would just stick with it. Neither SuperDuper! or Time Machine will back up the Boot Camp partition.

Alex asks

I've been a mac user for about a year now, and i just wanted to know what the best .rar application there is at the moment, and what is the most commonly used? I am using BetterZip at the moment.

Well I can't say that I've done some kind of exhaustive test, but I use The Unarchiver because I like as little distraction as possible and it integrates beautifully with the Finder. However, more generally to answer a question like this I would go to MacUpdate, search for "RAR" and look at the star ratings together with the user reviews. Not coincidentally you'll see The Uncarchiver has a 5 star review, but there are others as well.

Maxintech asks

My father writes in japanese and spanish (his natural language) in his old PC. The next month, I will give him his first Mac. Is there any kind of tutorial for using japanese writing in a Mac with a US-keyboard layout and the operating system in spanish?

Although I've never had need to do something like this before the steps to do it are relatively straightforward:

1) To get the OS in Spanish you need to go to the International Preference Pane and in the Language tab add the appropriate Spanish version by click on the "Edit List..." button. Then drag that to the top of the list. That will change the language of the menus, dialogs, etc. the next time you log in.

2) To write in Japanese you need to change the input method. Also in the International Preference Pane go to the Input Menu Tab. Next select the appropriate Input Methods and keyboard selections (presumably at the very least Japanese and Spanish). You'll also want to make sure you have the "Show input menu in menu bar" selected so that he can easily switch back and forth by selecting the appropriate method. I found a very useful site for Japanese for Your Mac which also links to Apple's Language Kit Manuals including a couple for Japanese. These would be the obvious first place to go to learn how to input Japanese on the Mac.

AlphaDeltaVIII

I remember seeing awhile back on here about a script that removed the pesky ._ and .Trash hidden files when they are copied to an external drive. Does anyone know where I can find something to do this?

I don't know about a script to do this, but the handy Preference Pane application BlueHarvest ($12.95) will basically do this.

drunkenoaf asks

Is there any way of Synching Outlook calendars on my work PC running XP to my iPhone that's tied to my copy of iTunes on my beloved mac at home? Especially if IT might not want to let me install iTunes on the PC...

We don't really answer Windows questions, but I have some suggestions that should get you started. Basically, I would do this by going through Google Calendar. That is, sync your Work PC Outlook calendars to Google using Google Calendar Sync then sync your home Mac's iCal to Google with Spanning Sync ($25/year) or BusySync ($25) then sync your iPhone to your Mac.

spencer asks

I'd like to keep my MacBook from connecting automatically to the other networks in the neighborhood, however, whenever I power up, restart or wake the computer from sleep, it automatically connects to the strongest OPEN network. (I would just cancel my contract with my ISP and use some of the open network, but the speed is usually much slower, most of the time about a quarter of the speed I get on my network) Anyway, I am looking for a solution that basically limits my MacBook to only connecting to my home's wireless network and keeps it from connecting to all of the other networks in the neighborhood. However, I do travel 2-3 days a week with the MacBook and need to be able to connect to various open networks, but only when I'm not home. Is there a way to ban the MacBook from connecting to certain networks?

What I would do is create two Locations in the Network Preference Pane: Home and Away. Click on the dropdown box and Edit Locations... Create the two Locations; then for the Home Location select the AirPort item, uncheck the "Ask to join new networks" checkbox and then click the "Advanced" button. Delete the names of all the other networks besides yours and make sure that your home network appears at the top of the list. For the Away Location check the "Ask to join new networks" checkbox. It should now only automatically connect to your home network at home and when you go on the road just change location to Away, which you can do from the Apple menu.

Grindcore asks

How do I make the function keys on a external keyboard act like the function keys on my macbook pro's internal keyboard? I want to change the volume with my external (non apple) keyboard. F12 works to eject the CD, but the rest of the keys don't have their alternative function.

Unfortunately, I don't believe there is a built-in way to accomplish this (you can change display brightness in the Keyboard Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard & Mouse Preference Pane, but not volume). However, according to this hint at Mac OS X Hints you can use ControllerMate ($15) to remap your buttons to control volume.

Gareth asks

I recently got a new mouse with oodles of buttons and was wondering how to build Macros that will cause it to input hot-keys. My goal is to be able to press a button and get the preference pane to open in any app that has "⌘ ,". I have no Apple scripting knowledge and any help is appreciated.

You'll need a third-party mouse driver to do this. If the manufacturer of your mouse doesn't offer a driver you have several options including SteerMouse TOP ($20), USB Overdrive ($20), or the aforementioned ControllerMate ($15). Any of these should allow you to set up mouse buttons to activate hot-keys.