Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAW
Ask TUAW: Making contact sheets, adjusting multiple files' properties, using network locations, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly Mac troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about making photo contact sheets, adjusting properties for multiple files at the same time in the Finder, automatically managing settings based on location, changing the spell check language in iWork and more.As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. 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 Mac OS X (we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions.
johnny asks
I plan to archive photos more than 2 years old onto DVD, and place them in a 3-ring binder along with sheets of thumbnails for each DVD. How would I print these thumbnail sheets in Leopard or Snow Leopard?
Check out the open source ContactSheetMaker. If you're more of a do it yourself type, check out this Create Contact Sheets Automator action, which will allow you to roll your own and take advantage of Automator's other features as well.
matt asks
Can I hide file extensions en masse with Snow Leopard? In Leopard, if you selected >10 files at once and hit apple-i, a single "information" window for all the files you open and you only needed to tick "hide file extensions" once. Now, however many files you select, that's the number of Info windows that open up. Makes for a lot of wasted mouse motion and clicking. Is there a workaround?
What you want is the file Inspector rather than the Get Info window. All you have to do is select the files you want and hit ⌘ + Option + I (versus ⌘-I for the normal Get Info). This will allow you to make change to multiple items, including showing or hiding the file extensions.
huth.sebastian asks
I recently got a new MBP and I'll use it mostly for college, but I have some troubles setting up a convenient way for the network settings. I basically have 3 different environments, dorm, campus and home. The dorm has some restrictions, doesn't allow wireless and has rules for your IP configuration, so automatic doesn't work, or it has to be disabled. Is there any way in OS X where I can just select somewhere where I am right now (maybe even automatically with location service?) and it automatically sets up everything? Like when I'm at campus, it enables Airport, when I'm at the dorm it disables it and when I'm at home it automatically selects the right wireless network?
There's a limit to how automated you can make this, but there are some things you can do. First, you'll need to create separate locations within the Network System Preference Pane for the three different environments. This should allow you to put in the specific IP settings, etc. as appropriate. Once these are set up you can manually select them from the Apple menu in the menubar.
However, you can now take it to the next level with the location manager Marco Polo. It allows you set up different actions that can be triggered based on different criteria. Among the actions that can be triggered is changing the network locations, though you will need something to actually do the triggering, for instance, plugging in an Ethernet cable or coming into range of a specific Wi-Fi network SSID. The Marco Polo site notes some issues with Wi-Fi in Snow Leopard, but there is also apparently a work-around.
Steve asks
I was wondering if it's possible to have my mac automatically toggle Bluetooth based on my power cord. As we all know, Bluetooth is quite a power hog, so it would be really cool if it would automatically turn back on when my Macbook Pro is attached to a power source, but shut off once my power cord is disconnected, or at least prompt me with a choice to turn it off or leave it on.
You can also use Marco Polo. Among its triggers is the specific power source and among its actions is toggling Bluetooth on and off. All you have to do is setup a rule to this effect. One proviso is that there are apparently some issues with Marco Polo and Bluetooth in Snow Leopard.
Dan asks
When using Leopard, I was able to set-up my iMac to function as a Wi-Fi transmitter via Sharing so I could use my iPod touch on the internet around the house. This doesn't seem to be working for me with Snow Leopard. Any suggestions?
Frankly, it should work more or less the same way. You turn on Internet Sharing within the Sharing Preference pane with Ethernet as the source and AirPort as the service. What I would suggest is this: 1) check to make sure that your Firewall settings in the Security Preference Pane are not preventing it from working. You can test it by temporarily turning the Firewall off altogether. If it starts working then you need to adjust those settings. 2) If it's not the Firewall, I'd then try resetting all of your settings on both the iMac and the iPod touch.
cian asks
I was wondering if you could walk me through getting non-standard spellchecks up and running on iWork. For instance, I am trying to get an Irish spellcheck working. My mac (10.6.1) has the option to have the finder in "Gaeilge" (the Irish name for the language) but I can't seem to find a way to make spellcheck work in it.
You have to set the language of the document using the inspector. So, in Pages for instance, open the inspector in the view menu. Go to the Text section (under the capital T), then the more tab. Down at the bottom you'll see a language drop down which should allow you to select any of the languages that you have installed and active on your Mac. This document level setting governs which spell checker is used on that document.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tom Waterhouse said 11:17AM on 9-16-2009
I've got an odd question about 10.6. In Leopard I used to be able to connect to our office windows network easily and the connection will be fine all day. Now I'm using Snow Leopard the connection appears to reset at certain intervals and holds as it reconnects.
It's particularly annoying when trying to browse many folders in the finder! Any suggestions welcome :)
Intel iMac 5,1 / on 10.6.1.
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mark212 said 12:35PM on 9-16-2009
having the same problem here at home. Every couple of hours (-ish) the wireless network will freeze. What seems to work for me is to fire up the network diagnostic tool and have it do a survey. This kicks it back into action and I can resume browsing.
Never happened in Leopard, happens all the time since the upgrade to Snow Leopard.
(I'm running a late 08 MacBook Air 1.86 ghz with 128 gb SSD and 2 gb RAM. OS is 10.6.1)
mikehild said 3:14PM on 9-16-2009
I think that's the issue our Macs at work had. The solution was to wipe them and do a clean install of SL instead of the upgrade done previously.
zyzzyx26 said 11:31AM on 9-16-2009
I've got a question about Safari. Every now and then when I download a file Safari renames it - sometimes adding an extra file extension, others renaming it completely. I've googled it and found several people with the same problem, but no solution. There is even a topic in Apple's support site about it, basically saying it's not their problem. It appears to be the site's server not handling MIME-types properly. However, that doesn't happen when I'm on Firefox.
So, to my question, is there a solution for this odd file handling problem for Safari? How come Apple won't let the file download "as is"?
I'm on an early-2008 Macbook running SL 10.6.1 and Safari 4.0.3.
Thank you!
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Jeff Clark said 11:30AM on 9-16-2009
Is there a way to change display preferences when you plug in an external monitor? For example, I want my display to never dim or shut off, nor my screensaver start, when I'm connected to a projector.
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Tom Waterhouse said 1:48PM on 9-16-2009
A quickfix for to prevent the projector going to a screensaver is to download Caffeine (http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/) – this stops your computer from going to sleep when it's activated.
Hope that's of some use...!
fellowweb said 11:30AM on 9-16-2009
@TUAW: I have one question where I have not been able to find an answer during the last couple of weeks searching the internet:
Several Java programs running on OS X 10.5 don't accept any textual keyboard entries on my system. Enter, Cmd+C/V work, for example, but nothing like "tuaw" or "apple".
I have experienced this with several Java programs - be it the great FreeMind mindmapping tool, jBidWatcher for eBay or the download manager jDownloader. However, this phenomenon seems to be limited to Java programs. Even re-installing OS X didn't help.
In addition, the issue seems to be linked to the Microsoft IntelliType Pro driver (version 7.0) and its modified keyboard layout for the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. When I switch back to Apple's standard keyboard layout, the Java applications accept textual entries.
Are you aware of some command line or plist voodoo? Or are you aware of a tool which could automatically switch keyboard layouts if one specific application is in the foreground?
Any help would be highly appreciated!
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fellowweb said 11:33AM on 9-16-2009
Regarding huth.sebastian's question:
Just yesterday I stumbled upon Centrix' NetworkLocation (http://centrix.ca/NetworkLocation). I haven't used it yet, although, I heard positive comments. Maybe someone is aware of a comparison!?
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Len Banks said 12:12PM on 9-16-2009
I use Centrix's Network Locations and love it. Works well and does exactly what the college student is looking for.
fellowweb said 11:38AM on 9-16-2009
Regarding Steve' question on bluetooth:
There is a great applescript on macosxhints.com which perfectly matches your requirements: "Toggle Bluetooth setting based on power source " (www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090731122418944)
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YodaMac said 11:41AM on 9-16-2009
Question for TUAW:
Now that the 3GS has been out in the wild for a while- Where are the Video apps???
Video editing apps? (stitching together clips)
iChat apps? (3GS as your webcam when connected via USB cable)
Streaming apps? (stream live video from your 3GS to a website over WiFi/3G/Edge)
Do developers not have "access" to the video software/hardware on the 3GS?
If they do, why no plethora of handy video apps?
Are they being denied because Apple is working on their own version of "Mobile iMovie"?
I know- lots of questions, but all about 3GS video! :)
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randall said 11:49AM on 9-16-2009
Running an Intel iMac with Snow Leopard:
I have a question about Contacts... I understand that each person should have their own contact but we also like using Contacts for printing mailing labels during the holidays. The problem is that I have two or more contact card (for each family member) for some of my friends. Example: John Smith, Sally Smith and child Jane Smith.
Obviously we don't want 3 mailing labels, we want 'The Smith Family' or 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'. IS there a way to do this without creating yet another contact just for the mailing labels?
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James West said 2:09PM on 9-16-2009
@randall - I choose a family member to represent them all and add "xmas" to the Notes field. My Christmas smart group filters for contacts with this entry in Notes and once a year I print their labels off to stick on the envelopes.
The label may only address one family member, but you can fix this with the greeting you write inside the card!
Matt said 11:54AM on 9-16-2009
@johnny
I hope you are using gold DVDs. Or else your photos will deteriorate in quality rather quickly.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/homemade-dvds-going-going-gone/
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Andy said 12:07PM on 9-16-2009
I have a MacBook running 10.6.1 and an old eMac on 10.4.8.
The music and video files of my iTunes collection are stored on an external NAS harddrive in my flat. The iTunes library files reside in the music folder on each separate computer and direct iTunes to look at the external disk for the files. This allows both my machines access to the files without filling harddrives but does mean I have to import new files in both versions of iTunes to be able to see them.
With the new home sharing and file management features of iTunes 9 are there some easier options for me?
Do i want to use the new file management features?
Thanks
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Joe said 12:31PM on 9-16-2009
Actually, Internet Sharing seems to be wonky for a LOT of folks in Snow Leopard. I don't know for certain, but many of those with problems seem to be upgraders, rather than clean installers. Resetting settings through System Prefs doesn't seem to do much.
For me, the only way I was able to get it to work was to switch to a dynamic IP scheme (I have two locations, one for static IP, that I use for home and work, one for dynamic IP that I use for school and internet cafes and the like). Internet sharing will NOT work with static IP set *shrug* At least I've got a workaround.
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kris said 1:06PM on 9-17-2009
i've had a problem since upgrading to snow leopard where, after a period of time, all applications refuse to accept keyboard input. i originally thought it was just firefox (my default browser), but found that it extended to skype, itunes, and entourage, as well. quitting the applications won't resolve the problem, so, i've taken to restarting the machine completely to get them to work. any one else having this problem?
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marcouns said 12:51PM on 9-16-2009
ask tuaw does not show up on iphone app u get gobbledigook
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Thomas Beck said 12:59PM on 9-16-2009
In iTunes 9, is there anywhere to uncheck sync Album Artwork? I always had that unchecked because I have a fifth generation iPod, so I don't really care if the artwork is there or not, except that without it, I get an extra 300 MB. I'd really like to be able to get that space back.
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Frederico said 3:18PM on 9-16-2009
[begin snark] I'm not sure if Johnny is not using iPhoto to begin with, or hates iPhoto, or if Matt Lu dislikes iPhoto and thinks spending time or money on third party apps or spending time building or customizing existing Automator actions is always better than iPhoto, but I find the Contact Sheet builder in iPhoto to be quite lovely.
Did I mention that iPhoto does contact sheers just fine? Because, if I didn't, this is just to let you know that you can do lovely contact sheets in iPhoto. It comes with your Mac, and you probably already have our photos in iPhoto, which, incidentally, though not surprisingly, does a lovely job of printing contact sheets. Wasn't that want Johnny wanted to do? Print contact sheets?
Select your desired photo set (in iPhoto), choose 'Print' (in iPhoto), then select 'Contact Sheet' (in iPhoto), and then choose 'Customize' (in iPhoto) to set your tile count, layout and metadata print options, including fonts and sizes (from iPhoto).
Now, if I hated iPhoto, or was working with images not already in iPhoto, and I did not want to put them in iPhoto, these other options are interesting alternatives to iPhoto. But otherwise I'd suggest looking at iPhoto.
[end snark]
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