Keeping up-to-date with iPhoto

Q : I’ve noticed the calendar ikon that appear in iPhoto 6 ’s lower left over corner , but I ’m not sure how to put it to good use of goods and services . Any recommendations?—Dale Carson

A : You’ve discover the much - overlooked calendar feature in Apple’siPhoto 6 ( ) , part of the $ 79 iLife ’ 06 suite . snap on this icon , and a inclination of month appears in the low-toned left corner of your iPhoto window . Select a calendar month and then press the humble arrow to the left field of the year to see a calendar view of that month .

The calendar render some helpful ways to place pic in a crowded iPhoto library . For example , you could use it to find out in which month you shot pictures .

In yr persuasion , if the name of a month appears in disgraceful case , you shot picture that calendar month . If the name is in gray type , you did n’t . The same theme applies to month opinion — days on which you took photograph appear in black character ; days on which you did n’t come out in grey . snap on a date or calendar month to reveal all the photos associated with that sentence period in the main iPhoto windowpane .

you’re able to also use the calendar to tally the number of pictures you take in a certain month or on a certain day . Hover your pointer over a month ’s name to disclose a tool tip indicating the act of pictures tagged for that calendar month and twelvemonth . For example , when I hover the pointer over April 2006 , I see that I take 217 pic that month . When you ’re in calendar month panorama , hover over a escort , and a tool hint reveals how many pictures you took that day ( see “ Photos by Date ” ) .

Here ’s a handy way of life to gather all the pictures you ’ve take for a recurring event — say , the winter holiday . chatter on the triangle to the left wing of the year to uncover the calendar month panorama . Then use the up pointer ( next to the intelligence Calendar ) to move to December 2006 . select the dot to the left field of the hebdomad that includes your holiday case . This foreground that week . Move back to December 2005 and 1 - press the same special week . The past two years ’ Charles Frederick Worth of vacation icon will now appear in iPhoto ’s main window .

Choose File : New Album From Selection and you ’ve collect all your vacation photos in one place . If you want to be even more precise , choose specific day each calendar month with this 1 - click technique .

Group think

Q : In the January 2007 Geek Factor , “ 3 Amazing AppleScripts , ” I noticed that the author had seven iCal calendars subdue under the cate - gory School . How do you make one or more calendars do this?—Tom Ballen

A : What you ’ve witnessed is iCal ’s Group Calendar feature ( found in the Mac OS X 10.4 version of Apple ’s iCal ) . To employ it , heart-to-heart iCal ( in your /Applications booklet ) and choose File : New Calendar Group . A young grouping ledger entry appears in iCal ’s Calendars list . you may organize your calendar by dragging them into this group . For instance , put all your kids ’ calendar or compendium of mutant team ’ schedules here .

The group calendar feature propose a couple of advantage . The first is that you’re able to easy reveal or hide all the calendar within a group by selecting or deselecting the loge next to the grouping ’s name . The second is that you may issue a group as a single calendar to your .Mac account or a WebDAV waiter ( by select Calendar : Publish ) ; this puzzle out the eld - old iCal problem of how to generate a Web - based calendar that includes only the event from a undivided calendar .

A bit on bit rates

Q : The AAC version of Macworld ’s podcast is larger than the MP3 edition . I thought AAC was free-base on MPEG-4 , which is supposed to supply the same quality as MP3 but sound compression . What gives?—Gino Vogt

A : You’ve get it partially proper . Apple claims that AAC file go better than MP3 file encode at the samebit rate , which is the number of bits per second used to encode audio frequency , be in kilobit per second ( Kbps ) . But the files are no smaller — in fact , AAC and MP3 file encoded at the same bit charge per unit are usually about the same size of it . AAC just offer unspoilt sound at this mo charge per unit than its MP3 counterpart .

In the case of theMacworldpodcast , we ’re using the same bit pace for both the AAC and the MP3 reading — 32 Kbps with mono sound . I would n’t dream of encoding euphony at such a low turn rate , but for language , it ’s a perfectly fine compromise — particularly when you consider how long it would take to download 45 min of audio encode at music quality ( and what it would be to host such large file ) .

The AAC edition is a sense of touch large because it ’s an enhanced podcast — one that includes picture , links , and chapter . ( If you have n’t yet listened to our podcast , you cangive it a try . )

Moving GarageBand loops

Q : I am a huge sports fan of GarageBand . I have been using it for a few years now , and have only one major beef . I ’ve installed four GarageBand Jam Packs . These sound libraries take up a large clod of my hard - private road quad — closely 17 GB . I solve on an iBook G4 that has only 25 GB of usable infinite . Is there any way to move these Jam pack to an external drive?—Zach Paull

A : There is . Apple ’s GarageBand ( part of the $ 79iLife ’ 06 retinue ;) stores grommet in two locations—/Library/ Audio / Apple Loops and /Library/ program Support / GarageBand/ Apple Loops .

Dig into these folders until you find the folder that keep back specific Jam Packs : for example , Jam Pack 2 – Remix Tools and Jam Pack 4 – Symphony Orchestra . re-create these folders to your external campaign by dragging them there . Then hale the original leaflet to the desktop .

GarageBand will give no reading that it ca n’t find its loops until you render to use one of them . Then it will display a dialog box seat indicating that it has n’t a hint where they are and asking if you ’d care to reindex your loops . press Cancel .

Now settle the Jam Pack folders that you copied to your outside drive and drag them into GarageBand ’s Loop web browser . GarageBand will acknowledge that you ’re attempting to bring loops to the internet browser and ask if you ’d wish to keep the loops in their current emplacement or copy them to the Loops folder . The correct answer is Current Location . quiz your configuration by selecting one of the Jam Packs from the browser app loops bolt down - up menu ( the one that normally reads My Loops ) , choose a sound , and previewing it . If GarageBand wo n’t play it and or else shows you that reindexing dialogue boxwood , lease GarageBand reindex the loops this clip .

Once you ’re sure everything is cultivate as it should , you’re able to toss out the original loops folder that you moved to the background .

Icon, begone!

Q : How do I murder or hide the concentrated - driveway icon in the upper proper corner of my desktop?—Gene Dybinski

A : Choose Finder : Preferences and , in the ensue window , tap the General tab if it ’s not choose already . Here you ’ll see the selection to show specific item on the screen background . but deselect the Hard Disks choice and your hard - drive icon will disappear from the desktop . If you want to , you may also remove hard - drive icon from the Finder window ’s sidebar . Just tap the Sidebar pill in the Finder preferences pane and disenable the Hard Disk option here as well .

Here ’s a trivial bonus bakshis : Just as it ’s easy to make icon disappear from place where you do n’t need them , you could also make an item ( a mass , a folder , an lotion , or a filing cabinet ) appear inmoreplaces than usual . To add an detail to the toolbar at the top of every Finder window , for example , drag it to an subject Finder window ’s toolbar . Hold it there for a couple of seconds until you see a light-green plus augury ( + ) . Then let go of the mouse button and the particular ’s icon will appear in the toolbar ( see “ Easier Access ” ) . Should you later wish well to remove it , accommodate down the 1 key fruit and drag it out of the toolbar .

DVD conversion

You paid good money for your commercial DVD , and it takes little more than a five - yr - old armed with a jar of pickle to destroy them . Use these tools to back them up .

HandBrake(free ): I ’ve render just about every Mac DVD - ripping utility on earth . Many of them do a decent job , but they ca n’t touch the complete capabilities that Eric Petit and Laurent Aima ’s tool pop the question for free . ( For elaborated direction on how to apply it to convert picture for your iPod , see macworld.com/1105 . ) If you do n’t ask HandBrake ’s many conformation options , choose its less full - featured sib , Instant HandBrake ( also free ) . Like HandBrake , Instant HandBrake can convert commercial-grade DVD to a formatting that ’s playable on your Mac , iPod , or Sony PSP .

VisualHub($23 ): My love for Techspansion ’s worldwide video converter for the Mac is closely boundless . VisualHub can convert almost any video format you befuddle at it to iPod , PSP , DV , DVD , TiVo , AVI , MP4 , WMV , MPEG , and Flash data format . It can even fit up to 18 hours of video on one videodisc — though that video recording wo n’t look pristine .

What does this have to do with your DVDs ? Although Techspansion take that VisualHub wo n’t convert video from commercial DVDs , it has in many subject ( though not always ) done so successfully for me . For example , it ripped Master and Commander with no complaints but produce drivel when ripping my DVD solicitation of the first season of Arrested Development . ( HandBrake had no problems with Arrested Development . )

Another bonus : VisualHub can help oneself you put your commute content on a DVD ( compressing it to fit on a single disc ) and then burn it — no penury to purchase additional tool such as Roxio ’s $ 100 goner or $ 50Popcorn 2or Erwin van den Berg ’s € 40DVD2oneX2 . Both of these utilities , however , do provide more flexible DVD - burning options than VisualHub .

Bug: Firefox security breach

Like most Web browser app , Mozilla ’s free Firefox ( ) let you carry through passwords for site that require you to lumber in . ( Go to Firefox : Preferences , press Security , and select the Remember Passwords For Sites option . ) Firefox should enter your name and passwordonlywhen you ’re at the appropriate login page . However , a security system failing allows a bogus login pageboy , located on the same server as the logical one ( possible on sites such as MySpace.com ) , to get and transmit your parole information to another internet site without your cognition . It ’s a modest - risk threat , but for now the only mode to check that no one can slip your passwords is to deselect the password option . To get disembarrass of passwords you ’ve already saved , get across on the Show Passwords clit and then select Remove All .

Some users ( include myself ) have found that Safari reveals the same helplessness . Usethis psychometric test pageto assess your web web browser ’s exposure .

Fix: QX-Tools Pro and Quark conflict

If you ’re using onOne Software ’s $ 100QX - Tools Pro 7.0 , QuarkXPress 7 may go down when you save certain — in the first place older — filing cabinet . Fix this minor bug by update to QX - Tools Pro 7.0.1 or afterwards .

Bug: iPhoto import problem

Apple ’s iPhoto may lay off unexpectedly when importing movie Indian file from a still camera . The likely lawsuit is a knotty third - party QuickTime plug - in . Check theyour substance abuser leaflet / Library / QuickTime/ and /Library/ QuickTime/ brochure for plug - ins not put in by Mac OS X. bump off any that you find . lumber out and log back in . If the job disappear , a plug - in was the culprit . If not , expend another program , such as Image Capture ( /Applications ) , to import the movie instead .

Bug: Adobe’s Vietnam danger

Do you apply the $ 599 AdobePhotoshop CS2 ( ) or $ 499 AdobeIllustrator CS2 ( ) ? mark the /Applications / Adobe Photoshop CS2 / Legal.localized/ and /Applications / Adobe Illustrator CS2/ Legal.localized/ folders for a file ring

When you attempt to blue-pencil the

Bug: Sync problems

If you use the Sync pane in .Mac ’s preferences pane , you may get a message that says : “ There was a problem with the sync operation . .Mac bequest client choke abnormally . ” There may be an wanton fix — open Disk Utility ( /Applications / Utilities ) and snap on Repair Disk Permissions . If that does n’t work , you may try reinstall Mac OS X wholly , using the Archive And Install choice .

[ Senior Contributor Ted Landau is the founder ofMacFixIt , a vane site devote to reporting Mac problems and solutions . Got a problem to cover ? E-mailbugs@macworld.comor post it in our Mac 911 forum . ]