Smarter Mail filters

I get a lot of tocopherol - post from vender and PR firms . Because these messages come up from both new senders as well as common suspect , there ’s no way to construct an Apple Mail pattern that ’s ground on sender that will mechanically route the substance to a separate PR letter box . Any suggestions for build a dependable filter?—Via the Internet

I once address this job with a Mail formula that direct messages from known flacks to a special merchandising letter box . Whenever I received a promotional e - mail from a fresh informant , I added the fortune of the reference after the symbol ( so the rule would fascinate all e - mail send from that atomic number 59 firm ) to the rule . But this rule became unmanageable because it had style too many conditions .

What I needed was a agency to define a course of sender and then use that definition in my rule . And the best way to define a group of senders is to create a mathematical group in Address Book . unluckily , adding the name of a Mail substance ’s sender to an Address Book chemical group is a pain . It call for opening the message , clicking on the name in the To field , adding the name to Address Book , opening Address Book , and then dragging the physical contact into the radical .

cortege ( which is now my main e - ring mail customer ) makes the whole outgrowth much easy . First , I created a new Entourage Address Book category , Marketing Flack , and a rule that tells Entourage to move any messages from soul in the Marketing Flack category to my Marketing Flack mailbox . When a previously unknown marketer whirl a closet release my way , I select the message and press Command-= ( adequate sign ) to add that individual to my Entourage Address Book . I then go to the Categories pop - up fare and add that contact to the Marketing Flack family . When I close Entourage ’s Address Book window , that person link the social rank of marketers , and any future symmetry from him or her will be automatically shunted to the Marketing Flack mailbox .

The stand-alone widget

Is there any way of life to be given a widget outdoors of Dashboard ? I have a widget that I utilize all the time , and I ’d really rather not have to keep hitting F12 to plunge Dashboard every time I need it.—R. Gordon Hershey

Other utilities — I’m thought of Marcel Bresink ’s freeTinkerToolor Titanium Software ’s just - as - freeOnyX — can move doojigger from Dashboard , but they do n’t really put widgets on the desktop ; the widgets continue to float above the background in a widget - wye layer . If that ’s hunky-dory by you , check them out , too .

Terminating test drive

My Power Mac G5 was running slow , so I decided to run a maintenance utility that does things like discombobulate out cache and lumber data file . A distich of days after doing this , I tried to open a Microsoft Excel document by doubly - clicking on it . When I did , the trial - campaign adaptation of Excel set up rather than the real one . What happened , and how can I make things go back to the manner they were?—Damon Tee

It ’s likely the utility reset OS X ’s LaunchServices database , which keeps rails of your Open With preferences . When you reset it , your preferences are gone , and OS X then has to opine about what should give your documents . In this case , it gauge wrongly .

To set up it straight , first go to /Applications / Microsoft Office 2004 / Additional Tools / Remove Office , and pass the Remove Office diligence . You should see at least two option — Remove Microsoft Office 2004 ( Including Test Drive ) and Remove Microsoft Office 2004 . ( You may see even more if you have other Office installations . ) Select Remove Microsoft Office 2004 ( Including Test Drive)—which will , confusingly enough , remove just the Test Drive variation . Once you ’ve done that , empty the Trash .

AppleWorks and the Intel Mac

I have an iBook fill with spreadsheets and databases I created in AppleWorks . I ’d like to upgrade from my iBook to a MacBook Pro . But according to someone at a local Apple Store , AppleWorks is incompatible with the MacBook Pro . What software can I use?—Ernest Arvanitis

First , let ’s clear up a minuscule confusion . AppleWorks works perfectly well on Intel Macs — include the MacBook Pro . While no Universal edition exists ( or is potential to ) , AppleWorks 6.2.9 run fine on Rosetta , Apple ’s PowerPC emulator . AppleWorks is n’t bundled with Intel Macs , but you could just re-create the AppleWorks 6 booklet from your iBook to the MacBook Pro , and you ’ll be in business .

All that aver , Apple abandoned AppleWorks long ago . It ’s gamy time for anyone who still depends on AppleWorks to go out and finally ascertain a alternate for it .

Spreadsheets are n’t a trouble , as AppleWorks can save its spreadsheets in a data format compatible with Microsoft Excel . you could then work with these documents in Excel , Mariner Software’sCalc($50 ) , ThinkFree’sOffice (; $ 50 ) , or the open - beginning NeoOffice ( free ) .

Databases are tough , as there is n’t a clear way to spell an AppleWorks database directly into FileMaker Pro . Here ’s the not - so - clean - agency :

give the AppleWorks database and prefer Organize : Show All Records . take a layout that display every subject , select all , and copy the text to the Clipboard . In AppleWorks or Excel , open up a new spreadsheet document . Paste the text into the spreadsheet . In all likelihood , your field headings — name and address and Phone Number , for example — won’t be there . So be sure to leave a duet of quarrel free at the top of the spreadsheet , where you may add up your headings subsequently .

Save the spreadsheet as ASCII school text ; then open that single file in FileMaker Pro . The information should appear in a spreadsheet layout , so you ’ll have to re - make the original database ’s layout .

Optionally , if you ’re only looking for a way to search for existing information and plan to start fresh in FileMaker , feel free to leave the datum in a spreadsheet , which you’re able to easy search .

Tip of the month

Smarter Smart play list : I was attempt to create an iTunes smart playlist that would check all of the house , techno , and dancing track in my iTunes depository library that had ratings of three sensation or higher . But iTunes does n’t support the Boolean operator AND and OR in determine a playlist . Then it dawned on me that I could remove the problem by using one playlist as the foundation for another .

I first create a smart playlist call Dance Music that contained all tracks with the House , Techno , or Dance writing style tag end , using the conditions Match Any , Genre Contains House , Genre Contains Techno , and Genre Contains Dance . I then created a second new smart playlist with the conditions Playlist Is Dance Music and My Rating Is great Than 2 Stars . With those two play list , I get the results I was after.—Drew Long