Part five of our six - part serial publication take a look at TIger ’s core communication creature : Address Book , iCal and Mail . They not only keep you in touch with the world , but also provide the mean value to keep your busy lifetime organized .
Organize Address Book entries using smart groups
Here ’s a simple but utile tip — you may use Address Book ’s Smart Groups feature to organize your Address Book entries .
Want a group that includes all your friend in Colorado ? Select File : New Smart Group , give the radical a name , pick out State from the first pop - up computer menu , choose Is from the 2nd , and typewrite
By contribute multiple condition , you may impart a high grade of formation to your Address Book . Just get across on the positive sign ( + ) to add more atmospheric condition , and you could group contacts by , for example , state and city , or companionship and vigour code.—Rob Griffiths
Autocomplete Address Book smart groups in Mail
Once you ’ve used Address Book ’s Smart Groups feature to establish a dynamic inclination of connect contacts — for example , everyone on your daughter ’s soccer team — you might obtain it useful to be able to send an e - mail to everyone in that smart group .
But while Mail makes it easy to send an Es - ring armor to a traditional Address Book group — just put down the name of the mathematical group , and Mail populate the To field of view with any vitamin E - mail addresses in that group — the programme does n’t know how to do this with wise group . Here ’s a simple-minded workaround :
Create your wise group in Address Book . When you ’re done , create a standard chemical group ; then drag and drop down the wise group into the standard group . Back in Mail , use the name of that standard chemical group when addressing e - chain mail . postal service will automatically fill in the e - mail address of the contacts in your Smart Group . ( When you do this , utilize the BCC field so you do n’t get off a Brobdingnagian inclination of e - mail addresses to all the contacts.)—RG
Print your Address Book
Want a printed transcript of your Address Book — maybe to keep in the car for emergencies ? In Tiger , Address Book offers four printing templates for outputting contact details to theme : Envelopes ; Labels ; Lists ; and Pocket Address Book , which produces a small tab - style savoir-faire pamphlet . Go to Print and opt Pocket Address Book from the Style menu . Set the Paper Size localise to US Letter and choose the contact attributes — Company , vitamin E - mail , Address , and so on — you’d care to admit for each physical contact ( see “ Tiger ’s Little Black Book ” ) .
To keep up paper , Tiger prints several Address Book pages on one sheet , with cutting guide . write out out the pages and staple them together , and you ’ll have a handy newspaper backup of your electronic destination book.—Kelly Lunsford
Remember birthdays
you could now prefer to have birthdays that you ’ve memorialize in Address Book come along in iCal . To make a natal day entry in Address Book , select Address Book : preference , press the Template lozenge , and opt Birthday from the Add Field pop - up menu . After conclude the Preferences windowpane , add the birthdays of your nearest and dearest . Now establish iCal , prize iCal : Preferences , tap the General tab , and turn on the Show Birthdays Calendar option . iCal will display a novel Birthdays calendar .
unluckily , the Birthdays calendar is n’t a stock calendar Indian file — it does n’t support alarms . There ’s a manner around this shortcoming , however . Nip on over towww.version tracker.comand download iCal - Alarmist , a € 3 ( about $ 4 at press time ) utility from Knowledge Logistics that allows you to impute worldwide or individual alarms to iCal calendar events ( see “ Birthday Wishes ” ) . To use it for this chore , simply select the Birthdays calendar and choose File : Export . In the resulting dialogue box , hold get to the calendar to the desk - top and press the Export release . Choose File : Import . From the resulting menu , choose the Birthdays calendar you just export . With all your birthdays tucked neatly into this Modern calendar , you could utilize iCal - Alarmist to create an alarm for the consequence it contains . The folks at Knowledge Logistics severalize me they ’re working on a more elegant solution that may be available by the time you read this.—Chris Breen
Easily edit smart mailboxes in Mail
Like Address Book ( with its bright group ) and the Finder ( with its smart folders ) , the new translation of Mail lets you make smart mailboxes , which update themselves base on rules you define . For exemplar , you’re able to create a smart mailbox check only messages that you receive in the last week and that had attachments .
If you need to edit a smart letter box that you ’ve already localize up , just doubly - click directly on the smart pamphlet ’s icon ; you ’ll jump to delete mode.—RG
Back up without breaking a sweat
It ’s always good to have a patronage of your entire ride , or at least your entire nursing home directory , in case trouble strikes . But there are conditioned emotional response - tain files that you may want to back up more oft , such as your Address Book or iCal databases . Tiger make doing this especially easy . To save a backup of your Address Book link , open up the software and select File : Back Up Address Book . To make a backing of your iCal datum , spread out the program and select File : Back Up Database . If you have a .Mac business relationship , hold out the new Sync yellow journalism in the .Mac preference pane for even more quick backup options ( such as bring through your bookmarks , contacts , calendar and Mail messageshourly).—Ted Landau
Mail files quickly
If you need to e - mail a filing cabinet to someone , you could draw and drop the single file onto Mail ’s Dock ikon to open up a new substance with the file attached . But what if Mail is n’t in your docking facility ? Or what if you do n’t sense like dragging a file all the room across your screen ? Would n’t it be well-fixed to just control - press the file and have the job done for you ? All you need is Automator , OS X ’s easy - to - use of goods and services mechanisation tool .
found the syllabus ( in /Applications ) and then tap Finder in the Library pillar . hale the Get Selected Finder Items natural action from the Actions pillar into the Workflow area on the right side of the screen . Next , tap Mail in the Library column , and drag the New Mail Message action into the Workflow area , below the Finder action you already placed there . Select File : Save As Plug - In , give your new action a name ( Mail This File , for example ) , and ensure Plug - In For is put to Finder . Then press Save .
Go back to the Finder , select a file ( or files ) , control - select the selection , and then choose Automator : Mail This File from the start - up fare that appears . Mail will afford a fresh clean message with the selected Finder file cabinet attached.—RG
Resize files via Mail
Reader Favorite : If you scuff a large photo into an open Compose window in Mail , an Image Size pop - up menu appears in the bottom good box of the window , offering options for resize all the picture in that windowpane . Of course , you could do this straightaway from iPhoto , but if you find iPhoto too slow to use ( I prefer Rune Lindman Development’sQPict[$35 ] ) , this trick can derive in handy.—Rube Redfield
