There are three handouts on keyboard shortcuts in PDF format available for viewing or downloading at the links below:

1-Apple, go to this website link http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

2- From Apple Seeds

3- From Creative Commons

 Basic Mac Presentation

The 30-minute basic Mac presentation at 6:30, Dec 8, at the Tri-Area Community Center will be “Making your Mac computing easier with keyboard shortcuts” by Bob Snow. A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys that perform certain functions, such as closing a file or saving a document. There are hundreds of them, many found on a program’s menu bar. Tonight’s program will cover about 20 of the most useful commands, everything from hiding the Dock, to Force Quit and enlarging things on the desktop screen to bringing up a dictionary definition of a word, getting a quick look at a document and quickly showing the advanced Spotlight search window. Also covered will be how to move around the Finder desktop without a mouse.

General Business Meeting

The General Business Meeting will begin at 7:00 PM. Our December meeting is always a reorganization meeting when we elect PTSLUG officers and board members. If you are interested in any board or officer position, please contact Kate Pike.

As always, this time is also for answering or discussing any questions you may have concerning Apple products or software.

Introduction to iCloud

At 7:30 PM, we will initiate a remote video iChat conference with noted author and Macworld contributor, Jeff Carlson. Jeff will introduce us to Apple’s newest online storage solution for syncing Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Photos and Videos on your Macs and iOS devices called iCloud. He will talk about the features of this service and what will be missing when Mobile Me is discontinued next summer.

As always these presentations are free and open to the public

Basic Mac - The 30-minute basic Mac presentation at 6:30 PM, Nov 10, at the Tri Area Center, will be "Customizing Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome with extensions and add-ons" by Bob Snow. These are simple little programs like apps that you install extend the functionality of a browser. You can get extensions and add-ons that compare prices, check the weather, change the look of your browser, listen to music, improve browsing security and privacy and even block ads. The presentation will cover the different types of extensions and add-ons available and how to find and install them. Many of the extensions are very practical and can be used to improve your time on the web in a number of ways.

General Meeting - Jeffrey Jones of Jones Technology Services will explain the current technology that is available to automate and control your home. Topics include automation for safety, comfort, convenience and entertainment. We will discuss the hardware and software systems that allow you to control your security system, lights, thermostats, and provide entertainment throughout your home. From affordable DYI systems to comprehensive custom systems, there is an automation system for everyone. Interfaces include touch screens, handheld remotes, iPhones, and iPads.

Intermediate SIG (Special Interest Group) - Dropbox is a wonderful “cloud” technology that allows you to have identical documents on several computers. This is handy when you want to work on a document at home on your desktop computer, and then work on the same document at work or the library on a laptop, for instance. On 18 Nov at the WSU Computer Center, Gary Estes will demonstrate how to set up a Dropbox account, then how to use Dropbox to sync documents on multiple computers. This class will be by reservation only with an announcement sent out via email at a later date. Please do not respond at this time.

Beginning SIG - Because our normal date for presenting a Basic SIG falls too close to the holidays, there will be no Basic SIG scheduled for November or December

As always, our meetings a free and open to the public.

On October 21, 2011, the PTSLUG Intermediate Workshop focused on importing and editing photos with iPhoto. A copy of the slides used for the editing portion of the presentation is available for downloading.

Click on this link to view or download the PDF version of the Keynote slide presentation.

There are three handouts on this topic, which was presented at the PTLUG general meeting on October 13th. The links are below. Select the handout for the version of iPhoto you are using, either iPhoto '11, iPhoto '09 or iPhoto '06. The handout for iPhoto '06 is an older one and in text only. The the one for '09 can be used also for "06 users will some modifications and has graphics.

Click here for the handout for iPhoto '11

Click here for the handout for iPhoto '09

Click here for the handout for iPhoto '06 (text only)

In October, we concentrate on iPhoto, Apple’s photo management application. We start with Bob Snow’s Basic Mac presentation at 6:30PM, 13 Oct at the Chimacum Tri Area Center. He will give a demonstration on how to create a Quicktime movie from a slideshow created in iPhoto. This is a movie which could then be shown on any computer and/or emailed to friends and relatives. 

After a brief business meeting and question and answer period at 7PM that night, Gary Estes will demonstrate creating a photo book and a calendar from those photos you took on your vacation this summer.

Later this month at 7PM, 21 Oct at the WSU computer center, Bob & Gary will give a hands on demonstration on how to use iPhoto to organize photos and improve their look and quality using iPhoto’s many editing tools. Please watch you email inbox for a separate announcement regarding this Intermediate SIG (Special Interest Group).

Basic Mac - This Thursday, Sept. 8 from 6:30 to 7:00 Bob Snow will present another in his continuing Basic Mac Programs, covering  Safari and Firefox browser essentials and lesser known helpful areas. He will cover setting your own start page, finding text on web pages, zooming in on tiny type in PDF docs, using tabbed browsing, customizing the address bar and finding extensions (for Safari) and add-ons (for Firefox).

General Meeting - John Pizzo, a local provider of personalized computer support for Macs & PC’s, will talk to us about security on the Mac. Last Month, Kevyn Eckstrom taught us about the threats to our security and identity that are present on the web. This month John will discuss what we can specifically do on our Macs to stay secure. There are many vary good virus protection programs out there, some free, and some available commercially. John will be talking about one of the commercial brands, Virus Barrier, and if you are interested, he can offer you this product at a reduced rate. As always, our July 14th programs are free and open to the public. See above for place and times.

Intermediate SIG (Special Interest Group) - Lion was introduced to the world in July. It has been met with rave reviews, but also some criticism of some of it’s new features. Jim Emery will be giving a demonstration of what’s new in Lion. Since the WSU computers are not capable of running Lion, hands on experience will only be available to those bringing their own Lion equipped laptops. Please watch for an email soon for an announcement for this SIG. Please do not reply to this posting.

Beginning SIG - Ari Stepp will be repeating her very popular March presentation on Introduction to iTunes. This class was so popular, it had a waiting list large enough to repeat this class at least twice again.  So, if you were not able to attend last March’s presentation due to the class being filled, please watch for an email from Ari’s personal email address inviting you to this encore iTunes presentation. Her address is aristepp@gmail.com.  Ari will send that invitation this coming week so look for it.  Please do not reply to this posting.

Time for Security

Basic Mac - For July’s Basic Mac presentation, Bob Snow will discuss a number of Apple utilities and programs that you may not know about. They are on all Macs. What can you do with the Digital Color Meter, Grab, Keychain, Network Utility, System Profiler? What program can I use to check my internet connection when I can’t get my mail or browse the web?

General Meeting - There is no scheduled speaker for the July General Meeting. Instead, Gary Estes, Bob Snow, and Jim Emery will demonstrate several third party applications that they believe will greatly enhance your Mac experience, and/or make your computer life easier. These programs include: Dropbox, 1Password, App Delete, Design Pro, a couple of Anti-Virus programs, and a few more that are as yet unannounced. As always, our July 14th programs are free and open to the public. See above for place and times.

Intermediate SIG - The new Mac operating system, Lion, will be introduced sometime in July. It will have several new and exciting features. However, there are some distinct drawbacks; namely, older software that has not been updated for Lion will no longer run on your Mac if you upgrade to Lion. (Appleworks and older versions of Quicken, for instance). July’s Intermediate SIG will discuss how to deal with this problem by updating Appleworks files, switching to newer software versions, and making a bootable hard drive that will run old programs when you need to. Please watch for an email announcement soon inviting you to sign up for this class.

Beginning SIG - The July PTSLUG basic Mac workshop (SIG) will explore the Google search engine (and briefly) a few others. The free class will run from 1 to 3 P.M. in the WSU computer room on Friday, July 22nd. An email announcement was sent out and reservations taken on a first come/first serve basis with priority given to current PTSLUG members, and filled within 24 hours. However, if you would like to be put on a waiting list, please contact the presenter, Bob Snow (sherman101@mac.com).

There is lots more to Google than just searching for web sites. During this two-hour workshop we will look at many of the things you can do with Google beyond basic word or phrase searches. Topics to be covered include the classic Google vs. iGoogle look, little known everyday essentials, reference tools, choosing keywords, using its foreign language tools, finding word definitions, doing better web searches, a look a Google’s many services, and using Google’s topic-specific search engines like Google Scholar and Google Books. We will also take a brief look at a few other search engines.

This is the introductory version of the intermediate workshop given in March. There will be lots of hands-on work with Google during the class.