Mac | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: Mac

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 6 Comments
6
Nov 09

Early thoughts on Windows 7

photo credit: Greenmonster

Although I’ve been testing, using and writing about Windows 7 since last year, it has only been on the market 2 weeks. In those two weeks, I have setup 8 or 10 new machines already.

The setup is much faster than Vista, but I’m already getting that same ‘ol, same ‘ol feeling about it as I did with Windows Vista and Office 2007. I don’t doubt that Microsoft went back to the drawing board and tweaked and improved Windows, but overall it really is just Vista, done correctly. Plus the machines it is being released on are monsters: dual and quad core processors, 4, 6, and 8 GB of RAM and fast, capable video processors as well.

I really think the improvements in usability will be completely lost by the majority of average computer users. Pinning programs to the taskbar, jump lists, using the integrated search, file libraries, Home Groups, shaking and pushing Windows to screen edges will Continue reading →

Print Preview

Sometimes the most helpful computer utilities elude us and stay hidden for years. One such utility that I find very helpful (and have taken for granted) is the Print Preview function found in almost any program that allows printing.

Because Windows and Macintosh made the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment available to the masses, what we see on our screens is pretty close to what we see on our print outs. However, if you need to tweak margins, find the extra line that is creating an extra page, or determine whether a document (like a spreadsheet) will look better in Landscape or Portrait mode, there is no substitute for the Continue reading →

Riding Shotgun with Rick — 2 Comments
1
Sep 09

Keep your Mac running clean & fast

photo credit: Angels Gate

Macintosh computers run remarkably quick and smooth when you first buy and set them up. However, over time, like any computer, they can begin to feel somewhat sluggish. To keep your Apple Macintosh computer running quick and smooth, try these hints:

Leave your computer on overnight at least once every week or two. The Macintosh Operating System (which is based on Unix) will run maintenance and cleanup tasks in the wee hours of the morning. By regularly allowing your computer to stay on overnight, these services will be rendered automatically for you resulting in Continue reading →

Riding Shotgun with Rick / Videocasts — No Comments
9
Aug 09

Rick Answers his Email Videocast – 053

The summer has kept me busy and I let a few too many question stack up (remember that you can make a small donation when asking your question to get priority). I answered all the questions you asked the last 2 weeks in these two videos.

The first video contains questions from Doris, Henry, Andrew, Jean, John, Rae Ann, Craig, Janet, Maurice, Leo, Ryan, Shirley, Jason, Donna, Jeannie, Dave, and Scott. They asked questions about CCleaner, Picasa, recovering photos from a corrupt flash disk, netbook shopping, recovering the Mac desktop hard drive icon, shutting down the Windows magnifier and more.

The second video (YouTube only allows 10 minute videos for free accounts) has questions from Dot, Tiffany, Kitty, Anne, Barbara, Peter, Len, Anne and Romero. Their questions ranged from Continue reading →

Application Tips — 4 Comments
20
Jul 09

Creating Tables in Microsoft Word – Part II – Video Tip

In Part I of my “Creating Tables” tip, I discussed what a table was, how to create them, and some basics on how to customize them. In Part II of the tip, I discuss how to use reverse text, cell coloring, sorting, formulas and create a form all with tables.

Continue reading →

Application Tips — 5 Comments
20
Jul 09

Creating Tables in Microsoft Word – Part I – Video Tip

Since many of us in the post-35 year old set learned how to type and create documents with a typewriter, we tend to try and use computer word processors like a typewriter. The two technologies couldn’t be further apart from each other and other than touch typing, we need to throw out almost all our knowledge of document creation from those days. Continue reading →

Hardware Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 3 Comments
25
Jun 09

Adding RAM to increase computer speed – Video Tip

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-23 Pedro De La Rosa

photo credit: lucam

Since Service Pack 3 for Windows XP (security update) was released late last year, many of my XP clients started experiencing slower performance. This upgrade put an additional strain on systems with less than 512mb of RAM. Upgrading the RAM will make a big difference in speeding up the system again.

RAM is the temporary memory that the computer uses to give us the feeling of programs opening and running with some pep. It’s like giving your computer a larger desk to work from so it can spread out and find things more efficiently. RAM also allows us to open multiple computer programs at the same time with less impact on the speed of the computer.

256 megabytes used to be a lot of RAM. Today, I’m recommending users have at least 512 megabytes for Windows XP machines and consider a full gigabyte. If buying a new PC with Vista 2 gigabytes (2048 megabytes) is absolutely the minimum and 3 GB or more is even better.

Instead of spending a $500 and up for a new computer, adding extra RAM can breath new life into any computer. Continue reading →

Email of the week — 9 Comments
12
Jun 09

Email of the Week – 007 – Why choose a Mac?

photo credit: QuattroVageena

Name: Richard Doran

From: Battlement Mesa, CO

OS: Windows XP

———————-

I have a friend who is seriously considering a switch from her Dell PC to a Mac. On a couple of occasions you have presented some really excellent “talking points” for people who should consider using a Mac. These deal mainly with their own personal computer usage, as I recall. I pulled up all Mac reference on your website and even “googled ” – but found

nothing that really covered the subject like you did.

A review of of your comments would be appreciated and this information could be a helpful useful addition to your web site!

Now I must wait to see if I get embarrassed that the info is already posted, as you so often prove.

———————-

ANSWER

Great question Richard. And I do Continue reading →

Macintosh / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 2 Comments
7
May 09

Easy Envelopes for Mac users

If you own an Apple computer running the Macintosh operating system, you will love this free application. You can’t print envelopes any easier with any computer or program.

EasyEnvelopes | Ambrosia Software, Inc..

Internet Tips / Macintosh / Riding Shotgun with Rick / Ubuntu Tips / Windows Tips — 5 Comments
28
Apr 09

Make reading the web easier than ever – Video Tip

photo credit: dsevilla

Although we now have 19″ and larger monitors on most new desktop computers, the text seems to shrink. Why is that? It has to do with screen resolution (how much information can be displayed). Screen resolutions on today’s monitors are up to 3X that of monitors we used just 6-8 years ago. We can see a lot more information, but often the text is too small to view for some computer users.

Never fear. Using this week’s tip, you can easily and quickly enlarge the text of any web page using only your keyboard and mouse. This tip will work with any web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc) and any operating system (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X).

All you need is a mouse with a scroll wheel and your keyboard. This tip can be performed without the mouse as well, but I’ll touch on that later.

First, when you are reading a web site, particularly news web sites and blog type sites like mine, look for an indication of a printer friendly page. Often designated as Printer Friendly, Print this article, or simply Print, clicking this link brings Continue reading →