MacDirectory Magazine

Winter-Spring 2010 (#44)

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/7575

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28 MacDirectory DEPARTMENT Q > I just bought a new Mac, copied over my iPhoto library and ditched my old machine. Now iPhoto says that my previous library cannot be imported. What can I do? - Saadiyih, Arkansas A > This is not the first time that Apple has burned bridges in the name of progress. What you need to do is to move the library to either a data DVD or an external drive and find someone with an older version of iPhoto. Hold down the option key while launching their copy of iPhoto and specify your library as the default. Once you have done this, use iPhoto's file menu to export the library, move the resulting file to your new machine, and reset your friend's version of iPhoto to recognize the original library. You can then import the exported library into your new copy of iPhoto. Q > Disk Warrior tells me that I have a number of corrupt preference files, but the names are suspicious and when I look in my prefs folders I can't find these mysterious files. What do I do? – Matt, New York A > Your Mac is crammed with invisible files, most of which are mission-critical to one process or another. It is possible to search for invisible files but I do not recommend it. On the other hand, you may have a spyware issue. (Have you ever encountered a spammy popup and you clicked on a "no thanks" button? This is one way that spyware can be installed without your knowing. My recommendation: Buy an antivirus program and let it ferret out all the naughty files for you. Q > When performing a search I often cannot find files that I know are there. In order to test this, I saved a document to a folder, then I opened the folder and saw it right there, but it did not show up in a search. What's going on? - Rex, Delaware A > Unlike the Mac's previous file search systems, Spotlight does not perform a live search based on disk directories, but it creates an index of files in the background and searches the index. If there has not been sufficient time to add a file to the index, it will not show up in the search results. Back in the day of 200 MB hard drives live searches were great. Now with drive space running a mere 5 GB a buck, live searches would take forever. There is a lot to like with Spotlight, but there are issues as well. Frankly, I wouldn't mind having an option to conduct a live search of specific folders. Now, if I could only find where I put Steve Jobs's phone number…. Q > I upgraded to Keynote 09 and I can no longer find some of my favorite transitions, such as droplet. Why did Apple do this and what can I do? - Dillon, New York A > No problems! Open Keynote preferences and click on the "include obsolete animations" checkbox. They will then appear in the list. Here's a trick, tho' – If you don't want to deal with a scrolling list of every transition in the book, you can either copy a slide with the desired transition and paste it into your new presentation, or you turn them all on, apply the transition, then turn 'em off. Only the desired transition will be added to the list. Two other goodies, while we're on the subject: First, the Leopard-friendly Keynote Remote iPhone / iPod Touch app is fantastic. Second, check out or all sorts of great tips, themes and templates. Q > I handle a lot of projects and need to keep all my e-mail sorted by project and with dedicated in and out boxes, but Apple Mail will not allow me to duplicate the mail boxes. What do I do? - Robin, Illinois A > You might want to check out the smart mailboxes feature in Mail. As for your specific request, relax. It is very easy. Go to your user folder>Library>Mail> Mailboxes. Create a new folder, name it "X or Template" or whatever you like, then create separate In and Out subfolders within it. You can then dupe the template mailbox in the Finder, and then name it for your new project. The new mailbox will appear the next time you launch Mail. BEEBE > MACDIRECTORY'S TECH GODDESS KEYNOTE 09

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