MACS

Here’s the news from Tuesday’s meeting…

Here it is February already, Jack has come back from the MacWorld Convention, with lots of news to share. He took time to share some of that news with us, and answer lots of questions.

The question and answers for sharing came next on the agenda. Saving documents to send to others with PC’s so they can read them? Seems that if they are saved in rich text, or word, they usually save scrambled. If saved in PDF which is readable across the board, they shouldn’t be scrambled, but will not be able to edit on their side.

Next Jay Sorenson explored some of the new things that are coming out in Mountain Lion this summer. Sounds like our home computers are going to start having more and more of the features that work so well on the iPads and iPhones. Notes will be new, with features to imbed pictures or videos, Reminders, a game center will be added, also the Notification screen. iChat is going away and being replaced with Messages. Twitter will be built into such systems as Safari, Review, etc. If you have Apple TV with a black box, you will be able to mirror anything from computer to the TV. iWork apps., when saving a Doc. will give you a choice to save to computer or the cloud. Some things like iCal will be the same as on the Cloud, just Calendar. One last fun thing there will be new Widgets for the dashboard. I am sure there are many more.

They Jay gave a great presentation on the Lion that is already available, and quite a few have already changed to. The first order was to say if you are going to install Lion be sure to make a backup for yourself. Two of our group was glad they had. Expose’/Spaces have gone away, replaced by Mission Control. Here you can create certain folders or desk tops to auto open when you turn on your computer. Lion makes it easy to open full screen by clicking on double arrow in top right corner, turns to blue box to recheck to close back down. All the utilities are under an App folder like on the iPhone. Something new in Finder, All my Files, great if you don’t remember where you put a folder. Also, AirDrop, if you have bluetooth or wifi, anyone else on that will show up, and you can now drag and drop files to them that simple. One great new thing under TextEdit, save the first version, after that while still in that doc and making more changes, they will auto save by themselves. You can look back at any of the docs similar to time machine. And last but not least, if you close with windows or files open, when you start up again, all those same windows will be there for you to use, still opened.

Well, there were so many interesting things, some good. some not so good, that it was voted to have more presented on Lion next meeting. Sometimes the best help is seeing the changes on a bigger screen and asking questions. So please plan on joining us in March for more on Lion.

Sincerely, Linda, Secretary

Our next meeting will be:

Tues. February 21st, 2011 at 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Strong Solutions
1718 E. Sprague Ave.
Spokane, WA

Continue reading ‘February 2012 MACS Meeting’ »

Here’s the news from Tuesday’s meeting…

On tonight’s agenda, Jay Sorenson gave a great presentation on a recipe system for Macs, that can be downloaded for a 30 day free trial before purchasing. The actual purchase price was mentioned to be about $29.00 or so.The system is called MacGourmet. You can find it through Google.com. If you love to cook and are a saver of recipes this could be the system you are looking for. The layout is similar to ITunes, so your recipes are stored similar to the playlist for music. You can create your own cookbooks, add and organize your recipes, and share them with others or even to a website if you have your own.

It works with some other sites you might go to when you are searching for a new recipe to use. Sites such as “MealMaster” “BigOven”. Some will import directly in and some other sites you might go to, you may have to click on “print this recipe” go to Safari and use “clip-file” to import.

Besides being easy to type in your own recipe, you can create shopping lists, use meal planning for a day, week or more in advance. Click and create recipes for a complete meal, (which would be nice to print and use at place settings for special occasions) There is a section for changing measurements. If your recipe is for 4 servings and you need 8, It can adjust all ingredients for you.

One of my favorite things is the Chef’s View. Take your computer into the kitchen, click on chef’s view, and the print is extra large enough to read, so you can cook right from that. And as if that isn’t enough, if you happen to be a real cookbook enthusiast, and you have taken pictures of your cooked recipes, there is a place to add a picture to the recipe as well.

One last item I must not forget, for a small fee there is an App. you can download to your iPhone, and sync with iTunes, so you can take your recipes with you. Those might come in handy at a family reunion, or some gathering, when you want to whip up a special recipe to share with your friends. Now how fun is that??

Jay has done several of the last presentations for our group meetings. I just want to take time to thank him, and the other people in our group, that take the time and effort to put these presentations together. It is through their efforts that keep our meetings interesting and fun to come to each month. Thanks to all of you. See you next month.

Sincerely, Linda, Secretary