Macworld's best tips, tricks, and How-To's

Mac News Briefs: CheckUp adds compatibility with the latest Macs

System maintenance tool CheckUp updates its interface and adds compatibility with the latest Macs. Also on Thursday, an update to TopXNotes and new Pro Sleds from Trans International.

Boxee: On beyond HuluHulu Desktop is a fine application, but it doesn't replace all the goodness that is Boxee.
Quicken Financial Life delayed until 2010Intuit has delayed the long-awaited revamped Mac version of its Quicken financial software until early 2010, according to a blog post on the company's site.

Latest Help and Tips

Create a tab-switching gesture shortcut in Firefox 3.5 Firefox 3.5 supports gestures on newer Apple laptops, including pinch and swipe. What's missing, apparently, is a way to switch tabs via gestures. This hint explains how to add just that functionality.
Archiving items via a keyboard shortcut When Leopard appeared, the ability to assign a keyboard shortcut to the Archive command disappeared. Here's a workaround.
Remember your passwords Want to use secure passwords, but fearful you'll get in a bind if you use ones too complicated to memorize? You'll always be able to access critical passwords if you take these steps.
Top password tips If you want to protect private information, you need long, strong, and unique passwords. That means not using the same password for every one of your accounts, but we all know that's easier said than done. In this three-part series, Joe Kissell shows you how to create, manage, and remember good passwords.
How to add URLs to Address Book records Learn how Address Book can record URLs for use in Safari, Camino, and OmniWeb's bookmarks sections.
Manage your passwords Once you've committed to using strong passwords for every account you have, you have to figure out some way to remember all of them. Password managers provide the easiest—and most secure—answer.
iMac and the constantly ejected CDs Your Mac has a habit of ingesting and then immediately rejecting CDs and DVDs? Here are the possible solutions.
Create stronger passwords Passwords protect your credit card, bank account, and personal data. But how many of us rely on the same one (involving a pet's name to boot) for every account we have? Here's how to create long, strong passwords that you'll be able to remember.
Brushing up with Brush Pilot Jay Hilgert’s Brush Pilot is a simple application that lets you preview, install, and delete brushes anywhere on your hard drive. James Dempsey takes a closer look.
Bugs & Fixes: Tying up loose ends Ted Landau revisits recent Bugs & Fixes columns to see if there are updates for troubles involving the Apple TV and iPhone.
Can an SD card startup disk be used on any Mac? Can an SD card startup disk be used on any Mac? Roman Loyola does a little bit of testing, and finds the answer may be yes.
Create Events-based iPhoto albums featuring specific people Learn how to create an album in iPhoto to show all photos from all events that contain at least one photo of a selected person.
Choose a MobileMe account for publishing iPhone media The iPhone doesn't let you choose which MobileMe account to use for photo and video uploads, but there's still a way to change that setting. We show you how, thanks to a Mac OS X Hints reader.
Cataloging Mail by date If you miss Entourage's Saved Searches when you move to Apple's Mail, put Mail's smart mailboxes to good use.
Bugs & Fixes: iPhones that are too hot to handle The Internet is buzzing about reports of iPhone 3GS models over-heating. But before you assume you need a replacement iPhone or that Apple needs to issue a recall, Ted Landau suggests that you cool down.
Repair incorrect icon associations Are the icons for certain file types incorrect on your machine -- zip files appearing as disk image files, for instance? If so, this hint will help you quickly fix the problem.
Mac 911 Lightning Round Quick answers to short questions.
Format Word tables to highlight your data Take a tour of Microsoft Word's unsung table feature and learn how easy it is to make snazzy tables for your documents.
Change color of BBEdit and TextWrangler 'invisibles' characters Learn how to change the color of the special characters that BBEdit and TextWrangler use to display invisible characters, such as tabs and line breaks.
Bugs & Fixes: iPhone 3GS signal strength oddities Ted Landau noticed his new iPhone 3GS seemed to spend more time connected to the EDGE network than did his old iPhone 3G. So he did a little digging to find out why.