Trimmer iPhoto Library
Is there any way to make Apple’s iPhoto save changes to an original photo, short of moving the altered photo completely out of the program and importing it again? For example, when I reduce red-eye, I end up with the original photo and the altered one. Sometimes this is a waste of hard-drive space. — Eric Anderson
I agree that this feature is both a blessing and a curse. Granted, you can always gain access to your unaltered original: just select the edited picture and choose Photos: Revert To Original. But iPhoto makes the magic happen by squirreling away two copies of the photo—the original and the edited version.
To free up hard-disk space, consider Martin Fuhrer’s free iPhoto Diet. This utility slenderizes your photo library by eliminating duplicate photos, removing backups of rotated or modified photos, stripping out your photos’ thumbnail icons, and locating and disposing of photos never added to an album.
Audio Clip Control
I consider myself a veteran user of iMovie, but I’m vexed by the latest incarnation, iMovie HD. Before, I was always able to trim audio clips in the timeline viewer simply by hovering the pointer over either end of the audio clip. In the current version, all this does is move the clip. What gives? — John Smith
Apple has changed the behavior of audio clips. If iMovie HD’s Show Clip Volume Levels option is enabled (View: Show Clip Volume Levels), clicking on an audio file in the timeline allows you only to adjust the clip’s volume or move the file—you can’t trim it. Turn this option off, and you’re welcome to trim to your heart’s content. For this reason, it’s a good idea to memorize the Command-shift-L keyboard shortcut, which switches this option on and off. (You can also access this command by control-clicking on an audio clip and choosing the command from the contextual menu [see screenshot].)
Put HTML in Your Outbox
I want to send HTML e-mail messages that look like Web pages. So far, the only way I have found to do this is by creating the page in Macromedia Dreamweaver, uploading everything to a server (for access to the graphics), and then inserting the Dreamweaver file into Microsoft Outlook on a PC. But is there any mail program on the Mac that can send complex HTML? I’ve tried Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage (v. X), but both just seem to attach an HTML file. — Steve McGillivray
You have a friend in Rob Buckley, who created the free Send Complex HTML with Inline Files 2004 AppleScript. This script allows you to embed complex HTML files in messages created with Entourage v. X or 2004. It works this way:
After placing the script in the Entourage Script Menu Items folder (/ your user folder /Documents/ Microsoft User Data/Entourage Script Menu Items), create a new e-mail message in Entourage and address it. If you like, add a subject (if you don’t add a subject, the script will place the title of the HTML page in the Subject field). Choose the script from Entourage’s AppleScript menu and, in the resulting Choose A File dialog box, select the HTML file you want to send. Click on Choose, and Entourage lets you either send the message now or send it later. (If elements in the file are missing—one of the page’s graphics, for example—the script will return an error message.) If everything goes according to plan, the script will then embed the appropriate HTML code into the message.
Spam Scam
I regularly get “Undelivered mail returned to sender” messages in my e-mail inbox. According to the information in the message, someone else is hiding his or her identity by using my e-mail address to send pornography out over the Internet. I’m offended that someone is using my address for this purpose. Is there any way to resolve this issue? — Jim Klausen
Not really. For people unfamiliar with such a scenario, I’ll explain: spammers have spoofed Jim’s e-mail address, meaning that verminlike souls have stolen his address and are pretending that it’s theirs. On occasion, an ISP blocks these pernicious messages and bounces them back to the alleged “sender”—a perfectly silly practice that wastes bandwidth and punishes innocent parties who had nothing to do with the original messages.
If you receive multiple bounced messages from a particular ISP, you might contact it and suggest that it stop bouncing messages, as the practice is both futile and annoying. To protect yourself against this annoyance, employ a spam filter and teach it to recognize these messages as junk.
Liberating Location
I have a PowerBook G4, which I use frequently at home and work. Because my Internet connections are different at the two locations, I have configured my Network preferences with Home and Work settings. Can I make the default printers change automatically when I switch? — Daryl Thornton
What you’re looking for is something like OS 9’s Location Manager—a utility whose functionality OS X doesn’t duplicate. Thankfully, you’ll find many of the old Location Manager’s capabilities in Alex Keresztes and Greg Novick’s Location X 2.0 ($20). ( Version 2.5, which became available after our August 2005 issue went to press, adds Tiger compatibility.—Ed. )
OS X’s Network preference pane allows you to create locations that include network settings such as the default network port, IP address, and proxy settings, but Location X takes this a step further. It lets you assign a default printer, an SMTP server, a time zone, a QuickTime connection speed, Energy Saver preferences, Mail and Entourage preferences, and a Web browser’s home page that differ depending on where you are.
Just fire up the program, create a new location, and add the options you’d like to assign to it—Energy Saver and Default Printer, for example. Then quit the application. When you’re ready to change your location settings, launch Location X, select the desired location, and click on the Make Active button.
If you turn off iMovie HD’s Show Clip Volume Levels option, you can trim your audio clips.Recalling Uninstall
I downloaded a demonstration version of Network SpyAlert and decided not to buy it. I trashed every file associated with this application I could find, except for a file named NetworkSpyAlert.kext. This file will not allow me to move it to the Trash. When I drag it there, this message appears: “The operation could not be completed because this item is owned by root.” How can I get rid of this alert box permanently? — Dan Yett
We Mac users are accustomed to simply dragging unwanted applications to the Trash. However, certain programs, such as Allume Systems’ Internet Cleanup ($30) and its demo, perform their magic with the help of special files stored away from the main application. For this reason, it’s not a bad idea to run the installer of an application you no longer want, to see whether it has an uninstall option. Internet Cleanup’s installer does have that option, accessible from the pop-up menu in its installation screen (see screenshot).
If you’ve taken matters into your own hands by trashing an application, and you discover that its remnants pester you, try reinstalling the application and then running the uninstaller. Barring that, you can seek out files that may be causing the problem. In your case, you can find .kext files by following this path: /System/Library/Extensions. If the .kext file you’re trying to remove won’t budge, open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities), type
sudo rm -Rfollowed by a space, and then drag the stubborn file into the Terminal window. Press return and enter your administrator password if necessary. The file will vaporize.
[ Contributing Editor Christopher Breen is the editor in chief of Playlistmag.com and the author of Secrets of the iPod and iTunes , fifth edition (Peachpit Press, 2005). ]
Tip of the Month: Flexible iPod Files
You can use an iPod shuffle to hold data files from your Mac by going to iTunes: Preferences, clicking on iPod, and activating the Enable Disk Use option. Unfortunately, because the iPod shuffle is formatted as a FAT32 volume (to make it work on both Macs and Windows PCs), it will not transfer Mac files with certain characters in their names when you try to copy those files to the iPod shuffle. The list of characters includes slashes (/ and ), question marks (?), angle brackets (< and >), colons (:), asterisks (*), and quotation marks (“).
To fix this limitation, use Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to create a new disk image (Images: New: Blank Image). In the New Blank Image dialog box, specify a disk-image size that will fit on your iPod shuffle (leave some room for music), and choose the read-write option from the pop-up menu. Copy the image onto the iPod shuffle and then double-click on the image. It will appear in the Finder as a generic white removable-disk icon. Copy any Mac files with Mac-legal file names onto that disk image. To disconnect the iPod shuffle safely from the Mac, first eject the disk image and then eject the shuffle. Note that the files you copy onto a Mac disk image will not be available to a PC using that device. If you need to use the iPod shuffle or another Flash-based storage device to share files between a Mac and a PC, leave those files on the main partition and not inside the Mac disk image.— Jonathan Woolson
Nagged by warnings and alerts from programs you thought you had deleted long ago? Instead of trashing an application by hand, use the installer’s uninstall option.