Font and Size preferences Click to see a larger image
The standard text font and size for a mail message in Mail is Helvetica 12. You can change the text font and size two ways: on a per message basis and in preferences for all messages.
Changing a message on a per message basis works like changing the font and size in a word processor. From the New Message window, click the Fonts button on the toolbar and the Fonts panel will appear. If no text is selected, changes will be made from the insertion point forward. If you have some text selected, changes affect the selected text. Not only can you change the font and size, you can also change the color of the text by clicking the Colors button on the New Message toolbar. The Colors panel will appear and you can select the text color you want.
If you want to change the font and size of your message text on a permanent basis, you need to make a trip to Mail's preferences window. (Mail / Preferences... from the Menu Bar) Select the Fonts & Colors panel. You will see a list of text areas that you can change. Click Select... to the right of the Message Font: line and the Fonts panel will pop up. You can change the font and size on the Fonts panel. Note that there is no way to set a default color for message text.
There are several things to consider before you go crazy changing fonts and sizes in email:
The recipients of your email may not be able to see your font and color changes depending on the software they use to read email.
The use of color and font changes should be used sparingly. Very few people want to read a message in eight colors and five fonts. This falls under the category of "just because you can doesn't mean you should."
If you set the font and size in preferences, that change will affect your incoming messages as well.
If you have trouble seeing the Helvetica 12 on the screen, trying changing the size to 13 or 14 to see if that helps. That slight change will probably be barely noticeable to your recipients.
As a side note, if you have Leopard, you can format your email message with stationary templates. Read about them here.
iCal lets you set reminders for appointments, but all the alarms require that you be at the computer to receive them. With a little bit of setup work, you can create a way to receive your iCal reminders as SMS messages on your cell phone.
SMS stands for Short Message Service and is what is commonly known as "texting".
To set this up requires adding a special email address to your Address Book Card, It is an email address that will be converted to an SMS message by your cell carrier. The first thing you need to do is find out what that special address is. This Wikipedia link lists many carriers around the world and their email to SMS addresses. If your cell carrier isn't listed, you might have to call their customer service or search around the web.
Once you have your email to SMS address, here are the steps to set things up:
Go to Address Book.
Locate your ME card. It is the card with your information on it and has the word ME in the bottom left corner of the image. If you can't locate your ME card, go to Card / Go to My Card from the Menu Bar.
Go into Edit mode by clicking the Edit button under your card. You will now see a bunch of red "delete" circles and some green "add" circles to the left of your information.
The first grouping of information is phone numbers. The second grouping is email addresses. In the second grouping, click the green "add" button. Choose type "other" and enter your email to SMS email address. (refer to the Wikipedia link above.) Note: You can only have four email addresses on the card, so if you already have four, you will have to delete one before you can add another.
Click the Edit button under the card again to leave edit mode.
Reminder in iCal Click to see a larger image
Once you have things set up in Address Book, you can create SMS alarms in iCal:
Create a new event in iCal and fill in all the details such as name, location, dates and times.
Where it says "alarm", click on None. This will give you a drop down menu of alarm options.
Choose "Email". This will create another drop down menu of the email addresses on your ME card.
Select your Email to SMS email address from the list.
In the next drop down menu down you will set when you want the SMS text message sent. For example, you can set it to be sent 15 minutes before or three days before.
Click Done to complete the creation of your event.
At the time you set in the alarm, iCal will send an SMS message to your phone.
Some considerations:
Most cell carriers have add-on plans where you pay a flat fee for a certain number of text messages per month. If you don't have such a plan, you are charged by the message. Currently most US carriers are charging $0.25 to receive a message. That can add up very quickly. If you plan to use SMS alerts in iCal often, you might want to consider adding a text messaging plan.
iCal doesn't need to be open for the event alarm to be sent, but your computer needs to be on and you need to be logged into your account.
You can set multiple alarms for each event. If you wish can can set one alarm to send a text message to your phone and another alarm to appear on the computer screen. That way you are covered if you are at your computer or away from it.
There are two ways that you can get photos from iPhoto to the photo lab at Walgreens and Walmart: You can burn them to a CD and take them in or you can upload the photos directly to walgreens.com or walmart.com. The CD method is explained in this tip and the CD you create can be taken to any photo lab for processing. This tip covers the process for uploading your photos.
Walgreens and Walmart both use the same system for uploading prints. Their system is not perfect, but it is pretty close. The prep work that you do before sending your prints can also be used with any other online photo center that lets you upload, but you will generally have to upload the image files one at a time.
Printing photos at Walgreens or Walmart is a two step process: Prepping your photos from iPhoto then Uploading them to their websites.
Prepping your photos:
Do any editing you want to do to your photos. For best results, crop your photos to the size you are planning to print. (See how to pre-crop)
From the Thumbnail view, select all the photos you want to print. (Remember that you can use
Command-click
to select multiple photos.)
Choose File / Export... from the menu bar.
Leave the settings as they are and click Export.
In the export file dialog, select Desktop from the left pane and click the New Folder button. Name the new folder To Print and click Create.
Make sure the To Print folder is selected and then click OK. Your selected photos will be copied from iPhoto into your "To Print" folder on the Desktop
Upload Photos Click to see a larger image
Uploading your photos to Walgreens.com or Walmart.com:
Go to the website and click on the Photo link.
If it is your first time at the site, create an account. Otherwise sign in.
Follow the links to upload photos. Note: If it is your first time (recently) to upload, you will be prompted to download the QuickUpload plugin. Follow the install instructions and prompts. You will need your administrator's password to complete the install. Safari will quit after the install, so open it up again and re-log in to the photo center website. (It sounds difficult, but it is really pretty straightforward and you only have to do it once.)
IMPORTANT: It is the "Upload Photos" window where you need to be careful. The left side of upload window has various sources to select from. There is an option for the Pictures folder. DON'T select that. Instead, choose Desktop and then open your "To Print" folder you created way back in the prepping stage. Click the Select All button since you know that you want to upload all the photos you prepped.
Once your photos are uploaded, follow the website directions to print at your desired size and to pick up at your desired location.
When you have finished ordering your prints, you can delete the "To Print" folder on your Desktop. Your photos are still safely stored in iPhoto.
I did a recent project that required printed photos. It was very easy to select and send the photos to my local Walgreens store down the street and they promised the prints in one hour. About 30 minutes later I got an e-mail saying that the prints were ready. Granted, this was a small order and it was about 8pm on a weeknight when the photo lab wasn't busy, but I was quite satisfied with both the service and the quality of the prints.
Note: I have no connection to either Walgreens or Walmart. I am only recommending their online photo centers because I have found them to be the easiest for iPhoto users. If you know of other online photo centers that use the same system or even something better, drop me a line.
Update: I've had several requests from the UK and other countries about using QuickUpload in those countries. I only have experience using it in the US. If you know of photo labs outside of the US that use Quick Upload, please let me know.
The proportions of the photos your digital camera takes are most likely different from the proportions of the prints you print at a photolab. iPhoto lets you crop your photos to the most common print sizes (4 x 6, 5 x 7, etc.) If you crop your photos to the desired size BEFORE you send them to the photolab, they will print as you cropped them. If you do not pre-crop, the lab will do the cropping and you may not get the results you want.
To pre-crop your photos:
Choose the photo you want to print and select Edit from the bottom toolbar.
Choose the Crop tool. You will enter cropping mode.
Make sure that the Constrain checkbox is checked and then choose the size of the photo you want to print. (4x6, 5x7, etc.)
The center of your photo will remain "clear", and either the left and right or top and bottom of the image will be "darkened". The darkened part is the part of the image that will be lost when you do the cropping.
Drag the clear part of the image around until you get the cropping you desire. You can also drag the corners of the clear part of the image to increase or decrease the size.
Press the Apply button. Your image is now cropped to the exactly the size you are going to print.
Make any other edits you want to the image and then click the Done button.
If you received an iTunes gift card for the holiday, you need to redeem it in the iTunes Store to get the credit added to your account.
Redeeming the iTunes gift card is easy: just go to iTunes and choose iTunes Store from the left pane. Click the Redeem link on the left side of the store under Quick Links. The value of the card will be added to your account balance.
The cost of any purchases you make will be subtracted from your credit. iTunes credit is good for any purchase in the iTunes Store: music, TV shows, movies and even applications for the iPhone.
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Purchase any products from Amazon.com and support Basics4Mac. GO!
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