French Accents with Mac OS X

My Mac's language settings are set to English and I'm using a Microsoft (USB) English keyboard.

After a search on Google, I found the solution:

Adding accents on a Mac is very simple, just hold down the option (alt)  key plus the key for the accent you want to create, then type the letter you would like to appear under the accent.  Hold shift for capital letters.
Here is the list of the keys to hold down with option (alt) to create each accent (do not type the +): 

Grave (è) – option + ~
Aigu (é) – option + e
Cédille (ç) – option + c
Circonflexe (ê) – option + i
Tréma (ö) – option + u

 (The above was taken from James Ward's blog at: http://jamesward.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/french-accents-on-mac-os-x-leopard/)

So if you wanted to create "é", you would do the following:

1. Press the following keys together: Alt  e
2. Once again press: e

I hope that was clear enough. Once you get used to it, it's actually easier to remember than the usual keyboard modifications under Windows 7.

Re-sizing images with iPhoto

I'm embarrassed to say that it took me a while to figure this out, but I thought I would share anyway just in case anybody else was wondering how to re-size photos with iPhoto.

Essentially, it's super easy: Just click on File --> Export and then adjust the size options accordingly.

If you are looking for a free open-source image editor for your Mac, please check out Seashore.

Using Avery label templates with Pages

Pages doesn't ship with pre-defined label templates for popular brands like Avery.

It's not a big deal though: You can get templates directly from Avery for all of their products. So, if you need a template for Avery's 5163 shipping labels, just enter those search terms into Google. Avery labels generally come in .DOC format but they are easily read by Pages.

If double-clicking the template doesn't open Pages by default, you can change this by right-clicking the template file and then selecting, Get Info. From that newly-created window, go to the Open with section select Pages from the drop-down menu.

Mac Mini OS X continues to kick ass

I thought that I was going to experience difficulties with the installation of my Brother DCP-7020 printer/scanner.

Nope.

Printer works as expected and the scanner utility that comes with OS X is superior to the software that was bundled with my software (i.e., Paperport and some other Brother utility that never worked with Vista or XP).

Thanks Apple. It's so awesome that you made a product that, "just works!"

Windows Experience Index

According to the Windows Experience Index, my Mac Mini setup rates a 5.2, the whole of which is determined by the lowest score. If you click on the image to the left you will see that the scores obtained ranged from 5.2 to 6.0, which gives an average of 5.62. 


The lowest score of 5.2 is attributed to Windows Aero, which I don't use. I don't even know if it's available on my version of Windows 7. 


According to the help file:

If your computer has a 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) and 4 gigabytes (GB) or less random access memory (RAM), then the Memory (RAM) subscore for your computer will have a maximum of 5.9. 


So, 5.2 ain't too shabby considering that I only have 2 gigabytes of memory installed AND the average score is 5.62.

No E-mail client on Windows 7 and other rants

Just realized what everybody probably knows already: Windows 7 doesn't ship with any native mail client! Hilarious.

On another note, I honestly don't know why such a big fuss was made over Win 7 and how it was so much superior to Vista. I've worked with the latter OS for a good 3 years (prior to getting my Mac Mini) and never experienced any problems. Like it or not, Vista was a solid product. Folks who had problems with it generally fell into two categories:

1. Those who didn't feel the need to register their product (i.e., participate in the so-called Windows Genuine Advantage program). Seriously, if you don't want to pay for your OS, go get one that's free, like Linux;
2. Those who purchased computers that didn't adequately meet Vista's hardware specs. A lot of low-end laptops had the deluxe version of Vista crammed into them. On top of that, vendors were loading the computers with other useless junk, like Realplayer, etc.

I'm sure Win 7 is a complete re-write (I haven't checked) and I don't pretend to know what's going on under the hood, but after loading some applications over the OS, I can't say I'm blown away. I just don't feel like there's much of a paradigm shift between Vista and 7. Sure, my stuff runs faster but my Mac Mini is a new computer and moreover, the first dual-core processor I have ever owned. So faster load times are probably due to that, and not the OS. 

Still, Win 7 seems solid and I'm happy to have it on another partition on my Mac. There's certain things I have to do on Windows (but if I could, I would definitely prefer to do them on OS X!)

Pages vs. Open Office for the Mac Mini

As I indicated yesterday, I purchased Pages for $19.99 from the App Store. So far, I'm loving it.

Open Office's Writer

I had already installed the Mac OS version of Open Office a few days ago. I'm fairly familiar with their office suite, so OO's Writer program didn't offer any surprises for me. Basically, Writer is a scaled-down version of Microsoft Word. However, I can't deny that it is indeed a very powerful word processor with a thriving open-source community that offers decent support. And you can't beat the price: FREE!

Writer comes with a variety of other programs, such as spreadsheet, database, a presentation tool, etc. Strangely enough, you can only work with one instance of the program at any given time  At least that's how it works with my installation. So, in other words, you can't have two Open Office programs running at the same time on your desktop (say, Writer and the spreadsheet program). I don't know if there's a workaround for this. It's certainly possible to have multiple instance running in Windows. (Sorry, that's completely untrue! You can easily work with multiple instances of any of the OO programs. Sorry for the mistake! It has taken me a bit of time to adapt to the Mac OS interface, including the fixed placement of the menu at the top of the screen.)

If you are interested in trying out the free Open Office suite, please go to http://www.openoffice.org.

Pages

Pages is way faster and slicker than Writer and if your Mac didn't come pre-loaded with iWork, $19.99 isn't a lot to spend for a quality word processor.

Unlike Writer, Pages adopts the feel and style of the Mac environment. I know that may seem inconsequential but I honestly believe that it contributes to productivity.

Again, Pages is fast. It loads quickly and I didn't experience the occasional lag that was present in OO's Writer program. OO requires that you load the Java Runtime into memory--so that's why it's less responsive than Apple's product.

Unlike Writer, Pages offers a wide variety of attractive templates to get you going. So, if you need to get a pretty business letter or document produced in as little time as possible, Apple has already done some of the work for you. Of course, you can start the program in basic word processing mode--that is, a blank page.

I was impressed with the auto spellcheck feature. It's more fluid than Writer's (or Word's for that matter) and rather reminiscent of the autocorrect that's featured on my Windows Phone.

Pages is compatible with other word processors and allows you to export your project to the PDF, DOC and ePub formats.

I was also impressed by the ease at which I could create outlined documents. Of course, you can create outlines in Writer but like Word, the process is less than intuitive. Both programs force you to use a weird combination of keystrokes to indent and/or change levels. Pages automates the process with the tab and shift-tab keys. That's the way it's done in WordPerfect and I just can't understand why OO or MS haven't replicated that process in their own products.

Oh, one last small detail which I appreciated: The word count is displayed at the bottom of your document. MS Word features this option too, but OO's Writer does not.

Conclusion: If you afford to spend the extra pesos, get Pages from the App Store. It's an app that's both powerful and streamlined. Quite possibly, the best word processor I have ever had the pleasure of using.

Pages

Just purchased Pages. After I play around with it, I'll let you know how it compares to MS Word and Open Office

Photo of my Mac Mini setup

The above is a photo of my Mac Mini along with my Samsung monitor and Microsoft keyboard. Missing: My Logitech mouse!

One awesome thing about the Mac Mini is that it is so silent. I can barely hear it, the whole as opposed to my Vista machine which has three fans running.

Installing Windows 7 with Bootcamp

I was amazed by how simple the process was. Managing partitions with Bootcamp is easy stuff. Kudos to Apple for making the process so simple.

If you want to install Windows 7 on your Mac Mini, check out the the following manual for OS X 10.6:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup_10.6.pdf

I only ran into one glitch: While installing the Bootcamp drivers on Windows, the process froze while installing the NVIDIA drivers. What did I do? I merely re-started Windows with my Mac OS X disc still in the drive. For whatever reason, the Mac Mini needed a little re-boot to get the graphic drivers going. After that. the rest of the installation went flawlessly.

Does the Mac Mini requires more than 2GB of memory to run Windows 7?
Not with my Mac Mini. It runs the Home Premium version without any problems.

Should I download the 32 or 64-bit version of Windows 7 for my Mac Mini?
I'm no expert but I think the 32-bit version is good enough for most people, especially if you haven't upgraded your Mac Mini's memory.

Where can I get Windows 7 for free?
You can't, legally. You can, however, download 30-day trial versions of Windows 7 here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-windows-7-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links/

Theoretically, you can extend the 30-day trial to 120 days by following the instructions on this site:

http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/use-any-version-of-windows-7-free-for-120-days/

New Mac Mini!

Purchased a new Mac Mini last week!

This is the first Mac that I've ever owned and quite frankly, I can't believe that I waited this long!

So, I thought I would put together a small blog about the new Mac Mini and my goals to develop software for it. I'm a total newbie at Mac development and have a long, long way to go. I downloaded Xcode from the App Store and wow, I have no idea what to do with it. So, it looks like I'll need to purchase a few books.

Some of my goals include:

• Learning Objective-C and Cocoa <-- The main development tools for the Mac
• Developing a game for the Mac App Store
• One day owning, and making a game for, the iPhone
• Losing 20lbs! (I know, this has nothing to do with programming computers!)
• Becoming a Mac guru by the end of the summer (I know, lofty goals!)

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope to update it as frequently as possible.

Peace.