If you need to use “regular looking” fractions, check out Beverly Hills font. (Thanks, Whit Patrick, CatBait, MUGPort, Newport, OR.)
Richard Shuren of MidColumbia MUG related his experience with the HP LaserJet Series II in a recent issue of their newsletter, The Finder. He gets good Excel spreadsheets and MacDraw layouts at 300 dpi. It needs a Grappler LS Print Utility from Orange Micro. It has to see a font four times the size of the one being used for any kind of quality.
All sizes of three fonts take 850k of hard disk space. (By the way, a hard disk is required.) More fonts and you need more space. To get good 18 point, you need 72 point installed. Since 96 point fonts are not normally available, you can’t have good looking 24 point output.
And you are going to have to wait a minimum of six minutes a page for printout at high quality. Imagine going to lunch and coming back to find only 11 pages printed!
Of course you get no PostScript capability, either.
I frankly think that when you see a LaserJet Series II connected to a Macintosh, you ought to look around for an IBM user somewhere in the old woodpile. I just ran into an MS-DOS shop where one person insisted on a Mac SE. Of course the MS-DOS whizzes made sure it got hooked to an HP DeskJet. That is worse than hooking to a Series II.
Not recommended, folks.
When (and if) you ever get Word 4.0, DocuComp, a $159.95 document comparison program, will come along with it. DocuComp can find a single moved comma, or any other difference, between two versions of a document.
If you don’t like the Claris MacWrite 5.0 manual, borrow an Apple MacWrite manual from someone who got MacWrite free in the good old days. Same stuff—easier to read.
I asked an Apple rep about the disappearing GetInfo... comments when you rebuild your desktop. It seems that if the comment appears in an application’s GetInfo... box, it stays. If it is in a document’s GetInfo... box, it disappears.
I suggest you do a test with your current System to see what happens, and then act accordingly. Of course older Systems wipe out all GetInfo... comments when the desktop is rebuilt.
If you hate the screen refresh time on MacGolf, use CopyII Hard Disk and install MacGolf on your hard drive. That speeds it up a lot. (Thanks, MacPacker, Richardson, TX.)
And again from MacPacker. This time it is Dr. Poj, telling us of the keyboard equivalents available in SF dialog boxes. That’s the dialog box you get when you select Open... under the File menu in many programs.
Open = Return (since Open is the default)
Cancel = Command/. (period).
Drive = Tab
Eject = Command/E
Scrolling = up and down arrow keys, or type the first letter of the item you wish to scroll to.
One of the many neat ideas in The Macintosh Bible is the Wrong Place folder. When rummaging through your hard disk, if you find something out of place, just throw it in the Wrong Place folder. Later, when you have the time, sort this junk into the proper places.
Version 1.2 of Virex ($99.95 retail, $69-79 mail order) removes Scores, nVIR, Hpat and INIT 29.
Of course you know that the ImageWriter works best when a 2x size of the font being printed is present in the System (or Suitcase). The LQ looks for 3x and the SC looks for 4x.
You can have all the right sizes if you use Font Sizer, by U.S. Micro Labs, $99.95.
It needs to be used with a PostScript printer, since it gets its font information via the PostScript capability of the printer. However, the resultant suitcase containing the new size can be used like any normal ImageWriter font, and will serve as the double, triple or quadruple size needed for the job at hand.
The advantage is not only better printout, but better looking screen text as well.
Font Sizer can also clear out all unneeded BI, B and I fonts which are in each font family. This shortens up your font menus and makes life easier.
With HyperCard 1.2.2, hold down the Shift key when you Paste a field and the field’s contents get pasted, too. What a time saver!
Command/H in a HyperTalk finds the next occurrence of a highlighted string.
Neat things you can do in the message box in HyperCard 1.2 and up:
xy - puts mouse loc until the next mouse down
c - gets Card information
b - gets Background information
s - get Stack information
s (followed by Option/Enter) - gets Stack script.
If you like HyperCard, you’ll love Macintosh Hands On, the reborn NibbleMac. And it isn’t all HyperCard, either. Here is a handy Word hint. It’s a macro to transpose two letters. Here it is:
Shift/Right Arrow
Command/X
Left Arrow (without the Shift)
Command/V
Assign this series a keystroke. When you find two characters that need to be transposed, place the cursor between them and execute the Macro.
Keeping your RAM cache on HURTS, not helps, HyperCard, since HyperCard has its own caching, thanks. (Thanks, MacinTalk, Nashville, TN MUG.)
If you have Works 2.0, you probably need to get 2.0a, which fixes some bugs. Signs that you need it include crashes while saving, inability to save documents to 400k disks, and misplacement of graphics.
When Microsoft was asked about the glitches, they said “INIT problems.” However, when asked for an example, they failed to come up with one.
Caught, huh?
This hint is so simple, but so elusive, I have not pointed it out before. Typists use two spaces after end-of-sentence punctuation. Type setters use one. If you are “typing” a letter, keep doin’ two spaces. If you want to be a pro—graduate to using a single space.
In the meantime, while you are learning this new skill, when you finish some text, go to the Change item under the Search menu. Tap the spacebar twice in the top box. Now Tab and hit the spacebar once. This tells the Mac to look for occurrences of two spaces and change them to single spaces.
Now click “Change All,” and you are done.
Word 3.02 will open Word documents you click on which are not in the same folder with Word. If you are using 3.01, you will recognize the problem.
To do curved text in Freehand, make a long oval. Cut off the bottom half with the knife tool before you bind the text to the line. (Thanks, Mendocino, CA MUG and Hard Copy.)
LaserWriter II NTX’s have a ghosting problem. When text is above a graphic (higher on the page), a ghost of the text will show up on top of the graphic. Look for
Apple has a fix for you. Print three copies. The third one will be much better.
Thanks a lot! Fix it!
Please! Learn how to scale bitmap graphics in PageMaker! The Shift/Command key combination for scaling bitmaps in PageMaker only works when you are working with a Placed graphic—not a graphic which came in from the Scrapbook or Clipboard.
So, if you used the Place command, you can scale the graphic to perfect sizes for the LaserWriter. The graphic will “jump” from 100% to 96, 72, 48 and 24% sizes. These sizes are perfect, so use them, PLEASE.
Easy superscript or subscript in Word 3.0X: Hold down the Shift and Command keys and type + followed by your superscript, or type a - followed by your subscript.
Finished? Type Shift/Command/ Spacebar to get back to normal text.
All of us should be using the most common keyboard equivalents. You probably use some, but not all of the most useful keystrokes.
I always use Command/X,C and V for Cut, Copy and Paste, but I keep forgetting Command/I for GetInfo... and Command/N for New Folder.
Here is a way to learn the equivalents: Punish yourself! If you mouse to a menu and see that the command you want has an equivalent, DON’T USE IT. Go back to the keyboard and use the keyboard equivalent you just discovered.
You don’t have to learn them all. We are operating a Macintosh here, and not an IBM-PC.
Expand your repertoire as you progress. About 20 or 30 trips to the menu which you abort to use the correct alternative should expand your list of “used equivalents” in a hurry.
As Marc Mott of MacCountry News, North Coast Mac Users, says, “Menus first! Power Later!”
Right. The menus are just great for new users. But when you realize that certain operations are done repeatedly and can be done with a single keystroke, start “punishing yourself.”
For a handy index of Macintosh publications (including Mouse Droppings), Pointer Publications has a index in a HyperCard stack. It comes out every two months. It’s $50 a year for a 6-issue sub. For $30 more you can get a semi-yearly combined stack along with it. The semi-yearly is $45 if purchased separately. Pointer Publications, 935 Brooks Glen Dr., Roswell, GA 30075; 404-587-1844.
If you use a service bureau, be aware that a lot of viruses are picked up in that environment. To stay safe, copy all the Systems, fonts, documents and applications you will be using onto fresh disks. Take these disks, not the originals, to the service bureau. Complete your work. When you get back to your office, insert the floppies in your drive and IMMEDIATELY Erase Disk under the Special menu. Do NOTHING else first. Now you have clean, uninfected disks and your worries are over. (Thanks, MacValley Voice, Burbank, CA MUG.)
Virex and Anti-Toxin, two commercial anti-virus programs, are lots better than the PD and shareware stuff wandering around. They are fast and accurate. Updates to handle newly discovered viruses are released rapidly.
How many gradations in a blend are just right in Illustrator 88? Marty Safir of Burbank, CA MUG says this formula works:
Printer resolution (dpi) divided by screen frequency (lpi), square the result and you have the total number of gray shades available.
Example: The LaserWriter has a default lpi of 60, so (300/60)2 = 25, That means the optimum number of steps of gray is 25. Add white (no gray) and you get 26 steps.
Keep dust and lint out of your Mac. First, use compressed air in aerosol cans to clean out drives and ducts. Next, tape a piece of used anti-static laundry sponge over all lower openings (the ones which suck in ar from the room). (Thanks, Cheesy Bits, Ellensburg, WA MUG.)
I have already told you how to keep the next line in Word 3.0X as a part of the same paragraph. Shift/Re turn instead of Return does it. But if you are in a paragraph of justified text, the result will not be pleasing.
Just add the Option key and Word will not stretch out the line. Try it both ways and see what I mean. (Thanks, Clan Macintosh via MacValley Voice.)
Mounting hard drives or Mac II CPUs with internal hard drives on their sides is questionable. Most drive manufacturers say OK. But most life cycle test data is only performed in “normal” position, and finally, even in companies which advertise against standing drives on their sides, a walk through their offices reveals drives all over the place standing on their sides. (Thanks Bob Murrow in Mouse Times, Santa Barbara, CA MUG.)
Here’s how to scale down a SuperPaint bitmap without getting a black blob. Select the image with the marquee tool. Choose Paint on Black from the Paint menu. Fill the selection with a light gray pattern (Fill command). This lightens the image. Now (still selected), Scale Selection from the Edit menu. (Thanks Julio Tallet, Clan Macintosh, as seen in Mouse Times, Santa Barbara, CA MUG.)
The shareware QuickFolder INIT has problems. Buy version 2.0 and learn to love this INIT again. (Thanks, Mouse Times.)
Mouse Times (Santa Barbara, CA MUG) says PC Tools is better than SUM Utilities. That’s good enough for me. David Dunham, editor of Mouse Times, is one of the premier Mac programmers around today. If he says PC Tools, maybe you ought to listen.
People are saying that they are crashing PageMaker 3.01.
I’m not! And I run PageMaker at least three hours a day. I run 17 INITs, 32 DAs, 11 FKEYs and 68 fonts.
If you have a reproducible bug which you get with PageMaker 3.01 and a clean 6.02 System set, please let me know about it. Drop me a line.
Also, it is PageMaker bashing time out there in Quark and ReadySetGo country. As for me, I’ll trust PageMaker to take the time necessary to give me every feature I really need in due time. And they will leave the great PageMaker interface basically alone.
But I do expect them to keep up—or else.
PageMaker works sort of like putting things together with rubber cement and an Exacto knife. I like that. On the other hand, if you want to write a long book with most pages formatted the same way, consider ReadySetGo.
When replacing a suspect System on your hard disk, do it this way:
1) unload Suitcase or Master Juggler first, including DAs Fonts and FKEYs.
2) remove all INITs and cdevs to a folder outside the System Folder.
3) restart with a locked floppy containing the clean 6.0.2 System Folder.
Now you can replace the hard disk’s System and reinstall your fonts, INITs, DAs, FKEYs and cdevs.
As many of you know, Word Finder is a fantastic thesaurus for the Mac. It contains 220,000 synonyms and a 100,000 word spell checker. The “street” price is $33. Well, guess what?
How would you like to have the Word Finder software PLUS a pocket size electronic Word Finder, all for $69.90? That’s a mere $36 for a $99 pocket word finder. It works on four AA batteries.
Where? DAK Industries, 1-800-325-0800. Ask for item 5177 an d specify Macintosh software. Please tell them that Mouse Droppings sent you. That ought to blow their minds!
Here’s a way to get Adobe Illustrator images into PICT files. Press Option while selecting Copy from the Edit menu. Go to the target application and Paste. That’s all there is to it. It may be less than perfect, but it is a PICT file.
When you want your LaserWriter masterpiece printed in color, ask the printer if there is a special “day” for that color. Many printers offer a special on, say, green ink, if you will let them wait until their “green ink day” to print it. The printer saves money by not having to wash the presses frequently to fulfill your need for a color job.
Does PageMaker open up with the defaults you prefer? Or do you have to set them by hand every time?
You can set any non-grayed out item as a default while you are on PageMaker‘s gray desktop (no document open yet). These defaults will be used on any new document you open from then on.
On the other hand, to set defaults for a specific document or a template, wait until you have an open document. Click the pointer tool in any blank area of the screen. Now any menu selections you make will apply to that document, or if it is a template, to all copies of the template you open.
Do your captions jump around when you are wrapping text around a graphic? Create a “no shade, no line” box big enough to contain the caption.
Using the same method, you can float a “pull quote” across several columns of text and into a blank box created for it.
Another way to handle captions is to allow a deeper bottom (or top) margin in the Text Wrap dialog box. Put your caption within this space.
How do you do fractions in PageMaker? Aldus says do it this way:
Let’s use 3/4 for our sample. Select the 3 and make it SuperScript. Leave the slash alone. Select the 4 and size it to match the 3. Do NOT make it SubScript. By the way, the SuperScript is automatically 7/12 of the original text size, so multiply the original text size by 7/12ths to get the right size for the denominator.
To force a paragraph to start at the top of a column in PageMaker, select it, go to Paragraph dialog box and set “Space Before” value to the total height of the image area on the page (11” page, 1/2” top and bottom margins, equals a 10” space for the value).
For a quickie Save in PageMaker, click the current page number icon. Turning or deleting a page also saves. These mini-saves permit a Revert if needed. You’ll revert to the last menu or Command/S Save.
To save a PageMaker document after a crash, open the largest PMF00X (not PFM000) file in the System Folder. Do NOT rename it until it is on the screen. Delete the PMF00X file later on.
If you fool with the right hand margin marker in Word 3.0 when preparing text to dump into PageMaker, the columns won’t pour correctly.
In the first place, that triangle you fooled with on the Word ruler isn’t a margin marker at all. It is a right indent marker. No wonder your text won’t pour correctly. PageMaker thinks you want the right side of the text indented! That’s exactly what PageMaker does with your text.
So, to avoid this, set your column width in the Page Setup box of Word. You adjust the right margin until it results in the exact column width you want to achieve.
If you have text already “done wrong,” go ahead and import it anyway. Select it and go to the Indent menu item (Command/I). In that dialog box, move the right indent, if needed. If it appears to be in the right place, just close the dialog box. Back on your page, the text now flows to fill the column. Alternately, you could go to the Paragraphs menu item under the Type menu and set Right Indent to 0. Either way works.
Before you decide on a laser printer for use with PageMaker, consider these criteria: PostScript capability, speed, memory for downloaded fonts, graphics capability, font size limitations, landscape orientation, built-in fonts, paper bins, paper kinds, envelope feeding, paper weights, and application compatibility.
If you have an extended keyboard (with the F1 through F15 keys plus the Shift key) PageMaker lets you select tools by keystroke. Shift plus the F1 through F4 keys select the pointer, diagonal line, perpendicular line, and text tools, respectively. The Shift key plus the F5 through F8 keys select the square rectangle, rounded corner rectangle, oval and cropping tools, respectively.
PageMaker turns pages if you use Command/Tab to go forward, or Shift/Command/Tab to go backward. (Thanks, MacValley Voice, Burbank, CA MUG.)
If you are using Font Sizer, but don’t feel you have room for all of the different sizes of a font you would like to have present, make ONE size of the font, but make it the largest you will be using. This one size will give you a 90 to 95% better view of ALL the smaller sizes of that font. This method will give you “pretty good,” instead of “perfect.” Font Sizer is by U.S. MicroLabs, Austin, TX.
Master Juggler will change sound formats. I don’t have it, so someone tell me how easy it is—or is not.
You would be amazed how many Macintosh owners don’t know how to use FindFile. FindFile is a desk accessory (DA) which comes free with the Macintosh.
If you lose track of where you placed a file, pull down the Apple DA menu and select FindFile. You will see a blinking cursor. Type any part of the title of the document you want to find. Now click the running man icon and FindFile will locate any file using your search string.
For example, if you hunt for Mac, FindFile will list any file with the letters Mac in it, such as Macintosh, Macs, or Mack truck. Stop the search anytime you want by clicking the Stop icon.
Now click on the entry you think is the one you want. It’s statistics and location now appear in the bottom part of the dialog box.
As they say, Eureka, I have found it.
DiskTop does the same thing, in case that is what you use.
A much easier solution is to put the file where it should be in the first place. This often does not happen, and I’ll tell you why.
You start a document in Word 3.01. You Save it. A dialog box appears and asks you to name your new creation. You type in My Masterpiece, or whatever turns you on, and click the Save button.
Wrong! You didn't check first to see where your masterpiece was going to go. If you had looked at the title above the left hand scrolling list of files, you would have seen that your masterpiece was going to get filed IN THAT LOCATION. If that is where it SHOULD be, go ahead and do it.
If you want your document in some specific folder, or on some specific disk, then use the Drive and Eject buttons and insert disks or move to folders until the folder or disk you wish to store your masterpiece in appears above the scrolling box. Now Save and your document goes where you intended it to go—and where you can find it without using FindFile later on.
I just ran into a new Mac user with five System Folders on his hard disk. Hey, does your Mac REALLY know which System should be used? Not necessarily.
It’s time for FindFile again. If you fear that you might have accidentally copied another System Folder onto your hard disk, use FindFile, so you can locate and exorcize the extras.
The most common way the extra System Folder gets on your hard disk is when you are copying an application from an original new disk onto your hard disk. If you don’t know better, you empty the entire contents onto the hard disk. No. Don’t do that. You already have a system.
Vaccine INIT can prevent the new ANTI virus from getting into your System, but only if you uncheck “Always Compile MPW INITs” in the Control Panel. Of course if you need to “compile… blah blah blah” whatever that means, you are on your own. (Thanks, MacValley Voice, Burbank, CA MUG.)
Just solved a problem for a CMUG member who found that two italicized words in Boston printed with too much space between words. I had her change the space between the words to a much smaller size (from 14 point to 9 point). The words now printed out with an acceptable space between words.
To move the left margin triangle (bottom triangle) without moving the indent triangle, hold down the Shift key as you grab and drag the bottom (margin) triangle. (Thanks, dBug Mac News as seen in MacValley Voice.)
MacNews also notes that you can move an inactive window by holding down the Command key while dragging where the stripes on the title bar would be if that window were active. The window will move, but will stay inactive.
If you have a large (60 to 100+ megs) hard drive, it is advised that you rebuild the desktop frequently. You do this by holding down the Option and Command keys while booting until you are asked if you want to rebuild.
You are going to get tired of me telling you about rebuilding the desktop. So start doing it and I can quit boring you with reminders.
